As dusk settled, the last trace of rosy glow faded from the skyline beyond the laboratory's floor-to-ceiling windows, replaced by a heavy layer of dark blue night.
Xu Yumo typed out the final line of code and stared at the test data that had finally stabilized on the screen, letting out a long, relieved breath.
She organized all the results into a document, clearly annotating the key parameters and test curves, then packaged everything as an attachment and sent it to He Linxi's email.
Just as she closed her laptop and was about to pack up, her phone on the desk vibrated.
It was a message from He Linxi: [I'm done on my end too. Grab a bite together?]
Remembering that she'd just owed him a meal from yesterday, and that he'd provided the helpful insight today, it was only right to treat him in return. Xu Yumo didn't hesitate much before replying: [Sure, my treat tonight. What do you feel like?]
A moment later, a few words popped up on the screen: [Chen Ji Spicy Malatang]
Xu Yumo froze.
That was the most popular hole-in-the-wall joint on the back street of No. 1 High School, and its signature dry-mixed malatang had been her weekly comfort food back in high school.
After graduating and going abroad, then renting a place half a city away from the school after returning, she'd almost forgotten this place existed.
Until now, when He Linxi brought it up out of nowhere.
Xu Yumo snapped back to reality and hesitated before typing: [Going now? It's a bit far]
H: [Are you hungry right now?]
Xu Yumo: [Not really]
H: [Then isn't the distance perfect? I'm not hungry either]
Xu Yumo: …
So logical, she had no comeback.
And so, half an hour later, the two of them drove ten kilometers to the back street of No. 1 High School.
The car left the bustling, cold CBD and headed south, gradually entering the old city district with its cramped streets and dappled plane tree shadows. Cluttered signs stacked haphazardly along the roadside, neon lights glowing with the thick, greasy aroma unique to the streets.
As they neared the school gate, Xu Yumo gazed at the familiar red brick walls outside the window, her thoughts drifting for a moment.
It was Sunday evening, peak time for boarding students returning to campus. Groups of students in baggy blue-and-white uniforms laughed and joked along the roadside with their backpacks.
The noisy, lively sounds seeped through the cracks in the car windows, sharpening the shadows in her memory.
The dark gray Aston Martin finally pulled over slowly at the crowded alley entrance. Its aggressive silhouette and consecutive-plate license plate looked jarringly out of place among a pile of shared bikes and a cart selling starch sausages, instantly drawing stares from a crowd of high schoolers.
Xu Yumo felt a bit uncomfortable under those curious, admiring gazes and instinctively glanced sideways at He Linxi beside her.
He seemed completely oblivious, unfastening his seatbelt with an unhurried air and saying flatly, "Let's go."
Chen Ji Malatang was as packed as ever. The greasy aluminum sliding door stood wide open, and even before getting close, the pungent, spicy aroma of beef tallow wafted out.
Xu Yumo scanned the shop—the cramped space was already crammed with sweaty students. "Looks like we'll have to wait for a table…"
He Linxi turned his head to look at her. "Don't want to wait?"
"I don't mind either way." Xu Yumo smiled. "I'm just worried about wasting the precious time of a busy CEO like you."
He Linxi raised an eyebrow, a hint of amusement in his deep eyes. "Mocking me?"
"Wouldn't dare. Just stating the facts."
"It's Sunday night. Nothing for me to be busy with. Let's wait."
His tone was casual. He stepped forward, pulled two stools from the stack of greasy plastic ones by the door, wiped them down with a tissue, and handed one to her.
Then, with complete naturalness, he folded his long legs that had nowhere to go and sat down on the low stool, still dressed in his tailored shirt and dress trousers, posture completely relaxed.
No airs whatsoever, none of the cold, oppressive aura he carried at the office.
Xu Yumo sat down beside him too. Watching the bustling street before her and listening to the teenagers chattering about homework and games, the tension that had gripped her nerves for days miraculously melted away.
"You really like this place?" Xu Yumo fiddled with the paper number ticket in her hand, unable to resist asking. "Driving all the way here in a supercar."
"Yeah." He Linxi turned to look at her and asked in return, "Don't you?"
"I do. I ate here a lot back in high school."
"Is that so?" The man replied casually. "I came here often in high school too. Seems like I never ran into you in the shop."
Xu Yumo lowered her eyes, staring at the dried grease stains on the concrete floor, and explained offhandedly, "Back then, the school was strict during the day, and my parents wouldn't let me eat heavy stuff like this outside. So usually my… friend would sneak over the wall at noon and bring it back to the cafeteria for me."
"That friend of yours, Zhou Shiye?" He Linxi asked nonchalantly.
Xu Yumo was taken aback and looked up. "How do you know?"
He Linxi tugged at the corner of his mouth, his gaze drifting toward the blue-and-white school uniforms passing on the street. His tone was as casual as if he were mentioning something trivial. "Back when I used to wait for takeout at the shop, I'd often see him standing there holding a takeout box, urging the owner to hurry up."
Xu Yumo pressed her lips together.
At this rare, relaxing moment, she really didn't want to talk about Zhou Shiye—such a mood-killing topic.
She followed his lead and deftly steered the conversation in another direction. "So that means you used to sneak out at noon back then too?"
"Yeah, quite often."
"Really?" Xu Yumo couldn't help but turn her head and give him a closer look, genuine surprise in her voice. "I remember you were the model student of our grade back then. How could you do something that violated school rules?"
Hearing this, He Linxi paused for two seconds, then smiled silently.
He turned his face toward her. The dim streetlight traced the elegant lines of his brow, and the small mole at the corner of his eye took on a deep, almost bewitching quality in the play of light and shadow.
"Model student?" He rolled the words around on his tongue slowly, his dark gaze falling directly into her eyes with an ambiguous depth. "So in Xu's mind, that's the only impression you have of me?"
Xu Yumo's breath caught slightly.
Although what he said was true—during those high school years, apart from the two thin labels of "grade's top student" and "aloof school heartthrob," she had almost no more vivid memories of He Linxi.
But right now, he was a business partner she'd worked hard to get in touch with. She couldn't just let the conversation die.
She steadied herself, curved her almond-shaped eyes into a smile, and tried to steer the atmosphere toward lighter, more casual territory. "No, no. When we were voting for school heartthrob back then, I cast my vote for you."
"Really?" He Linxi tilted his head, his brow arching slightly, drawing out the last syllable.
"Yeah, really." She nodded vigorously, her face full of sincerity.
But He Linxi was clearly not so easy to fool. His dark eyes fixed on her, his tone deliberately slow, as if interrogating a lying cat. "Then why didn't you vote for Zhou Shiye?"
Xu Yumo's heart skipped a beat. Her fingertips instinctively gripped the edge of her coat. She let out a dry laugh, half-joking as she scrambled for an excuse. "Objectively speaking… you are a bit better-looking than him."
He Linxi said nothing, but the corner of his mouth twitched almost imperceptibly. His features, which had been cooled by the night wind, seemed to soften with a hint of warmth in an instant, revealing a barely noticeable trace of pleasure.
"Rare." He casually withdrew his gaze. "You do have good taste sometimes."
"…"
Before Xu Yumo could parse the deeper meaning behind his words, the owner's loud voice came from behind the smoke-filled curtain door:
"Number 42! Two people, there's a seat inside!"
"Let's go." He Linxi stood up.
Xu Yumo secretly let out a sigh of relief and quickly followed his tall silhouette, squeezing into the cramped, bustling shop.
Before long, two steaming enamel bowls were set on the table. Thick, secret-recipe sesame sauce coated every ingredient, sprinkled with crispy crushed peanuts—still carrying that bold, familiar aroma from her memories.
Xu Yumo picked up a chopstickful and put it in her mouth. The numbing spiciness and rich flavor on her tongue were like an old key, sliding down her warm throat and clicking open all those sealed-away memories from years past.
It was the provincial youth piano competition during winter break of freshman year. Because of overwhelming nervousness, she'd hit a wrong note during the key change and only brought home a mediocre third-place award.
When she got home, she wasn't greeted by her parents' comfort, but by her father Xu Zhengming's face, dark as the bottom of a valley. He sat in the wide leather chair of his study, his tone cold and hard with no inflection, leaving only one sentence: You've disgraced the Xu family. At the end of the day, you didn't practice enough. Your mind was too restless.
For that entire week, she was completely grounded. She could only sit in the empty piano room, mechanically repeating practice over and over against the sheet music spread across the stands and the rows of black and white keys.
Her fingertips ached and went numb, her stomach twisted with hunger, but her mind grew emptier and emptier, like a marionette without a soul.
Until the glass window of the second-floor balcony was tapped lightly from outside.
She looked up with red-rimmed eyes and saw Zhou Shiye standing on the air conditioner unit outside.
Like a little demon wreaking havoc, he crouched and slipped through the window, shoving a bowl of dry-mixed spicy malatang—already a bit clumped from being kept warm inside his down jacket—into her hands. His tone was as unserious as ever: "Eat up, eat up. If you wait any longer, the crushed peanuts won't be crispy anymore."
In that rich aroma of sesame sauce, Xu Yumo ate big mouthfuls while tears streamed down her face.
She not only felt that the malatang in her hands was the best thing she'd ever eaten, but also that the boy before her was the best person in her life.
In that suffocating, oppressive girlhood, Zhou Shiye had been the only light that could shine through.
So she fell for him hopelessly, like a moth drawn to a flame, loving him for eight whole years.
"What are you thinking about?"
A cold, clear male voice cut abruptly through her memories.
Xu Yumo's fingers tightened around her chopsticks, snapping her back to the present. She realized she'd been holding her chopsticks aloft, staring blankly at the steam rising from her bowl.
"…It's nothing. I just thought—the flavor hasn't changed at all."
She forced a faint smile and lowered her head in a bid to hide her expression, biting into a slice of beef slicked with chili oil.
The spicy heat exploded on her tongue, but it couldn't suppress the sour ache churning in her chest. The stifling weight wouldn't dissipate, and instead made her desperately crave something strong enough to blast through this damnable haze of the past.
She swallowed and turned to the busy proprietress. "Auntie, do you have any alcohol here?"
"No, dear. Only iced Coke and Vitasoy," the woman replied without looking up.
The light in Xu Yumo's eyes dimmed, and she let out a barely concealed sigh of disappointment.
"Want a drink?"
He Linxi, seated across from her, set down his chopsticks and slowly wiped his hands with a napkin. He glanced at his wristwatch and said casually, "There's a decent quiet bar nearby. It's still early—want to stop by after we eat?"
Xu Yumo hesitated for a moment. If she went back to that cold, empty rental now, she'd probably spend the whole night spiraling and overthinking. Better to let herself get a little tipsy, go home, and pass out cold. When she woke up, she could go back to drowning herself in work.
"Alright." She pressed her lips together, which had gone slightly numb, and gave a small nod.
…
The quiet bar was tucked at the deepest end of the alley. The atmosphere was dim and intimate, and a resident singer sat on a tall stool with an acoustic guitar, crooning a slow, mellow folk song.
Xu Yumo had only wanted to drown her sorrows, so she ordered a signature cocktail called Sunset Glow.
The name sounded gentle and romantic, and the first sip carried a fresh, fruity aroma. But she'd underestimated its strength—the kick was surprisingly fierce. Half a glass in, her vision was already swimming, and her mind had turned into a bubbling pot of porridge.
The grievances, exhaustion, and resentment she'd been bottling up for over two weeks finally burst through the crack this strong drink had torn open.
Xu Yumo propped her burning forehead on one hand, dropping her professional partner mask entirely, and began a rambling, incoherent tirade at He Linxi.
"You be the judge—is Zhou Shiye just completely unreasonable or what?"
She stared at the man across from her with bleary, drunken eyes, her fingers gesturing wildly in the air like she was conducting an orchestra that didn't exist.
"He told me in front of all those people that I was boring, and then had the nerve to expect me to stay and eat cake with a straight face! What the hell is he thinking? Hasn't he had enough of making a fool of me?"
He Linxi didn't stop her drunken outburst.
He'd only ordered a non-alcoholic soda water, his figure half-hidden in the dim, hazy light like a patient listener, quietly watching her vent.
"This morning, he lost his mind again—showed up at my door, demanding to know why I was avoiding him." Xu Yumo let out a cold laugh, her eyes full of absurdity. "He never even called me once. Where exactly was I supposed to be hiding from him? Does he really think he's the sun and the whole world has to revolve around him?!"
"And also… him and that Jiang Yao—they broke up ages ago, but he's still tangled up with her, all wishy-washy! And then he goes to the ski resort and picks up some new fling, and still has the nerve to ask me why I didn't come…"
Thud.
She slammed her empty glass heavily onto the marble tabletop, the corners of her eyes flushed with drunken heat, and delivered her verdict with righteous indignation: "So let me tell you—men, not a single one of them is worth a damn!"
He Linxi had been silent the whole time, but at that, he finally lifted his eyelids to look at her, his tone flat. "No need to paint us all with the same brush."
"Oh?"
By now, alcohol had completely taken over Xu Yumo's courage. Hearing him push back, she suddenly leaned forward, boldly extending one slender index finger across the table's boundary, nearly poking the man's straight, prominent nose.
With a hint of tipsy, playful defiance, she stared drunkenly into his fathomless dark eyes.
"You… you don't actually think you're one of the good ones, do you?"