Chen Jia went up to the third floor and discovered that this hotel wasn’t hosting just one wedding—Wan Suihe’s. Across the hall, another couple was also getting married that day, their decorative posters displayed at the very entrance, with quite a few guests gathered inside.
It really was an auspicious day, it seemed. Earlier that morning, before Chen Jia had even gotten out of bed, she’d heard firecrackers going off downstairs in the neighborhood.
With the talkative Wan Suihe no longer by her side, Chen Jia had to find a seat on her own. Spotting a table where a few familiar faces from high school were sitting, she went over and sat down.
Unfortunately, a few of the female classmates nearby were probably from the neighboring class—they didn’t even spare Chen Jia a second glance when she sat down.
The classmate sitting across from her looked somewhat familiar—someone from her own class whom she’d gotten along with reasonably well before. That person was even shyer than Chen Jia, and upon seeing her, merely smiled without making any move to strike up a conversation. Chen Jia wasn’t the outgoing type like Wan Suihe either, so she didn’t initiate small talk. She opened a bottle of water, took a sip, and busied herself with her phone.
After a while, she felt someone take the seat to her right. Chen Jia looked up and was surprised to find it was Zhou Wen—the person she’d previously dated.
Zhou Wen had put on even more weight since their last meeting, and looked more mature and weathered. He was dressed in a white shirt and dress pants, very formal, almost like a waiter.
Perhaps it was a matter of presence—because Chen Jia had seen Xu An’an in a shirt, and Xu An’an’s striking looks combined with a perfect figure gave off that CEO vibe.
Zhou Wen clearly recognized Chen Jia too. He smiled at her and started chatting. “You came after all. I thought you wouldn’t.”
“Why would you say that?” The two had parted amicably, and Chen Jia didn’t think much of Zhou Wen, so she went along with the conversation.
“Because you’ve never shown up to any of our high school reunions.”
Chen Jia thought to herself, maybe because none of you ever invited me. But she knew deep down that even if she had been invited, she wouldn’t have gone—because the older you get and the less you’ve accomplished, the more you dread seeing people from your past.
“Time flies—everyone’s getting married now.” Zhou Wen sighed.
Chen Jia suddenly asked, “Are you married?”
“No. Do you care that much whether I’m married? You know, you’ve gotten even prettier since we last met. They say a girl changes eighteen times by adulthood.”
Chen Jia pursed her lips. “I was just asking.”
Zhou Wen suddenly noticed the ring on Chen Jia’s left hand. He stared at it, then asked in surprise, “You’re married? When? Was it with Shan Yixuan?”
Chen Jia was taken aback for a moment before remembering who Shan Yixuan was. She shook her head in denial. “I’m getting married soon, but not to him. I was never even with him.”
“That’s true. Shan Yixuan is a lunatic.” Even now, thinking about Shan Yixuan made Zhou Wen’s heart race. “Back then, when someone said something about your parents, he picked up a stool and split the guy’s head open, and ended up in the police station.”
Seeing that Chen Jia remained silent, Zhou Wen continued, “Honestly, it wouldn’t have been surprising if you’d gotten together with him. I can understand it—women always develop feelings for a hero who swoops in from nowhere to save them. The fact that nothing ever happened between you two is what I find surprising. You’re not lying to me, are you? What does your current husband do?”
Chen Jia turned her head away. “You ask way too many questions. And even if I told you, you wouldn’t believe me. You’re really something else.”
Getting scolded didn’t faze Zhou Wen. “Sorry, occupational habit. I always feel like people are lying to me. Every time I ask the same question, my clients give me a new answer. You really haven’t changed at all. Forget it, forget it. I’ll just drink more water so you won’t find me too talkative.”
Chen Jia genuinely couldn’t remember why she had gotten together with Zhou Wen in the first place. Probably for the convenience of copying his homework.
Back then, Zhou Wen sat in the row in front of her. He looked pretty ordinary, but he always let her copy his homework, so when he reached for her hand, she didn’t refuse.
But the relationship didn’t last long before the teacher called them in for a talk. The teacher said Chen Jia’s grades were getting worse and worse—if she really wanted to date, she needed to get her grades up first. She also scolded Zhou Wen for leading Chen Jia astray and asked why he was letting her copy his homework.
As for how the teacher found out—there were probably informants in the class. Teachers kept a tight watch on who was dating whom. So Chen Jia gradually distanced herself from Zhou Wen, and after getting scolded by his own parents, Zhou Wen never dared to talk to her again.
The two of them rekindled things later when they met through a company collaboration, but before a month was even up, Chen Jia couldn’t stand the grown-up Zhou Wen anymore. She couldn’t figure out why she’d ever liked him in high school, and quickly broke up with him. Zhou Wen only put up a token protest on WeChat before agreeing.
As for Shan Yixuan, he’d always had the reputation of being a bad student in class—talking during lessons, bad grades, and always getting into gang fights. Chen Jia wasn’t exactly a top student herself, but she was far from being that kind of troublemaker.
After breaking up with Zhou Wen, at a school sports meet, Chen Jia watched Shan Yixuan take first place in both the 1500-meter and 5000-meter races. Only then did she realize why such a fierce guy had so many girls liking him—it turned out he was actually pretty handsome.
Usually, Shan Yixuan wore this edgy hairstyle that covered his eyes—long and dyed yellow. Chen Jia wouldn’t even spare him a second glance, let alone notice what was hidden beneath his bangs.
At the sports meet, Shan Yixuan wore a headband, sweeping all his hair back to reveal a smooth, full forehead. His face was striking and sharp all at once.
After discovering that Shan Yixuan was good-looking, Chen Jia often secretly turned around to steal glances at him sitting in the last row. She found herself making eye contact with him more and more frequently.
Later… they had a flirty phase, but they never actually got together.
Not long after, Wan Suihe came up on stage and said a few words. Mid-speech, she burst into tears, and the scene was deeply moving.
When Wan Suihe came over with her glass to toast their table—since everyone there were classmates—she spotted Zhou Wen sitting next to Chen Jia and smiled as she pinched Chen Jia’s shoulder.
Chen Jia: …
Hey, just because you’re sitting next to your ex doesn’t mean something happened between you, okay?
Since Wan Suihe was too busy, Chen Jia left right after eating.
It was rush hour now. Her ride-hailing app showed fifty people still in the queue ahead of her. It was too hot out, and she didn’t want to walk to the bus stop under the blazing sun.
She was sitting on the sofa in the lobby when Zhou Wen patted her. “Your husband didn’t come to pick you up? Let me give you a ride home.”
Anyway, she had a husband now, and Zhou Wen knew about it. Chen Jia believed that passing up a good deal was for fools, and most importantly, it was really too hot outside—she just wanted to get home early and enjoy the air conditioning. So she stood up and followed Zhou Wen off the elevator, down to the underground parking lot.
While driving, Zhou Wen chatted with Chen Jia. “Are you still working locally?”
“Yeah.”
“Why haven’t I seen any photos of your husband on your Moments? You sly girl, you don’t even make it public.”
Chen Jia was a bit speechless. “I only show the last three days. You just didn’t see them yourself.”
“Hey, I’ve been too busy with work. When do I have the leisure to scroll through Moments?”
Chen Jia asked, “What have you been busy with lately?”
“Busy fighting divorce cases for other people. Exhausting. If you ever need a divorce, feel free to come to me—I’m very professional. I guarantee I’ll make your husband lose a layer of skin.”
“…Psycho.” If Zhou Wen weren’t driving, Chen Jia would definitely have used her favorite high school move—pinching the flesh at someone’s waist and twisting hard, guaranteeing they’d yelp in pain.
Zhou Wen laughed out loud. “Your temper is better than before.”
“You really deserve a scolding. I’m only holding back because you’re driving, or I’d have hit you already.”
“So you’re still the same old Chen Jiajia. Let me ask you one more time—you have to answer me seriously. Why did you break up with me back then?”
Chen Jia didn’t really want to bring up the past. “We’re already broken up. Why are you still hung up on this?”
“Is it because of Shan Yixuan?”
“Why bring him up again? Do you guys have a cuckold fetish or something?”
“How could that be? It’s just that when we were still together, Shan Yixuan suddenly came to me and asked if I was interested in organizing a class reunion with him. I never got the chance to tell you before you unilaterally broke up with me.”
“The breakup had nothing to do with Shan Yixuan. I didn’t even know he went abroad, nor did I know he came back.” Chen Jia adjusted her sitting position and asked, “Do you really want to know why I broke up with you?”
Seeing Zhou Wen looking all ears, she said bluntly, “Because every time I talked to you, you’d kill the mood. It wasn’t just once or twice—you especially loved showing off in front of me. If I talked about watermelon, you’d say you were great at picking watermelons. If I mentioned strawberries, you’d say you don’t eat strawberries.”
“That’s it? I didn’t—”
“Now you know why I broke up with you. It’s because you’re completely different from who you were in high school. I didn’t want to bring it up, but you insisted on asking.”
The two fell silent in the car for a moment.
The road home was still congested. At one traffic light alone, they had to wait through five full signal cycles before they could pass. Zhou Wen sighed inwardly and started a new topic. “Anzhou is still too small. These old city roads are jammed every single day, and the city government can’t do anything about it. Schools and residential complexes are packed in everywhere.”
Chen Jia felt listless and didn’t really want to respond. She thought the air conditioning was a bit too strong and asked Zhou Wen to turn it down. Just then, Xu An’an called.
“Jiajia, are you home yet?”
“Yeah, I’m in the car on my way home.” Chen Jia glanced at Zhou Wen. “I ran into a former classmate, so I’m riding in my classmate’s car.”
She wasn’t wrong—Zhou Wen was both an ex and a classmate.
There are some unnecessary jealousies that she didn’t want Xu An’an to experience. Although it felt satisfying to see someone jealous because they cared about her, it would eventually lose its appeal. It might even end with her having to apologize, which would hurt their relationship.
“Alright, call me when you get home.”
After hanging up, Zhou Wen asked, “Was that your husband?”
Chen Jia nodded. Zhou Wen continued, “In the blink of an eye, everyone’s getting married, and here I am still going on blind dates.”
“Didn’t you date anyone after the breakup?”
“I did, but we broke up because of her job transfer. Now my parents keep pushing me to go on blind dates. The dating scene these days, tsk tsk, it’s just a transaction. Those women are super picky—if you don’t have a house or a car, they won’t even give you a second glance.”
Zhou Wen kept going, “So for now, I’ll just focus on making money. I’m aiming to strike it rich by thirty, then marry a twenty-year-old.”
“…” Chen Jia stopped paying attention to him.
She might as well not have gotten into his car.