"Clink."
The glasses collided, producing an extremely crisp sound.
Under Chen Anke's exaggerated winks and gestures, Shi Ran tipped her head back and downed an entire full glass of liquor.
The fiery liquid burned its way down her throat like a tongue of flame, scorching all the way to her stomach, setting her insides ablaze before slowly spreading to her cheeks.
She set down the glass, now completely empty, and couldn't help but cough once. A tissue was quickly passed to her by Shen Lizhou.
Chen Anke's smile was sweet yet sinister, her gaze twisting and turning with a thousand hidden meanings, writing out a three-thousand-word reading comprehension in the air.
Shi Ran lifted her eyes, cutting through the air: "You're full now, right?"
Chen Anke swiftly retracted that long, dense string of invisible words: "Full, full. I'm practically stuffed. Haha."
With that, she divided the remaining wine evenly and raised her glass proactively: "Then let's toast once more to our little campus heartthrob, thanking him for his hospitality—"
The glasses clinked together, mingling with the chorus of laughter: "Thank you—"
As the gathering wound down, everyone packed up their things and chatted and laughed their way toward the entrance. Bao Chenggong pulled out his phone to call a designated driver, but Shen Lizhou stopped him: "I've already called one."
Everyone was momentarily taken aback. Shi Ran asked, "You called designated drivers for us too?"
"Yes," Shen Lizhou said. "The housekeeper helped arrange it. Oh, right." He took out his phone and tapped a few times, then said to Shi Ran, "Those questions you asked the housekeeper earlier… I've had them organized. I'll have the housekeeper send them to you."
Shi Ran had long forgotten: "What questions?"
Bao Chenggong immediately caught on, praising him with a slurred tongue: "What a great guy!" He proactively pulled up his own QR code and held it out. "Scan me, scan me—add me as a friend, Brother Shen. Let's keep in touch from now on."
Brother Shen. Shi Ran couldn't help but purse her lips slightly. How ridiculous was that?
It didn't suit Shen Lizhou at all.
Shen Lizhou glanced at Shi Ran, the alcohol leaving his eyes moist and glistening, looking somewhat innocent.
Bao Chenggong's phone was practically shoved in his face. He paused for a moment, then still scanned Bao Chenggong's code.
Encouraged, Bao Chenggong, reeking of alcohol, leaned closer to Shen Lizhou: "Hey—I forgot to ask, how did you make your fortune? Can you tell me? I'm currently working on a feature interview for a magazine…"
"I told you to interview me first!" Aili smacked him in frustration, then also pulled up her own QR code and shoved it in front of Shen Lizhou. "Next time, it's my treat!"
Chen Anke followed suit, opening her phone: "Then the time after that is on me."
Shen Lizhou scanned them one by one, and soon his screen, which had held a single lonely chat window, began to fill up.
After adding Shen Lizhou as a friend, Bao Chenggong suddenly blurted out, "We're all high school classmates—how come none of us had your WeChat?" He then looked at Shi Ran. "Why do you have it?"
Shi Ran had only just learned that Shen Lizhou hadn't had a single one of them as friends. She was equally puzzled: "I…"
"I didn't have a phone in high school," Shen Lizhou spoke up, his voice slightly hoarse from the alcohol. "Later, I was the one who reached out and added her."
Bao Chenggong was about to ask more: "For what?"
Chen Anke barely suppressed her urge to do a reading comprehension on this, and called out to everyone: "Alright! Let's go!"
The group took the elevator down to the underground garage, where the designated driver had already arrived. Everyone got into their cars. Shi Ran unlocked hers and suddenly noticed that the man standing in front of her car looked somewhat familiar. Thinking about it, he seemed to be the same man who had been standing at the entrance of the residential complex the last time she'd driven Shen Lizhou home.
Liang Yesheng greeted Shen Lizhou: "President Shen." He paused, then his eyes slowly widened. "…Have you been drinking?"
"Mm," Shen Lizhou replied calmly, glancing at him, and said, "Please see Miss Shi home."
Liang Yesheng's face paled slightly. His Adam's apple bobbed, and under Shen Lizhou's gesture, he turned to Shi Ran: "Hello, Miss Shi. I'm Liang Yesheng. You can just call me Asheng."
The car was already unlocked. He quickly opened the rear door: "Please."
Shi Ran got in. Liang Yesheng walked around the car, meeting Shen Lizhou's gaze once more, hesitant and tense: "You…"
"Go ahead," Shen Lizhou said. "Let me know once she's home."
Liang Yesheng said in a low voice, "I'll be back soon."
Shen Lizhou frowned slightly. "Safety first."
"Yes."
Sitting in the back seat, Shi Ran watched through the windshield as Liang Yesheng said something to Shen Lizhou.
President Shen…
What an intriguing title. She thought.
It felt like a title that should have been completely at odds with Shen Lizhou, yet hearing him accept "President Shen" so naturally, it somehow seemed only fitting.
Shen Lizhou really was an impressive person.
He'd gotten to where he was today entirely on his own, could afford to sponsor the Shengsheng Manor, and had even bought her dream home.
Having come this far, Shi Ran had made up her mind.
No matter how much the price went up, she was going to buy that house!
Living here, she wondered how much her future happiness could improve. She was even considering that when the time came to renovate a new home, she could directly reference Shen Lizhou's design drafts.
Liang Yesheng quickly got into the car, asked Shi Ran for the address, and started the engine.
Shi Ran lowered the car window and smiled, mimicking Shen Lizhou's earlier gesture: "Thank you, President Shen! Bye, President Shen, let's meet again another day—"
Shen Lizhou curved his lips slightly and raised his hand toward her in return.
The car slowly pulled out of the parking space. Shi Ran glanced at the rearview mirror—Shen Lizhou was still standing there with his back perfectly straight. Then the car began to accelerate, his figure growing smaller and smaller, until finally, with a turn, he disappeared from view.
Liang Yesheng slowly let out a breath and looked ahead.
It was then that he realized he was surrounded by various Sheng Wanwu series products in the car. He cautiously glanced at Shi Ran through the rearview mirror, carefully broaching a topic: "Miss Shi, do you really like Sheng Wanwu?"
"Yes," Shi Ran said, scrolling through her phone looking for a reliable real estate agent. "I'm a loyal fan." She looked up and asked, "Do you like it too?"
Liang Yesheng paused for a moment, then said, "…Quite a lot."
Shi Ran, having found a kindred spirit, immediately felt closer to him: "Right? Did you manage to buy the new SSR Series? I pulled the hidden one. I also gave one to your President Shen—though it was a regular one… But seeing it on his bedside table today, I think I've planted the seed in him too."
Liang Yesheng's expression could only be described as alarmed. He said dryly, "Is that so. That's really great…"
"I hope the SSR Series can keep going forever," Shi Ran said. "Never again have something like a sudden announcement about quitting the scene."
Liang Yesheng hummed in acknowledgment, opened his mouth as if to speak, then closed it again, falling into silence.
Shi Ran also lowered her head and continued scrolling through her phone.
After a while, she heard Liang Yesheng suddenly ask, "Are you and President Shen classmates?"
"Yes, high school classmates," Shi Ran said. "We're both from Lianshi No.1 High School."
"I am too," Liang Yesheng said with a smile. "I'm two years below President Shen. When you two were in your senior year, I was just a freshman." He continued, "I was also a special recruit, just like President Shen. But my personality is very different from his—I'm more timid. When I entered the school, I was a late bloomer, small and skinny, and I was often bullied."
"Mostly verbal, but occasionally I'd get cornered in the bathroom and shoved around." He spoke in a somewhat resigned tone. "I didn't understand back then. I thought if I endured it, things would get better. I pretended not to hear the hurtful words, and when I got hit, I told myself it didn't hurt that much… But the more I endured, the worse they got. At one point, I even thought about jumping off a building, writing a letter in blood, using my life to leave them with an indelible stain on their records…"
"Don't talk nonsense," Shi Ran said, her brow twitching. "Are they even worthy of that?"
"Of course not. And even if I jumped, it wouldn't affect their lives in the slightest. Those who do wrong should clearly pay the price for every bit of their malice—but if I destroyed myself now, how could I ever live to see that moment?" Liang Yesheng smiled. "That's what President Shen told me that day when I was sitting on the rooftop."
"He stood three steps away from me. He didn't come closer, and he didn't reach out to pull me… but his tone was unexpectedly gentle. I never heard that tone from him again."
"He said that he, like me, had once sat in the same position, thinking about the same things."
"He said he made it through, so I would too."
Shi Ran slowly drew in a breath.
The car fell silent for a few seconds. Liang Yesheng's profile flickered in and out of the light and shadow, his expression one of reverence.
"President Shen is truly remarkable," he said. "He won a national gold medal in math competitions and also topped the art college entrance exam. Even the dean of students would smile warmly when seeing him, afraid he might suffer any grievance. But Lianshi No.1 High School was full of privileged second-generation kids with power and connections, plenty of troublemakers who refused to submit. Once, someone tore up his painting. A crowd gathered around to watch the show, expecting a fight. But he just stood there looking at the guy, like he was looking at something lifeless. The guy got creeped out and walked away cursing."
"Everyone thought that was the end of it. But half a month later, that guy suddenly stopped coming to school."
"Later, we found out his family was in the building materials business. At that time, the central environmental protection inspection was in full swing, with strict scrutiny from the province down to the city. But his family was suddenly exposed for illegally discharging industrial wastewater. Public outrage exploded, posts flooded the internet, and the inspection team made a surprise visit, slapping seals on the place directly. No one could protect them. In the end, they had to pay pollution compensation for several districts upstream and downstream, were made an example of as a negative case, and their business collapsed by more than half."
"A few of us special recruits discussed it privately and believed it wasn't a coincidence. Because similar things had happened before."
"President Shen means what he says. He will definitely make those who do wrong pay the price for their malice."
Did Shen Lizhou really have moments like that?
Shi Ran was a bit stunned listening.
Growing up, kindness had always surrounded her. In elementary and middle school, her mother wouldn't let her attend school—she studied with private tutors at home every day. It wasn't until high school that her mother finally gave in to her insistence and let her go out to study for two years.
Almost everything she knew about school bullying came from social news and novels. Those insults, beatings, and ostracism felt as distant to her as stories from another world.
She couldn't imagine anyone living such a dark and hopeless existence in a beautiful school like Lian City No. 1 High.
Nor could she imagine that the gentle, kind Shen Lizhou—President Shen—could be so sharp, so decisive, so watertight in his actions.
Like a hunter lurking in the shadows.
Quiet, patient, striking with a single, certain blow.
Shi Ran seemed to recall how he'd been when playing Werewolf.
Back then, she'd been killed off on the first night. When the moderator called for the Hunter to open their eyes, she and Shen Lizhou had locked eyes. He was wearing his faded school uniform, those pale eyes fixed on her—calm, assured, composed—and with one shot, he took out Cheng Zimiao, who had just successfully Aggressive Claiming and was closing his eyes in smug satisfaction.
She also remembered how, after that game ended, she'd happily praised him until his lashes fluttered and his ears turned red, and until Cheng Zimiao's expression went cold and he set down his cup with a heavy thud.
"Your President Shen is really impressive," Shi Ran said. "Have you been working under him since high school?"
"Of course not. He'd long forgotten me." Liang Yesheng smiled and said, "I never brought it up either. I joined the company on my own merit—definitely not through any old high school connections."
"The company," Shi Ran finally thought to ask, "which company is it that you work for?"
"It's…" Liang Yesheng rarely stumbled over his words. He paused for a few seconds before finally saying, "It's a creative design company. We've been around for many years, and our clients are fairly stable."
"Oh," every trade has its own world, and Shi Ran didn't press further. "That's nice."
Liang Yesheng glanced at the Sheng Wanwu figurines crammed into the car, squirming as if his seat were on fire, but in the end, he said nothing.
Liang Yesheng quickly drove Shi Ran to Huayu No. 1 Courtyard.
Shi Ran got out and thanked him: "Thanks for the trouble! You still have to walk out of the neighborhood… oh, I forgot to put water in the car. Let me grab a bottle from inside for you—just wait a moment."
"No need, no need," Liang Yesheng handed her back the car keys and turned to leave. "I still have something urgent to take care of. It was a pleasure meeting you, Miss Shi. I hope we'll see each other often in the future."
With that, Liang Yesheng walked off, his steps quick. After just a few paces, he was nearly running.
Shi Ran watched his figure disappear, wondering what could be so urgent at this hour.
Was President Shen calling him for something urgent?
President Shen.
A strange curiosity suddenly stirred in Shi Ran.
What was the old Shen Lizhou really like?
Why did he add her on WeChat… was there something he wanted?
How come she had no memory of it at all?
Shi Ran pulled out her phone, opened her chat with Shen Lizhou, and scrolled up.
There weren't many messages. When she reached the very top, she really did find one.
Checking the timestamp—June 28th, which should have been the summer after senior year of high school.
A message from 6 PM.
【S: Shi Ran, hello, I'm Shen Lizhou.】
You've added S. The above is a greeting message.
【S: Shi Ran, hello, I'm Shen Lizhou.】
【S: There are some things I'd like to discuss with you. I was wondering when you might be free. If it's convenient, could I meet you in person?】
【S: I'm available anytime, anywhere.】