Whеn thе сlосk hаnd pointеd tо sеvеn, thе last glimmer of light оn thе horizon wаs swept аwау, аnd rоws оf streetlights lit uр in unison. Even filtered through thе сurtains frоm miles аwау, thе light still felt рiеrсing tо Ruаn Sixiаn.
She shielded hеr еyеs and turned to switсh on the light.
Вeforе hеr hаnd соuld rеаch the switсh, shе heаrd thе рersоn behind hеr аsk, "If it were уоu, what wоuld you chоose?"
Ruan Siхiаn’s hаnd frozе mid-air. The light rеmаinеd off, lеаving thе living rооm dimlу lit.
Dong Хiаn stoоd two mеters awаy, hеr vоiсe sоft аnd distаnt. "Тhe last chаnce in your life tо becomе a pilоt, or stауing homе to care for your husband and children—what would you choose?"
A long silence filled the room, the air itself seeming to stagnate.
The atmosphere pressed tightly against her neck and mind, making it impossible to think. Her nerves throbbed, as if ready to burst at any moment.
"I wouldn’t make her choose."
Suddenly, a hand covered Ruan Sixian’s and pressed the switch, flooding the living room with bright light.
He held her hand, stepping sideways to stand in front of her, blocking Dong Xian’s direct gaze.
"Auntie, asking such a question is pointless. Hypotheticals like this don’t exist in my world."
Hearing his firm voice, Ruan Sixian looked up, staring at him in a daze, her throat itching.
Outside, the wind was strong. He had just returned, his clothes carrying a chill, yet his palm was warm.
When Dong Xian asked that question, Ruan Sixian’s temples tightened suddenly, as if she were standing on a tightrope over a cliff, one wrong move away from falling.
His voice was like a strong rope, pulling her back to solid ground.
Fu Mingyu’s sudden arrival broke the delicate stalemate between Dong Xian and Ruan Sixian.
He glanced toward the dining room, where the dishes on the table remained almost untouched.
"Auntie, have you eaten? Would you like to join us for dinner?"
His "invitation" sounded more like a dismissal.
Dong Xian didn’t need to say more. She weighed her position against Fu Mingyu’s in this house, and the answer was clear.
She felt with stark clarity Ruan Sixian’s dependence on Fu Mingyu.
The two stood opposite her, an invisible barrier between them, signaling their opposing stances.
In the end, they would part on unpleasant terms.
She sighed silently, walked to the dining table, and tested the temperature of the soup with the back of her hand.
"It’s still warm," she said. "The pigeon is fresh, and the herbs were carefully selected. It helps calm the nerves and soothe the mind. Drink it while it’s hot."
The moment the door closed, Fu Mingyu turned to look at Ruan Sixian.
He raised his hand, intending to touch her cheek.
But before he could reach her skin, she suddenly walked forward and collapsed onto the sofa, burying herself in the cushions.
"I’m exhausted."
While Fu Mingyu wasn’t looking, she rubbed her eyes. "Why did you come?"
"To make sure my treasure isn’t being bullied." Fu Mingyu picked up the dishes from the table and headed toward the kitchen. "Besides, didn’t someone want me to have dinner with her?"
Ruan Sixian rolled her eyes on the sofa, hugged a cushion, and turned her back to him, a slight smile curling her lips. She stood up, picked up the remaining dishes, and hurried into the kitchen.
Fu Mingyu placed the dishes in the microwave. "Why did Auntie come today?"
"To bring me some food." Ruan Sixian pointed to the table outside. "See? Fresh pigeon soup."
As the first dish finished heating, he brought it out and asked, "Just to bring food?"Ruan Sixian let out an "oh," adding, "And maybe have a little heart-to-heart exchange."
A heart-to-heart exchange that ended up with that kind of atmosphere?
If he hadn’t known Dong Xian was coming, felt vaguely uneasy, and rushed back immediately, who knows—with Ruan Sixian’s temper, she might have ended up having a big argument with someone at home.
Fu Mingyu turned around, leaning sideways against the kitchen cabinet, slightly hunched, just level with Ruan Sixian’s gaze.
A faint smile touched the corner of his lips. "Had a fight with Mom?"
"Mhm." Ruan Sixian turned to serve the rice, her tone deliberately casual. "Didn’t you hear?"
Fu Mingyu wrapped an arm around her neck, hooking his wrist to cup her chin. "Then tell your brother, what did you and Mom argue about?"
His tone was light, sounding genuinely like an older brother coaxing a child.
But Ruan Sixian had always known that, for a long time now, Fu Mingyu had vaguely guessed something about her family situation.
But since she hadn’t brought it up, he hadn’t asked either.
Ruan Sixian lowered her head and didn’t speak.
The microwave beeped. Fu Mingyu let go of her and reached to open it.
"It’s fine. You don’t have to say if you don’t want to. Let’s eat first."
When there was nothing particularly important going on, Ruan Sixian usually only ate until she was about seventy percent full for dinner.
Eating too much made her drowsy and her mind less sharp.
But that hour with Dong Xian seemed to have drained all her energy. Her stomach felt empty, and without realizing it, she went for a second bowl of rice.
The pigeon soup sat to the side, having cooled at some point, giving off a faint fishy smell.
Fu Mingyu sat across from her, ladling a bowl of winter melon soup.
Just as Ruan Sixian reached out to take it, he brought it to his own mouth instead.
"..."
Fu Mingyu paused. "You can still eat?"
Ruan Sixian withdrew her hand and nodded resignedly.
"Alright, I can’t eat anymore."
Fu Mingyu chuckled, took a sip, found the soup just the right temperature, and handed it to Ruan Sixian.
Ruan Sixian turned her head away. "I won’t accept charity."
The person across from her looked up, eyes half-narrowed. "Do you want me to feed you?"
Normally, Ruan Sixian would roll her eyes and say, "I’m not disabled."
But recalling what Zheng You’an had said at noon today, she lowered her head and fiddled with her nails. "But I’ve heard some girls, once they start dating someone, never wash their own fruit, never tie their own shoelaces, and can’t even open their own water bottles."
"That’s other people." Fu Mingyu nodded while drinking his soup. "You’re different. You’re the kind of woman who can open bottle caps with one hand."
"..."
"Listen," Ruan Sixian nudged Fu Mingyu’s calf under the table. "I’m really popular right now. You’d better treat me well, or my 63,108 Weibo followers could each say one thing and roast you alive."
Not only that, just since yesterday morning, many media outlets had been scrambling to interview her.
Ruan Sixian didn’t have the energy or time, so she turned down most of them, only agreeing to a few very reputable mainstream media invitations. Otherwise, if she accepted them all, she’d practically need to hire a manager.
Fu Mingyu let out a soft laugh.
Ruan Sixian detected a hint of disdain in his laughter.
"What’s that supposed to mean?"
Fu Mingyu looked up at her, raised an eyebrow, and stood up to walk over to her side.
"Open your mouth."
Those two words seemed to trigger a kind of PTSD in Ruan Sixian. Just hearing them brought back everything from this morning. Instead of opening her mouth, she clenched her teeth even tighter.Seeing her like this, Fu Mingyu stirred the soup in the bowl with a spoon and said casually, "Didn’t you want me to feed you?"
"You said the same thing this morning—" As the spoon was brought to her lips, Ruan Sixian’s mind went blank, and her earlobes slowly turned red.
"Hmm?" Fu Mingyu tapped her lower lip with the spoon. "What did I say this morning?"
Ruan Sixian snatched the bowl from his hand and pushed him away with both hands and feet. "Get lost, I’m not disabled."
While she drank the soup, Fu Mingyu sat beside her, leaning back in his chair, lost in thought.
He patted his pants, feeling a hard box inside.
He was about to take it out but hesitated and decided against it.
"Smoke if you want to."
Ruan Sixian put down the bowl and said, "It’s not like I’ve never inhaled secondhand smoke before."
"Just one." Fu Mingyu took out the cigarette case. "No time to sleep, I’m exhausted."
Ruan Sixian sneered.
"You had no time to sleep, yet you lay in bed with your eyes open, doing this and that."
"Doing what?"
"..."
Ruan Sixian snatched the lighter from his hand, lit it, and glared at him fiercely. "Is your grave missing incense?"
Instead of intimidating him, Fu Mingyu tilted his head and lit his cigarette with the flame from her hand.
With a cigarette in his mouth, he lowered his head. The contours of his brow bone and nose bridge were cast in a layer of shadow by the light, creating a profound, almost unreal feeling.
Yet this unreal feeling made it impossible for her to look away, her eyes fixed on the scene as if watching a movie.
Soon, a wisp of white smoke drifted up beside her.
The soup in the bowl was nearly finished. Ruan Sixian set down the lighter, and the spoon in her hand clinked against the ceramic bowl with a crisp sound.
"The last time I drank this soup was during the summer vacation of my third year of junior high."
"Hmm?"
Her sudden, seemingly random remark made Fu Mingyu’s fingers pause slightly, and a bit of ash fell from his cigarette.
"Back then, this restaurant had just opened. My mom picked me up from school to eat out, and it was here."
This sentence was an opportunity she had been waiting for throughout the entire meal.
Earlier, when Fu Mingyu asked about her family, she hadn’t spoken up—not because she was unwilling, but because she didn’t know where to start.
Dong Xian wasn’t just anyone; she was her mother and also the wife of the boss of Fu Mingyu’s partner company. By all accounts, he should know.
He was different from others.
If she couldn’t even tell him, Ruan Sixian didn’t know who else she could confide in.
So even if he didn’t ask, she would have found a chance to tell him.
But no matter how much time had passed, old wounds were still scars, and even a light touch could hurt.
It took courage to lay it all out.
"When I was fourteen, my mom divorced my dad. After that, she seemed very busy, only visiting me once or twice a year. The first time she came back, she took me to Xixiang Feast for a meal. Our family could never afford a restaurant like that before."
Ruan Sixian started from the beginning of the story, her voice calm and measured, as if she were telling someone else’s story.
When she reached the part about the misunderstanding, she even laughed.
The high school years were dull, and she summarized them in just a few sentences.
"In my senior year of high school, airlines came to recruit pilots, but they didn’t accept girls. Did you know that?"
Fu Mingyu nodded. "I know."
This wasn’t unique to World Airlines. At that time, almost all airlines were like that.“Later in my junior year, airlines also came to the school for recruitment tours.” Ruan Sixian lifted her chin. “I was especially confident at the time, thinking I’d definitely get selected because the interviewer really liked me, and the captain who came to give the presentation even exchanged contact information with me. So I went back to the dorm and packed my bags.”
Fu Mingyu looked up. “Exchanged contact information?”
“Yeah, he was really handsome. Want to see?”
As she spoke, Ruan Sixian took out her phone and scrolled through it to show him.
Fu Mingyu didn’t look at the phone, only seeing her sly smile. He snorted coldly and said, “You have quite the connections.”
“If I had connections, I wouldn’t have ended up in that situation.” Ruan Sixian set her phone down heavily, a hint of disdain flashing in her eyes as she recalled the incident. “But in the end, I thought I had a VIP pass, but it turned out to be just a P. I didn’t even know my spot was taken by someone with connections, quietly and without a sound. I only found out from someone else’s mouth.”
The cigarette between his fingers had burned halfway, a half-inch of ash dangling precariously.
He sighed softly, the ash falling as he stubbed out the cigarette.
Under the warm yellow light of the restaurant, Fu Mingyu’s gaze seemed obscure and unfathomable.
Ruan Sixian cupped her face, meeting his eyes, when a strange feeling suddenly washed over her.
If she hadn’t been pushed out back then, she might have met Fu Mingyu much earlier.
“If I had met you back then,” she thought aloud, asking directly, “would you have liked me?”
Only a wisp of lingering smoke struggled feebly in the ashtray, rising slowly between Ruan Sixian and Fu Mingyu, stretching the passage of time.
“If I had met you back then,” Fu Mingyu stared straight at her, “you’d already be Mrs. Fu by now.”
Mrs. Fu.
Ruan Sixian froze, a peculiar sensation slowly creeping into her heart, tingling and itchy, like a cat’s paw scratching gently.
The words “Mrs. Fu” sounded oddly pleasing.
Mainly because it made people think of wealth at first hearing—like “wealthy wife.”
Ruan Sixian spread her fingers, covering half her face, not even daring to look at him. Her heart raced wildly, and she quickly changed the subject: “My dad didn’t have commercial insurance, so he didn’t leave me much money after he passed. I had to work to cover my living expenses in college. While others went on dates or traveled, I was always working.”
Fu Mingyu frowned.
He could hardly imagine how Ruan Sixian had managed on her own during that time.
If only he could have met her earlier.
He would never have let her live like that.
Just then, Ruan Sixian suddenly looked up, smiling triumphantly. “But in college, I was one of the wealthiest in my class.”
“...”
Fu Mingyu’s thoughts came to an abrupt halt.
“Well, what can I say? It’s because I’m pretty.” Ruan Sixian smoothed her hair, offering Fu Mingyu an explanation. “Taobao shops were always asking me to model for them. A day’s shoot could earn me a thousand, and one shop even paid for me to shoot by the seaside—twenty-five hundred a day. After four years, I had tens of thousands saved up in my little treasury.”
“...”
Fu Mingyu reined in his overflowing sympathy and raised an eyebrow. “Seaside?”
“Yeah.”
“What were you wearing?”
“Is that important?” Ruan Sixian closed her eyes and took a deep breath, nearly exasperated. “The point is twenty-five hundred a day.”
“Do you still have the photos?”
Ruan Sixian paused.
She actually did.Moreover, the shop owner was likely very satisfied with her photos, as they were prominently featured on the homepage at the time. The moment you clicked in, a large image would appear, and she had saved the original files herself.
Since the photos turned out so well, there was no reason not to show them to him.
Ruan Sixian opened her phone and retrieved those photos from the cloud.
Although they were taken several years ago, the photographer’s aesthetic was on point, and they still looked stylish even now.
Besides, although the shop was an online store, it positioned itself in the mid-range swimwear market—sexy without being vulgar. If you removed the watermark, no one would doubt they were artistic shots.
Against the backdrop of azure sea and sky, a golden sandy beach, a twenty-year-old girl sat on a rock wearing a brightly colored swimsuit. One leg stretched downward, her toes lightly touching the sand, so fair it was almost dazzling.
Fu Mingyu took Ruan Sixian’s phone, glanced at the photos a few times, his expression unreadable.
“Not good-looking?”
Ruan Sixian stared at him.
If you dare say “yes,” you’re dead.
Fu Mingyu didn’t answer. Instead, he turned off the phone and placed it face down on the table.
“If I say they’re good-looking, will you wear one for me tonight?”
“No, get lost!”
Fu Mingyu glanced at her, stood up, and headed toward her room.
“Really, I don’t have any!” Ruan Sixian immediately stood up and reached out to stop him. “I haven’t been swimming in a long time!”
“None? That’s fine.”
Fu Mingyu leaned close to her ear and whispered, “I’ll buy you some next time, as revealing as you want.”
He paused, then lowered his voice even further. “Preferably with ties, easy to take off.”
Ruan Sixian pursed her lips and nodded. “You take off one piece of my clothing, I’ll skin you alive. How about that?”
“...”
Fu Mingyu held her gaze and nodded as well. “Fine, as you wish.”
He put on his jacket and gently touched her ear. “After the interview tomorrow afternoon, my parents would like to invite you home for dinner.”
“Mm, okay—wait.”
Ruan Sixian suddenly grabbed his arm. “Why are they inviting me to dinner?”
Fu Mingyu found it amusing. “Shouldn’t they?”
Looking down, he noticed her hesitation and softened his tone to reassure her. “Don’t feel pressured. I’m not forcing you. They’re inviting you because of what happened yesterday.”
Although Fu Mingyu said not to feel pressured, it was her first time going to her boyfriend’s home for dinner, and she was more nervous than she had been for her first job interview in college.
To ensure she was in the best possible state, Ruan Sixian promptly sent Fu Mingyu home, then took a shower, applied a face mask, did a hair treatment… After all that, she collapsed into bed and fell asleep.
Meanwhile, after leaving Ruan Sixian’s apartment and stepping into the elevator, Fu Mingyu suddenly remembered something and made a call home.
Doudou, I’m sorry. You’ll have to endure a little tomorrow.
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