After the live broadcast ended, Zhen Yu interviewed a few nearby citizens who had come to watch the firework show.
Then the group packed up their equipment and headed back.
Thinking about what had just happened, Wen Yifan felt an inexplicable unease. She called out to Fu Zhuang, who was sitting beside her in the back seat: "Da Zhuang."
Fu Zhuang responded, "Yeah?"
Wen Yifan, still wearing her mask, asked seriously, "If you saw me on the street like this—wearing a mask and clothes you've never seen me in before—would you recognize me?"
She paused before continuing, "Just like how I look now."
Fu Zhuang thought for a moment, then asked very carefully, "Only the mask? Nothing else covering, like sunglasses or a hat?"
"Just like this."
"Of course I'd recognize you!" Fu Zhuang said matter-of-factly.
"..."
"Yifan-jie, to be honest, I've never seen anyone as beautiful as you," Fu Zhuang scratched his head sheepishly. "On my first day at work, when I saw you, I thought you were some big celebrity who'd wandered into the wrong place."
Zhen Yu, sitting in the passenger seat, laughed. "Xiao Fan really is stunning."
Qian Weihua, more amiable during downtime, teased, "Xiao Fan, do you have a boyfriend yet? One of these days, I should introduce you to my son."
Zhen Yu scoffed, "Oh please, your son hasn't even graduated elementary school yet."
Fu Zhuang grinned cheekily. "Then how about considering me?"
Unbothered by their teasing, Wen Yifan smiled and replied, "Let's talk after your New Year's wish comes true."
Fu Zhuang protested, "Yifan-jie, that's not fair!"
After saying that, he leaned in closer and whispered, "But..."
Wen Yifan: "Hmm?"
"Jie, because you gave me a heat pack today, I was so touched," Fu Zhuang said with wide, earnest eyes, as if seeking praise. "So when I made my wish, I made one for you too."
"What did you wish for?"
"I wished that you'd find a boyfriend who treats you incredibly well as soon as possible," Fu Zhuang clenched his fist. "Someone with amazing qualities in every way—and as handsome as that guy we saw today!"
"..."
By the time Wen Yifan got home, it was nearly 2 a.m.
Staying up late was routine for her, so she didn't feel sleepy, just too exhausted to move. She changed into slippers and sat on the carpet by her bed, lazily scrolling through her phone.
Due to the group message she'd sent earlier, there were quite a few missed calls and unread messages.
She replied to them one by one, continuing to scroll down.
Until she reached the lower part of her messages—where Sang Yan's name remained conspicuously silent.
She tapped on it.
Seeing the words "Not happy is fine too," Wen Yifan's scalp prickled.
"..."
At the time, she hadn't thought much of it, just trying to lighten the mood with a joke, so it hadn't seemed odd.
But now, reading it again, it felt different.
Almost like a provocation.
Since he clearly didn't want to engage, Wen Yifan didn't push further to avoid embarrassment. Her mind wandered aimlessly, inexplicably recalling Sang Yan's conversation with his younger sister, Sang Zhi, earlier that day.
And then, memories from their first year of high school surfaced.
Back then, both of them had terrible grades—stuck in the lowest-ranked class in their grade, hovering near the bottom of the rankings.Wen Yifan had entered Nanwu High School as a dance specialty student, so her academic performance was naturally not great. On the other hand, Sang Yan was extremely biased in his subjects—he barely studied anything except math, physics, and chemistry. His report cards always looked as if they had been chewed up by a dog.
He scored nearly perfect marks in math, physics, and chemistry, while most of his other subjects hovered around thirty or forty.
Every time exam results came out, Sang Yan would take her science test papers to look over, raising an eyebrow and smirking as he did.
After this happened one too many times, even someone as good-natured as Wen Yifan couldn’t help but say, “Sang Yan, looking at my test papers won’t do you any good. You need to find the problems in the questions you got wrong yourself.”
“Hmm? What kind of misunderstanding is this?” Sang Yan lifted his gaze to look at her, his fingertip circling one of the red crosses on her paper before he said in that infuriatingly lazy tone, “My test papers don’t have things like this on them.”
……
Wen Yifan snapped out of her thoughts and grabbed her change of clothes to take a shower.
As for Sang Yan pretending not to know her, she actually understood why.
He had probably taken one look at her and been reminded of the foolish things he had done for someone unworthy in his reckless youth—the one and only black mark in his life. Because of that, he didn’t want to have anything to do with her anymore.
Pretending not to know her was the best choice.
Thinking this, Wen Yifan sorted through the situation from Sang Yan’s perspective.
A long-forgotten crush suddenly shows up at his bar and makes what sounds like an offer to pay him for his services;
“accidentally” leaves behind a bracelet to engineer a second meeting;
sends a New Year’s greeting to get closer;
and then pretends to be bumped into to initiate physical contact.
“……”
Who knew how much he had already imagined from all this—
The new year passed as usual.
On New Year’s Day, Zhong Siqiao sent Wen Yifan the WeChat contact of her classmate who worked as a real estate agent.
But based on Wen Yifan’s budget, the places this person recommended were all shared apartments like before, or else one-bedroom units way out in the suburbs.
In the end, Zhong Siqiao gave her a suggestion—
She could find someone to share the rent with.
Because splitting a two- or three-bedroom apartment would be much cheaper.
Wen Yifan took the advice, but she had no idea where to find a roommate. The neighbor next door had traumatized her so much that she didn’t dare live with a stranger.
She only wanted to find a female friend she already knew.
On Thursday afternoon, Wen Yifan left the editing room and went to the restroom.
When she came out of the stall, she happened to run into Wang Linlin from the same team.
Wang Linlin had been with the Dispatch program team for three years and was a few years older than Wen Yifan. She had a sweet face and voice. Since she had been off on New Year’s Day and often arrived late and left early, Wen Yifan felt like she hadn’t seen her in a long time.
Wen Yifan greeted her first.
Wang Linlin glanced at her through the mirror. “Hey, Yifan, what shade is that lipstick? It looks really nice.”
Without thinking, Wen Yifan replied, “I’m not wearing any today, but the shade I usually use is—”
“Oh, come on!” Wang Linlin cut her off before she could finish, speaking in a sugary tone. “What do you mean you’re not wearing any? Let’s be real here—we’re both women. If you want to ask me about my makeup brands, I can tell you too.”
Without waiting for a response, Wang Linlin strode out of the restroom in her high heels.
Wen Yifan stood there blankly, staring at the mirror before hesitantly rubbing the back of her hand against her lips.
“……”
She really wasn’t wearing any.
Back in the office.Wen Yifan walked back to her seat. Wang Linlin's desk was diagonally behind hers, and at the moment, she was half-sitting on her desk, turned to chat with Su Tian at the neighboring workstation.
Su Tian had joined the company in the same batch as Wen Yifan. They were about the same age and got along fairly well.
Wen Yifan smiled and asked, "What are you talking about?"
Su Tian replied, "We're chatting about Sister Lin and her boyfriend's New Year's Eve plans."
"Just casual talk," Wang Linlin waved her hand dismissively. "I was lucky enough to have New Year's Day off, so my boyfriend and I spent the night at Huaizhu Bay. Had a candlelit dinner, soaked in the hot springs, and he even transferred me 5200 and 1314 yuan. Nothing too special, actually quite boring."
"Wow, I envy you, Sister Lin," Su Tian forced a smile and quickly changed the subject. "By the way, Yifan, weren't you planning to move? Have you found a new place yet?"
Wang Linlin looked surprised and immediately asked, "Oh, Yifan, you're moving?"
Wen Yifan nodded. "Yeah."
"What a coincidence!" Wang Linlin jumped up, her face lighting up with excitement. "I've been worrying about this—my previous roommate quit and went back to her hometown, and I haven't found anyone suitable to share the place with yet."
Wen Yifan was momentarily stunned, not quite processing the offer.
Wang Linlin pressed on, "Would you consider moving in with me?"
Su Tian chimed in, "Where do you live, Sister Lin? Yifan wants somewhere close to the office."
Wang Linlin replied, "Imperial Capital Flower City. It's really close."
Wen Yifan knew the neighborhood—it was near her current place, and she passed by it daily on her commute. It was a relatively upscale residential complex built in recent years.
Su Tian glanced at Wen Yifan and asked, "Other than you, are there any other roommates?"
"No, no, just me," Wang Linlin patted Wen Yifan's shoulder with a cheerful smile. "Don't worry, I won’t bring random people over. If we do become roommates, we can discuss any house rules beforehand."
"If you're interested, you could come see the place after work today—" Wang Linlin paused mid-sentence and corrected herself, "Oh, actually, no. Tomorrow would be better. I have a movie date with my boyfriend tonight."
Wen Yifan nodded. "Sure, tomorrow then."
...
While Wang Linlin was away in the break room, Su Tian leaned in, looking concerned. "Are you really going to live with her? I find her pretty annoying—always bragging about her new rich boyfriend. And I feel like she talks to you with this weird tone because you're pretty."
Wen Yifan had a general sense of Wang Linlin's personality. She wasn’t malicious, just a bit spoiled and gossipy—neither of which bothered Wen Yifan much. Most of the time, Wang Linlin was easy to get along with.
She blinked and said gently, "I’ll check out the place first."
The next day after work, Wen Yifan and Wang Linlin took the subway together to Imperial Capital Flower City.
Wang Linlin’s current apartment was a three-bedroom unit, but the landlord only rented out two rooms. A small room was used for storage and remained locked. The remaining spaces were a master bedroom with an ensuite bathroom and a smaller bedroom.
As a result, the rent was relatively lower.
But overall, the place was quite nice—fully equipped with a kitchen, dining area, balcony, and all the essentials.
The master bedroom had always been Wang Linlin’s.Wen Yifan glanced at the second bedroom.
The room had been tidied up spotlessly, with not a speck of dust on the desk.
Wang Linlin said beside her, "Since I'm taking the master bedroom, I'll be paying a bit more rent than you. You'll pay 2,000 a month, and we'll split utilities and other expenses equally. Does that sound okay to you?"
The price was slightly higher than the shared apartment she had lived in before, but it was still within her acceptable range.
Moreover, the conditions here were much better in every aspect.
Wen Yifan remained silent, still thinking it over.
"Take your time to consider it." After all, moving wasn't a trivial matter, so Wang Linlin didn't press her for an immediate answer. She checked the time. "It's getting late. Let's go grab some dinner first. I'm starving."
Wen Yifan wasn't in the habit of eating dinner and was about to decline. But considering they might very well become roommates, she agreed, thinking it would be good to build a rapport.
Just as they stepped out of the residential complex,
Wang Linlin's phone rang. She answered, her voice suddenly several octaves higher and sweeter. "Hello, darling. What's up?"
Wen Yifan walked quietly beside her.
"I'm out with my colleague right now, just about to grab some food." Wang Linlin began to coo, "Sure. Where are you? I just stepped out of the complex entrance, and I'm so tired from walking... Huh? You're driving over now? Almost here? Okay then, I won't distract you while you're driving. I'll wait right here like a good girl. Hurry up and pick me up, okay?"
After she hung up, Wen Yifan tactfully said, "I'll head back first then. Tomorrow I'll—"
"Why are you leaving all of a sudden? Didn't we agree to have dinner together?" Wang Linlin frowned, then suddenly realized. "Oh, don't feel awkward. You're not a third wheel. My boyfriend is bringing a friend too, so just treat it like a small gathering."
Before Wen Yifan could refuse again,
a black car pulled up in front of them.
The passenger window rolled down, and the man in the driver's seat turned to look at them with a smile. "Hey, babe, hop in." The next moment, his gaze landed on Wen Yifan standing beside Wang Linlin, and he froze. "Huh? Wen Yifan?"
Wen Yifan looked over and was equally stunned.
She hadn't expected that.
Wang Linlin's wealthy boyfriend would be Su Haoan.
"Holy shit, it's been so many years..." Before he could finish, honking sounded from behind. "Damn it. Quick, quick, both of you get in. We can't park here."
Wen Yifan: "No..."
Su Haoan urged impatiently, "Hurry!"
"..."
She had no choice but to brace herself and climb into the back seat.
Only after sitting down did Wen Yifan realize there was someone else in the back.
She looked closely.
The interior of the car was dimmer than outside.
The man made no sound, his breathing shallow, yet his presence was overwhelming. At that moment, he was sprawled bonelessly across the seat, eyes closed, looking utterly lazy and drowsy.
As if completely oblivious to his surroundings.
The car started moving.
Su Haoan glanced at the rearview mirror, driving while stirring up trouble with glee. "Hey! Sang Yan, wake the hell up! Get up and greet your White Moonlight!"
Wen Yifan: "..."
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