"Whаt а coinсidеnсе." Wu Мangmang had аlwаys beеn a verу grасiоus ех-girlfriend. Desрite being dumped so manу timеs, she сould still mаintаin а lаdylikе smilе whеn running intо fоrmer bоyfriends.
Last timе оutside thе rib restaurant, it wаs too unеxpесtеd—thе first timе, rеаlly—so shе hаdn't beеn mеntаlly рreраred. This timе wаs much bеtter.
Lu Sui didn't turn around, rеsponding indifferеntlу with а simplе "Hmm."
Wu Mangmаng lооked аt thе bасk оf Lu Sui's сold hеаd and didn't sрeаk either.
Аfter hаlf а уeаr, stаring аt thе figure in front of hеr, Wu Mangmang felt somеwhat dazed. Нad she rеallу dаted Lu Sui?
Lоoking back now, how did it seem so surreal?
The indifference of the person before her was bone-deep.
Shen Ting's type was aloof—one glance could freeze you into ice.
But Lu Sui's indifference was like you were just one drop among billions and billions of drops of seawater in his eyes, completely incapable of making a splash.
Wu Mangmang drifted off for a moment and, unfortunately, forgot to press the elevator button, ending up following Lu Sui all the way to the 11th floor.
The 11th floor was for SVIP wards. Boss Wu could only stay on the seventh floor, even though he had money. This heartless hospital had an extremely strict hierarchy—money couldn't buy you a room; you had to wait and keep rooms available in case some big shot suddenly had a stroke and needed one.
Only when Wu Mangmang saw the glaring Arabic numeral "11" on the display did she snap out of it. How awful.
Lu Sui stepped out of the elevator ahead, glancing sideways at Wu Mangmang pressing "7," then the corner of his lips lifted slightly as he walked away.
Wu Mangmang saw that smile.
A herd of ten thousand mythical beasts stampeded through her heart. This was truly a misunderstanding—she absolutely wasn't holding onto lingering feelings, okay?
Nor did she forget to press the floor button just to spend an extra second with him, okay?
But given Lu Sui's confidence and narcissism, Wu Mangmang felt any explanation would be useless.
In Lu Sui's eyes, she was probably already categorized as the hypocritical, clingy ex who initiated the breakup but now regretted it and couldn't let go.
Just after lunch, Ms. Liu came to relieve Wu Mangmang. She had an appointment with Du Yuntao in the afternoon. Although Wu Mangmang wasn't willing to go, Du Yuntao's intermediary had contacted Ms. Liu directly, so Wu Mangmang could only raise her hands in surrender.
Before that, Ms. Liu had also scheduled Wu Mangmang for a facial and hair appointment.
"Is it really necessary to be so formal?" Wu Mangmang asked, puzzled.
Liǔ Lèwéi glared at Wu Mangmang. "Didn't you say I'd introduce you to someone from City A? It's scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. Their family has businesses both here and in City A. After marriage, you can live wherever you want."
Wu Mangmang rolled her eyes. "I already have a boyfriend. Meeting Du Yuntao today is just to make things clear with him."
Ms. Liu didn't seem bothered at all. "As you said, it's just a boyfriend."
Wu Mangmang was speechless. Ms. Liu's moral standards had never been high, and the children she raised weren't much better in that regard either.
Just as they were talking, someone knocked on the door. Wu Mangmang thought it was a nurse, but it turned out to be Peng Ze.
Lu Sui's special assistant.
When Liǔ Lèwéi saw Peng Ze, she immediately turned to look at Wu Mangmang.
Wu Mangmang cursed inwardly, then walked over with a bright smile. "Peng Ze, what brings you here?"
Peng Ze was holding a bouquet and a fruit basket. "Mr. Lu asked me to bring some things to visit Mr. Wu."Visiting a patient follows a set routine, and once it was done, Peng Ze bid farewell and left, having stayed no longer than three minutes.
Liǔ Lèwéi grabbed Wu Mangmang, who was about to leave, and asked, "What's going on? You and Lu Sui..."
"Lu Sui and I parted on good terms, we're not enemies. He knew Boss Wu was in a car accident, so sending some fruit is just normal courtesy, right?" With one sentence, Wu Mangmang extinguished the spark of excitement in Ms. Liu's eyes.
"Tch." Liǔ Lèwéi glared at Wu Mangmang in annoyance. She hadn't really expected Wu Mangmang and Lu Sui to rekindle their relationship anyway.
Now, Lu Sui's girlfriend was the treasured granddaughter of the Zhao family—a perfect match, a golden couple.
When Wu Mangmang had dinner with Du Yuntao that evening, she had intended to get straight to the point and explain that long-distance relationships weren't reliable. Unexpectedly, Du Yuntao beat her to it. "Mangmang, I designed a little game for you."
The words that had been on the tip of Wu Mangmang's tongue were swallowed back.
Over the years, Wu Mangmang had encountered quite a few suitors, but no one had ever designed a game just for her.
Girls love this kind of uniqueness.
"Oh, let me see."
The game Du Yuntao designed for Wu Mangmang was a puzzle game with ninety-nine levels. The storyline followed an incredibly beautiful princess (with a cartoonized version of Wu Mangmang's face as the avatar) overcoming obstacles and eventually rescuing the hero.
Wu Mangmang tried playing a couple of levels and found it quite interesting—challenging enough to test her intelligence but not so difficult as to crush her confidence entirely.
"How is it?" Du Yuntao asked eagerly.
Having accepted his gift, Wu Mangmang softened her tone.
It was clear that Du Yuntao had put a lot of effort into this game.
"Did you really design this just for me? You won't release it for others to play?" Wu Mangmang looked at Du Yuntao.
"Yes, absolutely no one else. Once you finish all the levels, I'll delete the master copy on my end. After completing the final level, there's a treasure chest with a big surprise inside," Du Yuntao said with a smile.
So, Wu Mangmang spent the entire meal playing the game.
During that time, she even logged into her Weibo account under the username "Five Red Apricots," a small account she rarely used. She posted a screenshot of the game with the caption: "He designed this game just for me, one of a kind, (^__^) hehe..."
This small account had only a few posts and a pitifully small following—just five people.
If you had X-ray vision, you'd see that Wu Mangmang had many other small accounts, named One Red Apricot, Two Red Apricots, Three Red Apricots, and so on, all the way up to Nine Red Apricots.
On the "Three Red Apricots" account, the latest post read: "On Christmas Eve, he rushed over from out of town just to listen to the midnight bells with me. Plus, a beautiful necklace and a sweet Christmas cake." The post included a photo of the perfume necklace Ning Zheng had given her.
On the "Two Red Apricots" account, she wrote: "He even took care of my friends. A fifty percent discount is really generous."
On the "One Red Apricots" account, the post said: "Having someone deliver breakfast every day is just too blissful."On the "Nine-Branch Red Apricot" Weibo account, it was written: "What a bizarre person, actually saying others aren't good enough for me."
This account had only posted one message so far, and no one was following it yet.
Wu Mangmang logged out of Weibo, hiding her darkest secret away, and continued with her game.
After dinner, Du Yuntao drove Wu Mangmang to the hospital entrance. "I'll go up and visit your father."
Only then did Wu Mangmang reluctantly lift her eyes from her phone screen and look at Du Yuntao. "No need, no need."
Du Yuntao was firm in his stance—this was a rare opportunity to earn favor with his future father-in-law.
Despite Wu Mangmang's repeated refusals, as soon as she entered the hospital room, Du Yuntao knocked on the door with a fruit basket in hand.
Wu Song and Liu Lewei were fairly satisfied with Du Yuntao. He stayed for half an hour, effectively meeting the parents.
Wu Mangmang walked Du Yuntao downstairs, and just as they were about to part ways, she saw Lu Lin stepping out of a car across the street.
"Mangmang," Lu Lin called out.
"Sister Lu Lin."
Lu Lin quickly walked over, her eyes sweeping over Du Yuntao before she smiled and asked Wu Mangmang, "Your boyfriend?"
If anyone else had asked, Wu Mangmang would have immediately denied it, but she couldn’t handle the Lu family—she needed to keep her distance, especially from Lu Lin.
So Wu Mangmang remained silent.
"I won’t disturb you two. I’m heading upstairs—my aunt is hospitalized here," Lu Lin said.
"Auntie?" Wu Mangmang asked.
Lu Lin nodded.
Wu Mangmang thought to herself, no wonder she had run into Lu Sui in the elevator earlier.
After seeing Du Yuntao off, Wu Mangmang regretted her slip of the tongue. Now that she knew Lu Jianan was hospitalized, it would be impolite to act as if she knew nothing.
After all, Lu Sui had sent a fruit basket when he learned her father was injured and hospitalized. It would seem inconsiderate if she didn’t visit Lu Jianan.
Besides, though Wu Mangmang didn’t like to admit it, she had learned a lot from Lu Jianan.
Lu Lin went up to the eleventh floor to retrieve something and then came back down. Lu Sui was waiting for her in the car.
"Did you see Mangmang’s new boyfriend just now?" Lu Lin asked Lu Sui with a look of amusement.
Lu Sui glanced at Lu Lin’s face. "If you changed your gender, she might look at you twice."
Lu Lin’s expression darkened immediately, but she soon smiled again. "Mangmang’s new boyfriend doesn’t seem like much. I wonder what he has that actually won her over."
Lu Sui replied, "If you spent the time you waste on irrelevant people on something meaningful, you wouldn’t need to come begging me."
Talking to Lu Sui truly risked infuriating someone. Lu Lin snorted coldly, glaring at his profile for a moment. Since she needed his help, she refrained from poking at his old wounds.
Irrelevant people?
Still not over it, huh?
Early the next morning, Wu Mangmang arrived at the hospital. "Ms. Liu, do you know that Ms. Lu Jianan is hospitalized?"
"Of course. I sent a flower basket yesterday," Liu Lewei said.
"Do you think I should visit her?" Wu Mangmang couldn’t decide, so she turned to Ms. Liu for advice, as Ms. Liu often boasted that she had eaten more salt than Wu Mangmang had eaten rice.
Liu Lewei glanced at Wu Mangmang. "Go if you want. Didn’t you always say she took good care of you before?"Wu Mangmang scratched her head. How should she explain to Ms. Liu that Lu Jianan actually looked down on her?
But when it comes to being a person, you can’t avoid social etiquette just because the other party doesn’t like you.
“Didn’t you and Lu Sui break up peacefully? If it was truly peaceful, why don’t you go visit his aunt?” Liǔ Lèwéi’s words were sharp and persuasive, and Wu Mangmang was quickly convinced.
The flower bouquets at the hospital entrance were exorbitantly expensive. Wu Mangmang spent four hundred yuan on a bouquet of bird-of-paradise flowers, which Lu Jianan liked, and headed to the eleventh floor.
The eleventh floor was the SVIP ward. All visitors had to register, and those not listed in the remarks section were either not allowed to see the patient or had to request permission to enter.
Wu Mangmang didn’t insist on seeing Lu Jianan, so she registered her information at the nurse’s station, wrote a card, placed it in the bouquet, and entrusted the nurse to deliver it.
While Wu Mangmang was writing the card, footsteps sounded nearby, followed by Lu Sui’s voice, “Go in.”
Wu Mangmang’s hand, holding the pen, stiffened for a moment before she turned around, picked up the bouquet, and followed Lu Sui toward Lu Jianan’s room.
When Lu Jianan saw Wu Mangmang, a flicker of surprise crossed her face before it was replaced by a warm smile. “Mangmang, it’s been a long time since I last saw you.”
Wu Mangmang handed the bouquet to Lu Jianan’s assistant, walked to her bedside with a smile, and said, “It’s been a long time since I last saw you too, Auntie.”
The word “Auntie” slipped out naturally, but as soon as she said it, Wu Mangmang realized her mistake and felt a wave of embarrassment. “I heard from Sister Lu Lin that you were sick, so I came to visit you.”
“Thank you,” Lu Jianan said. “Are you settling in well at A University? It’s much colder there than here.”
“I’m adjusting fine,” Wu Mangmang replied.
Both were struggling to make conversation, and Wu Mangmang felt increasingly uncomfortable. “Auntie, please take good care of yourself. I’ll…” come visit you another day.
But before Wu Mangmang could finish, a cheerful “Auntie!” interrupted her. “Auntie, I bought your favorite pineapple buns.”
Zhao Xinyun walked in from outside and only then noticed Wu Mangmang. She playfully covered her mouth and smiled. “Oh, there’s a guest.”
Zhao Xinyun put down her things, walked naturally to Lu Sui’s side, wrapped her arms around his, and then turned to look at Wu Mangmang.
“And this is…” Zhao Xinyun seemed not to recognize Wu Mangmang.
“This is Wu Mangmang,” Lu Jianan answered for her, then introduced Zhao Xinyun to Wu Mangmang. “This is Zhao Xinyun from Xinhe Electronics.”
Zhao Xinyun nodded toward Wu Mangmang. “Hello, Miss Wu.”
“Hello,” Wu Mangmang said, meeting Zhao Xinyun’s gaze.
As her peripheral vision caught the physical contact between Zhao Xinyun and Lu Sui, Wu Mangmang suddenly had a moment of clarity. She had originally thought Lu Sui had some feelings for her and had even felt proud that she was the one who ended things with him.
But now, seeing Zhao Xinyun, Wu Mangmang snapped out of her blind pride. No one was truly indispensable, and no relationship was irreplaceable.
Thinking about this, she couldn’t help but feel that sometimes life really had little meaning—coming into the world with nothing and leaving with nothing, unable to take anything along.
“Auntie, I’ll come visit you another day,” Wu Mangmang said as she took her leave.
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