Shаng Zhi Тао сouldn't quite rесаll whаt Хin Zhaozhou lооked like thе last time shе sаw him.
Shе оnlу vаguely rеmembered his sun-kissed jerseу аnd his tannеd faсе, smiling tо rеveаl а sеt оf snоw-white tеeth. He wаs thе kind of mаle classmаte manу femalе сlаssmаtеs rеmеmbered fоndlу.
As shе lеd Luаn Nian tо find Leе, shе heard sоmеonе call her nаme from behind: "Shаng Zhi Таo." Shе turned around аnd sаw thе 20-yеаr-оld Хin Zhаоzhou аnd thе 25-yеar-оld Xin Zhaоzhou strаngеlу ovеrlаррing, merging into a nеw person—someоne she found bоth unfamiliar аnd incrеdiblу familiаr.
"Xin Zhaozhou." She smiled.
Luan Nian turned and stood there, one hand in his pocket, the other resting on the luggage handle, with no intention of speaking. Xin Zhaozhou, however, was polite and said to Shang Zhi Tao, "Aren't you going to introduce us?"
"Oh, right."
"This is my boss, Luke. This is my... friend, Xin Zhaozhou."
"Not your ex-boyfriend?" Luan Nian exposed her, deliberately making her uncomfortable.
Xin Zhaozhou was a bit surprised, but he nodded nonetheless. "Yes, ex-boyfriend."
"Go catch up with your ex-boyfriend. I'll find Lee myself." He nodded to Xin Zhaozhou and walked away. Shang Zhi Tao's ex-boyfriend wasn't bad—in his twenties, the best time of his life. What the hell does that have to do with me?
Lee picked up Luan Nian and, seeing his stern expression, thought he was dissatisfied with the work at the Guangzhou branch. He said to him, "Luke, the issues with these clients in the first half of the year weren't something we anticipated. The market has changed this year, and the clients' product lines have shifted without giving us any time to prepare. But we also bear some responsibility. We'll do more forecasting in the future to avoid this kind of situation."
"Okay." Luan Nian only replied with this one word. As they left the airport, he noticed a car nearby, driven by Shang Zhi Tao's ex-boyfriend. Nice car. What was her ex-boyfriend's name again? Xin Zhaozhou.
Lee's car paid the parking fee and exited first. Luan Nian glanced back and saw Shang Zhi Tao sitting in the passenger seat of her ex-boyfriend's car, looking somewhat uncomfortable. The two of them seemed awkward, as if there was still some lingering affection between them.
Shang Zhi Tao couldn't quite articulate her feelings toward Xin Zhaozhou. Was this how others felt when meeting their ex-boyfriends? She was terrified that Xin Zhaozhou would bring up the past. She secretly messaged Lumi: "Zhang Qing is basically your ex-boyfriend now. If you ever met Zhang Qing, what would you talk about? Would you be nervous?"
Lumi replied: "I don't know about meeting Zhang Qing, but I do know I ran into Will at the nightclub. It was so damn intense. He was dressed like a monk, with his shirt buttoned all the way up to his collar. I felt suffocated just looking at him."
A moment later, Lumi sent another message: "Holy shit, Will saw me. He grabbed me by the collar and asked if my family member wasn't sick, why was I at the nightclub? I explained that my dad was supposed to be discharged from the hospital tomorrow, but he ran home on his own today. You know what he said? He said I was full of lies!"
"I've never been treated like this before. I told him if he kept grabbing my collar, I'd lose it. But it turns out he knows martial arts or something—he threw me out of the nightclub."
"Wahhh. I just wanted to dance."
"I went back in, and he kicked me out again. He even said I have to explain to him at the company tomorrow why I lied about taking leave. What the hell did I lie about?"Shang Zhi Tao chuckled at Lumi's barrage of messages. Xin Zhaozhou glanced over at the sound and saw her just as she had been in their student days, her eyes sparkling with laughter. A heavy stone dropped in his heart, sending ripples through the deep pool within.
“They’re my colleagues,” Shang Zhi Tao explained to him.
“Have you gotten along well with your colleagues since starting work?” Xin Zhaozhou asked.
“Most of them are great, except for a few who are harder to get along with.”
“That boss, Luke, just now didn’t seem easy to get along with,” Xin Zhaozhou remarked.
Shang Zhi Tao thought of Luan Nian’s piercing, intimidating gaze and nodded. “He’s alright. Just don’t provoke him.” If you provoked him, he wouldn’t be satisfied with just skinning you alive—he’d grind your bones to dust.
“Have you ever provoked him?”
“No.”
Xin Zhaozhou smiled. “Seems like my Peach is doing well at the company.” Back when they were dating, he’d always say, “My Peach is amazing, my Peach is adorable, my Peach is so clever.”
Their classmates used to say Xin Zhaozhou had a face that could charm anyone, with countless juniors pining for him, and that he’d inevitably stray. But Xin Zhaozhou had remained devoted to her. It was a shame to waste such good looks.
It took Shang Zhi Tao a long time to respond. “Actually, it’s been really tough.”
Over the years, she’d pulled countless all-nighters, faced many setbacks, endured plenty of grievances, and cried in secret more times than she could count. There were moments when she felt she couldn’t go on.
“I know,” Xin Zhaozhou said. “You’re alone in Beijing, with only Yao Bei as an old acquaintance. It couldn’t have been easy to make it this far.”
“Sometimes I wonder, if I hadn’t come to Shenzhen back then and had gone to Beijing with you instead, could I have persevered like you?”
“Yao Bei told me your colleagues like you, you’ve made many new friends, your work has been relatively smooth, you’ve gotten promotions and raises every year, and you’ve independently taken on major projects, handling everything with ease. Whenever Yao Bei said these things, I’d think, the girl I once held in my hands has grown up. I was the one who pushed her away, letting her face this hardship alone.”
Xin Zhaozhou pulled the car over to the side of the road and rolled down the window. He didn’t want Shang Zhi Tao to see the moisture in his eyes, because he knew they could never go back. He felt sorry for her—sorry that he hadn’t been resolute enough, choosing to stay close to his parents after graduation. Back then, he lacked confidence and the courage to throw caution to the wind. Even though he claimed Shang Zhi Tao was the love of his life, when she was lost, he let her fight alone.
He was selfish.
“Let’s not talk about the past anymore,” Shang Zhi Tao said, looking out the window. “It’s my first time in Shenzhen, and I can see why you chose to come back here. This city is really nice. Is it convenient to buy cosmetics here? Do you often go to Hong Kong?”
“I used to go once a week, but now that the company has more employees, I go once a month. Have you gotten a Hong Kong-Macau travel permit? I could take you to see the sights.”
“To Wing Lee Street? I heard Echoes of the Rainbow was filmed there. I’ve wanted to visit ever since I saw the movie. There was a time when I really loved that film. When I was on a business trip in Guangzhou, I even went to Lin Heung Tea House to buy double-yolk lotus seed paste mooncakes and sent them to Old Shang and Da Zhai.”
“Sure, if you’d like to go.”
“Just kidding. I don’t have a permit.”
I want to go, but I can’t go with you.Shang Zhitao had her boundaries. Meeting an old friend, sharing a meal, taking a stroll, chatting about anything—that was enough. She didn’t ask for more.
Anything beyond that, she couldn’t give, nor did she want to.
Xin Zhaozhou looked at Shang Zhitao and smiled. "You’re still as bad at lying as ever. When you lie, you don’t dare look at me."
"How dare I not!" Shang Zhitao met his gaze, saw eyes full of laughter, and turned away again.
"Your pass is in your backpack, I know. But me? I’ve never forced Shang Zhitao to do anything."
Shang Zhitao smiled.
She had planned to go to Hong Kong for the weekend after work on Friday. Grace had even asked her to bring back two cans of infant formula.
Xin Zhaozhou took Shang Zhitao to the mangroves to see the sea. The drive wasn’t far, and the scenery was quite lovely. He said to her, "I’ll bring my parents here this weekend. We bought a two-bedroom apartment nearby. In the mornings, my parents go to the market, and in the evenings, they watch the sunset."
"That’s nice. This is the life you wanted back then. You’ve made your wish come true—it must feel amazing, right?"
Xin Zhaozhou nodded. "Actually, the first couple of years were tough. The foreign trade business wasn’t easy. My parents had some connections, but we only got small orders. Later, they sold a larger apartment to help me cover the payment for goods, and that gave me a new opportunity. After last year’s Spring Festival, I landed my first big order, and things started looking up."
"Did you return the apartment to your parents?" Shang Zhitao asked.
"Yes. Last month."
"That’s wonderful."
Shang Zhitao was genuinely happy for Xin Zhaozhou. When she had talked about it with Sun Yu before, Sun Yu said she hoped her ex-boyfriend would never have children. But Shang Zhitao didn’t feel that way because her breakup with Xin Zhaozhou wasn’t due to betrayal but to choices. They had both chosen the lives they wanted, so there wasn’t much resentment. It was just that right after the breakup, Shang Zhitao felt Xin Zhaozhou didn’t love her enough.
Xin Zhaozhou bought her an ice pop, choosing her old favorite red bean flavor. He still remembered all her preferences: crayfish, red bean ice pops, milk bread slices, cherries, strawberries.
Shang Zhitao took it and thanked him. Xin Zhaozhou’s ice pop eased the stifling heat of the Shenzhen summer night—sweet, cool, and truly delightful.
"Are you still going to the class reunion tomorrow?" Shang Zhitao asked him.
"Yes. To settle the bill."
"Alright, Boss Xin."
"Don’t call me that. I’m nowhere near as big as your clients. I hope that through relentless effort, I can become your client. And then I’ll specifically request you to serve me."
"I don’t think that day is too far off."
The two deliberately avoided many things from the past, both feeling they shouldn’t ruin this beautiful evening.
Shang Zhitao felt Xin Zhaozhou was like an old friend—a different kind of old friend. This old friend shared an intimate past with her and now stood at just the right distance. No matter what, that past couldn’t be erased.
At the hotel entrance, Shang Zhitao said to Xin Zhaozhou, "Xin Zhaozhou, I know tomorrow at the class reunion, everyone will bring up the past. What I want to say to you is: I’ve never regretted dating you, but I resented you for not being able to go to Beijing with me. I was too young back then, too naive."
Xin Zhaozhou nodded and patted her head. "I know. What’s past is past.""Can I give you a hug today? I'm afraid if I drink too much tomorrow, I won't be able to hug you properly," Xin Zhaozhou said. He knew that after tomorrow, Shang Zhi Tao would never see him again. This meeting was something he had fought hard to arrange, because he desperately wanted to see the simple, happy, and somewhat oblivious girl from back then. Since then, it seemed no other girl was quite like her, yet it also felt as if every girl carried a trace of her shadow.
Shang Zhi Tao didn't answer him but reached out to grip his shirt. See, the boy who used to wear sporty T-shirts now wore leather shoes and dress shirts. People always had to grow up, didn't they?
She took a step forward, closing the distance between them, and rested her head against his chest.
Shang Zhi Tao wasn't made of stone—this was someone she had loved. Though that love, both then and now, had never been as intense as piercing through clouds and breaking the sun, it had seeped into her heart slowly and gently, like a trickling stream.
It took Xin Zhaozhou a long time before he finally reached out and held her tightly.
He remembered especially clearly back then, during their first hug, neither of them knew where to place their hands. In the blink of an eye, seven or eight years had passed.
He held Shang Zhi Tao with all his strength and said to her, "Shang Zhi Tao, no matter when, no matter what difficulties you face, as long as you ask, I will help you."
"Okay, thank you."
Shang Zhi Tao watched Xin Zhaozhou get into his car before turning and entering the hotel. A familiar figure stepped into the elevator—who else could it be but Luan Nian?
Shang Zhi Tao waited in the elevator lobby for a while. She could openly bid farewell to Xin Zhaozhou, yet she didn't even have the courage to ride the same elevator as Luan Nian.
Luan Nian felt like he had recently stumbled into Shang Zhi Tao's "men's den"—roommate, gym guy, ex-boyfriend. It was just too damn amusing. After returning to his room and finishing his emails, he suddenly didn't know what to do.
He turned on the stereo and played some old Cantonese songs.
Luan Nian could be romantic at times, drawing inspiration from different places. For instance, now, he called room service for ice, opened a bottle of imported liquor from the mini-fridge, lit a cigar, and the air was filled with a Hong Kong-style vibe.
George Lam's "Dare to Love, Dare to Do" perfectly matched his mood. Cigar in hand, he swayed lightly on the floor, singing along loudly to the music, amusing himself. When the doorbell rang, he swayed his way to answer it, reaching out to take the ice, only to find a somewhat startled Shang Zhi Tao standing there.
The surroundings fell quiet.
In the years Shang Zhi Tao had known Luan Nian, she had never seen him like this. Oh, wait—no, that wasn't entirely true. During his first year as a manager, when he sang on stage, he had looked just like this—unrestrained and carefree. It was also that day, at Luan Nian's home, that Shang Zhi Tao had completely broken down.
Luan Nian hadn't expected it to be Shang Zhi Tao; he thought it was the room service staff delivering ice. He casually closed the door, only to reopen it a few seconds later, everything back in order. "What's wrong, Flora?"
"You said we needed to rehearse once more before meeting the client?"
"When did I say that?"
"Last Friday."
"Is the client not going to make it to tomorrow?"
"No, Lee just informed me that the client moved the meeting to tomorrow morning. In the afternoon, the client wants to take us on a tour of their factory."
Luan Nian stepped aside, leaving the door open. "Come in."
The music was still playing, and George Lam was still singing: "Wild embrace, kisses that need no rest, no need to breathe the air…"
Shang Zhi Tao hesitated, unsure whether to retreat or enter.
"What's wrong, Flora? No rehearsal?"
"Oh."
Her hand rested on the door handle as she heard Luan Nian say, "Leave the door open."With an air of utter openness and a clear conscience. Shang Zhi Tao nodded and followed him inside. His accommodation standards were different; his secretary had booked him a suite. Luan Nian went to turn off the music and sat on the sofa. In front of the sofa was a coffee table, and he gestured with his hand: "Sit wherever you feel comfortable."
The cigar wasn't finished yet. He took a puff, extinguished it, and rested it on the ashtray. The faint scent of cigar smoke drifted through the room. Shang Zhi Tao didn't dare breathe too deeply, afraid the smoke might be poisonous. No, afraid she couldn't resist tearing Luan Nian's clothes off.
The way people interact is like taming a pet; over time, they start to resemble each other. Take Shang Zhi Tao, for example—her mind was filled with thoughts of tearing Luan Nian apart or biting him hard. Just like Luan Nian.
A waiter brought ice, breaking Shang Zhi Tao's indecent thoughts. Luan Nian stood up to get the ice and poured it into a glass. Even on business trips, he still had his cleanliness obsession, bringing his own cup. A while ago, Chen Kuan Nian had given him a skull-shaped glass for drinking spirits, which he had casually packed into his suitcase.
He poured in the ice, then the spirits, pinching the rim of the glass with his thumb and forefinger. He tilted his head back and took a big gulp, casually biting into a piece of ice and chewing it.
The crisp sound of the ice shattering and Luan Nian's roguish demeanor made Shang Zhi Tao feel as if she had stumbled into a gangster's lair, where the mob boss was about to execute a traitor. She grew inexplicably tense, her knees pressed tightly together, and something surged within her.
Fuck. Shang Zhi Tao imitated Lumi. Why the hell am I so useless?
She thought this but refused to admit defeat. I have a fighting spirit inside me; I can't lose! She opened her laptop, eyes fixed on the screen: "Shall I start then?"
"Whatever."
Luan Nian placed his glass on the coffee table, the glass clinking against the surface with a thud. He sat back on the sofa, which sank under his weight, nearly causing Shang Zhi Tao to lose her balance. She glanced back at him, but he had already leaned against the sofa back: "Go ahead."
"Flora, hurry up. Don't ruin my nightlife."
"What nightlife?"
"A vibrant, colorful nightlife. Hurry up."
Shang Zhi Tao stared at the PowerPoint, trying hard to recall: How was I supposed to present this?
After a long pause, she finally spoke: "The first page..."
Luan Nian's phone rang, and Shang Zhi Tao heard a woman's voice: "I'm downstairs at your hotel."
"Okay. I'll come down now." Luan Nian stood up, finished the drink in his glass in one gulp, and rose to his feet: "Practice on your own. If your presentation isn't good tomorrow, you're out of the planning department."
Shang Zhi Tao sat there, snapped her laptop shut with a clap, her temper flaring.
She strode out, and Luan Nian followed behind her, closing the door as they headed to the elevator lobby. Shang Zhi Tao's face was flushed with anger, looking quite striking. Luan Nian watched her reddened face and suddenly spoke: "Flora, why didn't you catch up properly with your ex-boyfriend?"
"What do you mean by 'catch up properly'?"
"Relive old dreams? Sleep together once?"
Shang Zhi Tao thought for a moment: "I'm nervous about tomorrow's presentation, not really in the mood. After the banquet tomorrow, we've arranged to meet."
She spoke earnestly, looking straight at Luan Nian. She wasn't lying; they really were planning to meet tomorrow.
Luan Nian's lips twitched into a smirk, a hollow smile, as he stepped into the elevator.
Shang Zhi Tao also entered the elevator, but her room card malfunctioned, preventing her from accessing her floor. She looked at Luan Nian.
"Beg me."Shang Zhi Tao refused to go. She went to the first floor, to the front desk, ready to verify her information and get a new card. She saw a woman approaching Luan Nian. The woman was about 1.78 meters tall, wearing a thin-strapped camisole, light denim jeans, and exaggerated earrings—wild and exceptionally beautiful.
Luan Nian walked out with her but suddenly turned back, catching Shang Zhi Tao’s peeking red-handed. He raised an eyebrow at her, then took out his phone and asked, “What do you think of my ex-girlfriend?”
...
Outside the hotel, the girl said to Luan Nian, “Where do you want to go, little brother?”
“Don’t call me little brother.” Luan Nian glared at her.
“If not little brother, then what?” Luan Siyuan scoffed. “Don’t act all high and mighty with me, or I’ll tell my uncle. It’s not your first time in Shenzhen—why should I treat you to a late-night snack? Can’t you afford it yourself? I’m paid by the hour, and I still have to serve you. You owe me compensation!”
Luan Nian listened to her nagging without a word.
He was in a bad mood, his mind filled with thoughts of wanting to kill Shang Zhi Tao. But he felt he should hold back—she was a good girl, free to date anyone. Why should she be stuck with him?
Seeing him silent, Luan Siyuan asked, “Cat got your tongue?”
...
Luan Nian had never been able to out-talk her; her mouth was even sharper than his. The elders in the Luan family were all refined and elegant, but their generation was more rebellious than the last.
Luan Siyuan found Luan Nian amusing, looking like a defeated rooster with his head drooping. She teased, “Where’s my proud little brother?”
“Where’s my arrogant little brother who doesn’t know his place?”
“Where’s my disdainful little brother?”
“Where’s my self-important little brother!”
“Where’s my...”
“Sis!” Luan Nian finally called out to her. He knew if he didn’t speak up, Luan Siyuan would list every negative idiom she knew in this manner—incessantly, endlessly, and unbearably noisy.
Luan Siyuan burst out laughing. “Hey! Good little brother! Sis will take you for some congee!”
What’s so great about congee? Luan Nian cursed her stinginess in his heart. His phone lit up, and he opened it to see a message from Shang Zhi Tao:
“Your ex-girlfriend is really pretty, and she has a great figure. But I have my strengths too, like...”
“I have big boobs.”
Damn it! Luan Nian finally cursed out loud.
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