Unable to help herself, Meng Zhuxi reminded him, “If you don’t go over now, in a bit there’ll be a second male teacher going to show his attentions. Let me tell you, Teacher Jin Zhao is really popular at school—not just teachers, even students secretly like her.”

Before she could finish speaking, she saw the building supervisor auntie come out of the teaching building, holding a black long-handled umbrella.

“Teacher Jin Zhao.”

Jin Zhao had been planning to leave directly when she heard someone call her again.

The supervisor smiled as she walked over. “Didn’t bring an umbrella? There’s an extra one here—take it and use it.”

Jin Zhao was instantly surprised and delighted, then asked, “If I use it, what about you?”

The supervisor smiled and said, “I have an umbrella. This one isn’t even mine, it’s a spare the school keeps for teachers.”

It was the first time Jin Zhao had heard that the school had such a thing. She accepted it gratefully.

The black umbrella was a little different from an ordinary long-handled one. When closed, it looked like a scepter, heavy in the hand. Opened, it was pure black, with no logo in sight. The handle felt smooth and cool to the touch, with a very refined texture.

Jin Zhao didn’t think much of it. She thanked the supervisor again, opened the umbrella, and walked into the rain.

The Rolls-Royce slowly passed by Jin Zhao. Meng Zhuxi pressed herself against the inside of the car window, staring at that umbrella.

She didn’t say anything. After returning to the Meng residence, the first thing she did after getting out of the car was circle around to Meng Yanxi’s side. Every Rolls-Royce came equipped with an umbrella, stored inside the driver’s door.

Sure enough, this one was empty—the umbrella was gone.

“Brother, where’s the umbrella?” Meng Zhuxi tilted her head, looking at him.

Meng Yanxi ignored her, hands in his pockets, and stepped into the living room.

Watching him, Meng Zhuxi felt for a fleeting moment that his back looked extremely lonely—but very quickly, she shook her head.

No, she couldn’t be fooled by him. Meng Yanxi had been clever with his tactics since childhood; who knew, maybe this was some high-level fishing technique.

Indeed, Meng Yanxi had many sophisticated methods—but this time, Meng Zhuxi truly wronged her brother.

Right up until Jin Zhao later returned the umbrella, she never discovered its secret. Only someone like Meng Zhuxi, a pampered flower of wealth among mortals, could recognize at a glance the umbrella that came standard inside a Rolls-Royce. Ordinary people like Jin Zhao would never have had the chance to see one; they would only think that the umbrella felt very high-quality, probably not cheap—just far too heavy.

It seemed like the kind of umbrella Meng Yanxi would use. That was the closest thought she ever came to the truth.

-♥︎ ྀི◟ ͜ ◞♥︎ ྀི◟ ͜ ◞♥︎ ྀི

Unfortunately, Meng Yanxi had appeared in her mind far too many times during this period, so she didn’t pay much attention to this fleeting thought.

Ever since the National Day holiday ended on bad terms, Meng Yanxi had never contacted her again. Over the past month or so, Jin Zhao had opened WeChat countless times, typed out many words in the chat box, and in the end still retreated, deleting them again and again.

To her, he was like a star in the sky.

Ordinary as she was, how could she ever pluck him down?

Just like the day she got on the wrong car, when the Didi driver shouted from behind: How dare you?

What she didn’t know was that Meng Yanxi had waited for her for a full two months, and in the process, waited until his anger dissipated on its own.

Indeed, at the beginning, when he stopped actively approaching her, it was because he planned to see clearly her heart of iron and stone, and then become completely disheartened. But he hadn’t expected that before his heart could grow cold, he would first wait until his anger faded away.

That day was Luo Heng’s birthday. Everyone from their familiar circle came, even Qiao Mianmian.

Qiao Mianmian was the blind date Meng Shixu had arranged for him—tall, strikingly beautiful, and from a prominent family. He had stood her up that day and hadn’t gone. His skin had always been thick; when they met again, he didn’t feel any awkwardness, simply sitting on the sofa looking at his phone.

Around him was a riot of revelry; he was like an old monk in meditation.

Qiao Mianmian walked over in high heels and sat down beside him, getting straight to the point. “Meng Yanxi, how about the two of us give it a try?”

Meng Yanxi didn’t even lift his eyelids. “Not suitable.”

Qiao Mianmian laughed lightly. “How is it not suitable? Aren’t you famous for never turning anyone away? Coincidentally, I also want to try different kinds of relationships. If the two of us get together, wouldn’t that be just right?”

“Sorry. I’ve gone straight.”

Meng Yanxi stood up from the sofa and slipped out amid the dazzling lights and intoxicating atmosphere.

That day, Jin Zhao had no classes and, for the first time in a long while, wanted to go dancing.

Though she still wasn’t well-off now, she was far better than the hand-to-mouth days of her youth. While packing up in the afternoon, she saw that dance card from many years ago, with only two sessions left—one she had always been reluctant to use. She hesitated for just a moment, then immediately took a taxi to Jinghong Dance.

Ten years had passed. Teacher Yuyu had been promoted to management, and Teacher Xiao Feng had become sales director. Everyone had become the person they once wanted to be. They sat together chatting idly; Jin Zhao smiled and said she wanted to top up her card, to help Teacher Xiao Feng with her performance numbers.

Teacher Xiao Feng casually asked, “Did you use up those thirty sessions you had topped up before?”

Jin Zhao: “What thirty sessions?”

Teacher Xiao Feng: “You still don’t know? Back when you were in high school, that classmate of yours—Meng Yanxi—he topped up thirty sessions for you.”

In the classroom next door, the dance teacher was beating out the rhythm forcefully. The thudding drumbeats carried over. Jin Zhao stared blankly at Teacher Xiao Feng.

“That kid really knew how to keep his contributions hidden. He secretly spent a huge sum of money, and even forced me to say it was a shop anniversary raffle reward, that you’d won it for free. Unfortunately, when I informed your dad, your dad wasn’t willing to accept it. After that, you never came again, so I had no way to tell you. I thought Meng Yanxi had told you—who would’ve thought that after all these years, he still never said a word.”

Teacher Xiao Feng sighed, not knowing whether she was feeling sorry for Meng Yanxi, or for the money Meng Yanxi had spent.

Teacher Yuyu also still remembered Meng Yanxi and asked Teacher Xiao Feng, “The really handsome boy, right? I remember him. Every time he brought his younger sister to class, she was always unwilling, always secretly bickering with him. In the end she never won the argument and would be forcibly tossed in by him. Those siblings were really something—his sister didn’t take class seriously, and he didn’t mind either. The two of them were more like they came together just to slack off. But whenever the sister asked me about you, the brother would quietly prick up his ears on the side. Later, when you went abroad, those two siblings never came again.”

Teacher Yuyu said with a smile, “Young love is so sweet. Back then, we adults were all so envious, yet still had to pretend we hadn’t noticed anything. So many years have passed, I thought you two were already together. I never expected that you still didn’t know.”

After that, whatever Teacher Xiao Feng and Teacher Yuyu said, Jin Zhao couldn’t hear a single word. She sat there in a daze. After a long while, she suddenly stood up, hurriedly leaving behind a single sentence—“Sorry, I have something to take care of”—and ran out.

Today was Luo Heng’s birthday. Si Tian had told her about it, but because the location was too far, and it wouldn’t start until seven in the evening, and she had an eight a.m. class the next day, she was afraid that this group would end up playing cards and drinking late into the night. They were rich—it didn’t matter to them. But if she was even a minute late, it would count as a teaching accident, and by then the entire Foreign Languages Department would be implicated and criticized. So she politely declined and didn’t go.

After leaving Jinghong Dance, she couldn’t wait to hail the cheapest discounted ride. She flagged down a taxi by the roadside and headed straight for the club Si Tian had mentioned.

Along the way, she thought about many things—from nine years ago to nine years later.

From the restrained sharpness in the boy’s voice on the phone nine years ago, to the aloof indifference that kept people at arm’s length the day they met again. She wasn’t a block of wood—she had always sensed his awkward resentment and anger toward her after their reunion. But later, he still appeared by her side again and again, as if he had reconciled with himself, no longer harboring resentment or anger toward her.

Jin Zhao suddenly recalled a sentence she didn’t know where she had once seen—

The one who reconciles first is not because he is afraid of losing, but because he cherishes.

Her eyes suddenly felt very hot. She wanted to see Meng Yanxi.

Those feelings she had hidden for ten years—because of the gulf between them, the difference between cloud and mud—had always been carefully suppressed by her. But today, she wanted to disregard everything once. She wanted to take this step.

Even if in the end she was destined to fall miserably, destined to have no result, she still wanted to try once—like a moth flying into the flame.

Si Tian had posted on Moments. He was in the group photo. He was still there.

“Driver, please go a bit faster.”

Rushing as she did, by the time she reached the club, it was already past eight.

Jin Zhao scanned to pay and hurried inside.

At that moment, Meng Yanxi was just about to forgive her one more time.

After rejecting Qiao Mianmian, he was ready to leave and had said a word to Luo Heng. Luo Heng had been drinking, his mind slow to react. While he was speaking, Luo Heng kept nodding and going “mm, mm.” By the time Meng Yanxi reached the doorway, Luo Heng remembered again and grabbed him.

The two of them were standing by the door talking.

The private room door was suddenly pushed open from the outside.

Jin Zhao’s gaze urgently swept the room as she strode in quickly.

But her hand was suddenly seized, yanked back.

Perhaps because her steps were too hurried and her body unsteady, or perhaps because the man’s strength was irresistible. Caught completely off guard, Jin Zhao was pulled back and crashed into a warm, powerful chest.

The familiar touch and scent—her heart skipped a beat in that instant.

The next second, she lifted her eyes, her gaze colliding straight into the man’s pitch-black peach-blossom eyes.

All around them, voices clamored and buzzed. The two of them held each other in silence, greedily gazing at one another.