Chapter 73 Part 2

Qi Xiao suddenly clapped a hand over her mouth.

“What?”

“I bit my tongue!”

Qi Xiao had zoned out a bit. When she’d said those words just now, she’d been annoyed with herself. Why was she always testing Meng Ning like that? Meng Ning was so sensitive—how could she not pick up on it?

Meng Ning grabbed a skewer of diced beef. “Temp worker. No housing fund, can quit anytime.”

“Where would you go if you quit?” Qi Xiao asked, suddenly on alert.

When Meng Ning looked over with a smile, Qi Xiao realized her brows were furrowed, her expression tenser than it should be.

She slapped Meng Ning hard on the shoulder. “You aren’t planning to leave your sis behind, are you?”

Meng Ning called out to her, “Qi Xiao.”

“Huh?”

“You didn’t wipe your hands. Now you’ve got grease on my T-shirt.”

“No, listen,” Qi Xiao said, glancing at the oily fingerprint as she made excuses. “I bought this new laundry detergent that’s supposed to be amazing. Let’s try it when we get home tonight. If it sucks, we’ll leave a bad review!”

Meng Ning twirled the bamboo skewer in her hand and answered Qi Xiao’s earlier question. “Pei City. You coming?”

Qi Xiao froze for a second.

Damn, it stung her heart a little. Meng Ning had already passed her psychological assessment, so why did she keep treating her like a patient? Meng Ning was so perceptive—she’d even told her the destination on purpose, meaning she wouldn’t just vanish without a word again.

“Why Pei City?”

“I want a change of scenery. My hometown’s in the central region, and I’ve lived down south too. Next, I figured I’d head north.” Meng Ning explained in detail. “I looked it up. Pei City has the most five-star hotels if you’re going north. With my resume, it’d probably be easiest to land a job at one of those.”

“Oh, well then.” Qi Xiao chewed on an empty bamboo skewer. “Sounds good.”

Meng Ning took the skewer from her hand and set it on the table. “I thought…”

“What?”

“You’d cry.”

“Get outta here! We’re both tops. As if I’m pining after you or something. Why would I cry?”

Meng Ning curved her lips. “Nah, it’s just… one less person to hang out with you.”

Meng Ning realized that Wen Zenian’s talk about “weak mindset” had given her some real insight.

People often couldn’t see the fragility behind a “strong” person. Take Qi Xiao, a classic extrovert and social powerhouse. Yet back when she was barely twenty, she’d taken a rickety old green train south alone, after a huge fight with her family that left them basically estranged. She hadn’t had a dime to her name.

All these years, she’d never gone back home, never seen her family again. She had countless friends she laughed and joked with, but how many were truly close?

After those lively dinners, drinking parties, and murder mystery game nights wound down, Qi Xiao would sit alone in the living room of her cramped rental apartment—a world away from her old life—lights off, too lazy even to take off her bag, its strap dangling limply from her arm.

In moments like that, did she ever feel lonely?

Qi Xiao asked, “What’d you say? One less person to go bending with me?”

Meng Ning blinked, then saw Qi Xiao’s sly grin and tossed a wad of napkins at her.

Qi Xiao caught it neatly. “You overthink everything, you know that? Look at us—we’re friends, right? You gonna take my life problems on your shoulders too?”

Meng Ning kept her head slightly lowered.

Qi Xiao said, “Go chase your dreams, don’t worry about me.”

“Hey!” Meng Ning looked up. “That’s not how you talk to people!”

Qi Xiao burst out laughing. Meng Ning grabbed a skewer of grilled tofu skin. “Eat up before it gets cold.” She told Qi Xiao, “I won’t be leaving anytime soon anyway. Gotta save up some cash first. Can’t arrive broke with no advance on wages—not even enough for a toothbrush.”

She didn’t make much each month. While lining up online interviews, she split her pay three ways: living expenses, paying back Wen Zenian, and savings.

She’d thought about clearing her debt to Wen Zenian before heading north, but that was unrealistic. With the “huge” amount she owed, it might be ages before she could go.

She’d talked it over with Doctor Han. A new environment really would do her good.

So she’d gotten sneaky about it. Wen Zenian didn’t need her measly payments anyway, right?

Two months later, Meng Ning booked her high-speed train ticket to Pei City.

Qi Xiao threw her a send-off at their old haunt downstairs—the same barbecue stall. Song Xiao was there too.

Qi Xiao had snagged a group deal for a three-person meal and raised her AD Calcium Milk to clink with Meng Ning’s. “Ning, there’s something I haven’t run by Song Xiao, but Song Xiao—remember all those times I cooked you instant noodles when you were working overtime on the verge of collapse? Spicy ones, pickled cabbage, you name it. You gotta say yes.”

Meng Ning and Song Xiao both stared at her.

She gripped her AD Calcium Milk and took a big swig, letting out a milky burp with gusto. “Ning, once you’re in Pei City, cut off contact with us. Hahaha, you know how pathetic I am? I get hives just hearing ‘Pei City’ now. If you call me, I swear I can smell Pei City wafting out of the phone!”

“What about WeChat?”

“No way!” Qi Xiao glared. “Your fingertips reek of Pei City too!”

She wasn’t drinking tonight precisely so Meng Ning wouldn’t think it was the booze talking.

Meng Ning was too sensitive not to get it.

She just wanted Meng Ning to move forward, cut ties with her old life completely. It wasn’t about emotional intelligence—it was that Qi Xiao knew Meng Ning’s past and couldn’t pretend otherwise.

Sometimes, caring was a burden. Watching Meng Ning patiently explain things without calling out her excessive worry, Qi Xiao felt exhausted for her.

Now that she didn’t have to fret about Meng Ning doing anything drastic, it was time to let go. Qi Xiao felt like an old mother hen.

Meng Ning dipped her head for a moment.

Then she looked up with a smile. “Got it.”

Qi Xiao’s nose stung, and she chugged some AD Calcium Milk.

Damn, she was too noble! But then she thought— if her letting go felt this bittersweet…

What about Wen Zenian back then?

The day she saw Meng Ning off, Qi Xiao watched as she headed into the station without a suitcase—just a backpack and a duffel bag.

Meng Ning’s luggage was so scant, her figure looked frail and insubstantial, drifting away.

Standing outside the station, Qi Xiao lost it.

“I can’t,” she told Song Xiao. “I have to go in.”

“You need a ticket to enter.”

“I know.” Qi Xiao whipped out her phone to figure out how to buy one.

By the time Meng Ning hauled her duffel onto the platform…

“Meng Ning!”

Meng Ning turned to see Qi Xiao sprinting toward her, arms flailing. She threw them around Meng Ning’s shoulders in a tight hug.

Meng Ning froze. They’d known each other for years now, but with Qi Xiao always joking that they were both tops and couldn’t get too close, hugs like this were rare.

Especially in front of all these people on the platform—it was kinda embarrassing.

Meng Ning felt shy, but she hugged Qi Xiao back, patting her back gently.

She could feel Qi Xiao crying, hot breaths against her ear.

She murmured, “Qi Xiao,” reaching for a pack of tissues to give her.

But Qi Xiao clung tight, refusing to let her move or see her tears.

Not until the train rumbled into view from afar.

Qi Xiao held on until everyone else in line had boarded, then finally released her. She shoved Meng Ning’s shoulder to make her turn, pushing her toward the carriage door. “Go, go!”

So Meng Ning never saw Qi Xiao’s tears. Clutching her bag, she was bustled aboard, and Qi Xiao bolted.

“Meng Ning!”

As Meng Ning stepped into the carriage, Qi Xiao came running back.

Meng Ning peered past the conductor at the platform and saw Qi Xiao’s ears flushed red from crying.

Her voice choked, but she shouted loud and clear: “Her name is Lin Qingwan!”

Meng Ning blinked.

The person in Pei City—the one Qi Xiao had fled from all these years ago, yet never stopped thinking about. Her name was Lin Qingwan.

Qi Xiao was crying for Meng Ning, for Wen Zenian, and for herself. So her tears flowed too fiercely to stay on her face.

Meng Ning suddenly regretted not forcing those tissues on her. Before the doors closed, she yelled back just as loud: “I got it!”

I got it, Qi Xiao.

Train doors shut in an instant, leaving real goodbyes feeling always too sudden.

Qi Xiao stood dazed on the platform, watching the train carry Meng Ning away.

A staff member approached. “Hey, why didn’t you board?”

“I’m not riding.”

“Then why buy a ticket just to come in?”

Qi Xiao snorted loudly, wiping her nose. “I wanted to check out our modern infrastructure! Turns out this isn’t the fancy Harmony model after all! Hahaha!”

Meng Ning’s arrival in Pei City went smoothly enough.

She aced her online interview and joined a five-star hotel. It was an established name, Xihua Hotel, though it’d lagged behind the times in recent years.

Meng Ning picked up her pool patrol badge and her uniform. A colleague from HR showed her the staff cafeteria, then led her to the employee dorms.

Luxurious, Meng Ning thought.

Single rooms, even if small. In land-scarce Pei City, that was something. She couldn’t help thinking of Wen Zenian—generous where it counted during C Hotel’s upgrades, stingy where it made sense.

Xihua Hotel’s spending was clearly loose; they hadn’t tightened the belt before expanding.

She hoped it wouldn’t go bust right after she started… Meng Ning thought, then spat inwardly—no way, it was a storied five-star with deep roots.

After checking in, she hit a nearby supermarket for basics.

Carrying a basin full of toothpaste, toothbrush, towels, and hangers back, she passed a handmade chocolate shop.

A little girl was pressed against the glass, peering in. Her mom coaxed her: “You can’t eat it—you’re allergic.”

“Buy me a box, pleeease.” The girl wouldn’t budge. “I won’t eat it. I’ll just hug the box and sniff it. Okay?”

Meng Ning’s lips quirked.

Suddenly, Wen Zenian felt like her chocolate.

She knew she was allergic. But standing on a northern street now, gazing at the crisp autumn sky, breathing that faint chill in the air—it was something she hadn’t felt in ages, not since living south so long.

After Qi Xiao learned she’d bought the ticket, she’d said, “By the time you reach Pei City, it’ll be fall there.”

Meng Ning wanted to leave the past behind.

She still had no means to reach Paris.

But the Pei City she’d come to wasn’t eternal summer anymore. Like Paris, it had a crisp, cool autumn with high, clear skies.