~~~
Wen Wanyuan turned back and quietly hid behind the wall to eavesdrop.
When she heard Su Jinglan tell Ning Jiuwei, “You know how much Designer Ning cares about me deep down,” disgust wrinkled her brow as she inwardly scoffed at the woman’s self-indulgence.
Ning Jiuwei cares about you? I didn’t see any sign of that. She was focused the whole time on the knowledgeable older sister sitting across from her. The two of them hit it off so well, chatting endlessly about all sorts of dull, incomprehensible topics.
The thought of that sister sitting alone at the table made Wen Wanyuan’s eyes light up, and she hurried back right away.
Ning Jiuwei tilted her head aside, pushed Su Jinglan’s hand away, and washed her own with cold water. “President Su, you’ve got the wrong idea.”
The icy water cooled the heat rising from her skin, but the turmoil churning in her chest couldn’t be denied. Ning Jiuwei avoided Su Jinglan’s gaze as she scrubbed her palms, then laced her fingers together to wash between them, looking like she planned to take a good ten minutes at it.
“Designer Ning only came here to eat because of me, didn’t she?” Su Jinglan stood tall and straight beside her, those deep, smiling eyes seeming to peer straight into her soul.
No matter how long Ning Jiuwei took, she would wait.
Ning Jiuwei offered no explanation, just a flat denial: “No.”
Before heading to the restaurant, Su Jinglan had messaged her on WeChat to say she was eating at An Zhi Restaurant and asked if Ning Jiuwei wanted to join. Ning Jiuwei had turned her down, saying she was dining with Doctor Shi.
Yet when lunchtime rolled around, Ning Jiuwei had shown up unexpectedly—Doctor Shi in tow.
Su Jinglan merely smiled and said nothing, waiting until Ning Jiuwei finished washing before pulling a tissue from the dispenser and handing it over.
“Heading to the company this afternoon?”
Ning Jiuwei had spent the morning at Jiangji University: first and second periods in Shi Wanxu’s Cognitive Psychology class, third and fourth in the neighboring classroom for Abnormal Psychology. The professor shared the Teachers’ Office with Shi Wanxu and, seeing Ning Jiuwei’s interest in psychology, had let her sit in.
Ning Jiuwei murmured in assent: “Mm.”
“Then let’s head out together after we eat. I didn’t drive—I’ll ride back with you.”
Ning Jiuwei: “…” She should have seen that coming from Su Jinglan.
Wen Wanyuan had claimed Ning Jiuwei’s seat in the meantime, trying to pry information out of Shi Wanxu with indirect questions. But the older woman was sharp and worldly; Wen Wanyuan got nowhere and instead found herself revealing how long she’d known Ning Jiuwei.
“Jiuwei’s back,” Shi Wanxu said mildly, her calm gaze lighting with a smile as she spotted the returning pair and gave Wen Wanyuan a timely heads-up.
In the company of such an elegant, poised older woman, even Wen Wanyuan found herself acting with uncharacteristic poise. She offered a small smile, nodded politely to Shi Wanxu, and returned to her own seat.
“Miss Wen is quite the character,” Shi Wanxu remarked to Ning Jiuwei the moment she sat down. “You were gone, so she kept me company with some conversation.”
Ning Jiuwei could guess exactly why Wen Wanyuan had struck up that chat. She knew what Doctor Shi was like—Wen Wanyuan would have been led along by the flow of the conversation, and extracting any details would depend entirely on whether Doctor Shi chose to share.
Ning Jiuwei felt completely at ease with Shi Wanxu. She smiled, nodded, picked up her glass for a sip of water, and pulled out her phone to settle the bill for their table.
Lunch break stretched long; Shi Wanxu didn’t need to be at the hospital until two. They still had time to talk, so the two picked up right where they’d left off. Wen Wanyuan, meanwhile, had a client meeting about a custom order. Seeing that Ning Jiuwei and the others showed no sign of wrapping up soon, she couldn’t wait around any longer and took her leave of Su Jinglan.
That left Su Jinglan alone at the table. She cradled her glass, her eyes fixed on her phone screen as she quietly scrolled.
Ning Jiuwei couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d slighted Su Jinglan somehow and kept stealing glances her way.
She hid it well, but Shi Wanxu still picked up on the subtle shift.
“Jiuwei, want to move somewhere else to chat?” The dining room was for eating, after all—not lingering conversations that tied up tables.
Ning Jiuwei gave a gentle smile and set her glass down. “It’s about that time. I need to get to the company. We’ll talk next time.”
Vague “next times” were just polite nothings, and Shi Wanxu knew how to pin people down psychologically. She offered a concrete plan: “I’ll have the lecture video recording the day after tomorrow. Come to my place at six that evening.”
Time, place, and purpose all laid out—no room to wriggle out without a solid excuse. Before Ning Jiuwei could come up with one, Su Jinglan spoke up from the next table over, her tone unhurried.
“Designer Ning has a business dinner that evening,” she said with a friendly smile, every inch the supportive colleague. “Boss’s orders.”
As the boss in question, Su Jinglan could send any subordinate she pleased to such gatherings. In all her working years, Ning Jiuwei was the only one who’d ever dared push back—even if just occasionally.
“Let’s pick another time,” Ning Jiuwei said to Shi Wanxu without missing a beat. “Whichever day works for you, I’ll let Doctor Shi know.”
Shi Wanxu glanced between them and nodded. “Sure.”
Shi Wanxu and Ning Jiuwei’s cars were parked side by side. The two of them left the dining room together and climbed into their vehicles. Shi Wanxu pulled out of her parking spot, while Ning Jiuwei sat behind the wheel, her head bowed as she typed out messages. She appeared to be handling some urgent business.
The parking lot was a slow crawl, and Shi Wanxu kept an eye on Ning Jiuwei through her rearview mirror.
Su Jinglan emerged from the dining room a step behind them. She headed straight for Ning Jiuwei’s car and slid into the passenger seat.
“How did President Su get here?” Ning Jiuwei asked. She typed messages to a client right in front of Su Jinglan, fielding their questions while carrying on a conversation with her.
Su Jinglan had a personal assistant on call twenty-four hours a day, so taking a cab was out of the question. She skipped buckling her seatbelt and propped her arm on the center console, gazing at Ning Jiuwei with a radiant smile. She replied languidly, “Assistant Lin dropped me off. I sent her back to the company.”
The underground parking lot was in the midst of an energy-saving initiative, with lights spaced every few meters and casting only dim illumination. Su Jinglan glanced ahead and to both sides, noting the surveillance cameras.
“Jiuwei, what’s your relationship with Teacher Shi right now?” Su Jinglan had been dying to ask that question, bottling it up until this very moment. The secluded underground parking lot was deserted, and she couldn’t care less if the cameras captured the two of them inside the car. She hooked her arm around Ning Jiuwei’s neck and drew her close.
Their eyes met, igniting sparks. Su Jinglan’s gaze wandered, settling on Ning Jiuwei’s plump, ruby-red lips. The memory of their soft, sweet touch refused to fade, stirring her senses into a frenzy.
Both women thought of the same thing. Ning Jiuwei held her breath, her emotions in turmoil.
Su Jinglan made no further move, content to devour her with eyes ablaze.
“Friends,” Ning Jiuwei said. She clenched her fist in secret, her knuckles turning white from the pressure.
She had always referred to her as Doctor Shi or Teacher Shi. Shi Wanxu had once suggested a more intimate way to address her, but Ning Jiuwei had refused at the time. It wasn’t until she spotted Su Jinglan with Wen Wanyuan in the dining room that she deliberately dropped the surname and called her Wanxu.
Su Jinglan was usually a master of masking her feelings; her deep, enigmatic eyes betrayed nothing. But the shift from Doctor Shi to Wanxu had caught her off guard for an instant, jealousy flickering in her gaze.
“Why call her Wanxu?” Shi Wanxu’s personal details were etched in Su Jinglan’s memory, accessible at a moment’s notice. She didn’t bother hiding how well she knew the woman. “She’s nine years older than you. It’s not appropriate to use her given name so casually.”
The jealousy practically filled the entire cabin.
“Nine years is nothing,” Ning Jiuwei said, prying the hand from the back of her neck. “Can’t President Su accept a partner who’s nine years older?”
“No,” Su Jinglan snapped, sulking. The warmth vanished from her eyes as she answered without hesitation.
Ning Jiuwei gave a faint smile and laid out her own criteria for a partner. “I can accept someone up to twelve years older or twelve years younger. Age isn’t a barrier for me.”
“Twelve years younger than you would still be a minor.”
“From eighteen to forty, I’d consider anyone,” Ning Jiuwei clarified with precise boundaries. “Even someone like Doctor Shi—if she were forty-eight—I could accept that.”
Every word landed like a hammer on Su Jinglan’s heart, grinding into a dull ache. She lowered her eyes, her voice softening with disappointment. “Does Designer Ning like Doctor Shi?”
Ning Jiuwei’s chest tightened at the sound of her voice, struck by a pang of guilt as if she’d betrayed her. “Being around Doctor Shi is relaxing. She’s perfect as a friend.”
“So you don’t like her that way,” Su Jinglan said, lifting her eyes with a sudden, radiant grin.
Changing moods that fast? Ning Jiuwei realized Su Jinglan had been playacting. With her ironclad psyche, a few words couldn’t possibly leave her truly dejected.
Ning Jiuwei turned her head away and fiddled with her seatbelt.
“Teacher Ning?” Su Jinglan tugged playfully at the hem of Ning Jiuwei’s clothes, smiling. “Let me introduce you to a girlfriend who fits your criteria. Over eighteen, under forty-eight—a perfect age match for Teacher Ning.”
“Sure,” Ning Jiuwei replied, laying down her terms. “But she can’t have the surname Su, and she can’t be my boss.”
That one sentence silenced Su Jinglan completely.
The car inched its way out of the parking lot. Blinding sunlight hit them all at once, contracting their pupils. Ning Jiuwei stole a sidelong glance at the president in the passenger seat, who sat quietly without a word. Su Jinglan leaned back against the seat with her eyes closed, her face giving nothing away.
The sun baked the ground outside. As they entered the company campus, Ning Jiuwei steered into the office building’s underground parking lot. Su Jinglan remained silent the entire drive, her eyes never opening.
“We’re here, President Su,” Ning Jiuwei said. She parked, cut the engine, and unbuckled her seatbelt.
Su Jinglan didn’t stir, feigning sleep.
The steady rise and fall of her chest beneath her clothes betrayed her to Ning Jiuwei—she wasn’t asleep.
Ning Jiuwei’s gaze drifted from the subtle movement at her chest, up the slender column of her throat, and lingered on those lips she had tasted so many times before. She schooled her expression, tamping down the flood of memories, and called out to President Su once more.
Su Jinglan let out a soft sigh, gazing directly into Ning Jiuwei’s eyes. “I’ll sit in the car for a while. You go on up first, Designer Ning.”
“This doesn’t seem to be President Su’s car.”
Su Jinglan unbuckled her seatbelt and stepped out of the car.
Without so much as a backward glance, she entered the elevator. She hit the close door button before Ning Jiuwei could catch up, then selected the top floor.
There was more than one elevator heading upstairs. Ning Jiuwei took the one next to it. When she arrived on the sixth floor, she scanned the corridor for any sign of Su Jinglan. They had only been a few seconds apart, so Su Jinglan should have been right ahead of her and not gone far—yet there was no trace of her.
Ning Jiuwei hurried back to the Teachers’ Office. Su Jinglan wasn’t in the President’s Office across the hall, either.
Assistant Tan glanced over curiously. Ning Jiuwei caught her gaze and shot back a look that said, “Follow me.”
“Is President Su not in her office?” Once they were inside, Ning Jiuwei asked Assistant Tan calmly.
Assistant Tan had no idea the two of them had arrived at the company together, so she answered truthfully. “She was here in the office this morning, but she hasn’t shown up yet this afternoon.”
Ning Jiuwei had paid attention to the neighboring elevator when she got out. The display numbers were still climbing, the arrow pointing upward.
After a moment’s thought, Ning Jiuwei headed to the Director’s Office.
Su Jinglan had returned to her office. She summoned Lin Zhaoyue. “I’ll be staying at home tonight. Get someone to clean it up for me.”
~~~
