Chapter 3

On the day of Sunset Glow’s scheduled neuter surgery, something came up for Chen Shuhua at the last minute. She couldn’t take it personally. She had intended to let the housekeeper take it, but when Cheng Yan found out during their chat, she volunteered to do it herself.

Chen Shuhua came over carrying the cat carrier. “Aren’t you afraid it’ll hold a grudge?”

She opened the carrier to let Cheng Yan see Sunset Glow sleeping soundly, curled up in the small space.

Cheng Yan stared at its body, which had plumped up another size. It seemed it had indeed been living well lately.

She reached out, zipped the carrier shut, then took the heavy carrier bag. Her tone was calm: “Just won’t see it again after that, then.”

“?”

Chen Shuhua suspected she had misheard. After all, Junior was very fond of Sunset Glow. She often responded to the videos and pictures sent over.

She joked, “Good thing Sunset Glow is asleep and can’t understand your joke, otherwise it’d definitely swing its cat punches at you angrily.”

Cheng Yan could see the other didn’t believe her words, nor did she particularly mind. Or rather, she was somewhat used to it.

Most of the time, interacting with her senior was undeniably calm and comfortable. Although the other came from a good family background, she wasn’t the domineering, forceful type. On the contrary, she had a gentle nature and was quite tolerant, to a certain extent.

Logically, she should like someone who wasn’t overbearing.

Yet sometimes, Cheng Yan just felt a bland sense of being unable to muster enthusiasm.

When you like someone, can’t you sense their emotional changes? Do you still need them to tell you outright?

If one still needed the person they liked to do that, how dull.

Cheng Yan hoisted the cat carrier over her shoulder with one hand. The change in her heart lasted only a moment, and her expression showed nothing. “Isn’t it almost time?”

Chen Shuhua snapped back to reality, raised her wrist to check the time, and immediately exclaimed, “It really is almost time! Junior, I have to go first. I’ll leave Sunset Glow to you.”

Cheng Yan nodded.

She took a taxi to the veterinary hospital with Sunset Glow, provided the name and phone number for Chen Shuhua’s appointment, and both she and Sunset Glow were led into a very clean and warmly decorated reception room.

With professional coaxing, even without a liquid cat treat, Sunset Glow behaved extremely well, even letting out coy meows.

This only confirmed for Cheng Yan that the cat just had a grudge against her specifically.

Or rather, a grudge against her when she didn’t have a liquid cat treat.

Watching it look perfectly content and unsuspecting in the reception room, Cheng Yan curved a rather devilish smile.

It wasn’t until just before being taken into the surgery room that Sunset Glow remained blissfully unaware, still sweetly meowing at her and the vet tech who was petting it so comfortably—completely opposite to its usual ungrateful, bad-cat attitude.

Only when the ungrateful, bad cat realized what was about to happen did panicked meows explode from the surgery room.

“—Meow meow! Meow woo—”

So lamentable, so pitiful.

Truly pitiful.

Cheng Yan stood outside with her arms crossed, a smile on her lips. Paired with the cat’s pitiful meows about to lose its dignity, there was an indescribable sense of fiendish glee.

“Its cries sound so pitiful. I heard this pet hospital’s facilities are especially good. To prevent owners from feeling discomfort or distress hearing their pets wail during neutering, they specially installed enhanced soundproofing. How can we still hear the cat meowing inside?”

A girl holding a pet dog and covering her dog’s ears walked over. Seeing Cheng Yan waiting outside, assuming she was the cat’s owner, she asked curiously.

Cheng Yan raised an eyebrow. “Because they also have special services.”

The girl was confused. “Special services?”

Cheng Yan said with a straight face, “Some owners, hearing their bad kitty’s pitiful meows at this moment, get a feeling of venting their pent-up frustration.”

The girl suddenly understood completely. “Then this pet hospital is quite considerate.”

Then she looked at Cheng Yan sympathetically. “Seems like it gave you a lot of trouble normally.”

Cheng Yan just smiled, saying nothing.

After the surgery, since it required four hours of post-operative observation, Cheng Yan decided to leave Sunset Glow at the pet hospital for now. She would grab something to eat nearby and come back to pick it up when the time was up.

The pet hospital Chen Shuhua booked was very close to the city hospital. Exiting the pet hospital, the area nearby was a bustling commercial district.

Having smelled the hospital’s disinfectant for so long, she didn’t have much of an appetite. After quickly settling lunch nearby, she calculated the time was still long and decided to wander around before picking up Sunset Glow.

She walked around for about half an hour. Feeling her exercise quota was met, Cheng Yan found a coffee shop to sit in.

The sunlight was nice today, so she deliberately chose a seat by the window. She ordered a coffee, took out the laptop she’d specifically brought, and routinely read a few articles from Nature journals before finally opening her phone, ready to give her muddled brain a break.

“Your coffee.”

“Just put it here.” Cheng Yan looked up briefly.

The server was startled by her face: “Oh, okay, enjoy.”

As she turned back to the counter, the server couldn’t help twisting around to look back.

Heartbroken?

Seeing the tears on the customer’s face, she speculated privately.

The floor-to-ceiling window was bright and clean, making the tear tracks on the woman’s face exceptionally clear.

As if sensing something, Cheng Yan looked up, blinked, and a line of tears rolled down from her reddened eyes.

Blank-faced, she locked eyes with the person staring at her.

“…?”

Her pupils involuntarily dilated for a split second. Staring at the somewhat familiar-looking woman in the wheelchair, Cheng Yan was silent for a long moment before she showed a polite smile.

The woman’s face was fair and gentle, her eyes slightly red, tear tracks still wet, her smile holding the delicate charm of a budding flower. There was a fragile, pitiable beauty about her.

Jun Jianqing’s thoughts turned. Silently without a word, she watched the other rise with a look of pleasant surprise, then walk out from the coffee shop.

Cheng Yan stood still, stopping at a distance that wouldn’t feel uncomfortably close for someone looking up from a wheelchair, nor too far to hinder communication.

“Do you still remember me? Thank you for sending someone with that umbrella that day.”

Jun Jianqing said gently, “A trivial matter.”

A chance meeting, the conversation seemed to end there.

But upon hearing the voice that came out when the other spoke, Cheng Yan’s little finger hanging by her side subconsciously curled.

“I must still thank you. It rained so hard later; that umbrella helped me a great deal.” The smile on Cheng Yan’s face was like fresh, dewy bamboo shoots after a light rain—exuding an undisguised youthful vibrancy. She added, a little embarrassed, “I didn’t bring an umbrella when I went out today, so I’m afraid I can’t return it.”

Jun Jianqing replied, “It’s fine, just an umbrella.”

Her gaze skimmed lightly over the young woman’s reddened eyes, leaving no trace.

Cheng Yan seemed oblivious, looking at the sickly-looking person in the wheelchair, who was also alone. After hesitating for two seconds, she opened her mouth to inquire, “Do you need any help?”

Jun Jianqing used her eyes to stop the person in the distance who was about to approach. Looking at the person before her, she asked, “Would it be a bother?”

Cheng Yan shook her head, her face brightening. “Not at all.”

A faint smile appeared on Jun Jianqing’s pale face. With her aura reined in, sitting in the wheelchair, she looked just like any ordinary person.

But only just looked like it.

Cheng Yan discreetly withdrew her observing gaze.

Even in a position to be looked down upon, the other possessed an aura that discouraged disturbance—refined and restrained, aloof and noble.

Gentleness was a mask; coldness was the essence at her core.

Truly powerful and influential people seemed to prefer showing others a mask of gentleness.

Cheng Yan thought idly.

But her face maintained a gentle, harmless smile, even a hint of delight—as if this might allow her to repay, even slightly, the favor of the borrowed umbrella from that rainy day.

Jun Jianqing took it all in.

The other’s expressions were simply too easy to read.

Gullible, transparent.

Yet the image of her slender, delicate figure under that stormy night sky intertwined with the picture of her just now, vulnerable and in tears, flickering through her mind. Jun Jianqing’s heart remained exceptionally calm.

After pushing the wheelchair to the designated spot, Cheng Yan didn’t leave immediately. First, she looked around, then her gaze returned to the person in the wheelchair. “Your family hasn’t arrived yet. How about I wait with you for a while?”

Having received the boss’s signal, the person who had been following at a distance all along finally revealed themselves, walking towards the two of them.

Jun Jianqing said, “My person is already here.”

Cheng Yan saw them too.

Confirming the person was indeed heading their way and clearly knew the wheelchair-bound woman based on their expressions, she let go of the handles at the right time, showing a relaxed smile. “That’s good then. I won’t disturb you any longer.”

“Wishing you a pleasant life.”

After bidding farewell to the person in the wheelchair, she turned and followed the original path back into the coffee shop.

Chen Yuehong walked over. Her professional suit made her look efficient and cold. Now she stood with her head bowed before Jun Jianqing, reporting respectfully, “The hospital matter has been handled.”

Jun Jianqing’s gaze drifted past her, landing on the receding slender figure of the woman. Her voice was flat, betraying no emotion. “The man is already dead?”

Chen Yuehong lowered her head even further. “Yes.”

Pausing, as if knowing what the other liked to hear, she added, “Before his passing, the old master’s expression was quite agitated.”

“Angered to death?” Jun Jianqing wore a smile at the corner of her mouth. “Good.”

Chen Yuehong’s heart tightened. She didn’t dare respond.

Jun Jianqing seemed not to need her reply anyway. She said leisurely, “Are you afraid of me?”

Chen Yuehong: “…”

Her heart skipped a beat. She dared not make a sound.

Luckily, Jun Jianqing was very self-aware and didn’t require an answer from her. She answered herself, “Of course you’re afraid.”

Her gaze was still fixed on the distance. The slender, delicate figure had vanished into nothingness. When she spoke again, her voice was faint, but compared to before, it held an added hint of condescending mockery.

“But someone isn’t. Even regarded me as a good person to repay, hmm.”

‘Have a pleasant life.’

Heh.

The old man was finally dead. She truly had a pleasant life.

…

“Sis, you should go into acting.”

Just as Cheng Yan reached the coffee shop entrance, a girl about eleven or twelve years old was crouched in front of the door. Seeing her return, her eyes clear and pure, what she said made Cheng Yan stop in her tracks.

The girl stood up as Cheng Yan looked over, still not stopping, appearing very regretful. “If you entered showbiz, sis, with those acting skills, you’d definitely make a ton of money!”

Not just the emotions were full; the transitions between different feelings were also perfectly natural, completely unforced.

Seeing someone who shouldn’t be here, a flicker of surprise passed through Cheng Yan’s eyes. After hearing her words, she couldn’t help but laugh, then placed her slender index finger in front of her lips. “Shh.”

She gently winked at the girl, her voice light and low, as if sharing a secret with a little girl—

“Of course it’s because acting is only the most fun when no one else knows, you see.”