Wen Zenian was still dressed in her white suit, her long hair elegantly pinned up behind her head, as if she never allowed herself a moment of relaxation. Meng Ning stared at the small diamond earring dangling from her earlobe. Wen Zenian held the door open without a word, as if waiting for something.
Meng Ning realized what was happening. Wen Zenian was waiting to see if she would blurt out some excuse and flee in panic after bumping into her like this.
Maybe instinct really was driving her to do it.
The moonlight felt either icy cold or scorchingly hot, making her shiver faintly.
She forced herself to stand her ground and found her voice. “I’ll answer one of your questions.”
Wen Zenian held the door and hummed in acknowledgment.
The moonlight swelled suddenly, flowing past Meng Ning’s shoulder to embrace Wen Zenian’s slender figure. Struggling to steady her trembling lips, she said word by word, “I’ll remember you.”
Wen Zenian pressed her lips together briefly.
She continued, “For all the time in my life, I’ll remember you.”
Wen Zenian smiled.
“That’s so heavy,” she said half-jokingly.
On any other day, Meng Ning might have seized the chance to laugh it off with a quip, letting the moment pass. But tonight, her fingers curled slightly, a faint sheen of sweat beading on the tip of her nose. Her gaze drifted to the slender ankle peeking out from beneath Wen Zenian’s tailored trousers. Even at this late hour, she wore high heels, their thin straps winding up her leg like intricate totems.
At the heart of those complex patterns was a small wound, stark and strikingly beautiful against her pale skin—likely scraped during afternoon surfing.
Meng Ning opened her mouth. “I’ve come to answer your question. And I have one for you.”
Wen Zenian’s high heel shifted ever so slightly.
Meng Ning had no idea what Wen Zenian thought she might ask. In truth, her question was simple. As she spoke, she finally lifted her eyes from that ankle and met Wen Zenian’s gaze. “When you were learning to swim and surf, did it ever feel really hard?”
What she really wanted to say was “scary,” but she sensed that the current Wen Zenian wouldn’t appreciate that word.
The woman standing before her now was a dream weaver who could summon storms or clear skies with a mere gesture. Meng Ning had seen her in the staff cafeteria, holding court with the other managers—a towering six-foot-something foreign executive nodding and bowing obsequiously in her presence. Under the moonlight, even that tiny wound on her ankle seemed to add to her effortless allure.
She could board yachts for all-night parties. She could summon helicopters on a whim. Ever since they’d reunited, she had always been the one in control.
Yet now, the flutter of her lashes was subtly off-rhythm, her expression carrying a hint of complexity as she looked at Meng Ning.
The overly brilliant moonlight stripped away her makeup, making her face resemble the fully grown version Meng Ning had always imagined.
And so Meng Ning did the most presumptuous thing since their reunion.
She stepped forward, wrapped her arms around Wen Zenian, and lifted her right hand to cradle the back of her head. Softly, she murmured, “It’s okay.”
If she possessed the same dream-weaving magic as Wen Zenian, she would have made those words lighter, more solemn. But this was the best she could manage. Wen Zenian pushed her away.
The motion was gentle but decisive. There was no amusement in her eyes, no anger either—just some indefinable complexity.
She seemed to catch her breath lightly and asked Meng Ning, “Do you want to come in?”
Meng Ning shook her head with a smile. “That’s what I came to say. I should go.”
“Wait,” Wen Zenian said. “Let me get tonight’s sci-fi story for you.”
That was their agreement.
Each time Meng Ning sought her out, Wen Zenian would give her one page of the sci-fi story.
But Meng Ning’s smile remained gentle. “Not tonight.”
She turned and walked away.
In her heart, this visit wasn’t a transaction.
She had wanted to come, so she had.
Meng Ning returned to the room.
Qi Xiao was already asleep. Moving quietly without turning on the light, she reached for the sports clothes she’d gotten filthy on the beach that afternoon, intending to stuff them into the laundry bag. First, she dipped her hand into the pocket to empty it.
There was nothing else in there—just a pack of cigarettes and two lighters.
One was the one she used herself. The other was the one she’d once planned to give Wen Zenian but now had no intention of ever handing over.
She reached for it, but only her own lighter was there.
She searched every pocket of her clothes, but the other one was gone.
A chill settled in her heart. Had she flung off the sports clothes too hastily after taking them off today, letting it drop unnoticed onto the sand?
She slipped out the door again, carefully closing it behind her so as not to wake Qi Xiao, then headed toward the beach.
The rules here differed from those at Hotel C. After dark, swimming was prohibited, but the beach remained open. At this hour, though, no one else was around. Meng Ning started off walking with feigned calm, but upon spotting the beach in the distance, she broke into a run.
Panting heavily, she rushed onto the sand and tried to recall where she’d been sitting that afternoon.
She had a rough idea, but the marker flags designating the safe swimming area had been taken down, leaving her without a clear reference point. She couldn’t pinpoint the exact spot.
She bent at the waist, scurrying back and forth across the beach like a headless fly.
Nothing.
Nothing.
It was nowhere.
A layer of clammy sweat gradually broke out on her back, hot and sticky, seeping into every crevice along her spine, burning through her heart and leaving her dazed.
“What are you looking for?”
She jerked her head up in panic, gasping for breath. Even the ponytail at the back of her head had come slightly undone from all the time bent over, tousled by the sea breeze. “Qi Xiao?”
Compared to her usual chatty cheerfulness, Qi Xiao was unnervingly calm now. “It’s so late. What are you looking for?”
“Just couldn’t sleep,” Meng Ning said with a smile. “Looking for hermit crabs. For fun.”
“Liar,” Qi Xiao said. “You’re looking for a lighter, aren’t you?”
Meng Ning stared at her, still catching her breath.
Qi Xiao went on, “If you don’t admit it, I won’t give it to you.”
Meng Ning paused, then called her name. “Qi Xiao.”
Qi Xiao couldn’t quite describe the tone in Meng Ning’s voice. But the moment Meng Ning said it, tears suddenly spilled from her eyes. “What the hell? I should have seen it sooner. You’ve really fallen for her, haven’t you?”
Meng Ning wasn’t sure if her silence lasted a moment or an eternity.
A thousand thoughts raced through her mind. She had always played it cool, so detached, weaving countless little details to show her indifference. Maybe she should dredge those up now, twist them around, pile them high to convince Qi Xiao that she was clear-headed, that she hadn’t truly fallen for Wen Zenian.
But her thoughts circled and shifted several times before settling into a nearly helpless smile. In a low voice, she said, “Yeah. I’ve really liked her for a long time.”
Qi Xiao flew at her as if enraged, pounding her shoulder relentlessly. “Are you trying to get yourself killed? You, the one who’s always so aloof and flowery? You, the picture of calm rationality? You’re not this kind of person—why pretend? You should have said something sooner! Then I never would have pushed you into it!”
All the while, she sobbed loudly on the empty midnight beach.
Qi Xiao wasn’t holding back. Meng Ning’s shoulder throbbed with pain from the blows, and she was stunned by the rawness of Qi Xiao’s cries, each hitch threatening to choke her. Meng Ning stepped forward and patted her back gently. “Hey…”
With remarkable patience, Meng Ning smiled. “This is my mess. Why are you so upset?”
Qi Xiao cried even harder. “Because I know better than anyone how hard it is to like someone so far out of your league!”
She bellowed it out, and a huge bubble of snot inflated from her nose.
Meng Ning laughed.
She didn’t. Qi Xiao shot her a glare, pulled a tissue from her pocket, and wiped her nose before bursting into fresh wails.
“Hey…” Meng Ning was at a loss. “So, are you comforting me now, or am I comforting you?”
Qi Xiao glared again. “You comfort me first, then I’ll comfort you. We can take turns, okay?”
“Why do I have to go first?”
“How long have you even liked her? I’ve been bottling this up forever! Song Xiao’s not the type to get it, and you never asked! I was about to explode!”
“Fine, fine, you first.” Meng Ning smiled again and gestured at the beach. “Pick a stretch of waves to pour your heart out to. Have a seat.”
Qi Xiao didn’t fuss. She plopped down cross-legged right there, sniffling. No matter how many tissues she used, tears still smeared her face.
She said, “My mom’s a professor at R University.”
Meng Ning blinked. “So you’re the one slumming it from an intellectual family.”
Qi Xiao shook her head. “Slumming my ass. Our relationship sucks, and I didn’t even go to a good college. Want to know why?” She grinned through it. “Because when I was a teenager, I fell for one of my mom’s students.”
Meng Ning listened quietly.
“She was my mom’s grad student—top of her class, insanely smart. Mom really valued her talent, so she kept bringing her home. She was twenty-two then, and I was sixteen, just starting high school. The first time I saw her, she was in the kitchen helping Mom cook. She turned around with the spatula and smiled at me. I was done for right there.”
“She wasn’t the super-pretty type—super skinny, phoenix eyes. But you know how it is, some people just hit you like that at first glance. I started trailing after her like a little shadow. Then I found out Mom wasn’t just nurturing her talent; her family was dirt poor.”
“She’d clawed her way out of some mountain village. Just her and her mom at home, plus a disabled little sister to care for. Every scholarship, stipend, and subsidy went straight back home. Can you believe it? In this day and age, there are still people mixing pickles with rice in the college cafeteria. She never went to the doctor for colds. One time I went to her dorm to find her, and she was passed out on the floor, face so white I thought she wasn’t breathing.”
“After she recovered from that fever, I confessed to her straight up.”
Qi Xiao nudged Meng Ning’s arm. “You listening? When I’m done, you spill about you too.”
“I am,” Meng Ning said, quirking her lips upward. “Sure. After you’re finished, I’ll go.”
