Chapter 19: Special Meaning

Feng Miwan reached up and touched the ponytail at the back of her head. It was tied very securely, not loose at all.

She turned her head in surprise. “Wow! Yibai, your skills are impressive! It’s tied so well!”

Xiong Yibai looked at her smiling face but didn’t say anything. She simply walked over to the decorative mirror nearby and checked her reflection.

She casually straightened her collar and hair, then picked up her bag and coat.

She headed toward the door.

“I’m off.”

“Mm-hmm! Be careful on the road!”

Feng Miwan waved at her back.

Xiong Yibai let out a soft “mm” and opened the door to leave.

As the sound of the door closing echoed, Feng Miwan touched the low ponytail at the back of her head again. For some reason, her mood was exceptionally good.

She returned to her room to tidy up a bit, then used her phone to call a car and headed to the large mall where she had arranged to meet Zhao Shutong.

The mall was packed with people on the weekend, bustling with energy.

Feng Miwan quickly spotted Zhao Shutong at the entrance to a coffee shop on the first floor. She was looking around eagerly.

“Shu Tong! Over here!”

Feng Miwan waved with her left hand.

Zhao Shutong turned at the sound of her voice and saw her. She hurried over, her gaze scanning Feng Miwan up and down, lingering especially on her right hand in its splint.

“How’s the hand? Does it still hurt?”

Feng Miwan shook her head with a smile. “It’s fine. It doesn’t hurt anymore as long as I don’t move it.”

Zhao Shutong nodded. “That’s good then. Come on, let’s browse around first. We can look for some looser clothes too, so they don’t rub against the splint when you put them on.”

As they shopped through the clothing stores, Zhao Shutong couldn’t hold back her burning gossip soul any longer. She began to probe indirectly.

“Come on, spill it. How’s it been these days… just the two of you in your little world with Dr. Xiong? Has anything… y’know… happened?”

She nudged Feng Miwan with her elbow and winked suggestively.

Feng Miwan admitted it anyway. “Shu Tong, actually… nothing happened. We just… sleep in our own rooms.”

“She’s just letting me stay here temporarily. We’re just… ordinary friends.”

Zhao Shutong stopped in her tracks upon hearing this. She poked Feng Miwan’s arm. “Your own rooms? Ordinary friends? Then what was that you said on the phone the other day?”

Feng Miwan shrank back from the poke and scratched her head with a sheepish grin. “Wasn’t that just because I was afraid you’d get mad!”

“You little sneak, daring to lie to me!” Zhao Shutong put her hands on her hips, furrowing her brows in mock anger.

Feng Miwan immediately tried to make amends. “Don’t be mad, don’t be mad! But… I really do feel like something’s off lately, though I can’t quite put my finger on it. I’m not lying to you this time.”

Zhao Shutong’s feigned anger vanished in an instant. She pressed on. “Oh? That vague, indescribable feeling? Exactly! That means there’s a spark!”

“Come on, come on, let your big sis play love strategist for this hard-won romance of yours!”

She pulled Feng Miwan over to a bench in the mall’s rest area and sat down, adopting a serious pose.

“Now, tell me everything from the moment you met Dr. Xiong up to now. Every single detail, no holding back!”

“Not even the tiniest things you think are insignificant!”

“Like how many times she looked at you, what she said, her tone—spill it all!”

Feng Miwan was amused and exasperated by her intensity, but seeing her best friend’s eager enthusiasm and thinking of her own tangled feelings, she began to recount everything that had happened over the past couple of days.

Zhao Shutong listened intently, her expressions shifting from surprise to sly grins to thoughtful frowns.

When she heard about Feng Miwan’s brother transferring ten thousand yuan, and Feng Miwan stuffing the coin to Xiong Yibai,

and how Xiong Yibai’s dad had given her a ten-thousand-yuan red envelope, and Xiong Yibai had returned a new coin to her last night,

Zhao Shutong suddenly gasped, her eyes widening.

“Wait! You’re saying your brother straight-up transferred ten thousand to her as prepaid care and rent?”

“And you gave her that beat-up lucky coin of yours? Then her dad gave you a ten-thousand-yuan red envelope?”

“And finally, she specially gave you a new coin back?!”

Feng Miwan jumped at her suddenly raised voice and nodded blankly. “Y-yeah… what’s wrong with that? And that coin was my lucky charm to begin with, not some beat-up thing…”

Zhao Shutong looked at her completely clueless expression and raised her hand as if to knock her on the head, but remembered she was injured and lowered it helplessly.

“Feng! Miwan! You’re such a… such a romance newbie who’s never dated! Can’t your brain hold anything besides racing?!”

Feng Miwan muttered in protest, “You’re only two or three years older than me…”

“Even a day older counts!”

Zhao Shutong rolled her eyes and leaned in close, lowering her voice with a serious expression.

“Feng Miwan, be honest with me. Setting aside all the messy stuff, do you have even a little bit of that kind of feeling for Dr. Xiong?”

Feng Miwan’s face flushed red instantly. “Look at you, here we go again… We’ve only known each other a few days. At most… at most I just think she’s a good person, reliable, and… pretty good-looking.”

“Just a bit of fondness, nothing like what you’re talking about!”

Zhao Shutong gave a knowing smile. “Alright~ Fondness is enough. Student Feng, based on these details, this strategist preliminarily judges—”

“Your situation is very promising! Heck, the other side’s progress bar might even be ahead of yours!”

“Huh? What do you mean?” Feng Miwan was even more confused.

“Can’t reveal the secrets of heaven~”

Zhao Shutong shook her head mysteriously and stood up.

“Come on! First, accompany your strategist to get a milk tea, then we’ll analyze it slowly!”

“What do you mean? Don’t keep me in suspense!”

With her appetite fully whetted, Feng Miwan hurried after Zhao Shutong and tugged at her sleeve.

“Did you spot some clue? Or hear something off in what I said? Tell me quick!”

Zhao Shutong didn’t stop walking, just turned her head and winked, deliberately slowing her speech.

“What’s the rush? We’ll have plenty of time after we get the milk tea.”

Zhao Shutong just wanted a little payback for Feng Miwan lying to her.

Feng Miwan wouldn’t let it go and tugged her arm again. “No way, tell me a little now, or I’ll be distracted the whole way and won’t feel like shopping.”

Zhao Shutong was hounded into a corner but still didn’t give in. She just laughed and quickened her pace.

“Nope.”

The two bantered all the way to the milk tea shop.

While waiting for their order after placing it, Feng Miwan was still nagging beside her. “If you don’t tell me, I’ll never discuss Dr. Xiong with you again.”

“Fine, fine, I’ll tell you.”

Zhao Shutong decided to guide her in a different way.

“Let me ask you this: why did you have to give her that coin back then?”

“Do you know that in certain situations, giving someone a symbolic item like that can carry a special meaning?”