The hotpot had left them both a little too full, and Shuang Yao and Feng Ning walked home along the main road to work it off.

The shops on either side of the street had almost all closed for the night, none of the daytime bustle left. This time of year, the plane trees lining the street had shed their leaves all over the ground. Shanghai in its stillness carried a particular kind of desolation—cold, aloof, and precisely elegant all at once.

Feng Ning played with her phone, opening a song she often listened to on NetEase Music, tapping in, then out, over and over.

Shuang Yao pulled her coat tighter. “I’ll spend Christmas with you tomorrow, then the day after I’m going to see a high school friend.”

Feng Ning showed no reaction.

“Want to come with me?” Shuang Yao nudged her.

A gust of wind blew by. Feng Ning brushed the hair from the sides of her face. “We’ll see, depends if I’m free.”

After some idle chatting, Shuang Yao said, “By the way, this trip to Shanghai, I’ve actually got a mission from my mom too.”

Feng Ning understood immediately. “Which one this time?”

The elders back in Yujiang Lane had introduced her to a few unmarried young men before, but they’d all been scared off eventually by her indifference.

“This one’s actually solid. Not super handsome, but refined, about one-eighty something, a postdoc at Jiao Tong University.”

Shuang Yao pulled up a photo on her phone to show her, half-teasing: “Anyway, looks-wise, you’ve already had a guy as handsome as Jiang Wen — no regrets left in this life on that front. You shouldn’t care too much.”

“Can you stop bringing him up every five seconds?”

Shuang Yao clapped a hand over her own mouth. “Fine, fine, I won’t, I won’t.”

Feng Ning glanced at the photo. “Why did your mom skip you and go straight to nagging me?”

“Well, I already have a boyfriend.” Shuang Yao snorted. “And after New Year’s, Xiao Jia and I are registering our marriage, so after that my parents’ firepower is going to be aimed straight at you—don’t say I didn’t warn you. Watch yourself around Chinese New Year.”

Shuang Yao added vaguely, “If I’d known that guy was back, I wouldn’t have had my aunt line up single men for you.”

Feng Ning was a bit exasperated. “Whether he’s back or not, that’s not something you need to worry about.”

“Hah, the way you’re going, looks like you’re planning to grow old alone.”

“Save it, I’m not as tragic as you think.”

…

…

After brushing her teeth, Feng Ning came out of the bathroom and found Shuang Yao sprawled at the foot of the bed, doing something on her phone.

She walked over. “Are you texting someone on my WeChat?”

Shuang Yao didn’t seem to care. “That guy I just mentioned, the setup — I sent your WeChat straight to him. Testing the waters for you first, if it doesn’t work out, we drop it.”

Feng Ning turned on the humidifier by her bed. “What are you two talking about?”

“Setting up a time. When to meet up for a meal.”

Shuang Yao rolled over. “I just picked out one of your stunning photos from the album and sent it to that Jiao Tong PhD, hahahahahahahahaha, want to know what he said back?”

Feng Ning frowned. “You sent him my photo?”

“Don’t make that face, I’m not that far gone that I’d go through your photo album. This was one I had saved from my own phone.”

Shuang Yao continued: “Dr. Wu first complimented your looks, then delicately asked whether you have any makeup-free photos too—he said if you’re going to end up living your life together, you should be honest with each other.”

Feng Ning let her comment slide right past, sitting down at the vanity, thinking about whether to do a face mask. She checked the time — too late — and decided against it, applying her skincare instead.

Shuang Yao called out, “I’ll send another selfie over, okay?”

Feng Ning wiped her hands. “What selfie?”

“That one from when you were on the high-speed train.”

Wavy bob haircuts had been trending back then, and Feng Ning had gotten one to keep up with it. At the end of the year, heading back to her hometown, on the train Shuang Yao had asked where she was, and Feng Ning had just sent a selfie back.

In that photo, she wore a cream-colored turtleneck sweater, a few loose curled strands stuck to her lip gloss. The train’s lighting was warm-toned; Feng Ning leaned against the window, white earbud wires visible, a faint smile, flashing a peace sign at the camera.

Feng Ning had just screwed the cap back on her face cream, surrounded by bottles and jars, when she heard a “holy shit” from behind her.

Feng Ning turned, startled. “What’s wrong with you, yelling like that.”

Shuang Yao said “holy shit” two more times.

Feng Ning frowned. “Can you stop shouting, the neighbors are going to complain about the noise.”

“Ningning, I’m so sorry.”

Feng Ning had a bad feeling. She got up and walked to the bed. “What happened.”

Sure enough, the next second Shuang Yao handed her the phone. “I accidentally sent the photo meant for Dr. Wu to Jiang Wen.”

Feng Ning’s voice rose. “What?”

Shuang Yao explained, “I really didn’t mean to, I swear. I just sent the photo to your WeChat, and when I went to forward it to Dr. Wu, Jiang Wen was right below him in the list — their profile pictures are both grayscale, my eyes slipped, and I just sent it straight to Jiang Wen.”

Feng Ning didn’t say anything, quickly grabbing the phone, long-pressing the image, and hitting recall.

Thankfully, it was still within the two-minute window. The recall went through.

Feng Ning sat down on the edge of the bed. “Did you do that on purpose?”

Shuang Yao raised her hand as if swearing an oath. “Not this time, I swear, it really was a slip.”

Fortunately it was already very late, and after waiting a bit, Jiang Wen showed no signs of activity — probably asleep.

She let out a breath of relief.

She checked again — aside from the recalled message, the last message before that was still from Jiang Wen: [Fine, block me if you’ve got the nerve.]

Feng Ning had just set the phone down when Jiang Wen suddenly sent a question mark—

61nfiawJ: ?

61nfiawJ: [What did you send]

Ning: [Nothing, my hand slipped.]

61nfiawJ: [?]

Feng Ning looked at what she’d sent — it seemed a bit stiff? So she added more.

Ning: [Was meant to be a work notice for a coworker, sent it to the wrong chat by accident.]

61nfiawJ: [Oh]

Feng Ning didn’t reply again.

Shuang Yao knelt beside her. “How’d it go?”

Feng Ning gave her arm a hard smack. “It’s fine, he didn’t see it.”

“Huh?” Shuang Yao clicked her tongue, disappointed. “Boring.”

Feng Ning yanked her hair once. “Mess with me on purpose again and I’ll send Xiao Jia your bedwetting photo.”

“You little viper, could you be any more vicious?”

They were still laughing and bickering when the phone chimed with another WeChat notification. On the screen was a message from Jiang Wen:——

61nfiawJ: [Is this the work notice you meant?]

61nfiawJ: 「Image」

Feng Ning: “……”

Shuang Yao glanced over and collapsed onto the bed laughing. “Hahahaha, damn, Jiang Wen’s fast.”

Feng Ning stayed silent.

Shuang Yao added, “He can even mess with you now, guess those years in the States weren’t for nothing.”

Ning: [?]

61nfiawJ: [Sending me this in the middle of the night?]

Ning: [Hand slipped.]

61nfiawJ: [Your company sounds pretty special.] 61nfiawJ: [Using a selfie as a work notice.]

Feng Ning felt her temper flare a little at that.

Ning: [What are you being sarcastic about? I already said it was a slip.]

61nfiawJ: [?]

Ning: [It wasn’t even sent to you.]

Ning: [Going to sleep.]

Feng Ning cut the conversation with Jiang Wen short. The instigator, Shuang Yao, was still gloating: “Are you two elementary schoolers? You can even fight about this.”

“Didn’t you see, he was the one being nasty first?” Feng Ning was irritated.

Shuang Yao said, “Isn’t that because you’re being so cold, woman?”

“Cold?” Feng Ning laughed. “Am I supposed to just be normal friends with him? Pretend nothing ever happened?”

Shuang Yao thought about it. “Why not?”

Feng Ning said, coldly, “Something that’s already broken doesn’t just piece back together that easily.”

Shuang Yao sighed. “You’re harsh on other people, and just as harsh on yourself. Forget it, I won’t try to talk you into anything. I couldn’t anyway.”

Feng Ning had always been strong-willed, ever since she was little. She didn’t like change; everything had to stay within her control.

Once Feng Ning made up her mind about something, it was hard for anyone else to shift it.

Jiang Wen had already been filed away, in her mind, as something in the past. Even though neither of them had truly let go, once Feng Ning decided something was impossible, she wouldn’t keep dwelling on it, wasting time on it.

The next day was Christmas Eve, and the shop windows along the street were full of Santa Clauses with white beards, brown reindeer, sleds on skis. Shuang Yao dragged Feng Ning off to get manicures, shop, and get their hair done.

Around dinnertime, Shuang Yao got an invitation from a high school friend. She’d originally planned to bring Feng Ning along too, but on the way, Feng Ning got called away by a work call and had to go into the office for an unplanned shift.

Once she’d wrapped things up, Xiaozhu came over and said, “Ningning-jie, we’re going to dinner with the Maruko people tonight, want to come?”

Feng Ning thought back. “Didn’t you already have dinner with them last time?”

Xiaozhu made a sound of protest. “In business, it’s give and take. Last time they treated, this time it’s our boss’s turn to treat.”

“Is Senior Shi coming too?”

Shi Yuange walked out of his office. “I’m going.”

Feng Ning: “Then what am I going for.”

“Maruko’s a big client. Both bosses of Shuanggang showing up, that’s real sincerity. Besides, none of the three of us here can hold liquor — you’ll have to carry the room, Ning-jie.”

They’d booked a newly opened Japanese restaurant near Xujiahui.

Four people came from Maruko’s side; Feng Ning only knew Manager Li. Seeing him for the second time, she took the initiative to say hello.

The restaurant was running an opening promotion — anyone who posted about it on WeChat Moments could get 30% off.

Several people pulled out their phones and scanned the code under the staff’s guidance.

Feng Ning tagged the location and posted a Moment.

Guan Tongfu had been slammed with work these past few days, going back and forth with legal all day over contracts, and only then registered the date. “Isn’t today Christmas Eve?”

“Yeah.”

They chatted a bit, and Shi Yuange took charge of ordering.

Manager Li stood up midway through the meal to take a call, and when he came back he said, “There might be one more person joining, that alright?”

Shi Yuange laughed. “No problem at all, just add a set of chopsticks.”

Xiaozhu and a young man across the table were both natural extroverts, diligently keeping the conversation lively.

Feng Ning listened as Shi Yuange talked about work.

The curtain at the door suddenly lifted, and Manager Li stood up. Feng Ning turned her head too, following the others’ gaze toward the entrance.

Everyone went quiet for a few seconds — especially Xiaozhu, who had been mid-sentence and stopped short, mouth open, forgetting to close it.

Sweeping his gaze over the room, meeting Feng Ning’s eyes for just a fraction of a second before moving past, Jiang Wen said casually, “Hope I’m not interrupting.”

Xiaozhu snapped back to herself and hurriedly answered, her voice trembling a little out of her control: “Not at all, of course not.”

Guan Tongfu pinched her thigh under the table.

A crack appeared in Xiaozhu’s smile, and she hissed through her teeth, “What was that for.”

Guan Tongfu kept his voice low too. “Don’t act like some star-struck fangirl who’s never seen the world before — you’ll embarrass Shuanggang.”

Shi Yuange stood up, extending his right hand. “Welcome.”

Jiang Wen crossed his right arm over the back of a chair, extending his other hand to shake. “Pleasure.”

He took off his coat, tossing it aside casually. Underneath was a British-style V-neck patterned sweater, a neat blue collared shirt underneath, matched with dark gray suit trousers, his figure lightly outlined.

Devastatingly handsome.

Xiaozhu’s eyes were glued to him.

Manager Li said, “Let me make introductions — this is my boss, Jiang Wen. He happened to be nearby, so he joined us for dinner. And these two are Miss Zhu and Mr. Guan, from Shuanggang Translation.”

“And this one.” Manager Li gestured toward Feng Ning.

Jiang Wen cut in, his tone offhand. “No need to introduce her.”

Everyone at the table paused for a beat. He sat down. “I know her.”

Feng Ning acted unbothered, pouring water. Noticing everyone was looking at her, she asked, “What?”

Guan Tongfu said, “You know Boss Jiang?”

Feng Ning: “I know him.”

Xiaozhu got a little worked up, curious. “Really?! What a coincidence! How do you two know each other? You never mentioned it before.”

Feng Ning glanced at her.

“—Handsome” nearly slipped out of Xiaozhu’s mouth, but she caught herself in time. “Boss Jiang, how long have you and our Ningning-jie known each other?”

“Don’t remember.”

“You don’t remember?” Xiaozhu looked a bit confused.

Feng Ning said, “We were high school classmates.”

An unexpected answer, but nobody pressed further.

One of the other Maruko staff said, “Boss, why’d you come by?”

“Saw your Moments post.” Jiang Wen raised an eyebrow. “Thought it was a company dinner, happened to be nearby, figured I’d crash it.”

As they talked, Shi Yuange finished explaining a work matter he’d started earlier to Feng Ning, pulling up a temporary spreadsheet on his phone.

Feng Ning leaned in to look, the two of them quite close together.

From Guan Tongfu’s angle, their heads looked nearly touching. He raised his voice, exclaiming, “Boss, what’s going on here, PDA in public?”

Manager Li chimed in with a joke. “PDA — so are Shuanggang’s two bosses a couple, then?”

Guan Tongfu caught a warning glance from Shi Yuange and quickly explained, “No, no, no, not yet.”

Xiaozhu took the chance to get back at him. “He runs his mouth without a filter, that’s just how he is.”

As they talked, Jiang Wen didn’t say much of anything.

They ordered a few more dishes and had a round of drinks. The atmosphere loosened up considerably. Guan Tongfu proactively cued Jiang Wen: “Boss Jiang, can I ask about some gossip on Ning-jie?”

“What?”

“She brags to us all the time, says she was the school beauty since middle school, guys lining up for three blocks to chase her.”

At that, Jiang Wen smiled faintly. “Don’t really remember. Probably true.”

Shi Yuange chimed in to back Feng Ning up. “Xiao Ning was even more popular in college. Back then, I’d say half the guys in our department had a thing for her.”

“Does that half include you?”

Shi Yuange answered like a gentleman. “Of course.”

“So Boss Jiang, got any embarrassing stories about Ning-jie for us?”

Feng Ning couldn’t take it anymore. “Are you two done or what?”

“No.” Jiang Wen said it, though it wasn’t clear whether he was answering her or Xiaozhu.

Xiaozhu looked a bit disappointed. “Really nothing?”

Jiang Wen said, briefly: “She’s usually the one making other people look bad.”

“Like?”

“Kicked a guy into a fountain.” After saying that, Jiang Wen added, out of habit, “In the dead of winter.”

“That’s brutal.”

Jiang Wen made no comment, sipped his drink, leaning back in his chair with an air of unbothered, casual ease.

At that moment, Xiaozhu noticed Jiang Wen and Feng Ning exchange a glance across the table. Both of their expressions stayed flat, but Xiaozhu couldn’t shake the feeling that… they weren’t just ordinary high school classmates.

She just sensed some indescribable, faint tension between them.

After dinner, Guan Tongfu suggested karaoke. Manager Li said he needed to rush home to his wife and kids, and since it was a holiday, everyone probably had their own plans, so they let it go. “Alright, let’s call it here for today, we’ll get together again sometime.”

As the group split up, Shi Yuange asked, “Where are you headed, want a ride?”

Feng Ning declined. “No need, I’m going to walk around a bit. Go ahead and take care of your own stuff.”

Winter darkness fell early, and the neon lights along the street had all come on, carrying a strong Christmas atmosphere.

Feng Ning walked a loop around the nearby plaza and stopped near a huge Christmas tree outside a Starbucks.

Looking up, she saw shimmering snowflakes, golden bells, and red bows hanging from the green branches.

Feng Ning’s mood lifted a little. In the cold wind, she took a deep breath of the chilly air.

The Jiao Tong doctoral candidate had sent her a few messages, mostly about wanting to meet up for New Year’s Eve.

Feng Ning glanced at it and didn’t reply.

She’d originally planned to just turn him down outright, but since this was arranged through Shuang Yao’s mother, it wasn’t quite polite to be too blunt. She figured she’d make things clear once they actually met.

She put her phone away, tucked both hands into her coat pockets. Chin buried in her dark green scarf, Feng Ning kicked a small pebble by her foot, ready to find a subway entrance.

Just as she turned around, she walked straight into Jiang Wen. Both of them froze for a moment, sizing each other up.

She hesitated slightly. “You still haven’t left?”

Jiang Wen lifted the bag in his hand a little. “Came to buy some coffee.”

“Oh, I see.” Feng Ning exchanged a few polite pleasantries with him, then said her goodbyes. “I’ll go catch the subway, then.”

Feng Ning continued toward the subway entrance.

In the glass reflection, Jiang Wen trailed three or four meters behind her, not too close, not too far. Feng Ning stopped, turned around. “What are you doing?”

“Heading home.”

“Then why are you following me?”

“I’m taking the subway too.”

Feng Ning: “You didn’t drive?”

Jiang Wen shot back, unhurried: “You want me driving drunk?”

The two of them went down the stairs together. It being a holiday, the place was crowded, and Jiang Wen got jostled right into Feng Ning.

She turned to him. “Line 1 or Line 10, which one are you taking?”

Jiang Wen didn’t answer right away.

Looking at his face, [How would I know] was written plainly across it.

So Feng Ning asked instead, “Then where do you live?”

Jiang Wen slowly named a location.

Feng Ning found it sounded familiar. After confirming the exact characters, she looked it up on Amap — it turned out to be a newly developed complex right near her own place.

…

…

Before entering the station, Feng Ning took out her phone and opened her transit pass. Someone tugged at her arm from behind.

Feng Ning turned. “What?”

Jiang Wen, acting entitled as ever, tilted his head to the side, as if ordering around an assistant: “Go buy me a ticket.”

Feng Ning: “?”

She glanced at the long, dense line ahead and said, “You’re dreaming, huh.”

Jiang Wen, still a little flushed from the alcohol, made a small acknowledging sound.

Feng Ning had no patience left. “Skip the subway, just call a Didi.”

Jiang Wen: “Too lazy to walk.”

Feng Ning: “……”

In the end, she still ended up helping Jiang Wen download the Metro app.

The two of them got on Line 1. The subway doors closed, the train started moving, and Jiang Wen’s frame swayed slightly.

Feng Ning was busy replying to a message when she suddenly felt someone grab her hood. She turned to look.

She was a little annoyed. “Why are you yanking my hood?”

Jiang Wen let go. “Lost my balance just now.”

“So why not just grab the handrail?”

He wrinkled his nose slightly, looking a bit disgusted. “Dirty.”

Feng Ning: “……”

Maybe it was the alcohol, but Jiang Wen was showing his “true colors” a bit. Even wrapped in a handsome, elegant exterior, at first glance he might look like some corporate elite — but underneath, he was still that same spoiled peacock of a boy who’d never grown up.

A few stops past Xujiahui, a seat opened up nearby. Feng Ning glanced at it. “Go sit down.”

Jiang Wen didn’t hesitate, walked over, and sat down with easy grace.

A Shanghainese auntie beside him, seeing him all dressed up in a suit, couldn’t help but comment: “Young man, that’s not right, letting your girlfriend stand while you sit.”

Jiang Wen stretched his long legs out casually.

Feng Ning said, “It’s fine, auntie — he’s disabled.”

Jiang Wen: “……”

The auntie went quiet immediately, her expression shifting to sympathy. She didn’t say anything more, and turned away.

Two men across from them looked over at the same time.

Jiang Wen curled his lip up in a faint smile.

On the way, he got a call from Jiang Yurou. On the other end, she asked, “Bro, where are you?”

Jiang Wen: “On the subway.”

Jiang Yurou sounded baffled. “Huh, the subway? Why are you on the subway?” She got interrupted by someone on her end and made a couple of acknowledging sounds before saying into the phone, “Oh right, bro, do you want to come spend Christmas with me?”

“No.”

Jiang Yurou sounded put out. “Why not?”

“No time.”

Once Jiang Wen hung up, Feng Ning said, “Your sister’s studying in Shanghai too now?”

Jiang Wen made a cool, aloof sound of confirmation.

That air of his.

The auntie next to them was thinking, doesn’t look disabled at all, however you look at it.

Feng Ning had once tutored Jiang Yurou for a while, and she’d had a good impression of the clever girl. “Which school?”

“Shanghai International Studies University.”

Feng Ning nodded. “Not bad.”

They reached their stop and got off, walking side by side out of the subway exit.

Jiang Wen didn’t speak, and neither did Feng Ning. They walked quietly along the street.

Suddenly remembering something, at a certain alley entrance, Feng Ning’s steps veered off.

She walked in about ten meters, then crouched down, breaking a ham sausage into small pieces from long habit and scattering them on the ground.

She called out a couple of times, and after a moment, a shaky little shape emerged from a pile of cardboard boxes.

It was a thin little yellow dog, its right hind leg limping slightly.

Footsteps sounded, and Jiang Wen’s voice came from above her. “Feng Ning, do you have no manners at all?”

Feng Ning turned. “What did I do?”

Jiang Wen: “Just left me behind, not even a word?”

The stray dog was skittish, and the moment it spotted a stranger, it bolted.

Feng Ning couldn’t be bothered to argue with him and turned back around, only to find the dog had already vanished.

The little yellow dog had apparently gotten into a fight somewhere a few days back, and still had wounds on it. Feng Ning was a bit worried. She stood up, turned on her phone flashlight, shining it into every corner, searching as she made her way further in.

The alley had poor lighting, pitch dark. In the thick night, she kept her head down and missed the sign propped up nearby: “Construction ahead, please detour.”

Feng Ning kept searching, searching, and suddenly her foot stepped into empty air. Unable to catch her balance, she lost her footing completely, and with a dull thud—

—Feng Ning fell into a pit.

She sat at the bottom, waiting for the sharp pain to pass. Once it finally eased, Feng Ning used her still-functional left hand to slowly feel around for her phone.

Must not have checked the almanac before leaving the house today — the kind of bad luck where even drinking water chokes you. She finally found the phone that had fallen beside her and, bracing herself against the wall, slowly stood up.

Small mercy — the pit wasn’t especially deep, though it had felt, for a moment, like it might just about be the end of her.

She called out Jiang Wen’s name a few times. “Are you still there?”

Jiang Wen’s silhouette appeared at the edge, peering down. “How did you end up in a pit?”

Feng Ning explained, “I was looking for the dog and didn’t watch where I was going. Call for help, would you? This is pretty deep, I can’t climb out.”

Before she’d even finished, she suddenly let out a shriek.

“What’s wrong?” Jiang Wen called down.

She kept screaming.

Feng Ning had never been afraid of anything since she was little, except rats. Goosebumps broke out all over her. Before she could even process it, there was a heavy thud.

Jiang Wen grunted in pain, struggling to get up. “What happened? You okay?”

Feng Ning was stunned. “I told you to go call for help, why did you jump down here?”

Jiang Wen: “If you hadn’t screamed like that, would I have jumped down?”

“……”

It took a few minutes for her to calm down.

Feng Ning held back her temper. “Are you okay?”

Jiang Wen: “Think I twisted my ankle.”

He turned on his own phone flashlight too, and the moment he took in their surroundings, his germophobia kicked in immediately. “God, why is it this filthy in here?”

“……”

“Give me a tissue.” Jiang Wen shook his hand with disgust. “My hands are covered in mud.”

“……”

Feng Ning: “Just deal with it.”

She thought, she’d really overestimated Jiang Wen’s intelligence. After a brief moment of chaos, Feng Ning decided to just call the police herself. She picked up her phone.

Sure enough, China Unicom’s signal never let her down.

The signal had dropped to barely one bar. No calls would go through. Jiang Wen’s phone had no signal either.

Jiang Wen said, “What do we do now?”

Feng Ning: “What else can we do, wait for someone to pass by.”

A couple seconds of silence, then Jiang Wen turned to look at her. “Why are you being so impatient with me?”

Feng Ning: “……”

He kept at it, accusing her. “If it weren’t for you, would I be stuck in this godforsaken place right now?”

Feng Ning said, “You jumped down yourself, what does that have to do with me?”

“Wasn’t it you who called my name just now?”

“……”

Silence stretched a while longer. Then Jiang Wen spoke, a little awkwardly. “You okay?”

Feng Ning said, quite calmly, “Arm hurts a little. Nothing major.”

The two of them stayed there in that pit, looking up to see only the moon. Somewhere in the distance, the faint sound of a dog barking.

Jiang Wen said offhandedly, “I remember your family had a big yellow dog too, back then?”

Feng Ning made a small sound of agreement.

“It nearly bit me once.” The two of them suddenly laughed at the same time.

The atmosphere turned subtly different. In this place cut off from everyone else, it was just the two of them. For a moment, it felt like they were back in the past.

After another long stretch of silence, Jiang Wen said, “That day I got drunk — whatever I said to you, don’t read too much into it.”

“What would I read into it.”

“As long as you didn’t misunderstand anything, that’s good.”

Out of nowhere, Feng Ning said, “Actually, I wanted to ask — why do you use the lottery ticket I bought you as your password?”

Jiang Wen paused, then answered evenly, “To remind myself, at all times, not to repeat the foolish things I did in the past.”

“Oh, I see.” Feng Ning made a small acknowledging sound and didn’t say anything else.

Their luck held — after waiting roughly an hour, a migrant worker happened to pass by.

He called over a few other passersby, and together they pulled the two of them out and sent them to the hospital.

Feng Ning’s arm hurt. At the hospital, a female doctor examined her arm. “Sweetheart, take off your coat and roll up your sleeve, let me take a look first.”

Feng Ning did as told.

After feeling around carefully, the doctor said, “Doesn’t seem to be broken. Go register at emergency downstairs, bring the slip back for me to sign, then go get an X-ray.”

At this hour, the hospital was still fairly busy. It took a while before she got a number.

While walking, she felt something wasn’t right down below.

Feng Ning checked her bag — thankfully she usually kept a few panty liners on hand. She hurried off toward the restroom, and on the way happened to run into Jiang Wen.

She said, “You doing okay?”

Jiang Wen: “Doctor wants an X-ray.”

Feng Ning nodded, handing him the slip. “Then can you take this up to get it signed by the doctor — third floor, first door on the left. I need to use the restroom.”

…

…

The female doctor sat at her desk, flipping through a patient’s chart, saying, “There was a patient earlier — god, when I was examining her, her arm was covered in cuts, one after another. Really shook me.”

“Cuts?”

“Probably self-harm.”

Someone else chimed in: “Depression, maybe? A friend’s nephew has it too — attempted suicide right when he started high school, had to take half a year off school.”

“Maybe. Such a pretty young girl, and her arm looks like that. How does someone end up with an illness like that.”

There was a rustle of movement, the doctor’s chair spinning as she leaned toward the door. “Who’s there?”

A gust of air came through. No one answered.

…

…

Feng Ning sneezed twice in a row. She pulled her down jacket tighter around herself, covered in mud spots all over.

Feng Ning felt a small pang of regret.

This had been a brand-new outfit she’d just bought that afternoon, ruined now too.

Someone sat down beside her. Jiang Wen dropped the slip onto her lap.

Feng Ning picked it up and glanced at it. “Thanks.”

He was quiet for a moment, then made a small acknowledging sound.

Just the two of them there, with nothing else to do. Feng Ning’s gaze fell on his hand, and since there was nothing else to look at, she studied it for a while.

Jiang Wen’s hands were beautiful, the knuckles clean and well-defined, no accessories on them at all. Noticing the mud on his fingertips, she pulled a packet of wet wipes from her bag and held it out to him.

Jiang Wen stared straight ahead, not moving.

“Hey.” Feng Ning nudged his arm with the back of her hand. “What are you spacing out about.”

He turned his head, meeting her searching gaze with no particular expression, answering a beat late: “What?”

Feng Ning: “Wipe your hands off.”

…

…

Feng Ning’s number was called, and she went in first to get her X-ray.

Jiang Wen opened his phone.

His old QQ account hadn’t been used in a long time. Jiang Wen scrolled through his contact list and found Feng Ning.

Her Chibi Maruko-chan profile picture had gone gray.

Her display name still read “Devoted Fan of Guo Degang,” and her personal signature was frozen from eight years ago.

—If there really is such a thing as an indestructible cockroach in this world, its name must be Feng Ning. You’ve got this!!!!!!!

Jiang Wen closed his phone.

By the time they left the hospital, it was already quite late. They waited by the road for a car, and Jiang Wen suddenly said, “Your hand okay?”

She answered offhandedly, “Not broken.”

“Let me see.”

Feng Ning was a bit puzzled. “What’s there to see.”

Jiang Wen took hold of her wrist.

Feng Ning startled for a moment, then jerked her hand back sharply. “I told you, the doctor said it’s fine.”

Right then a car pulled up, and Feng Ning stepped forward, raising a hand to flag it down. She felt her other hand caught by Jiang Wen, gripped tight enough to hurt. “What’s wrong with you?”

Their eyes met, and Jiang Wen loosened his grip.

The street was fairly empty, the occasional car speeding past. In the night, he just kept looking at Feng Ning like that.

She looked back at him.

Something inside her sensed what was coming.

As if an eternity had passed, Jiang Wen repeated the words, one by one: “I want to see your hand.”

Feng Ning suddenly froze in place.

She knew, now, what Jiang Wen was talking about.