Back at home, Ruan Sixian stood in front of the mirror for a long time.

Why didn’t he remember her?

Was her face that ordinary?

That couldn’t be possible.

After pondering for a long while without coming to any conclusion, Ruan Sixian could only attribute it to Fu Mingyu being too busy with countless affairs, his brain overloaded, thus entering early-onset dementia—she should be kind to him.

The kind-hearted Ruan Sixian decided to work up a sweat. There was no frustration that exercise couldn’t solve; if it didn’t work, then the amount of exercise wasn’t enough.

The community where Ruan Sixian had newly rented her apartment had a well-equipped gym, a perk from the property management for residents. It wasn’t open to the public, so there weren’t many people. It was her first visit today, and there were only a few people in the equipment area.

Seeing the clean towels, mineral water, and personal trainers who properly kept their distance without pushing sales, Ruan Sixian felt her money was well spent.

The gym was quiet, with occasional energetic music coming from the adjacent dance studio. Ruan Sixian increased the hydraulic cylinder step by step to the rhythm of the music.

Until a male voice interrupted her.

“Beautiful lady, can I get your WeChat?”

A pair of running shoes appeared in her line of sight first. Looking up, she saw a man about twenty-seven or twenty-eight smiling at her, without a phone in his hand.

The rejection in Ruan Sixian’s eyes couldn’t have been more obvious, but the man just smiled and patted the arm machine.

“Impressive! You are a pilot. That arm strength isn’t something ordinary people can match.”

Ruan Sixian raised an eyebrow.

Who are you?

The man turned to face Ruan Sixian and extended his hand: “Yan An. ‘Yan’ as in banquet, ‘An’ as in safety.”

Yan An?

Ruan Sixian gave him a quick once-over.

Although this man seemed flippant, ordinary people wouldn’t dare flaunt such a name.

“Hello, CEO Yan.” While shaking hands with Yan An, she asked, “How did you recognize me?”

“I’ve seen your photo before, haven’t I? I noticed you when you first came in and wondered what a coincidence this was.”

Yan An leaned against the arm machine, looking relaxed.

He glanced at Ruan Sixian’s arm and added, “But when I saw you using this machine, I was pretty much certain.”

“I see…”

Some people, despite wearing expensive clothes, naturally exude approachability. Yan An was such a person. Though he seemed careless, he had no airs at all. Without realizing it, Ruan Sixian had chatted with him quite a bit, learning that he also lived here. He had just returned from North Airlines headquarters today and, having a rare day off, came here to exercise.

What Yan An didn’t mention was that he only occasionally stayed here for a night.

But it didn’t matter. From now on, he would be living here regularly.

Speaking of North Airlines, Yan An couldn’t help but speak sourly about Fu Mingyu, “It’s a pity that you went to World Airlines and have to work under Fu Mingyu. That man is dark inside despite his cool exterior. He usually looks like an iceberg and doesn’t talk much, but once you offend him, he’ll make your life miserable. Be careful.”

Ruan Sixian smiled and agreed.

Seeing her relaxed demeanor, Yan An also became more at ease. He sat on the nearby ab crunch machine and said, “You see, I’m an easy person to get along with. If you had come to North Airlines, we could have had a happy working environment every day. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

Yan An was just chatting casually. As they continued talking, the conversation turned to Ruan Sixian herself.

“You used to work at COMAC, right? What made you decide to become a pilot?”

Ruan Sixian nodded, “Yes, I joined three years ago, just in time for the last period of independent pilot recruitment, so I thought I’d give it a try.”

“That’s great. I know quite a few people from COMAC applied internally, but very few were selected.”

Yan An stroked his chin, suddenly remembering something. “Oh, we have a flight dispatcher at North Airlines who also came from COMAC. I think she was in the same batch as you at the flight academy.”

“Yes, it’s Si Xiaozhen. We know each other. We both went to COMAC together, but she didn’t pass the assessment at the flight academy and became a flight dispatcher instead.”

“Well, being a flight dispatcher is not bad either. A ground captain, right?”

At this point, Yan An realized he had been taking up quite a bit of Ruan Sixian’s time, so he stood up to leave. “You continue with your workout. I have something to attend to, so I’ll go first.”

Ruan Sixian nodded and moved toward another piece of equipment.

Yan An turned back and said, “By the way, let’s add each other on WeChat. If we can’t be colleagues, we can still be friends, right?”

Having chatted several times, Ruan Sixian naturally wouldn’t refuse. She told him her phone number so he could search for her WeChat. Yan An smiled and left.

But Yan An’s chat with Ruan Sixian at the gym directly caused him to be late for his gathering with friends.

It wasn’t a big deal though, just friends hanging out, nothing important—it just happened that several of them were free today.

In the top-floor private room of Warner Estate in the western suburbs of Jiang City, only a soft yellow lantern hung from the ceiling was lit. It absorbed and dispersed most of the white smoke rising in the room. The specially carved screens served the same purpose, allowing most of the men in the room to hold cigarettes without any irritating smell.

Yan An pushed open the door. The first thing he saw was a table of people playing cards, so he said, “I feel lucky today. Let someone get up so I can join in.”

Someone at the card table looked up at him. “You have the nerve to ask after arriving late? Get lost.”

Yan An laughed flippantly and walked around the screen to find the bathroom.

A few people were sitting on the sofa there, both men and women, but Yan An immediately noticed Fu Mingyu sitting in the center.

“Well, well, the sun is rising from the west today? The busy Director Fu is here as well?”

Behind the screen, the lighting was dimmer. Fu Mingyu had a cigarette in his mouth and was bending over to reach for the lighter on the table. Hearing this, his movements paused briefly. He lifted his chin and gave Yan An a meaningless glance.

At this moment, the woman beside him quickly pressed the lighter, leaning forward to bring the flickering flame to Fu Mingyu’s face.

Fu Mingyu looked at her, his gaze as emotionless as when he looked at Yan An.

The woman nervously watched Fu Mingyu, her hand trembling slightly, causing the flame to flicker.

He eventually tilted his head, inhaling lightly. The cigarette tip lit up with a red glow, which spread and brightened as he inhaled, seemingly illuminating his entire face.

It also lit up the woman’s eyes, and a smile spread across her face.

But in the next second, as Fu Mingyu exhaled a wisp of white smoke, he placed the cigarette next to the ashtray.

The cigarette gradually extinguished there.

Yan An came out of the bathroom and found a seat, which happened to be next to Fu Mingyu.

He glanced at the woman beside Fu Mingyu. “Oh, Director Fu’s girlfriend?”

Fu Mingyu, with his back to the woman, shot Yan An a look.

It took Yan An a moment to process, examining the woman twice before it dawned on him that Fu Mingyu was probably saying, “Do you think my taste is as bad as yours, preferring cosmetically enhanced faces?”

This was insulting. Yan An felt he had made some progress lately.

Just then, Zhu Dong’s girlfriend from the card table pointed at Yan An. “Don’t talk nonsense. That’s my friend who came to hang out today. Let me introduce you—she’s Xia Yiyi. You know her, right?”

With this explanation from the sister-in-law figure, several people around chuckled.

Everyone knew Yan An loved internet celebrities. No one in their circle knew more about the gossip between these online stars than he did.

But Yan An ignored the teasing. When he heard the name “Xia Yiyi,” he stretched his neck to look over, openly examining her until Xia Yiyi became embarrassed. Only then did Yan An realize his rudeness and coughed twice to show his awkwardness.

He knew the name, but why did she look so different from her photos?

Especially annoying was that Fu Mingyu, who noticed his shock, actually gave him a rare smile before getting up to watch the card game.

This left Yan An sitting with Xia Yiyi.

What the hell was this situation…

Yan An and Xia Yiyi exchanged a glance. She smiled politely, but her gaze quickly returned to Fu Mingyu’s back.

Yan An gave a cold smile toward Fu Mingyu’s back and walked over, standing beside him, leaning on Zhu Dong’s shoulder.

“Play the four circles tile. Do you even know how to play mahjong? If not, get up and let me play. Director Fu, do you want to play? Or should we go shoot some pool?”

Fu Mingyu lit another cigarette, always with that tone that suggested he couldn’t be bothered with Yan An. “Not interested.”

“I see that young lady back there is quite interested in you.”

“Is that so?” Fu Mingyu responded, noticing Xia Yiyi and Zhu Dong’s girlfriend leaving arm in arm, with Xia Yiyi looking back at him.

Fu Mingyu pretended not to notice the look. Once they were gone, he said, “I don’t want my name appearing alongside an internet celebrity’s in entertainment news, then after breaking up, having her fans dig up my background, cursing me to hell, and having my car keys confiscated by the family patriarch.”

The card table erupted in laughter again.

Used to Fu Mingyu’s mockery, Yan An gave another cold smile, ignoring him. He bent down and hooked his arm around Zhu Dong’s neck. “By the way, I recently met a female pilot. She’s incredible, I tell you. Even more beautiful than those female celebrities. Can you believe she’s a pilot?”

Fu Mingyu’s eyes flickered slightly, his index finger curling to tap off some ash.

Upon hearing about a female pilot “more beautiful than celebrities,” the men at the card table could no longer focus on their stiff mahjong tiles.

“Really? Show us a photo.”

Yan An took out his phone, his eyes full of pride. “Sure, let me check my Moments. I’m not exaggerating. If I could marry a female pilot, my old man would wake up smiling even in his sleep. He’d probably kneel in the ancestral hall to thank our ancestors for their blessing.”

Zhu Dong arranged his tiles and glanced at Yan An. “Not bad, you move fast. Yesterday you were almost trending because your ex-girlfriend cursed you out, and today you’ve already got a female pilot’s WeChat. But she’s a woman who can fly in the sky—do you think she’d be interested in you?”

Yan An raised his eyebrows, his fingers scrolling quickly.

“That’s not certain. Oh right, Director Fu is something—he snatched this person away from our North Airlines.” As he spoke, he turned to look at Fu Mingyu. “Director Fu, you stole my person, surely you won’t interfere with free love, right?”

Yan An just had a loose mouth. Even knowing he would only receive a cold Fu-style smirk, he still said it.

“You never know about that.”

Yan An pretended not to hear Fu Mingyu’s words and continued scrolling through his phone. “Hey, no selfies in her Moments? Tsk, true beauties are like this—they never take photos.”

Several people laughed with jeering sounds, familiar with his tendency to hype up every girlfriend like this.

Only Fu Mingyu quietly kept his gaze on Yan An’s phone screen.

He exited WeChat, searched through his emails for a while, finally found the resume his assistant had sent him, then downloaded the first attachment, scrolled to the middle, and opened an image. He passed the phone to the center of the card table.

“Look, look. Don’t say I’m bluffing you.”

Several pairs of eyes simultaneously fixed on the phone, and for an instant, the private room fell into intense silence. The men’s hormones seemed more pronounced through the cigarette smoke.

In that moment of amazement, Zhu Dong acted first, grabbing the phone. Looking at it twice wasn’t enough; just as his two fingers were about to zoom in on the photo, his girlfriend returned with Xia Yiyi.

Before anyone could speak, Zhu Dong, with a strong survival instinct, tossed the phone away and called out, “Play your tile! Are we still playing or not?”

Yan An rolled his eyes and was about to retrieve his phone when someone across from him grabbed it and raised his eyebrows at Fu Mingyu. “Aren’t you going to take a look?”

Fu Mingyu, with one hand in his pocket, didn’t respond and turned to walk toward the sofa.

That person grinned as he lowered his head to zoom in on the picture. After looking for a while, he clicked his tongue in admiration: “This elegance is extraordinary. And in that uniform… By the way, who here has a uniform fetish? Zhu Dong, don’t you want to take a closer look? I remember you have a thing for uniforms.”

With his girlfriend present, Zhu Dong shot him a glare: “Don’t talk nonsense. Since when do I have a uniform fetish?”

Then he turned his gaze toward Fu Mingyu, and everyone followed suit. Around them were deliberately suppressed laughs.

At the center of their attention, Fu Mingyu lowered his eyes and bent over to extinguish his cigarette.

That night, Ruan Sixian was lying in bed with a face mask on when she received a friend request.

Without any message explaining who it was, Ruan Sixian could only guess based on the profile picture and name.

But women have a natural sixth sense, and Ruan Sixian knew who it was after just a brief look.

Ruan Sixian sighed. Her normally inactive Moments finally had new content.

[Why doesn’t the WeChat friend request system add a “Reject” option? It’s such a shame that the other person can’t see the word “Reject.” It would be even better if there was a “Never accept this person’s request” option.]

Bai Yang, who happened to be scrolling through Moments, was the first to reply.

Bai Yang: Maybe it’s to protect the other person’s self-esteem. Don’t pay attention to someone like that [grinning]

Ruan Sixian nodded and replied: You make a good point [thumbs up]. It seems I’m not as thoughtful as you. WeChat is so humane.

Seeing this comment, Bai Yang couldn’t help but laugh. His gossip instinct was triggered, and he wanted to type more to continue the conversation, not even noticing Fu Mingyu speaking to him.

Only when the cool gaze from beside him looked over did Bai Yang sense something was wrong. He sheepishly asked, “Director Fu, what did you just say?”

The car was speeding down the highway, with neon lights flickering outside the window. Fu Mingyu’s eyebrows were slightly raised, showing extreme impatience.

Fortunately, he hadn’t said anything important, and it was rare to see Bai Yang so distracted.

“What are you laughing at?”

Bai Yang touched his nose and said quietly, “Nothing much. Just looking at that female pilot’s Moments. She has quite a personality.”

Thinking Fu Mingyu was just making casual conversation, Bai Yang gave a casual response. Unexpectedly, Fu Mingyu asked further, “What happened?”

So Bai Yang handed his phone over for Fu Mingyu to see.

Just one glance.

And Fu Mingyu’s face visibly darkened at an alarming rate.

“Is it funny?”