Cars sped across the overpass, kicking up dust. The sunlight reflecting through the car window was particularly blinding.

Inside the car lingered a faint, subtle, crisp fragrance.

Ruan Sixian sat quietly in the passenger seat. Her wandering thoughts were drawn to this scent. She sniffed lightly, somewhat curious about where the smell was coming from.

There was no air freshener in front of the car seat, nothing hanging from the rearview mirror, and nothing in the storage compartment beside the gearshift.

Her gaze gradually searched toward the driver’s seat. Fu Mingyu had just stopped at a red light and looked over at her.

Ruan Sixian: “…”

As soon as their eyes met, she turned her face away, coldly looking straight ahead.

She began to recall why she was sitting in his passenger seat.

It must have been the sun making her dizzy, or Fu Mingyu making her dizzy.

This man was so shameless—he had cornered her at the entrance of Shihang Airlines. In the bustling midday crowd, he wouldn’t leave if she didn’t get in the car, letting all the passing employees watch them.

As the dignified director and future president, couldn’t he have some dignity?

Judging by his attitude, if she hadn’t gotten in the car today, he probably would have followed her all the way home.

“I’m not angry because of you today,” Ruan Sixian brooded for a long while before deciding to explain the most crucial point, otherwise Fu Mingyu would overthink again. “The weather is too hot, I’m irritable. I’d be this way with anyone who approached me.”

Fu Mingyu casually responded with an “Oh.”

Ruan Sixian frowned at him. “Really.”

Fu Mingyu’s expression remained unchanged. “Mm, I understand.”

But why did Ruan Sixian not believe his words at all?

What was wrong with this person? Did he enjoy making people angry at him?

Ruan Sixian stared at him with suppressed anger and bulging eyes, but he did not react.

After holding back for a long time without getting any response from him, Ruan Sixian chose to shut up.

She knew that if she opened her mouth again now, she might fall into another trap set by him.

Exhausted, truly exhausted.

The car was silent for a while before Fu Mingyu suddenly asked, “What are you thinking about?”

Ruan Sixian replied expressionlessly, “Oh, I’m thinking about getting a driver’s license as soon as possible.”

To avoid being dragged into the passenger seat because she didn’t have a car.

Fu Mingyu understood what she meant.

Get a driver’s license, drive herself, and avoid him using this excuse to force himself on her.

He wondered if she had ever had such thoughts when riding in Yan An’s car.

He gave a cold laugh.

“Ruan Sixian, what exactly do I lack compared to Yan An?”

?

Ruan Sixian looked at him, bewildered. “Why are you suddenly bringing him up?”

Fu Mingyu narrowed his eyes slightly.

He didn’t want to ask this kind of question.

He had never even thought about comparing himself with Yan An.

But since they had both been rejected—

“Why can you talk calmly with him, let him drive you around, but not me?” He turned to look at Ruan Sixian. “How are he and I different?”

Of course, they’re different.

These words nearly slipped out, fortunately, Ruan Sixian stopped herself in time.

But what was different?

Fu Mingyu would press her for an answer, but after thinking in circles, she didn’t know how to respond.

They just were different.

They had stopped at another red light. Fu Mingyu parked the car and stared directly at Ruan Sixian, waiting for her to continue.

Ruan Sixian forced a smile and said, “You’re more handsome than him. Happy now?”

Fu Mingyu again showed no reaction, slowly withdrawing his gaze as the light ahead turned green. He stepped on the accelerator.

The car shot forward, the scenery rapidly receding behind them, and the car interior fell silent again.

However, just when Ruan Sixian thought her perfunctory answer had put the topic to rest, she heard him say lightly: “Oh, so you’re afraid you might fall for me?”

“…”

“Fu! Ming! Yu!”

The girl beside him seemed to have reached her limit of patience again—one more poke and she would explode.

He knew she would be angry when he said those words, but hearing her reaction, Fu Mingyu felt an inexplicable trace of joy welling up inside him.

He faintly curved his lips into a smile and said nothing more.

Ten minutes later, the car slowly stopped at the building.

When Ruan Sixian got out, she didn’t thank Fu Mingyu, but he didn’t mind—after all, he had insisted on sending her home.

Fu Mingyu sat in the car, watching her stride into the lobby until she disappeared into the elevator.

His phone suddenly rang. Fu Mingyu glanced at it; it was a message from Zheng You’an asking if he wanted to see the photos taken that day.

Photos of Ruan Sixian?

Fu Mingyu replied: Sure.

After receiving this message, Zheng You’an shut herself in the darkroom.

Although film cameras had gradually been discontinued, Zheng You’an still appreciated film cameras for their color reproduction and image clarity, so the darkroom remained something of a sacred place to her.

She had high standards for photography, and fortunately, her family was affluent enough to indulge her whims, with lenses piled up like mountains at home.

Her achievements were impressive as well. At thirteen, her family had organized a photography exhibition for her. At fifteen, she went abroad to study, and in seven years, she had created many award-winning works. Her father was proud of her, bragging about her achievements to everyone he met. Her friends often asked her to take photos for them, their eyes full of admiration.

Even her teachers had hardly ever criticized her work.

The confidence cultivated since childhood made her increasingly stringent with her own work. Even though this time she was only shooting a recruitment promotional video, she treated it like an art film.

But what had Fu Mingyu said?

“Indeed not very good.”

Even after so much time had passed, Zheng You’an still felt uncomfortable whenever she recalled those words.

When I say my work isn’t very good, I’m being modest. When you say my work isn’t very good, you’re blind.

The more she thought about it, the more indignant she became. Even the soothing music in the darkroom couldn’t ease her mood.

When the photos were developed, she admired them by herself for a long time.

Your Shihang Airlines has never had such artistic promotional photos.

Never.

After sending the scanned high-definition photos to Bai Yang’s email, Zheng You’an quietly waited for Fu Mingyu’s evaluation.

However, half an hour passed, and there was still no response.

Zheng You’an couldn’t help but send another message: Brother Mingyu, have you seen them?

At this moment, Fu Mingyu had just returned to Shihang.

On his desk lay the newly drafted “Negative Application List for Flight Data,” his most important recent work.

After seeing Zheng You’an’s message, Fu Mingyu replied “Wait a moment, I’m busy,” and then went to the meeting room.

It was the first meeting about reforming flight quality monitoring, and the shareholder representatives sitting below had come with opposing views.

The meeting lasted for seven hours.

When Fu Mingyu walked out of the meeting room, it was already dark.

Bai Yang followed behind him and said, “Director Fu just called to inquire about today’s meeting. Should we call him back now?”

“Not urgent,” Fu Mingyu walked toward his office. “No need to report to him before the results are out.”

Sitting in his office, Fu Mingyu took off his jacket and draped his arm over the backrest, lazily looking at the neon lights outside the floor-to-ceiling window.

After the various arguments filling his mind gradually dissipated, Fu Mingyu rubbed his brow bone and suddenly remembered something.

“Bai Yang, didn’t Miss Zheng send new photos today?”

Bai Yang nodded and said, “She sent them a while ago. Would you like to see them now?”

Fu Mingyu: “Yes.”

The photos Zheng You’an sent were very large, and Bai Yang spent a lot of time decompressing them.

While waiting, he propped his chin and watched the progress bar, his eyes half-closed.

He wanted to tell Miss Zheng to just send photos of Ruan Sixian—after all, their busy Director Fu didn’t have time to look at anyone else.

Twenty minutes later, Bai Yang displayed the photos sent by Zheng You’an on the office screen.

Fu Mingyu sat relaxed on the sofa, holding the remote control. After flipping through several photos without seeing what he wanted, he went directly to the directory and selected Ruan Sixian’s photos.

Bai Yang thought expressionlessly beside him: Just as expected.

Who knows how much time had passed—Bai Yang was nearly falling into a trance when Fu Mingyu finally casually scrolled through the other photos.

But seconds later, he flipped back to Ruan Sixian’s photos.

Who knows how long he would look this time?

Bai Yang wanted to go home.

He stepped forward and said, “Would you like me to send these photos to your phone?”

Fu Mingyu raised his gaze, staring directly at Bai Yang.

Bai Yang immediately became alert, all drowsiness was gone.

However, in the next second, Fu Mingyu uttered a single word.

“Good.”

At the same time, Fu Mingyu opened his phone, and dozens of messages instantly flooded in.

He briefly scanned through them, automatically ignoring the unimportant ones, but became curious seeing that Zheng You’an had sent him several consecutive messages.

Six hours ago. “Have you seen them? What do you think?”

Four hours ago. “Brother Mingyu?”

Two hours ago. “Director Fu? Have you seen them?”

Ten minutes ago. “Director Fu, please just take a quick look and give some feedback if possible [smile]”

Seeing her eagerness, Fu Mingyu recalled those photos again.

The selected scenes, shooting angles, and composition all had distinctive characteristics, and the lighting was clever.

But they were excessively refined, lacking a momentary atmosphere.

In summary, they were a series of very delicate portrait works, but as promotional material, they had their priorities wrong.

However, this wasn’t important—it was just recruitment promotion, and letting Zheng You’an practice didn’t matter.

Fu Mingyu stood up with his coat, preparing to go home, and gave Zheng You’an a simple two-word reply.

“Not bad.”

This message sank like a stone, with no reply from Zheng You’an.

When getting into the car, the driver asked Fu Mingyu where to go.

Fu Mingyu closed his eyes briefly. “Mingchen Apartments.”

The night was thick, lights shone from countless homes, the car windows were closed, and the interior was quiet and cool.

Fu Mingyu loosened his tie and slept for a while, naturally opening his eyes as they were about to reach Mingchen Apartments.

He turned his head slightly, looking out the window, and suddenly said, “Stop the car.”

Ruan Sixian had moved here a few months ago but hadn’t properly explored the surrounding environment. It wasn’t until tonight, wanting to cook for herself, that she opened the map to find a supermarket and discovered a pedestrian street two or three kilometers away.

She took a shower and went out, strolling over unhurriedly. But before entering the supermarket, she saw a long queue in front of a clam noodle shop.

Walking closer, the aroma was enticing.

Ruan Sixian unconsciously stopped and stood at the end of the queue.

With such fragrant clam noodles, why bother cooking?

She had been waiting for nearly twenty minutes, but the line had moved less than two meters. Standing on tiptoes to look, she saw the shop was preparing takeout orders again.

Ruan Sixian touched her stomach and began to consider giving up—if she waited any longer, she would starve.

Just then, her phone rang once.

She opened it to find a message from Fu Mingyu.

[Fu Mingyu]: Dinner together?

Just seeing his name brought back memories of the car ride that morning.

Even now, thinking back on it, Ruan Sixian still felt something was off.

Why couldn’t she articulate the difference between him and Yan An?

She also wondered why she couldn’t talk calmly with Fu Mingyu.

Even when Fu Mingyu said, “Are you afraid you might fall for me?” she found herself genuinely afraid.

This feeling was too frustrating; she didn’t want to experience that atmosphere again.

[Ruan Sixian]: No thanks, I’ve already eaten.

After sending the message, Ruan Sixian took a deep breath.

But immediately after, his message came again.

[Fu Mingyu]: I’m behind you.

Ruan Sixian’s breath suddenly tightened, and her back instantly straightened.

How did this person appear out of nowhere?

Without turning to look, Ruan Sixian lowered her head to type.

[Ruan Sixian]: Behind me is a pig farm.

At such moments, her perception was especially acute. Ruan Sixian felt someone approaching her from behind.

But she still didn’t turn around.

Until a few seconds later, when a middle-aged woman carrying a garbage bin passed by her and returned to the shop.

Fu Mingyu hadn’t come over, but his message arrived.

[Fu Mingyu]: Weren’t you thinking about raising pigs recently?

Ruan Sixian: “…”