After chatting casually for a few more sentences, Zhou Mi put down her phone and hugged a pillow to her chest, spacing out for a while.

He Miaoyan glanced at her twice and clicked her tongue: “Look at how your mouth is curled up, it hasn’t come down even once.”

Zhou Mi narrowed her eyes at her: “What would a peony flower like you understand?”

He Miaoyan: “So now you’re discriminating against me, huh?”

Zhou Mi took off her cat ear headband, lay down flat, and crawled under the covers, sighing dramatically: “Aiya.”

“What are you sighing about?” He Miaoyan turned to face her and sighed lightly: “Seriously, what are you thinking?”

Zhou Mi asked: “What do you mean, what am I thinking?”

He Miaoyan replied: “About you and Zhang Lian. It’s never-ending, without any conclusion.”

The white ceiling light reflected in Zhou Mi’s eyes like two small pearls: “I don’t know,” they suddenly trembled with laughter: “But I still like him so much, and I think he likes me a lot too.”

He Miaoyan shuddered all over: “Ugh… how can you tell?”

Zhou Mi thought silently for a while: “Many ways. He still uses the ringtone I set for him, his phone lock password is still our old door lock password with my birthday in it, he didn’t delete our chat history, hasn’t changed his profile picture, and doesn’t want to return the ring I gave him. He hasn’t been with anyone else this year. The broken umbrella I said I didn’t want, he fixed it for me. He knows I didn’t mean I didn’t want it, you know? I can understand him, and he can understand me; we have that kind of tacit understanding. I used to think that being able to read someone was his ability, but now I realize he seems to only want to put effort into reading me.”

Her lips unconsciously changed from a straight line to a curve: “I don’t know if it’s because our relationship started too deeply, or maybe because I’ve shown him the most embarrassing and worst moments of my life multiple times. With him, I don’t need to wrap myself in any elaborate book cover or rack my brains to come up with a moving title or draw beautiful illustrations. I just need to be myself, even if my handwriting is messy or it looks like gibberish—he can still patiently read through it, interpret it, and give feedback. That’s the feeling, you know what I mean?”

She repeated with a smile: “So I think he likes me.”

“You know,” the flames in Zhou Mi’s eyes gradually became as calm as water: “Every time I see him, I have a feeling that there’s a silent confession within him, but he lacks someone to listen, even during the time we were together.”

She couldn’t help but choke up: “See, just talking about him makes my heart ache, feel empty, want to cry. I don’t know why, he’s like an emotional switch inside my body.”

He Miaoyan took a deep breath: “But he doesn’t want to get married.”

Zhou Mi wiped away the tiny bit of moisture at the corners of her eyes: “Sometimes I don’t understand if I really care about this or not. It seems dispensable, just something to show others, like what I just told you—a book’s binding. People think that a bright red ending page is complete, but I think keeping the original color is just as beautiful.”

“Marriage also seems very important. Without this contract and symbol, there’s no way to bind two people in love together for a lifetime. But what can it prove? That you are unique and irreplaceable to someone? Aren’t there plenty of cases of cheating and divorce too… If marriage eventually becomes a form of kidnapping your loved one, isn’t that terrifying? Isn’t that turning a fairy tale into a dark story?”

“When I got this diamond ring back today, I suddenly had the idea to check what series it actually is, because the first time I got it back, I directly put it in the safe without carefully examining it,” Zhou Mi laughed once: “Guess what it’s called?”

He Miaoyan asked: “What?”

“The One,” Zhou Mi’s tone became light, with a girlish delicacy and sweetness: “Wow, of all the choices, he had to pick this one. I wonder if he had feelings for me long before. During this period after breaking up with Jijie, I’ve been thinking about what I really want in love. Is it the promise of marriage? Someone like Jijie with his background would be even less likely to give me such a promise. Later I figured it out; I probably just want to become the name of this ring—an attitude of being ‘the one,’ a love of unique quality, a lover who lets me be me and treats me as me. I want to be real and unique in this story, not an alternate edition of another book.”

The room was quiet for a moment. He Miaoyan said: “You should record this speech, compress it, and send it to your boss’s email.”

Zhou Mi glanced sideways and pouted: “I won’t.”

He Miaoyan asked: “Why not?”

Zhou Mi picked up the little sheep beside her pillow and squeezed it: “I’m waiting for him to say it on his own, to tell me personally that I am that ‘the one.'”

He Miaoyan asked again: “How confident are you?”

Zhou Mi shook her head: “I don’t know, greater than or equal to 80% maybe.”

“That’s still good, much better than before,” He Miaoyan advised: “This time you absolutely must hold it together.”

Zhou Mi held the little sheep up to her face, her eyes bright with mischief: “Of course, I still want to enjoy his new round of love and attentiveness for a while.”

He Miaoyan pointed at her: “Wow, woman, you’re so devious.”

—

On Monday, just after arriving at the company, Zhou Mi opened WeChat and saw Yuan Zhen flooding the client department’s group chat with notices: Next weekend is the company’s annual team building event at Yuzhou Wanlong Ski Resort. We’ll fly there and stay for three days, leaving early Saturday and returning Monday evening. Everyone please arrange your time accordingly.

The northern girl Jenny was uncharacteristically excited: Skiing? I absolutely love it.

Yuan Zhen, skilled at mimicking colleagues’ regional dialects and catchphrases: You don’t say.

Jenny: …

Though Zhou Mi had traveled to many places before, because Lu Ming feared the cold, they had mainly clustered in the central and southern parts, so she had never personally experienced skiing. Curious, she privately messaged her leader about necessary preparations.

Jenny’s tone was indifferent: Bring your laptop and be ready at any time, in case clients suddenly disturb us.

Zhou Mi: …

During her lunch break, Zhou Mi took time to search online for first-time skiing tips and looked for ski suit styles on Taobao.

The afternoon was again spent in the meeting room with team members, frantically consuming brain cells and brainstorming ideas.

After chatting back and forth for over an hour, everyone was exhausted, and the topic turned to which fish oil products on the market were good.

After 9 PM, Zhou Mi was reviewing a PPT when she suddenly received a WeChat message from Zhang Lian: Still at the company?

Zhou Mi immediately closed the window on her computer and replied on her phone: Mm.

Zhang Lian asked: Do you still have work to do?

Zhou Mi glanced at her monitor: Not anymore.

Zhang Lian was direct: I just got back from outside, and I’m downstairs. I’ll take you home.

Zhou Mi replied: You go home first. I’ll take the bus back later.

Zhang Lian didn’t respond.

After parting ways with her colleagues at the building entrance, Zhou Mi spotted the man at the bus stop from a distance. He stood there motionless, his posture straight, without the hunched back common among tall people. The flowing lights of cars and people were all background scenery; time and airflow around him seemed to stand still.

This reminded Zhou Mi of the first time she saw him at the bar.

She paused, suddenly understanding why this person could navigate work so effortlessly. His cooperative attitude and execution ability were indeed astonishing.

She walked over.

Zhang Lian looked at her too.

Face to face, they silently gazed at each other for a few seconds. Zhou Mi asked: “Where’s your car?”

Zhang Lian said, “In the underground garage.”

Zhou Mi asked again: “What are you doing now?”

Zhang Lian replied: “Taking you to catch the bus home.”

A strange sweetness spread through her body, like unexpectedly seeing your secret boyfriend from another school waiting at the door after class—and he happened to be extremely handsome.

Zhou Mi couldn’t help but lift the corner of her mouth slightly: “Aren’t you afraid of being seen by your employees?”

“Haven’t you already seen me?” Zhang Lian’s brow furrowed slightly.

The smile in Zhou Mi’s eyes grew: “I meant other people.”

Zhang Lian asked: “What if they see us?”

Zhou Mi paused: “I don’t know, but it’s not good for either of us.”

Zhang Lian hinted at something: “Is your concern about appearances only directed at certain people?”

A sinking pain rose in Zhou Mi’s chest, and the light in her eyes faded. She looked straight back: “What do you mean?”

Zhang Lian stared at her intently: “Exactly what you understood it to mean.”

Zhou Mi’s face tightened: “What’s there to hide about a normal romantic relationship?”

Zhang Lian’s lips pressed slightly as he looked elsewhere. A huge bus like a blue whale slowly stopped in front of them. As the folding doors opened, he looked back, the sharpness in his eyes gone as if it had never existed: “Get on the bus.”

Zhou Mi boarded first, with Zhang Lian following behind.

Skillfully scanning her card with her phone, it beeped. Zhou Mi turned to look at Zhang Lian, considering whether to pay for him. Finally, she raised her hand again and gestured to the driver: “Him too.”

The driver nodded slightly.

Zhang Lian put his phone back in his pants pocket.

At this time, the bus wasn’t crowded but wasn’t empty either, with passengers mostly gathered in the front seats near the door.

Perhaps because of their attractive appearance, others couldn’t help but look at them.

Zhou Mi walked toward the second-to-last row. Holding the back of the seat, she didn’t rush to sit down but turned to ask: “Do you want the window seat?”

Zhang Lian said, “You sit inside.”

Zhou Mi didn’t insist and moved to the inner side.

After she sat down, Zhang Lian sat down beside her. The narrow space between rows made him look uncomfortable, but his expression was composed. No matter what environment he was in, he was like clear moonlight.

Zhou Mi took out her phone, absent-mindedly checked her WeChat messages, then put it back in her tote bag. After a while, she took it out again, not knowing what to do.

Zhang Lian also remained silent.

In the dark, narrow seats, they were like two strangers who had accidentally fallen into the same trap, unable to think of a way out for the moment, only able to accompany each other in silence.

Halfway through the journey, to avoid an electric scooter running a red light, the driver suddenly slammed on the brakes.

Zhou Mi, who had been looking down at her phone, lurched forward due to inertia. At the same moment, Zhang Lian used his arm to block her from hitting the seat in front.

For a moment, noise erupted in the bus. Some people cursed, others were still recovering from the shock.

Zhou Mi reacted and tucked her hair, thanking him.

Zhang Lian didn’t say anything.

The next second, Zhou Mi’s heart violently trembled. The man’s arm hadn’t completely withdrawn; her hand was unexpectedly grasped.

She instinctively tried to break free, but he stubbornly held on. Their hands, like a pair of white, fierce birds, struggled on the brown leather for quite a while. Finally, Zhang Lian released his strength, but Zhou Mi didn’t pull away because her emotions had been surrounded and were surrendering. The skin of the man’s hand was a long-missed warmth, broad and immensely soothing and dissolving.

It was unsolvable.

Pain, sweetness, despair, yearning.

Zhou Mi’s eyes began to fill with tears, about to fall. She quickly wiped them away with her other hand, then rested it on the edge of the window.

She also completely refused to look at Zhang Lian’s current appearance, to judge his current state, only turning her head to stare at her reflection in the window glass, her eyes moist.

Zhou Mi’s chest rose and fell rapidly.

It was as if she might suffocate in his hand, yet also as if she had finally found the right air—she needed to breathe deeply and compensate.

After a silent moment, Zhang Lian’s face turned toward the same window, facing her directly, partially overlapping with hers.

He looked at her, and she looked at him. In the night lights, they were semi-transparent, as if looking at each other’s souls.

Shortly after, Zhang Lian released her hand, his attractive lips slightly parting: “Bored? Want to listen to some music?”

Zhou Mi was startled but agreed. She turned her head to take his earphone case, took them out, and put them in her left and right ears.

A melody without introduction instantly sounded in her ears:

“If I were the question, would you be my answer

If I were the music, would you be the dancer

If I were the student, would you be the teacher

If I were the sinner, would you be the preacher?”