The call went out quickly. Wu Xinghai greeted the person on the other end with his usual warm enthusiasm:

“Hey! Su Man, it’s me — Wu Xinghai! …Got something to ask you. It’s been ages since all of us from the old compound got together. Are you free this Saturday? …Right, the plan is to get everyone together for a meal… Oh, is that so? Alright then… some other time.”

Wu Xinghai sighed and ended the call.

Li Li stared at him. “What did she say?”

Wu Xinghai replied with disappointment. “Su Man says she already has plans on Saturday.”

Li Li was stunned for a moment, then an expression of utter contempt settled across his face. He gave a cold snort. “It’s definitely that man again. These days she’s going out with him nearly every night. Always gets back in the dead of night.”

“He’s pressing that hard?” Wu Xinghai shook his head. “Dinner together on weeknights, seeing each other on the weekend too — I can tell this guy has an agenda. Li Li, you need to think of a countermove.”

“A countermove?” Li Li’s face stayed stony. “Let her do whatever she wants. I couldn’t care less.”

He refused to lower himself for Su Man.

Absolutely not.

Wu Xinghai glanced at him, sighed, and said, “Well, suit yourself. After all, she’s not my childhood sweetheart. If she’s gone, she’s gone~”

With that, Wu Xinghai grabbed his drink and went to dance with the others. He swiveled his hips, swayed his waist, having the time of his life.

……

Li Li looked at his own glass. Emotions kept rising inside him in waves, like someone had poured a full glass of sparkling wine into his chest — bubbling, churning, impossible to settle.

——After all, she’s not my childhood sweetheart. If she’s gone, she’s gone.

Whose childhood sweetheart was Su Man?

His.

He and Su Man had gone to the same kindergarten since they were small, the same elementary school, the same secondary school. Though he’d skipped a grade at some point, so they hadn’t always been in the same class, they’d always walked to and from school together. He’d helped her work through difficult homework problems; she’d helped him deal with the problem kids at school who gave him trouble.

They had been so good together. How could some man have appeared out of nowhere and started whisking her away in just a few days?

Li Li drank cup after cup, the alcohol beginning to take hold.

His mind felt like a tug-of-war. On one side, his pride howled at him to let her go. On the other, there was something emotional in him that couldn’t let go — anger, resentment, contempt, and… jealousy.

……

Because of that fight with Li Li, Su Man’s mood was like a volcano on the verge of eruption, liable to go off at any moment.

She did have one saving grace, though: her brain was always single-threaded. Once she entered work mode, the only thing in her head was work. Everything else was swept cleanly out and forgotten without a trace.

But when work ended and she was off the clock, those insults and cutting words flooded back — and she was furious all over again. She could have torn Li Li limb from limb right then and there.

Who gave him the right to say that about her?!

Who?!!

Su Man simply could not revisit the memory without the anger igniting all over again.

Still carrying that fire with her, she was walking with sharp, heavy strides when she heard a colleague say someone was looking for her. Her emotions not yet reined in, she snapped fiercely: “Who?!”

The colleague flinched and froze on the spot.

But over in the front lobby’s waiting area, a man rose with a smile, his voice low and even: “What’s wrong? You look like you’re in a bad mood.”

That voice — low, warm, steady — was unmistakably familiar.

Su Man instantly dropped her fiercest expression, and walked toward him with a hint of surprise. “What brought you here?”

Lu Yuwen smiled. “I was passing by. Saw it was just about time for you to get off work, so I came in to try my luck.”

Su Man smiled too. “Right, I just got off.”

Then she felt a little sheepish. “This morning when you messaged about Saturday lunch, I assumed we weren’t meeting this evening. So I didn’t bring a change of clothes…”

Showing up to a Western restaurant in a traffic enforcement uniform — that would have to look pretty odd, wouldn’t it?