Li Weiyi walked out of her sister’s house, forcefully suppressing her tears, with only one thought—find Zhang Jingchan immediately.

She pulled out her phone and searched online for news about Fuming Group, seeing line after line of bright red text: “Provincial Real Estate Giant Fuming Group Declares Bankruptcy Due to Insolvency,” “In-Depth Analysis of Why Business Prodigy Zhang Moyun’s Generation Declined,” “Lessons from Fuming Group’s Rapid Growth and Overnight Collapse”… All dated eight years ago.

Her heart sank deeper and deeper. Under the glaring daylight, she could barely stand.

Li Weiyi took a taxi straight to Zhang Jingchan’s Huicui Technology. Still the same business park from last time, still that three-story white building. Li Weiyi walked to the receptionist with red eyes: “I’m Li Weiyi, here to see Zhang Jingchan.”

The receptionist immediately nodded: “President Zhang gave instructions this morning. Please follow me.” She respectfully led Li Weiyi to the elevator, brought her to the third floor, and handed her over to the secretary. The secretary also looked extremely solemn, leading Li Weiyi to Zhang Jingchan’s office door. She knocked twice, gently pushed it open: “President Zhang, Miss Li is here.”

In broad daylight, the lights weren’t on, and the curtains were closed except for a narrow gap. The office was as dim as dusk falling. Zhang Jingchan sat behind his desk—who knew how long he’d been sitting there. His suit and shirt collar hung open, his tie messily tossed on the desktop. He raised his head to look at that sliver of light from the window, his features blurred.

“Didn’t you say… he changed his mind?” Zhang Jingchan asked, his voice both soft and hoarse.

Li Weiyi’s heart felt like it had been stung by a needle. She answered: “At the time, he really did say he would never be greedy again…”

“You believe whatever he says?!” Zhang Jingchan interrupted her. “In the end, even I believed it… I never should have believed your words. An outsider—what do you know? You don’t understand him at all. He was just placating you, heh, placating me. That’s all.”

He stared straight at her, his gaze ice-cold to the extreme: “Zhang Moyun only has money in his heart, only profit. Face is more important than the sky to him. How could he possibly return to a penniless life, change his ways completely after you lectured him once? I should have realized this from the start. But it doesn’t matter now anyway. He’s already dead. He committed suicide with sleeping pills ten days ago, giving up on himself even earlier than in the previous life. I couldn’t even… make it in time. I was utterly foolish. Destiny cannot be rewritten. I should never have harbored such unrealistic fantasies.”

Li Weiyi’s tears welled up. She stood forlornly in the middle of the room, asking him: “You don’t believe me? I really did it! He wouldn’t do that!”

Zhang Jingchan laughed softly: “He fooled you, tricked you.”

Tricked nineteen-year-old me.

Li Weiyi, already suppressing the pain of losing her father, suddenly felt extremely angry and upset. She cursed: “Zhang Jingchan, you’re the utterly foolish one! You don’t understand him at all, and you don’t understand me either! Just keep sitting here alone lighting firecrackers—wallowing in self-pity! I don’t need you either. If I can’t rewrite it once, I’ll do it a second time! If not twice, then three times! I will never give up!”

As she rushed to the door, she turned back and shouted “Idiot!” Her footsteps went “thump thump thump” and disappeared.

Zhang Jingchan sat in that chair, staring at the open door, unmoving for a long while.

Li Weiyi ran crying all the way downstairs, bursting out of Huicui Technology’s entrance. Outside, the sun was bright and the air was cold. She walked aimlessly.

This was a new business park, with wide spaces and sparse buildings, large green belts between the structures. Li Weiyi walked among the trees, finally ending up she didn’t know where—a corner of a garden. She found a long bench and sat down silently.

The tears had stopped flowing, but her eyes were swollen. Her mind was empty. How to find her father, whether she could find him—these were all unknowns. She clenched her hands tightly, placed them on her legs, and stared blankly at the sunlight between the buildings.

In truth, only about ten minutes had passed since she ran down.

Someone sat down beside her, in a black coat with smooth fabric and sharp tailoring, next to her light-colored down jacket. Li Weiyi only glanced once, then turned her head away, ignoring him.

Zhang Jingchan’s back bent forward, bringing his face level with hers. He rested both elbows on his thighs, clasped his hands together, and after a moment of silence said: “Just now… I was a bit confused. I’m sorry.”

Li Weiyi snorted coldly: “What are you apologizing for? From childhood you’ve been President Zhang, high and mighty, ordering people around. I’m just a small employee, ranked seventy-second no less! So much worse than you—easily tricked and brainless. How could I accept an apology from you? What a joke!”

She stood to leave, but Zhang Jingchan grabbed her and pulled her back down. Li Weiyi: “Let go!”

He didn’t make a sound, his hand gripping tightly.

“Let go! We have nothing to do with each other anymore!”

“Aren’t we the partners chosen by fate, the only kindred spirits?” Zhang Jingchan said slowly.

Li Weiyi froze. These were the words she’d used to trick him at the beginning. But she absolutely couldn’t laugh! With a straight face, she shot back: “President Zhang, all good things must come to an end. We were forced to partner up once—it was me reaching above my station. From now on, you can vent your anger at whoever you want, it has nothing to do with me. This lady is done serving you!”

Zhang Jingchan actually laughed, turning his head, his voice falling right beside her ear: “Why such a temper? I thought you were… very docile. Earlier, it really was my fault. When I woke up this morning and learned the current situation, I couldn’t accept it. All morning I saw no one and didn’t want to talk to anyone else. I was waiting for you to come—you knew where my company was. If you hadn’t come, I was about to go find you. I… kept wanting to talk to you, and could only talk to you. But when you came, I lost control of my emotions instead. I’m sorry, I lost my head and shouldn’t have vented my anger at you. I was actually angry at him, not you.”

Li Weiyi felt somewhat better hearing this, but was still angry and didn’t speak.

Zhang Jingchan had never coaxed a girl before—girls had always chased after him. Later, when things happened at home, he never had another girlfriend and had no such experience. These words just now were already the limit of how far he could lower himself.

He fell silent for a moment, then suddenly grasped Li Weiyi’s wrist and stood up to leave. Li Weiyi was dumbfounded: “What—what are you doing?”

“Come back with me. It’s too cold here.” Her wrist and palm were ice-cold.

Li Weiyi: “But I still haven’t forgiven you!”

Zhang Jingchan just smiled. The park had people coming and going, and Li Weiyi felt too embarrassed to struggle—it would be humiliating. So she let him drag and pull her all the way back into Huicui Technology.

The receptionist saw this scene and was completely dumbstruck. It happened to be after lunch, with many employees returning from their meals. Seeing the boss for the first time ever dragging a girl along, they were all stunned, each one excited yet nervous, wanting to look but not daring to stare directly.

Zhang Jingchan kept his gaze straight ahead, his face grave as water. Even while dragging a girl along, he radiated the cold, sharp presence he displayed at high-level negotiating tables.