All the girlfriends who could see this comment in the friend circle secretly felt a twinge of sourness. Was the human god Su pursuing Ye Meng? It felt just like when a man who had always been cold and indifferent to everyone—someone you might have once pursued or been rejected by—suddenly showed signs of falling in love. You could only feel a slight twinge in your heart as a sign of respect.

They didn’t understand Ye Meng though. She was someone who was attracted to good looks and never rejected admirers. Hmph, cold laughter indeed.

Before Ye Meng could reply, her phone began vibrating frantically on the sink. She casually pressed the answer button while continuing to brush her teeth. It was Tai Mingxiao, his voice calm: “I have some bad news.”

Ye Meng paused, her temples throbbing intensely. Her toothbrushing slowed as she asked softly, “What news?”

After a moment of silence, Tai Mingxiao finally spoke: “The Singaporean collector has suddenly canceled our meeting.”

Ye Meng’s mind froze for an instant. After a brief pause, she quickly brushed her teeth a couple more times, rinsed, and then asked quietly, “What’s the reason?”

Tai Mingxiao said, “He claims he needs to return to Singapore urgently.”

“What time is his flight?” Ye Meng glanced at the time, handling the crisis calmly as she walked into her dressing room and casually picked up a suit. While on the phone, she composedly changed her clothes and said, “There’s still an hour on the way from the hotel to the airport. I can talk to him in the car. Just give me an hour.”

“Don’t bother,” Tai Mingxiao seemed to take a drag from a cigarette, then sighed deeply and said, “He checked out of the hotel at three in the morning last night, leaving in a hurry. Come to the office and we’ll talk more.”

As soon as Ye Meng entered the building and saw the familiar security guards and the flow of people in the elevator, that suffocating feeling hit her. She smoked a cigarette at the entrance to the hallway, which slightly eased her emotions, before pressing the elevator button. She encountered many familiar faces, who greeted her with enthusiastic smiles as always, respectfully nodding to her, with various long-unheard forms of address surrounding her ears.

“Good morning, Manager Meng.”

“Good morning, Director Ye.”

“Morning, Sister Mengmeng. Have you had breakfast? Would you like me to get you one of those new chicken leg burgers from McDonald’s?”

Whether they were squeezing her leg or not, they had certainly lined up to welcome her. Knowing she was coming back today, they had formed a queue at the entrance with a mix of familiar and unfamiliar faces, making a grand gesture of warm welcome. Regardless of how much sincerity or pretense was involved, in the adult world, sometimes maintaining appearances isn’t just about going through the motions.

But Ye Meng was skilled at maintaining appearances. When it came to courtesy, she could outdo anyone. She greeted everyone one by one, missing no one, and could naturally strike up a conversation even with newcomers: “That’s a nice necklace. Add me on WeChat and send me the link later.”

The young girl was not as experienced as Ye Meng. With a blushing face, she shyly replied, “Okay, sure.”

After the people had left, she was still savoring the moment and tremblingly asked, “So… that was Ye Meng?”

Young Jiang had only been at this boutique art company for just over three months, but she often heard several colleagues mention a few names. The boss, Gou Kai, had grown up around antique markets, so his expertise was undisputed. As for Tai Mingxiao, he was the industry know-it-all, always with his finger on the pulse of all industry information, including gossip. He was courteous, humble, and gentle, and would even chat with the girls in the company about various topics during breaks in the tea room.

Then there was Ye Meng. Ye Meng was cut from the same cloth as Tai Mingxiao, fond of teasing young newcomers, meticulous and serious when working, but completely uninhibited in private. Gou Kai seemed a bit colder, always wearing a stern face and not particularly friendly with employees. Of course, the arrangement had always been that Gou Kai handled the professional aspects, while the other two took care of being approachable and maintaining stability. This stability included not just client relationships but also employee stability. Gou Kai was lofty and naturally superior, not skilled at communicating with these easily hurt, sensitive young employees, especially those just entering the workforce.

So Ye Meng and Tai Mingxiao became the bridge between the employees and Gou Kai, the two of them daily taking turns finding new ways to tease Gou Kai. Watching the three of them chat every day was like watching a splendid performance, making people from neighboring companies eager to switch jobs just to follow the drama. The two of them always worked together to secure benefits from “Gou the Skinner,” such as menstrual leave for female employees. They were among the first batch of companies to implement this policy.

There was another time when an employee had to bring their cat to the office while working overtime, and it accidentally fell from their company building—from the 26th floor—and died instantly. Ye Meng and Tai Mingxiao managed to extract a substantial amount of funds from “Gou the Skinner” and allocated it to monthly employee emergency expenses, such as funeral costs for pets that died accidentally, to give them a proper memorial service. If no accidents occurred during the month, everyone would go out for a meal at the end of the month. After all, the money was coming out of Gou Kai’s pocket.

Back then, the entire company was filled with laughter and joy. But after Ye Meng left, the company atmosphere changed.

“It’s good that the new partner left and Director Ye is back,” an old colleague said contentedly to young Jiang. “You’ll see later on, it’s not just because she and Director Tai are good to us that we like them. Sometimes we like their approach to things, how they treat people, how they handle their desires, and being humble, honest, and passionate. We want to become people like them, but since we can’t, we hope to watch them more within our means. It’s a kind of motivation.”

Young Jiang: “Do you have a crush on Director Tai?”

“Hey!” The colleague scoffed, hurriedly ending this frustrating topic.

The three sat in Gou Kai’s office for a meeting. Ye Meng and Tai Mingxiao sat side by side facing Gou Kai across his large, cold desk. Tai Mingxiao played idly with the globe in front of him, “So he sent you a message last night and then hurriedly left with his secretary?”

Gou Kai was leaning back in his executive chair, holding a small globe in his hand and spinning it: “Yes.”

“Is there any other way to contact him?” Ye Meng asked.

Gou Kai checked the time, “His flight is at five o’clock. He should still be on the plane now. Both his and his secretary’s phones are unreachable. We’ll have to wait until he lands at noon, then I’ll contact him again.”

Tai Mingxiao stopped what he was doing and suggested, “Why don’t you give us the address, and Ye Meng and I will make a trip to Singapore.”

Gou Kai: “Fine, but buy your tickets.”

“That ring of his is worth at least 3.2 million. If this deal goes through, the commission still goes into your pocket. Why are you being so stingy?”

“Haven’t you two dug enough out of me?”

“It doesn’t matter whether we sign this deal or not. I just want to meet that Chinese Singaporean,” Ye Meng smiled. “If you don’t sign it, I can have Liu Yang’s people sign it. After all, our Boss Gou doesn’t lack money.”

Tai Mingxiao immediately chimed in: “That’s right! As the ancient saying goes, ‘Since ancient times, everyone must die,’ but our Boss Gou is so rich he doesn’t even need toilet paper when he poops.”

Ye Meng: “Leave behind a loyal heart that shines like the sun, Boss Gou is just a small literary youth.”

“Shut up,” Gou Kai signed the travel expense form with a dark face. “Out, turn left.”

Li Juyi’s grandmother had recently been discharged from the hospital. After learning of her hospitalization, Xu Meilan visited several times. In the dim hospital room, the two skeletal eighty-year-old women sincerely held each other’s hands, encouraging each other from the bottom of their hearts: “The country is peaceful and prosperous, and the years are good. The children have just gotten married, and next year they might even have grandchildren. We must hang in there no matter what, Comrade Jiu Juhua.”

Perhaps seeing how strong Xu Meilan’s constitution was, Jiu Juhua had insisted on being discharged. And now, just after returning home, she had started having diarrhea. Li Juyi went to the hospital to get some medicine, changed his shoes, and went to boil water for the old lady. He mixed it to lukewarm, pinched open two white and green capsules, and after shuffling around the house in his slippers, finally found the old lady in the courtyard. He handed her the water and said, “Dr. Liang’s medicine. He instructed me not to let you smoke these days.”

The old lady, holding Ping’an, sat in a wheelchair that had been abandoned for a long time. It had been so long since she’d been home that one of the tires was deflated and leaking. She obediently took the medicine and promptly shooed him away: “Go study, don’t mind me.”

The southern weather had already turned humid, with water droplets and moisture seeping from the wall cracks and the floor, and the weather was gradually warming up. Li Juyi wore a loose sports outfit with a thin T-shirt underneath, looking clean and lean as he stood tall in the small courtyard. Outside the wicker fence, peach blossoms had slowly begun to sprout, delicately tickling the branches, as if adding a touch of romance to this newly married young groom.

Li Juyi brought a pump, knelt on one knee, and prepared to inflate the tire. Hearing her words, he didn’t look up and silently pumped air into the tire, “I’m not studying.”

“Then what are those two civil service exam handbooks spread out on the table for? Did you buy them for Ping’an? Want to train Ping’an to be a police dog?” The old lady clicked her tongue and continued, “Isn’t it just that you want to give your wife a stable life? What’s there to be embarrassed about? You young people in love are usually all passionate, loving each other back and forth. How come you and Ye Meng don’t say things like ‘I love you, you love me’? At most, she calls you ‘baby,’ and you, trying to save face, just grunt in response. Call her back, say ‘baby, I love you’ like that, be a bit more passionate.”

…Passionate my foot.

Li Juyi was still kneeling on one knee. Hearing this, he looked up, one elbow resting on his knee, tilting his head with an amused smile: “Have you been secretly reading my chat history again?”

The old lady pursed her lips, “I saw it accidentally.”

“Are you forcing me to set a password on my phone?”

“Wasn’t it just that I accidentally saw it while playing Candy Crush?”

Li Juyi was so annoyed he wanted to pull out the valve cores from both sides of her wheelchair, making her sit there and reflect honestly. “If you peek at my chat history again, I’ll delete your Candy Crush record and make you start over from the beginning.”

“You can delete that?”

“Yes, Yang Tianwei did it to Qiao Maimei last time. Qiao Maimei was so angry she poured water into his keyboard.”

The old lady instinctively hugged Ping’an tighter and muttered anxiously, “Then you’d be taking my life. I’ve worked so hard to reach level 1187.”

Fortunately, Ye Meng had gone back to get her passport and applied for an expedited business visa, immediately flying to Singapore, but she returned empty-handed. Tai Mingxiao felt that this matter was a bit strange and discussed it with her on the return flight. They had bought first-class seats and, under the gentle gaze of the flight attendant, kept their voices very low. “Do you think someone might be sabotaging us?”

“For what reason?” Ye Meng asked, covered with a blanket and wearing an eye mask.

“I don’t know,” Tai Mingxiao was also wearing an eye mask, the two of them each leaning back. “But I feel that things in this world aren’t this coincidental. Gou Kai said Wang Xingsheng boarded the plane at five o’clock, but as you saw, his wife didn’t know about this. And there’s a 99% chance that Wang Xingsheng didn’t board a flight to Singapore.”

“Do you think he might have something going on with his secretary? I noticed his wife’s expression wasn’t quite right, as if she was quite used to her husband’s disappearing acts,” Ye Meng said.

Tai Mingxiao removed his eye mask and asked the flight attendant for a cup of coffee. “It’s not impossible because the fact is that Wang Xingsheng and his secretary booked one room last night. But why did they suddenly leave at three in the morning and cancel our meeting? Don’t you find that strange?”

Ye Meng took a sip of red wine and said, “You don’t suspect Gou Kai, do you? Why would he do this?”

“To trick you into coming back?” Tai Mingxiao laughed. “I don’t know, I’m just guessing. Don’t be nervous. Perhaps Wang Xingsheng did have something urgent come up. You know these antique collectors—if they receive information about some artifact being auctioned somewhere, they’ll rush over without a second thought.”

Li Juyi had been reading for a while. Outside the yard, Ping’an was barking furiously one after another. Perhaps because spring had arrived, Ping’an seemed particularly agitated when seeing female dogs passing by the window. Those dog eyes looked at him hungrily. Li Juyi, refreshingly casual, leaned against the fish tank at the side of the small courtyard, carelessly tossing dog food to him one piece at a time.

Ping’an stood stiffly on the ground, refusing to eat a single piece, its genuine black glass-ball eyes staring straight at Li Juyi, begging with a wagging tail.

The look in his eyes seemed to say, “Brother, I’m about to explode.”

Li Juyi knew exactly what was going on but teased him: “Hold it in.”

Your sister is neglecting you, so you’re taking it out on me? Ping’an seemed to be shouting.

Neglecting? It had only been a day or two since they last contacted each other. Since that message in the friend circle, there had been no interaction between them. Was that considered neglect? Li Juyi thought this dog hadn’t seen much of the world; it’s just been one day.

Yes, just one day. Why did it feel like it had been so long?

A day has 24 hours, 1,440 minutes, 86,400 seconds.

One day seems very short, doesn’t it? The number 1 is very small, right? It’s like a tiny grain of wheat in a vast, golden wheat field—seemingly insignificant. But if converted to 86,400 seconds, isn’t that number large enough?

Yes, in the past 86,400 seconds, he seemed to have only repeated one thing.

Or perhaps, this thing—missing her—had happened 86,400 times today.

It was already 3 AM when Ye Meng got off the plane. She turned on her phone and saw that Li Juyi had updated a post in his friend circle. He had been buying a house in the friend circle lately, but this post was very much like Li Juyi—he shared a song link in his typical aloof manner. He, who never wrote anything in his friend circle posts, for the first time included a very short comment.

【LJY: How arrogant you are.】

“Your every word is like a knife scar cutting into my heart “My every move changes along with you, how absurd “Letting you play with me at will, never thinking “How arrogant you are “My heartbeat pulses for you, wild for you…”

Ye Meng was concerned about what might have happened to him. When she clicked in to see, she breathed a sigh of relief. Oh, it was just song lyrics.