Zhou Wan received Lu Zhongyue’s reply during the morning self-study period―
[Come see me at the company at 2 PM.]
Zhou Wan stared at this message for a long time before deleting it and putting her phone back in her pocket.
During the noon self-study, Zhou Wan went to the office and knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
Zhou Wan entered and said to her head teacher, “Teacher, I’d like to request leave for this afternoon.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m not feeling well, my stomach hurts. I’d like to go home and rest for a while.”
The head teacher looked at Zhou Wan’s complexion, which indeed didn’t look good – pale and lacking color, appearing haggard and fragile. “Alright.”
He signed the leave slip, tore it off, and gave it to Zhou Wan, then added: “The temperature has been fluctuating between hot and cold lately, you must take good care of yourself. Let me know if you need anything.”
Zhou Wan pressed her lips together: “Okay.”
“Oh right, I think I have some stomach medicine here.” The head teacher pulled open his drawer and took out a strip of stomach medicine. “Take this with you first, it works quite quickly and should provide some relief.”
Zhou Wan kept her eyes lowered as she accepted it: “Thank you, teacher.”
It was still noon self-study period, and the school was very quiet. Everyone was either studying or taking a nap.
Zhou Wan walked alone through the empty corridor and left the school.
She hailed a taxi and headed to the Lu Corporation.
The scenery outside the window flew past rapidly. With every stretch the car drove forward, Zhou Wan’s heart sank a little deeper.
She wished this road could be endless, that they would never arrive, but that was just a foolish dream. The driver stopped the car outside the Lu Corporation building.
Towering buildings, steel and concrete.
One had to crane their neck up high to see the top of the building.
This was originally supposed to be Lu Xixiao’s world.
Zhou Wan withdrew her gaze and entered the high-rise. At the front desk, she said softly: “Hello, I’m here to see Lu Zhongyue.”
Lu Zhongyue must have notified the front desk in advance, as they didn’t find it strange that a girl in school uniform was here to see President Lu. Instead, they displayed a proper smile and said: “You must be Miss Zhou. President Lu is already waiting for you upstairs.”
Zhou Wan paused.
Miss Zhou.
It seemed Lu Zhongyue had already investigated her.
Of course, he was “President Lu” after all.
Zhou Wan followed the receptionist into the elevator.
The elevator rose quickly, at such a speed that her ears began ringing. She had to swallow to ease the sensation.
The elevator doors opened with a “ding,” revealing marble wall tiles and expensive artwork on display stands, clearly very costly and carrying an intense sense of pressure.
Zhou Wan silently clenched her fists as she followed the receptionist inside.
The receptionist wore stiletto heels that struck the marble floor with each step, each click striking Zhou Wan’s heart.
“President Lu,” she opened the door, “Miss Zhou has arrived.”
…
Zhou Wan looked at the man in the suit before her.
She had only seen him once before, from afar at the hospital. This was her first time seeing him up close.
Lu Zhongyue had undergone major surgery last year and had only now fully recovered, returning to his former serious and imposing demeanor. Every inch of him exuded his superiority.
Zhou Wan looked directly at him.
In her heart, she was grateful that Lu Xixiao didn’t look like Lu Zhongyue.
It somewhat lessened her current sense of guilt.
Lu Zhongyue sat at his desk, smiled at Zhou Wan, and gestured to the chair in front: “Please, have a seat.”
Zhou Wan didn’t sit. She just stood before him.
Lu Zhongyue interlaced his fingers and placed them on his chest, speaking in a casual tone: “As expected of Guo Xiangling’s daughter. I hear you and Xiao’er have been together for several months now?”
He had already thoroughly investigated Zhou Wan.
Her bargaining chips had all been laid out in the open.
“Tell me, what do you want to exchange? Money, or something else? I hear your grades are quite good.” Lu Zhongyue’s voice was deep and unhurried. “I can sponsor you too. If you want to study abroad or attend prestigious schools in the future, that can all be arranged.”
“I don’t want any of those things,” Zhou Wan said softly.
Lu Zhongyue’s expression remained unchanged as he generously offered: “Then what do you want? Just say it.”
“I want Guo Xiangling―” Zhou Wan narrowed her eyes slightly, revealing undisguised hatred, “to lose everything and fall into eternal damnation.”
Lu Zhongyue raised his eyebrows in surprise, as if he’d heard something extremely interesting, and even laughed.
Even at this point, he could still laugh.
He had indeed never loved Guo Xiangling either; she was just someone he needed by his side to play a role. Without Guo Xiangling, it could have been anyone else – there was no difference.
Zhou Wan recalled the stories Lu Xixiao had told her about Shen Lan.
Now she felt sympathy for Shen Lan, who had given her whole heart to such a cold-blooded, unfeeling person.
“You hate her that much?” Lu Zhongyue asked with a smile.
Zhou Wan remained silent.
He nodded to himself: “So you want me to dump Guo Xiangling, and then what? You think you can be with Xiao’er without any obstacles?” Lu Zhongyue shook his head with a smile as if laughing at her naivety. “Little girl, there are no such cheap deals in this world. You want me to deal with the person who abandoned you, and you get everything you want without paying any price?”
Zhou Wan stood there calmly, quietly listening to Lu Zhongyue’s words.
The setting sun shone through the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows, illuminating her pure and clean face until it was crystal clear. Though her features were soft and her voice mild, she gave people the impression of being the sharpest sword in the world.
“I’m not that naive.”
Zhou Wan calmly and openly met Lu Zhongyue’s gaze. The young girl’s clear doe eyes were unwavering, excessively composed, breaking through the surface tranquility.
Lu Zhongyue revised his initial impression of Zhou Wan.
Before him, her composed and unshakeable demeanor strongly resembled his unruly son.
“Uncle.”
Zhou Wan suddenly changed her form of address, smiled at him, and said, “I know you won’t let me stay with Lu Xixiao. After all, Old Master Lu isn’t comfortable entrusting all the business to you, and he dotes on Lu Xixiao so much. When the time comes, he’ll investigate my identity thoroughly. By then, your grip on power might not be as secure.”
Lu Zhongyue narrowed his eyes.
He never imagined he would one day be threatened by a teenage girl.
“What I want is very simple for you. You just need to make Guo Xiangling lose everything, and I…”
Zhou Wan paused, suppressing the choke that was about to spread in her voice, and said coldly, “And I will disappear from Lu Xixiao’s life forever.”
*
When she walked out of the high-rise, the sun was setting.
The whole world seemed to have turned warm yellow.
Zhou Wan stood at the entrance, let out a long breath, then started walking forward. As she walked, her steps grew faster and faster, eventually breaking into a run.
As if some monster was chasing her from behind.
She didn’t know how long she ran.
She only knew that in the early spring chill, she had run until she was drenched in sweat before stopping.
She supported herself with hands on her knees, almost unable to catch her breath, her throat clogged with cold air, feeling extremely uncomfortable.
After a good while, she finally had the strength to straighten up and look around, finding herself at a flower and bird market.
Zhou Wan walked into one of the shops and pointed at a pot of roses, asking: “Auntie, how much is this?”
“45 yuan.”
“Is it easy to care for?”
“Oh, young lady, this is a new variety with strong disease resistance. It’s the easiest to care for, and this variety blooms frequently too. With this year’s warm winter, it can bloom in all four seasons.”
Zhou Wan nodded and asked: “What else is easy to care for and has a long flowering period?”
“There are plenty! Look at those over there – petunias and portulaca, they’re both super easy to grow. Just stick them in the soil and they’ll live. They don’t mind the summer sun either. And there’s blue plumbago, also very easy to care for.”
Zhou Wan bought many flowers. The flower shop auntie, seeing her alone, asked if she needed help transporting them back.
“Yes, please.” Zhou Wan smiled at her. “Thank you, Auntie.”
Zhou Wan gave her Lu Xixiao’s address and watched as she loaded pot after pot of flowers into the trunk. Zhou Wan also got a ride back.
At the front door, she thanked her again, then carried the potted plants to the edge of the barren garden, making more than ten trips back and forth.
Spring was coming soon, and she wanted to leave Lu Xixiao a garden full of blooming flowers.
To give this house some vitality, so he wouldn’t feel lonely.
She rolled up her sleeves, stepped into the garden, and bent down to pull out the weeds and wild grass.
When she finished, only some bare, half-dead tree branches remained in the garden.
Zhou Wan watered them, hoping they would come back to life in spring, then transplanted all the newly bought flowers into the soil of the flower bed.
The bright colors instantly lit up the garden, adding touches of warmth to this house.
*
After school, Lu Xixiao waited at Class 1’s doorway for Zhou Wan. Gu Meng happened to walk out and said with surprise: “Wan-wan wasn’t feeling well this afternoon and went home early. Didn’t she tell you?”
Lu Xixiao paused, frowning.
Just as he was about to call Zhou Wan, his phone rang.
“Hello, Uncle Zhang.”
“Xiao’er, regarding what you asked me to investigate, I’ve roughly figured out her basic situation.”
Lu Xixiao walked to a deserted spot, his eyes darkening: “Mm, go ahead.”
He had investigated Guo Xiangling’s life history thoroughly – when she married, who she married, had a daughter a year later, her husband’s death, how she abandoned her daughter and left, the succession of wealthy boyfriends she dated afterward, and when she met Lu Zhongyue. Everything.
Lu Xixiao listened quietly.
Uncle Zhang continued: “Her background is indeed quite simple. She only has her father still living, but he favors sons over daughters and never has a good relationship with her. She just has one daughter left. Speaking of which, she was really cruel – her daughter was only ten years old when she left without a backward glance, completely disregarding whether her daughter lived or died.”
“Oh right,” he suddenly paused, “Her daughter also studies at Yangming School, did you know?”
Lu Xixiao’s dark lashes trembled violently.
For a moment, the vague connections forming in his mind became clear, but he was unwilling to follow that train of thought.
He gripped his phone tightly, his knuckles turning white, his voice cold and hard as he asked: “Her daughter, what’s her name?”
“Her ex-husband was called Zhou Jun, and her daughter is…” Uncle Zhang thought for a moment, then said, “Zhou Wan, the ‘wan’ from ‘wanhui’ (to retrieve).”
The ‘wan’ from ‘wanhui’.
The ‘wan’ from ‘hui wan diaogong ru manyue’ (will draw the curved bow like the full moon).
Finally, all questions were solved, and all answers were revealed.
Lu Xixiao stood there silently, his spine still straight as usual, but rigid, brittle, his neck lowered in a posture like one awaiting execution.
To say he was shocked wouldn’t be quite right – he was so composed that Lu Xixiao suspected he might have had this thought flash through his mind before, only he had been unwilling to grasp that fleeting notion.
But to say he wasn’t shocked – well, he couldn’t even move at this moment.
After a long while, Lu Xixiao finally silently ended the call.
He lowered his head, his long bangs falling over his forehead, concealing his emotions. Only his chaotic, helpless breathing remained, carrying an undisguisable tremor that echoed in the quiet, empty school corridor.
…
On his way home, many past moments flashed through Lu Xixiao’s mind.
He recalled how not long after meeting Zhou Wan, one night, she had asked him a question – “Lu Xixiao, if someone betrayed you, what would you do?”
At the time he hadn’t paid much attention, carelessly smiling and casually answering, “I’d kill her.”
He thought of that day when he happened to meet her looking lost on the road, how she cried in his arms, stuttering brokenly, “Lu Xixiao, I’m sorry.”
He thought of when Guo Xiangling greeted him from her car, how Zhou Wan had frozen, and after coming back to her senses, kicked at the pebbles by her feet and asked softly: “Then what if she… did something your father wouldn’t like?”
He thought of how when he jokingly asked her to call him “brother,” she inexplicably burst into tears and refused.
He thought of how she said, “If we separate one day, let’s never contact each other again, okay?”
…
Lu Xixiao finally understood why someone with Zhou Wan’s personality would keep approaching him instead of running away.
It turned out from the very beginning, from the “wan” of “will draw the curved bow like the full moon,” she had approached him with a purpose, only to take revenge on Guo Xiangling.
And he was just one step in her plan.
He ground his teeth hard and let out a sneer.
Well done.
She had fooled him completely.
He walked quickly toward home, but his steps suddenly stopped at the gate.
Through the rusted iron fence, he saw Zhou Wan crouching in the flower bed, her sleeves rolled up revealing slender white arms, her school uniform pants dirty with soil, and her clean face smudged with a streak of dirt.
Lu Xixiao’s burning anger began to leak from some crack at this moment.
He remembered more.
On his birthday, Zhou Wan took him to the amusement park and told him, “I wish you’ll always dare to love and hate freely, may everything go your way.”
When their schoolmate attempted suicide, she ran up and firmly held his hand, her small frame’s silhouette thin yet determined.
…
“Zhou Wan, want to date? With me.”
“If I date you, will you be happy?”
“Probably.”
“Okay.”
…
New Year’s Eve, the cold dumplings, the brilliant fireworks by the river.
And her face was illuminated by the fireworks.
…
That night when he walked her home.
She had reached her door but suddenly ran back to him, lightly pulled down on his collar, stood on tiptoe, and gave him a soft kiss on the corner of his mouth.
Her face was completely red: “Good night, Lu Xixiao.”
…
Chinese New Year’s Eve.
“Zhou Wan, let’s go see the snow.”
They held hands and ran wildly on the crowded street as if trying to leave the whole world behind.
…
“Lu Xixiao?” Zhou Wan caught sight of him, looked up, and remembering she hadn’t told him about taking leave, quickly apologized: “I forgot to tell you, I took leave and came back early this afternoon.”
Lu Xixiao stood motionless, his gaze distant. After a while, he walked to her side: “What are you doing?”
“Planting flowers.”
Zhou Wan crouched on the ground, and smiled up at him with curved eyes, her dimples showing, “Spring is coming soon.”
He lowered his eyes and scanned the area.
Rose bushes had been planted around the wooden fence’s edge, with other flowers he couldn’t name in various colors inside.
“They’ll die after spring,” he said flatly.
“No, they won’t. I asked the flower shop auntie, this variety is especially easy to care for. Even if the flowers wilt, they’ll come back to life after some warm rain,” Zhou Wan said.
Lu Xixiao: “Then you’ll take care of them in the future.”
Zhou Wan paused, pressed her lips together, and didn’t answer, instead lowering her head to continue working with the soil, her hands covered in dirt.
Lu Xixiao’s frown deepened as he grabbed her arm and pulled her up with a dark expression: “Go wash your hands.”
“But I’m not finished…”
“I’ll do it.”
There was a water hose next to the flower bed. Lu Xixiao remembered Zhou Wan’s precious hands and clicked his tongue impatiently, pulling her along to the water basin.
He turned on the tap, adjusted it to the left, and waited for the water to warm up before turning back and stepping into the muddy flower bed that had just been watered.
The edges of his white shoes got dirty as he rolled up his sleeves and efficiently planted the remaining two pots of flowers in the holes Zhou Wan had dug, covered them with soil, tamped them down, and stepped out of the flower bed.
It took barely a minute.
Zhou Wan looked at his expression, hesitating.
“Lu Xixiao?”
Lu Xixiao turned his head to look at her.
Zhou Wan didn’t know if it was her imagination, but Lu Xixiao’s face was cold and hard, devoid of any emotion, distant and aloof. She couldn’t remember how long it had been since she’d last seen such an expression on Lu Xixiao’s face.
To be precise, Lu Xixiao usually looked like this with others, but his expression would soften when looking at her, even his facial features becoming less sharp and harsh.
But after just two seconds, Lu Xixiao lowered his eyes and responded faintly: “Mm.”
“Are you unhappy?” Zhou Wan asked.
The sun was about to set, and the street lights suddenly lit up outside, forming an orderly row.
Lu Xixiao gazed at her quietly. After a long while, he finally gave a faint smile and walked to Zhou Wan’s front. His hands were dirty with soil so he couldn’t touch her, he just bent down and softly kissed the tip of her nose.
His exhaled breath carried a slight tremor as he forcefully held back his emotions, afraid of disturbing the secret in Zhou Wan’s heart.
He helplessly compromised, accompanying her in acting out a play, protecting her secret.
“Gu Meng just said you came back early because you weren’t feeling well?”
He washed his hands, put his arm around Zhou Wan’s shoulders, reached over to gently pinch her face, and asked softly, “Still feeling unwell?”