Life after returning to B City didn’t change much for Ruan Mian. If there was one difference, it was that before leaving B City she had been single, but after just four days away, she now had a boyfriend.
Regarding her newfound relationship status, aside from her close friends, the first to know was Lin Jiahui, who shared the same apartment with her.
Lin Jiahui first used five minutes of silence to express her shock, then followed up with a barrage of questions as a matter of course, incredibly thorough and refusing to let any detail slip by.
Naturally, Ruan Mian didn’t reveal every detail, only picking out the key points to answer—things like the blind date and the fateful connection between their two families.
Lin Jiahui said “holy crap” three times in a row, then sighed in the tone of someone with experience: “I told you so—from the moment you two reunited, fate had already tied you together. I don’t know who thought I was being a nosy busybody back then, and what happened in the end—”
She turned her head to look at Ruan Mian sideways, teasing: “I didn’t dare imagine that just going back for a holiday would be enough time for someone to whisk you away.”
Ruan Mian smiled sheepishly and was about to explain when her phone on the table rang at just the right moment. Both of them naturally looked over.
The caller ID showed Chen Yi.
Lin Jiahui very considerately left the living room space to Ruan Mian, though she didn’t stay in the living room—instead, she took her phone back to her room.
Actually, they had already spoken on the phone that afternoon at the airport and had made plans to go out for dinner this weekend. However, Chen Yi was now saying on the phone that he had to go on a mission on short notice, with an indefinite return date.
“Sorry, I won’t be able to have dinner with you next week.” Chen Yi didn’t know where he was—the receiver was full of howling wind sounds.
“It’s okay, you focus on your work first.” Their intermittent contact had already prepared Ruan Mian for this kind of situation, so she didn’t feel particularly disappointed.
Chen Yi made an affirming sound. There was an urgent voice beside him, and he said in a low voice: “I’ll come back as soon as I can.”
“Okay.” Just before hanging up, Ruan Mian remembered something and called out to him: “Chen Yi.”
He paused and asked: “What is it?”
Ruan Mian looked at the key placed at the corner of the table and reminded him: “Stay safe.”
“Okay, I will.”
After the call ended, Ruan Mian put down her phone, picked up the key and played with it a few times. Outside the window, the night was vast and dim. She lowered her eyes and sighed softly.
……
After the brief holiday ended, Ruan Mian’s life returned to its previous monotonous routine. Her busy work left her with little time to miss Chen Yi—only occasionally when she had nothing to do would she pull up his social media to take a look.
The days passed like this, one after another. In the blink of an eye, June came to an end. In B City’s increasingly hot weather, Ruan Mian received a call from Li Zhi and met with him during her break.
Li Zhi had been clear about her situation with Chen Yi from the very beginning. After learning they were together, he didn’t offer too many opinions, only saying: “As long as you think it’s right for you. After all, when it comes to relationships, what others say doesn’t count. Only you know whether Chen Yi is good or not.”
“Mm.” Ruan Mian smiled. “Enough about me—how long are you planning to stay in B City this time?”
“We’ll see how it goes.” Li Zhi picked up the water glass in front of him. “If things go smoothly, I probably won’t leave for a while. If not, it might just be these few days.”
“Is it about work?”
“No.” He turned his head to look at the billboard hanging high across the street. “I came to find someone.”
As for who he was looking for, Li Zhi didn’t elaborate. After they finished eating, he received a call and had to leave first. Since Ruan Mian had driven, she gave him a ride to his destination.
On the way back, Ruan Mian passed by Chen Yi’s place. The car stopped downstairs for a while. She took out her phone wanting to send Chen Yi a message, but thinking that he wouldn’t be able to see it right now, she put her phone back.
Over the next few days, Ruan Mian remained so busy her feet barely touched the ground. She didn’t even have time to occasionally check Chen Yi’s social media, and often just collapsed into sleep after getting off work.
The day she received Chen Yi’s call, she had just finished a long night shift. Half-asleep and groggy, she answered the phone without knowing what she said, and the phone slipped from her ear. Even so, she still hadn’t woken up.
She slept straight through until the afternoon. Ruan Mian was awakened by Lin Jiahui’s voice outside. Her hand fumbled around beside her and found her phone in the gap between two pillows. When she brought it to her eyes to look, she got quite a fright.
Her phone was still on the call screen with Chen Yi, showing a call duration that had exceeded five hours.
For a moment, Ruan Mian thought she was still dreaming. She rubbed her eyes, but nothing changed except for the continuously increasing call duration.
She brought the phone to her ear and tentatively called out: “Chen Yi?”
His voice, tinged with laughter, quickly came through the phone: “Mm? You’re awake.”
“…” Ruan Mian raised her hand to push her hair back behind her head, her voice hoarse from just waking up. “Why didn’t you wake me up?”
“I tried.” Chen Yi said: “Couldn’t wake you.”
Ruan Mian knew her state when she was asleep. Momentarily speechless, after a long while she asked: “Did you come back?”
“Mm.” Chen Yi got out of the car and leaned against the car door, looking at the tall building in front of him. He said unhurriedly: “I’m downstairs at your place.”
“?” Only now was Ruan Mian truly startled. She suddenly threw off the covers and jumped out of bed, running barefoot to the balcony.
From the fifteenth floor, the view wasn’t blurred by the height. Ruan Mian saw Chen Yi looking up toward the building. At the same time, his voice came through the receiver: “I see you.”
Ruan Mian stared at that figure without blinking. “You’ve been there the whole time?”
“Not the whole time.” Chen Yi stepped back into the shadows. “I went out for lunch in between and spent some time at the supermarket.”
“Why didn’t you go home? What if I slept all day?”
“I didn’t think that much before coming.” Chen Yi looked up toward the building and smiled gently at her across the distance of more than ten floors. “Are you free later?”
“I am.”
“Then come down—” He paused for a moment, then said word by word: “Let’s go on a date.”
Ruan Mian’s ears burned. She withdrew her gaze and stopped looking downstairs. “I need to freshen up first.”
She had returned in a hurry this morning, exhausted and sleepy, and had gone straight to bed without doing anything. If it weren’t for Lin Jiahui, she probably really would have slept until evening.
Chen Yi’s tone was gentle: “Okay, no rush.”
The sun outside was a bit strong. Before going back inside with her phone, Ruan Mian looked downstairs one more time. “Do you want to come up and sit for a while?”
“Wouldn’t that be inappropriate?” Chen Yi said somewhat mischievously: “Being alone together in a room so soon.”
Ruan Mian had just asked casually and hadn’t thought that far. Taking advantage of the fact that he couldn’t see her, she blushed unabashedly and muttered: “It’s not like I’m the only one home.”
Chen Yi: “Next time. Coming up now would be too abrupt.”
“Then I’ll try to be quick.”
“Mm.”
After hanging up, Ruan Mian went to take a shower first. What usually took half an hour of dawdling only took about ten minutes this time, but even rushing, by the time she was completely ready, it had still taken nearly an hour.
Chen Yi either had gone numb from waiting too long or really wasn’t in a hurry—during the entire time, he hadn’t sent a single message urging her.
On the contrary, Ruan Mian was worried he was getting anxious, so as soon as she was ready, she sent him a message.
[Ruan Mian]: I’m ready, coming down now.
[CY]: Okay, take your time.
She put away her phone, took her small bag from the coat rack, and walked out of her room. Not seeing Lin Jiahui, she instead saw her boyfriend Zhou Yuan sitting in the living room.
The two of them exchanged greetings.
Ruan Mian asked: “Why are you alone? Where’s my senior?”
Zhou Yuan smiled: “She’s in the bathroom.”
As he spoke, the sound of a toilet flushing came from the bathroom, and then Lin Jiahui walked out, her gaze turning to Ruan Mian: “Hm? You’re awake?”
“Just woke up not long ago.”
Lin Jiahui looked at how she was dressed. “Going out? We’re about to head out too. Where are you going? We can give you a ride.”
“No need, Chen Yi is waiting for me downstairs.” Ruan Mian changed her shoes. “Want to go down together?”
Lin Jiahui: “You go ahead first. I’ll change into something else—this weather is so hot.”
“Okay, I’m heading out.” Ruan Mian smiled and nodded at Zhou Yuan as well, then walked out of the apartment. When she got downstairs and saw the figure standing by the car at a glance, she inexplicably felt a bit nervous.
She walked over quickly, suppressing her unsteady breathing and saying: “Let’s go.”
Chen Yi’s gaze fell on her face, as if he wanted to say something, but just then someone else came out from the building. He withdrew his gaze, opened the car door to let her get in, and said: “Let’s go.”
Inside and outside the car were two different temperatures.
Once Chen Yi also got in, Ruan Mian asked: “When did you arrive? Were you already here when you called me?”
“No, I had just left the hospital then.”
Ruan Mian caught those two key words and scanned him from head to toe, asking somewhat nervously: “What happened to you?”
“I’m fine, I went to visit a teammate.” Chen Yi turned his head to look at her. “Zhou Ziheng, do you remember him? He’s doing rehabilitation training at your hospital.”
Ruan Mian nodded. “We ran into each other at the hospital a while ago.”
“What a coincidence.”
“Just happened to bump into each other.” The car had started moving. Ruan Mian said: “Where are we going now?”
“First, let’s get something to eat.” Chen Yi opened the car window a crack to let in some air. “You just woke up, you probably haven’t eaten yet, right?”
“No.”
Chen Yi nodded. “So what do you want to eat?”
“I don’t really want anything in particular.”
“…”
After saying this, Ruan Mian also felt that responding like this seemed a bit dismissive, so she quickly added: “Once summer comes, my appetite isn’t very good.”
While waiting for the security guard to let them through, Chen Yi glanced at her sideways. “So what do you usually eat when you’re at work?”
“The cafeteria, though most of the time I order takeout.” What Ruan Mian didn’t mention was that sometimes when she felt lazy, she didn’t even want to order takeout and just made do with instant noodles.
Chen Yi didn’t ask further and took the liberty of bringing her to a restaurant.
It was a Chinese restaurant tucked away in an alley. Ruan Mian had heard other colleagues at the office mention it a few times before. It was delicious, but it was quite difficult to get a reservation—you had to book a week in advance to possibly get a table the following week.
After parking and arriving at the restaurant, Chen Yi pulled out a card from his wallet and handed it over. A greeter immediately came over to lead the two of them to a private room.
Along the way were antique ornaments and decorations everywhere, with clear and melodious string music playing softly. As they walked, Chen Yi tucked that card into Ruan Mian’s hand. “The owner of this restaurant is childhood friends with Shen Yu, who has an investment stake here. Today I’m bringing you to try the food. If you think it’s good, you can come directly and use this card next time.”
The card was custom-made, with embossed edges. Only the restaurant’s name, address, and phone number were printed on it—nothing else.
Ruan Mian didn’t act coy or refuse. After all, whether she would come or not was another matter. She accepted the card openly. “If I take your card, how will you come here in the future?”
Chen Yi turned his head to look at her and said with a straight face: “Facial recognition.”
“…”
—
**Author’s Note:** Incredibly moving, Suijian has finally started writing sweet content TvT
There was originally some more content after this, but I’ve really been so tired lately, so I’ll save it for tomorrow. I’ll try to have a longer update tomorrow—note that it’s “try,” not “definitely” (humble).
Oh, I dug a short story pit in my column a while ago called “Picked Up a Boyfriend on Social Media.” I’ll probably start it after this one finishes, as a palate cleanser during the manuscript storage period. If anyone’s interested, feel free to bookmark it =3=
Here’s the synopsis:
“Picked Up a Boyfriend on Social Media” by Suijian
After getting together with Lin Cuo, Wen Zhi swore to heaven eight hundred times—
When she posted on social media back then, she really just wanted to find a doctor friend
Not a doctor boyfriend TvT
*Little white rabbit x white lotus dark horse
*Short sweet story / Probably a story about thinking she pursued her boyfriend, but actually being in someone’s trap from beginning to end—a mutual secret crush story