Nan Chu walked away without looking back, Su Zhan’s hand in hers.

Shen Mu stood in place, both hands in his pockets, and watched that retreating figure for a moment. Then he shook his head and left.

Nan Chu knocked and entered.

The abbot was seated on his meditation cushion with his eyes closed. The room was suffused with the quiet scent of sandalwood, a single green candle burning beside him.

Both women gave a slight bow. “Abbot.”

The abbot opened his eyes, looked at them both, then let his gaze settle on Nan Chu and gestured for them to come closer. “You had time to visit today?”

Nan Chu walked over and nodded. “I came to sit in on the Zen teaching.” She gestured at Su Zhan behind her. “This is my friend, Su Zhan. She came to listen too.”

The abbot nodded. “Good. How have you been lately?”

The invariable opening question.

Nan Chu thought carefully about the recent stretch of time, then smiled faintly. “Eating well, sleeping well, drinking well.”

The abbot then turned to Su Zhan and offered her a meditation cushion. “Please, sit.”

Nan Chu glanced at Su Zhan, then turned back to the abbot. “She has something on her mind, Abbot. I was hoping you might offer some guidance.”

The abbot gave her a sidelong look. “Oh? What sort of thing?”

“In Buddhist teaching — is a karmic obstacle the result of cause and effect?” Su Zhan asked, without any hesitation.

The abbot replied: “There are opposing affinities, adverse conditions, and karmic entanglements — three different concepts. Of these three, only karmic entanglements are the result of cause and effect. Opposing affinities and adverse conditions may appear unfavorable on the surface, but within the practice of the Dharma, encountering them is in fact a great blessing on the path of cultivation. Now — young woman, do you practice Buddhism?”

Su Zhan gave a rueful smile. “No — I’m asking on behalf of a friend.”

The abbot, wise and perceptive, understood immediately and gave a knowing nod. “Both of you are — opposing affinities and adverse conditions can be resolved. Karmic entanglements cannot.”

They sat and talked for about another half an hour.

Then the abbot returned to his meditation, and Nan Chu brought Su Zhan to listen to the Zen teaching. At midday, during the vegetarian lunch in the dining hall, they ran into Shen Mu again. The string of black prayer beads on his wrist was hard to miss.

Nan Chu pushed a tray of food in front of Su Zhan and said with a quiet smile, “The vegetarian meals here — not just anyone gets to eat them.”

Su Zhan murmured her thanks and picked up her chopsticks.

The two of them kept their voices low.

Su Zhan ate and asked, as casually as one might ask about the weather: “Are you really not planning to look for him anymore?”

Nan Chu pushed two grains of rice around the rim of her bowl and gave a rueful smile. “Let things calm down first.”

Both of them needed to calm down.

The memories of that night were not pleasant.

“What if he doesn’t come looking for you?”

Nan Chu scooped a bite into her mouth. “Zhan — sometimes I feel like what I want most is for him to live a peaceful, safe life, even more than I want to be with him.”

Su Zhan understood. “Yeah.”

The smile at the corner of Nan Chu’s mouth grew more bitter. “That day at the unit, I saw a girl confess her feelings to him — she works at a securities firm, makes ten or twenty thousand a month, and she said she’d give it all up and move to Northern Xun for him. And I stood there thinking — why can’t I give up acting for him? Am I vain? Am I too attached to the fame and the lifestyle?”

Su Zhan: “I know you’re not.”

“Maybe he’s better suited to a life like that, rather than a life with someone like me — someone who ends up in the headlines for the most offhand remarks. If we went public again, he might get followed by tabloid photographers every day just because of me. He’s such a natural person — he’s not some polished public figure, he swears sometimes when the mood strikes, and if the media ever decided to run with something like that… and yet I can’t bring myself to let go.”

Let go of what, exactly?

She couldn’t bring herself to let him be with any other woman.

Su Zhan exhaled slowly, sharing in the feeling entirely. “Yeah, me too. I can’t let go either.”

Not ready to release her grip.

And not willing to become a burden on him.

“Let’s eat.”

When Nan Chu looked up again, someone else had appeared across from Shen Mu. The figure was slight enough that for a split second, if the silhouette had been taller, she might have thought it was someone else.

Then she decided: impossible. He had never believed in any of this.

It was just the style of clothing, really — a deep black windbreaker with the hood pulled up, shoulders slightly curved forward, with a slight, slender build. Someone sitting there with their head down, composed.

Shen Mu seemed to be irritated by the intrusion. He was staring at the person across from him with a distinctly displeased expression.

The person seemed not to notice, and was absorbed in eating, chopsticks reaching over to pluck a piece of vegetarian food from Shen Mu’s plate and stuffing it into their own mouth with obvious relish — as if deliberately provoking him.

Shen Mu was indeed provoked. With a sharp clatter, he set down his chopsticks, and was about to say something pointed when his peripheral vision caught Nan Chu watching him. He glanced over. Nan Chu gave him a generous smile.

He thought of his unfortunate brother.

And felt annoyed all over again.

The year-end holiday arrived. With the last scene wrapped, Nan Yueru came to pick Nan Chu up for dinner.

They arrived at the restaurant.

A young attendant met them at the entrance and led them upstairs. “Mr. Zou is already waiting.”

It dawned on Nan Chu immediately. “Mom — who else is here?”

Nan Yueru kept moving, tugging her along. “Zou Shihua. The chairman of Huatian Entertainment.”

And, of course, his son — Zou Miao, a twenty-eight-year-old producer.

Upstairs, at that very moment.

Zou Miao: “You said Nan Chu?”

Zou Shihua nodded, drawing on his cigarette. “Her mother and I are old friends. I caught one of her recent projects — not bad. Her mother brought the subject up, and I couldn’t very well say no. Think of it as a casual dinner. If you’re not interested, the two of you can figure that out on your own afterward.”

Zou Miao laughed, half-joking. “That’s very generous of you — you do the good deed and leave me to be the villain? Not that I mind — I like that girl. If it actually goes somewhere, maybe we have a wedding by the end of the year?”

There wasn’t a person alive who wouldn’t like Nan Chu at first sight.

Zou Shihua was fairly indifferent to the arrangement himself. “Fine. You’re not getting any younger. We might as well cut straight to discussing marriage tonight.”

“Works for me!”

Nan Chu followed Nan Yueru into the private dining room. The four of them exchanged polite pleasantries.

Nan Chu had come straight from the set with no time to change — she was still in her long down puffer coat. During the car ride over, Nan Yueru had forcefully made her tuck the sweater she was wearing underneath into it like a dress, so the overall effect was still quite presentable.

But Nan Chu kept the puffer coat zipped up over everything, and sat there with a cool expression throughout.

Across the table, Zou Miao watched her with a playfully amused look the entire time. “Aren’t you going to take your coat off?”

Nan Chu: “I’m not warm. Thank you.”

Zou Miao had always been a bit of a troublemaker from childhood. His social circle of wealthy second-generation types all had a taste for going against the grain — ignore me, and I’ll make a point of annoying you. In Nan Chu’s coolness, Zou Miao read a deliberate game of hard to get.

So — the moment those two words were out of her mouth, he quietly reached behind him, grabbed the air conditioning remote, and turned the temperature to maximum.

The room grew gradually warmer.

Even Zou Shihua, who was normally the type to be perpetually cold, couldn’t help removing his outer jacket. “Why is it suddenly so hot in here?”

Zou Miao wore an innocent smile. “No idea. Maybe the heating’s malfunctioning?”

Zou Shihua paid him no mind. He noticed Nan Chu still wearing her down coat and asked kindly, “Aren’t you warm? You should take your coat off — otherwise you’ll catch a cold when you go back outside.”

Nan Yueru glanced at Nan Chu. “Go ahead and take it off.”

If Nan Chu had known she was being set up for a blind date, she would never have put on that little cocktail dress in the car. It wasn’t about modesty — she’d worn far bolder things — it was the indignation of having been tricked.

She stood up abruptly. “I need some air.”

Zou Shihua, puzzled, said amiably, “Let’s eat first.”

Nan Chu gave a polite bow. “Just the restroom — please excuse me.”

Before she had even fully turned, Zou Miao also shamelessly stood up to follow. “Same.”

The two fathers exchanged a knowing smile. Zou Shihua said with a chuckle, “Looks like my son is quite taken with your daughter.”

Nan Chu headed in the opposite direction. Zou Miao called after her from behind, hands in pockets. “Hey — where are you going? The bathroom’s this way!”

No response.

Nan Chu made her way to the smoking area. She yanked the zipper of her puffer coat open with pent-up irritation. Underneath was the little cocktail dress with the V-neck collar — a subtle but undeniable curve of neckline.

She leaned against the wall, fished the cigarette pack from her pocket, brought one to her lips, bent to light it, and exhaled a long breath.

Through the drift of smoke, she saw Zou Miao approaching from ahead, and looked away.

Zou Miao stepped up beside her, his gaze sliding slowly downward and coming to rest on her neckline. He let out a low whistle and raised an eyebrow. “And here I was wondering why you wouldn’t take the coat off?”

Nan Chu, leaning against the wall, one hand holding the cigarette, cooled her expression. “Get lost.”

Zou Miao laughed.

He pressed one hand against the wall, turned toward her, curved his back, leaned down, and looked her over with careful deliberation. “You seem so sweet on your shows. How come you’re so fierce in person?”

“Consider me a case of split personality,” Nan Chu said, without any expression.

Zou Miao burst out laughing. “Perfect. I’m a certified lunatic myself — we’d make a fine pair. Better than inflicting ourselves on anyone else.”

Zou Miao was a born player, and there had been no shortage of ex-girlfriends. Nan Chu figured he was mostly just joking around here — she just hadn’t counted on him actually being as unhinged as advertised.

That same day — just past year’s end — Shen Mu’s charitable foundation held a special event on firefighting. Nan Chu attended as a representative of the celebrity firefighting volunteers. Even Zou Miao had been invited.

Zou Miao had his own foundation and was genuinely involved in charitable work — he had a working relationship with Shen Mu, though they had barely been acquainted in person. When Shen Mu spotted Nan Chu and Zou Miao sitting and chatting in the greenroom, he turned to his assistant. “Has Luxiao arrived?”

“He’s on his way — not here yet.”

There was a firefighting knowledge lecture at the end of the program, and since Lin Luxiao happened to be on his annual holiday, they had invited him to come.

Now, having seen this, Shen Mu stepped outside and called him directly.

On the other end, Lin Luxiao had just parked. He pulled up the parking brake and answered. “Arrived.”

Shen Mu: “At the entrance?”

Lin Luxiao pushed the door open and got out, leaning against the car as he talked. “Yeah, at the entrance.”

Shen Mu: “…All right. Stay at the entrance — don’t come in yet.”

It was a clear, bright winter day. Golden sunlight poured down in a warm flood.

Lin Luxiao leaned against the car with a lazy, puzzled smile. “Hanging up.”

There were a lot of young women coming and going, and this particular man leaning against the car like a living display was drawing more than a few second glances. Lin Luxiao stood there with nothing better to do, head bowed, pressing the toe of his shoe against a cigarette stub on the ground.

Then, ahead of him, a truck pulled up.

Lin Luxiao narrowed his eyes and looked. In the back was a full truckload of flowers in vivid, saturated colors — what kind of flowers they were, he genuinely couldn’t have said.

In the next instant, Shen Mu appeared at his side. He’d also noticed the truck, and immediately thought of the person inside. He looked at Lin Luxiao in incredulity. “You bought these?”

Lin Luxiao let out a derisive laugh, as if he’d just heard something absurd. “What would I want with something like that?”

Shen Mu pressed his lips together and said nothing.

Ah —

You idiot. Someone’s out here courting your wife.