Three consecutive knocks, then after they stopped, after ten breaths’ time, the knocking resumed.
Wu Mangmang kicked off the covers that had smothered her with heat, staring at the ceiling in a daze.
At this moment, the door was gently pushed open from outside, and a woman who looked like a maid in her thirties walked in. Seeing Wu Mangmang awake, she smiled and said, “Good morning, Miss.”
“Morning.” Wu Mangmang replied somewhat uncomfortably.
Annie drew open the curtains, and golden light flooded the room. With such bright sunshine, no wonder Wu Mangmang felt hot.
“Sir requests that Miss come down for breakfast after washing up,” Annie said.
Wu Mangmang nodded.
Aida then came in to help Wu Mangmang with her hair, which made Wu Mangmang, who was accustomed to being “independent and self-reliant,” quite unaccustomed.
After her hair was done, Annie had already prepared three outfits for Wu Mangmang to choose from.
Well, this even saved on image consultant fees.
When Wu Mangmang came downstairs, Lu Sui was already sitting at the dining table reading the newspaper—a common habit of older men. Boss Wu did the same thing in the mornings.
“Morning.” Wu Mangmang greeted him and took her seat. A Chinese breakfast was quickly served before her: golden cake, shrimp dumplings, shumai, blanched vegetables, soy milk porridge…
The variety was dazzling, with small portions of everything, as comfortable as eating a 158-yuan snack set meal.
“It’s the weekend today, what would you like to do?” Lu Sui asked Wu Mangmang.
Wu Mangmang said, “Anything except fishing.”
“Want to get a helicopter license?” Lu Sui asked again.
Yes!
But Wu Mangmang didn’t want to answer Lu Sui’s question—he was too good at finding people’s weaknesses.
“Are you so certain I’ll move in that you’re making all these arrangements?” Wu Mangmang looked at Lu Sui. After eating and getting some calories, she finally had courage.
Lu Sui put down his coffee cup and looked at Wu Mangmang.
“I’m not certain of anything. I just had people make arrangements to avoid the inconvenience of last weekend. This way, you won’t have to cut up my clothes anymore,” Lu Sui said.
That simple?!
Wu Mangmang felt that if she were only eighteen, she might believe Lu Sui’s words.
This man was clearly engaging in gradual encroachment—circuitous and winding tactics were just strategy. He definitely wouldn’t give up until he achieved his goal.
“I’m not used to living with people,” Wu Mangmang said somewhat pitifully, like a small animal cornered against a wall.
“I understand,” Lu Sui said, picking up his coffee cup to end the topic.
After finishing breakfast, Lu Sui again inquired about Wu Mangmang’s plans and arrangements for the day.
“Or how do you usually spend your weekends?” Lu Sui said.
He seemed quite respectful of Wu Mangmang’s lifestyle habits.
Wu Mangmang recalled, “Usually at this time on weekends I’m probably on a blind date, and if there’s no blind date, then I’m on my way to a blind date.”
Lu Sui’s question was essentially pointless.
Just then, Shen Ting called to invite Lu Sui sea fishing. Lu Sui glanced at Wu Mangmang, who directly made a throat-slitting gesture, so Lu Sui had to decline.
“Let’s go to the mountains for two days and see the snow scenery,” Lu Sui suggested.
Wu Mangmang’s first reaction was that she was going to be confined again.
Fortunately, Ms. Liu’s call came in timely: “Where are you?”
Only then did Wu Mangmang remember she had been “kidnapped” from home. “I went out.”
“This early?” Liu Lewei was surprised—Wu Mangmang habitually slept in on weekends.
“Mm.” Wu Mangmang pouted at the culprit.
“You still remember Wang Yuan’s violin recital tonight, right?” Liu Lewei said.
Wu Mangmang slapped her forehead, only then remembering this matter.
Life really was like chess—every game was new.
Back then, Wu Mangmang had been enthusiastic about blind dates specifically so she could bring a boyfriend to the recital, making it convenient for Lu Lin to back down.
Who knew she’d encounter Lu Sui on the blind date, causing her to forget all about this.
Now, bringing Lu Sui in front of Lu Lin didn’t seem quite appropriate.
Wu Mangmang wasn’t sure whether Lu Sui would be willing to appear in front of Lu Lin with her at this stage.
Furthermore, Wu Mangmang was twelve thousand percent unwilling to let Ms. Liu know that Lu Sui was that “Mr. Lu,” to avoid unnecessary trouble in the future.
“I’ll be right back,” Wu Mangmang answered Ms. Liu.
Then she turned to Lu Sui and said, “There’s something at home, I have to go back.”
Lu Sui got up to get the car keys. Wu Mangmang said behind him, “Just have the driver take me back.”
“Are you my driver’s girlfriend?” Lu Sui said.
Wu Mangmang was speechless, inexplicably sensing a trace of anger from Lu Sui.
The two of them had nothing to say all the way. Wu Mangmang was already counting on her fingers the days until they broke up.
That evening, Wu Mangmang accompanied Ms. Liu to the concert hall early. Shortly after sitting down, a staff member came to ask her to go backstage.
Lu Lin saw Wu Mangmang in Wang Yuan’s dressing room, got up to greet her, and said, “Mangmang, let me introduce you to Wang Yuan.”
Wu Mangmang hadn’t expected Lu Lin to arrange things this way and could only steel herself to go over. The Lu family siblings seemed to deeply understand the principle of creating fait accompli.
Sure enough, Wu Mangmang saw a kind of “I see” expression on Wang Yuan’s face.
She really wanted to shout loudly: I’m not a lesbian.
But before Wu Mangmang could speak, she saw Wang Yuan’s assistant come in, hand her a phone, and whisper in her ear, “Mr. Lu’s call.”
The three words “Mr. Lu” didn’t cause much reaction in Wu Mangmang’s mind—there were too many people surnamed Lu or Lu.
She sat quietly aside, admiring the temperament of Wang Yuan standing by the window, and had to sigh that an artist’s temperament was indeed beyond ordinary people’s reach.
Moreover, Wang Yuan had a very tall figure, probably over 1.7 meters, wearing a wine-red long dress.
This color, if worn by someone without good temperament, would be the color of sanitary pads, but with good temperament, it was the color of 1982 Lafite.
Wang Yuan was naturally the latter.
Wang Yuan quickly finished the call, her eyes red-rimmed. Lu Lin walked over to embrace her.
Wang Yuan was somewhat emotional: “He’s not coming.”
“For every one of my performances before, no matter where, he would always appear. I thought we… but I still don’t understand why he suddenly proposed breaking up, and never looked at me again, never cared about me again.”
Lu Lin said nothing, just gently patted Wang Yuan’s back.
Wu Mangmang felt awkward, never expecting to hear Wang Yuan’s private affairs, so she stood up preparing to open the door and leave. Although she was gossipy, she actually didn’t want to personally hear others’ privacy that they were unwilling to make public.
“Sister Lu Lin, why is this happening? Do you know why Lu Sui broke up with me? Initially I thought he had another woman, but he’s been single all these years, so I don’t understand, really don’t understand.” Wang Yuan began crying as she spoke.
Wu Mangmang was stopped by the words “Lu Sui” from Wang Yuan’s mouth.
“Stop crying, your makeup will run and how will you perform later? Besides, Lu Sui never tells me about these things,” Lu Lin said. “But I heard he already has a new girlfriend.”
Wang Yuan tried hard to control her emotions: “Yes, but I still want to know what was wrong with me, otherwise I’ll never get over this in my lifetime.”
Lu Lin was helpless and could only ask, “What did he say at the time?”
“He only said we weren’t suitable for living together, and didn’t say anything else.” Wang Yuan felt this was obviously just Lu Sui’s tactful excuse.
However, at this moment in Wu Mangmang’s heart, she felt that Lu Sui was telling the truth. For him, whether they were suitable for living together was probably the key point.
What women called love and such had never been the point.
The room wasn’t too large, so although Wu Mangmang had slowed her pace, she still reached the door and could only open it and go out, unable to hear what happened next.
Not long after, Lu Lin came out. Her seat was right next to Wu Mangmang’s, so Ms. Liu naturally had to go up and chat with her.
When the lights dimmed and Wang Yuan appeared on stage, everything had returned to normal. You couldn’t tell at all that half an hour ago she was still a woman troubled by love—at this moment she was clearly the queen of the violin.
The recital was very successful, truly living up to her reputation. But there were too many people in the world who played violin well—why she alone achieved fame and success, the driving force behind it was truly not to be underestimated.
Wu Mangmang hadn’t expected that someone like Lu Sui had actually attended every one of Wang Yuan’s performances in the past.
Wang Yuan’s performances spanned the globe.
Indeed, it was still good to be young—those passionate burning years.
And now Lu Sui, in Wu Mangmang’s view, was like the remaining embers of charcoal.
And herself—Wu Mangmang felt like a sweet potato buried under those ashes.
Sweet and soft, satisfying an old person’s appetite.
After the recital, Ms. Liu chatted with Lu Lin while Wu Mangmang quietly stood aside like a decorative vase.
She didn’t know which of Ms. Liu’s words moved Lu Lin, but she actually offered to introduce Wang Yuan to Liu Lewei.
Liu Lewei was flattered, nudged Wu Mangmang, and only then did Wu Mangmang wake from her reverie and follow them backstage.
At this time, Wang Yuan had already packed up her instrument. Seeing them come in, she warmly exchanged pleasantries.
Finally, Wang Yuan took Lu Lin’s hand and said, “Thank you, Sister Lu Lin.”
Lu Lin patted Wang Yuan’s hand: “He should give you a more responsible explanation.”
As soon as Wu Mangmang heard this “he,” she knew who it was.
Her current boyfriend was about to have a private meeting with his ex-girlfriend. Wu Mangmang couldn’t help but walk out and make a phone call: “Where are you? Want to get some late-night snacks?”
“Mm, where are you? I’ll come pick you up.” Lu Sui’s voice came from the other end.
Wu Mangmang was very disappointed—she had thought he had a date with Wang Yuan tonight and wanted to make Lu Sui choose between them.
The world was too boring; she had to find some trouble to make it fun.
“Suddenly I don’t want to eat anymore. Bye.” Wu Mangmang decisively hung up.
Wu Mangmang felt that if she were Lu Sui right now, she’d probably curse herself as “psycho,” but who cares?