Wu Man hung up the voice call and sent Zhui Ye her license plate number, waiting at a position some distance from the bar.

After a while, Zhui Ye’s figure appeared at the entrance of the flashy bar. This guy wasn’t even wearing a mask, carrying a messenger bag, dressed in a black hooded sweatshirt with the hood casually pulled up as his disguise.

He stood at the entrance with his hands in his pockets, looking around, finally spotting Wu Man’s car. Just as he was about to walk over, a woman chased out from behind and grabbed Zhui Ye’s arm.

The woman was wearing a mask—Wu Man couldn’t see who it was.

The two chatted for a while, then actually walked together toward her car.

Zhui Ye knocked on the car window, saying to Wu Man: “Big sister, do you mind picking up one more person?”

“…?” Wu Man’s gaze shifted to the person behind Zhui Ye, meeting the woman’s only visible eyes.

“He Huiyu?”

“It’s you?”

The two spoke in unison.

He Huiyu’s gaze moved between Wu Man and Zhui Ye, saying incredulously to Zhui Ye: “The person you said you’d been waiting for a long time is Wu Man?”

Zhui Ye nodded, talking nonsense: “Big sister has high standards. I finally managed to get her to come once. Hurry and get in the car. Otherwise in the next second she’ll start the engine and run us over.”

Having said that, he nimbly opened the back door and got in.

He Huiyu stood awkwardly in place—staying wasn’t an option, leaving wasn’t either.

Wu Man lifted her chin, saying simply: “Get in. One more person doesn’t make a difference.”

He Huiyu froze, seemingly not expecting her to say that. She hesitated before also opening the back door. But Zhui Ye pointed at the passenger seat: “Teacher He, you sit there.”

He Huiyu’s eyes widened: “Are you kidding?!”

“If we both sit in back, won’t big sister become an Uber driver?”

“Then you sit in front.”

“Leaving you alone in back wouldn’t be good either.”

Wu Man said wordlessly: “Stop arguing, both sit in back. Just don’t mess around in my back seat.”

“…Mess around?” Zhui Ye, hearing this, propped one hand on the car window, looking askance at Wu Man in the rearview mirror: “Are you misunderstanding something?”

Wu Man raised an eyebrow: “A man and woman alone leaving a bar together to go back—what am I misunderstanding?”

Zhui Ye looked at He Huiyu somewhat helplessly: “Teacher He, my reputation’s been ruined by you again.”

“In that case, why should we sit separately?” He Huiyu rolled her eyes and got into the passenger seat. “Take me home, thanks.” She then gave an address.

Wu Man shrugged apologetically, secretly eliminating the “friends with benefits” option in her mind.

Not lovers, not friends with benefits either.

She turned on the radio, which happened to be playing a song she liked. Her fingers tapped out the beat joyfully on the steering wheel.

The car fell somewhat silent. He Huiyu cleared her throat and asked: “You two… are on such good terms now?”

Zhui Ye seemed not to hear He Huiyu’s words clearly. He deliberately moved from behind the passenger seat to behind the driver’s seat, straightening up from his leaning posture, leaning his body forward, so close he almost pressed against Wu Man’s driver’s seat back, enveloping her from behind.

This way he could face He Huiyu at an angle while talking, but this position inevitably brought him very close to Wu Man.

When he spoke, she could even feel his breath.

Zhui Ye took the opportunity to turn his face, casually glancing at her, very improperly: “Using someone’s words, just colleagues showing affection.”

Wu Man felt uncomfortable under his gaze. Without alerting He Huiyu, she turned her face slightly and shot Zhui Ye an inconspicuous glare.

Receiving her look, the corners of his mouth curved slightly. His cheeks lifted as he moved his gaze away.

The car drove forward through the silent night. Passing a convenience store, He Huiyu asked to stop.

During the gap while she got out to buy things, Wu Man coldly fired at Zhui Ye: “You’re something else, making me be the driver for your female confidante.”

“…Changed from ‘messing around’ to ‘female confidante’?”

“You have a reputation.” Wu Man said pointedly.

“Oh, you still remember that marketing account’s content.” Zhui Ye raised an eyebrow. “Then by similar comparison, big sister is also picking me up after drinking—am I your male confidant?”

“Do you believe I’ll make you get out right now? You and her can roll away together.”

He muttered: “Just a joke, so fierce…”

“This is my rare day off, you called me out from home to be your driver.” Wu Man rolled her eyes. “And you still want me to give you a pleasant face?”

Zhui Ye thought for a moment, then pulled a blue candle from his messenger bag, leaning close to her seat back again.

“Then take this as an apology, for you.”

Wu Man didn’t reach out to take it, frowning: “What is it?”

“Today someone we know had a birthday. He didn’t make a wish, so he divided three wishes among us. I was pretty lucky and got one of them.” He pressed the candle into Wu Man’s palm. “This is it. Light it and you can make a wish.”

Wu Man was about to complain when He Huiyu knocked on the car window from outside, showing the cigarettes she’d just bought: “Want to come down for one?”

Zhui Ye looked at her: “Does big sister smoke?”

Wu Man shook her head: “I’m only stopping for three minutes.”

Zhui Ye made a saluting gesture to her and quickly got out, accepting the cigarette He Huiyu handed him.

He Huiyu extended her lighter, cupping it with her palm to light his cigarette. He bent down to get closer, casually using her lighter to ignite it.

Wu Man watched this scene expressionlessly and rolled up the car window.

The blue candle was still in her palm. She listlessly opened the car drawer to randomly throw it in when the car window was knocked twice.

Wu Man’s movement paused. She rolled down the window. Zhui Ye walked over alone, cigarette still in his mouth, saying to her indistinctly: “Big sister, have you thought of your wish yet?”

“…What now?”

“The wish has to be made before midnight.” Zhui Ye pointed at the time on his phone. “If you don’t make it soon, it’ll expire.”

Wu Man saw the kid’s insistent expression—seemed like this matter couldn’t be avoided.

“Mm, thought of it.” She casually placated him. “Tell He Huiyu to get in. Time to go.”

Just before rolling up the window, Zhui Ye pressed down on the window.

Taking advantage of this, he grasped the hand holding the blue candle, pulling her wrist toward him.

Zhui Ye’s body leaned diagonally against the car window. He bent his head, the cigarette at his lips touching the candle wick.

But his eyes kept looking up at her.

The radio in the car had cycled to a love song, a slightly husky female voice singing:

“You and I / watching the neon lights / walked through love’s street

With an unreal flavor…”

A car sped past on the empty road, its dim yellow headlights flickering across Zhui Ye’s profile as his cigarette simultaneously ignited the yellow flame.

“Make a wish, big sister.”

Zhui Ye’s fingertips pinched away the cigarette, exhaling curling smoke rings.

Seeing Wu Man somewhat dazed, his palm covered her eyelids, saying with a smile: “You have to close your eyes to make a wish.”

Suddenly before her eyes was pitch darkness. At the tip of her nose she could still smell the lingering tobacco scent on his hand. She didn’t manage to make any wish.

Her mind was blank.

*

The two-day break ended and they returned to normal filming.

After dropping off He Huiyu and Zhui Ye at their homes last night, Wu Man brought that blue candle back and placed it by her bedside. She stared at it all night and didn’t sleep well.

The next day driving to the set she kept dozing off, while Wei Wei was energetically gossiping as usual.

Seeing Wu Man resting, she still couldn’t suppress her complaints: “Sis, someone’s riding your popularity again.”

Wu Man made a light sound to express questioning.

“That C-position contestant from ‘Girl Group 101’ that’s popular recently—all the marketing accounts are claiming she’s ‘little Wu Man.’ What a thick face!” Wei Wei scrolled through her phone while scoffing. “The show is so shameless. They invited us to be award presenters at the finals, probably just to hype this up.”

“Is that so.” She didn’t care much. Zhao Boyu helped arrange all these variety show appearances—she herself didn’t pay attention.

Wei Wei was quiet for a while, then let out an even louder exclamation: “Holy crap…!”

Wu Man furrowed her brow: “Wei Wei, you’re especially noisy today.”

“Sorry, Sister Man.” She stuck out her tongue. “It’s just that trending topics just exploded with gossip about Best Actor Zhui!”

Hearing this name, Wu Man’s heart tightened. Most of her drowsiness dissipated. She asked with feigned calm: “What happened to him?”

“He has the most tabloid news. What else could it be besides that?” Wei Wei handed over her phone to show her.

Wu Man nervously clicked to open it, seeing the paparazzi GIF the marketing account posted—photos of Zhui Ye and He Huiyu smoking together at the convenience store entrance. He Huiyu had removed her mask at the time, very clearly visible. As for Zhui Ye—he’d never worn a mask at all.

Wu Man scrolled through all the photos. Her anxious heart finally settled back in place.

None of her.

She’d been cautious the whole time wearing a mask, hadn’t gotten out of the car. The lurking paparazzi probably just took her for an ordinary driver.

But she hadn’t completely relaxed. Worried whether other passersby or photos had captured her, she quickly checked trending topics, then clicked into the gossip forum.

The forum homepage was already completely flooded with photos of He Huiyu and Zhui Ye smoking late at night.

“Smoking couple confirmed!”

“Best Actor works so hard filming, but still squeezes out time to see his girlfriend. So sisters, don’t believe men’s nonsense about being too busy to contact you. If he doesn’t find you, he just doesn’t love you!”

“Can I ask what brand of cigarettes they’re smoking?”

All sorts of bizarre discussion topics—no one cared that there was actually also her existence as the driver.

This made Wu Man completely relax. She tossed away her phone and fell asleep.

Wei Wei was still muttering beside her: “But this time the target is actually a repeat. Could he really be dating He Huiyu? Then his taste is terrible. Picking her?”

Drifting into sleep, she thought somewhat ridiculously that if all of Zhui Ye’s alleged affairs with various actresses were because of such scandals, he was really wronged.

There was a type of person like AI—even stripped naked showing pale flesh, they still seemed cold, without story. But there was another type of person, like Zhui Ye—even if he openly declared he was just a robot, observers still couldn’t help but imagine wildly, conjuring up a story numbered 89757.

Even observers were like this, let alone face-to-face with him.

The late-night cigarette lighting the candle’s flame flashed through her mind again. Wu Man tossed and turned on the car’s reclining seat, her brow slightly furrowed.

*

After that day’s filming ended, Wu Man returned to the villa exhausted, wanting to catch up on sleep quickly.

As soon as she entered, she saw a pair of polished black leather shoes placed in the entryway, a black suit jacket hanging on the coat rack.

No one was in the main hall. She went upstairs and found Yu Jiaze in the study.

He was buried in front of the computer screen. Noticing her push the door open, he patted his lap without looking up.

“Little bird, come here.”

She obediently sat on his lap. He wrapped one arm around her waist, nestling her in his embrace while operating the computer. Wu Man quietly watched the spreadsheets on screen for a while. Her head, tired from the whole day, throbbed faintly.

She yawned silently, asking: “Have you eaten?”

Yu Jiaze made a light nasal sound of acknowledgment: “I was afraid you’d make me another meal of livestock feed.”

“…I’ve improved too.”

He didn’t respond, continuing to operate the numbers. After a long while he said lightly: “Has anyone had a birthday recently?”

“Hm?”

“There’s a candle from a cake on your bedside.”

Wu Man’s heart skipped half a beat. She said vaguely: “No one’s birthday. During my break I suddenly wanted to eat cake. The store gave it.”

“What brand?”

“…LadyM.”

The first one that popped into her mind, she blurted out.

She didn’t like sweets and knew few brands. She could only think of this one at the moment.

“Rare to see you eat cake.” Yu Jiaze pinched the flesh on her arm. “Not afraid of gaining weight anymore?”

“Recently filming, the pressure is high… I occasionally break my diet once.”

Yu Jiaze drew out his tone, somewhat displeased: “Occasionally break it once, and there’ll be a second time.”

“…I know, I won’t eat it next time.”

Wu Man smiled dryly, somehow inexplicably nervous, always feeling his words had hidden meaning.

“Alright, finally got this part done.”

Yu Jiaze closed the spreadsheet page and rubbed his neck. Wu Man very tactfully stood up and walked behind him to relieve his cervical spine.

He closed his eyes to enjoy it for a while, humming: “Little bird’s technique could make you a masseuse.”

Wu Man smiled without warmth—this compliment wasn’t pleasant to hear.

He reopened his eyes, clicked the mouse to open Weibo, saying to her in a gossipy tone: “That person from your crew is quite restless—on trending topics again.”

Again?

Wu Man leaned closer to look, discovering it was still that one with He Huiyu.

“Oh, this was up this morning.” Her tone was calm. “He and He Huiyu aren’t being rumored together for the first time. It’s probably true.”

Yu Jiaze smiled: “You know quite clearly, as if you were right there at the scene.”

Wu Man’s fingers trembled.

“That last press was too hard.” Yu Jiaze glanced at her. “Just praised you and you’re already getting cocky?”

She lowered her eyes to avoid his gaze: “Then I’ll be gentler.”

“Actually I’m not interested in his romantic history.” Yu Jiaze clicked to open one photo from the smoking series. “But I’m quite interested in the car in this photo. You should look too—isn’t it very familiar?”

Wu Man’s hands completely froze.

The photo Yu Jiaze enlarged showed her car in the very corner. Half the license plate number was captured.

Gossip followers and media couldn’t recognize whose car it was at all.

But Yu Jiaze, who’d given her this car, couldn’t fail to recognize it.