Ms. Xu’s cooking was third-rate—a fact known to the entire family. The pork rib porridge had been specially ordered by Xu Mingjuan, who had instructed the restaurant manager to have the chef simmer the meat until it was tender. Grandpa finished a large bowl of it.
Just as he set his bowl down, Auntie Jing came upstairs to deliver some stuffed lotus root.
Lin Jiang hurried to get a plate to serve them, while Auntie Jing turned to her and asked, "I heard from your mother that you’re seeing someone?"
Lin Jiang froze for a moment, then gave a shy smile and nodded.
"Oh my, then my Shen Yan doesn't stand a chance!" Auntie Jing nudged Xu Mingjuan’s shoulder, teasing her with a smile.
Grandpa chuckled at the remark. "Auntie Jing, to be honest, I still have high hopes for A-Yan. He’s handsome, has a good character, and is driven. Most importantly, we’re neighbors—we know his family inside and out."
Xu Mingjuan quickly chided him, "Dad, let’s not worry about the kids' business." She then shot a glance at Lin Jiang. "This girl has a mind of her own."
Auntie Jing laughed. "Well, the children do have their own ideas. Ever since Shen Yan moved out, he only comes home once every week or two. I have no idea what he’s so busy with every day."
"Oh?" Xu Mingjuan exclaimed. "Could he be dating someone?"
"How would I know?" Auntie Jing smiled, then looked at Lin Jiang. "Jiang, you’re close with him. Do you know what he’s been up to lately?"
Lin Jiang’s mind was a mess. She pursed her lips and had to stall. "I’ve been busy lately too. I’ll go see him later and scout out the situation for you."
Auntie Jing smiled and said that would be great.
In the afternoon, while Xu Mingjuan was on the sofa watching the old drama *Corner with Love*, Lin Jiang was messaging Shen Yan. He was slow to reply.
After five o'clock, Lin Jiang invited Shen Yan to Haidilao. Since Xu Mingjuan was heading to her shop anyway, she gave Lin Jiang a ride.
It was a quarter past six in the evening.
Jiang Weifeng had just finished the final set of shots.
To achieve the "fragility" and "ethereal" vibe requested by the brand, they had gone through three different themes. In this last set, the model was hidden behind a transparent film, with lights casting five or six different colors that splashed across her body in a vibrant display.
During the shoot, both the model and he were incredibly focused, completing the work with high efficiency and quality.
The set didn't go to waste. Gu Xiang had been pestering him to post on Weibo for a week, and this was the perfect opportunity.
After posting to Weibo, just as he was about to put his phone away, he suddenly decided to take a selfie. He opened WeChat, found the pinned contact "J," and sent it over.
Only after completing this series of actions did he snap back to reality and realize someone was standing beside him.
"Do you have plans tonight?" Zhao Siyi asked, rubbing her fingers together and looking down as she spoke to him.
Jiang Weifeng let out a casual yawn. "My girlfriend wants to video call me tonight."
The girl was taken aback, stunned for a second before quickly regaining her composure. "Your girlfriend keeps a very tight leash on you, doesn't she?"
Jiang Weifeng was amused by the comment. "You’re overthinking it. It’s that I’m clingy with her."
He made a move to leave, but before he did, he gave her a cool, distant smile and didn't forget to add, "Go back and get some rest."
Zhao Siyi returned the smile politely, but no one saw her fingernails digging into her palms.
In another city, amidst the rising smoke of the evening, the air was thick with the aroma of food.
Lin Jiang tapped on her phone and saw an unread message from her pinned contact. She opened it to find a selfie of him making a peace sign.
A smile instantly spread across her face. She hurriedly took a photo of the hotpot and sent it back.
"Sending that to Jiang Weifeng?"
Lin Jiang looked up to see Shen Yan watching her intently. She put her phone down and picked up a meatball to eat, using the movement to hide her expression. "Yeah."
Shen Yan fell silent.
Lin Jiang cleared her throat and smiled. "What about you? Has your little girlfriend messaged you?"
Shen Yan paused. "I have my phone on silent."
For a moment, Lin Jiang didn't know how to respond.
"I’m going to her house for dinner in a couple of days." Shen Yan poured a glass of lemon water, biting the rim of the glass as he looked at her.
Lin Jiang simply gave an expressionless "oh" and continued slowly fishing for meat in the pot.
Shen Yan swallowed hard, set the glass down, and asked, "Did you call me out just to eat?"
"Auntie Jing said you haven't been home in a long time." Lin Jiang kept her eyes on the pot.
"Yeah," Shen Yan replied. "I've been quite busy lately."
Lin Jiang nodded without much expression and went back to focusing on the beef and vegetables, not engaging further.
Shen Yan fished out a bursting beef ball. When he took the first bite, the juice squirted out, scalding him. Fortunately, the sting brought his wandering thoughts back to the present.
"Does he... treat you well?" Shen Yan asked.
Lin Jiang poured him a glass of water. "He does."
Shen Yan took a sip. "That’s good then."
Hearing this, Lin Jiang’s hand paused mid-air. She smiled. "What about her? Is she a good person?"
Shen Yan froze, appearing to weigh his answer, or perhaps considering whether to tell the truth. Finally, he replied, "I don't know."
In front of them, the tomato and spicy broths bubbled and steamed, sending mouth-watering scents wafting into their noses.
Lin Jiang turned the heat down slightly and looked at Shen Yan quietly for two seconds. Then, her smile deepened. "Shen Yan, I saw Cheng Yunchuan."
Shen Yan was visibly startled, accidentally dropping his chopsticks.
The servers at Haidilao were famously attentive. Seeing the dropped chopsticks, one rushed over with a new pair before Shen Yan could even bend down. The server then picked up the old ones and offered several polite remarks before leaving.
Shen Yan was grateful for the server’s intervention; that brief minute was enough for him to calm down.
"Actually, I saw her too," Shen Yan said, glancing at Lin Jiang’s face. "She’s actually still by Zhang Juntao’s side. What’s infuriating is that Jiao Jiao has no idea. When she saw her, she even rushed over to say hello, thinking she was just her father’s apprentice."
Shen Yan paused again. "She... added me on WeChat. She wants me to help her get in touch with you. She said... she’s willing to do what she didn't do back then."
An indescribable feeling rose in Lin Jiang’s heart. She watched Shen Yan’s lips move, but the words they formed felt entirely alien.
It felt as if something inside her had been knocked over.
Like a spicy hotpot suddenly flipping, her heart felt scorched and steaming, yet in that moment, she didn't know where to begin cleaning up the mess.
"Shen Yan."
Lin Jiang forced herself to listen to the end before calling his name.
Shen Yan fell silent. He propped his elbows on the table and watched her. The girl across from him had clear, bright eyes, as if a fire were burning at the edge of the universe.
"Shen Yan, don't worry. I’ll give it some thought."
She was quiet for a few seconds before she spoke, a faint smile on her face as she used her chopsticks to add mushrooms to the pot.
Both of them stopped talking and focused on their meal. To any observer, it seemed they were eating hotpot with the slow, deliberate pace of a fine dining experience.
By the time they added the noodles to the pot, Shen Yan was full, but Lin Jiang was still eating. She was wearing a scoop-neck top today, revealing the graceful lines of her collarbones. Shen Yan’s gaze darkened as he watched her. "How can you eat so much and not gain any weight?"
Lin Jiang laughed. "You can say that to my face, but don't say it to anyone else, or you'll make a lot of enemies."
Shen Yan smiled and watched her eat in silence.
She seemed truly hungry, stuffing large mouthfuls of food into her mouth, even making small chewing sounds. Yet her gaze was hollow, fixed on a single point without any expression. If she weren't continuously feeding herself like a machine, one would have thought she was in a daze.
In that moment, Shen Yan felt as if time had stopped. Countless thoughts flashed through his mind, but he couldn't find the right word to describe his feelings until one finally fit: heartache.
There were words on the tip of his tongue, but he hesitated. Instead, he picked up his chopsticks and fished out the remaining noodles and meatballs, eating them in large gulps just as she was doing.
"Hey!" Lin Jiang exclaimed. "Why are you stealing my food? You’re even going for the spicy broth?"
Shen Yan huffed. "You think I can't out-eat you?"
Lin Jiang didn't reply for a long while, finally pouting and giving a soft, "Whatever."
It was a midsummer night.
The summer heat in the north was stifling and scorching.
Beads of sweat fell and evaporated quickly, much like many matters of the heart—seared by the heat, and eventually forgotten.
A few days after returning from Beijing, Jiang Weifeng packed his bags to head back.
On the day he left, it was raining heavily in Qingcheng. He absolutely refused to let Lin Jiang come downstairs to see him off. Lin Jiang pretended to go back to sleep, but as soon as he closed the door, she went barefoot to the balcony to watch him from afar.
The wind blew the rain onto the balcony. She was wearing a camisole nightgown, and the moisture felt cool against her skin. A moment later, he emerged from the building. Because she was on a high floor, she could only see his umbrella, round like a piece of duckweed. Just as he was about to walk out of her line of sight, he seemed to sense her gaze. He stopped abruptly, moved the umbrella aside, and looked up to wave at her.
Lin Jiang hurriedly stood on her tiptoes to wave back, smiling down at him.
They stayed like that for a few seconds until Lin Jiang felt a vibration in her palm. She looked down to see her phone screen flashing. She answered, and the man’s voice came through, sounding lazy. "Why do I feel so guilty?"
"What’s wrong?" Her voice was scattered by the wind.
"Looking at you from this angle, you look like a left-behind child," he said with a messy laugh.
Lin Jiang felt a tickle in her heart and sneezed. "I don't think so..."
He didn't argue further. "Go back inside. Don't catch a cold."
Lin Jiang suddenly realized he was still standing in the rain. Her heart skipped a beat, and she ducked back inside almost instantly. Peering through the curtains, she saw that he was still looking toward her. She quickly hung up, saying, "Goodbye."
She didn't want him to stand in the rain any longer.
Once Jiang Weifeng left for Beijing, Lin Jiang’s life returned to its usual state—like a glass of plain water.
Lukewarm, ordinary, and lacking novelty.
Aside from her substitute teaching, she spent most of her time working on her radio program. Things had become more complicated after signing the contract. Besides the platform scripts, there was an official account to manage. That wasn't all; an official Weibo account had just been launched, and Douyin and Toutiao accounts were sure to follow.
Near the end of July, her editor called to discuss the audio live stream and promotion for the launch of her new program, requesting that she come to Beijing.
The day before she left, she was on the phone with Jiang Weifeng. He asked what she was doing the next day, and she lied, saying she had plans to go to a live house with Zhou Wan. He reminded her not to stay out too late.
After hanging up, Jiang Weifeng chatted with the director. The director lit a cigarette and handed him one, then Jiang Weifeng lit them both.
"Your woman?" the director asked with a smile.
Jiang Weifeng’s lips curled. "Yeah."
"Is she pretty?" the director asked.
Jiang Weifeng’s expression didn't change. "Is that even a question?"
The director laughed. "And you’re okay with leaving your wife at home? You’re not worried?"
Hearing this, Jiang Weifeng thought of the hotpot photo from a few days ago. When he had zoomed in, he could clearly see a man’s hand across from her. He smiled but said nothing.
"Actually, she should be the one worried about you. You’re not any less handsome than those male celebrities," the director said, flicking ash. "I see plenty of young girls in the crew talking about you in private."
Jiang Weifeng chuckled. "You’re exaggerating."
"Not at all. With a face like yours, if I were a young girl, my heart would be fluttering too," the director laughed. "Your wife must keep a tight leash on you, right? Back when I was doing news, I saw plenty of relationship drama caused by wives being too strict. But women are clingy by nature. Just now, I was so busy I couldn't catch my breath and didn't reply to my wife’s message, and now she’s giving me the cold shoulder..."
Jiang Weifeng took a deep drag of his cigarette, listening quietly to the director.
That night, he called Lin Jiang. His first words were, "Aren't you afraid I'll go looking for trouble out here?"
Lin Jiang was applying essence to her face and paused. "I never thought about it..." She considered it for a moment, then asked, "Would you?"
Jiang Weifeng hissed through his teeth and rubbed his temples. "I can't say for sure. You’re too lax with me."
Lin Jiang stopped what she was doing and went silent.
"Cat got your tongue?" Jiang Weifeng prompted.
Lin Jiang gave a soft laugh. "Then I’ll be stricter from now on."
That phone call only made Lin Jiang more determined to give him a surprise.
After arriving in Beijing, she first went to the company to meet with the staff and attend a few small meetings. Her program was launching that night, and there was a live stream to do at three in the morning.
By the time she finished everything, it was past seven in the evening. She headed to the filming location she had scouted earlier. It was nine o'clock by the time she reached her destination and contacted Gu Xiang, and Jiang Weifeng still hadn't finished work.
The recording was just reaching its final segment—the partners sharing their heartfelt thoughts. It was mostly a mix of half-truths and polite formalities, and Jiang Weifeng didn't care to listen. He found a good angle, took some photos, and stood to the side waiting for the director to call "cut."
And just as the director called "cut," someone lightly tugged at the corner of his jacket.
***
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