Chapter 20: A Secret Glance

This apartment hadn’t changed at all.

All the furniture was still there. The game discs Jiang Ying used to enjoy were neatly stacked beside the console. Everything was spotless and orderly, as if someone still lived here, as if Lu Zhixi might step out from one of the rooms at any moment and ask if she wanted a late-night snack before going to bed.

Meng Shao stood at the door, waiting for her, idly examining the keypad lock.

“This lock is smart, right? Does it have a camera? He gave you this apartment—don’t you think he might have some ulterior motive?”

“He’s not that kind of person... But I don’t live here, and I don’t want this apartment.”

Jiang Ying’s tone carried a hint of stubbornness.

Meng Shao wanted to say it’s wise to be cautious, but since she had already split from that person, he didn’t bother to elaborate.

“Want me to go in and help you get your stuff?”

“No need, I can manage.” Jiang Ying walked into the bedroom.

Since she was here, she thought she might as well take her clothes. Even if she wouldn’t wear them, she didn’t want them left here. But when she opened the wardrobe, it was empty. Not only had Lu Zhixi’s clothes all been taken away, but her own clothes, even her underwear, were gone.

Lu Zhixi’s butler and housekeeper were very professional; this shouldn’t have happened. Jiang Ying searched the apartment for a while but found no sign of her clothes. After thinking it over, she guessed they might have been discarded when clearing out clutter. Yet the books she had left here were all neatly arranged in their original places, not a single pen missing.

If they threw them away, so be it. Meng Shao had just taken her shopping for new clothes and kept saying, “Out with the old, in with the new.”

Jiang Ying packed the books into a bag and held it close as she was about to leave. Passing by the room filled with gifts Lu Zhixi had given her, she suddenly stopped.

Unable to resist, she pushed open the door and turned on the light.

The bright light instantly illuminated every corner. Each gift was carefully wrapped in transparent display packaging, arranged neatly and orderly, filling the room with dazzling variety.

Jiang Ying was somewhat surprised but mostly saddened. She looked at the gifts, her mind drifting.

She remembered exactly when each was given and how she had felt receiving them.

The joyful scene of sitting here on her birthday, happily unwrapping presents, felt as if it were yesterday. It was as if if she waited a little longer in the bedroom, Lu Zhixi would finish his business and come to hold and kiss her.

Meng Shao hadn’t wanted to enter the apartment.

He leaned by the main door, watching Jiang Ying stand at a doorway, lost in thought for a long time, then suddenly turn her gaze toward the entrance.

Her eyes were empty—not looking at him but seemingly searching for someone else.

Meng Shao couldn’t hold back and walked over. “Got everything? Once you’re done, let’s go.”

Jiang Ying snapped out of her daze and softly said, “Mm,” lowering her head and moving toward the exit, but Meng Shao suddenly stopped her.

He took the bag from her arms, holding the books and clothes in one hand and putting his other arm around her shoulder. “Don’t cry, there’s nothing to cry about.”

She didn’t shed tears, but her emotions ran deep; her nose tingled, eyes reddened, and she kept her head down, silent, quietly leaving with him.

The two of them stepped out of the apartment building and sat on a bench beside a flowerbed by the roadside.

Meng Shao said nothing, wanting Jiang Ying to have some quiet time to let her sadness pass. But like when they were children, whenever she felt upset, she would retreat into herself like a snail hiding in its shell, taking a long time to come out.

Meng Shao finally spoke: “I don’t know what exactly happened between you two, but those who want to leave can’t be held back, and those who should stay can’t be driven away. He’s not worth your worry.”

“It’s not that simple,” Jiang Ying whispered.

Meng Shao: “Then tell me how complicated it is. If it’s too complicated, I’ll just buy you a ticket to America and go beat him up.”

Hearing this, Jiang Ying smiled faintly, her eyes sparkling with tears like stars.

“I’ve been thinking these days that no matter how much I like someone, I have no right to expect them to like me back, because they never had that obligation. But...”

She lowered her head, her voice catching slightly.

“But I just can’t help it. I received his care and want his love. I don’t want to end up like my dad... Is that selfish? I feel for my dad, but I don’t want to live the way he did. He never truly experienced love.”

Her father, Jiang Zhiwen, was discharged from the hospital this past April. Since then, Jiang Ying made a habit of calling him early every week on the day she visited Lu Zhixi’s apartment, because those were her happiest moments.

To Jiang Ying, Jiang Zhiwen was a fragile man, full of inner pain. Whenever she faced him, she had to summon all her energy and speak joyfully, hoping to lift his spirits. The happiness she feigned for her father was something she replenished from Lu Zhixi, though he never knew.

Since breaking up with Lu Zhixi, she had grown hesitant about contacting her father, making excuses to delay calls, claiming she was preparing for interviews.

Jiang Ying knew she was still young but had already begun to sense that she was following a similar path at different stages in life, repeating her father’s trajectory. This repetition hovered like a ghost over her head, filling her with fear.

Was it some psychological cause from childhood that made her so strongly drawn to Lu Zhixi, leading to this ending? Or was it...

“Is this fate?” she asked in confusion.

Meng Shao was silent after hearing her, looking up at the sky, then down at the ground before turning his gaze to her.

“Who can say for certain about fate? But after all these years, I believe in one thing: those who worry about fate are doomed to be trapped by it.”

His tone carried a wisdom beyond his years.

“That guy dated you for six months, right? There’s nothing irreplaceable in this world except time. The person who stays by your side the longest is the most special.”

Jiang Ying looked at him in surprise. “Wow, when did you become a philosopher of life?”

She pondered his words for a while and found them quite reasonable.

Meng Shao grinned, and the mature aura vanished, replaced by a cocky bravado.

“I’ve been through some stuff over the years, alright? People come and go. Look at us—we’ve been neighbors since we were five. Who’s tighter than us?”

“But even after all the bad things, you always seem so confident. I’m not as strong as you,” Jiang Ying said with a hint of admiration.

“Being strong doesn’t mean you don’t cry. You cry, then pull yourself together.”

Meng Shao said, “Don’t be fooled by my confidence now. When I first started selling snacks at the school gate, I had no confidence. You were always there nagging me: ‘You can do it, you can do anything.’”

He mimicked her tone from back then, making Jiang Ying cover her face and laugh, the tears that had been lingering in her eyes completely vanishing.

“But you got beaten up so badly by your dad that time, and lost the money.”

“It was just a beating. I’m the kind who forgets pain once healed. Besides, I didn’t give him all the money—I hid fifty cents to buy sticky rice for you. Otherwise, where do you think the money came from?”

Meng Shao laughed. “I remember the food, not the beatings. You remember the beatings, not the food. That’s not good—you should learn from me.”

As they chatted, they burst into laughter over childhood memories.

By the end, Jiang Ying felt the heaviness in her heart inexplicably dissolve.

Meng Shao drove her back to school. Before parting, he said, “Don’t overthink things. Eat and drink as you should. Don’t take things to heart. I’m here anyway. If anyone bullies you, just tell me.”

“There’s no one bullying me now. I’m grown up, not a kid anymore.”

Meng Shao sighed. “I mean men! Men with bad intentions! Anyone except me and your dad!”

Jiang Ying smiled. “Got it.”

Meng Shao wasn’t one for sappy words. They bumped fists in mutual understanding.

“Go ahead, tell me when you get to the dorm. Get some sleep early.”

*

Sunlight fell on Manhattan’s towering skyscrapers, turning the dense grid of windows into golden squares, fragments of shining gold reflecting a cold, metallic glamour.

Lu Zhixi pushed open the door and stepped out, telling the servant that a glass in his room had broken and needed to be cleaned up. Then he took his racket and went downstairs.

His father, Anthony, had already left the villa. His mother, Lu Xiu, sat in the living room, taking the flowers that the gardener had arranged out of the vase and trimming each stem herself with scissors.

Seeing Lu Zhixi coming downstairs, she asked, “Where are you going?”

“To play ball.”

“At this hour? Is this really the time to play? If you have time, why not make more friends at Yale, prepare for your internship at the company, so your father and the board can see your abilities?”

Lu Xiu finally found an outlet for her frustration. Her scissors snipped harshly, cutting stems as sharply as her words.

“You’re still young? Should I teach you step by step? How many new names appear in the financial media these days that are young people in their twenties? Your shoulder was ruined by a bastard, and now your future is going to be ruined by him too?”

All the servants in the house had quieted down, not daring to make a sound.

Lu Zhixi walked straight to the door to change shoes, coldly saying to Lu Xiu,

“I’ll notify the family doctor to come see you. Hopefully, he can calm you down so Dad doesn’t make you unhappy again by having a child with a waitress, making things even more ridiculous.”

Lu Xiu’s face suddenly changed. She stared at Lu Zhixi in disbelief, but he just turned and walked out of the villa.

Instead of going to the home tennis court, Lu Zhixi called a familiar club owner and went to an outdoor clay court.

The club owner, Stephen, a retired professional athlete, knowing Lu Zhixi was coming to play, personally joined him on the court for practice.