These words were like a bomb, instantly shattering the movement of Wen Yang’s hands. She stared at Fu Xingzhou in a daze. He looked at her and said,
“Our situation is special.”
“I can only be direct with you.”
“When I reached the appropriate age for marriage, my family elders started pressuring me. My previous marriage was a result of that—marriage for the sake of marriage. We set clear boundaries before tying the knot, each living our own lives, until the marriage eventually ended.”
“I also understand your past relationship. Logically speaking, there shouldn’t be any entanglement between us. But, unfortunately, I do have feelings for you, which led to this bold proposition.”
“You can take your time to consider whether you’d allow it.”
This was the most Fu Xingzhou had ever said to Wen Yang. Since the first time she forced him to meet her in person, he had always been concise and to the point, rarely speaking at such length.
Wen Yang was still holding a tissue in her hand, a hint of confusion in her eyes. Seeing her like this, Fu Xingzhou added,
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“Psd’v eswcv uswaplzq. Zsw’al clywvkqwz yde hlau nyrvkhyvkdt.”
Eld Zydt zssjle wr.
Gqvla y zsdt xsxldv, bla hsknl oyp pzktbvzu bsyapl yp pbl pyke, “Ya. Ww, vbkp kp y ckv pweeld. Zsw yde R… es qllz wdqyxkzkya okvb lynb svbla, cwv yv vbl pyxl vkxl, vblal pllxp vs cl psxlvbkdt xsal clvolld wp.”
G csde qsaxle qasx pbyale puxryvbu?
Mbyv oyp obyv Eld Zydt oydvle vs pyu, cwv pbl qlzv vbyv rlabyrp pbl oyp vbl sdzu sdl obs vbswtbv vbkp oyu. Ww Dkdtgbsw bye clld ps nyzx ycswv bkp ralhkswp xyaakytl, yp kq bl olal xlalzu yd swvpkela zssjkdt kd.
Ww Dkdtgbsw pyke, “R bsrl swa nsddlnvksd kpd’v fwpv clnywpl sq swa rypv xyaakytlp.”
Tl lmralpple bkp qllzkdtp ayvksdyzzu.
Ms Eld Zydt, bsolhla, kv yzz qlzv vss ycawrv. Fkdnl bla ekhsanl, pbl bye dlhla nsdpkelale vbl kely sq pvyavkdt y dlo alzyvksdpbkr. Fbl zssjle yv bkx yde pyke plakswpzu,
“Ya. Ww, R vyjl alzyvksdpbkrp hlau plakswpzu—lmvalxlzu plakswpzu.”
She was telling him that she wasn’t in this just for fun, nor did she believe in marrying for the sake of marriage.
Fu Xingzhou nodded. “So do I.”
He wanted to be with her—genuinely.
But now wasn’t the time to say that. It would be too sudden.
So instead, he simply said, “Take your time to think about it.”
“Alright.”
That response allowed Wen Yang to breathe a sigh of relief.
Fu Xingzhou glanced at the cod rolls on her plate, still unfinished. Not wanting to disrupt her meal, he picked up his phone and said, “I’ve already paid the bill. Finish eating before you leave.”
Wen Yang looked at the fragrant cod rolls and nodded.
Fu Xingzhou stood up, walked around the table, and headed out. The café owner, who had been eavesdropping, leaned forward. Seeing Fu Xingzhou leaving, he quickly opened the partition gate and chased after him. At that moment, Jiang Yue happened to drive the car over. The café owner walked up beside Fu Xingzhou, his face full of surprise.
“This is rare—you’re actually pursuing someone?”
Fu Xingzhou shot him a glance and bent down to get into the car.
The door closed.
The café owner clicked his tongue twice. Jiang Yue turned his head with a smile and said, “Don’t be so surprised. Miss Wen is indeed an exceptional woman. It’s only natural for Mr. Fu to like her.”
The café owner recalled Wen Yang’s features.
“She is a great woman… but it’s not like Fu Xingzhou hasn’t seen plenty of beautiful women before.”
Jiang Yue chuckled. “Well, Miss Wen is simply better.”
With that, he got into the driver’s seat and started the car.
—
After Fu Xingzhou left, Wen Yang glanced at the remaining cod roll in her hand. She lowered her head and finished eating, not letting it go to waste.
Afterward, she wiped the corner of her lips, stood up, and left.
It wasn’t until she arrived at the construction site of the Washington that she finally felt grounded again.
The foreman called her twice. Wen Yang walked over, shaking off other thoughts, and focused on her work.
This house had two walls that needed to be demolished. At this moment, the demolition work had already begun.
The loud banging noises caught Wen Yang’s attention, momentarily pulling her away from her thoughts.
A little after 7 PM
Although the renovation team had eaten a lot of afternoon snacks and weren’t too hungry, Wen Yang had planned to treat them to dinner on the first day of work. So after finishing up, they went to a bustling part of the city for beef hotpot.
By the time they finished, it was nearly 9 PM. Wen Yang didn’t return to the studio but went straight home to take a shower—washing away the lingering smell of hotpot.
Yu Qing came back, carrying both of their laptops. Seeing Wen Yang sitting in the living room, absentmindedly drying her hair, she leaned in and asked,
“Just finished showering?”
Wen Yang snapped out of her thoughts and nodded. “Yeah, even washed my hair. I just treated the guys to hotpot.”
“You guys could still eat?” Yu Qing placed the laptops on the coffee table, leaned back on the couch, and patted her stomach. “I ate way too much during afternoon tea.”
“Same here, I only had some soup just now.”
“Beef hotpot broth is really good, especially after dipping the beef in it,” Yu Qing reminisced, though she was still too full. She reached out, tugging at Wen Yang’s damp hair, then asked, “By the way, what did Fu Xingzhou want when he came to see you this afternoon? Don’t tell me there was an issue with the design draft?”
Wen Yang shook her head.
She looked at Yu Qing, hesitated for a few seconds, then said,
“Fu Xingzhou asked if he could pursue me.”
Yu Qing, who had been feeling drowsy, instantly widened her eyes. The next second, she sat up straight. “What did you just say?”
Wen Yang continued drying her hair at a slow pace and recounted everything Fu Xingzhou had said that afternoon. After listening, Yu Qing sat cross-legged on the couch, silent for a long moment before finally speaking.
“If he said that, then he must have thought it through carefully before deciding to pursue you.”
Wen Yang hummed in agreement. “It seems that way. We’ve interacted quite a few times, but I never really felt that he had any particular interest in me. But he has helped me a lot.”
“That’s the surprising part. What obligation does he have to help you?” Yu Qing propped her leg up and analyzed logically, “Giving our studio an opportunity is one thing, but bringing things over for you from Hong Kong? That in itself is unusual.”
“Did he say when he started having feelings for you?” Yu Qing asked again.
Wen Yang shook her head. “He just said that he does.”
Yu Qing looked at Wen Yang at that moment—dressed in simple, solid-colored pajamas, her hair still dripping onto the tip of her nose, her eyes bright and expressive, her skin fair and delicate.
Back in high school, Wen Yang’s backpack was always stuffed with love letters. Even though her QQ space only had landscape photos, people still visited her page frequently. In college, it was even more obvious.
If Cheng Yanyu hadn’t acted quickly, the number of guys around Wen Yang wouldn’t have been small.
Besides, a girl like her—beautiful, gentle, understanding, never arrogant, and well-mannered—was naturally attractive.
To Yu Qing, her best friend deserved the best.
So it made sense.
That Fu Xingzhou would have feelings for Wen Yang—that was completely understandable.
Yu Qing turned the question back. “What about you? How do you feel?”
Wen Yang put down the towel in her hands. Since she couldn’t dry her hair completely anyway, she said,
“Me?”
“I don’t know. Maybe… a little flustered.”
Yu Qing immediately pointed out the key issue. “You’re flustered because he’s Li Man’s ex-husband. Your relationship was complicated from the start. It makes sense that you’d overthink it. But he made it clear that his marriage with Li Man was just a matter of convenience. Given his status, there’s no reason for him to lie to you.”
“The real question now is—are you willing to give him a chance?”
Hearing this, Wen Yang leaned back into the couch. Her slightly wavy hair draped over the chair. Yu Qing turned toward her and asked,
“Do you think he’s a good person?”
Wen Yang nodded. “Yes.”
“Then that’s all that matters. Just focus on the two of you—don’t think about those two people who are already out of the picture.”
Wen Yang lifted her gaze, her eyes a little lost. “But after my divorce, I never even considered getting into another relationship.”
Yu Qing instantly understood.
Five years of love—
That wasn’t something you could just let go of overnight.
She reached out and ruffled Wen Yang’s hair. “You’re not seriously planning to stay single forever because of that jerk, are you?”
Wen Yang immediately shook her head. “Of course not.”
She said, “From the moment I chose to get a divorce, I knew that my future would no longer include him. The best thing I could do was to remove him from my life and allow myself to grow, to move forward.”
“But emotions are like a stretched slingshot—pulled too tight for too long, it takes time to regain its elasticity.”
Yu Qing understood now.
Wen Yang wasn’t against dating again—she just wasn’t ready yet.
Yu Qing blinked and said, “But maybe… you could at least consider giving someone else a chance. Fu Xingzhou seems level-headed—he knows exactly how complicated your situation is.”
Wen Yang looked up.
Yu Qing ruffled her hair. “Personally, I think he’s a pretty good guy. These past few days, he hasn’t really shown any faults. If you can clarify what happened between him and Li Man, and as long as it’s nothing bad, then he’s actually quite decent.”
“But in the end, it’s up to you.”
“Yang Yang, I’m not speaking on his behalf—I just want you to move on sooner. Cheng Yanyu is not worth your time or sadness. If another good man had appeared instead of Fu Xingzhou, I would still encourage you to give him a chance.”
She didn’t want Wen Yang to be stuck in a broken marriage forever.
Some say the fastest way to heal from heartbreak is to start a new relationship. Yu Qing knew that Wen Yang would never do that—she herself probably wouldn’t either.
But lifting your head to look at the sky, smelling the flowers, and welcoming new things—that was still possible.
Nancheng was a big city, but the streets were small. If one day Wen Yang happened to run into Cheng Yanyu and Li Man, Yu Qing hoped she would be calm and indifferent, not on the verge of tears.
Wen Yang understood what Yu Qing meant.
She also knew Yu Qing was looking out for her. Lying on the armrest, she murmured, “I’ll think about it.”
“Alright, you think. I’m going to shower.”
Yu Qing got up from the couch, and before leaving, she playfully tugged at Wen Yang’s hair again—half-dry, half-wet. Wen Yang turned on the fan, letting the breeze dry her hair.
Just then, her phone chimed twice.
She casually reached for it and tapped open the notification while leaning on the armrest.
It was a photography public account she followed, announcing an upcoming exhibition in two days, right in Nancheng. In the past, Wen Yang would have excitedly bought a ticket right away.
But tonight, after scrolling through the details, she didn’t feel particularly interested. She put down her phone and didn’t pay any more attention to it.
The Next Day
Wen Yang headed to Washington early in the morning. The team was already busy working. One of the senior workers, Chen Chang, who had previously helped Yu Qing, approached her with the blueprints.
“This place is massive. I haven’t seen a house this big in a long time. The last one I worked on was 256 square meters, and I thought that was huge—but this one is even bigger.”
Wen Yang smiled, made some notes with her pen, and said, “Once the walls are demolished, we can ask the property management to help clear out the debris.”
Chen Chang nodded. “Got it.”
She stayed at Washington until past 10 AM before heading back to the studio. As soon as she walked in and took a sip of water, she heard someone calling for her from outside—it was a Flash Express delivery.
Wen Yang turned around and went to the door. The delivery worker handed her an envelope. Not knowing what it was, she signed for it and opened it—inside were tickets to the photography exhibition.
She paused for a moment.
Yu Qing, holding a cup of coffee, glanced over and asked, “Did you buy those?”
Just then, Wen Yang’s phone buzzed.
She swiped to unlock it.
A message from Fu Xingzhou popped up on WeChat:
“Did you receive the tickets?”
Yu Qing saw the message and let out a teasing “Oho~”
Wen Yang hesitated, then replied:
“President Fu, I received them.”
Fu Xingzhou: “Mm.”
Fu Xingzhou: “You can go with your best friend.”
Fu Xingzhou: “Or, if you’d like, I can accompany you.”
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