Although she already knew Fu Zheng's identity, there were some things that it was not convenient for Ning Wan to tell Shao Lili. For example, how Fu Zheng's identity confession had gone wrong. After all, let alone Shao Lili, even Ning Wan felt like it was all a bit strange. How had such a coincidence come their way?

But no matter the timing of when Fu Zheng had confessed, the result was the same. This insidious man had deceived her from the moment he arrived at the community, right from the very start!

As Ning Wan paced back and forth in the room, her face couldn't help but turn from red, to green, to black.

Thanks to her excellent memory, she could recall every encounter from her first meeting with Fu Zheng on the high-speed train until now in great detail. In the past, she hadn't minded much, but now she was incredibly embarrassed.

It was a good thing she was thick-skinned. After consoling herself for a while, she began to think about how to deal with her relationship with Fu Zheng.

Fu Zheng had said that he would give her space to calm down while he dealt with work, but even though he wasn't right in front of her, Ning Wan couldn't calm down. What a promising person she was! A senior Partner? And on top of that, her future boss? She sure had a dog's courage¹Sheer audaciousness!

Ning Wan had never in her life even dreamt that she might one day carry out such a wild undertaking. She rolled around on the bed, clutching her pillow, and finally calmed down a little. She considered it coolly, analyzed the pros and cons, thought about her feelings for Fu Zheng, and eventually her heart became clear.

Once she had an idea of where to go next, her whole body relaxed. The fatigue caused by the previous emotional tension swept over her, and even though it was only just before nine o'clock, Ning Wan snuggled up into bed and went straight to sleep.

But while Ning Wan was sleeping soundly, Fu Zheng was feeling like every day was as long as a year.

He had rushed to Gao Yuan's side to thankfully find that Gao Yuan's condition was not serious. After taking over, he said a few caring words to Gao Yuan before hurrying to make the video conference call.

Although he was still thinking about Ning Wan, Fu Zheng was always very focused at work. An hour later when the video conference ended, Fu Zheng first finished up his remaining work and confirmed that Gao Yuan was still doing well before picking up the phone.

He opened his missed calls - nothing. Ning Wan hadn't called him.

He opened WeChat again - nothing. Ning Wan hadn't sent him a WeChat message.

He then opened his text messages, email, and every communication app that might yield some result, to no end. From start to finish, Ning Wan had not contacted him even once since he left.

Fu Zheng had imagined many possibilities, such as Ning Wan sending him a message of reprimand him, perhaps stating her position, caring about his deception, needing time to calm down, or breaking up with him in anger. For each of these possibilities, he had made a plan. But he had not planned for Ning Wan to play a completely unexpected hand - all his guesses had been wrong.

She had taken the cold approach, not responding at all.

But when it came to emotional issues, giving the cold shoulder, though on the surface seeming quite calm, was in fact the worst of all, the most likely to lead to future trouble.

If Ning Wan got angry or cried, it was alright. At least her emotions had been let out. Once  she had vented, Fu Zheng was confident that he would be able to get back into her good graces.

But now there was neither action or reaction from Ning Wan, and Fu Zheng, who had still been feeling some measure of confidence in himself, all of a sudden turned helpless and panicky.

He was already thirty, and on top of that he was a senior partner. He should have been steady. However, by the time Fu Zheng realized it, his hand had already sent Ning Wan a WeChat message without first consulting him--

"Are you there?"

He immediately regretted it after sending, and quickly clicked 'Withdraw'. Then, calming himself down, he edited his message--

"Ning Wan, are you calmer now?"

As soon as it was sent, Fu Zheng reconsidered once more. Right before the two minutes were up, he once more clicked 'Withdraw'.

No, it would have been fine to ask this normally, but now that he had disclosed his identity as Ning Wan's future boss, she might interpret this sort of question as him being condescending and intimidating. That would be inappropriate.

Then--

"Ning Wan, are you feeling better?"

Fu Zheng was finally satisfied with this sentence. It didn't mention anything specific or reinforce her impression of his deception. It was full of care yet with no pressure. It was a good message.

However, after sending and waiting for five long minutes, nothing had happened. His message was like a stone sunk into the sea. Ning Wan never replied...

Of course, there was still a silver lining to this, because Fu Zheng had found that at least he could send messages. That meant that he had not been blocked.

It was only nine o'clock right now. Ning Wan's usual schedule meant that it was impossible for her to have gone to bed so early, especially after such a shock tonight. She was probably so keyed up she wouldn't be able to sleep.

So had she not replied to him simply because she hadn't wanted to reply?

Not necessarily, Fu Zheng thought carefully, using his most rigorous logic. Maybe Ning Wan was taking a shower or busy with something else and hadn't checked her phone for a while. This was normal. He just needed to wait a minute or two.

But even after waiting three hours, Fu Zheng still hadn't gotten a reply.

The past few days, he had been busy with the project handover at headquarters, and this evening he had traveled some distance just to handle a high-intensity negotiation over video call for Gao Yuan. To be honest, Fu Zheng was actually a little tired. Normally he would have gone to bed early, but he couldn't sleep until Ning Wan replied. The thought of how her attitude was still unclear kept him wide awake no matter how tired he was.

He hadn't been so nervous for many years, but ever since he had met Ning Wan, he seemed to have run the gamut of all these childish and immature emotions.

Unable to endure any longer, Fu Zheng sent Ning Wan another WeChat message.

But there was still no reply.

In the end he fell asleep still confused and muddled, but even though he was very tired, his sleep was disturbed. Always feeling that there was some unfinished matter in his heart, he would subconsciously rouse every two or three hours. The very first thing he would do every time he woke was check his phone, yet Ning Wan still hadn't replied...

Even during the college entrance examination, Fu Zheng had never cared like this. Back then he had laughed at Gao Yuan for being unable to sleep at night and not having the calm demeanor of a general. Now he realized that he was was paying the price. There were some emotions that would always be experienced eventually, and he had arrived at the road he never walked in his youth in a different form.

In the end, Fu Zheng finally fell asleep thanks to extreme fatigue.

But what a pity; even though he had managed to fall asleep, his rest was doomed to be very short. He had already set an alarm clock for tomorrow morning, preparing to take the earliest train back to Rong City. If Ning Wan didn't give him an answer, then he would have to go and ask in person.

The first thing on the agenda was to apologize sincerely once again, then make her feel better, and then finally, through his own professional skills and ingenious methods, to conquer and convince her.

As for what method to use, Fu Zheng thought carefully about it before deciding on a surprise. After all, people are more inclined to be persuaded when pleasantly surprised.

 

Fu Zheng barely slept that night and showed up at the train station the next morning with dark circles under his eyes; on the other hand, Ning Wan slept soundly.

After the chaotic mood swings of last night like surfing the ocean waves, Ning Wan had finally adjusted her thoughts and regained her composure. She had also analyzed a strategy in her mind to deal with Fu Zheng's deception. Today was the weekend, so she slept until she woke naturally, and when she rose, she didn't feel like anything was different about the day as she shambled to the bathroom to wash.

Although Ning Wan's apartment was a small, second-hand one, the bathroom in the master bedroom was sunny and well-ventilated. The windows were bright and spacious and placed across from where she was currently standing. Glancing outside, she found that the sunshine that day was so bright as to be a bit dazzling.

Squinting, she lowered her head to spit out the foam from her mouth, but upon raising her head one more, she realized that the window had become dark?

The weather forecast hadn't said that there would be rain today. It was supposed to be sunny...

If a storm was coming in so suddenly as to make the sky this dark, it would be a heavy rain. Ning Wan instinctively turned toward to the window to close it to keep the rain out. However, when she looked out, she realized that something was wrong.

It wasn't going to rain at all, it was just that her window was covered by a red banner!

Ning Wan was so mad that she immediately picked up her phone and called the community manager to report it.

Here we go again!

It wasn't the first time this had happened. This was unbearable! The only window in her little apartment with good lighting was the bathroom, and now it was being covered!

As soon as the call connected, Ning Wan began complaining without even stopping to breathe. "Why does the apartment above me keep putting the place up for rent? Last time, they told me that they were hanging up a banner to attract renters, blocking my window, and it took an entire month before they took it down. Why is this happening again?! If it happens one more time, I'm going to sue!"

The staff member from the neighborhood committee on the other end comforted her and recorded down the details. Just as Ning Wan was about to tell them the address of the upstairs resident, the wind direction outside the window must have changed, because the banner moved a little farther away. Ning Wan came to realize that words hanging from the banner were facing her, and they weren't the rental advertisement she had thought they would be, but...

But her own name in big, bold font?

It was also right at this moment that the banner slowly began moving away from the window, and finally she saw it in its entirety--

NING WAN, I'M SORRY.

? ? ?

Ning Wan lost her temper. Only then did she see that the banner was not hanging from the window of the resident upstairs, but... from a drone. And that drone was currently flying outside her bathroom window...

Ning Wan gaped at the drone, completely dumbfounded. Then she mechanically apologized on the phone, explained that she needed to withdraw the report because it was probably a misunderstanding, and hung up.