Ji Yuning, dressed in a white casual suit with a matching camisole underneath, walked in, and all eyes in the room were on her.
Ji Yuning didn't look at anyone, and said to Fang Bai, "Auntie, I've come to pick you up."
Fang Bai turned her gaze away from Ji Yuning and looked at Lu Zheng, saying, "Chairman Lu, I'll be going now if there's nothing else."
Lu Zheng glanced at Ji Yuning, then looked at the teacup in front of Fang Bai and said, "The tea isn't finished yet."
Fang Bai's eyes darkened, and she was about to speak when her arm was grabbed.
Ji Yuning said softly, "Auntie, please wait for me outside."
Fang Bai turned to look at Ji Yuning, and after their eyes met, said, "...Okay."
The secretary followed Fang Bai out of the tea room. Ji Yuning stood there and asked, "What do you want to do?"
"Just wanted to have some tea with Miss Fang." Lu Zheng poured Ji Yuning a cup and placed it next to Fang Bai's cup. "Would you like one too?"
Ji Yuning didn't move. She said coldly, "Don't involve my family in our affairs."
"Your family?" Lu Zheng demanded, his brow furrowed. "Then who am I?"
Ji Yuning said calmly, "The contract in black and white states that we have a cooperative relationship."
"What a great partnership! Why would I choose you when I have so many more capable people out there?"
"Do I need to explain? You know better than I what you want to make up for from me," Ji Yuning said calmly. "Whether you use me or not is your business. You can leave at any time."
Ji Yuning exuded a fierce aura no less than Lu Zheng's. She said, word by word, "Don't look for Fang Bai."
“…”
Fang Bai waited for nearly three minutes before Ji Yuning finally came out of the private room.
She wasn't surprised at all by Ji Yuning's appearance.
On her way to the teahouse, Ji Yuning texted her to ask if she had gone home. Fang Bai replied that she hadn't, and before Ji Yuning could ask her why, she told her the truth.
However, to Fang Bai's surprise, Ji Yuning arrived so quickly.
It hadn't even been half an hour.
After getting into the car, Ji Yuning pursed her lips and asked, "Did he make things difficult for you?"
Fang Bai's earring swayed slightly. "No, he just asked me to persuade you to go back to the Lu family. We were just talking about it when you arrived."
"Okay." Ji Yuning felt relieved. She gripped the steering wheel, but the car didn't move.
Fang Bai didn't urge her; she felt that Ji Yuning needed some peace and quiet.
After a moment of silence, Ji Yuning said to her, "I'm sorry, I should have gone to him the first time he contacted you."
Fang Bai was slightly surprised by Ji Yuning's silence and quickly said, "It's nothing."
Worried that Ji Yuning might overthink things, Fang Bai changed the subject and asked, "Is your collaboration with him coming to an end?"
Ji Yuning: "Mm."
Fang Bai asked, "Is what you've been busy with lately related to this?"
Ji Yuning nodded. "I might be busy for a while afterward."
The car started moving.
She got busy very quickly; not long after she drove off, Ji Yuning received several phone calls.
As the call ended, Ji Yuning turned off her Bluetooth headset, glanced at the road where parking was prohibited, and handed her phone to Fang Bai. "Auntie, this is a file sent by someone whose contact name is *. Could you forward it to Sister Zhen for me?"
She left in such a hurry that she forgot to send the document to Yuan Yizhen, and only remembered it when Yuan Yizhen called to remind her.
Fang Bai agreed and was about to ask for the password when Ji Yuning told her, "The password is your birthday."
"..." Fang Bai silently unlocked the door and forwarded the file to Yuan Yizhen as Ji Yuning had instructed.
Fang Bai didn't pay much attention to anything else when she forwarded the file. It wasn't until she returned to the chat list that she realized Ji Yuning's pinned chat was actually hers.
Both are pinned posts; both accounts belong to her.
One is the one she's using now, and the other is the one she used before.
Fang Bai glanced at Ji Yuning out of the corner of her eye. While she was still pinning Ji Yuning's chat box to the top and using her birthday as a random password, she suddenly noticed a problem.
The last time she logged into that account, she saw many messages sent to her, but she clearly remembered that there were no unread messages on Ji Yuning's end.
But now, Fang Bai sees that the chat box has content.
"Is it ready?" Ji Yuning asked.
Fang Bai said, "Okay."
She didn't return the phone to Ji Yuning, but hesitated for a moment before saying, "But I'd like to see your phone."
Ji Yuning merely glanced at Fang Bai, without giving it much thought, and simply replied, "Mm."
Fang Bai leaned back, and from an angle where Ji Yuning couldn't see him, he tapped on her old account's profile picture.
The most recent message was three months ago, in May, when Fang Bai returned to China.
[You're finally back.]
I miss you so much.
Fang Bai felt a moment of emptiness. She bit her lip and moved her fingers upwards.
I've arrived in New Zealand, but I can't find you.
[I arrived at...]
After several unsuccessful attempts to find your message, a new message appeared. It was from a year ago; Yu Ning had only sent you two messages at that age:
I dreamt of you, and I want to see you.
[Can a private investigator find you?]
Scroll up to the message sent at the end of two years ago:
[Beibei has gained a lot of weight.]
[picture]
[If you gained any more weight, you wouldn't recognize me.]
[Won't you recognize me? I miss you.]
The previous entry was two months ago:
[So tired.]
I miss you so much.
Further up, the messages become less frequent, appearing only occasionally:
[When you get back and see what I posted, will you think I'm acting strange? You have my phone, and I'm still posting these things... If I just post one and delete it, you won't see it...]
[I've arrived in Beijing. It doesn't feel like you here. I'm not used to it. I miss you.]
Mr. Fang said he didn't know where you were, but I know he's lying to me... You were the one who told him not to give it to me.
[You came in first in the competition and got a guaranteed admission; now you owe me another promise.]
Aunt Wu cooked noodles for me. She said you ordered them before you left, but they weren't very good. She wanted to eat yours.
The last part shows the date as the end of November three years ago:
[Fang Bai, don't leave me.]
“…”
Over the course of three years, except for the initial period when the messages were sent more frequently, the frequency decreased significantly in the following two years.
And every year I see two words—I miss you.
Chapter 111
Fang Bai read very quickly, but each piece of content automatically replayed slowly in his mind.
She watched it frame by frame.
The emotions expressed in the child's writing are quite different from his appearance; beneath the cool and aloof surface lies a tender and delicate sentiment.
Like a hot spring in the cold mountains.
Fang Bai noticed that some of the messages were sent out late at night.
In the dim light and shadow, Fang Bai dared not imagine what Ji Yuning would look like if she typed, sent, and then deleted the message. Would she still maintain that aloof and indifferent demeanor? Or... would she cry?
If Fang Bai had never seen Ji Yuning cry, he wouldn't have even considered how someone could cry because they missed her.
But she had seen Ji Yuning with red eyes before, and it was because of her that Ji Yuning became famous.
“…”
Fang Bai calmly put the phone back, turned her head to the other side, the car window was half open, and as Fang Bai approached, the wind blew her hair, making it messy.
She was completely oblivious, letting the wind whip her face. The fleeting scenery outside the window was an uncaptured moment, just as she couldn't know what Ji Yuning's mood was when she sent the message.
Fang Bai might not need to think about what Ji Yuning was like, but her thoughts were completely out of her control.
If it were anyone else, Fang Bai might have been touched for a moment, and then nothing more. But Ji Yuning was different; she—
Why is Ji Yuning different?
Fang Bai was taken aback.
Is it simply because she's the female lead? Or is it because she genuinely cared for her? Or is it because when facing someone even slightly close, her rationality transforms into emotion, and she unconsciously tries to understand the other person's feelings when they did these things? Thus achieving a sense of self-pity?
No, that's not right either. The emotion that Ji Yuning evoked wasn't something you could just imagine; it was real.
Why is that?
The wind continued to blow, and Fang Bai's mind was in turmoil; she couldn't understand it.