Lu Mingfei was taken aback. It seemed he wasn’t exactly high on the list of people to ask for help.
“Zhao… Zhao Menghua disappeared.” Chen Wenwen looked up at Lu Mingfei, her eyes filled with red veins, her long lashes unable to hide them. Lu Mingfei jumped in surprise—how long had she been crying to have eyes that looked like a rabbit’s?
“Zhao Menghua disappeared?” Lu Mingfei was a little bewildered. Shouldn’t Liu Miaomiao be the one worried? Even if Liu Miaomiao couldn’t do anything, there was still the police, Zhao Menghua’s powerful father, and other influential people who could handle this. It had nothing to do with Chen Wenwen anymore, and even less to do with Lu Mingfei.
“You’ll help me, right?” Chen Wenwen suddenly grabbed Lu Mingfei’s hand.
Lu Mingfei didn’t have time to dodge. He could feel how cold her small hands were, and they were trembling slightly. He looked down at her hands, lost in thought for a moment, then suddenly smiled silently. He remembered how many times he had dreamed of holding Chen Wenwen’s hand, walking down a misty path along the river, not knowing where they were heading, but feeling an immense sense of joy, an almost euphoric delight, just because he was holding her hand—a warm, soft hand, and more importantly, it was Chen Wenwen’s. During high school, the closest he’d ever gotten to Chen Wenwen was their fingertips brushing when passing something, and even that would make him secretly happy for half the day. And now she just grabbed his hand like that? So tightly, as if afraid he’d shake her off.
He patted the back of her hand and nodded, “Yeah, I will, we’re classmates, after all.”
Chen Wenwen wiped her eyes, stayed silent for a long time, and then said softly, “Zhao Menghua went missing nine days ago. Everyone has been looking for him, but there are no clues. But before he disappeared, he called me—barely thirty seconds—and said he was trapped in the subway…”
As Chen Wenwen spoke, Lu Mingfei felt his scalp tingle. This sounded exactly like a ghost story—no wonder nobody believed her. A slightly poetic but nervous girl telling people ghost stories when her ex suddenly went missing—of course, she would be brushed off. So she came to find Lu Mingfei, the only person who would nod and say yes to whatever she said.
Actually, Lu Mingfei was also clueless, just nodding continuously.
When Chen Wenwen finished talking, Lu Mingfei still looked blank, unable to say a word. It was only then that Chen Wenwen noticed how dejected he looked—his face seemed like it hadn’t been washed for days, his hair was a mess, and he was nothing like how he appeared during their last meeting at Aspasia. It was as if that dinner had been just an illusion. She started crying again, this time not out of sadness but fear. The Lu Mingfei before her wasn’t the capable and well-connected guy she had seen before. He was back to being the loser he always had been. And at a time like this, what use was a loser?
“I-I-I’ll help you, I’ll think of something!” Lu Mingfei quickly said.
“Really?” Chen Wenwen, reassured by his promise, regained some of her confidence. She looked at Lu Mingfei with some hesitation, a slight melancholy in her gaze, and smiled softly. “Coming here to ask you for help like this… I must look terrible, don’t I?”
Lu Mingfei hesitated for a moment. “I didn’t expect that you still liked Zhao Menghua that much…”
“At first, I really hated him. I felt like I was blind to have liked him before—anyone would have been better than him. I wished those things had never happened,” Chen Wenwen said, lowering her head and speaking softly. “But after a long time, I started to think of him again, often unexpectedly, and once I started, I couldn’t stop. All those memories came flooding back, and they were still so good. If you’ve ever been with someone, you’ll understand… It’s part of your life, shared memories, shared moments—it’s your own thing. How can you say it’s bad? You can’t just throw it away; otherwise, it’s like a child abandoned by their parents… it’s too pitiful.”
She looked up at Lu Mingfei, tears streaming down her face. “Do you understand what I mean?”
Lu Mingfei looked at her silently, thinking to himself, I don’t understand. Didn’t you say it already? I’ve never been with anyone, never shared time with anyone, so how could I understand?
But he still nodded. “Don’t worry, I’ll definitely think of something to help you!”
Chen Wenwen nodded vigorously, biting her lip and showing a grateful smile. “Then I’ll get going. I have evening self-study later. Honestly, I can’t focus on any of my classes now, but if I miss any more classes, the homeroom teacher will call the doctor to check on me.”
“Okay, I’ll let you know if I hear anything.”
Chen Wenwen walked a few steps and then turned back. “I never properly thanked you for the dinner you treated me to last time.”
“It was nothing,” Lu Mingfei scratched his dandruff-filled head. “My boss arranged it; he’s reliable. I’ll go talk to him about your situation.”
“I probably shouldn’t have gone…” Chen Wenwen said softly.
“Huh?” Lu Mingfei was stunned.
“Later, I felt really guilty. I went to have dinner with you that day just to spite Zhao Menghua, to show that if he didn’t want me, I wouldn’t keep waiting for him…” Chen Wenwen’s voice was so low it was almost a whisper. “But I regretted it on the way, afraid you’d misunderstand. Luckily, you explained everything to me afterward, which made me feel much better. You’re really kind. I’m not worthy of your affection. That night, I even ran to Zhao Menghua’s house in the rain to explain everything again. You see, I’m just so foolish.” Chen Wenwen gave a bitter smile, adjusting her wet hair at her temples.
“Oh my, such heavy rain. Did a driver take you?” Lu Mingfei asked, looking concerned.
“Yes, the driver was kind. Anyway, thank you.” Chen Wenwen turned to leave, and Lu Mingfei waved at her with a concerned look, watching her disappear into the entrance of the basement.
For a full ten seconds after that, the concerned expression was still frozen on his face, slowly peeling away, bit by bit, until his face turned blank, staring in the direction where Chen Wenwen had left.
Ah, really? “You’re so kind?” He’d been friend-zoned again? He sat there, stunned, then reopened the video.
It was a link sent by Brother Dog, one of the most popular videos online in recent days.
“Everyone who watches it gets moved!” Brother Dog had confidently said. “A video of an Italian guy getting soaked while proposing in the Summer Palace—handsome guy, beautiful girl, extravagant in every way!”
Yeah, something truly worth being moved by—a tranquil Kunming Lake at midnight, the far-off silhouette of the Pavilion of the Fragrance of Buddha against the night, flickering lights along the Long Corridor, autumn leaves covering the hills, evoking memories of the Han and Tang Dynasties. They chased each other in the water, embraced in the lake, magpies cawed from treetops, rose petals were scattered along the Long Corridor, and the handsome guy wrapped the drenched girl in a large towel, carrying her in his arms, stepping across the flowers. In history, when Caesar and Cleopatra were entangled, it probably looked no different from this. An Italian, traveling so far to China, not proposing in a fancy Italian restaurant with a diamond ring, but performing this kind of scene in an imperial garden.