Chapter 41: The Ex-Boyfriend (Double Chapter)

Jiang Ying was all too familiar with Meng Shao's expression.

He had single eyelids and large eyes, with sharp facial contours. When he smiled at people, he carried a slightly roguish, carefree air.

Yet when he knitted his thick brows and his gaze darkened, even with the remnant of a smile at the corner of his lips, he instantly transformed into a fierce, aggressive, and utterly provocative brawler.

However, by now she had also fully grasped Lu Zhixi's true personality and methods; the fewer words he spoke, the more dangerous he actually was.

Just like now, Meng Shao tapped the speakerphone button on his phone.

The screen still displayed an active call. After a hair-raising silence on the other end, a cold and brief sentence cut through the air:

"Are you looking to die?"

Meng Shao countered, "What? You think I'm scared of you?"

The two of them effortlessly escalated the atmosphere to extreme tension within a mere two or three sentences. Unable to watch any longer, Jiang Ying finally reached out and quickly hit hang-up.

Seeing her flustered and anxious appearance, Meng Shao pointed first to the avatar of Yu Siyan, which was still shown as online on the projection screen, and then to her phone.

"What on earth is going on here?"

"...... It's not what you think," Jiang Ying's voice trailed off weakly.

"Is he harassing you unilaterally?"

Jiang Ying lowered her eyes to stare at the game controller in her hands, attempting to change the subject, "Let's keep playing. Siyan and Anning are still waiting."

Meng Shao picked up his phone and sent a message in the group chat telling the other two that his family had summoned them to watch the New Year's gala, and they would catch up another time.

After sending the text, he tossed his phone aside. "Give it to me straight. How many times has he sought you out?"

Previously, Meng Shao had always assumed that the relationship between Jiang Ying and Lu Zhixi had ended when they broke up last August. Even when he last heard her mention that Lu Zhixi had privately provided the apartment in Chengdu for Jiang Zhiwen to live in, that event had occurred back in July of the previous year.

Therefore, whenever the topic turned to Lu Zhixi, he figured that since the man was already a closed chapter for Jiang Ying, he didn't want to dwell on it.

Yet now, he was entirely certain that today's phone call was no coincidence.

As a man himself, Meng Shao was also convinced that calling Jiang Ying, his ex-girlfriend, on New Year's Eve could only mean he harbored ulterior motives.

Under Meng Shao's repeated questioning, Jiang Ying spilled everything, detail by detail.

Upon hearing all that had transpired recently, Meng Shao completely dropped his bantering facade, his expression visibly darkening with every passing second.

"I've been right here in Beijing this whole time, why didn't you tell me? I would've beaten him so hard his ancestors wouldn't recognize him."

Jiang Ying said with a helpless sigh, "If the two of you actually went at it, that scene would be completely beyond control."

Using violence to counter violence—that had been Meng Shao's survival rule since childhood.

Sure enough, Meng Shao sneered, "I want to teach him a lesson right now."

"I've already made things clear to him. He won't show up in front of me again. At most, he makes a phone call, and before long, even the calls will stop."

Just like before, after the breakup he would occasionally make a couple of calls, but after she hung up, he wouldn't persist.

The farce of late was simply a manifestation of Lu Zhixi's desire for control. Once he truly calmed down, he would gradually find this game of pursuit uninteresting.

"You're oversimplifying things. Right now, nobody knows where Lu Zhixi is. His family is scouring the globe for him, which is the only reason he hasn't shown up."

Meng Shao hadn't originally wanted to tell her these things, but he was afraid she was underestimating the deep entanglement between him and Lu Zhixi.

He dialed the number Lu Zhixi had just used to call, only for the other end to once again report that the number was invalid.

"See? His number has been scrubbed now, too."

Jiang Ying couldn't help asking, "What is going on?"

She was still a student, living all her life in an ivory tower and dealing with academic books. The teachers and classmates she interacted with mostly possessed pure and simple personalities, leaving her largely unexposed to the other, darker facets of society.

Yet Meng Shao had never been idle while studying in the UK. Having interacted extensively with people from all walks of life, he was not only well-informed but also possessed a much clearer perspective on situations.

Meng Shao told her that while a man like Lu Zhixi appeared wealthy and powerful, in reality, he himself inhabited a brutal colosseum where the winner took all and the loser perished. If he lacked the capability to properly wield such massive resources and power, he would be devoured by the very status bestowed upon him as a favorite of fortune, leaving not even a scrap of bone behind.

And the power struggle within his family had likely already commenced.

"If he comes looking for you again after this, you must let me know," Meng Shao said.

Just as the atmosphere grew increasingly solemn, someone knocked on the study door.

As the door opened, the lively sounds of the Spring Festival Gala drifted in from the direction of the living room, bridging the silent air of the study with the warm and boisterous outside world.

Meng Shao's mother walked over, smiling warmly as she invited them to the living room to collect red envelopes and watch the gala.

Inside the LCD television, the hosts enthusiastically began the countdown to the New Year.

Jiang Ying leaned back against the sofa, paying no heed to what the people around her were saying, lost in her own thoughts amidst the countdown.

For her, every year since her parents' divorce had been difficult, but the past year as a whole had been the longest and most tortuous one she had ever known.

Bittersweet and painful emotions had been churned together, and she had gulped them down in one breath.

The lingering aftereffect of that single gulp was so potent that it had yet to dissipate.

When the New Year celebration concluded, Jiang Ying and her father returned to their apartment.

Though only the two of them lived there, Jiang Ying had pasted the character "Fu" and Spring Festival couplets on the front door a few days prior, and had even organized her fathering into pasting paper cuttings on the windows. A vase near the entryway was filled with vibrant, bright red winterberry branches, adding a cheerful splash of color to the space.

Jiang Zhiwen's phone suddenly rang. Glancing at the caller ID, he gave his daughter a subtle look. "Dad is going to take this call."

"Okay."

Jiang Ying kept her head down, missing the slight flicker of guilt on Jiang Zhiwen's face, because her own phone had also chimed with an incoming call—another unfamiliar number, timing its arrival precisely to her return home.

She walked into her bedroom, closed the door, sat down on the edge of the bed, and pressed answer.

Through the receiver, Lu Zhixi's gritted-tooth tone carried a rare trace of childish petulance: "Is he out of his mind?"

Jiang Ying's gaze drifted toward the window.

Beyond the clean glass lay a steady, deep nightscape, while the warm, dim light of the room cast a reflection upon the panes, mirroring her calm expression.

She did not respond to Lu Zhixi's remark, saying softly instead, "Zhixi, thank you for sending someone to look after my father last July, and thank you for the wintergreen ointment."

On the other end of the line, Lu Zhixi froze for a moment.

After all this time, this was the first time Jiang Ying had spoken to him in such a gentle tone. The anger that had been provoked by Meng Shao's taunts seemed instantly extinguished by a sudden, gentle spring drizzle.

His voice softened as well, "Then why won't you live in the apartment I prepared for your father? It's larger, and the view is better. You and your uncle would be much more comfortable living there than in Meng Shao's place."

"You are different. The rent for the time my father stayed at your place, as well as the cost of the ointment, I will pay you back."

"...... So you think what Meng Shao said just now was right?"

Jiang Ying felt a flicker of helplessness. "No matter what my relationship with Meng Shao is, and no matter how I get along with Siyan, you and I will never be together again. That is not something a phone call, a meeting, or sending people to watch over me can ever change."

When she finished speaking, the person on the other end fell silent. When he spoke again, his tone had reverted to a gentle cadence.

"Yingying, you never lie. Put aside your sense of responsibility toward Yu Siyan, and your anger over our past, and tell me: in all these days, have you missed me? Even for a single second."

The background environment on the other end of the line was eerily quiet, making Lu Zhixi's voice extraordinarily clear. Every single syllable, every subtle breath, felt as though it were being whispered directly against Jiang Ying's ear.

The light, subtle scent of vetiver lingering in the room still wrapped gently around her body, just as it always had.

It was as if Lu Zhixi were holding her in his arms right at that moment, just like when they were in love—with her back pressed against his chest, his head lowered, his cheek pressed tightly against the curve of her neck, murmuring softly.

Jiang Ying tried to open her mouth to speak, but for a long while, no sound came out.

*

The Spring Festival holiday lasted seven days, but for a self-employed businessman like Jiang Zhiwen, resting for a day meant losing a day's earnings. He reopened his shop on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, and Jiang Ying also found something else to occupy her time.

Huada University's winter and summer breaks were exceptionally long, and there was still quite a while before the semester resumed. Her thesis had already had its first draft revised and submitted before the New Year, and now that she had free time, she happened to learn that a public welfare organization in Chengdu was recruiting volunteers to accompany autistic children. She applied without much hesitation.

Therapy for autism spectrum disorders had always been a prominent research focus in the field of psychology. During her sophomore year, Jiang Ying had happened to assist in a research group led by a professor in the department focusing on tracking the efficacy of autism intervention methods.

Of course, back then she was completely an academic novice, and her so-called assistance was limited to taking meeting minutes, searching for literature per the professor's requests, and conducting literature reviews—she had never had the chance to interact directly with many such patients.

Backed by her academic background, Jiang Ying successfully passed the screening and arrived, on the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, at a nursing service center nestled between two residential compounds.

Peering inside through the front entrance, every window of the brownish-red building glowed with a warm, yellow light.

A young woman with a ponytail and simple attire waved at her, smiling as she said, "You must be Jiang Ying, right? A top student from Huada, that's so impressive."

The girl was named Wang Xiaoming. She had majored in nursing in college and, upon graduation, had chosen to work full-time at this service center dedicated to helping autistic children.

"This place functions essentially like a nursery. We have professional teachers and nursing staff, and parents drop their children off before going to work. Most of the kids are between the ages of three and ten. Because our staff is limited, we need volunteers to accompany the children in some communication and craft activities. If the weather is nice, we can also play football together in the courtyard."

Jiang Ying followed Wang Xiaoming into an activity room whose walls were covered in cartoon graffiti, with tables and cabinets filled with all sorts of toys.