Chapter 71#

Rock music, accompanied by human voices, pounded relentlessly against people’s eardrums.

Though this was a bar, the prices were high, and the clientele were all either rich or powerful. Each table was spaced far apart.

However, the atmosphere at some tables was so boisterous that heckling could be heard from time to time.

Qiao Nanqi hadn’t come from the office today. For once, he was dressed informally in a hoodie and jeans. He wove through the tables, bypassing several people who approached him with their phones to ask for his contact information.

When he reached the table, Xia Yuantu immediately stood up. “Why don’t you take my seat?”

Another mutual friend pulled Xia Yuantu back down. “What are you doing? Didn’t we save a spot for Big Qiao?”

There was only one empty seat.

Beside it sat Lu Xingping, holding a glass of beer. He smiled at him. “Nanqi, you’re here.”

Only then did Qiao Nanqi understand why Xia Yuantu had been so eager to give up his seat.

It was normal for the others to leave this specific seat for him.

Everyone knew that he, Lu Xingping, and Xia Yuantu were the closest. Whenever they came out to play, the seating was always arranged this way.

Xia Yuantu frowned, his face full of worry, as if he expected Qiao Nanqi to walk out at any second.

But Qiao Nanqi didn’t actually care about that.

He had only come because of Xia Yuantu’s words: “Zhao Rong isn’t coming.”

He sat down beside Lu Xingping with a cold expression. Fortunately, the lighting was dim, so few noticed his face.

Seeing him sit down silently, the others took it as a signal that everyone had arrived and started playing. In an instant, the table became rowdy.

Lu Xingping seemed no different than he was before marrying Zhao Rong. He chatted with people from time to time and occasionally shut down their jokes.

Qiao Nanqi poured himself a glass of baijiu, took a sharp gulp, then raised his glass to Lu Xingping. “Let’s drink.”

Just those two words, neither loud nor soft, yet they seemed to carry an immense weight.

Lu Xingping understood his meaning. He put down his beer, poured himself a glass of baijiu, and clinked it against his.

The two men downed their drinks in one go.

“Have you been suffering from insomnia lately?” Lu Xingping asked.

In the past, this was always the first thing Lu Xingping would ask upon meeting him.

“No,” Qiao Nanqi replied. “I just dream often.”

There was no need to say who was in those dreams.

Qiao Nanqi didn’t beat around the bush; he directly stated his purpose for coming today. “Where’s Zhao Rong?”

“Hmm?”

“Why didn’t he come?”

“Why would he?”

“Isn’t he at your house?”

Xia Yuantu, listening to their back-and-forth questioning, felt like he was losing years of his life.

He also poured himself a full glass, wanting to step in and find an excuse to drink to change the subject.

To his surprise, Lu Xingping actually nodded and said calmly, “He’s not.”

Qiao Nanqi froze.

The meaning of those words was a bit hard to parse. For a moment, he didn’t know how to react.

He had rushed over here primarily because of a subconscious reaction to this sort of thing.

After all…

He had done something similar before.

When he was with Zhao Rong, he had never brought him to such occasions, even when Zhao Rong asked. Back then, he thought it was because Zhao Rong was rotten to the core and had already played around enough. Only later did he realize it was actually his own hidden possessiveness; he didn’t want to see Zhao Rong being friendly with others.

But that wasn’t how you were supposed to love someone. Neither of those reasons should have existed.

So he had come here to ask Lu Xingping why Zhao Rong hadn’t come.

Yet Lu Xingping told him that Zhao Rong wasn’t at his house.

What did “not there” mean?

Zhao Rong wasn’t living at Lu Xingping’s house?

Was he just out for the night?

That would make sense. After all, Zhao Rong was close with Liu Shun’s crowd. Perhaps while they were out here, Zhao Rong was out somewhere else, dragged along by Liu Shun, which would explain why he wouldn’t come here with Lu Xingping.

Others had already come over to drag Xia Yuantu and Lu Xingping into a game of dice. The person had wanted to pull Qiao Nanqi in too, but he was sitting there silently. Combined with the aura of authority he usually carried, the person didn’t dare approach him.

By the time Qiao Nanqi snapped out of his thoughts, Lu Xingping was already frowning. “I’ll be the referee. You guys know I never play.”

Lu Xingping reached out and opened a new set of dice just delivered by the waiter.

As his fingers moved, the elaborate wedding ring on his ring finger was revealed. The lights in the bar were dim, filled with kaleidoscopic shadows. In this lighting, the wedding ring was sometimes conspicuous and sometimes hidden.

Qiao Nanqi watched for a moment before looking away.

Lu Xingping was still wearing his wedding ring.

He was still wearing it openly.

Perhaps his worries were misplaced.

Qiao Nanqi withdrew his gaze and took a few more sips of his drink. He stopped overthinking and occasionally chatted with the others as he usually did.

Aside from the three of them, no one else knew about the past between Qiao Nanqi and Zhao Rong. In everyone else’s eyes, Zhao Rong was still just the person who once chased after Qiao Nanqi relentlessly and then went on to fulfill his engagement with Lu Xingping. He had never actually been with Qiao Nanqi.

They drank for an unknown amount of time.

It had been a while since Qiao Nanqi had been in such an environment. This time, he used the atmosphere as an excuse to let himself go. Even if no one came to toast him, he drank steadily on his own.

In a half-drunk, half-awake state, he seemed to hear someone ask Lu Xingping, “Xingping, why haven’t we seen you around lately?”

“I took Xiaoyue on a trip.”

…

After returning home, Qiao Nanqi showered in a daze. When he lay down in bed, the things Lu Xingping had said tonight resurfaced in his mind.

It had been over a month since he last saw Lu Xingping at the door of the house Zhao Rong had sold. Today was the first time they had met since then.

He had imagined many scenarios where he might mention Zhao Rong to Lu Xingping, or see the two of them together.

…But none of them were like today.

The things Lu Xingping said didn’t sound like someone who had just gotten married.

No matter how he looked at it, tonight’s meeting felt off.

But he was too drunk.

His insomnia had naturally resolved itself, but the nightmares remained.

Soon after lying down, Qiao Nanqi sank into sleep.

This time, the dream was far too complex.

It was as if everything from the twenty-odd years of his life had been mashed together and stuffed into his head. Everyone was there.

He dreamed all night but could remember nothing. He only felt incredibly exhausted.

At the end of the dream, that sentence returned.

— “I might not love you.”

He woke up with a splitting headache.

It was pitch black outside, and he had no idea what time it was.

It took a long time for Qiao Nanqi to fall back asleep. When he woke up again, sunlight was streaming through the gaps in the curtains.

It was already late morning.

As his drunkenness faded, the oddities from the previous night and the subtle clues he had noticed before finally clicked together in his mind.

He had a faint suspicion. It was a vague one, not enough to form a complete answer.

But he actually felt that the answer formed by these oddities might be a good one for him. And because it might be good news, he didn’t quite dare to believe his own judgment.

He hadn’t received any good news in a very long time.

He even felt that he didn’t deserve any.

Yet his heart was racing with anticipation, as if a voice in his head was whispering, “Be bold. Go check. You’ll know once you check.”

Just then, Xiao Wu sent him a message that was like a gift from heaven. “Sir, regarding those items you asked me to transfer to Mr. Lu and Mr. Zhao over a month ago… Mr. Lu told me today that he wants to return them.”

Holding his phone, Qiao Nanqi suddenly sat bolt upright in bed—

Xiao Wu was truly baffled today.

He had spent days working on transferring those items to Lu Xingping. At the time, Lu Xingping had been perfectly agreeable, saying he would slowly go through them with Zhao Rong and divide them up.

But for some reason, Lu Xingping suddenly wanted to return everything to Qiao Nanqi today.

When he first got the news, Xiao Wu’s first thought was how Qiao Nanqi would react.

What was the meaning of this? Wedding gifts that had been sent out for over a month were suddenly being returned intact. By any logic, Qiao Nanqi should be furious.

Yet Qiao Nanqi was actually happy.

Well, perhaps not “very happy,” but when he arrived at the office today, the atmosphere around him wasn’t as suffocating as usual. His eyes were slightly bright, and he didn’t look as completely lifeless as he had the day before.

For anyone else, this might just be normal.

But for Qiao Nanqi, this was already considered “very happy.”

Furthermore, not only was Qiao Nanqi not angry, but he also ordered Xiao Wu to go to Lu Xingping’s house immediately to handle the handover.

It looked as though he couldn’t wait to get those things back.

Feeling confused, Xiao Wu went to Lu Xingping’s house to pick up some documents.

When he returned to Qiao Nanqi’s office, Qiao Nanqi didn’t even glance at the paperwork. He only asked, “When you were at his house, did you notice any changes?”

“Huh?” Xiao Wu was bewildered. Why was he asking such an odd question?

He thought that even if Qiao Nanqi didn’t care about the documents, he would surely ask if Zhao Rong was there.

He had even specifically asked Lu Xingping if Zhao Rong was around, and Lu Xingping had said “No.”

Since that prepared answer wasn’t needed, he had to recall what he saw inside Lu Xingping’s house and compare it to his memories of previous visits.

“No,” he said. “I didn’t go into the bedrooms, but the living room and study were exactly the same as before. Nothing was—”

Nothing was different.

He was about to say that, but before he could finish, he realized the problem himself.

…Hadn’t Zhao Rong moved into Lu Xingping’s house a month ago?

Why was Lu Xingping’s house completely unchanged?

“Drop your current company work for today,” Qiao Nanqi told him. His voice was still deep, but his tone was no longer flat and dead. “Go find the guest list for Zhao Rong’s wedding. I want the names of everyone who attended.”

“Oh, okay!”

Xiao Wu had a feeling that his boss was investigating something very important.

A wedding guest list wasn’t exactly top secret. Since Xiao Wu worked directly for Qiao Nanqi, he managed to get his hands on it within an hour.

After he handed the list over, Qiao Nanqi told him to wait and then locked himself in his office to study it.

And then, Xiao Wu was given the most bizarre assignment in all his years as Qiao Nanqi’s assistant.

It was even more bizarre than the time he was told to buy an obscure pet shop that had nothing to do with their business.

After finishing with the guest list, Qiao Nanqi ordered him to acquire—at the fastest possible speed—a wedding planning company, two law firms, and a nursing home. Things that had absolutely nothing to do with each other.