Qi Yang spent 0.01 seconds replaying the guy’s voice in his head. It really didn’t ring a bell. Not one of his old debt-collection enemies, that was for sure.
He turned his head to look at the guy, his eyes tinged with a hint of menace.
Up close like this, he could see the silver-rimmed glasses on the guy’s face. Suit and overcoat. All dressed up, but he still looked like a snake.
His features seemed vaguely familiar, a fairly clean-cut face, but his eyes and brows were steeped in a calculating shrewdness.
The only people Qi Yang ever ran into who gave off this vibe of screaming “I’m an elite” with their whole face were the ones he dealt with for business at work. He didn’t have anyone like that in his personal life.
“It’s you, isn’t it?”
The ‘elite’ pushed his glasses up his nose, sizing Qi Yang up at the same time, and shoved the ride-hailing app’s order screen in his face.
“The minute I saw the surname ‘Qi’, I thought of you. Then I saw the photo—with that attitude—and I just knew I couldn’t be wrong.”
The guy was all enthusiasm, but Qi Yang couldn’t place him at all.
He squinted slightly. “Met before?”
“Ren Wei.” The elite’s eyes held a strange glint. He pointed at himself. “Still remember?”
Qi Yang froze, then mentally compared the face in front of him to the one in the graduation photo he’d just been looking at. Finally, it clicked.
“Oh.” He twitched the corner of his mouth, grabbed the cigarette pack from the side of the truck bed, and tossed it over. “I remember now.”
“Don’t smoke, thanks.” Ren Wei glanced at the brand Qi Yang was smoking and put the pack back, then grinned at Qi Yang again. “Have I changed that much?”
It wasn’t really about changing.
Qi Yang didn’t meet his eyes again. He pulled the car back onto the road and asked bluntly, “Did you get a nose job?”
“Is it that obvious?” Ren Wei suddenly looked a bit embarrassed, touching his own nose. “Everyone else says it looks pretty natural.”
“It does look natural.” Qi Yang smirked as he turned the steering wheel. “I just feel like you look a bit different from before.”
Before, he’d had a flat nose with skinny eyebrows and small eyes. Looked like a real sneaky bastard.
Guess a straight, sharp nose really does do wonders for your overall vibe.
Ren Wei clearly didn’t want to delve deeper into the topic of his nose with an old classmate. He brushed it off with a few noncommittal laughs.
“So, you’re driving a rideshare now?” His eyes darted furtively behind his lenses as he took in the interior of Qi Yang’s car, asking in a casual tone.
“Just picking up a couple of fares on my way home from work.” Qi Yang made up an excuse on the spot, not wanting to get into details with Ren Wei.
He and Liu Dameng were the same. Even back in school, he’d never thought much of this Ren Wei. They just weren’t on the same wavelength.
But Ren Wei was just like before, completely unable to read the room.
He made small talk about the weather for a bit, then, just as they were nearing the destination, he pressed Qi Yang again: “So, what do you do now?”
Qi Yang turned his head and gave him a hard stare before answering. “Car rental company.”
“Yeah?” Ren Wei’s eyes lit up. “Which one? Our company needs to rent a fleet of cars soon.”
“Che Li,” Qi Yang said.
“Oh.” Ren Wei dragged the word out as he nodded. “I know Che Li. It’s a good one.”
The way Ren Wei chatted was filled with a barely concealed, intentional sense of superiority, just waiting for Qi Yang to ask him where he was working now.
Too bad Qi Yang had absolutely zero interest in the guy.
If Liu Dameng had been there, he probably could’ve shot the shit with him for a bit, maybe even pried some info out of him…
“I’m working for Mu Yicong’s company now.”
The name had just popped into Qi Yang’s head when Ren Wei, who couldn’t hold his water, started talking himself.
Qi Yang pressed down on the gas, just barely making it through the flashing yellow light. He crossed the intersection and pulled over at the destination.
Then he turned his head, meeting Ren Wei’s direct gaze.
“Still remember Mu Yicong?” Ren Wei tapped on the car window, pointing at the towering building outside.
At the very top of the skyscrapers in the CBD center, a cold metal nameplate spanned the entire top floor, gleaming with a menacing light in the dark winter twilight—M&K, a big company that Qi Yang had no idea what it even did.
“The Mu family business. He just got back to the country and took over recently.” Ren Wei introduced it with a smirk, his smug look as if Mu Yicong was his own dad and M&K was about to be signed over to him.
“That’s nice.” Qi Yang swept his eyes over it once and looked away. He ended the trip and gestured for Ren Wei to get out.
“Long time no see, old classmate. We should grab a meal sometime when you’re free.” Ren Wei shoved his phone over. “Want to add each other on WeChat? I’ll scan you.”
“Same number as always. Hasn’t changed.” Qi Yang didn’t move, keeping that lazy, half-smiling expression. “Don’t forget your stuff.”
Ren Wei’s hand hung awkwardly in the car. He stared at Qi Yang for a moment, nodded, put his phone away, and got out of the car.
The car door had barely clicked shut before Qi Yang drove off.
His expression immediately went blank. He cancelled the system-assigned order and drove straight home.
He was squatting by the flowerbed in his neighborhood, having his daily cigarette, when Liu Dameng’s call came through like a dog was chasing him. As soon as he answered, he was already yelling: “That bastard Ren Wei finally replied to me.”
“What’d he say?” Qi Yang asked, cigarette dangling from his lips.
“I just said hi yesterday on WeChat, and the motherfucker didn’t answer me all night. Then just now, he suddenly replied with ‘Long time no see, Dameng. Want to hang out sometime?'” Liu Dameng laughed in disbelief. “Prick is putting on airs.”
The kids who’d been playing in the snow today weren’t around. Only a persistent dog walker remained, coaxing a fat, golden retriever into pooping in the bushes.
Qi Yang watched the golden retriever from afar as it wiggled its butt. He squinted and chuckled. The golden retriever forgot all about its poop and came bounding toward him, tail wagging.
“He works for Mu Yicong now,” Qi Yang said.
“Who?” Liu Dameng was stunned. “How do you know?”
“I just gave him a ride home on my way back,” Qi Yang said, stubbing out his cigarette and standing up. “Picked up that bastard.”
With Liu Dameng letting out a string of “Fucks” on the other end of the line, Qi Yang zipped his jacket all the way up, tucked his chin into the collar, turned, and headed upstairs.
He knew why Liu Dameng was angry. The way Ren Wei had acted in his car was infuriating. They’d all been in the same class in middle school, knew each other’s true colors.
Ren Wei, thinking Qi Yang wasn’t doing as well as him, had deliberately brought up Mu Yicong just to piss him off.
He was even interested enough to reply to Liu Dameng’s message now.
“Fuck, what a disgusting piece of shit.” Liu Dameng was still cursing up a storm as they neared Qi Yang’s doorstep.
“Give it a rest.” Qi Yang wasn’t angry, and hearing Liu Dameng’s reaction was actually kind of funny. “Proves you didn’t misidentify him. You must have really run into Mu Yicong himself.”
“Bastard hasn’t changed a bit. Started brown-nosing as soon as he found out Mu Yicong’s family was rich when we were kids. Looks like he finally succeeded.” Liu Dameng was yelling in frustration, then suddenly added, “Wait. I’m gonna reply and fuck with him a little.”
“Send him a message saying you’re home.” Qi Yang turned the key in the lock and hung up.
Zou Meizhu and Qi Xing were already greeting him at the door as usual. One was asking him for food, the other was standing in the corner like a houseplant.
“What about my sweet potato?” Zou Meizhu blinked when she saw Qi Yang was only carrying a bag of sticker notebooks.
Qi Yang paused while changing his shoes, a little exasperated. “Forgot.”
“Oh dear.” Zou Meizhu’s face, which still showed traces of her once-stunning youth, scrunched up. “Mom’s just been craving one today.”
She even pointed at the corner. “Xingxing wants one too.”
That was pure bullshit.
Qi Xing was like a lamb raised in the house. She barely ate a few bites of her own food, and she’d never once specifically or clearly asked for anything to eat.
But Qi Yang still tilted his chin at Qi Xing and asked, “Want a baked sweet potato?”
Qi Xing just went over and grabbed the stuff Liu Dameng had brought for her. She was muttering something to herself, looking pretty happy.
“Go on, go on. Go buy some for Mom.” Zou Meizhu pushed him out the door. “Hurry up before you take your shoes off, my good boy.”
Qi Yang couldn’t be bothered to argue with her. He just grabbed his keys and headed out again.
As he walked out of the building, it started to snow again.
A snowflake blew into Qi Yang’s eye, making him wince. He drooped his head and shook it, but before he could even open his eyes, his phone started ringing in his pocket.
He didn’t even look at the caller ID, just swiped to answer and let out an impatient ‘tsk’. “Didn’t I tell you to text me if you need something? What, my hands aren’t cold enough in this godforsaken snowstorm?”
The voice on the other end was eerily quiet. It wasn’t Liu Dameng’s usual booming tone. Just the sound of steady, composed breathing.
Qi Yang frowned. He was just about to pull the phone away to check the number when a voice, one that should have been completely unfamiliar yet felt instantly recognizable the moment it spoke, drawled slowly, “Still taking fares?”
My name is Mu Yicong. The ‘Cong’ character from ‘Cong’, the one that looks like three people under a single horizontal line.
Fourteen years ago, when Mu Yicong had stood at the podium introducing himself, that was the very tone the boy with the just-stopped nosebleed had used to speak his first sentence.
A flat tone, devoid of emotion. No interest in establishing connections with anyone, no interest in letting anyone get to know him.
He’d gone through puberty, his boy’s voice had deepened into a man’s, but the unique cadence ingrained in a person’s bones is something you can’t shed in a lifetime.
Qi Yang stepped into a small patch of snow, stopped for a moment, then lifted his foot and stomped his cotton boot.
He still pulled the phone down to look at the number, then switched it to his other ear.
“Long time no see,” Qi Yang said. “Mu Yicong. The one whose name means ‘three people under a single line’.”
There was a low chuckle from Mu Yicong’s end, more like a polite conversational filler than actual amusement. He answered casually, “Ah, it’s been a while.”
“Back in the country?” Qi Yang walked forward, crunching the snow under his feet.
“Just got back a week ago,” Mu Yicong said. “Ren Wei said you still have the same number.”
“He talks fast,” Qi Yang said.
Relationships between people can be really fucked up sometimes.
In the blizzard that was growing strong enough to make Qi Yang squint, memories he’d buried for ten years were being stirred up by Liu Dameng and Ren Wei, one after another over the past couple of days.
Mu Yicong’s sudden phone call was the final straw. It forcefully dragged those absurd years he didn’t want to remember back into the open, laying them bare before his eyes, as bright and sharp as the snowflakes hitting his face.
The two of them had once been sworn enemies, but after a decade of being ground down by life, they could even greet each other so peacefully.
No, that wasn’t right either. Only he had been ground down by life. Everyone else seemed to be doing just fine.
Especially Mu Yicong.
“You need something from me?” Qi Yang asked.
“Nothing much,” Mu Yicong said. “Ren Wei mentioned you, and it made me realize it’s been a while since we’ve seen each other.”
“Ah.” Qi Yang acknowledged.
“Let’s meet for a meal,” Mu Yicong said.
Qi Yang laughed.
“There’s nothing to see between us, is there?” he refused bluntly. “Let’s skip the empty formalities. No need.”
As soon as he finished speaking, his phone vibrated twice against his ear. It was a WeChat message from Liu Dameng, a screenshot.
Qi Yang didn’t open it. Instead, Liu Dameng followed up with two more furious texts.
Liu Dameng: I made plans with Ren Wei. Class reunion this weekend. Mu Yicong’s coming too.
Liu Dameng: I promised for you. You have to come, Yangzi!
This time, it was Mu Yicong’s turn to laugh.
As if he could see Qi Yang’s phone, he let out a careless snort.
Qi Yang tightened his grip on his phone and stopped in his tracks.
Fuck.
