Chapter 160

Chapter 160

Xu Meng nestled in his arms, her heart aching yet filled with sweetness. "I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I just feel really down."

She didn’t mention anything about her past life, but as she recounted her experiences after sending Huang Xiaoying home today, the emotions from that previous life surfaced. "I just felt so bored going back alone. I wanted to find you, but you were busy too. Before the college entrance exams, it was the same. I never expected that when I finally had free time, everyone else would be busy. Suddenly, it felt like I was the only person left in the world."

Han Jiming felt like facepalming. No wonder they say women are emotional.

It wasn’t that he thought being emotional was bad—he just couldn’t relate to Xu Meng’s feelings. He was swamped with work too. If he ever got a day to just clear his mind and rest, he’d be overjoyed.

Han Jiming took Xu Meng’s hand in his, knowing that speaking his mind would be a death wish. He coaxed her softly, "Next time something like this happens, just tell me. I wasn’t blowing you off earlier—I really did have something urgent to handle. But if you get upset over this again, you can’t just walk off without a word. What if I didn’t notice? Would you just bottle it up until you exploded? And then decide to ignore me next time?"

Misunderstandings always began this way.

Xu Meng huffed, refusing to admit she was overreacting. But right now, she was being a little spoiled—nothing like the tough, resilient version of herself from her past life. But so what? Now she had people who cherished her—her mother, her boyfriend—she had the right to be willful.

Even so, she still wanted to give herself credit. "A girlfriend like me is pretty understanding, okay? And I haven’t even asked you—last time in Xining, when you called me, there was a girl who deliberately called your name over the phone. She likes you, doesn’t she? She was trying to provoke me, and I deliberately didn’t get mad or argue with you about it."

She just filed it away for later.

A glare, a playful scratch, then snuggling close with a happy sigh.

Han Jiming adored her like this. He held her hand, kissing it gently, his tenderness deepening.

"Have you eaten?"

Xu Meng touched her stomach and only then remembered she hadn’t even had dinner. She was starving.

Han Jiming said softly, "Baby, I can cook too. Let me make something for you."

In the end, Han Jiming brought two bowls of gluey noodles to the table. Xu Meng took one bite and made a face and set her chopsticks down.

Trusting Han Jiming completely, Xu Meng had left everything to him, only to realize at the table that he had thrown the noodles into cold water, turning them into mush. They ended up each grabbing a pack of crackers to eat instead. Xu Meng dumped the two bowls of noodles into the dog’s bowl and called for Wang Zai.

Wang Zai came trotting over, tail wagging, sniffed the bowl, took a reluctant bite, then tucked his tail and scurried away.

They both burst out laughing.

Han Jiming said, "I never thought my cooking would even disgust a dog. Guess I’ll have to learn from someone else in the future. Otherwise, if someone gets angry and hungry again, I’ll just end up serving them mushy noodles."

But Xu Meng found it endearing. It turned out Han Jiming had things he wasn’t good at either. That tiny crack in his otherwise flawless, strong image made him seem more down-to-earth.

"So what? If you can’t cook, just work harder and earn more money. You can take care of me."

"Alright, I’ll provide for you." Han Jiming’s smile widened as he took Xu Meng’s hand, swinging it gently. "I’ll earn lots and lots of money, all to spoil you."

Xu Meng thought of him in her past life—that version of him had been a successful businessman, amassing great wealth, yet he never married. People whispered behind his back, saying, "What’s the point of earning so much money when there’s no one to spend it for him?"

"Pretty pathetic, not even having someone to spend his money for him."

Back then, Xu Meng had thought, *What’s so pathetic about that? You’re just jealous!*

But now, she didn’t think that way anymore.

Xu Meng shook his hand. "Then it’s settled."

Han Jiming shook hers back. "Just one thing."

Xu Meng: "What thing?"

Han Jiming: "If there's anything that upsets or dissatisfies you in the future, just talk to me about it."

Xu Meng held his hand and, for the first time, saw uneasiness in his eyes. It made her heart ache, knowing how proud Han Jiming usually was. Then she gave a barely audible "Mm."

Han Jiming looked nervous: "When I saw that look in your eyes, I thought you wouldn’t come back."

Xu Meng shook her head: "How could you think that?"

Han Jiming looked at her strangely: "Because that’s exactly what you did before—just stopped coming out of nowhere."

Xu Meng froze for a moment before realizing what he was referring to. She said, "You mean that time I fell into the water? That year, I was seriously ill, nearly died. I don’t remember much before that, but afterward, I really didn’t visit the Han family much. During New Year’s, I coughed the entire winter break and only started feeling slightly better right before the holiday. Why would you still be hung up on that?"

Their relationship hadn’t been that close before, right? In her memory, she had always been playing with Han Lingling.

Han Jiming stared at her, his expression turned conflicted: "You don’t remember?"

Xu Meng shook her head: "I really don’t. I was sick most of that year, with multiple high fevers. You know how my family was—my grandmother didn’t want to pay for my treatment. I nearly died. If your family hadn’t covered the medical bills at first, I might not have even gone to the hospital for an IV."

Han Jiming’s gaze grew complicated: "I thought—I thought—"

He trailed off, leaving it hanging.

Xu Meng bumped his shoulder: "You thought what?"

Han Jiming smiled bitterly: "I figured your family was mad at me for not taking good care of you and stopped letting you come over. Actually, you weren’t friends with Han Lingling at first."

Xu Meng thought about their family situation and suddenly looked horrified: "No way… was I friends with Sun Miao?"

Han Jiming immediately looked torn between laughing and groaning: "Where’d that come from?"

He still remembered their childhood clearly, but Xu Meng didn’t, so she pressed him for details and even needled him about whether he’d liked her back then.

Han Jiming denied it: "You were just a kid—how could I? What’s going on in your head?"

Xu Meng asked, "Then when did you start liking me?"

Han Jiming pinched her ear and asked her the same question in return.

They sat side by side in the yard, staring up at the stars, until Feng Yanwen came looking for her. Only then did they realize they had been talking until 10 p.m. without eating, and Han Jiming had already gone home.

Hearing they had only eaten a bunch of crackers, Feng Yanwen couldn’t help but scold: "What’s gotten into you? You used to know how to cook—how have you gotten so lazy now? I’m at a loss for words. Are you still hungry?"

"Hungry…" Xu Meng replied weakly.

She had considered making instant noodles to tide them over, but sitting together under the stars had been so nice that she didn’t want to bring up something as mundane as instant noodles.

"Look at you—if you two end up together, you’ll never eat properly." Feng Yanwen chided. "Go have the roast duck. I brought it back since it was still clean. I knew you’d be unreliable. Is Huang Xiaoying settled over there?"

"Yeah, Huang Xiaoying said she’s doing fine working outside. If Huang Xiaoting and the others don’t do well in school, at least they’ll have a place to stay. I thought they had a bad relationship and she wouldn’t care about them." Xu Meng took a spring roll wrapper, wrapped it around roast duck skin, scallions, and cucumber strips, and took a big bite.

This time of year, even cold roast duck was still good.

After a few bites, the more she ate, the hungrier she felt.

Feng Yanwen sighed: "Folks like us aren’t like you. You’re an only child—even with Xu Jia, you’re just cousins. Whether the relationship is good or not, there’s still a distance. No one really looks after their cousins. But it’s different for her and me. We have real siblings—it’s not the same."

She rubbed her belly. The child inside would be even further removed from Xu Meng.

Who knew what the future would hold?

As the start of the school year approached, the training classes became less frequent, and Feng Yanwen found herself with more free time. She took Xu Meng shopping for clothes. Back in high school, Xu Meng had worn a uniform year-round, but university was different—students dressed up to look their best. Whenever they found something suitable, Feng Yanwen would also pick up a few items for Huang Xiaoying. After all, money wasn't an issue now.

The previous incident at Jiang Haohao’s training school had actually brought Feng Yanwen quite a bit of business.

Han Jiming also gifted his girlfriend plenty of clothes, and Xu Meng thoroughly enjoyed being the center of attention.

As the semester neared, Feng Yanwen accompanied Xu Meng to register, joking that she wanted the baby in her belly to experience Peking University’s academic atmosphere for some serious academic vibes. Even Huang Xiaoying, who had been deep in her factory work for a week, managed to take a rare day off to join them.

Xu Meng thought university life was simply wonderful. In her past life, she had carried the regret of never attending college, and whenever she passed by universities, she hadn’t even dared to step inside. But now, she could proudly walk onto a university campus.

It was also her first time experiencing dorm life.

Compared to the dull routine of high school, this was infinitely better. At the start of the semester, the school didn’t put too much pressure on freshmen. First, there was a welcoming party where seniors flaunted their style on stage. The student union organized various clubs—debate and poetry were the most popular at the time. Xu Meng checked them all out before finally joining the English club, eager to see what's out there.

Another noticeable difference was how much better the university cafeteria food was compared to high school, with far more options. Xu Meng quickly developed a deep fascination with all the different food stalls and was completely hooked. University life was truly wonderful.