Chapter 7 Fourth Encounter

Chapter 7: Fourth Encounter

Mou Wen felt a flicker of grievance rise up inside her.

She remembered that she hadn't done anything wrong, yet Xie Chong had given her the cold shoulder. Lin Weisen had privately asked her if she'd offended Xie Chong, or if she'd done anything out of line with him. Mou Wen didn't tell her mentor that it was because of her "embarrassing state."

Who would want to show themselves in such a light? She felt like she'd been handed a raw deal she couldn't talk to anyone about.

Mou Wen looked away and bent down to take off the other shoe cover.

When she was really upset, she didn't feel like talking. She knew that even if she spoke, Xie Chong wouldn't understand.

She figured her mentor would be back in a couple of days, and Foreman Liu was the contractor her company had worked with the longest. Xie Chong probably wouldn't need her to come back. They probably wouldn't see each other anymore.

Still, out of politeness, she said goodbye to Xie Chong: "I've just finished communicating with Foreman Liu. The next few days are just demolition, so there shouldn't be any big issues. My mentor will be back soon, so Mr. Xie doesn't need to worry."

"Hope the renovation goes smoothly, Mr. Xie, and you can move in soon."

She kept her distance. She clutched two shoe covers in one hand, a folder bag slung over her shoulder. A little dust had gotten on her new clothes, and she brushed it off, then waved at Xie Chong: "See you!"

She turned to press the elevator button.

She felt her back burning, but she didn't turn around to see if Xie Chong was watching.

Why the hell was this elevator so slow today!

Mou Wen silently urged, "Come on, come on." The elevator finally arrived, and she stepped in. Sensing movement behind her, she turned—Xie Chong had stepped on too.

"I'm leaving too," Xie Chong said.

"Oh."

She'd said her nice words too soon. Mou Wen thought she should've saved them for the elevator. How annoying.

"You didn't press the floor," Xie Chong reminded her.

"You're closer to the panel," Mou Wen said.

Xie Chong glanced at her and hit 1 for her.

"You didn't press B1," Mou Wen said.

"I'm not going to B1," Xie Chong replied. "I'm walking you down."

Mou Wen looked up at him—he looked like he was trying not to laugh.

Mou Wen finally couldn't help it: "I've got all my limbs, I don't need an escort. Your time's precious, go on back up."

"I'm sorry. That day at your office, I told Engineer Lin to have you contact me from now on. I'm sorry." The elevator doors opened, and Xie Chong held the open button for Mou Wen to exit first.

Xie Chong's apology came out of nowhere, and the grievance Mou Wen had just pushed down started creeping back up.

She walked out in a daze, Xie Chong right behind her.

It was that in-between time of year, autumn sliding into winter. A gust of wind kicked up, and the fallen leaves tumbled down in a rush. In a blink, each of them had a leaf on their shoulder—and Mou Wen had one on her head too.

"I think I might've misunderstood something." Xie Chong was usually a straight shooter, and Mou Wen's careful, guarded behavior today made him feel embarrassed. He realized he'd been unconsciously steamrolling this young, green girl with his so-called "superiority." He really shouldn't have.

"Misunderstood what?" Mou Wen was totally lost. She couldn't think of any misunderstanding between them besides the so-called "wealth gap."

"I got it wrong—I thought you had feelings for me." Xie Chong said honestly. "Mou Wen, I was scared of complications."

"Huh?" Mou Wen's eyes went wide. She liked his house, his car, his polish—but she didn't like this smug, self-important attitude.

She also didn't fully get what Xie Chong was saying.

And even if someone liked him, what kind of trouble would that even be?

Her eyes darted around, then landed on Xie Chong, and it hit her: "You're afraid I'm after your money!" She covered her mouth: "Oh my god, how could you think that! Why would I try to scam you? If I ever became a con artist, my mom would break my legs! I still have my dad to take care of..."

Mou Wen stopped herself, realizing she'd said too much. She waved a hand grandly and said, "Don't worry, I won't become a con artist."

"That's not the kind of trouble I meant," Xie Chong said. "You're sharp, but not sharp enough to pull one over on me."

"Then what is it?"

Xie Chong shrugged: "It's nothing. Not important anymore. Anyway, I'm sorry."

Mou Wen didn't really care what the trouble was anyway. She let out a long breath: "So, we good now? You're not gonna keep coming at me, right?"

Xie Chong shook his head: "No misunderstanding. And I won't." He reached out and plucked the leaf from her head, careful not to even brush her hair: "Honestly, after these few meetings, I think you're a pretty sweet person. Of course I won't target you anymore."

Mou Wen extended her hand toward him.

"What?"

"Then you gotta put down a deposit! I can tell your personality's not exactly stable. You say you won't come after me now, but next thing you know, you'll file a complaint. I can't end up with nothing after all this!" She kept her hand out, stubborn. "Pay up! Now!"

Xie Chong actually pulled out his wallet. Mou Wen spotted a thick wad of cash in there, plus a photo. She couldn't tell who was in the photo—her eyes were glued to the cash. So much money. People actually carried this much cash around? She only ever took out 500 yuan at a time from the ATM.

He pulled out some bills and handed them over. She actually took them, counted out five, and handed the rest back.

"As long as you don't give me a hard time, I'll give you the 500 back once you pay the full renovation fee."

"That's all I'm worth? 500?" Xie Chong asked.

"Yes." Mou Wen nodded firmly. "Only 500."

Xie Chong laughed.

He was usually picky and had a nasty temper, but he didn't go in for bullying people weaker than him—that felt cheap and low. After clearing the air with Mou Wen, he felt a lot lighter.

He had a really nice smile.

Mou Wen squinted and smiled back, mimicking him.

In that back-and-forth of smiles, she felt like Xie Chong had shown her respect, and her mood genuinely lifted. Her cheerfulness started blooming all over again.

She waved goodbye to Xie Chong and said it again: "Mr. Xie, you're a really good guy!"

"And what was I the other day?"

"A jerk, what else." Mou Wen made a face at him, then took off running.

Xie Chong watched her until she was out of the complex, then turned back.

He had plans with Jiang Wu that night.

They met at a revolving restaurant. Jiang Wu loved this place because you could see all of Beijing's night lights.

That day, she arrived earlier than Xie Chong and waved at him when she saw him.

Xie Chong sat across from her and noticed that Jiang Wu had put on makeup today. She never wore makeup when meeting him; in her own words: she shows up as she is, and that's how she is with Xie Chong.

"Why the makeup?" Xie Chong asked her.

"I went to an exhibition today." Jiang Wu happily described the avant-garde exhibition to Xie Chong. Xie Chong knew that exhibition—it was garbage. He ran his own art business and wouldn't give a damn about some attention-grabbing show. But he said nothing.

If he said anything, Jiang Wu would call him arrogant again.

When Jiang Wu was done, she said to Xie Chong, "You seem to be in a good mood today."

"Not bad," Xie Chong said. "The house renovation's started."

"That's great," Jiang Wu said. "When will it be done?"

"About half a year."

"That's fast," Jiang Wu said, casually tucking her hair back, showing off her nice neck. Seeing Xie Chong staring at her, she spread her palm to block his gaze. "Didn't we agree? We're just friends, right?"

"What am I supposed to do, then? Tear my own eyes out? Close my eyes when I talk to you?"

"Xie Chong!" Jiang Wu stood up and swatted him. "There you go again!"

Jiang Wu did like Xie Chong.

But Xie Chong was always like this—he always had a sharp tongue and never backed down. Jiang Wu often said it was Xie Chong's upbringing that made him so arrogant, and Xie Chong would retort, "Upbringing? In Beijing, who the hell am I? You know Beijing's got no shortage of rich people."

Xie Chong shut his mouth.

He'd originally gotten a birthday gift for Jiang Wu, but then he heard her mention how much she loved a gift from a friend: a hand-carved figurine that took forever to make. She thought it showed real care and meant a lot.

So Xie Chong didn't mention the gift. He knew that if he did, Jiang Wu would say again: I don't like stuff that's all flash and no substance. Just like he didn't get why Jiang Wu liked that crappy exhibition.

Jiang Wu really didn't like those things, but the things she did like, Xie Chong really couldn't make.

After dinner, he walked Jiang Wu home.

The two walked through the night, and when Xie Chong accidentally edged a little closer, she held up her hand to measure the gap: "One fist's distance, forget already?"

Xie Chong wasn't having that. He said to Jiang Wu, "How about you build me a train track first? I'll walk on the rails when I'm with you?"

"Sure," Jiang Wu said. "Then wait for me to build it!"

Xie Chong felt his good mood getting completely wrecked by Jiang Wu.

Every time before seeing her, he was happy; after seeing her, he went home pissed off. And he was stubborn—the more Jiang Wu acted like that, the more he dug his heels in.

By now, whatever good mood he had left was gone.

In the car, Xie Chong didn't say anything.

Jiang Wu noticed mud on the passenger floor mat and casually asked, "You had a passenger?"

"Yeah, someone from the renovation crew," Xie Chong said. "Haven't had time to wash the car lately."

"What are you so busy with that you can't wash the car?"

"I'm earning money."

"Fine." Jiang Wu stepped over the mud and didn't say anything else. As she got out of the car, she said to Xie Chong, "I'm not keeping you. You can date other people. We're just friends anyway, right?"

"What do you mean?" Xie Chong asked.

"I mean, our personalities just don't fit," Jiang Wu said. "I feel bad every time I see you. I don't know why. If it feels bad, it means we don't fit."

"Fine, I'll date someone else." Xie Chong said, sulking, and drove off.

He drove around the city with no destination. Late at night on the Third Ring Road, there weren't many cars. He rolled down the window, wanting to feel free, but rolled it back up within two seconds.

"Damn, it's freezing," he muttered. "I'm such an idiot."

Beijing's winter really set in with this cold.

Xie Chong hated Beijing's winter—everything bare, bleak, and gray. He didn't want to go to the house either; it was a wreck inside, and looking at it just depressed him.

So he called Mou Wen up.

Mou Wen was working overtime. A client needed an old, small apartment renovated, complaining the space wasn't being used well and asking Mou Wen to figure out how to "fold and tuck away" everything.

Mou Wen was moving things around on the floor plan, calculating sizes, but it was a real pain. The bathroom was tiny—if she put in a glass shower door, the door swinging out would hit the sink; if she put a drying rack on the balcony, the cabinet door on the side wouldn't open; the kid's picture books needed a shelf, but there was no room for a bookcase in the kids' room.

This wasn't going to stump Mou Wen.

She was almost getting somewhere when Xie Chong's call broke her concentration.

She didn't even check who was calling—she just hung up.

On the other end, Xie Chong thought he'd dialed the wrong number, checked the screen again, and called back.

Mou Wen let out an annoyed "Ugh" and had no choice but to pick up the phone. Seeing it was Xie Chong, she let out a puzzled "Huh": The shrew. Why is he calling me?

"Hello, Mr. Xie," Mou Wen said, not waiting for Xie Chong to respond before asking directly, "Is something the matter?"

"...You just rejected my call."

"No, I didn't..." Mou Wen refused to admit it. "What's up?"

"How's the renovation going?" Xie Chong asked.

"We're chipping up the floor tiles," Mou Wen said. "Mr. Xie can go check it out yourself. Foreman Liu mentioned today that you haven't been there since the work started."

Xie Chong said, "I don't want to go. It's too dirty inside."

"Oh." Mou Wen said distractedly, "I'll report to you after we've been to the site."

"Alright. Thank you."

"You're welcome." Mou Wen was eager to get back to her drawings and said directly, "Bye then!" She hung up without hesitation.

Listening to the dial tone, Xie Chong thought: Have I been too nice to her? She dares to hang up on a client like that?

Two days later, in the evening, he went to the house.

As soon as he got off the elevator, he saw the door open and heard voices inside. It was Mou Wen.

Xie Chong walked in and saw Mou Wen wearing a mask, squatting on the ground to check if the floor was level after chipping—she was practically pressing her face against the floor.

Seeing Xie Chong arrive, she jumped up, her white mask coated in dust and looking grubby. Oblivious to it, she pulled out a fresh mask and handed it to him: "Mr. Xie, here, put this on—there's too much dust."

Xie Chong took the mask and looked around.

They really did a clean job. Over the past few days, the walls that needed demolishing had been torn down, the floors had been properly scraped, and the construction debris had been hauled away. Now the whole house stood empty, making the place feel even bigger.

"Satisfied?" Mou Wen's eyes peeked out above her mask, eagerly waiting for Xie Chong's approval.

"It'll do."

"It'll do?" Mou Wen was displeased. "How can you call work this good just 'decent'?"

"You should change your mask," Xie Chong said. "It's dirty—it's hard to look at."

Mou Wen took off the mask, glanced at it, and put it back on. "The inside's not dirty." She then moved on to the next step: "Once the space is ready, we'll start pulling the wiring. You gotta see how Foreman Liu runs wire—it's a work of art!"

Foreman Liu let out a chuckle off to the side.

As they left, Xie Chong asked Mou Wen, "Do you really love this job that much? Every time I see you, you're like you're running on pure adrenaline."

"Of course! This job's a blast!" Mou Wen's face still had the mask lines, and she rubbed at them as she talked. "Building houses, renovating—what's not to love?"

Xie Chong suddenly asked, "Did Engineer Lin send you over here?"

"No. My mentor's been swamped lately. I live close by, so I just swung by after work to check things out." Mou Wen patted her chest. "Trust us! We do solid work—you don't need to babysit us!"

She sure knew how to toot her own horn.

Xie Chong smiled, glanced at his watch—it was almost 7:30. It was already pitch dark out.

"What are you doing for dinner?" he asked. He wanted to thank her; he hadn't expected her to care so much about his house, and it really touched him.

"I'll grab a bite behind the dorms later," Mou Wen said. "They've got a ton of good stuff there." She didn't catch that Xie Chong was trying to treat her, and went on, "I need to eat a big meal tonight—I was too busy to eat properly today."

"I mean, I can buy you dinner," Xie Chong sighed. "Are you not getting it?"

"Huh?" Mou Wen finally caught on. She waved her hands, flustered and flattered. "No, no, that's not necessary. It's my job."

Noticing Xie Chong was about to lose his patience, she quickly added, "Fine, if you really want, you can come with me to grab a quick bite in the alley?" She didn't want to take a handout—she'd feel like she owed him. If he paid, she'd have to figure out how to pay him back, and her wallet couldn't handle that kind of debt.

She kept going on about this alley, and Xie Chong had no clue where it was. Intrigued, he said, "Fine, let's go."

Mou Wen insisted on the bus, saying it'd save time hunting for parking and get them food faster. She must've been starving—she got squished flat on that packed bus. Xie Chong hadn't been on a bus in years, and now he was just standing there, this big guy, getting elbowed in the side and having his feet stepped on.

Watching this, Mou Wen felt a little smug: Serves you right!

But she was a good person at heart, so she reached out and tugged him over to her spot, then turned to face him, holding the back of the seat in front with one hand and the vertical pole with the other, carving out a little bubble of space for him.

"Thanks."

"No worries," Mou Wen said. "It's only a few stops."

Xie Chong had never had someone protect him like that. He figured he must look "pathetic" and "helpless" right then, and the thought made him want to disappear into the ground.

Luckily, their stop came quick.

He followed Mou Wen through a little gate, around a few corners, and boom—a whole different world. The alley she'd talked about was a little night market, packed with people and stuff everywhere.

Xie Chong had always hated crowds; places like this made him antsy. Like at restaurants—if he had to wait in line, he'd just walk out.

Mou Wen took him straight to a skewer stand.

The Sichuan lady running the stand, spotting this classy-looking guy next to Mou Wen, asked, "Brought a friend to eat?"

"Yeah, he's my client!" Mou Wen said enthusiastically, dragged over a chair, and told Xie Chong to squeeze in next to her.

Xie Chong's arm grazed Mou Wen's, and his knee bumped hers. Feeling awkward, he scooted over, only to knock into a stranger. So he moved back, afraid the stranger might think he was some creep.

The pot was steaming, and Mou Wen's eyes had that "hungry" gleam. She ordered skewers like a pro, then turned to ask Xie Chong what he wanted. He said, "Whatever's fine."

"Then just grab whatever you want from the pot."

"Okay."

There was zero privacy here—Xie Chong could hear every word the people next to him said. He was also paranoid about their spit flying into his dipping sauce, so he kept one hand cupped over it like a mother hen protecting her eggs.

Mou Wen ate while sneaking peeks at him. Seeing Xie Chong like this was making her want to laugh out loud. She even put on a concerned face and asked, "What's up? Not good?"

Xie Chong didn't answer, just grabbed a few skewers from the pot and ate.

This stuff wasn't good, either. He couldn't figure out how Mou Wen could enjoy this so much. The steam was getting on his nerves, and he just wanted to get out of there.

Luckily, Mou Wen scarfed her food down fast. He paid up fast and headed out first.

The Sichuan lady whispered to Mou Wen, "He doesn't eat much." She never once thought it was because he didn't like her food.

Mou Wen nodded. "Right? He eats so little!"

Once outside, she asked Xie Chong if it was good. She added that in the dramas she watched, rich people always loved these down-to-earth spots! Xie Chong asked, "You want the truth?"

"Yeah."

"I think it's just something to fill your stomach with," Xie Chong said, remembering the loud burp from the guy next to him, and felt sick again.

He regretted ever offering to buy Mou Wen dinner.

Mou Wen was a good person, but they just weren't meant to share a meal.

"I'll walk you to your place."

"No, no, that's okay." Mou Wen waved her hand. "Don't worry about it. Bye!"

Xie Chong didn't say anything, just walked toward her place with his head down. At the door, he said, "Go on up. Thanks for today."

"Bye."

Mou Wen waved him off.

She hurried upstairs to the little balcony and looked down.

She spotted Xie Chong in the crowded underpass, trying to flag down a cab. But when one pulled up, someone else grabbed it first.

It was a rare moment of him being all thumbs, and Mou Wen let out a little laugh.

"What're you looking at?" Chu Ling asked her.

Yeah... what am I looking at? Why did I run up here just to watch him?

Mou Wen was confused.