Chapter 1

3:00 AM

Her phone kept vibrating.

It was her cousin asking, “Did the blind date I introduced to you fall through?” “Didn’t you say it was going well?” “What happened, why didn’t it work out?”

The three questions in the chat box seemed to automatically generate her cousin’s characteristic gossipy tone.

Xu Muzi’s thumb hovered over the phone screen, pondering how to respond, when she suddenly leaned forward as the taxi braked and stopped at the foot of the mountain.

The navigation announced, “You have arrived at your destination. The destination is on your right. Please be cautious of incoming traffic when opening the door.”

The wipers were working non-stop, clearing the water from the windshield. The old wipers’ squeaking noise gradually got drowned out by the patter of the rain.
—-
At 3 AM, this time of night was truly sleep-inducing.

While Xu Muzi scanned the payment code, the taxi driver, holding up the QR code, turned his head and stifled a yawn.

The driver, with the lingering sound of his yawn, kindly reminded her, “Miss, the temperature in the mountains can vary greatly. The chill is heaviest at dawn. As soon as you got in the car, I smelled a strong medicinal oil scent. If you already have a bit of a headache or a cold, climbing the mountain in the rain can worsen it.”

With only two days left of her holiday, Xu Muzi really didn’t want to stay home and listen to relatives dig into her relationship status, so she fled overnight.

She left in a hurry and didn’t anticipate the strong winds following the heat as a sign of impending rain, so she didn’t bring an umbrella.

Xu Muzi said, “It’s okay, it only takes about ten minutes.”

The driver was very kind, popped the trunk, and personally got out of the car to help her with the heavy suitcase.

The kindness of strangers always warms the heart. Xu Muzi pulled up the suitcase handle and sincerely thanked him.

The driver smiled and waved his hand, got into the car, and expertly turned the vehicle around. The taxi drove into the rain, heading back towards the city.

At the foot of the deserted mountain, her phone’s navigation showed that the way to the guesthouse was the stone steps illuminated by streetlights right in front of her.

The steps were steep, and carrying a suitcase up the mountain was quite strenuous.

The vegetation on both sides was dense, with moss-covered rocks gradually turning into lush ferns. As she continued walking, the ferns turned into clusters of blooming blue and purple hydrangeas.

In the misty rain, her shirt quickly got soaked and clung coldly to her skin.

Alone, Xu Muzi half dragged, half carried the heavy suitcase, head down, hurrying along. After every dozen steps, she had to stop, switch hands, and continue.

After a bumpy journey, she finally reached the guesthouse door, standing under the eaves, breathing heavily.

The eaves shielded her from the rain, and the glass on the door reflected her image, serving as a makeshift mirror. Xu Muzi tidied her hair, wiped the ends with a tissue, and stamped off the wet mud from her shoes. Once she felt presentable, she raised her hand to knock on the door.

There was a vintage bronze bell hanging on the guesthouse wall, with a thick hemp rope tied in a diamond knot. The rope’s weight made it sway slightly in the light rain.

Her hand shifted from knocking on the door to pulling the rope, ringing the bell.

The bell’s sound was crisp. After a few rings, a staff member hurried out. It was a girl, about the same age as Xu Muzi.

Drenched and somewhat disheveled, Xu Muzi could see the surprise in the girl’s eyes through the glass door dimly lit by the lights.

“Hello, are you… Miss Xu?”

Xu Muzi nodded.

The girl quickly opened the door, naturally helping to lift her luggage over the threshold. “Hello, Miss Xu, I’m Xia Xia. I’ve been expecting you.”

Xia Xia was as enthusiastic as the taxi driver.

From the moment Xu Muzi entered, Xia Xia kept herself busy, like a spinning top:

First, she ran to get a dry towel for Xu Muzi to wipe her rain-soaked hair; then she gave a brief tour of the guesthouse’s common areas and room layout.

“This is the room you reserved.”

Not only acting as a guide, Xia Xia also mentioned with regret something she had texted Xu Muzi earlier, “If you had called ahead, we would have come down to help with your luggage. It’s very late, please wait a moment while I quickly handle your check-in…”

While Xia Xia was busy, Xu Muzi sent her cousin her location.

She intentionally ignored the previous three questions, just informing her cousin that she had arrived at the guesthouse.

Her cousin replied quickly, asking how the guesthouse was.

Outside was the kind of rainy day Xu Muzi hated, the cold wind and rain making it hard to appreciate the scenery in the dark early morning, but she liked the vintage bronze doorbell outside and Xia Xia, who always smiled with her eyes.

“Not bad.”

That was the extent of the conversation about the guesthouse, and the cousin quickly returned to the topic of her love life.

Abroad, it was 8 PM. Her cousin called directly, full of energy, and started asking the same questions again.

To be honest, Xu Muzi wasn’t interested in this topic at all. The words went in one ear and out the other as she aimlessly looked around while holding her phone.

Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, she noticed Xia Xia’s eager figure trying to approach. Understanding the situation, Xu Muzi tucked her phone between her shoulder and ear, pulled out her cardholder, and handed over her ID card.

Xia Xia took it and whispered to her, “Miss Xu, please look here.”

She cooperated, turning her head toward the camera in the warm yellow light.

The front desk was cozy with a coffee machine and various tea beverages. Meanwhile, her cousin’s voice continued over the phone: “… I heard that guy has good qualifications, an art student who studied abroad. Both of you play instruments, don’t you have any common topics? If the conversation was going well, why not try to understand him more? You can’t just think about practicing piano all the time; you can’t spend your whole life with a piano.”

Xu Muzi thought: Why not?

Her cousin was so nagging. While checking in, Xu Muzi kept the call ongoing, silently hoping Xia Xia would interrupt her.

Any reason to hang up would do.

But Xia Xia was too polite. After helping her check in, she yawned and went back to her room, never interrupting again. She left a sticky note with a cute hand-drawn umbrella, kindly reminding Xu Muzi that she could use the umbrellas at the front desk if she needed to go out.

“Muzi, I’m telling you, you’re not getting any younger; you need to find someone to take care of you.”

Their urging for her to find love was always the same, repetitive and without new ideas, never holding up to scrutiny.

Xu Muzi sat on her suitcase, countering her cousin’s argument: “I can take good care of myself.”

The blind date whose contact she deleted was introduced by her family. Xu Muzi met him once; he played the violin well and looked decent but was annoying in character.

Since she spent a lot of time practicing the piano, she rarely had time to chat or go out. This caused disagreements, and after two phone arguments, they naturally lost contact.

A small matter like this ended up being reported to her parents by her blind date.

Is practicing piano wrong?

Is it wrong to prioritize what she loves?

“I don’t like clingy types. When I said I had to practice, he inexplicably got mad, even less stable than my mom during menopause. How can someone like that take care of me?”

Besides, there was no significant attraction, so losing contact was normal, right?

“Are you sure you don’t want to see him again?”

Sensing her cousin’s attempt to reconcile them, Xu Muzi grew impatient and responded with a curt “yes.”

Her cousin then switched the topic, saying: “It’s fine if you don’t want to. I heard from your parents that they recently met a reliable guy. They plan for you to meet him after your next concert. He’s the son of an old friend…”

After hanging up, Xu Muzi was in a foul mood, her heart as cloudy as the night sky outside.

Living abroad for a long time made her unaccustomed to the time difference. She had trouble sleeping since returning home, and after drinking coffee in the taxi, she found herself in a state of wanting to sleep but not feeling sleepy. She didn’t rush to her room but sat on her suitcase, lost in thought.

She wore a dress up the mountain, and the relentless rain left her legs spotted with mud, a dried black streak on her ankle likely from her suitcase’s wheels.

Being constantly urged by her family to date was indeed frustrating.

However, someone once told her to learn to block out external noise and enjoy the moment.

There was a faint fruity scent in the lobby, familiar yet hard to pinpoint.

Xu Muzi stood up and stretched.

With muddy legs, she walked past the coffee table, stretching her arms behind her back while scanning the area near the sofa, looking for the scent’s source.
—-
It was a few pink pineapples in a cylindrical vase, quietly emitting a sweet fragrance in the serene, rainy night at 3 a.m.

The lobby windows were open, with blooming flowers outside, everything standing still in the damp, chilly rain.

Violet petals blown by the rain stuck to the windowsill. Xu Muzi stood by the window, watching the fallen flowers.

This inn was indeed a good choice, offering a break from mundane worries for a restful sleep.

But it was too cold.

The damp, chilly air made Xu Muzi sneeze after standing by the window for less than two minutes. She rubbed her arms and decided to return to her room.

The lobby was brightly lit, probably waiting for her arrival. Draped in the towel Xia Xia had given her, Xu Muzi walked along the wall, looking for the light switch.

After turning off several main lights, she glanced back at the remaining light sources and noticed a dining table by the floor-to-ceiling window.

The table was hidden behind several potted schefflera plants, with a figure sitting beside it.

The green, layered leaves had blocked Xu Muzi’s view. For some reason, Xia Xia hadn’t shown her this area.

So, someone was still awake, watching the rain by the window.

Raindrops fell on the glass like the night’s breath. The man leaned back in a wooden chair, legs slightly apart, with an almost empty teacup and a phone in front of him.

His t-shirt and pants were soft, light-colored fabrics, giving a clean, gentle first impression. Resting his head on his hand, his side profile was quite handsome.

Xu Muzi thought, in the drizzling night, in the cozy, pastoral inn, under the 3:30 a.m. lights, whoever sat there, this scene was too much like a movie.

Fortunately, she didn’t turn off all the lights at once.

As she was thinking this, the man turned his head and silently looked at Xu Muzi.

His clear facial features came into view. She had initially thought he was a stranger, but his face was very familiar.

Upon realizing who he was, Xu Muzi took a deep breath. Of all people, she had to run into Deng Yun.