Chapter 15.1 That kiss from a few years ago

For the latter half of the ride back, the car was silent. Shi Miao’s hair was still wet, making it uncomfortable to lean against the back of the seat, so she propped her chin up and looked at the bustling night view outside the window. The man beside her kept looking at his phone, typing from time to time.

Min Ting was replying to his sister’s message. Min Xi asked him: Brother, are you sure you hadn’t met my sister-in-law before the blind date?

Min Ting: No.

Min Xi: Think back carefully, at the dinner party, at the club?

Min Ting was very sure: I hadn’t met her.

He asked his sister: Why are you suddenly asking this?

Min Xi sent a photo and asked him to find the key point.

The background of the photo was a private room in a club. The picture wasn’t very bright. In the photo, he was playing mahjong, and Fu Yanzhou was his opponent.

Min Ting: What was wrong with Fu Yanzhou that day?

Min Xi: Brother, I told you to find the key point, don’t just stare at Fu Yanzhou, whom you dislike.

Min Ting: “…”

He enlarged the photo and saw Shi Miao’s familiar profile, at the bar behind the mahjong table. She was drinking a drink alone.

Min Xi: Did you see your sister-in-law?

Min Ting: I saw her.

Min Ting: When was this photo taken?

Min Xi: Four years ago.

At that time, she hadn’t married Fu Yanzhou yet, and she used her brother as a shield to take photos of Fu Yanzhou.

Just now, she was bored and flipped through her photo album and saw this old photo. Unexpectedly, she made an accidental discovery.  She helped her brother remember the specific day: I threw coins into the lotus pond in the courtyard house, and you even mocked me, do you remember?

That day wasn’t really about making a wish. She had a crush on Fu Yanzhou, and she didn’t even tell her brother. She had a lot of things on her mind, and no one to talk to, so she asked the owner of the courtyard house for some coins and threw them in.

Coincidentally, she ran into Fu Yanzhou at the club that night.

Did her wish come true?

She didn’t know.

Maybe it was just a coincidence.

Min Xi asked: Do you remember now?

Min Ting carefully recalled. He only remembered his sister making a wish to the pond of koi; he couldn’t remember the exact day. As for the private room in the club, he went there every now and then, and it was always different people and different occasions. He never cared about unimportant people, so he had no impression of Shi Miao at all.

Min Xi: Still no impression?

Min Ting: You were there that night too, didn’t you have no impression of Shi Miao either?

Min Xi: Wasn’t my attention on Fu Yanzhou?

Min Ting: My attention was also on him.

Min Xi:……

They couldn’t continue the conversation, and Min Xi exited the chat box.

Min Ting decided to ask the person herself: “Shi Miao.”

“Hmm?”

Shi Miao pulled her gaze away from the window and turned to look at him.

Min Ting handed her the phone, gesturing for her to look at the photo: “Min Xi accidentally took it. Do you have any impression?” he said, “I don’t remember.”

Shi Miao immediately saw herself in the photo. That was her only interaction with Min Ting before their blind date. That night, she had lost a game and chose a dare. Little did she know that the dare was to kiss someone at the scene. She subconsciously looked at the man who had spoken the least all night and hadn’t made any inappropriate jokes.

“He’s single, don’t worry about kissing him, don’t feel burdened.” A kind person directly pushed Min Ting next to her.

Years later, she no longer remembered the kind person’s name, but she had a deep impression of Min Ting.

However, Min Ting didn’t remember her.

Perhaps he vaguely remembered someone kissing him, but he had long forgotten who it was.

Since he couldn’t remember her at all, she didn’t intend to mention it again.  Mentioning it would only increase their awkwardness.

Shi Miao said vaguely: “I have a little impression.”

Min Ting: “Did Ye Xicun take you there?”

“Not really, I went to see him for something.”

That night, Ye Xicun went outside the private room to answer a phone call. She lost the game. If he had been there, he would have found a way to resolve it.

The Bentley stopped downstairs from her building. She returned the phone to Min Ting, and the topic ended there.

Shi Miao got out of the car with her gym bag. Min Ting got out from the other side. She looked over the car at him: “You can go back, I’ll go up by myself.”

Min Ting walked towards the slowly opening trunk: “Your birthday present is still in the trunk, forgot?”

If he hadn’t reminded her, Shi Miao would have really forgotten. There were several shopping bags, and she couldn’t carry them all by herself. Min Ting helped her carry them upstairs.

The two entered the building. Shi Miao walked ahead and entered the elevator first to swipe her card. The elevator was added during the renovation of the old community. It was made of transparent glass, and you could see the greenery of the community from inside the elevator. The owners’ group jokingly called it a landscape elevator.

With the trees intertwined, the elevator no longer felt stuffy.

Shi Miao watched the locust trees outside the glass slowly get shorter. She suddenly remembered something and turned to Min Ting: “I won’t invite you in, you can put the things by the elevator door later and go downstairs with the elevator.”

Min Ting: “No hurry, I have nothing to do when I go back.”

Shi Miao didn’t want him to enter her house, explaining: “My house isn’t very tidy, you’ll want to clean it up once you go in.”

Min Ting smiled: “How messy can it be?”

Shi Miao: “…It’s not that messy, it just doesn’t meet your standards.”  Perhaps he would want to renovate it again and replace the old furniture after seeing it, just like he arranged her duty room.

Just as they were talking, the elevator arrived at their floor.

Min Ting carried the gifts all the way to the door, without insisting on going in. He stood by the door waiting for her to carry all the shopping bags inside. Along the way, her hair was basically dry, fluffy and soft, falling on her shoulders. Perhaps because of the warm, yellowish light of the hallway, her face looked softer.

After everything was moved in, he was outside the door, and she was inside. They looked at each other silently for a moment.

Backlit, his features looked even deeper, and there was a hint of gentleness about him.

Shi Miao held the doorknob, just about to say, “If you don’t mind the mess, come in for a glass of water before you go back,” but Min Ting spoke first: “You asked me to have dinner with you alone, was it because you’ve been too tired from work lately?”

Shi Miao didn’t expect him to bring this up again, and she nodded.

Maybe she was tired.

It was also related to her not being in a good mood on her birthday.

Min Ting pondered whether the previous agreement to meet once every two weeks was inappropriate.

The motion sensor lights in the hallway suddenly went out.

Shi Miao: “Why don’t you come in?”

Min Ting could imagine how messy her bed was, not wanting to embarrass her, “I’ll come in next time.”

He slowly closed the door: “Go to bed early.” Before the door closed, he added, “I’ll let you know when I get home.”

With the click of the lock, the lights in the hallway came back on, and Min Ting walked away.

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