ATLAS TRANSLATES

The two silently stared at each other. Feng Ning’s mind froze for a moment, unsure if she was seeing things.

The person with Jiang Wen seemed surprised. Bai Hongyi observed for a moment and asked, “Ryan, your friend?”

Jiang Wen seemed oblivious to his words.

Feng Ning sat in her seat, caught off guard. But she adjusted quickly, and after a moment, stood up calmly, “Jiang Wen?”

“It’s me.”

They were about a table corner’s distance apart. She casually stepped back a bit, “When did you return to China?”

He replied: “Last week.”

“Oh… I see.”

This time, Jiang Wen didn’t respond.

An obscure awkwardness spread between them. Feng Ning seemed at a loss for what to say next, and gestured toward Min Yueyue, “I’m having dinner with a friend.”

Jiang Wen said: “Mm, I’ll go then.”

“Alright.”

After they left, Feng Ning sat back down.

After quite a while, she sighed, randomly picking up a cookie from the snack plate and putting it in her mouth, asking, “Why are you staring at me?”

Min Yueyue’s eyes were full of hearts as she asked dreamily: “Ning Ning, where did you meet such a hottie, how come you never mentioned him?”

“What hottie.”

Min Yueyue kicked her foot under the table, annoyed: “Stop playing dumb!”

“Oh, you mean just now?” Feng Ning answered distractedly, avoiding the main point, “He was my high school classmate.”

Just then, the server brought over the pot, “Your order of fifteen frogs is all here, they’re cooked and ready to eat.”

Feng Ning called out to the departing server.

“Yes, what do you need?”

Feng Ning said: “Bring some alcohol.”

Several bottles of Snow beer were brought to the table. Feng Ning picked up one bottle and, without using a bottle opener, expertly knocked the cap off against the table edge.

Min Yueyue’s eyes widened at the sight, “Ning Ning, you’re so cool.”

Feng Ning poured herself a full glass and took a big gulp.

Min Yueyue couldn’t hold her liquor well, so she just took a few sips while battling with the bullfrog. After eating for a while with her head down, she looked up and stared straight at Feng Ning, “I don’t think you were just high school classmates, right?”

The topic jump was so abrupt that it took Feng Ning a moment to realize she was talking about Jiang Wen.

Min Yueyue’s face was full of curiosity: “Just now, the way you two looked at each other, there’s definitely a story there.”

“Have you been reading too many romance novels lately?”

“Was he your ex-boyfriend?”

Feng Ning swirled the beer foam in her glass and replied lazily: “Yeah.”

“Really?!” Min Yueyue’s eyes widened in disbelief: “He was really your ex-boyfriend?”

Feng Ning laughed and took another sip of beer, “I’m kidding.”

“You’re mean.” Min Yueyue deflated, putting down her chopsticks, “Which is it!”

“You don’t believe me even when I tell you.”

After a moment, Min Yueyue tentatively asked: “You really dated?”

Feng Ning neither confirmed nor denied.

“—Ah!” Min Yueyue slumped against the sofa back, “I’m so sad!”

“What are you sad about?”

“I just fell in love at first sight with that hottie, and before I could even dive into love’s river, I got the terrible news—he’s your ex-boyfriend.”

Min Yueyue angrily slapped the table, “How can I make a move now?”

Feng Ning’s previously heavy mood couldn’t help but lighten at her words, “Alright, you’re overdoing it.”

Soon after, Min Yueyue perked up again, determined to get to the bottom of it: “How long did you date?”

“Don’t remember.”

“How can your memory be so bad!”

As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized something was wrong and quickly corrected herself, “No, I mean, dating such a handsome guy should be carved in your memory forever, right? That must have been the highlight of your life!!”

Feng Ning just smiled, not answering.

“Tell me about it, I’m really curious.”

“Tell you what? It’s been so long, there’s nothing to tell.”

Min Yueyue fired questions like bullets: “Who pursued who? Did you kiss? Did you sleep together?”

She took on a persistent stance, as if she wouldn’t let Feng Ning go all night unless she answered.

Feng Ning: “We kissed, didn’t sleep together.”

“Then who pursued who?”

“…I pursued him.”

Just then, her phone vibrated with an incoming call. Feng Ning was focused on talking with Min Yueyue and didn’t notice.

“Your high school classmate… how did you break up, was it after graduation?”

Feng Ning patiently answered: “Something like that.”

“That must be about ten years ago then, amazing that you still remember what each other looks like.”

Min Yueyue sighed worriedly: “Ning Ning, what should I do? I just love handsome guys too much, why can’t I date several boyfriends at once? What should I do, wuwuwuwu.”

When the phone rang for the second time, Feng Ning finally noticed it light up. She picked up the phone while answering her: “Follow your doctor’s advice and get treatment promptly.”

While speaking, she slid to answer the call, saying hello.

There was no response.

“Why can’t I hear anything?”

Feng Ning said hello two more times, looked at her phone which showed the call was still connected, put it back to her ear and muttered, “Is there something wrong with my phone?”

Min Yueyue agreed, continuing to eat frog with her chopsticks, “You should replace that broken phone soon, I often can’t get through when I call you lately.”

She returned to their previous topic, speaking with food in her mouth: “You should have slept with your ex-boyfriend before breaking up. There’s a saying on Weibo that the hardest thing in the world isn’t diamond, it’s high school boys’ thing.”

After swallowing her food, Min Yueyue said in an extremely loud voice: “You never got to try the world’s hardest man, what a waste!”

“……”

Feng Ning was speechless and was about to hang up when a familiar voice suddenly came through the phone: “—Why did you stick your phone number on my car?”

The voice on the phone was Jiang Wen’s.

She held the phone, thinking she was hearing things, and paused, “Huh?”

“The phone number.”

Feng Ning took a moment to process this absurd situation and said, “That blocked car… was yours?”

His voice was strange, “What?”

She also asked: “What?”

For some reason, Jiang Wen was silent for a while before saying: “Oh… yes, my car was blocked.”

After Feng Ning hung up, Min Yueyue asked casually: “Who was that?”

Feng Ning picked up her glass and finished the remaining beer in one gulp, “The world’s hardest high school student.”

Min Yueyue: “……”

Feng Ning stood up, grabbing her bag, “Let’s go.”

Min Yueyue turned: “Hm? Not eating anymore?”

“We need to move the car, sis.”

The parking lot lights were dim, and Jiang Wen stood in a dark spot. He bit a cigarette and lit it, holding it between his fingers, smoke dispersing from his lips, the red glow flickering at his fingertips.

Several steps away, Feng Ning silently stopped.

For some reason, at that moment, a line from Faye Wong’s “Fleeting Years” suddenly came to her mind: —In this lifetime, meeting on a narrow path, we cannot avoid it after all.

As soon as the thought appeared, Feng Ning inwardly spat at herself, wondering when she had become so melodramatic.

Jiang Wen was half-bent, holding the cigarette in one hand and his phone in the other. Leaning against the emergency exit door, his expression was hidden in the unclear darkness, his smoking posture very practiced.

Standing ten meters away, she stared at him steadily.

Min Yueyue, who had caught up from behind, excitedly called out, “Handsome!”

Seeing them approach, Jiang Wen stubbed out his cigarette.

Min Yueyue bounced past Feng Ning to his front, “Hi there, let me introduce myself, I’m Min Yueyue, Ning Ning’s best friend.”

After bewilderedly looking at the person in front of him for a few seconds, Jiang Wen stood straight and extended his hand somewhat perfunctorily and casually, “Hello, Jiang Wen.”

Min Yueyue said sweetly: “Oh my, so sorry for blocking your car, didn’t delay you with anything important, did we?”

She was a girl from southern Jiangsu, speaking in a coquettish way that sounded like she was acting cute. Jiang Wen withdrew his hand, “It’s fine.”

“Well then wait a moment, I’ll move it right away.”

With two beeps, the little pink car flashed and unlocked. Min Yueyue opened the car door and said to Feng Ning, “Ning Ning, stand aside, I need to back up.”

After starting the engine, Min Yueyue honked twice more to hurry things along. Feng Ning moved her feet, walking toward Jiang Wen.

Standing about a meter away, she looked around, “Where are your friends?”

“They left.”

Feng Ning made a sound of acknowledgment and tried her best to make small talk like with a long-lost friend, “Have you adjusted to being back in China?”

As she spoke, she didn’t even look at Jiang Wen’s face.

Jiang Wen said indifferently: “It’s fine, nothing to adjust to.”

Feng Ning stared at the cigarette ash near her toes. She wanted to ask when he had started smoking, but the words stopped at her lips.

Their conversation was as calm as still water, seeming unable to stir up any waves.

Just when Feng Ning thought they were about finished, Jiang Wen suddenly pulled her, “Watch out!”

There was a thunderous “BANG” in the parking lot as the Maserati’s rear end directly hit the Bentley’s front.

Feng Ning’s chin hit Jiang Wen’s shoulder, causing some pain. Both of them stumbled.

Perhaps afraid she would hit the wall, Jiang Wen instinctively wrapped an arm around her waist, his other hand bracing against the wall beside her ear to stop their momentum.

They were pressed very close together; even through their clothes, she could feel the heat of his skin.

Feng Ning let him hold her.

They were too close; her vision blurred then refocused.

Jiang Wen’s face was inches away, his brows furrowed. She could even see the mole by his eyebrow.

—Once, her favorite mole.

He lowered his eyelids and asked softly: “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” After a brief daze, Feng Ning tried to push Jiang Wen away slightly but couldn’t move him. Worried about Min Yueyue, she said to him irritably: “Let go!”

Jiang Wen released her as told.

Min Yueyue frantically got out of the car, ran to the back, saw the collision catastrophe of the rear ends, and let out a devastated scream.

Feng Ning hurried over, pulling her to check: “Are you hurt?”

“Wuwuwu, I’m not hurt, but my little pink is hurt, my heart hurts so much.”

“How did you manage to crash while parking?”

Min Yueyue pouted and stomped her foot: “It’s your fault, making me drive drunk!”

“…”

Feng Ning’s temple twitched, “Miss, you only had two sips of beer.”

“But I can’t hold my liquor!”

Min Yueyue looked a bit embarrassed and said to Jiang Wen with a miserable face: “Sorry handsome, is your car insured?”

“Not sure, I just got back to the country, this is my friend’s car.”

Jiang Wen picked up his phone and called Bai Hongyi.

Min Yueyue whispered to Feng Ning, “I can tell your ex-boyfriend is from a wealthy family too.”

“What?”

Min Yueyue: “Luxury cars colliding, and he’s so calm, doesn’t even blink.”

Feng Ning thought for a moment, “Yeah, his family is pretty wealthy.”

“Why didn’t you hold onto him back then! I’m anxious for you.”

“We weren’t meant to be.”

Min Yueyue lowered her voice, “Such a perfect man shouldn’t be missed!! Heaven letting you meet again, isn’t this fate?”

After finishing his call, Jiang Wen walked over. He bent down to pick up Feng Ning’s keys that had fallen on the ground.

Feng Ning took them, saying sincerely: “Thank you.”

After a pause, he replied with three words: “No need.”

Perhaps because his high school arrogance had left too deep an impression, Feng Ning wasn’t used to him being so… gentle, “You’ve really changed quite a bit.”

Jiang Wen said casually: “You haven’t changed much.”

“Hm?”

“You’re still the same towards me.” Jiang Wen paused, flatly uttering one word, “Cold.”