Han Jingnian: “…”

Xia Wan’an realized that no one was speaking on the other end of the call and understood that she might have misspoken.

She instinctively wanted to say, “Um, I was just kidding,” but she dismissed the thought.

She had always been very concerned about his feelings, afraid of making him angry, afraid of embarrassing him, afraid of bothering him, and so on. She was afraid of too many things. So, every time she was in his presence, she was careful and obedient, fearing that she might unintentionally upset him. But in the end, she had always put his needs above hers, yet he had never truly cared for her.

Well, since he doesn’t care about her, she thought, she might as well admit her mistake if she said something wrong. Who knows, maybe he didn’t pay any attention to what she said…

With this in mind, Xia Wan’an changed the words that were about to come out of her mouth: “The water card is in the drawer of the hallway shoe cabinet.”

On the other end of the phone, Han Jingnian responded with a simple “Oh.”

Then Xia Wan’an heard the sound of footsteps, assuming that he had gone to retrieve the water card.

After some rustling and searching sounds came from the phone, Xia Wan’an asked again, “Did you find it?”

Han Jingnian stared at the water card in the drawer for a few seconds, then put it into an envelope, pretending not to have seen it. He moved his lips as if to say something, but before he could say the two words “nothing,” Xia Wan’an spoke again, “You couldn’t find it? If you can’t find it, just call the property management. This is a high-end residential area, and they handle everything. Not just water, electricity, gas, and heating bills, they even unclog toilets and clean drains. As long as you pay…”

Realizing she had rambled on without giving him the property management’s phone number, Xia Wan’an quickly added, “Do you know the property management’s phone number? If you don’t, write it down. The phone number is…”

After reciting a string of numbers, she repeated them to ensure he had them. Then she asked, “Is there anything else?”

Initially, Han Jingnian had thought about telling her to go back and look for the water card, but Xia Wan’an’s words left him temporarily speechless.

He held his phone in silence, maintaining a stern expression for a moment. Then he uttered one of the two words he had been about to say, “No.”

“Well, if there’s nothing else, I’ll hang up. Goodbye~” Xia Wan’an said. After waiting for a moment and realizing Han Jingnian hadn’t responded, she thought he was probably about to hang up, so she lowered her phone, pressed the end call button, and started brushing her teeth.

While brushing her teeth, Xia Wan’an suddenly widened her eyes. She remembered that she had changed her phone’s ringtone last night.

With that in mind, she rinsed her mouth hastily, rushed out of the bathroom, and went to Song Youman. She picked up Song Youman’s phone and dialed her own number.

“I won’t answer, I won’t answer, I won’t answer, I just won’t answer your calls…”

Xia Wan’an’s face darkened for a moment, and then she frantically tugged at her own hair. Afterward, she regained her composure.

Oh well, it’s already happened, so just let it be. Since he doesn’t like her, whether she tries to maintain her image or not in front of him, he still doesn’t like her. If they both don’t like each other, then she doesn’t need to be so tangled up about it.

She made a decision. From now on, in his presence, she would completely let herself go.

With an open-minded attitude, Xia Wan’an was in high spirits. She tossed Song Youman’s phone into her lap and hummed a tune as she skipped to the bathroom to wash her face. “Baby, when you’re gone, I swear I won’t become depraved! Baby, when you’re gone, I’ll keep drinking, dancing, and flirting with guys!!!!”

…

After having lunch, Ai Jiang realized that she hadn’t prepared the materials for tomorrow’s meeting and used it as an excuse to go home early, wanting to leave a good impression on Han Jingnian.

Xia Wan’an and Song Youman lounged on the couch for a while, petting the little cat. Then, they booked two movie tickets to watch a recently released film.

The movie wasn’t as good as the online promotions had made it seem. Xia Wan’an was watching but soon fell asleep, leaning on Song Youman’s shoulder.

By the way, one detail that wasn’t mentioned earlier: the female lead in the movie was a actress that Xia Wan’an had seen in real life, Qin Shujian, who was rumored to be dating Han Jingnian.

Unbeknownst to Xia Wan’an, today was quite coincidental. Qin Shujian, who had been quite busy lately, finally found time to watch her own newly released movie. Wearing sunglasses and a mask, she chose a nearby cinema and coincidentally bought tickets for the same cinema and showtime as Xia Wan’an.

Qin Shujian sat in front of Xia Wan’an and kept turning her head to look at her throughout the movie. When she saw that Xia Wan’an had slept for an hour and forty minutes during a two-hour movie, she was furious.

Was the movie she acted in so uninteresting that she slept through the entire thing?

Recalling the Han Corporation’s recent evening party, where she not only failed to gain any benefits but also caused Han Jingnian to personally come upstairs to see her, Qin Shujian was angry. She quietly took out her phone and snapped a few pictures of Xia Wan’an and Song Youman.

…

When the movie ended, it was nearly 5:00 PM.

Xia Wan’an and Song Youman strolled through the cosmetics section on the first floor of the mall, then went upstairs to have grilled fish.

As they enjoyed their meal, Xia Wan’an’s phone rang. It was an unfamiliar number.

After swallowing the fish in her mouth, Xia Wan’an picked up her phone and answered, “Hello, may I ask who’s calling?”

“Hello…”

A deliberately cold female voice came from the other end.

It sounded somewhat familiar, but Xia Wan’an couldn’t immediately recall who it was.

“Hello…” Xia Wan’an responded, dropping the formal language since the caller hadn’t used it. “Who is this?”

The caller didn’t answer her question directly but asked, “Why didn’t you reply to my message?”

“Message?” Xia Wan’an instinctively responded, “What message?”

Then she added, “Hold on a moment,” and looked at her phone. She scrolled through her messages and finally found the message from the person who had called her. She replied, “Found it, in my junk messages…”

There was silence on the other end of the call.

“Sorry,” Xia Wan’an continued, “I usually don’t accept messages from unknown numbers, so your message went to the junk folder, and I didn’t receive any notifications…”

The phone call continued in silence.

Unaware of any problem with her words, Xia Wan’an took a serious look at the message’s content. It was an image…