Fang Ruan coaxed and cajoled for quite a while before finally managing to send his mother away.
He sat inside the internet café, gulped down two large mouthfuls of water, and called Tu Nan.
"The target has relocated. The site is secure again. You may return at any time."
On the other end, Tu Nan said, "Got it."
There was faint background noise through the phone. Fang Ruan couldn't tell where she was. He even thought he heard a man's voice. Just as he was about to press the phone closer to his ear to listen more carefully, she hung up.
He figured he must have imagined it, shook his head, and went back to his game of Sword Soars to Heaven.
He hadn't even finished one round when the bell above the door jingled and Tu Nan walked in.
Fang Ruan immediately abandoned his game and opened his arms wide to greet her.
"Oh, my poor little Sister Nan, you must have been terrified!"
A large bag dropped squarely into his arms. He staggered back two steps before steadying himself. It was the shopping bag she had just taken off her shoulder.
He rummaged through it, pulled out two notebooks, and tossed them onto the counter.
"Why'd you buy these?" he muttered in disdain.
When he saw the headphones underneath, his mood improved instantly.
"Whoa, not bad, Tu Nan. You've finally integrated into modern life. You even bought digital gadgets."
As if she had chosen them.
Tu Nan picked up one of the notebooks he had tossed aside, grabbed a pen, and sat on a stool.
"Your mom didn't suspect anything, right?"
"Suspect what? She chased you half the street and couldn't even catch a glimpse. Of course she believed her own eyesight was failing. I told her she's so concerned about your dad that her affection extends to you too. She misses you so much she started seeing things in broad daylight. She totally believed it. By the time she left, she was wondering if the appendectomy messed something up and kept saying she should go back to the hospital for a check-up."
"You're unbelievable."
"Hey, slander the hospital to protect a dear friend." Fang Ruan was quite proud of his cleverness.
But when he glanced at her, there wasn't the slightest trace of relief on her face. She sat there with her head lowered, pen in hand, dragging it slowly across the open notebook on her knee.
He guessed it was still because of his mom's sudden appearance.
Trying to help, he said, "Hey, don't stress too much. Worst case, you just go back and come clean to your dad."
His words stopped abruptly when Tu Nan suddenly looked up.
Her eyes were cold, her expression serious.
"You know my dad's temper. If you want me dead, just say it earlier."
Fang Ruan coughed awkwardly and swallowed the rest of his sentence.
"I was joking. Just joking…"
Of course he knew. That was why he'd taken her in.
Tu Nan sighed and lowered her head again.
She hadn't meant to snap at him. It was just that dealing with her father was no small matter.
"Oh right," Fang Ruan suddenly remembered something and quickly changed the subject. "Where did you run off to earlier? One second you were there, the next you vanished."
With the way his mom had chased after her, he'd been certain she would get caught. Yet she had disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Tu Nan didn't look up. "A benefactor helped me."
"Wow, what, Sun Wukong?" Did she take him for a fool? She had been running around all year. Besides him, she barely had any friends in this city. A benefactor? What a fantasy answer.
She sounded distracted. "Yeah. Sun Wukong."
After all, they both had the surname Shi. One was Shi Qinglin, one was the Stone Monkey. Close enough.
"…What are you even talking about?" Fang Ruan muttered and went back to his game.
On the paper, her pen moved swiftly. She was shading.
The pen she had grabbed was just a regular ballpoint, not ideal. Her hand felt a bit rusty too. She had been copying murals for so long that she was used to traditional painting techniques.
The clatter of keyboards filled the room. Only the small world of the page in front of her was quiet. When she drew, she could easily sink into it.
Until suddenly someone shouted, "Tu Nan!"
Her hand jerked, a line shot off at an angle, and she looked up in annoyance.
The culprit was leaning over the counter, staring at her notebook thoughtfully.
"Who are you drawing? Why does it look kind of familiar?"
On the page were only a pair of lowered brows and eyes. There wasn't even the outline of a face. He stared left and right, unable to pinpoint why it felt familiar.
Tu Nan snapped the notebook shut.
"Why are you yelling?"
Fang Ruan snapped back to attention and hurriedly waved at her.
"Come here, come here. Why are you sitting here drawing? There's a place for you to show your skills. Come take a look!"
Tu Nan walked over patiently.
On the computer screen was the game interface. In the top right corner, a webpage window had popped up. The background looked antique, filled with dense text.
"What is it?"
Fang Ruan rubbed his hands excitedly and pointed.
"The official site just released an announcement. They're holding a fan art competition related to murals."
Tu Nan narrowed her eyes and skimmed the page. She caught a line that read, "Striving to showcase the richness of traditional mural art and restore the essence of ancient murals to the greatest extent." It all sounded very official. She didn't pay much attention to the rest.
"So?"
"I think you should enter. That's your specialty, isn't it?"
Tu Nan parted her lips to speak, but Fang Ruan cut her off.
"You're going to say you're not interested again, aren't you?"
"If you know that, why ask?"
He slapped the desk and growled, "First prize is forty thousand! Tu Nan, that forty thousand is practically waiting for you! Just move your pen and you'll be rich in no time!"
She pressed her lips together.
Forty thousand. It would be a lie to say she wasn't tempted at all. But she truly wasn't enthusiastic.
To her, murals and the internet were two entirely separate worlds. The competition felt strange to her. She couldn't tell what the organizers were really after.
"Think about it," Fang Ruan tugged at her sleeve and shook it back and forth. "My dear Sister Nan, forty thousand! Really, don't reject it so fast. Just think about it?"
She pulled her sleeve free and nodded toward the screen.
"You're dead."
Fang Ruan turned his head.
His character lay alone in the snow, long since frozen into a corpse.
"Oh, damn it!" He grabbed the mouse to revive himself.
Tu Nan took the opportunity to leave.
"Hey, Tu Nan! Think about it!" he shouted desperately, even while flailing at his keyboard.
She ignored him, walked to the back, and pushed open the small room's door.
There was nothing inside except a single bed Fang Ruan had temporarily moved in. She was only staying temporarily anyway.
She bent down and dragged a yellow suitcase out from under the bed.
Inside were paints and brushes, all the tools she used for copying murals. She hadn't opened it once since returning.
Tu Nan crouched down, both hands resting on the latches.
She paused for a long time.
In the end, she didn't open it. She pushed the suitcase firmly back under the bed.
An Pei stood by the elevator with a stack of documents, flipping through them.
"Is seven days enough to implement this plan?"
Shi Qinglin was typing rapidly on his phone, arranging work tasks.
"The sooner the better."
"Isn't that too rushed?"
"Rushed or not, we have to do it."
She watched his fingers flying across the screen and complained, "Last time I tried to find you, where did you even go? Now all this is piling up. You're definitely staying up late again. Aren't you tired?"
"Last time?" Shi Qinglin paused, then remembered and smiled. "I went to play Zhuge Liang for someone."
"What?"
"Nothing."
"…I can't even keep up with your train of thought."
She had never been able to.
Shi Qinglin finished typing and put away his phone.
"Are you still in contact with that Fang Ruan?"
The moment he mentioned it, An Pei wanted to roll her eyes.
"I can't not be."
He messaged her constantly, whether there was something to say or not.
Shi Qinglin said, "His café seems to be promoting Sword Soars to Heaven lately."
"Really?" She hadn't realized that. She only knew that once he found out she played the game, he used it as an excuse to chat with her every day. She hadn't dared to post on her social feed for a while, afraid he would dig something out of it.
Then she paused.
"Wait. How do you know what his café is promoting?"
Shi Qinglin folded his arms and shrugged.
"Information gathered while playing Zhuge Liang."
"Could you please stop speaking in alien language?"
The elevator arrived. Shi Qinglin smiled and gestured for her to wait.
A message had come in.
An Pei stepped inside and waited.
He didn't enter. After reading it, he put his phone away.
"Looks like today's tasks have to be postponed again."
Her face fell.
"Why?"
"Someone's looking for me."
She pressed the elevator button and muttered, "You never get a moment of rest. You'll exhaust yourself at this rate."
Shi Qinglin had just stepped out of the building when someone hooked an arm around his shoulders from behind.
The man didn't stop there. He even gave him two firm pats.
"More solid than before."
Shi Qinglin grabbed the arm and twisted it casually.
The man turned around, face contorted in pain.
"Getting weaker than before."
"Get lost!" the other snapped, pushing him away.
Shi Qinglin smiled.
"What wind blew Young Master Xue here?"
The man shook his head.
"We've grown distant. You used to call me Xue Cheng. Now it's Young Master Xue. I have neither money nor power. What kind of young master am I?"
"It's courtesy. It highlights your aristocratic aura. Has nothing to do with money."
Xue Cheng clapped twice in appreciation, then dropped the small talk.
"I just came from the old district. What's with you? You've been back half a year and haven't contacted me, and you haven't even gone home to see the old man?"
"It's not that I don't want to. I genuinely haven't had time. You know how busy this line of work is."
"I know, of course I know. But old people don't have unlimited time. One day less each day. You can't throw yourself into work all the time."
They had known each other since their youth. There were no taboos between them.
Shi Qinglin nodded.
"Point taken."
Xue Cheng laughed and bumped him with his shoulder.
"Don't be so formal. I'm just passing along a message from the old man as a brother. So? After all this time, are you rusty? Want to play a round?"
"Now?"
"Yeah. Why not?"
Shi Qinglin thought of An Pei's words and the pile of tasks on his phone.
It seemed another long night awaited him.
"Alright. Let's find a place."
"I'm not familiar with this area. You pick."
Shi Qinglin considered for a moment.
"There's an internet café. I'll take you."