“At least the boy I once sincerely loved was not swallowed whole by the long river of time, nor changed beyond recognition.”

— Moon-Chasing Diary

—

There was a major mishap at HuiTai’s anniversary celebration. As their spokesperson, Qin Sang did not make an appearance, making it obvious that renewing the contract was no longer possible. The so-called beautiful story of finding a kindred spirit had ultimately lost to the catalyst of利益 and reality.

What saddened her was not the loss of an endorsement deal, but the feeling that she had let down Old Madam Cai Shuyu, who had once genuinely appreciated and supported her.

Sister Wen was busy handling public relations. Their partnership with HuiTai had been deeply intertwined for years. A failed negotiation was one thing, but damage to their reputation was another matter entirely. Outsiders had no idea about the complicated circumstances behind the scenes. If she didn’t control public opinion, someone would inevitably twist the narrative and lead the discussion astray.

Half an hour earlier, she had still been discussing details with HuiTai’s representative. But after the other party hurriedly answered a phone call, his expression immediately turned troubled as he tactfully said, “I’m sorry, today’s event has been canceled. As for the collaboration… I’m afraid we may need you and Chairman Cai to discuss it personally.”

Sister Wen had instantly sensed something was wrong.

Sure enough, when she returned, she found Xiao Xiao waiting alone in the lounge. The moment she saw her, Xiao Xiao looked like she was attending a funeral and obediently explained everything that had happened.

She waited in the lounge until Qin Sang finally returned.

And there was an extra person beside her.

Sister Wen’s face darkened as she demanded, “You’d better give me a reasonable explanation. Why did HuiTai suddenly decide they don’t want to renew the contract with us?”

“This matter—” Xie Yunchen had not left yet. Since the incident had started because of him, he had no intention of avoiding responsibility.

But Qin Sang interrupted him. “I’ll explain this to you later.”

Sister Wen gave her a complicated look. Her brows furrowed, but she couldn’t explode in front of him, so she forcefully suppressed her anger and barely maintained her composure. Pulling a strained smile onto her lips, she politely said, “Mr. Xie, Sang Sang and I need to discuss some private matters. Would it be convenient for you to give us a moment alone?”

Xie Yunchen glanced sideways at Qin Sang.

Qin Sang smiled and waved at him, mouthing silently, “It’s fine.”

He paused briefly before responding with a quiet, “Alright.”

Sister Wen rubbed her aching head and waved her hand. “Xiao Xiao, take Mr. Xie outside for some air first.”

Xiao Xiao hurried forward. “Mr. Xie, let’s go first.”

—

Sister Wen and Qin Sang shut themselves inside the lounge for a private discussion.

The room’s soundproofing was poor, and occasional bursts of argument could still be heard through the door. Of course, it was entirely Sister Wen yelling and scolding on one side.

She was clearly furious.

“You’ve lost your mind, haven’t you?” she shouted. “Of all times, this is when you choose to offend someone from HuiTai? Do you think you have too many endorsement deals already?”

Even through the door, Xiao Xiao shivered at the volume of the yelling.

She secretly glanced upward.

The man standing beside her was tall and elegant. The black leather jacket rested neatly along his shoulders and neck, his straight posture perfectly supporting the sharp silhouette of the jacket. He wore a black baseball cap pulled low over his face. Combined with his height, from her angle she could only see a section of his pale jawline, clean and sharply defined. His Adam’s apple stood out distinctly, sliding slowly as he swallowed.

So handsome.

Xiao Xiao couldn’t help marveling inwardly.

She had seen plenty of male celebrities before—handsome ones, men who liked acting cool, mature men radiating overwhelming masculinity—but not a single one could compare to Sang Sang’s high school classmate.

Perhaps because of his profession, he possessed a contradictory kind of beauty.

He understood the world without becoming worldly.

He looked cold and aloof, carrying an untouchable sense of distance, yet it was precisely that restrained, almost frigid aura that made him especially attractive.

Sister Wen’s voice was far from quiet, and the hallway was silent enough that every curse was clearly audible. Nearly every time she yelled, Xie Yunchen’s brows would tighten slightly.

“Will they be alright?” he finally asked.

Pulled back from admiring his looks, Xiao Xiao listened to the commotion inside and shook her head unconcernedly. “It’s fine. Sister Wen is always like this. Once she finishes venting, she’ll calm down.”

Xie Yunchen looked somewhat surprised. “Always?”

“Yeah. Sang Sang gets into trouble all the time, so Sister Wen can’t really help it.” Xiao Xiao smiled. “But don’t let all the arguing fool you—they’re actually very close. Two years ago, Sister Wen’s husband was diagnosed with lung cancer. By the time they found out, it was already terminal. Sang Sang gave Sister Wen an extended leave so she could stay by her husband’s side through the final stage of his life.”

“After he passed away, Sister Wen couldn’t pull herself out of the grief for a very long time. Sang Sang even turned down all her work and traveled around the world with her to help her recover and clear her mind.”

That drastic reduction in workload was also why Qin Sang had appeared so rarely in public over the past two years.

At the mention of this, Xiao Xiao became angry. “And those disgusting paparazzi even spread rumors saying Sang Sang was pregnant. They said her frequent hospital visits and reduced workload were because she was secretly raising a baby. They had absolutely no bottom line. It was shameless.”

She sighed softly.

“But no matter what people outside guessed, Sang Sang never chose to reveal the real reason. She said she didn’t want to expose someone else’s pain to the public and let unrelated strangers judge and criticize it. Honestly, Sang Sang is a really good person. It’s just that some people always insist on viewing her with the worst possible malice, questioning whether everything she has was obtained through improper means.”

“Bullshit,” Xiao Xiao cursed indignantly. “Everything Sang Sang has now was earned through her own hard work. Back when she first debuted, she was even blacklisted for years because she offended a scumbag.”

Even talking about it made Xiao Xiao grit her teeth in anger.

“That bastard was completely lawless. Just because he had a little money, he harassed Sang Sang and even tried to force her into sleeping with him. Sang Sang had an explosive temper back then—she smashed a wine bottle directly over his head.”

Of course, the price of that impulsiveness was being banned by the entire industry.

The collaborations and endorsements she had already secured vanished overnight.

That year, she had clearly been one of the strongest contenders for an award, yet because of the incident, she was removed from the nominations entirely.

The outside world flooded her with insults and doubt. Countless voices drowned her beneath wave after wave of condemnation.

It was also because of that incident that Qin Sang developed severe anxiety. She couldn’t sleep night after night. At one point, things became so serious that she nearly lost the will to live.

“Those days were truly unbearable…” Xiao Xiao said quietly. Even now, thinking back on it felt like reliving a nightmare she could never wake from. It dragged on endlessly, surrounded by darkness and silence, without even the faintest trace of light.

Xie Yunchen remained silent.

His gaze deepened as a memory suddenly surfaced before his eyes—

The blinds in the meeting room had been open. Soft light filtered through like a blade splitting apart the darkness, yet also gentle like a layer of thin gauze brushing tenderly across the young girl’s face.

“I don’t have many strengths, but my backbone is pretty damn hard. Everything I want and everything I have—I earned it fair and square with my own efforts.”

Her beauty had been dazzling.

Every word she spoke rang with conviction.

Proud and unyielding, like plum blossoms standing defiantly against snow.

Xie Yunchen stayed silent, merely acting as a listener.

Only at that moment did his eyes ripple slightly, like a fallen leaf disturbing still water, sending faint circles spreading across a once-calm surface.

—

Inside the lounge, after venting her anger, Sister Wen finally calmed down.

She exhaled deeply twice before even taking time to drink some water and soothe her throat.

“Alright,” she said. “Tell me. What exactly happened?”

Qin Sang quickly handed her the cup with a flattering smile. “Seeing injustice and stepping in to help. Can you accept that explanation?”

Sister Wen rolled her eyes at her irritably. “Standing up for someone else? That doesn’t sound like something you’d do.”

Over the years, Qin Sang had mellowed considerably. Most of the time, she was easygoing and approachable. Even if she saw something she disliked, she usually wouldn’t force herself into the situation, much less openly tear into someone face-to-face.

For things to escalate this far was genuinely rare.

Sister Wen was sharp enough to notice immediately. “Does this have something to do with that Mr. Xie?”

Qin Sang didn’t deny it. Instead, she honestly recounted the entire incident.

By the end, Sister Wen’s anger flared up again. “People like that deserve to be cursed at. What’s wrong with him? Just because he has a little money, he thinks he can cover the sky with one hand? Ridiculous. There’s seriously something wrong with him.”

“That’s exactly what I thought too,” Qin Sang agreed. “How can someone change so much? I remember he wasn’t like this before. Sure, he used to be a bit arrogant, but not to this extent.”

Back then, the class representative had also liked flattering the powerful and looking down on the weak a little, but overall he had still been a decent person. He was enthusiastic toward classmates too. Whenever someone asked him questions they didn’t understand, he was always willing to help explain.

Unlike now.

Now he acted as if his eyes were on top of his head, arrogant and overbearing, treating everyone with superiority.

“So money really can rot a person’s soul. Time really can change someone beyond recognition.”

But…

Why hadn’t Xie Yunchen changed at all?

Over the past ten years, whenever she occasionally thought back on the past, she would inevitably wonder what he looked like now.

Was he still as radiant as he had been in her memories?

Or had he long since lost that brilliance, becoming just another insignificant grain of sand among the masses?

Would he, like everyone else, sigh at the tricks of fate upon seeing her? Would he marvel that this former classmate had somehow transformed into a glamorous celebrity?

Or had life already worn him down so completely that he no longer cared about anything anymore?

Qin Sang had imagined countless reunion scenarios.

Perhaps on some random street, somewhere crowded and bustling with people, they would accidentally notice each other from afar in the moving crowd. She would smile at him gracefully, while he merely nodded back politely.

Or perhaps he wouldn’t remember her at all.

After all, during high school, they had never truly interacted. Maybe they would simply brush past each other in a sea of people—her steps hurried, his pace never slowing.

But she had never imagined this.

Fate was not a carefully written script, nor did life offer retakes.

None of the scenarios she had painstakingly envisioned had come true.

They had parted at the end of summer.

Back then, she hadn’t even had the chance to properly say goodbye before they stepped on fallen golden leaves in the crisp autumn air and each turned toward their own destination in life.

Yet ten years later, the steadily advancing train sounded its whistle once more as it passed through the summer fields again.

And he, stepping on the tail end of summer, appeared before her once more.

Just as before.

Clean and refreshing, like a cool evening breeze passing through the dusk of the mortal world without carrying even the slightest trace of worldly dust.

…

Sister Wen waved a hand in front of her face. “What are you daydreaming about?”

Qin Sang shook her head. “Nothing. I just feel like I’m actually pretty lucky.”

Sister Wen laughed in exasperation. “You lost the endorsement deal, and you still call yourself lucky?”

Qin Sang thought about it for a moment.

“Turning misfortune into blessing, I guess.”

She had never drawn a lucky lot in life, nor received any favor from fate.

Yet she still felt fortunate.

At least the boy she had once sincerely loved had not been swallowed whole by the river of time, nor changed beyond recognition.