Day Five: No Thoughts

That night, a sudden downpour washed away all the city's grime.

The ending seemed like something no longer worth mentioning.

Si Nian tidied up briefly and moved out of Mingjing Mansion.

Lu Shuyan hadn’t returned there for several days, and Si Nian’s moving was overseen by the butler.

She had always thought him to be a courteous and attentive middle-aged man, but only now did she understand what it meant to turn hostile without recognition.

Nothing valuable was to be taken.

Bags, jewelry, clothes.

Si Nian couldn’t understand what deep grudge she could have with the butler—after all, they both worked for capitalists. Why make things so difficult for each other? But seeing his fake smile and cold demeanor toward her, as if she were a “guilty inferior,” she realized her previous impression of his politeness and attentiveness had been an illusion.

Jiang Yihan had specially arranged a van to pick up Si Nian for the move, but was stunned when she saw only a lone suitcase at Si Nian’s side.

“That’s all?”

“Yeah.”

Si Nian replied weakly.

Jiang Yihan: “Damn.”

Si Nian: “Let’s go.”

Last year, Jiang Yihan finally ended her shared apartment life in Beijing and rented a one-bedroom apartment in the outer suburbs. Though a bit remote, at least it was a warm little nest of her own.

Si Nian had nowhere else to go, so she squeezed in with Jiang Yihan for the time being.

Dinner was takeout stir-fry.

Jiang Yihan ordered several dishes especially to welcome her friend, but when the food boxes were opened, neither of them felt much like eating.

Jiang Yihan poked at her rice with chopsticks: “Honestly, I think I bear some responsibility for all this.”

If she hadn’t been so eager that night to find out the outcome and kept texting Si Nian, asking if Lu Shuyan had broken up with her, if he had, if the rich woman was starving for a kept woman, then Lu Shuyan wouldn’t have seen her name and clicked in. If he hadn’t clicked in, those chat logs and that online diary wouldn’t have been discovered.

Si Nian didn’t think this had anything to do with Jiang Yihan.

After everything she’d been through, she suddenly seemed to see reality clearly and thought this was probably fate.

That night, Lu Shuyan had probably intended to break up with her at first, letting them part amicably. But fate seemed unwilling to let a wealthy man suffer even a tiny loss, so it arranged for Lu Shuyan—who never looked at her phone—to glance at it at the last moment.

She had been favored since birth; why was she never the one blessed by heaven at such moments?

Fate was unfair.

“You’re welcome to stay here,” Jiang Yihan said, looking at Si Nian’s face, as if her spirit was already broken, “but what are your plans from now on?”

After all those years, and despite all the nights spent together, Lu Shuyan had tossed Si Nian out without a penny, leaving her completely bare. Jiang Yihan thought his heart was truly cruel.

Indeed, men born and raised in such classes might appear gentlemanly and polite on the surface, but none were truly kind at heart.

Si Nian picked up a piece of green pepper and put it in her mouth.

She chewed slowly and said, “I’ll see… look for a job.”

...

Jiang Yihan’s magazine job kept her busy, leaving early and coming home late every day.

Si Nian hadn’t expected that after failing to become the rich woman’s kept best friend, she would instead be kept by her best friend.

So before earning any income, she could only help Jiang Yihan tidy the house and cook—feeling a certain responsibility as a kept woman.

At first, Jiang Yihan didn’t think much of keeping a female friend, until every night after overtime, she came home to find her usually chaotic little home spotless, fresh flowers on the table, pots steaming in the kitchen, and Si Nian, wearing an apron and with hair tied back, quietly cooking her a late-night meal.

Seeing Si Nian washing her hands and preparing food touched Jiang Yihan deeply; her heart trembled, and she suddenly understood why some men would fight tooth and nail to marry a wife.

Who wouldn’t want this?

Someone who tidies the house and cooks during the day, and at night, you can hold in your arms, soft and fragrant—it’s a dream life.

Thinking that Lu Shuyan had enjoyed such a life for five years without appreciation made Jiang Yihan angry.

Si Nian cooked some dumplings she had wrapped during the day for Jiang Yihan, who had returned late from work.

She served herself some too, and as they ate together at the small table, Si Nian noticed Jiang Yihan looking at her with an expression that was hard to decipher.

Si Nian wrinkled her nose: “Why are you looking at me like that?”

Jiang Yihan held her bowl seriously and said, “Nian Nian, maybe you shouldn’t look for a job anymore.”

“I want to support you for life.”

“Even if I work myself to death with overtime, get scolded to death by the editor-in-chief, and be worn out by clients.”

Si Nian: “...”

“Just eat.” She stuffed a dumpling into Jiang Yihan’s mouth.

But finding a job in the past two years was tough.

Especially since her major was notoriously difficult for employment.

Si Nian had sent out dozens of resumes over two weeks with no results. Even as a good friend, it felt awkward to eat and live off someone else every day.

She sighed, holding her laptop, and finally opened a website.

It was an internal platform, which had changed a lot over five years, upgrading its app and mini-program, but the main content remained: a third-party communication platform for models and businesses.

Only certified models, agents, photographers, and merchants could log in. Models could post information, schedules, and photos to take orders; businesses and photographers could post requirements to find matching models.

Si Nian logged in with phone verification to her old account. The ID in the top right corner was “Chatterbox,” and the profile photos were from five years ago.

She hadn’t expected to return to her old profession after all her detours.

She had started modeling part-time in college, mainly as a print model. Though competition was fierce, pretty girls with good figures always had an edge.

Back then, she made 300 yuan per shoot for online stores. Occasionally, when a merchant or photographer booked her for a full day, she earned 800 to 1,000 yuan. Even as a student, a month's part-time work could net her 10,000 yuan, sometimes even 20,000.

For most, it was a decent income. If lucky and persistent, she could have earned even more.

Si Nian smiled bitterly at the backend interface she hadn’t updated for five years.

Indeed, taking shortcuts often leads to greater losses.

But she knew she couldn't romanticize a road she never took just because she missed it.

This industry wasn’t easy either.

A circle of beautiful girls often mingled with the unscrupulous; scammers thrived. A slight lapse in vigilance meant being cheated or exploited. Even with good judgment, one often faced rude and exploitative clients, and harassment was commonplace.

Si Nian recalled when she first approached Lu Shuyan—not only for the eight-figure breakup fee she hoped to score—but also because a balding man running a small company had been harassing her. After she exposed him, he offered 150,000 yuan a month to keep her.

Back then, that balding man had offered 150,000 a month...

Si Nian remembered when she had asked for five million, Lu Shuyan had told her it was “a dream.”

The price of shortcuts was that after failure, there was not even labor law protection.

Mutual destruction could only exist in fantasies. The reality was, she probably couldn’t even get into Rongsheng’s doors now, much less the Lu family’s mansion, which she hadn’t entered even as a girlfriend.

Si Nian shook her head, telling herself not to think about it anymore.

Such thoughts only lead to heart attacks.

She used to pity those girls who trusted others and got cheated, thinking herself sharp and immune to deception. Who knew she would be the biggest loser?

She was now a classic negative example people would laugh about.

The only consolation was that she still had her looks and figure, didn’t smoke or drink, had good habits and temperament, and hadn’t lost the basic resources to eat.

Restarting her old profession wouldn’t be too hard.

Jiang Yihan had cameras and tripods at home, so Si Nian took a new set of comp cards against a white wall: front view, side view, half-body, full body from various angles. She added two lifestyle photos from before as supplements, noted her height, measurements, and shoe size in the footnotes.

After preparing her profile and lightly retouching the photos, she uploaded them. Five years ago, a shoot was 300 yuan; now, with the market downturn and increased competition, prices had dropped to 280 yuan.

...

Rongsheng Building.

Zhao Chao stood outside the CEO’s office.

The man who was now CEO of Rongsheng had lately buried himself completely in work, living at the office at night or in a private apartment opposite Mingjing Mansion. At first, a few senior executives reported some setbacks and even ran into obstacles.

But Zhao Chao knew this wasn’t due to being too busy but rather problems in other areas, with intense work as a form of self-numbing.

He had been preparing everything systematically, but unexpectedly, all the assignees were the same name. These huge transfer contracts and cheques, notarized and ready to take effect with just one more signature, were suddenly put on hold.

Then all shredded.

Zhao Chao knew there must have been some issue between President Lu and Miss Si.

At least, the division between them hadn’t been amicable.

Zhao Chao straightened his collar and lightly knocked on the CEO’s office door.

The voice inside said, “Come in.”

Lu Shuyan saw Zhao Chao enter.

More than half a month had passed since that night when he had first discovered that his only girlfriend had been feigning affection and had other motives for years. After the shock and anger, and the numbing of long work hours, his mood had gradually calmed.

He knew Si Nian had moved out of Mingjing Mansion some time ago, but there were other matters he wanted to clarify.

Why did the chat logs between Si Nian and her friends frequently mention “three months,” “ex-girlfriend,” and “eight figures” when talking about him?

His intuition told him this was probably the absurd cause of everything.

Lu Shuyan asked Zhao Chao to investigate.

Zhao Chao looked at the young, refined man in the office chair and respectfully lowered his head.

“Have you found out?” Lu Shuyan asked.

Zhao Chao glanced at the floor, his expression unusually complex.

“Should be clear now.”

In City B, there was more than one Lu family by name, but compared to the Lu family that controlled Rongsheng, the other was far behind in status and wealth. The youngest son of that other Lu family had studied in the U.S., was known among peers as a playboy with no discipline, frequently changing girlfriends. It was rumored that five years ago, while Lu Shuyan was still an exchange student at C University, this young Lu had accidentally gotten a small model pregnant.

That model had insisted on keeping the child, but eventually, the family intervened, paid a large sum to the model, and arranged a breakup and abortion.

The model took the money and left the scene. Within the same circle, it was said the young master Lu swapped girlfriends like clothes, each relationship shorter than the last, but still managed to secure sky-high breakup settlements.

According to the timeline, the young Lu’s incident with the model overlapped with the time Lu Shuyan was at C University.

Zhao Chao rubbed his nose, having said all he needed.

Only then did Lu Shuyan finally understand why.