“Pfft…” Zi Yan burst out laughing. Looking at Mengmeng, Zi Yan said, “Mengmeng, you want the ice cream, don’t you?”
Zi Yan had already noticed the ice cream in Zhou Fei’s hand when her eyes darted behind just now.
“Um?” Mengmeng hesitated. Without even blinking her eyes, she stared off into space for a long time, figuring out how best to respond. In the end, she decided to just play dumb. “I, I, I just wanted a hug from Aunty Feifei,” Mengmeng said in her sweet, childish voice.
“Hahaha.” Peals of unbidden laughter burst out of Zhang Han when he saw the little princess’ adorable behavior.
The moment Zhang Han set Mengmeng down on the ground, the little kid took off in a run, waddling happily towards Zhou Fei and reaching out her tiny arms to the woman.
Zhou Fei slowed down her pace and picked up Mengmeng from the ground; she wanted to give some space to the two people walking in front of her.
Zi Yan could not help but feel that something in the air had shifted. All of a sudden, she felt a little nervous and wary. Now that she was alone with Zhang Han, she had no idea what to say to him. But under the streetlights, when she noticed the shadows that their bodies had cast onto the ground, Zi Yan felt warmth seep into her heart.
Zhang Han gave her a faint smile and regarded her with tender eyes. He was ready to spill his guts.
Then, something happened.
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
Each and every single streetlamp in the street went out in an instant.
Their surroundings plunged into darkness, and their eyes were unable to adjust to the sudden change in ambience; however, a sense of peace washed over them when they felt the moon’s luster a moment later.
Zhang Han reached out with his right hand and held Zi Yan’s left hand.
She did not try to withdraw her hand, but allowed it to be held instead. She had even leaned her body closer towards Zhang Han’s side.
Just like that, the pair slowly strolled forward.
“Do you still remember the first time we met each other?” Zhang Han asked softly.
“I do. Believe it or not, your arrogance and frivolous attitude back then is pretty hard to forget,” Zi Yan answered with pursed lips. #
“Hahaha.” Zhang Han broke into a series of belly laughs. “I remember it very clearly, too. You were on set back then, right? Filming a TV series? Well, one of my guys has a sister who nearly became the victim of your director’s ‘unspoken rules’. Because of that, she had suffered quite a bit. That was why I brought a bunch of guys to tear down the set. My dad even gave me an earful because of that incident.”
“Huh?” Zi Yan froze slightly. “So that’s why you did it? In that case, that director had it coming. I still remember what he told me after he got beaten up. He said that you were sweet on one of his actresses, and when he forbade you from seeing her, you beat him up. Now it looks like he’s shamelessly putting the blame on other people despite being the guilty one. That director had an okay reputation back then, so I thought he was telling the truth. I even felt a bit repulsed by you because of what he told me.”
“Hey, no matter how frivolous I was, I still had my limits, okay?” Zhang Han shook his head and said, “My father had drilled a mantra into me since I was just a kid. It goes like this, ‘Filial piety trumps all human virtues; lust is the root of all evil. Those who love and are loyal to their parents will never have the heart to perform the evil deeds of the world; thus, love and filial piety should be the first human virtue to be attained. When lustful and malicious intent reigned over one’s heart, what used to be difficult moral dilemmas will cease to be such, and evil deeds will become as natural as breathing; thus, lust is the root of all evil!’”
“After that, my personality was pretty much the show-me-respect-and-I’ll-show-you-ten-times-the-respect type. Even when I was out having fun, I placed a lot of emphasis on loyalty and brotherhood. Whenever one of my guys ran into trouble, I always helped out. But in the end it all amounted to nothing.”
“Well,” Zi Yan said, pursing her lips. She turned to the side and glanced at Zhang Han briefly, taking note of his profile under the moonlight. A small smile formed on her face and she said, “First impressions are often inaccurate. If I’ve never gotten to know you, I really wouldn’t expect you to be so brilliant. To be honest, back then… I mean, back then as in back in the car, I felt really hopeless.”
“Indeed, it is understandable,” Zhang Han said, nodding his head to indicate his heartfelt agreement. “Back then, you were as bright and radiant as the sun whereas even on my best days, I was just a rich second generation.”
“I thought so too at the time. But I also knew you did it to save my life, so, yeah, I was very confused. After that I couldn’t believe that I actually got pregnant, and it was like my whole world had fallen apart.” The memories of the past flickered inside Zi Yan’s eyes.
Zi Yan whispered, “I felt so terrified and helpless. I never even had a relationship with a man before, and yet I somehow got pregnant by accident. A doctor once told me that if I was lucky, I could only get pregnant once in this lifetime. It took me a very long time to decide what to do. In the end, I couldn’t bring myself to give up my one and only chance to become a mother. So I went to North America. I didn’t let my parents know, though. I didn’t have the courage to tell them. So, yeah, life seemed pretty dark and bleak back then. Good thing Feifei was with me every step along the way.”
A hint of redness had taken over Zi Yan’s eyes as she spoke.
Guilt and hurt flashed inside Zhang Han’s eyes. He tightened his hold on Zi Yan’s hand and said, “That was on me.”
“No, that’s not true at all. You didn’t know. Well, I did consider reaching out to you back then. But I was too afraid to face you. I was afraid that you really were the proverbial rich second generation who only knows how to fool around and spend money. Then, I heard about what happened to you, not that my friends hadn’t been telling me things about you and your life. After that, I was just another single mother in North America raising a daughter on her own. Eventually, I noticed that Mengmeng was becoming more and more depressed. She kept asking me why she didn’t have a daddy. And I knew immediately that this issue would affect her growth, so I brought her to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist told me that she would likely have clinical depression if things went on like this. That was why I brought her back home to look for you. Fortunately, I met this version of you. I truly feel very lucky that things turned out this way.” Some time amid her speech, Zi Yan had turned her head to the side to look at Zhang Han.
“Um…” Zhang Han thought for a moment. Then, he chuckled. “It must be fate. You were destined to be mine.”
“Hmph. As if! It was you who had taken advantage of me. And it was even done in a way that I had no power to resist. If it weren’t for the fact that I can only give birth once in my life, I would’ve aborted the child. And then… and then none of this would happen.” A tendril of fear formed inside Zi Yan’s heart. She liked the way things were right now. She liked it very much. If this were all just a dream, then she would rather she never wake up and that she would stay inside this dream forever. She knew she could not stand the thought of parting with Mengmeng. At the same time, she did not want to leave Zhang Han, either.
“But of course, I’ve always had good luck…”
Just like that, Zhang Han and Zi Yan chatted with each other as they strolled forward.
From the eighth floor, Instructor Liu and the others were scrutinizing the situation below them. In fact, they were so meticulous that they had even counted the number of remaining steps for Zhang Han and Zi Yan to reach the check point.
“About 60 steps left. ETA two minutes,” said Xu Yong.
“Okay. Stand by anytime!” Instructor Liu said with a nod.
Meanwhile, Sun Dongheng, Lu Yin, Chubby and the others were lounging around in the outdoor swimming pool of the villa near the company’s building.
The people Sun Dongheng had invited over to his villa had much lower statuses than he did— relatively speaking of course. Everyone there addressed him as Brother Dong, which made him seem like some prominent man from the elite class.
At this moment, Sun Dongheng was stretched out on an outdoor lounge chair, doing a live broadcast. Reclining on the chair beside his was Lu Yin, who would occasionally tease and poke fun at him.
Staring into his phone’s screen, Sun Dongheng said, “How about it, my brothers? The night view here isn’t so bad, right? If anyone’s interested to have some fun here, you can contact your Brother Dong. Let’s have fun together. I like making new friends.”
His live video already had 800,000 viewers by then. In terms of popularity and viewership, his live video ranks the first among all other outdoor live videos.
Case in point: the one in second place only had about 500,000 viewers.
All of a sudden Ah Lu, the renowned e-sports vlogger, became one of the viewers of Sun Dongheng’s live vlog. When Ah Lu joined, a lot of Ah Lu’s fans joined too; the live vlog’s popularity instantly went up the roof and broke the one million mark.
“Oh, hey, Ah Lu is here? Hey, man, it’s totally cool for you to just be here and enjoy the show. You don’t have to give out any rockets. Whoa, whoa, that’ll do, man. That’ll do. Thank you, Ah Lu, for the 20 super rockets that you’ve just given me.”
Last time, Sun Dongheng had given Ah Lu 100,000 yuan’s worth of rockets. Today, Ah Lu had given him twenty rockets in return. Twenty rockets were equivalent to 40,000 yuan, which was roughly the same as the amount he could earn after giving Ah Lu rockets.
Also part of Sun Dongheng’s return of investment was the fact that beside Ah Lu, a mass of other vloggers had joined in and showered him with gifts and blessings as well.
Indeed, there were not many rich second generations like Sun Dongheng who did live vlogs like this. But when they did, it would attract a lot of eyeballs and the live vlog would have very high viewer stickiness. Once Ah Lu was done leaving his gifts and blessings, he left and went back to do his own live vlog. The two hundred thousand or so viewers that he had brought with him, however, did not leave with him; they stayed.
Lounging beside Sun Dongheng, Lu Yin was practically screaming at what she saw on the phone’s screen. “Wow, you got another plane again. Ooh, there’s another rocket. Brother Dong, your first time going live is turning out to be exceptional! With these gifts, you’re almost catching up to the number of gifts I received last week.”
“Haha. It’s all thanks to you, of course. If you hadn’t helped me, I don’t think my live vlog would be such a hit,” Sun Dongheng answered casually.
At the same time, he was very surprised deep down; the gifts he had received today had already amounted to about 600,000. Most of that came from those vloggers, the ones whom he had given gifts to before and who had now returned the favor. Another twenty percent came from non-registered users.
Now he had truly experienced how lucrative this vlogging business could be. He was not considered some hotshot vlogger yet, of course. But to have such fantastic results on just his first day? Needless to say, he was off to a very good start.
“Well, all I did was add a bit of icing on the cake.” Lu Yin laughed with a hand covering her mouth. Then, the next moment, she suddenly made a sound of surprise. “Eh? Brother Dong, look over there. The streetlights went off. Is it a blackout?”
“A blackout? Why would there be a blackout when there isn’t even a thunderstorm?” Sun Dongheng turned his head and glanced in the direction indicated by Lu Yin. “Well, I’ll be damned. The streetlights are really out. But our lights are still working, right? Plus, there would be an advanced notice if it’s a blackout. I think only that street is affected.”
“Meh. Just ignore it, then. It’s fine as long as it doesn’t affect our area. Say, Xiao Yin, aren’t you going to join the others for some fun? You look rather sexy in a bikini, eh?” Sun Dongheng turned his phone to capture Lu Yin on screen.
Embarrassed, Lu Yin quickly grabbed a satin wrap and covered her own body; however, this barely-there effect excited the viewers even further.
“Yo, yo, yo, look at our Little Snow Flake acting all shy,” Sun Dongheng teased as he kept the phone’s camera focused on Lu Yin.
“Oh, come on, stop filming me.” Lu Yin covered her face shyly.
“Hahaha. Fine. Then I’ll just film myself.” Sun Dongheng sat up and turned phone’s camera to face himself. Then, in a feat of extreme narcissism, he struck two poses and said in a deep voice, “How about it? I think I look rather handsome like this, right?”
Bullet screen:
“Boo! Get out the way, man!”
“We want to see Little Snow Flake!”
“…”
Sun Dongheng laughed. “What the f*ck? You guys didn’t even try to give face to me. Alright, then. It’s time for me to unleash another wave of red envelopes. Type the catchphrase in the comments section, and I’ll give you five red envelopes that are worth 10,000 each.”
In an instant, the screen was filled with neat rows of the catchphrase: Handsome Brother Dong.
Sun Dongheng laughed at the comments and started giving out red envelopes as promised. After that, a few more words were added to the catchphrase: Handsome Brother Dong, love you XOXO.
The screen was flooded with the new catchphrase. But once the red envelopes had all been snatched up, snarky comments began popping up in the bullet screen.
“Ew! Yuck! You guys lied!”
“Ahem. Not lying, just saying the opposite of what we truly think.”
“You’re way too narcissistic, pal.”
“…”
“Hey, I’m warning you guys now,” Sun Dongheng said, pointing his finger at the screen. “If you piss me off, then you can forget about seeing the pretty chick again. If you please me, however, then I’ll bring her along to a night club and then… Pfft… What the hell is this?”
Sun Dongheng’s eyes went as wide as saucers. He saw something on the screen; the view of the CBD building behind his house had changed.
He quickly stood up and turned his head around to look at the building not far away.
“What the f*ck is this?” Sun Dongheng yelled. “Is it someone’s birthday? A love confession? Surely this is way too showy?”
Lu Yin stood up and looked towards the building as well. “Oh, my! So pretty! How romantic!” A myriad of colors flashed inside her eyes.
“Hey, what’s this about, eh? Such an upper-class thing to do. Which VIP is making a love confession?”
The 10 plus people present at the villa had now paused in whatever that they had been doing to glance over at the building.
Sun Dongheng quickly switched from the front camera to his phone’s main camera and activated the HDR feature of his camera app. Then, he started recorded the whole thing live. When the several hundred thousand online viewers saw the scene, the bullet screen popped up and covered the entire screen.
“Smooth!”
“Oh, my God, so romantic!”
“…”
Now that the live vlog session was focusing on the show happening nearby, the casual browsers had all clicked into the video out of curiosity. Most of them did not leave again after entering; the popularity and viewership of the vlog skyrocketed once again.
Sun Dongheng was not aware of any of that, though. Right now, he, as well as everyone else in his villa, was staring at the show in front of them with looks of surprise on their faces.
…
One minute ago.
Zhang Han and Zi Yan walked hand in hand towards the company’s building, making light conversation all the while. Very soon, they arrived at the open plaza in front of the building.
When Zhang Han and Zi Yan took the first step onto the plaza, Instructor Liu, who was standing on the building’s eighth floor, spoke into the walkie-talkie.
“Attention, Team One. Attention, Team One Begin Stage One, I repeat. Begin Stage One.”
A total of ten people were standing in front of the window in the next room. Over 10 laptops were set up in the space beside them. A bunch of special workers were there too.
The moment the order sounded from the walkie-talkie, Leng Yue, the person in charge next door, quickly said, “Hurry. Get it in the air! Make sure to stick with the previous arrangement and find a good angle!”
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
15 drones, all of which were equipped with video cameras, had been set up on the ground all around the plaza. Right on cue, the drones rose into the air from various angles. Once they reached their intended altitude, they hovered in the air and began recording the entire scene on the ground.
It was Zhao Feng and the others who had come up with this plan. Since the master wanted to have a special birthday celebration the missus, Zhao Feng figured that recording a footage was a must; the footage could then be kept for the future as memorabilia.
At about the same time, Instructor Liu quickly began giving out orders to the other teams.
“Attention, Team Two. The targets are approaching. Be on standby.”
“Attention Team Three. When you see the lights here being switched on, play the music after 10 seconds.”
“All other teams stand by and wait for my signal.”
“…”
One really had to give it to Instructor Liu for being so diligent and meticulous about the whole plan. Even if this plan was meant as a birthday gift and a love confession where any mistake would not cause any major problems (Zi Yan and Zhang Han were already in a good place in their relationship, so it was not like a mistake would screw up anything between them), Instructor Liu still would not tolerate any flaws in its execution. Judging from Instructor Liu’s strict demands and the fact that he had hired various professional workers to make the plan work, it was clear that Instructor Liu was taking this assignment very seriously.
Meanwhile, Zhou Fei, Zhang Li and the others had figured out that the plan was in motion. Excited, they followed closely behind Zhang Han and Zi Yan, looking at the couple with obvious glee in their eyes.
Still, amid her smile, Li Anna could not help but feel a bit down.
That sinking feeling had more to do with Li Anna herself; she had no idea when she would finally be able to meet her other half. To be honest, she could live with it even if the man she met was half as great as Brother Zhang Han.
In front, Zi Yan and Zhang Han carried on conversing in soft voices.
“If I’d known that you’re someone like this, I would’ve looked for you a long time ago,” Zi Yan said with a pout. “You have no idea how much I’d been through. Although being in labor is tough, taking care of a child is even more exhausting. When Mengmeng was about one or two years old, there wasn’t a day that I had a good night’s sleep. Things got better slowly after that, just that the older she became, the more the wanted her daddy. One time, she caught a cold and had a fever. In her sleep, she was calling for her daddy.”
Hearing her words, Zhang Han’s smile vanished from his face, and he suddenly grew quiet. After a moment, he looked at Zi Yan, conveying his sincere emotions through his eyes. “Thank you,” Zhang Han said. “You’ve suffered all these years. But from now on, you have me. I’ll make you the happiest woman in the world.”
Kaboom!
A shudder coursed through Zi Yan’s heart. Her lashes fluttered and she gently bit her lower lip. Then, she gazed up at Zhang Han with her beautiful eyes. A plethora of emotions swept over her; there was shyness, nervousness, sweetness, and also happiness.
Zi Yan gave Zhang Han a look of mock disapproval. “That’s just a bunch of sweet talk,” she said.
“Which originated from the bottom of my heart,” Zhang Han said.
The pair arrived in front of the plaza and Zhang Han halted his steps. He stared at Zi Yan earnestly, unleashing the full depths of his emotions upon her.
All of a sudden, Zi Yan’s heart leaped. The butterflies in her stomach slowly intensified and would soon reach a crescendo. With her head slightly lowered, she whispered, “A-are, are you confessing to me?”
“Yes,” Zhang Han said with a nod. “This is why I’ve brought you here today. Besides, today is a special day, so I figured I’d use this opportunity to tell you my true feelings. Err, Pretty Face Zi, do you mind giving me a hand here?”
Some time during his speech, Zhang Han had already extended his left arm in the direction of the building. With his left hand, he made a heart gesture, though only half of it; he was waiting for Zi Yan’s right hand to complete the heart shape.
Zi Yan raised her head and glanced at what Zhang Han was doing. A light blush crept onto her face just as mild embarrassment filled her eyes.
“I, I, I don’t want to,” she said shyly.
“Come on. Just play along,” Zhang Han said with a smile.
On the eighth floor, Instructor Liu was looking closely at the scene with a walkie-talkie clenched in his left hand and a pair of binoculars in his right.
Puff! Puff!
Instructor Liu felt a little nervous; he knew that the key moment was approaching!
Finally, he pressed a button on the walkie-talkie.
“It’s raising. Her hand is raising!” Instructor Liu said anxiously. “Stand by, stand by, stand by! Their hands are about to join. Get ready. Begin in three, two, one. Go! Go! Go!”
Even Ah Hu and Elder Meng were starting to feel anxious when they noticed Instructor Liu’s behavior. With the way Instructor Liu was acting, it was like a they had just bet on horse racing and were now watching the final lap of the race.
On the ground, in front of the plaza, Zi Yan found herself yielding to Zhang Han’s gentle words. Still feeling a bit shy, Zi Yan slowly raised her right hand and held it beside Zhang Han’s left hand to complete the heart shape.
Swish, swish, swish!
In an instant, something happened in front of the heart shape formed by their joined hands. The lights of the rooms inside the tall building were switching on!
The lights were mild, warm, and they all came in pink. From the ground, Zi Yan stared up at the building in front of her through the center of the heart shape formed with their hands. The lights in the rooms were being switched on in series, one after the other. Moments later, she was beginning to see a pattern. Taken together, it was as if the lit rooms had morphed into two pink lines; from the point where their fingers were touching— the cusp of the heart shape, basically— the lines extended outwards on both sides before curving downwards to rejoined on another at the bottom. A pink heart shape had been traced out on the surface of building.
“Ah!”
All of a sudden, Zi Yan found herself unable to tear her eyes away from the scene before her. Slowly, her eyes grew wider, wider, and then some. Joy and surprise filled her pupils to the brim.
Then, a series of navy blue light flicked on at the center of the pink heart.
The blue lights formed a few simple words.
Happy birthday, darling Yan!
In that moment, Zi Yan felt as if something had struck her heart. Her mind went blank and she suddenly felt a bit light-headed. She pulled her hand away from the heart shape and used it to cover her mouth, which was now agape with surprise. Heck, even her body felt a bit numb.
“Happy birthday, darling Yan,” Zhang Han said, giving her a sweet smile.
“To-today’s my birthday?” Zi Yan asked stupidly.
“Yeah. Actually, I’ve been meaning to say all these things to you some days ago. But after I found out about your birthday, I decided to do it today,” Zhang Han said with a smile on his face. Then, he held Zi Yan’s hand, pulling her forward so that they stepped into the plaza together. “Let’s head over there, shall we? This place is ours for today.”
“Ah? Oh, okay,” Zi Yan still felt a bit overwhelmed by everything. Like an obedient child, she walked towards the plaza.
One step, two steps, three steps.
They had now crossed the threshold of the plaza.
Voila!
Two rows of candles lit up in succession. Like a bunch of dominoes, the candles lined the ground, forming a passage on the ground which was slightly more than a meter in length.
At the end of the passage, the candles were once again arranged into a heart shape on the ground. Obviously, the passage was meant for the two of them to walk along until they reached the final romantic spot at its end.
Zi Yan was enjoying the moment very much, as evident from the glint of amazement in her beautiful eyes.
Behind them, Zhou Fei, Zhang Li and Li Anna were already spellbound by the romantic gesture.
“F*ck! My brother has really done it this time! That’s my brother, folks!” Zhang Li yelled in surprise.
“Wow, brother-in-law is such a romantic! This is such a huge surprise!” Zhou Fei said. Zhou Fei’s facial muscles had already gone numb with emotion. Right now, she felt happy for Elder Sister Yan from the bottom of her heart.
“Hmm, so pretty!” Mengmeng said, watching the whole scene with her sparkling, large eyes while she kept munching on ice cream. When she bit off the last of her ice cream, a pout formed on her tiny mouth and she said, “So delicious.”
For all the kid knew, the scene before her eyes was pretty, but that was all; she had no clue just how potent of an effect that romantic gestures would have on a woman.
Perhaps many years down the road when she finally understood the notion of romance, she would look back and see this scene in a new light.
Perhaps then she would say, “Wow, back when my PaPa was trying to court my MaMa, the scene was so pretty and romantic.”
Zi Yan felt herself pulled forward by Zhang Han. Hand in hand, they walked along the candle-lit path towards the heart shape at the end.
The moment they stepped into the path of candles, the melody of a song began playing from the high-quality speakers that had been installed all around the plaza.
The song brought a blush to Zi Yan’s cheeks and filled her with surprise at the same time.
“He will become your groom! From today onward, he’ll be your other half. His everything will be joined to yours, and you will face happiness and trouble together.”
The melody of “To You” reverberated through the entire plaza.
“Pfft…” Zi Yan failed to contain her laughter. A sweet and beautiful smile formed on her face right then. She walked forward and turned her head around to look at Zhang Han. “Isn’t it a bit early to play this song?” She said softly.
“Er… Well, it is a bit early. Then again, it fits my intent, so I figured why not.” Zhang Han’s lips broke into a wide grin. Actually, he had no clue that this song was even part of the plan. But, hey, things looked pretty good so far.
On the eighth floor, Instructor Liu— the mastermind behind the song— was leaning on the windowsill, smiling to himself. “Ah, such a good vibe!” He thought. “This might as well be a wedding!”
Zhang Han’s words made Zi Yan blush slightly.
The song continued in the background.
“She will become your bride. She has been entrusted to you by another man, so you have to dedicate your whole life to care for and protect her. Be it pain or joy, you must face it together.”
Zi Yan also realized something else; whenever the lyrics mentioned the word “bride”, Zhang Han’s grip on her hand would tighten.
“I’m his bride… and he’s my groom…” She thought.
Zi Yan’s fantasy kicked in right this moment. One day, she and Zhang Han would have a grand wedding ceremony…
In other words, Zhang Han had already filled out every inch of space inside Zi Yan’s heart.
