Ryan Xiang's mind moved too fast. Raina Lu couldn't quite keep up.
The lights dimmed. The emcee stepped onto the stage to speak, and the hall quieted while the festive atmosphere remained.
Raina took her plate to a corner and suddenly asked Ryan Xiang, "What are you doing here?"
Ryan Xiang didn't push the subject she was deliberately changing. He sat down across from her and said lightly, "Invited by a client."
"Invited?"
He pointed at the flushed groom standing at center stage. "His family's legal counsel."
Raina cracked open a crab, dipped it in ginger vinegar, and smiled. "You're really doing well for yourself—business coming to you when you've only just arrived."
Ryan Xiang propped his chin on his hand, smiling with a hint of temptation. "Think I'm doing well? Then why not stick with me?"
Before Raina could answer, he added, "It's all assistant work anyway. What's the difference whose you do?"
Raina ate as she replied, "Do I look like someone who's meant to be an assistant?"
"You're not doing anything right now, are you?"
"Who says?"
Watching Raina happily finish off a crab, Ryan Xiang laughed despite himself. "How can you still eat with such an appetite? I really miss how you used to explode at the slightest touch."
Raina stared at her plate and went still.
Efficiency had become habit. Splitting her emotions apart had become habit too. Some things were carved into bone.
Like a certain kind of liking.
A liking that had lasted so many years it had turned into something she hated.
The first time Mason Han had fully unleashed that aura of his, she had been stunned—how could a man be this confident and sharp? In her heart back then, Mason Han had been almost godlike, capable of anything. Probably because it really was the first time she had fallen for someone, the outwardly tough but inwardly fragile Raina had chosen the clumsiest way to get close.
Yet in all those small contacts, she never made Mason Han grow fond of her over time. She only sank deeper herself.
Truly a case of trying to steal a chicken and losing the rice instead.
She took a casual sip of the red wine beside her and said, "I miss how you used to stutter every time we argued too."
Ryan Xiang rubbed his forehead and laughed. "Still sharp-tongued."
"You're not bad yourself."
"I'm a licensed lawyer now. I make my living with my mouth."
She dispatched another crab in a few quick moves.
Raina wiped her hands with a wet napkin. "You're just going to sit here with me? There are plenty of bosses around. Aren't you going to work the room somewhere else?"
Ryan Xiang tapped his knuckles on the table in protest. "Hey, hey... don't make it sound like I'm in some shady line of work."
The engagement banquet was only halfway through. A good while remained before it would end.
With nothing else to do, Raina said to Ryan Xiang, "Since you look so idle anyway, tell me what you've been up to these past few years. How did you go from what you were back then to what you are now..."
Ryan Xiang smiled. "What's wrong with how I am now?"
Raina actually thought about it before answering honestly. "The gap is too big. I'm not used to it."
"People change." Ryan Xiang tilted his head, looking at Raina, eyes bright. "Why don't you tell me yours? I'm curious too—how did you manage to live more and more backward over the years?"
"What's there to tell? Same as always."
Hearing that, Ryan Xiang pulled a coin from his pocket. "Still early. Let's make a bet. Since neither of us wants to talk, heads you go, tails I go. Deal?"
The coin arced through the air, the side facing the light gleaming.
Before it could land, Raina suddenly snatched it from midair.
She opened her palm. Heads.
She flicked the coin with one finger. Flipped it over. Still heads.
Ryan Xiang touched his high nose bridge, caught the coin she tossed back, and laughed awkwardly. "How did you figure it out so fast?"
"Leftover tricks from childhood..." Raina gave him an unsparing sidelong look. "You use that on little girls, don't you?"
"How un-cute. If a girl never gives a man any face, she'll never get married."
"Not your problem to worry about."
Ryan Xiang smiled with easy tolerance. "Since you caught me, how about I treat you to dinner to make it up to you?"
Raina checked the time on her phone and shook her head. "Who knows what time this will end. What do you want to eat in the middle of the night?"
Ryan Xiang leaned in slightly, his elegant fingers wagging twice, and smiled. "Who said we're leaving after it ends?"
By the time they walked out, the sky had already darkened.
The weather wasn't cold. A cool breeze brushed her cheeks—a comfortable feeling.
The street was still busy with traffic, neon flickering.
Before a huge billboard lit with fluorescent light, people hurried past.
Raina buttoned two of her coat buttons, picked up her purse, and kicked at pebbles by the entrance out of boredom, waiting for Ryan Xiang to bring the car around.
The pebble rolled and rolled.
Only then did Raina notice a woman standing in front of her. Looking closer, it was exactly the date who had stormed off in a huff earlier—Kiki Wu.
Kiki Wu seemed to notice her too and was about to say something when her eyes suddenly lit up.
Raina instinctively followed her gaze.
The revolving doors at the hotel entrance pushed open. Mason Han walked out from a blur of shadow, still wearing that lack of expression.
He strolled over to Kiki Wu's side without the slightest break in his stride. He even nodded a greeting to Raina before turning to Kiki Wu and saying calmly, "You asked me to come down. Is something the matter?"
Kiki Wu looked at him in disbelief. "You're really just going to let me walk away like that?"
"I thought you had something to do and left."
Kiki Wu bit her lip, her voice sharp in the cold air. "Mason Han, do you even think of me as your girlfriend?"
Raina gave a soft scoff.
Not loud, not quiet—just enough for Kiki Wu to hear. Kiki Wu whipped her head toward Raina, her face shifting between white and black.
Ryan Xiang's car had already pulled up—a black Passat.
It stopped not far from Raina. Ryan Xiang rolled down the window and waved.
Raina was about to go when Mason Han seemed to ask casually, "Is he your boyfriend?"
Her steps stopped.
Raina stared at Mason Han. "Do you care about the answer?"
The gaze was so sharp that Mason Han felt uncomfortable under it.
During their time working together, Raina hadn't dated anyone... He could say that with confidence because she had spent most of her time on work. Romance had almost nothing to do with her.
Over three years, he had molded her into someone as rigid and demanding as he was.
Mason Han had gradually adapted to that environment—both he and the people around him operated with machine-like efficiency. Emotion, to him, was nothing but a luxury that wasted time. He had lost interest in cultivating it years ago.
Mason Han had never thought anything was wrong with that.
But... seeing Raina laughing and talking easily with another unfamiliar man didn't feel good...
Like something you took for granted had been overturned in an instant.
So Raina wasn't like that after all—not someone who cared about nothing except work, the way he was?
The question slipped out before he could stop it.
But Raina's answer was one Mason Han found hard to respond to.
She had asked too cleverly.
Ryan Xiang honked lightly. Raina gave a faint smile. "Then I was overthinking. As for whether he's my boyfriend—he isn't now, and I don't know about later."
She turned, pulled open the car door, and got in.
The car shot away like lightning into the night sky.
"Need a shoulder? A tissue?"
Raina narrowed her eyes, her gaze resting lightly on Ryan Xiang. "You're overthinking."
Up ahead, a turn.
Ryan Xiang signaled and glanced sideways.
There was no expression on her face, but Raina truly had no tear tracks. Beneath her lashes everything was dry.
"Sometimes a girl needs to know when to show weakness, Raina Lu. You're always too strong. If you'd acted a little sadder just now, let a few tears..."
"Useless. He doesn't go for that."
Yvonne Li had cried, screamed, thrown fits—she had been one step short of threatening to hang herself.
Mason Han had simply kept working while waiting for her to finish venting, then told Raina without a word to escort Yvonne Li out. Completely unmoved.
He had never liked anyone. That had once been something Raina was grateful for. Now it only made her feel utterly defeated. If Mason Han could fall for someone, at least she would have had a fighting chance. But trying to love someone who didn't understand love at all... how was that supposed to work?
She looked out the window, letting patches of light and shadow sweep across her face.
Flickering, unknowable.
It seemed to be a brand-new car, still carrying a faint mix of gasoline and leather from the seats. Raina didn't get carsick, but she still felt uneasy.
The cabin lights were off. The space was dim but spacious—no clutter of trinkets, not even a safety charm hanging anywhere.
Noticing Raina looking at his car, Ryan Xiang smiled. "Just got it. Among mid-range sedans, the Passat's pretty steady—suits a lawyer's image. You're its first passenger. What do you think?"
Raina slowly parted her lips. "Senior Xiang, why did you take me out to eat? Why are you getting close to me?"
Ryan Xiang paused for a beat, hands on the wheel, and laughed softly. "I told you—girls shouldn't be so hard on a man's pride when they speak and act. Scare everyone off and you'll regret it."
"I'm used to being direct. Sorry."
"It's fine." Ryan Xiang's tone seemed to quiet suddenly too. "Actually, I thought you already knew..."
Red light. He braked, slowing down.
"I had a crush on you in college. Not long, not short—the same number of years you've had a crush on Mason Han."