Thinking that someone must follow Han Siqi, Fu Zhengzheng calls Lu Song immediately and tells him the situation. Hearing that, Lu Song calls to ask about the reason without delay.

Before receiving Lu Song’s call, she is so anxious that she has risen quickly, slips into her clothes, and intends to go out.

When she goes to the door and is about to open it, it is opened. She is startled first and then excited.

Han Siqi comes back.

Han Siqi thinks she will go out, “It’s so late now. Where are you going?”

Seeing him safe and sound, Fu Zhengzheng feels angry, “Why didn’t you answer my call?”

“I went downstairs in a hurry and left the cellphone in my office. Were you going to look for me?”

“If you can’t get through to me at midnight, will you go to look for me?”

Han Siqi holds her shoulder smilingly and takes her inside, “I was too busy in the past days. I missed you so much that I was impatient to fly home to see you as soon as the work was finished.”

Looking at the blood streaks in his eyes, Fu Zhengzheng complains heartbrokenly, “If the work can’t be finished today, you can do it tomorrow. What if you wear yourself out?”

“I’m not tired anymore when I see you.”

“Stop it. I’ll run a bath for you. Take a bath and then have a good sleep.”

Han Siqi nods with a smile. After the bath, they inevitably have their intimacy.

With Han Siqi around, Fu Zhengzheng’s mind is eased. She falls asleep and has a dreamless night.

*

In the morning after the rain, the air is extremely fresh.

Zhu Ting thinks it will rain, so she leaves home half an hour earlier intentionally in case the traffic will be clogged. It’s her first day working in the law firm.

When she walks downstairs and looks around, she finds the rain has stopped long before. Sunshine is faintly visible on the horizon. Looking at the umbrella in her hand, she can’t help laughing.

She wants to go upstairs to leave the umbrella at home, but she thinks twice and then turns back.

It’s the plum rain season. If it rains, no one will take an umbrella to her.

It’s still early. She comes to a breakfast bar at the community gate, sits down, and orders rice noodles mixed with beef and pork rib soup with lotus root.

Rich noodles mixed with beef and the soup cooked with a pottery jar are always the featured breakfast of B City and are also her favorites.

When she was a middle school student, before her father took her to school, they usually went to a breakfast bar next to her home, ordered rice noodles mixed with beef and soup cooked with a pottery jar. Then they sat down and enjoyed the breakfast leisurely. She was plump then. Whenever eating breakfast, she always picked the meat from the rice noodles and the soup and ate it up first. Then she ate the rice noodles and drank the soup slowly. Her father always told her that a girl couldn’t eat so much meat, and if she was too stout, no one would marry her. But he kept taking her to eat out every day because she liked the food.

Thinking of this, Zhu Ting can’t hold back her laughter.

It’s a pity that since she went to university and began to work in the military, she has come home less and less frequently, let alone had breakfast leisurely. She almost forgets the taste of rice noodles mixed with soup.

A waitress brings the breakfast she ordered. Her eyes light up when she sees the hot delicious food. She picks up the spoon in the pottery jar, spoons some soup, leans forward, cranes her neck, blows it quickly, and then puts it into her mouth. Unexpectedly, it’s so hot that she gasps. But she is unwilling to spit it out and swallows it directly. The slightly burning feeling spreads from her throat to the stomach instantly. She can’t help closing her eyes and pats her chest awkwardly.

At this time, a man opposite whistles and says to her, “So elastic.”

Zhu Ting feels baffled to hear that. She looks up and sees a man with extremely short hair sitting opposite to her. He is grinning cheekily at her. When he finds she is looking at him, he winks and whistles again.

She sees him leering at her chest and understands instantly what he means. She glowers at him and curses him in the heart.

The man laughs lightly. He steps on a stool, points at Zhu Ting’s breakfast, and shouts at the waitress, “I want the same breakfast as that of the beautiful girl.”

“It’ll be ready soon.” Perhaps the man’s tattoo frightens the waitress. She responds and takes his order first, while other customers are neglected temporarily.

Though it’s already in the early summer, it’s still cool. Generally, a thin coat is necessary when you go out. But the man only wears a T-shirt. His strong muscles seem to tell others that he is strong-bodied.

Zhu Ting glances at his foot on the short stool disgustedly and then withdraws her eyes at once. She doesn’t hope that her appetite will be affected by the man.

She looks at the time and eats breakfast faster.

“Pretty girl, my breakfast hasn’t been served. Eat slowly.” The man says while whispering to Zhu Ting once more.

Zhu Ting ignores him. When the man’s breakfast is served, she just finishes her breakfast.

She wipes her mouth and takes out her wallet, “How much is the breakfast?”

“It’s my treat.”

The waitress is about to take the money from Zhu Ting. But hearing what the man says, she withdraws her hand quickly as if it is burnt.

Zhu Ting ignores what the man says. Finding that the minimum face value is 50 yuan in her wallet, she takes out a piece of cash and slips it to the waitress. When the waitress finds the man is staring at her, she doesn’t dare to take Zhu Ting’s money.

Zhu Ting holds back her anger, puts the cash on the table, and then goes out.

After she comes to the law firm, she reports her arrival to the director. Then he takes her to meet some lawyers, shows her around, and then gives her a pile of documents, saying she will be in charge of divorce cases.

“Zhu, there are no cases for you to deal with for the time being. Please run an errand to the residency administration department to investigate these ones’ registered permanent residence.”

“OK.” Zhu Ting nods and takes the documents.

After putting the documents in order, she stands up and goes out. She is going to contact Fu Zhengzheng at the residency administration department and reports the situation of her first day in the law firm to Fu Zhengzheng.

It turns out she is Zhang Min, who pretends to be a lawyer.

Coming out of the law firm, she finds it is raining. Then she recalls that her umbrella is left in the breakfast bar and can’t help feeling remorseful.

It’s a little far from the bus stop.

“Hi, pretty girl. Where are you going?” A SUV stops by her.

Through the car window that has been rolled down, Zhu Ting finds the driver is the man who whistled and molested her this morning. She becomes angry, “None of your business.”

Then she turns her head away and intends to bypass his car and hail a taxi.

“If you get wet, you’ll be seen up.”

“Mind your own business.” Zhu Ting snaps the man ruthlessly.

She wears a silk shirt and a suit jacket. Thought the man’s warning has a point, she ignores it because of her disgust for him.

But the man still grins cheekily, “You treated me to breakfast so warmly this morning and left the umbrella to me in case I would get wet. You are so nice to me, and I am supposed to care a little about you.”

“Who treated you to breakfast? Don’t be mawkish.” The man shows her umbrella in front of her. She reaches her hand through the window and snatches it.

“Don’t be shy. At your age, it’s normal that you can’t stay calm when you see a good-looking man.”

Zhu Ting is furious, “Bah! Shame on you! Why don’t you look yourself in a mirror?”

The man lowers the mirror above, looks into it and nods, “Yes, good-looking.”

Zhu Ting feels disgusted and doesn’t want to talk more with him, so she opens her umbrella and leaves instantly.

“Pretty girl, what’s your name?”

Zhu Ting ignores the sentence. Seeing a vacant taxi come over, she hails it.

“Pretty girl, remember my name, Tang Feng.”

When Tang Feng shouts it, Zhu Ting has got into the taxi.

It becomes quiet finally.

Looking at the documents in her hands and then looking out of the window, Zhu Ting feels warm in the heart to see the familiar city.

Coming to the household registration office of the residency administration department, she sees Fu Zhengzheng writing something. She knocks at the door lightly, comes in, closes the door behind her, and introduces herself.

Seeing her, Fu Zhengzheng stands up immediately. But soon, she pauses and signals her to enter.

“Your director called me.” Fu Zhengzheng gives Zhu Ting the documents she has prepared and then asks in a low voice, “How is it going? Is Everything OK? Do you have any trouble?”

“No trouble.” Talking of it, the man that liked to step a leg on a stool flashes through her mind. She thinks and tells her, “But I encountered a hooligan twice this morning.”

Fu Zhengzheng once told her that no matter what happened, she must report to her in time.

“A hooligan?” Fu Zhengzheng becomes wary at once, “Did you find something unusual?”

“No. He just wanted to molest me.”

Fu Zhengzheng smiles, “You look more charming in a business suit than in the military uniform.”

It’s normal that a man wants to molest her.

Zhu Ting smiles and asks, “When will I meet Fu Wenhai?”

“Soon. But it depends. I will call you in advance.”

Fu Zhengzheng and Han Siqi intended to pick Fu Wenhai up from the hospital this morning. But Fu Wenhai called early this morning. He said he was in bad luck recently and was going to pray in Lingshan Nunnery and donate some money for good luck after he was discharged from the hospital. He told them not to pick him up. He said he would call them when he went downstairs and invited them to dinner, but the specific time wasn’t appointed.

Only when Fu Wenhai resumes his normal life at least can they arrange for Zhu Ting’s encounter with him.

Zhu Ting nods, keeps the documents well, and then intends to stand up.

Fu Zhengzheng tells her worriedly, “You are alone and must be cautious.”

“I will.” Zhu Ting smiles and then leaves.

Fu Zhengzheng looks at Zhu Ting’s figure with complicated eyes.

*

On an open space among the mountains behind Lingshan Nunnery, Fu Wenhai is standing silently by the guard bar and staring blankly at the far mountains.

A man has stood behind him for a long time, and can’t help saying, “Boss, you must make a choice now.”