Chapter 7

*Moon-Chasing Diary*
“Classmate Xie, long time no see.”
— *Moon-Chasing Diary*
_
Reality was like a third-rate romance novelist, obsessed with tacky, dog-blood plots.
It was just an ordinary night, at the turn of seasons—green fading to yellow. Ten thousand lights stretched on like a river of stars under the dark sky. Fireworks of daily life burned without end; the crowd moved back and forth, muddled and busy, treading the road they came from, searching for the way home.
She shivered in the late-summer night breeze. The temperature drop had come without warning; the chill seeped in through every crack—like a reunion years too late, sudden and unprepared for, leaving people at a loss.
Qin Sang didn’t blink. Beneath her calm face, storms raged. She could even hear the thud of her heartbeat.
In that instant, it felt as if time had stopped and the years had gone askew. He paused in the summer night wind, gentle as a soft breeze passing by—leaving no trace, and yet stirring ripples all the same.
…
“Ms. Qin?”
The driver called once. Qin Sang’s eyes were unfocused—like a drowning person catching a piece of driftwood. She took a sharp breath and snapped back. “What is it?”
“That gentleman is the one I found to help,” the driver said sheepishly, pointing at the car. “But I have to go deal with dispatch and the breakdown report first. Ms. Qin, could I trouble you to light things up for us? It’s too dark—might not be able to see clearly.”
Qin Sang lowered her gaze. She forced her voice to steady, but the tail end still leaked a faint tremor.
“Mm.”
…
In the night, the man standing close at hand was tall and straight. The wind puffed his shirt slightly, but it couldn’t hide his superior build—broad shoulders, narrow waist. Short hair fell lightly over his brow bone. His brows and eyes were as clear as ever; only the boyish rawness had faded, leaving him more restrained and mature—edge hidden, but not sharp.
Even time seemed to favor him. Years of wind and frost had left not a single trace on him.
Qin Sang hesitated, her thoughts looping. Should she act natural and greet him first? Or pretend she hadn’t seen him—treat him as a stranger?
Xie Yuncheng dipped his head slightly. His gaze was clear and calm. His eyes paused on her for only two seconds.
“Sorry to trouble you.”
Qin Sang paused, then answered through her mask, muffled and a little unnatural. “It’s nothing. I should.”
She lowered her head and switched on her phone’s flashlight. The beam wasn’t strong. She stepped closer; her eyes drifted to him against her will. He bent to examine the car, sleeves loosely rolled, the lines of his forearm muscles tight and distinct. His fingers flipped the hood up with practiced ease. His eyes were cool and deep, yet intensely focused as he checked the car’s condition.
Qin Sang stole two glances and dropped her lashes, fingers brushing the edge of her mask.
He didn’t recognize her?
…
The car restarted. The engine’s roar shattered the strained quiet.
“Did you feel any obvious dull dragging while driving?”
Qin Sang was a little absent. When she realized he was asking her, she froze a beat before answering, “Yes. When we got on the elevated road, there was a strange noise from the right rear wheel. The rear end sank noticeably, and the car began pulling to the right. I was afraid something would happen, so we had no choice but to stop.”
She didn’t know much about cars. The failure came suddenly; when the car skidded, it nearly hit the divider—luckily it steadied and stopped without incident.
Qin Sang pressed her lips together, testing a question. “Is it the engine?”
“No.” Xie Yuncheng opened the hood and checked carefully. “The engine’s fine. The fuel injection system is normal too. It’s likely the bearing snapped—needs factory repair and the bearing replaced. Have you contacted the 4S shop?”
“No.” Qin Sang shook her head honestly. After a moment she frowned. “But the car just came back from the 4S shop for maintenance. Can this still happen?”
Xie Yuncheng pondered briefly. “Bearing failure is usually due to aging equipment or severe wear. Before you sent it in, did you ever have abnormal noise from the right rear wheel?”
Qin Sang hesitated, then still shook her head. “I’m rarely in Jingcheng. I don’t use the car often.”
Her work was special—she followed schedules and flew everywhere, city to city, sometimes without time to rest.
The car? She barely touched it.
“If that’s the case, you can go back and find the maintenance list. Use the listed items to determine responsibility. But…” Xie Yuncheng paused. “I’d recommend switching to a different 4S shop.”
“Then… would it be convenient to add you on WeChat?” Qin Sang scratched the edge of her mask, embarrassed. “It’s like this: I don’t understand cars. I got my license in college, but I don’t really dare to drive, so I’m not clear on the car’s condition either. Like this time, I don’t know whether it was the 4S shop being careless or my own issue. If I run into something I don’t understand later, I’d like to have someone in the know to ask.”
Xie Yuncheng’s expression was light. “Sorry. Because of work, I rarely use WeChat.”
So that was a rejection? Of course. Top student still top student—still hard to deal with.
“Then there’s nothing I can do,” Qin Sang sighed, unsurprised. “I’m adding you for work, too.”
Half an hour ago, Qin Sang received a message from Zhou Yihong.
[Zhou Yihong: What a coincidence—my junior seems to be there too.]
[Zhou Yihong: 857****0920]
[Zhou Yihong: This is my junior’s phone number. Ms. Qin, call him and have him come take a look. Oh right—my junior’s surname is Xie. Xie Yuncheng.]
She hadn’t expected that Zhou Yihong’s “very capable junior” was Xie Yuncheng.
She’d even held out a little hope, thinking there were so many people in aerospace, and Tsinghua was an engineering paradise. Surely it couldn’t be so coincidental that she’d *have* to run into him.
But life was just this dog-blood. Coincidences everywhere.
…
The person before him was tall, in a white trench coat and white lambskin boots. Long hair tucked behind her ear. A mask covered her face; only her eyes were clear and lively, holding a delicate light as she smiled at him. Then, suddenly, she lifted a hand—hooked a finger under the mask and pulled it down.
The face beneath was instantly recognizable. The LED screen on the commercial building across the Lijiang Bridge was playing her endorsement; but the person standing here was far more vivid than an image on a screen.
Xie Yuncheng froze. Something stirred in his pale eyes.
A week ago, on the night he returned to Jingcheng from the northwest, his phone—sealed for three months—had barely been turned on when messages flooded in. The screen brightness was turned low, glowing dimly in the dark. He lowered his eyes; thin lids half-drawn. His cool gaze swept past unread WeChat messages. Pressed for time, he replied to only a few important work-related ones.
Just then, Jiang Mingyi called.
After graduating high school, Jiang Mingyi went abroad and transformed from “Young Master Jiang,” a second-gen rich kid, into one of finance’s hottest young executives.
But his personality hadn’t changed much over the years. He was still slouchy, forever half-hiding and half-revealing in speech, with habitual teasing.
Jiang Mingyi laughed, not quite serious. “I heard you’re planning to wash your hands of it and turn back to shore? What—need help from an old classmate? Just say the word. With the life-and-death bond we’ve got, whatever it is, I wouldn’t let you suffer a loss, right?”
Jiang Mingyi had been wild since childhood. People said the craziest little devil in the compound was him. Jiang Mingyi scoffed—those words were just for fun. Xie Yuncheng had been far crazier when he was young.
He bit down on a cigarette and smiled with sarcasm. “Your family’s mess isn’t easy to clean up. Xie Zhenting—that old fox—ditched wife and kid when he was young, and now that he’s old and useless, he starts dreaming about family reunion and sharing domestic bliss. Heh. He really knows how to want the good things.”
The Xie family’s affairs weren’t clear to outsiders, but Jiang Mingyi, as his childhood friend, knew perfectly well. He didn’t want to judge the family ugliness; he only felt indignant for his friend.
He took a deep drag and exhaled. “Your mom’s not clearheaded either. She’s still running around to take care of that trash. For what?”
Xie Yuncheng gave a soft laugh, his plain brows and eyes swallowed by darkness.
“Tsk, don’t mention that.” Jiang Mingyi changed the subject. “I heard our high school classmates had dinner together a couple days ago. Our class’s big star went too?”
Xie Yuncheng’s reaction was flat. “Which one?”
“Come on.” Jiang Mingyi joked. “Been in that birdless place so long you’ve turned into a caveman? Who else could it be—Qin Sang. She’s really famous. A while back she won some award, I think. Even had her ad on Times Square in New York.”
Mentioning it, Jiang Mingyi got excited. “And she’s getting prettier and prettier. Among our classmates, she’s the one who made it the most, okay? Fame and fortune—both. Way better than us. Too bad I’m overseas and can’t come back for now, otherwise I’d really like to see this old classmate.”
Xie Yuncheng said coolly, “With your capabilities, seeing her isn’t hard.”
Jiang Mingyi’s private life was chaotic. The longest he kept someone around was three months. Of course, while dating, he treated his partners well—tender and attentive, providing both emotional and financial value. He liked to call himself a perfect gentleman.
Only his enthusiasm never lasted long. It came fast and left fast; once the shelf life expired, he broke up immediately.
“Don’t.” Jiang Mingyi hurried to state his stance. “I wouldn’t dare touch this one. She even dares to openly offend someone as petty as Tong Junjie. I can’t afford to provoke her.”
“If you ask me, Tong Junjie really has no class. It’s been years—ancient history—and he still can’t let it go. Just because every exam he got beaten down by you and earned the nickname ‘eternal runner-up,’ is that worth it? He’s still hung up on it. After a couple drinks at the reunion, he got full of himself, boasting, flattering the rich and stepping on the poor, dragging you in as his foil to show how capable he is.”
Talking about it, Jiang Mingyi still found it funny. “But our class’s big star tore into him—head-on, no mercy—and crushed his swagger. Didn’t see it back then, but turns out our big star has a real righteous streak.”
Xie Yuncheng’s gaze paused. His thoughts suddenly returned: the summer night was sparse and silent, and only that clear female voice could be heard—each word landing like a nail.
“Xie Yuncheng—he’s truly excellent. And he never uses his excellence to look down on others.”
On the phone, Jiang Mingyi teased, “So? Feeling pretty good about being defended by a big star?”
For some reason, the gloom between his brows scattered. After a long while, he finally answered,
“Mm.”
…
“Classmate Xie, long time no see.”
The person before him smiled sweetly, mischief tucked in her eyes. She lifted her phone, half-joking and half-testing. “For old classmates’ sake, you won’t still refuse me, will you?”
The blurry silhouette from that summer night overlapped; the outline gradually sharpened. Something moved in Xie Yuncheng’s eyes. Then he laughed lightly.
“How could I? Between classmates, we should help each other.”