Chapter 1

When Xia Yiyang heard news about Shen Luo again, it was at the LWP Finance Department’s 2000 alumni reunion.

There were more than a dozen people inside the private karaoke room, Hou Yan held the microphone while Xia YiYang drank, and some people came over to talk to him. 

“Did you know that Shen Luo is back?”

Xia Yiyang paused while holding the bottle of wine:

“When?”

“Just last week, Hou Yan invited him, but he said he was jet lagged and would get together next time.” 

Xia Yiyang looked at Hou Yan, who even though she was already almost over 35 years old, compared to most of her male peers who were bald and had grown a beer belly by the time they reached middle age, still looked like a 20-year-old with smooth skin and good fashion sense.

“Xia Yiyang!” Hou Yan called out to him. “Stop drinking and come sing!’’

Xia Yiyang took the microphone and selected [The King of Karaoke], but he was in no hurry to sing:

“Is Shen Luo back?’’ He asked Hou Yan.

‘‘Didn’t I tell you?’’

Hou Yan seemed to sing a little drunkenly, when she got up, she began to stagger almost falling on Xia Yiyang.

‘‘I told you’’

She reached out and lightly patted Xia Yiyang’s face. 

“At the next meeting you won’t be the most attractive. The older the wine better it tastes.’’

Xia Yiyang laughed:

‘‘What wine?’’

Hou Yan couldn’t bear it and said: 

“After all these years, you still love to fight with him.’’

That sentence was not groundless. During the four years of college, the whole department knew that there was such a pair in Class A. In those days they said that one was stunning, and the other was gentle.

Those people were Shen Luo and Xia Yiyang.

But Xia Yiyang was actually quite upset. Since he was a child, he has known that he is handsome. No one has ever had to tell him so, he knows it just by looking in the mirror every day. 

He’s so handsome that he couldn’t even be compared to others.

Unfortunately, Shen Luo was the exception.

After Xia Yiyang finished singing [The King of Karaoke] he unbuttoned a few buttons on his shirt. The bank had just opened, and he came directly from the branch near the campus to attend the class reunion, so he didn’t have time to change his outfit. Hou Yan was sitting next to him while they both drank and talked.

‘‘I wanted to invite Bai Fang’’ 

Hou Yan took a sip of wine.

‘‘In her second pregnancy she gave birth to a girl, she now has a son and a daughter, how lucky.’’

Xia Yiyang said concisely:

‘‘That’s great.’’ 

Hou Yan sarcastically added:

“Don’t you think anything?”

Xia Yiyang:

“They’re all married now, what can I think?” 

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Hou Yan sighed:

“Didn’t you two fight fiercely over her during that time?”

Xia Yiyang no longer knew how many times he had clarified it: 

“He was the one looking for a fight, not me.”

Hou Yan ridiculed:

“Who believes that?”

Xia Yiyang was starting to get annoyed again, he shut up and started drinking with a “believe what you want” expression. 

Hou Yan added:

‘‘Anyway, he came back, the next time you see each other forget your differences.’’

Xia Yiyang said coldly:

“I don’t hold a grudge against him, I have nothing to forget.” 

The reunion didn’t end until after 10 pm. Xia Yiyang had a strong smell of alcohol on his body, so he called a driver to return to his apartment. When he got out of the shower, he nearly collapsed from exhaustion, after lying in bed for a while, he got up and turned on his computer.

First, he answered some emails from his work. Since the bank opened, they have done very well for the last three months. Xia Yiyang never left work before 10 o’clock. The indicators showed that everything would be resolved after the loan. Since he didn’t have time during the day, this kind of work where he only needs to read and reply to mail could only be done at night.

It was after 1:00 a.m, having answered everything, Xia Yiyang rubbed his face and after hesitating for a bit, he went on Instagram.

He didn’t turn on the desk lamp, the blue light coming from his laptop gently traced the lines of his face as he entered his username, then his password. The first thing he saw on his home page was a photo that Shen Luo had posted, the sky along with clouds. 

Xia Yiyang covered his mouth with one hand, watched silently for a while, and then right-clicked to save the photo.

Shen Luo’s photo had been liked by many people, Xia Yiyang calmly scanned the accounts, found some unknown people and clicked to take a look.

There was nothing attractive and the women were not pretty enough.

Xia Yiyang went back, then opened the follower list and started looking at other people. 

Shen Luo’s ex-girlfriend, ex-ex-girlfriend, ex-ex-ex-girlfriend, and various ex-suitors, his first girlfriend who was Korean posted a selfie today, Xia Yiyang looked at the likes.

Mn, Shen Luo hadn’t liked it.

He continued scrolling through his profile.

Looks like she got a new boyfriend last month. 

Oh, Shen Luo liked that post.

Xia Yiyang pouted, carefully looked at the photo of the couple, and found out that Shen Luo was more handsome.

Not knowing how long he continued to watch, the phone alarm sounded, and Xia Yiyang realized that the whole night had already passed.

He breathed a sigh of relief and finally left Instagram with great satisfaction. 

Before going to bed, Xia Yiyang only had one sentence in mind.

Having inspected the memorial to the throne, the harem behaved itself and the palace was finally quiet.

Xia Yiyang didn’t know when he developed this habit of spying on the Instagram of Shen Luo’s countless ex-girlfriends. In fact, at first, he only checked a couple and occasionally looked at Shen Luo’s Instagram, ever since he started university, Shen Luo liked to take pictures a lot. After he went abroad, he shared almost all his photos on Instagram. As for why he opened an account, Xia Yiyang speculated that he was influenced by the Korean girlfriend he dated.

Shen Luo studied in the United States and shared photos from Lombard Street to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and from the 17-Mile Drive on Highway 1 to Big Sur. The photos he took were beautiful, but it was also very far away. Xia Yiyang saved all those photos, as if he could get a little closer to Shen Luo that way. 

Afterwards, the number of people liking his photos gradually increased. At first, Xia Yiyang was only curious as to who they were, and then found that the number of people who interacted with Shen Luo was in the minority.

It seemed that he is only interested in beautiful women, all the Instagram accounts he followed were of very beautiful people. There was no specific standard, but at first glance they all looked very attractive.

Xia Yiyang found out about his ex-girlfriend and his ex-ex-girlfriend from the occasional photos they uploaded with him on Instagram.

As for Shen Luo’s Instagram… He never shares photos of people, not even a selfie. 

When Xia Yiyang woke up the next day, still in a daze, he opened the photo album on his cell phone and, as usual, went to the bottom. There he had a photo of Shen Luo where he was alone which he saved two years ago; it was taken by his ex-girlfriend. It was rare to have a clear photo from the front, he seemed to have a buzz cut that was hardly seen anymore, since his eyebrows were very deep, they contrasted with his eyes looking arrogant.

At that time, the caption put by his ex-girlfriend said My love, followed by an old-fashioned background of hearts.

Xia Yiyang thought

‘‘Showing love is no longer popular, what is popular now is showing off your partner.’’ 

After the good start of the bank, the first weekend was the lightest, even Cai Cai shared a photo of herself doing her nails during the morning in the circle of friends on WeChat that she had not touched in the last three months, the hands of the girl’s nails were white and her fingers long, her fingernails a fruity red, the kind that smelled like spring.

Xia Yiyang gave a like, took his car keys and prepared to wash his little wife.

But before he could start washing his wife, he received a call from Hou Yan.

‘‘Are you free today?’’ She asked. 

Xia Yiyang:

“Didn’t we meet yesterday?”

Hou Yan:

“I have a date with Shen Luo today, why don’t the three of us eat?” 

Xia Yiyang refused without thinking:

‘‘No.’’

Hou Yan:

‘‘Why not?’’ 

Xia Yiyang:

”No means no.”

‘‘Oh.’’ Hou Yan was not happy ‘‘Why are you so tsundere?’’

“I told you he wouldn’t accept.” Said the man who was in front of Hou Yan as soon as she cut off the call. 

Hou Yan rolled her eyes:

“How well you know him.”

Shen Luo didn’t speak. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbow, he picked up a few pieces of mutton and threw them into the pot.

Hou Yan took out a lighter from her bag: 

‘‘Do you mind?’’

Shen Luo lightly said:

‘‘Go ahead’’

Hou Yan lit a cigarette: 

“Have you been assigned a job yet?”

‘‘I was assigned one before I returned’’

Shen Luo took out the lamb and looked at Hou Yan

‘‘You didn’t tell him?’’ 

Hou Yan lazily said:

“He didn’t ask either, are you in contact with him or not?”

Shen Luo:

‘‘He doesn’t contact me.’’ 

Hou Yan exhaled a ring of smoke:

“By the way, Bai Fang gave birth again, this time to a girl.’’

Shen Luo nodded:

‘‘That’s great.’’ 

Hou Yan was stunned for a moment, then she laughed.

Shen Luo gave her a puzzled look.

”Xia Yiyang said the same thing’’

Hou Yan said with the cigarette between her fingers and a thumb against her temple. 

‘‘He also said that’s great.’’

Early Monday morning, the city’s SZ bank branch distributed the good start performance report, Xia Yiyang who is the financial supervisor, knew that he was going to have to treat a meal when he saw Cai Cai’s expression.

“If I don’t eat Wang Pin’s steak this time, I won’t agree.” Cai Cai flicked her freshly painted fruit-red nails.

Xia Yiyang made himself a cup of tea: 

‘‘The ad over there is ‘‘take her to Wang Pin for steak if you love her’’ do I love you?’’

Cai Cai asked with an exaggerated expression:

‘‘You don’t love me?!’’

Xia Yiyang thought for a second and agreed: 

“Okay, I love you, let’s order it.”

Cai Cai’s gums were showing from smiling so much, she called to order food and added:

“The bank supervisor will come to inspect in a few days, did you know?”

Xia Yiyang calculated the time and said: 

“What did President Chen say?”

Cai Cai:

“I heard that the supervisor this time appeared out of nowhere. I don’t know what his standards are but anyway, we can’t make mistakes.”

“We have to work hard after eating the steak.” 

Xia Yiyang flipped through his folder.

“This week, I’ll check the credit report and loan agreement again.’’

Cai Cai:

‘‘And the rest?’’ 

Xia Yiyang joked:

“The rest depends on whether the new banking supervisor likes my appearance.”