Chapter 1: The Man in the Bookstore
The sunlight outside…
The sunlight outside was pleasant. Tang Man put down the spoon in her hand.
The phone on the table lit up briefly.
Her gaze remained focused outside. Through the transparent floor-to-ceiling glass window, she could see a man sitting in the bookstore across the street.
Or rather, a young man.
Every Thursday afternoon, he would sit in that window-side spot with a book for the entire afternoon.
Tang Man wasn't quite sure if it was the same at other times, but at least on the Thursday afternoons when she frequented, it was so.
Each time she sat by the window in this coffee shop, she could see the young man's figure with just a glance.
There was movement at the entrance. The receptionist asked what the customer wanted to drink. After a moment, a man sat down across from Tang Man.
"What are you looking at?"
The man was wearing a shirt and gold-rimmed glasses. Perhaps because he had just left a meeting, the top few buttons of his shirt were undone, revealing a hint of indescribable ease.
Tang Man indifferently withdrew her gaze and rested it on the man's face for a moment. She picked up the coffee on the table, took a sip, frowned slightly, then gave a perfunctory smile. "Nothing."
Du Henian imperceptibly turned his head and glanced in the direction the woman had been looking. He just caught a glimpse of a man's departing back in the bookstore across the street.
He didn't pay much attention either. Turning back, he smiled gently at the person across from him who had lowered her eyes and was stirring her coffee in boredom. With a trace of consolation, he asked, "Did you wait long?"
When he left the university this morning, he received a last-minute notice about a group meeting. There were apparently some issues with the project that needed to be resolved, so he ended up being late.
Only then did Tang Man raise her head with a considerate look and say, "In that case, let's not meet on Thursday afternoons from now on. Besides, it's too much trouble for you to come out each time."
She thought, sitting idly like this every time for an entire afternoon was quite boring.
Compared to her, still a graduate student, Du Henian, a doctoral student, was evidently busier.
Their Thursday afternoon dates were basically spent listening to him typing on the keyboard. No matter how handsome he looked when working diligently, she should've gotten bored of it after seeing it so many times.
"Very boring?" Du Henian's expression remained unchanged. Clearly used to Tang Man's attitude, he just smiled, touched her hand resting on the table, and softly consoled, "The project I'm working on will be finished soon. Then we can go wherever you want to have fun."
Tang Man was noncommittal.
It was the expected response.
The implied meaning in the man's words was nothing more than not letting her off the hook.
However, she looked at Du Henian's face again.
Undoubtedly, this man was good-looking, with refined features. When unfamiliar, he always carried an air of restraint, making people feel he was unapproachable – the so-called "flower on a high peak" often mentioned.
But this "flower on a high peak" had shed a layer of skin in front of her. Half-dressed, the temptation between his brows made it hard for people to resist.
Tang Man was no paragon of virtue. She was the type to live and die as a romantic under the peony flowers.
With temptation delivered to her lips, there was no reason not to partake. So she ate the serpent's fruit, though she remained perplexed to this day about whether it was poisonous.
"What do you want to eat for lunch?"
Tang Man blinked and glanced at Du Henian's face again.
But no matter how good-looking a person was, they lost that sense of novelty and mystery after being looked at for too long. She might really be the type who easily tired of the old and constantly sought excitement and novelty.
"No need. I have plans with someone. I'll be leaving in a bit."
This was of course a lie. She didn't have many friends at the university. Because she lived off-campus for long periods, she didn't have much contact with classmates there, almost none at all. She spoke even less with her few dormmates.
There were even fewer people she could have meals with.
As they spoke, the waiter placed the ordered coffee in front of Du Henian. After the person left, Du Henian spoke up again.
"Is it someone I know?"
He didn't ask who she had plans with. That would sound too much like an interrogation, an offense to Tang Man. Du Henian knew his girlfriend's temper, so he softened his tone, asking casually as if the answer didn't matter to him.
In fact, his fingers kept rubbing the cup handle as they rested on the coffee cup.
Tang Man may or may not have noticed the hidden barb. When a relationship reached this point, she sometimes felt exhausted on Du Henian's behalf. Glancing at the phone beside her, she picked it up, replied to a few messages, then said indifferently, "A classmate from the university. You don't know them."
Du Henian's hand that was lifting the coffee cup paused. The cup was set back down on the table. With an apologetic look, he said, "I've been too busy lately. Why don't you stay over at my place tonight? I had a batch of seafood delivered."
He extended an invitation.
Due to various reasons, the two of them hadn't been intimate for a long time. This made him start to panic, unsure if it was his misconception that Tang Man seemed much colder towards him.
She also spoke with a trace of impatient perfunctoriness.
Upon hearing this, Tang Man's face also showed an apologetic look. She put down her phone and said sorry, "I submitted my resume to a company. I already passed the interview and start work tomorrow, so I'm afraid it's not very convenient."
She was always accustomed to shirking responsibility. Perhaps it was her innate skill, so she could lie with a straight face.
Tang Man felt this came from her paternal genes. In inheriting the promiscuous genes of the Tang family, she also inherited how to use lies as protective armor.
Du Henian's gentle expression stiffened. His eyelashes trembled a few times under his glasses. "I didn't hear you mention it."
"I also just received the notice."
Although her tone was very gentle, Du Henian still detected a hint of impatience. It was an omen of sorts.
His trembling eyelashes slowly calmed. The man revealed the faint smile Tang Man really liked, so light that it was imperceptible, yet alluring. Tang Man couldn't help but think that it was probably because of this smile that she had plucked the serpent's fruit from the tree back then.
A moment later, Du Henian chose to take a step back and asked which company she had applied to.
They were in the same industry. Du Henian was also a renowned academic talent who sometimes worked on projects with university professors. It was unavoidable to have dealings and he basically knew a few executives at major companies.
Tang Man was currently in her third year of graduate studies, the time to look for a job.
He had previously mentioned putting in a word for her at a listed major company. However, when Tang Man heard this, her expression was cold. She didn't accept his goodwill. Du Henian had assumed his girlfriend didn't want to find a job yet, so he didn't dare say more, afraid of annoying her. He never expected that she had gone and applied to companies herself.