After Reuniting, My Beautiful Ex-Lover Fishes for Me Every Day - Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Chance Encounter

Wei Changli was speechless; there seemed to be no further room for negotiation.

Just then, the half-closed door of the CEO’s office was pushed open slightly from the outside. Min Hua, now in clean clothes, stepped in. He first cast a worried glance at Wei Changli before running to Pei Che’s side.

Pei Che bent down and picked him up: “Why did you come over?”

Min Hua: “Little Uncle told me to come rescue you.”

Pei Che reached out and flicked the child’s slightly upturned nose, then turned to Wei Changli: “Pardon us, we have matters to attend to this evening. Please, help yourself out.”

The dismissal in the man’s words was crystal clear. Wei Changli had no intention of lingering; he maintained his composure, said his goodbyes, and left.

The solid wood door closed with a muffled thud. Min Hua, leaning over Pei Che’s shoulder, watched him leave. The child’s eyes brimmed with a clean, pure sadness as he quietly buried his face in the man’s shoulder.

“I don’t think that big brother is a bad person,” the child whispered after a moment.

Pei Che gently patted Min Hua’s back. The defensiveness in his eyes did not waver, but his tone toward the child was unexpectedly soft: “But the Wei family is very dangerous.”

Min Hua silently hugged Pei Che’s neck. A moment later, as if remembering something, he suddenly mentioned: “Oh right! Little Uncle contacted Auntie Gloria to come over. When he called just now to reschedule, Auntie had already arrived, and she said she brought a friend along.”

“Is that so?” Pei Che’s expression turned serious. Holding the child, he looked down through the massive floor-to-ceiling window of the CEO’s office. He caught sight of a low-profile black Mercedes G-Wagon approaching from a distance, pulling into the business reception area below.

…

Meanwhile, Wei Changli stood inside the elevator, using the descent to adjust his emotions.

In truth, he wasn’t exactly devastated. This trip had indeed been a gamble. Taking a “leap of faith” always comes with various uncertain risks; being rejected was one of the expected outcomes. He planned to be more pragmatic from now on—find a job with a lower threshold but stable income first, then plan for the future.

However…

As he felt the weightlessness of the downward motion, Wei Changli toyed with the returned USB drive in his hand. His gaze rested idly on a point in the void, flashing back through the recent scenes frame by frame like a movie.

What truly felt like a thorn in his throat was their subtle, resistant reaction upon hearing his identity.

With a ding, the tin-can-like elevator cabin slid to the first floor. Wei Changli stepped out of the elevator like an expired product being returned, having gained nothing.

After walking just a few paces, his sharp, refined eyes suddenly narrowed, revealing a hint of scrutiny.

Not far away, two familiar figures were walking side by side. Both wore well-tailored, dignified overcoats, and each carried a metal box engraved with hidden floral patterns.

Yan Xu and Yan Yufan.

Wei Changli’s brows knitted, an indescribable expression appearing on his face.

The two opposite him clearly noticed him as well. Yan Yufan caught her brother’s reaction with a lightning-fast glance.

“What a coincidence.” Realizing this encounter was nearly unavoidable, Wei Changli shoved his hands into his pockets and walked up to them, giving a half-smile greeting.

After a fleeting moment of surprise, Yan Xu’s gaze turned peaceful. However, because Wei Changli hurriedly looked away, he didn’t catch it.

Having not seen each other for an entire month, Wei Changli couldn’t tell if this meeting was a “pure accident” or a “calculated encounter.” He didn’t want to overthink it; he only wanted to leave as quickly as possible without showing any cracks of failure or dejection.

As he tried to brush past the siblings, Yan Xu’s voice called him to a halt.

Wei Changli looked up, finally meeting those calm, profound eyes.

In the brief moment he was stunned, the man said nothing more. Instead, he took a step toward him.

Yan Xu’s highly enchanting face often made people overlook his tall and upright stature. By the time Wei Changli realized he was completely enveloped in shadow and thought to step back, the man had already knelt before him. On one knee, he reached down to re-tie Wei Changli’s shoelaces, which had come undone at some point.

Wei Changli looked down at the man’s bound long hair, draped like black ink across his back. He caught the scent of Epiphyllum (Queen of the Night) naturally clinging to him; his chest felt inexplicably itchy.

The next moment, Yan Xu stood up. Those beautiful eyes held a hint of an indescribable emotion.

Wei Changli felt his visual perception snagged by that high-impact beauty.

“…”

After a long silence, the recovered Wei Changli gave a faint smirk, turned around, and quickened his pace to leave.

Yan Xu didn’t stop him. Only after watching the youth turn the corner into a blind spot did he say to his stunned sister, “Let’s go up.”

The two stepped into the elevator together. Not far away, Wei Changli, who had turned the corner, silently stepped out from behind a massive water-curtain wall. He watched from a distance as the numbers on the elevator display ticked upward, stopping at a very familiar floor.

The youth said nothing, but his brow gradually furrowed.

… 

Leaving the Zhuohua headquarters, Wei Changli took the subway and transferred to the old district of Ningcheng. He didn’t go straight back to his rental; instead, he crossed a muddy path filled with trash and sewage, turning into a “black” (unlicensed) internet cafe that didn’t even have a storefront sign.

This was a place he had accidentally discovered while looking for his cat recently. The management was poor, and it was often filled with social youths staying overnight, but its only merit was the cheap price.

Wei Changli paid the 2-yuan fee, walked past rows of machines shrouded in the suffocating smog of alcohol and nicotine, found a relatively quiet corner, and booted up the computer.

He clicked the mouse, and a blank search bar popped up in the browser. Perhaps because this hellhole had the AC set to 16°C despite it being autumn, Wei Changli felt an inexplicable shiver.

Ningcheng, Wei Family, Wei Changjun.

The former Young Master Wei entered those familiar keywords for the first time in a long while. A massive surge of information billowed forth, carrying a wave of malicious, obscured rumors.

The Wei Family under investigation for major economic crimes, key executives surrendering, Wei Changjun fleeing abroad by sea, Wei family assets permanently seized…

These news stories, which he had seen too many times since the incident, did not catch his attention. He skimmed through them rapidly. Once certain he hadn’t found any useful new information, he tapped the keyboard and entered two names: “Pei Che” and “Min Zhuozhou.”

Their names were easy to find online. Wei Changli first skimmed their bios—Pei Che was the only son of the Pei family, a successful young elite in Ningcheng. Min Zhuozhou was once a highly famous actor who had later retired from the industry for personal reasons.

Wei Changli’s eyes lifted slightly; he finally understood why Min Zhuozhou had looked familiar at first sight. However, since he had studied the more theoretical side of drama and literature in university, they were only distantly related in the industry.

The youth quietly continued scrolling down the page. As expected, the public information for both Pei and Min had been scrubbed very clean. At first glance, there were no issues and no connection to the Wei family whatsoever.

Thud. A sudden sound erupted from the table next to him.

Wei Changli followed the sound and saw a young boy wearing a pressed-down cap and a face mask. He had tossed his headphones onto the table and was nonchalantly starting up his computer.

Apparently, it was another customer looking for a quiet place to surf.

The boy noticed Wei Changli’s gaze and turned his head. He was fully geared up, revealing only a pair of peach-blossom eyes that seemed to carry a hint of a smile before he even spoke.

He pressed his hands together in a prayer gesture in front of his mask. Two symmetrical red moles sat at the outer corners of his eyes, dancing vibrantly as his eyes crinkled: “Big brother, it’s too noisy outside. Can I sit next to you for a bit?”

The boy’s voice was very pleasant. He unzipped a bulging backpack and rummaged through it for a while before pulling out two lychee-flavored lollipops, attempting to “bribe” Wei Changli with great sincerity:

“Have some candy, want one?”

Wei Changli spared a glance and realized the candy the kid pulled out was indeed the brand he used to like years ago. However, he had always found lychee flavor too cloying and never touched it back then; he wasn’t about to accept the favor now either.

He said nothing, turning his gaze back to the monitor, silently permitting the boy to sit there. They didn’t bother each other.

The boy wasn’t annoying either. He unwrapped a lollipop, popped it into his mouth with delight, and started a game—the very image of an internet-addicted youth driven to the edge by his family.

Wei Changli continued to browse the search results but still found nothing of significance. Meanwhile, the boy next to him was rustling through snack bags: Wangwang, Leibì, Leshi, Weilong, and the classic timeless Orio and Kangshuaifu—it looked like he had cleared out the counterfeit snacks from the internet cafe counter.

Wei Changli was a bit distracted by the noise and couldn’t help but glance at the boy again.

The boy was oblivious, wearing over-ear headphones and playing his game. He occasionally hammered the keyboard fiercely, muttering local slang—he seemed to be in the middle of a heated argument with netizens on a forum.

The Wei family of the past had certain elitist habits typical of old money, viewing internet surfing as a lower-class pastime. Having grown up in such an environment, Wei Changli now looked almost blankly at the comments frantically scrolling across the neighboring screen.

The massive, chaotic influx of information was like a blue ocean he had never explored—full of abstract, exciting, half-true, and difficult-to-verify rumors. Every time the screen scrolled, it stimulated Wei Changli’s visual nerves.

In a sudden moment, a spark of inspiration forced its way into his mind, exploding like a firework.

Wei Changli silently exited the rigid, formal news sections and cleared his search history. He then searched for several well-known social media app interfaces. He logged into a community account with some unfamiliarity and re-entered the keywords he wanted to find.

The initial results were similar to what he had found before. However, relying on the “great” big-data recommendation algorithms of the modern internet age, more and more related tags were soon bundled and delivered to the new user.

Wei Changli’s eyes remained solemn as he kept refreshing. Suddenly, an internet exposé hidden in the corner of numerous posts caught his eye. The youth’s movement of scrolling the mouse wheel stopped abruptly.