Dating Myself - Chapter 46

“Sister Han?”

An Mu was stunned for a moment. Behind her, the elevator doors rumbled and slowly closed. The silver-gray doors reflected her back and Chen Han’s pure-white, off-the-shoulder thin sweater.

Chen Han smiled slightly, her gold-rimmed glasses shimmering. Her gaze lightly swept over An Mu’s phone, and though An Mu didn’t know if she saw clearly, her expression showed no change.

“Finished your exam?”

“You knew I had an exam today?”

“Mmm, I heard.”

“Heard from who?”

“I landed this morning. I went to your school around noon and heard it from the security guard.”

An Mu frowned slightly. She didn’t like the feeling of being monitored, but she also knew that since she had changed her phone number and was very slow to reply to private messages, Chen Han probably couldn’t reach her, which was why she went to the school.

An Mu asked, “Why the sudden return to China? Is something wrong?”

Chen Han reached out and put her arm around An Mu’s shoulder, guiding her to the side.

“Don’t stand here; you’ll block people getting off the elevator.”

An Mu glanced back. On the digital board, the elevator floor numbers were still changing. Although this floor had only two units, the possibility of running into a neighbor wasn’t high, but she couldn’t guarantee she wouldn’t block someone.

An Mu, with her backpack slung across her body, the express package, and her phone, turned and walked towards her apartment door.

“Come inside and sit down first.”

The house was empty. The housekeeper typically came around nine in the morning and would leave after cleaning, coming twice a week.

An Mu handed Chen Han a pair of guest disposable slippers, casually put down her backpack and the package, changed her own shoes, and stepped inside.

An Mu brewed the simplest black tea and brought it out. Before she could even peel an apple for her, Chen Han walked into the kitchen, reached out, took the apple from her hand, and bit directly into it, skin and all.

The skin was still wet from being washed. Her thin, red lips were moistened, making them look even softer and shinier.

“With your knife skills, half of this apple would go to waste by the time you finished peeling it. Just eat it like this.”

An Mu was about to cut an orange, but Chen Han took her arm and led her out of the kitchen.

“Don’t bother. I have something I want to talk to you about.”

An Mu’s body did not reject Chen Han, so An Mu didn’t overreact. They were both women, so there was nothing to fuss over; being overly cautious would only make things awkward. Besides, they had linked arms and done similar things while shopping the other day.

The two sat down on the sofa. Chen Han held the unpeeled apple, eating it with composure. An Mu took a sip of her black tea. The living room was quiet; all they could hear was the sound of chewing and sipping tea.

“You still haven’t said why you suddenly came back to China.”

“It’s not sudden. I was thinking about returning to China during the New Year. Didn’t I even ask you about it then?”

An Mu turned to look at her. “Are you saying… you haven’t returned temporarily, but you plan to come back and stay?”

“Not entirely. After all, my contract with the company doesn’t expire until October. I still need to fulfill my design obligations during this period, but I don’t need to do the cutting and tailoring myself. I just need to submit the design sketches. So, I came back. If something truly urgent comes up, they’ll contact me in advance, and I’ll go back then.”

An Mu found this somewhat difficult to understand.

“It’s already April. The contract expires in another six months. Why didn’t you wait until it expired before coming back? Or is there something especially important you need to do in China?”

Chen Han crossed her legs, leaning elegantly against the back of the sofa. She shook the apple in her hand and smiled at An Mu. “You guessed right. There is indeed something important. During the New Year, I forgot to eat our local Chinese apples. No matter how many I ate in France, they didn’t taste right, so I hurried back.”

An Mu could tell she was hinting at something, but she was too lazy to analyze what it was. It wasn’t important to her, and she didn’t care.

“Sister Han is always meticulous in her work. Since you’ve made the decision, there shouldn’t be any problem.”

Chen Han gave her a sideways glance, swallowed the apple in her mouth, and said, “I did come back to China to eat apples, but I really didn’t need to be in such a rush. I hurried for two months to finish my work, rushing just so I wouldn’t miss coming back today.”

“Today… is there anything special about it?”

“Not today; tomorrow is.”

“What about tomorrow?”

Chen Han put down the half-eaten apple, rested the back of her hand on her knee, and stared intently at An Mu with slightly narrowed eyes. The smile on her lips gradually faded, and the way she looked at her was inexplicably strange.

An Mu felt a little uneasy under her gaze but didn’t show it, simply putting down her teacup and stating calmly, “Sister Han should know I have amnesia. I don’t remember anything from before.”

Chen Han continued to stare at her, her eyes not moving away even slightly.

“Your amnesia is quite thorough; you don’t even remember your own birthday.”

Birthday?

An Mu silently recalled her original identity’s ID number. It really was tomorrow.

She hadn’t celebrated a birthday in over ten years and subconsciously felt it was completely unimportant, so she hadn’t paid attention to the date.

Speaking of which, the day Jian Yixi sent her the family banquet photo seemed to be Jian Yixi’s birthday, which was also An Mu’s lunar birthday in her past life.

Why didn’t Jian Yixi say anything?

Perhaps… Jian Yixi was too shy to mention her birthday, especially since it was the winter break, and neither she nor Maomao was around. If they couldn’t gather to celebrate, Jian Yixi was even more reluctant to bring it up.

“I really don’t remember that, nor did my parents mention it. Plus, studying has been so intense, I haven’t had the headspace to worry about it.”

Chen Han silently watched her, her eyes not carrying the usual warmth, but a hint of sharpness and scrutiny, as if she wanted to pierce An Mu’s flesh and see into her soul, to definitively verify whether she truly had amnesia or was just avoiding things.

“Sister Han?”

An Mu pretended not to notice anything, breaking the silence once more.

Only then did Chen Han look away, bite into the apple, chew with pursed lips, and swallow. She then lifted her eyes to look at An Mu again, her gaze returning to its characteristic calmness and gentleness.

“You once said that your family only celebrates birthdays based on the lunar calendar, and your birthday party is held on that day. Only I would celebrate the birthday on the solar calendar date with you separately.”

As soon as she finished speaking, a voice call popped up on An Mu’s phone—it was Liang Sirui.

An Mu hesitated for a moment, apologized to Chen Han for taking a call, and walked to the balcony with her phone.

As soon as she answered the video call, Liang Sirui’s voice burst out.

“I just finished class! Yes, that’s what I sent you! I was worried it wouldn’t arrive on time, but it seems it’s just right! Happy Birthday in advance! Don’t turn your phone off at midnight! I want to say it again!”

The express package was a birthday gift?

An Mu subconsciously turned her head to look at Chen Han in the living room.

What had she just said? That only she celebrated An Mu’s birthday on the solar calendar date separately?

Chen Han looked up, meeting her gaze, and smiled as she got up and walked over.

“Why do you keep looking at me? Is something wrong?”

—I only looked at you once.

Chen Han was clearly using this as an excuse to come over.

Liang Sirui was very perceptive and immediately became alert.

“Who? Who is over there? Why does that sound like Chen Han? No way! She wouldn’t have made a special trip to celebrate your birthday, would she? She…”

Afraid that Liang Sirui would say something inappropriate, An Mu interrupted: “It’s not a special trip; she just happened to be passing through.”

“It is a special trip,” Chen Han interjected. “I didn’t ask you to owe me a favor, so why are you distancing yourself so clearly? It makes my two months of rushing and working seem like a joke.”

“It really is Chen Han!”

On the other side of the video, Liang Sirui’s face slightly changed. She was walking down a school hallway carrying books and suddenly stopped. Her voice dropped significantly.

“An Mu, um, I have to rush to my next class. I’m hanging up. Talk later.”

With that, Liang Sirui, who never hung up a video call until the teacher walked in, actually hung up.

An Mu had expected that, given Liang Sirui’s hot temper, she would explode upon learning that Chen Han was here and had even entered the house. An Mu was worried she’d say something inappropriate, but she hung up just like that.

An Mu stared at the phone for two seconds, deep in thought, before turning back to the living room.

Chen Han followed her in and glanced at the express package on the shoe cabinet. “Did Liang Sirui send that to you?”

“To celebrate your birthday?”

An Mu glanced at Chen Han. She hadn’t brought it up herself for fear of making Chen Han feel awkward, yet Chen Han brought it up herself.

“Aren’t you going to open it? It would be embarrassing if it clashed with my gift.”

Clashed gifts?

An Mu couldn’t tell if she was joking or serious. She picked up the package and cut it open.

Inside the plastic packaging was a regular cardboard express box, which she opened to find it stuffed with foam. Hidden in the foam was a silver-gray, slender box with a French logo shimmering on it.

An Mu took out the box. Before she could open it, Chen Han smiled: “It looks like a match. I wonder if the style clashes, though.”

An Mu gently flipped open the box. Resting on the apricot-white camel wool lining was a silver necklace. The pendant was a hollow gemstone circle in the shape of a Mobius strip, dotted with small diamonds and a few colored gems (red, blue, and green). The individual carats were small, but the piece was exquisite.

The smile on Chen Han’s face faintly diminished. She opened her shoulder bag, took out an identical necklace box, which had no gift wrap, only a pearlescent satin ribbon tied diagonally—simple yet beautiful.

“It truly is a complete match.”

Chen Han didn’t give An Mu the necklace. Her slender, white fingers elegantly pulled open the ribbon, lifted the box lid, took out the identical necklace, and reached out to put it on herself. After a few attempts, she couldn’t fasten the tiny clasp and helplessly lifted her chin toward An Mu.

“Could you help me put it on?”

An Mu stood up, went around the sofa, helped her fasten the necklace, and then returned. Just as she sat down, Chen Han picked up the necklace Liang Sirui had sent her.

“Let me help you put this on too. I’ll get you a different gift tomorrow.”

“No need, I can do it myself.”

An Mu reached for the necklace, but unexpectedly, Chen Han stood up and walked directly around the sofa.

“This clasp is tiny; it’s hard to manage. Let me do it. It’s a chance to return the favor for helping me just now.”

As she spoke, the necklace was already fastened. An Mu touched the hollow gemstone Mobius pendant and also stood up.

“It’s almost seven. Let’s go out and eat.”

Chen Han leaned her elbow on the back of the sofa, her posture slightly stooped, instantly lowering her tall frame.

An Mu looked down at her. Her lowered posture changed An Mu’s visual angle. The off-the-shoulder design highlighted her advantages. Her horizontally-angled collarbones were like a masterfully hand-painted oil painting—lustrous, delicate, alluring, and graceful. This was a stark contrast to her thin, cool lips, yet it didn’t feel out of place; instead, it was somehow strangely fitting, making her every expression beautiful, elegant, and stirring to the heart.

Of course, An Mu’s heart was not stirred. She just unconsciously noted this subtle change and had to admit that Chen Han was indeed a rare beauty.

Chen Han smiled slightly: “I bought some groceries from the supermarket, and they should be delivered soon. No need to go to a restaurant; I’ll cook for you.”

“You?”

“Mmm. Not just today, I’ll cook for you tomorrow too, to celebrate your birthday.”

“This…” An Mu was genuinely surprised. “You don’t need to go to all that trouble. Besides, I should be treating you on my birthday. Let’s go eat out.”

“I’m afraid it’s too late. The groceries will be here any minute. They’ll go bad if we don’t cook them.”

As if to affirm Chen Han’s words, the doorbell rang just before she finished speaking.

“See, the delivery is here.”

Chen Han smiled and went to open the door, but An Mu felt something was amiss.

The complex doesn’t allow couriers in; deliveries are the same. Moreover, deliveries usually call or send a text message if they can’t get through by phone. It’s impossible for them to show up without any prior notice.

Chen Han lived in France for a long time, where deliveries often come directly to the door. It was normal for her not to be familiar with the domestic situation.

Even so, Chen Han didn’t open the door immediately but looked through the peephole first to ensure safety.

“It’s not a delivery.”

It wasn’t, which didn’t surprise An Mu at all.

“Who is it?”

She walked over and also looked through the peephole.

Outside the peephole, Jian Yixi was standing with a backpack and a cake box, looking nervously at the closed door.