Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the night lights of Ningcheng were brilliant. Seen from above, when the wind blew, the lights looked like golden sand flowing in the city’s mid-air.

Lin Yueshu walked down the long corridor outside the CEO’s office on the 51st floor of the Mingde Building. After a month, she once again felt a long-lost sense of pressure. In the past, the thought of facing Sheng Shaoyan always made her anxious, her nerves taut with the fear of saying or doing the wrong thing. Unexpectedly, she now felt a sense of reassurance.

Over the past month, her workload had doubled. Not only did she have to maintain a poker face to fool the bigwigs on the board, but she also had to deal with inquiries from all sides and reporters who were everywhere. She was mentally and physically exhausted. If it weren’t for periodically glancing at her paycheck and account balance to keep herself going, she really couldn’t have continued this job.

She exchanged a look with the CEO’s special assistant, Yu Zhou, who was walking beside her. Both felt a mutual sympathy. Who could understand? Their own top boss suddenly sent a text message, only saying he had been attacked and was not completely out of danger yet. Daily affairs were to be temporarily handled by her and three other senior executives, and he would contact them later. And then he went off the grid!

She and the other three executives all received this message. Yu Zhou and President Sheng’s personal butler also received a message, the contents of which she didn’t know, but when they met, they all saw the worry in each other’s eyes. They stayed up all night making several contingency plans, just waiting for Sheng Shaoyan to contact them again to provide support as quickly as possible. Unexpectedly, they waited for a full month. The six of them cooperated and kept each other in check. There were basically no major issues, but as long as there was no news from Sheng Shaoyan, they couldn’t rest easy for a single day. They were Sheng Shaoyan’s direct subordinates. If anything happened to Sheng Shaoyan, there would be no place for them in the Sheng Corporation.

Lin Yueshu, with her long hair over her shoulders and walking steadily in her stilettos, curled her lips and said in a low voice, “When I think back to the emergency board meeting this morning and the looks on those bigwigs’ faces when they saw President Sheng appear… tsk, it was truly a colorful and spectacular sight. If only I could have taken a picture!”

Yu Zhou laughed at her. “Those people caused a lot of trouble. You’ve been grumbling for so long, are you feeling better now?”

“You dare say you’re not angry? You haven’t written their names down in your little black book? Especially Mr. Sheng Junhong, who was fuming inside but still had to smile and stand up, watching President Sheng take the main seat at the conference table. The satisfaction level was maxed out.” Lin Yueshu grew curious again. “I wonder where President Sheng was hiding for the past month and what he was doing. Didn’t Sheng Junhong send out several groups of people? They couldn’t find a single trace. He’s too good at hiding.”

After chatting about some investment banking gossip, they were just a few steps from the CEO’s office door. Without needing a reminder, Lin Yueshu stopped talking, straightened her light-colored suit, and knocked before entering.

After reporting on the main tasks she had handled over the past month, Lin Yueshu looked at the young man sitting behind the desk. He had his long legs crossed, was dressed in a black, custom-made suit with a sapphire scepter-shaped lapel pin. He looked like a dagger on a bed of silk—precious and sharp.

Sheng Shaoyan listed a few names without any obvious emotion. “Replace them.”

They were all people who had sided with Sheng Junhong before this emergency board meeting. He couldn’t touch the shareholders for now, but firing all the subordinates was no different from a slap in the face. Lin Yueshu strongly approved of this approach and readily agreed. “I understand.”

The few of them unanimously believed that going missing for a month was President Sheng’s plan to lure the snakes out of their holes. It was a way to see what those around him were really thinking, who supported him, who opposed him, who was loyal, and who was disloyal. People like Sheng Shaoyan, who possessed both a formidable mind and an incredibly prominent family, pushed the autocratic and rational aspects of human nature to their limits. The slightest betrayal was a major taboo. It was foreseeable that the group would face a large number of personnel transfers and promotions internally.

After Yu Zhou also finished his report, Sheng Shaoyan lifted his wrist. The time was already close to ten o’clock. “Let’s go. Time to get off work.”

Outside the office was a corridor made of white steel frames and glass. Sheng Shaoyan’s gaze swept over the scenery outside the building, and he felt a trace of unfamiliarity. A month could be said to be an incredibly short period, yet it left him full of contradiction and a sense of fragmentation to this day.

With the recovery of his memory, the vast memory bank of over twenty years and his long-formed personality engulfed and dissolved the amnesiac Sheng Shaoyan of the past month like a tidal wave, taking control once again. He analyzed his own behavior after losing his memory as if he were analyzing a case. Humans instinctively search for their social connections to answer the question “Who am I?” in order to anchor themselves. And Shen Xici was the anchor within his reach when he woke up. Therefore, it was understandable that he used Shen Xici as a center point to guess his past and plan his future. It was even unsurprising that he had come to like Shen Xici in such a situation.

The only thing was, Shen Xici was too suspicious. He wasn’t one of his second uncle Sheng Junhong’s men, but his purpose was unclear, his motive unknown. Since his memory had returned, he shouldn’t like him.

However, no matter how rationally he analyzed it one second, the next, as soon as he thought of this person, Shen Xici’s smiling eyes, the tip of his nose slightly reddened by the morning mountain wind, the repeated calls of “A’Shao,” and the moist corner of his lips that he had kissed in a dream would appear in his mind. Emotion would immediately suppress reason and take the upper hand.

The black leather shoes stepped on the ground. At this moment, the decisive and clean footsteps suddenly stopped. In the reflection on the glass curtain wall, a familiar figure appeared. Sheng Shaoyan’s eyes narrowed, and he suddenly turned to the other side.

A thin screen hung on the corridor wall, always playing on mute to reduce distractions. The screen was replaying the news. A female host held a microphone against the backdrop of an ethnic minority village. In the shot, people in traditional clothing were singing and dancing. Even without sound, one could feel the joyful atmosphere. The subtitles showed the female host introducing: “The leaf flute, also known as leaf blowing, can be said to be the simplest and most ancient musical instrument… Today, at our Ling people’s Cliff Song Festival, a leaf blowing competition was held. Standing next to me is the gold medal winner of this competition. Come, say hello to our audience!”

The person he had just been thinking about appeared on the screen, took the microphone from the host, and said, “Hello, everyone.”

Sheng Shaoyan stared intently. Shen Xici was wearing a black, ethnic-style robe. The collar and lapels were embroidered with traditional patterns in delicate stitches. It was well-tailored, with the hem falling at his knees. He was already tall with long legs, and with the cloth boots on his feet reaching mid-calf and tightly laced, just standing there, he exuded an air of nobility, like the young chief of a tribe from some great mountain.

Lin Yueshu and Special Assistant Yu Zhou, following behind, saw Sheng Shaoyan stop and also looked at the TV screen.

The female host asked, “Very few people learn to play the leaf flute these days. You’re the youngest contestant. May I ask what made you decide to participate in this competition?”

Shen Xici answered honestly, “I learned to play the leaf from an old lady. Her lungs aren’t very good, so she couldn’t participate in the competition. She asked me to help out, to support her among her old sisters and show off what I’ve learned.”

The female host added, “And you didn’t expect to win first place, right?”

Shen Xici nodded, a little embarrassed. “Right.”

Lin Yueshu gave Yu Zhou a look, and he also shook his head. Both found it strange. President Sheng had been missing for a month, so why was he suddenly interested in news about traditional ethnic culture? They knew that in the past, unless the TV was reporting on the bankruptcy of some Wall Street investment bank or that a Sheng Corporation mining site had been bombed, nothing would ever make Sheng Shaoyan stop and watch.

The screen cut back to the studio for the next news story. Sheng Shaoyan started walking forward and silently entered the elevator.

The black Maybach drove out of the Mingde Building and merged into the nighttime traffic. Sheng Shaoyan stared at the neon lights outside the window for a while before taking out his phone and opening Weibo. On the trending list, not far down, he saw a topic called #CliffSongFestivalGodlyLooks#.

The cause was someone who had screenshotted the news broadcast and posted it on Weibo.
“I was just casually watching the news when I was suddenly struck right between the eyes by beauty… Other people: focus on traditional ethnic minority culture. Me: focus on the evolution of high-tier human aesthetics. [Image][Image][Image]”
“——The news station’s HD close-up shot proves he’s really handsome! The news stations are really fighting for ratings. The female host must be thinking, this year’s KPI is about to be completed, right?”
“——Before clicking: Heh, godly looks? I already had my insults ready for the clickbait title. After clicking: Holy crap, so handsome! But, why does this person look like my bias?”
“——When you see a face like this on the news, what do you think I’ll do? A. Shout ‘hubby’. B. Watch the news seriously, and then shout ‘hubby’.”

This time, the official Weibo account for “Mountain Range Line” reacted very quickly.
“Here to claim our actor! After the bird-watching grandpa, the crew’s publicity worker suddenly saw our actor @ShenXici on the trending list again and thought they were NOT! A! WAKE! Because of his role, he temporarily learned to play the leaf flute, and to support an old lady, he participated in a leaf flute competition on the day he wrapped filming and won the gold medal… such unfamiliar sentences [doge face]”

The comment section was full of “hahaha”s and tags for Shen Xici, very lively.

The car window insulated him from the outside noise. The warm yellow light of the streetlamps fell into the car, reminding him of the dappled sunlight as the motorcycle passed through the forest. Sheng Shaoyan thought, just like how he would find spatholobus stem for the fruit-selling old lady, go to the village outside the county to get wild Polygonatum, and agree to participate in the Cliff Song Festival competition to help her save face, Shen Xici would also tirelessly check the lighting rigs on set for the not-so-familiar Old Ji, and prepare stomach medicine for Lan Xiaoshan, reminding him at regular times.

Shen Xici saving him, taking him in, perhaps it wasn’t out of a conspiracy, without any ulterior motives, and for no other reason than that he just happened to save him.

But as soon as this thought emerged, Sheng Shaoyan immediately felt a sense of irritation and suffocation. No, it definitely couldn’t be like that.

Finding that news clip, Sheng Shaoyan watched Shen Xici’s short two-to-three-minute interview over and over again from beginning to end. Finally, in a certain frame that the camera swept over, he saw what he was looking for.

At Shen Xici’s gathered cuff, a hint of blue was vaguely visible, and on his left middle finger, the silver-white ring was still there.

The cut Sheng Shaoyan had gotten from the wire-drawing carving knife while making the ring suddenly ached and burned, as if licked by a flame.

Shen Xici was still wearing the crystal bracelet and ring he had given him.

On that ring, the fingerprint he had left on the inside was now pressed tightly against Shen Xici’s skin.