20. The Truth

“Get to the point,” Xiaobao urged impatiently.

“Don’t interrupt,” Jia Yan remained unfazed. “Among all the beautiful women, I saw one as ethereal as a goddess—though, of course, still not quite as stunning as my Sophie—sitting alone, drinking. He Mian, who never showed any interest in women, suddenly claimed he liked her. That was you, Su Yun. And here’s the key part: within less than a minute, He Mian had already charmed Su Yun away.”

A sudden realization dawned on Xiaobao. So it was all due to beauty—no hero can resist a fair maiden, just as the ancients said.

Su Yun, however, focused on the phrase “He Mian never showed any interest in women.” Did that mean He Mian had never been with a woman before her?

“He never had a girlfriend before?” Su Yun asked tactfully. “Aren’t you two friends?”

“Yeah, we are. Wait, what’s that supposed to mean—what’s wrong with being my friend?” Jia Yan caught the note of disdain in Su Yun’s question.

Su Yun realized she’d misspoken, unwittingly letting an inconvenient truth slip.

Jia Yan let it slide. “He Mian is always so aloof; women always approach him, never the other way around. It’s rare for him to take the initiative. Treasure it.”

“Yes,” Xiaobao agreed, nodding.

“I saw him a while ago, accompanying a woman to the hospital for…” Su Yun recalled their first encounter at the hospital.

“Impossible,” Xiaobao cut her off immediately.

Jia Yan lowered his voice. “Ahem, that was actually my date. He Mian went in my place.”

Even after digesting this, Su Yun found it hard to believe. With such practiced skill in bed and in kissing, could he really have reached that level without a hundred or two hundred tries?

Or was He Mian, by their standards, actually considered inexperienced?

Su Yun also remembered how He Mian hadn’t known how to use a condom—he really hadn’t seemed like he was pretending.

“So there’s truly no woman who’s been close to He Mian?” Su Yun wondered aloud. Not even his mother?

Jia Yan sifted through every memory he had of He Mian, then shook his head solemnly.

Xiaobao hesitated for a moment. “Well, if I had to say, there is one.”

Su Yun and Jia Yan’s curiosity piqued. “Who?”

“I’ve seen He Mian on the phone several times. He was very patient, and the voice on the other end was a woman’s. I suspect, that call he just took…”

“What are you talking about?”

The three of them, as if sharing a top-secret revelation amid the noisy music, had their heads close together, listening intently. The sudden question from their subject startled them all.

Sophie had finished her song and came down from the stage, pouting at Jia Yan, “You weren’t even listening to me sing.”

Jia Yan quickly began to placate her again.

Meanwhile, Su Yun glossed over the previous topic. “Nothing important—Xiaobao was just giving me some work advice.”

He Mian’s expression remained unreadable. He sat next to Su Yun, pulled her into his arms, his hand tracing along her waist. “Mind how you address him.”

Remembering the argument their terms of address had sparked, Su Yun didn’t insist. “Xiaobao, Xiaobao, all right?”

Xiaobao looked at the two couples before him, then at his own solitary self, and, feeling frustrated, took the stage to vent with a song.

The song: “Lonely Warrior.”

—

Before ten o’clock, everyone went their separate ways.

Jia Yan handed his car keys to Sophie and took the passenger seat, the two of them driving off together.

Xiaobao, lacking any sense of timing, insisted on catching a ride with He Mian. He Mian handed him a hundred yuan. “Get a cab.”

With that, He Mian and Su Yun got into the car and told the driver to go.

Xiaobao was left choking on exhaust fumes, cursing under his breath. “Chasing after women and abandoning your friends. Hey, a hundred isn’t enough!”

Inside the car, He Mian raised the partition. Su Yun could clearly smell the alcohol on him; he’d had quite a lot to drink earlier.

“You all right?” Su Yun searched for something to say, sensing that the mood was a little strange.

Though He Mian had a slight flush from the alcohol, it wasn’t obvious. He undid the top button of his shirt, his Adam’s apple bobbing as his gaze grew hazy, fixed on Su Yun.