Fu'an Cemetery

Zhang Xiu'e took Chen Yuan around two streets and into a phone shop.

The shop was fairly spacious, with rows of glass counters wiped spotlessly clean. Inside were all kinds of phones, from expensive models costing thousands of yuan to cheap ones that cost a few hundred.

Chen Yuan leaned over the counter, his eyes lighting up instantly.

A sales clerk came over and asked, "What price range are you looking for?"

"Something cheap," Zhang Xiu'e said. "As long as it works."

The clerk took out several phones and lined them up. Six hundred, eight hundred, a thousand.

Chen Yuan picked them up and examined them one by one, finally choosing one that cost six hundred and thirty yuan. It was black, with a fairly small screen, but it felt solid and satisfyingly heavy in his hand.

"I'll take this one."

Standing beside him, Zhang Xiu'e smiled slightly. "Don't you want to pick something a little more expensive?"

Chen Yuan shook his head. "This one's good enough."

After they paid, the clerk asked, "Do you need a SIM card? We can set one up here."

"Yes, please," Zhang Xiu'e said.

Then came another round of procedures: taking out his ID to register, choosing a number, and paying. After more than twenty minutes of fussing, it was finally done.

Chen Yuan held the phone, reluctant to put it down.

He kept fiddling with it, even opening the camera to take a picture of the shop.

Zhang Xiu'e laughed beside him. "All right, you can look at it outside."

They left the shop. There were a few steps at the entrance, and Zhang Xiu'e plopped down on them.

"Sit!" She patted the spot beside her.

Chen Yuan sat down right next to Zhang Xiu'e.

Zhang Xiu'e took her own phone out of her bag and leaned closer.

"Come on, give me your number."

Chen Yuan recited his new number, and Zhang Xiu'e saved it in her contacts.

"All right, I'll call you. Save my number too."

Chen Yuan's phone rang, and a string of numbers appeared on the screen.

Resting her chin on her hand, Zhang Xiu'e tilted her head to watch him. "Saved it yet?"

Chen Yuan clumsily saved the number under the name Sister Ezi.

"Yuan, how much money did you bring with you this time?"

Chen Yuan thought for a moment. "Grandpa gave me three thousand two hundred. The ticket and phone cost a little over eight hundred."

"So you've got twenty-four or twenty-five hundred left?"

"Yeah."

Zhang Xiu'e looked at him and said seriously:

"Be careful with your money. It wasn't easy for Grandpa to save all that. Who knows how long it took him."

"I know."

Smiling, Zhang Xiu'e reached out and ruffled his hair.

"But don't worry too much. Things will be better once you find a job in a few days. If you're lucky and find one that includes meals and accommodation, you won't really have to spend anything."

Just then, a car passing along the road caught Chen Yuan's attention.

It was black and exceptionally long, with a little winged figure standing on the hood, gleaming in the sunlight.

The car wasn't going fast, gliding slowly past them. Its body was polished to a shine, and the windows were so dark that he couldn't make out who was inside.

Chen Yuan stared after it until it was far away before finally looking back.

"That car's really nice."

Zhang Xiu'e glanced at it and rolled her eyes.

"Nice? That's a Rolls-Royce Phantom. Of course it's nice."

Chen Yuan froze for a moment. "A what?"

"A Rolls-Royce Phantom," Zhang Xiu'e said, enunciating each word. "One of those costs several million."

Chen Yuan's eyes flew wide open!

"Several million?"

"More than that! That thing costs six or seven million, and even more once it's on the road. You've certainly got an eye for them. You picked out the most expensive one at a glance."

Chen Yuan's mouth hung open, and for a long moment, he couldn't say a word.

Six or seven million?

How long would I have to save to buy a car like that? Probably couldn't save enough in my whole life.

Inside the Rolls-Royce Phantom, Lin Nianwei sat in the back seat.

She had just finished discussing business with a partner and was heading back to the office. As the streets flashed past outside the window, Lin Nianwei cast a casual glance out.

Two people were sitting on the steps outside a phone shop.

Lin Nianwei looked away and said toward the front, "Quan, change of plans."

Chen Quan sat in the front passenger seat. He turned around. "Yes, miss?"

"I want to visit my child."

Chen Quan paused, then nodded. "Of course."

He told the driver, "Go to Fu'an Cemetery."

The driver acknowledged him and changed direction at the intersection ahead.

Chen Quan turned back to face the road, sighing inwardly.

Whenever the young lady was in a bad mood, she went to visit her child.

Then another thought occurred to him. That child would be eighteen by now.

Lin Nianwei leaned back in her seat, looking out the window.

The car left the city and headed toward the outskirts. The buildings along the road gradually grew shorter, and more trees appeared.

She thought again of eighteen years ago.

She had lost consciousness while giving birth, but when she woke up, her father told her the baby had died!

In the end, she had believed him, because that man had buried the child with his own hands.

Every time she thought about it, something seemed to lodge in Lin Nianwei's chest, leaving her unable to breathe.

The car stopped at the entrance to Fu'an Cemetery.

Chen Quan got out and opened the door for Lin Nianwei.

"We're here, miss."

The cemetery was quiet, with pines and cypresses standing in rows. She walked up to a headstone and suddenly stopped.

A few words were engraved on it: Grave of our beloved son, Chen Nianzhi.

There was no photograph, no date of birth or death.

Lin Nianwei crouched down and gently stroked the headstone, her eyes filled with longing.

Chen Quan stood at a distance, a tangle of emotions churning inside him.

Eighteen years.

The young lady had gone from that lively, cheerful girl to the woman she was now.

Outsiders called her the Ice Queen, saying she was cold as frost and ruthless in her methods. Through her efforts alone, she had forged the Yuanda Group into a business empire with assets worth a trillion yuan.

But he knew she had simply locked away all her warmth with the child who had died.

The Yuanda Group was now one of China's leading companies. Real estate, finance, technology—it did everything. Its market value exceeded a trillion yuan, and it employed well over a hundred thousand people.

Lin Zhengye had long since stopped managing the business, remaining chairman in name only. The one truly running things was Lin Nianwei.

But what did any of that matter?

The young lady still hadn't married.

To outsiders, she was glamorous and successful, a female CEO worth a hundred billion yuan whom everyone called a queen.

But only Chen Quan knew that, in truth, the young lady had always been utterly alone.

He thought of what Lin Zhengye had done back then.

He had sent the child away and substituted a dead baby to deceive her.

Lin Zhengye had believed time would heal everything. He had thought that after a few years, she would marry into a good family, have a few more children, and slowly forget.

But he had miscalculated.

It wasn't as though the young lady had lacked suitors over the years. So many sons of wealthy families, so many talented young men, had lined up hoping to marry her. Yet she refused to meet a single one.

It wasn't that she didn't want to meet them.

It was that the place in her heart had always been occupied by that child who had died, leaving no room for anyone else.

Chen Quan watched Lin Nianwei's back as she crouched before the headstone and sighed softly.

Lin Zhengye had always thought he was protecting his daughter.

Yet he had never realized that some wounds simply couldn't be healed by time.

Lin Nianwei stood up.

She took one last look at the headstone, then turned to leave.

After a few steps, Lin Nianwei suddenly asked, "Quan, do you think people really have souls after they die?"

Chen Quan froze for a moment.

"Miss, well..."

Before he could answer, Lin Nianwei shook her head.

"Never mind. Forget I asked."

She got into the car, and the door was closed behind her.

Chen Quan returned to the front passenger seat and told the driver, "Back to the office."

The car slowly pulled out of the cemetery.

Lin Nianwei leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes.

Sunlight streamed through the window, casting dappled shadows across her face.