Jiang Nanshu walked out of the company building.
She glanced at the golden logo and then thought of Song Ye’s cold and distant face.
It just didn’t match.
Why did he come to this company?
She should have asked earlier, though he probably wouldn’t have answered anyway.
Standing by the entrance, she let the cold wind blow against her for a few minutes.
But the restlessness inside her didn’t go away.
A faint urge to leave resurfaced, and she hovered on the edge of quitting or staying.
Something told her that staying would only lead to trouble.
She walked toward the roadside while texting Cheng Jiajia.
Let’s go for a drink.
Cheng Jiajia was quick to reply, sending her the location of a bar.
I’ll be there in about half an hour.
Wait for me.
The bar wasn’t far.
Jiang Nanshu took a cab and arrived in less than twenty minutes.
She picked a corner seat by the window and ordered two drinks along with some food.
Nearly an hour later, Cheng Jiajia arrived.
As she walked over, she moved strangely head down, hand covering part of her face.
“What are you doing?”
Jiang Nanshu was amused by her sneaky behavior and glanced behind her.
“Did you run into your ex?”
Cheng Jiajia had dated her ex in college.
They went through a long-distance relationship after graduation, breaking up and getting back together multiple times.
In the end, when he transferred to the Jiangcheng branch, they were even planning to buy a house and get engaged until she found out he had been cheating for over a year.
“If I saw that scumbag, I wouldn’t hide.
I’d throw a drink in his face.”
Cheng Jiajia sat down with a huff.
Then she glanced back to check that the people at the two tables behind them couldn’t see or hear them.
Only then did she lower her voice.
“I saw Lin Yao and Xu Hao.”
“…Oh.”
Two old acquaintances.
Lin Yao had been their classmate the closest friend to Song Ye in high school.
Xu Hao was the class president of the neighboring class and had competed alongside Song Ye in academic competitions.
The three had always been tight-knit and probably still kept in touch.
Because of Song Ye, both Jiang Nanshu and Cheng Jiajia were also quite familiar with Lin Yao and Xu Hao.
But they hadn’t seen them since graduation.
In the first couple of years after high school, the class group chat for Grade 11, Class 2 was still lively.
People often organized reunions.
And for two years, there really were annual class gatherings.
But Jiang Nanshu had avoided them all to steer clear of Song Ye.
By junior year of college, the group chat had quieted down.
Then, in senior year, it briefly became active again due to discussions about grad school exams and internships.
But as the years passed and everyone spread across different cities, work took over, and those once-close ties gradually faded.
People who remained friends kept in touch privately.
Jiang Nanshu smiled lightly.
“Now that I work with Song Ye, it doesn’t matter if they see me.”
They would inevitably run into each other sooner or later.
“I think… actually, mainly Lin Yao, seems to have an issue with us.
Last time, when I went to that wedding with your gift money, I ran into him and Song Ye.
I said hi, but he barely acknowledged me and then sarcastically asked why you didn’t show up.”
Cheng Jiajia rolled her eyes.
“He acted like I owed him something.
I didn’t even want to talk to him.”
Jiang Nanshu was momentarily stunned.
“Why didn’t you tell me back then?”
The waiter arrived with their drinks.
Cheng Jiajia took a sip before looking at her calmly.
“Didn’t you tell me not to mention too much about Song Ye to you?”
Jiang Nanshu had no rebuttal.
She had said that.
At the next table, Lin Yao and Xu Hao were chatting.
Lin Yao pulled out his phone and dialed a number.
As it rang, he turned to Xu Hao.
“He won’t come.
Ever since he took over his cousin’s mess, nine out of ten invitations get rejected.”
The call connected.
Sure enough, Song Ye declined.
“Busy.
Working late.”
“It’s gotten impossible to get you out lately.”
Lin Yao sighed, looking at Xu Hao.
“Told you he wouldn’t come.”
“No one is that busy.
It’s been over a month, and he hasn’t spared even one night?”
Then, as if something dawned on him, Lin Yao’s tone shifted.
“Wait… you’re not dating someone, are you?”
“No.”
In the background of the call, there were sounds of an argument.
Gao Xiaokun and Chen Yang were once again fighting with the lead programmer.
After so many consecutive days of overtime, everyone was on edge.
Chen Yang was so furious he threw his mouse onto the table before storming off to find Song Ye.
“Sunday’s my day off.
We’ll talk then.”
Song Ye ended the call and looked up just as Chen Yang came charging over.
Chen Yang declared once more, “Boss, I quit.
They’re impossible to work with.”
“If you want to quit, go home.”
Song Ye patted his shoulder.
Chen Yang grumbled, trailing behind him.
“I was just venting.
Wherever you go, I go.
It’s just… you really picked up a mess this time…”
They had said this many times in private.
The project had started with great ideas.
But by the time it landed in their hands, it was a completely different version.
They had managed to revamp the core gameplay, but there were still countless issues to fix.
And the lead programmer appointed by the company wasn’t cooperating, making their work even harder.
Song Ye walked up behind the lead programmer.
Thinking it was Chen Yang, the lead programmer didn’t even look up.
“This isn’t doable.”
When there was no response, he finally turned and froze.
Seeing that it was Song Ye, he hesitated before changing his words.
“It’ll take time.
It’s not that fast.”
“Then work overtime.”
As soon as Song Ye finished speaking, his phone vibrated.
Ignoring the programmer, he picked up his phone.
It was a message from Li Yi.
Bro, can I see today’s test version?
Most people in the company thought Song Ye was just a new producer that the boss had hired.
In reality, he was Li Yi’s cousin.
Their mothers were sisters.
According to Song Ye’s mother, her younger sister had “raised Li Yi completely the wrong way.”
Li Yi had been labeled a child prodigy from an early age.
He skipped three grades in a row and wanted to skip more, but Song Ye’s mother convinced them to stop saying that being too young compared to classmates would cause problems.
At fifteen, Li Yi entered college, majoring in mathematics at the country’s top university.
But just when everyone was preparing for grad school applications, his rebellious phase hit.
He announced he wanted to make video games.
He turned down the opportunity for postgraduate studies, causing absolute chaos at home.
In the end, his parents couldn’t win and let him do whatever he wanted.
Right after graduation, he joined Jifan, helping develop several card games.
Then, he pitched an open-world game project.
To convince the boss, he even invested all his savings into it.
But the project didn’t go smoothly.
Meanwhile, other open-world games on the market had lukewarm responses, and the boss lost faith.
Seeing that the early losses weren’t too heavy, he considered cutting the project.
But Li Yi refused.
The lead planner and lead programmer were the boss’s people.
The company intended to turn the project into another card game, gradually pushing Li Yi out.
For someone who had never faced hardship or failure, it was too much to handle.
Eventually, it was Song Ye’s aunt who reached out to him, begging him to help.
At first, Song Ye wanted to buy Jifan’s investment shares in Project A.
But Jifan refused.
In the end, he and his team only took a portion of the technical equity.
Once this project was over, he would take his team and leave.
Song Ye replied to Li Yi:
If you want to see it, come to the company yourself.
The bar played soft music under dim, hazy lights.
Jiang Nanshu mentioned her conversation with Gao Xiaokun and the agreement she had made with Song Ye in the break room.
After listening, Cheng Jiajia sighed.
“Neighbors, colleagues, your brother’s friend, and even the junior who once pushed your relationship forward… all gathered in one place.
The reconciliation buff is fully stacked.
This is fate.”
“…I never dated him.
Where’s the ‘reconciliation’ coming from?”
Jiang Nanshu took a sip of her drink.
“That’s exactly why it feels like a loss.”
Cheng Jiajia rested her chin on her hand.
Jiang Nanshu was silent for a moment, then murmured softly,
“Maybe… just a little bit.”
Just a little?
Cheng Jiajia looked at her—clearly trying to drink away her thoughts but still holding back.
A sudden realization hit her.
“Wait… are you afraid that if you spend too much time with Song Ye, you’ll start liking him again?”
She hit the nail on the head.
A bitter feeling rose in Jiang Nanshu’s heart.
She picked up her glass and took another sip without denying it.
Cheng Jiajia recalled seeing Song Ye in the video call that day and sighed.
She gave Jiang Nanshu a sympathetic look.
“You know, half of our male classmates have gained weight.
Some are even balding way too young.
There really aren’t many who still look good.
But somehow, Song Ye got even hotter…”
She shook her head.
“I totally get the deadly effect of a first love you never had.”
Jiang Nanshu suddenly felt the urge to quit again.
But that thought only lasted a second.
She had already made things clear with Song Ye almost like drawing a firm line.
Quitting right after saying all that would be too cowardly.
And that wasn’t her style.
“What if…”
Seeing her lost in thought, Cheng Jiajia half-jokingly suggested,
“You give it another try?”
Jiang Nanshu, distracted, didn’t catch on.
“Try what?”
“Making a comeback.”
Jiang Nanshu rolled her eyes.
“I’m not some competition-obsessed maniac.”
What a terrible joke.
“I just think it’d be a shame if a guy like Song Ye ended up with someone else.”
Cheng Jiajia barely finished her sentence before getting another glare.
She immediately raised her glass in surrender.
“Fine, forget I said anything