Pei Qiao emailed everyone with an initial outline for the year-end concert. More accurately, it was a revised version based on an older plan from two years ago. That plan had fallen apart before anything was finalized, forcing the company to shelve it. Looking at it again now, the ideas in the proposal still felt fresh and exciting.
Only a few months remained… Zhu Lianzhen flipped through the calendar. Besides filming for shows and rehearsals, there were likely some ad campaigns to shoot as well. Rumor had it that the concert and the new album release were scheduled for the same day. That meant as soon as the year ended, a full-on promotional period would kick off.
“I’m going back to Shanghai this week. Watch the cat for me,” Zhu Lianzhen told Ah-Xu. “Oh, and I also booked a gardener. I left your number. Remember to pick up if he calls.”
Since last-minute jobs always came with a generous red envelope, Ah-Xu had no complaints. Still, out of curiosity, she asked, “You’re going alone?”
“Who else would I go with?”
“You decided so suddenly that I thought maybe you had some big plan,” Ah-Xu said. “Like, I don’t know, taking a certain teammate home to meet the parents…”
Zhu Lianzhen was speechless. He had no idea where she got that wild assumption and explained, “Things are going to get busy later this year. I figured I should go see my mom while I still have time.”
“Oh, sorry. I totally misunderstood.”
“And the fact that your mind even went there is absurd.”
“Well, you two have been glued at the hip lately. That’s what led me to that conclusion.” When Ah-Xu saw Zhu Lianzhen turn toward her with a surprised look, she quickly added, “Okay, I haven’t seen anything directly, but you’ve been smelling like Tan Qing’s cologne these past few days. Every time you get in the car, it’s so obvious!”
Zhu Lianzhen never paid attention to details like that. Lately, they had been busy practicing dance, and no one had worn cologne. But he had washed his laundry with Tan Qing’s a few times, so Ah-Xu had probably mistaken the scent of the fabric softener.
“Stop gossiping.” Zhu Lianzhen sent her a red envelope in advance as hush money.
He caught an early flight to Shanghai and arrived just in time for lunch. Tang Wen had the chef prepare all his favorite dishes and snacks. She also brewed tea herself and chatted with him after the meal.
Like always, his mother was most concerned about his health and stress levels. Zhu Lianzhen obediently told her how things had been going.
Unexpectedly, she also asked how he was getting along with his teammates. Zhu Lianzhen understood the underlying meaning—she was probably trying to find out about his current relationship with Tan Qing.
“Compared to last year, you seem a lot happier this time. You’ve got a lot more energy.” Tang Wen’s lips curled up slightly. “Is there something else you want to tell me?”
In front of his mother, Zhu Lianzhen’s emotions would always show unintentionally. After a brief hesitation, he brushed it off with the excuse that he was just excited because of the upcoming concert. On one hand, he felt that at his current age, there was really no need to report every detail of his personal life to his parents. On the other hand, he didn’t even know how to summarize his current situation with Tan Qing. Telling the truth would probably only lead his mother to think their lives were a complete mess…
“Is Dad not coming home today?” Zhu Lianzhen asked.
“His friend works with bringing antiques back to China and just got to Beijing. He invited him over to pick out a few.” Tang Wen suddenly remembered something, put down her teacup, and called Zhu Lianzhen over to her jewelry room to show him some jade and gemstones she’d recently added to her collection.
Zhu Lianzhen didn’t dare touch anything casually. When he was a child, he’d once taken Tang Wen’s bracelets and rolled them around on the floor for fun, breaking quite a few. It wasn’t until he later stumbled upon an auction catalog that he realized just how wasteful he had been.
“Do you still wear this one?” Zhu Lianzhen noticed a jade ring. He remembered that Tang Wen usually never wore the same piece of jewelry to more than one event, yet she had worn this imperial green jade ring to several family gatherings. That alone showed how much she loved it.
Tang Wen said that kind of jade was nearly mined out now, and she hadn’t found a more appealing one in years. So for now, she would just keep it for appreciation. After fiddling with it for a while, she slipped the ring back into its box and muttered, “When I bought this, I thought maybe one day I could give it to my daughter-in-law as a first meeting gift.”
Zhu Lianzhen pursed his lips awkwardly, feeling like he had shattered one of his mother’s small wishes. He quickly reached out to point at another jewelry box to divert her attention. “These are all from Dad, right?”
Each jewelry box had a label with the date. Zhu Lianzhen found one dated even earlier than his birth and pretended to show interest. “Was this when you two had just gotten together?”
He peeked at the gemstone pendant inside. Under the light, it was clearly not as beautiful as the more recent ones. Tang Wen told him that these were all pieces Zhu Kaiping had bought when he didn’t know how to judge quality and had no connections in the industry. Back then, he had just made his first real money, but his taste hadn’t caught up yet. Even if someone hyped up a piece of glass to sound like a rare treasure, he’d foolishly believe it.
But those worthless trinkets still held immense sentimental value to Tang Wen—even plastic hair clips were carefully stored to this day. Zhu Lianzhen had once tried to take an interest in her hobbies, but from jade to pearls, every type of gemstone came with an overwhelming set of specialized terms that gave him a headache. And just knowing the theory wasn’t enough. You had to see, touch, and build up experience to develop muscle memory. The learning curve was too steep. It seemed more efficient to make a few friends who were good at appraising jewelry and have them help him pick gifts for his mother.
“When Dad has free time, all he does is hunt down good things for you. Last time I asked him for a painting, he kept making excuses. What kind of treatment is that?” Zhu Lianzhen chuckled. “Will he be busy next year? I’ll take you both on a trip.”
Tang Wen was delighted by the suggestion. She had just been passing the time by reading a travel magazine the day before. The issue featured several hot springs, which she wanted to try one by one. Zhu Lianzhen flipped through a few pages and noticed that the page on Iceland’s Blue Lagoon had a folded corner, clearly the top spot on her wish list.
He drifted off in thought, suddenly remembering the promise he had yet to fulfill with Tan Qing.
After a moment of hesitation, he suggested to his mother, “Can we start with somewhere closer? I’ll take you to Hokkaido this winter. There’s a hotel there with good amenities and nice service.”
Tang Wen had no objections. The last family trip they took together dated back to Zhu Lianzhen’s middle school years. After that, his work had only grown more demanding, and the time he could spend with his parents became increasingly scarce. As long as the family was together, she was already happy.
Over the weekend, Zhu Lianzhen accompanied Tang Wen to a few jewelry showrooms. Early the next morning, he took the earliest flight back to Ronggang. On the plane, he found himself thinking about one particular matter.
He had promised Tan Qing a bouquet to commemorate the 300th episode of “Truly Beautiful Weather,” but so much time had passed, and he still hadn’t made it up to him. He wondered if Tan Qing even remembered.
Zhu Lianzhen hoped he had forgotten, so he could prepare a surprise without pressure. But he had no concrete ideas yet, so he had to rely on memory to sift through gifts that had left a lasting impression.
No matter how pretty flowers were, once they wilted, they would just be thrown out, and cleaning them up would be a waste of Tan Qing’s energy. Thinking of this, Zhu Lianzhen immediately opened his phone’s photo album and scrolled through pictures from the past year.
He remembered the exact date and found it quickly—a snowy scene taken on his birthday last year. Even though it was indoors, it looked just like a real winter night.
He wondered what it would look like if that place were covered in flowers.
As soon as his phone reconnected after landing, Zhu Lianzhen immediately scrolled through his WeChat list and got in touch with Vivi, the manager of the Camellia Club. He wanted to book a banquet hall for New Year’s Eve.
As a professional designer, Vivi produced a mock-up within just two weeks, but she reminded him it was only a sample; the actual effect would need to be evaluated on-site.
“These types of flowers last a bit longer, but they’re rarely grown domestically. In winter, it’s easy for them to freeze during transport, and with the quantity you’re asking for, I can’t guarantee the results will match what you want,” Vivi informed him of the risks in advance.
Zhu Lianzhen casually asked, “Can’t you just order more?”
“Even if we solved the shipping issue, we don’t have enough manpower for the selection process.”
Seeing the troubled look on her face, Zhu Lianzhen realized he’d been too optimistic. Still unwilling to give up, he asked, “Is there really no other way?”
“Setting up a small garden outdoors isn’t difficult, but in winter, you can hardly find any green lawns. It depends on whether you can accept that kind of setting.” Vivi showed him several winter photo references. Even the retouched images clearly showed yellowing and graying ground. Naturally, Zhu Lianzhen wasn’t willing to accept that.
Vivi thought for a moment and said, “It’s not impossible. We could use real flowers for these marked areas and substitute handmade flowers for the rest. That way, we can stay true to the original design as much as possible. We’ve got a long-term partner in Kunming whose team has excellent craftsmanship, but the labor cost would be… I’d estimate at least this much.”
She held up her hands and gestured an exaggerated number.
Zhu Lianzhen let out a breath of relief. “The cost doesn’t matter, as long as the result meets our expectations. Please go ahead and contact them. If anything else comes up, you can message me on WeChat.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll do my best.” Vivi looked around the banquet hall, then suddenly pointed to a spot and asked him, “Do you think we should add some other decoration here? Make it feel more romantic?”
Zhu Lianzhen hadn’t told her who the gift was for, so it made sense that she’d jump to the idea of “romance.” She probably thought he was planning a surprise for a girlfriend or someone special.
Since the setup would involve many strangers, he needed to clear things up now to avoid any rumors. “This is for a teammate. No need to make the atmosphere too grand. It’s just a simple gift to celebrate the anniversary of his show.”
Vivi suddenly understood and said, “Oh. Tan Qing?”
Zhu Lianzhen couldn’t hide the surprise on his face at how quickly and accurately Vivi had guessed. Vivi then casually added, “What a coincidence. He also chose this banquet hall for your birthday gift last year.”
Zhu Lianzhen didn’t react at first. Nearly thirty seconds passed before he suddenly froze, struck by her words.
Still replaying the phrase “birthday gift,” he blurted out subconsciously, “Who gave me that?”
Vivi didn’t notice the shock in his eyes and continued casually, assuming it was just idle chat. “Tan Qing, of course. I remember he said you wanted to see snow.”
In her understanding, once friends gave each other surprise gifts, the giver’s identity would naturally be revealed afterward. Back then, she had strictly followed Tan Qing’s request to keep it secret, but now that so much time had passed, she saw no reason to continue hiding it from the recipient. She just thought the two of them were truly worthy of being teammates—both had such extravagant and difficult requests: one insisted on seeing snow in spring, the other insisted on seeing flowers in winter.
Zhu Lianzhen felt like his thoughts had been sucked away. His mind went blank in an instant.
He wanted to ask Vivi more about what happened back then, but after a moment’s hesitation, he held back, not wanting to seem strange by prying too much.
After leaving the club, he headed home distracted and restless. Tan Qing was sitting on the sofa, grooming Naisi. Just like Ah-Xu had said, the two of them had been practically glued together. After rehearsing together at the dance studio, they would head back home together, and Tan Qing had already started treating Zhu Lianzhen’s place like his own territory.
Zhu Lianzhen changed into home clothes and flopped onto the sofa, tilting his head to observe Tan Qing. The other glanced at him, then reached out with his cat-hair-free hand and ruffled his hair.
Zhu Lianzhen: “There’s something…”
“Ask.”
Zhu Lianzhen had already drafted his question mentally, but at the last second, he suddenly realized that mentioning the club now would mean revealing his plan to send flowers ahead of time.
He swallowed the words he was about to say and changed the topic. “That time I asked you to watch the dance I posted on Weibo—did you watch it?”
“I did. Watched it a few times,” Tan Qing replied lightly. “You picked the perfect song.”
Zhu Lianzhen wasn’t fully listening to what he was saying, as his attention had shifted to a few sheets of A4 paper on the coffee table. He picked them up and found a contract and a supplementary agreement.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“New work contract. Couldn’t find a pen earlier, so I just left it there.”
Zhu Lianzhen flipped through the pages and saw it was a transfer agreement for an artist’s film and television contract. The other party to the contract wasn’t a subsidiary of Zuige Entertainment, but a company he had never heard of before.
However, after carefully reading the names listed, Zhu Lianzhen immediately understood who the collaborator was. It was a new company funded by Director Tan Ruisheng, and so far, no artists had signed with it.
Zhu Lianzhen silently sneered at this man he had never met. As a well-known director in the industry, the fact that he and Tan Qing, despite being in the same entertainment circle for years, had never crossed paths clearly showed he had deliberately kept his distance. That recent show of fake familial affection was nothing more than an attempt to capitalize on Tan Qing’s current commercial value.
“You refused last time, didn’t you?” Zhu Lianzhen turned to look at Tan Qing.
Tan Qing showed no visible reaction and merely glanced at the pages in his hand.
It seemed that, to the other party, Tan Qing’s opinion didn’t matter at all; this was just a formality. The real negotiations still depended on their management company. Zuige Entertainment was likely to invest. If Tan Qing signed the agreement, his future film and television contracts would be handled by Tan Ruisheng’s side.
Zhu Lianzhen furrowed his brows, the corners of his mouth instinctively pressing down. “Are you going to sign?”
“I’ll go with whatever the company decides.”
“Why?” Zhu Lianzhen had clearly sensed before that Tan Qing didn’t want to have any connection to his relatives from the past.
“No particular reason. Since they’ve already negotiated everything, I’ll just follow through. This kind of collaboration doesn’t hurt anyone.” Tan Qing’s expression remained calm. “And in the long run, it benefits our group. They don’t just have film and television resources—”
Zhu Lianzhen couldn’t help but interrupt him, “This isn’t about benefits.”
Every time the word “benefit” came up, Zhu Lianzhen couldn’t help but feel annoyed. He firmly told Tan Qing, “What matters most is how you feel. If you truly don’t want to do it, then find a way to refuse.”
“I don’t mind.”
Zhu Lianzhen was skeptical of this answer. “You don’t? You even know exactly where I keep my spare razor blades at home, and yet you couldn’t find a single pen? You sure you didn’t leave this on the coffee table on purpose for me to notice?”
Tan Qing let out a laugh and countered, “Then what would be my reason for doing that?”
“Who knows? Maybe you wanted me to talk you out of this deal.”
“Or maybe, I just wanted to see how you look when you’re worried about me,” Tan Qing said thoughtfully, “Mm, I really did see it.”
Zhu Lianzhen still wanted to say something, but Tan Qing spoke first. “The food’s in the insulated container, go eat.”
It was clear the other didn’t want to continue the conversation. Zhu Lianzhen pouted and helplessly walked to the dining table.
The cat had already fallen asleep contentedly on his lap. Tan Qing lowered his head, with no more emotion in his eyes.
Getting even just a sentence like “What matters most is how you feel” was already enough. To dig deeper into specific feelings didn’t really have any meaning.
Just maintaining the current state was good enough. He silently repeated the words to himself and slowly closed his eyes along with the cat.
