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“In order to keep her forever innocent, everyone has painstakingly created a sterile greenhouse. Do you think this is a good thing? Aren’t you afraid of growing something bizarre?”
Yu Zhimei naturally recognized who she was. Even after their breakup, Jian Zhaowen hadn’t unfollowed her—Miss Qiu Nuo, who had once crossed paths in this house, was back.
“Why are you here?”
“Can’t I come to see you?”
“And why are you at my place?”
“This apartment was originally rented by me. Why can’t I stay here?”
“... What kind of logic is that?”
“I don’t care. Jian Zhaowen, I’m staying here. I just got off the plane and took a taxi straight here. You’re not going to make me sleep in a hotel, are you?”
Yu Zhimei stood frozen, watching the two banter like a more convincing couple. Under the light, Qiu Nuo’s tea-colored hair was curled on top of her head, her bright eyes captivating. Her face was as small as a palm, her round eyes effortlessly drawing attention. Jian Zhaowen showed no reaction, calmly telling Yu Zhimei, “Wait for me here,” before stepping into apartment 302. Without sparing a glance at Yu Zhimei, Qiu Nuo rushed into the house, slamming the door shut behind her. Barely two minutes passed before the door opened again. Jian Zhaowen emerged with a bag of things and said to Yu Zhimei, “Open the door.”
Qiu Nuo chased after him, “Jian Zhaowen, where are you going?”
“I’ll sleep next door.” Jian Zhaowen was mostly sober now. “Next door is where my girlfriend lives. I’ll give her place to you tonight, and I’ll stay there. Tomorrow, I’ll change the locks.”
Qiu Nuo finally gave Yu Zhimei a proper look, “What joke is this? You have a girlfriend now?”
“What do you think? Who just barges into someone’s home like that?”
“A girlfriend who doesn’t live together but stays next door? Who are you trying to fool?”
With a slam, the door was tightly shut. Jian Zhaowen didn’t give Qiu Nuo another chance to argue, feeling a headache coming on. “Sorry, she’s always like this—completely devoid of manners when she’s being任性 (capricious).”
Yu Zhimei stood still, taking off her coat and bending down to pick up the cat. Lu Lu wrinkled his nose at the smell of alcohol, burrowing into the crook of her neck. “So, your ex-girlfriend can just waltz into your home and stay over. Should I interpret that as the two of you never really broke up?”
“For heaven’s sake, don’t say that. First thing tomorrow morning, I’ll ask Brother Ma to change the locks. This is all Brother Ma’s fault—how could he not change the locks after tenants moved out?”
“Jian Zhaowen, think carefully. This isn’t about changing tenants—it’s a couple. One leaves, the other comes back. It was originally her rented apartment. Don’t blame everything on Brother Ma.”
“Are you mad?”
“No, not at all. She’s not domineering, just spoiled and naive. I get it.”
“You’re definitely mad.”
“I’m not. I’m just stating the facts. But Jian Zhaowen, leave the spoiling to her father. You’re both adults now. Stop thinking of her as a rose grown in a greenhouse and letting her invade your life.”
“I really haven’t been doing that.”
“To keep her forever innocent, everyone has painstakingly created a sterile greenhouse. Do you think this is a good thing? Aren’t you afraid of growing something bizarre?”
Before Jian Zhaowen could explain, Yu Zhimei took off her pants and sweater, walking toward the bathroom in her underwear. With her stunning figure, she locked the bathroom door behind her. Jian Zhaowen’s hangover suddenly hit him hard, his head spinning from the sight of her waistline. He messaged Brother Ma, “Landlord, I need to change the locks.”
“Change them yourself. You’ve lived there so long, why bother me?”
“Don’t waste time. If you don’t change them, I’ll move out, and no one will pay your ridiculous rent.”
Though the old building was in a good location, no one else would be as foolish as Jian Zhaowen. Early the next morning, Brother Ma arrived with a new lock. Knocking on the door, he found a sleepy Qiu Nuo, stepped back, looked around, and politely asked, “Is Jian Zhaowen here?”
“He’s next door.”
Brother Ma solemnly opened his phone, “Brother Zhao, where are you?”
Hearing the voice, Jian Zhaowen opened the door. Brother Ma briefly greeted Qiu Nuo, made arrangements to change the locks later, then immediately rushed into apartment 301, leaning close to Jian Zhaowen’s ear: “Brother Zhao, I thought you went out looking for escorts. With such a beautiful girl in your home, I was mentally calculating how to cover for you.”
Jian Zhaowen snapped, “Watch your mouth. What escorts? That’s my ex-girlfriend.”
Brother Ma seriously looked at Yu Zhimei, “So, you let your ex-girlfriend stay at your place while you sleep at your girlfriend’s? What’s this, a red lantern hanging high?”
“That’s why I’m asking you to change the locks! Until she moves out, I’ll stay at Yu Zhimei’s.”
“Such a good girl, pretty enough to look fake. And you’re making her leave?” As Brother Ma arranged the lock change, he earnestly added, “We’re both men—why are all the beautiful women around you? I’m lonely!”
By the time the lock was changed, Yu Zhimei had already left for work. Qiu Nuo stood at the door, watching the process intently. When Jian Zhaowen returned, he handed her a room card: “I booked you a hotel.”
“Why can’t I stay here?”
“Because my girlfriend wouldn’t be happy, and it would affect my rest. Plus, I’ve been very busy with work lately.”
“Jian Zhaowen, aren’t you even going to ask why I came back?”
Jian Zhaowen sighed, “Why?”
“I’m here to save you. Your company has been struggling this whole time without any influential figures to fix things. Are you really planning to keep charging ahead blindly?”
“Can you stop causing trouble?”
Qiu Nuo dragged out her suitcase, her unadorned face still glowing white, her ponytail atop her head vividly illustrating what it means to have “hair standing on end in anger.” She dumped the gifts she bought for Jian Zhaowen at his feet, pointing her finger at him accusingly: “It wasn’t my idea to come here. Lei Zheng invited me. Who wants to come to this place reeking of cats? Think about why Day and Night knew so quickly about the report—it’s because someone inside tipped them off. Lei Zheng and my brother share a life-and-death bond, and my brother has friends in the regulatory system. If they knew you were a partner, my brother wouldn’t even glance at Day and Night. Do you understand? I was living comfortably in Beijing, worried sick about you collapsing, only to be turned away like a joke. I’m such a laughingstock.” Dragging her suitcase downstairs, she threw one last line before leaving: “Jian Zhaowen, I never expected that after a year and a half, you’d still be such a scumbag, drawing such clear boundaries with me for someone else.”
At this point, Jian Zhaowen felt somewhat lost. But when he opened his phone, everything became clear. Lei Zheng’s message was crystal clear: “The app has been taken down for rectification. Hurry up, test the new version, and relaunch it on the app store within a week.”
This convoluted relationship was something Jian Zhaowen hadn’t anticipated, especially given how it had brought his ex-girlfriend back into his life. Lei Zheng inviting her wasn’t a big deal, but the problem was whether she’d try to revive old flames. Jian Zhaowen didn’t fully grasp it—Qiu Nuo wasn’t as spoiled as Yu Zhimei imagined; she could even be described as straightforward and candid. However, during their three years of dating, she had been covered in flammable labels reading “Jian Zhaowen.” A single spark could ignite her, leading to an explosion at any moment. Once this bomb returned to his side, it might blow him up, but if it reached Yu Zhimei, the consequences would be unimaginable—hadn’t he seen Dou Yu’s fate?
The most pressing matter now was to quickly revise the app and resubmit it for review. Jian Zhaowen drove to the office and began marking bugs and areas for revision. Midway through, Lei Zheng walked in. Jian Zhaowen was seething: “Do you know Qiu Nuo broke into my home last night and slept in my bed?”
“Really?” Lei Zheng suddenly laughed. “If it gets Day and Night back online, I’d let her sleep in my bed—or even with me.”
Jian Zhaowen felt a headache coming on. “You people have no bottom line. Can’t you be a little more noble?”
“Do you know why I once called you a mid-level product manager? Only mid-level managers discuss product value and moral limits all day, preaching justice. Truly successful projects focus on finding patterns in niche markets, identifying quick growth channels, and timing the market perfectly. There’s no such thing as absolute justice—are you still not getting this?”
“Does this have anything to do with Qiu Nuo?”
“Of course it does. Don’t think in black and white. Didn’t you break up with Qiu Nuo because you claimed your feelings disappeared? Objectively speaking, were you right or wrong?”
Lei Zheng possessed an impeccable logic, always precisely dismantling Jian Zhaowen’s arguments while appearing more strategic. Compared to the collaboration with Lovedate and Philip, Jian Zhaowen, though dissatisfied, was willing to listen to Lei Zheng’s approach. Though equally rational and ruthless, Lei Zheng’s words were easier to swallow. Most importantly, beyond having ideas, Lei Zheng’s execution and resource capabilities far surpassed Philip’s. Admiration ultimately came down to competence. While fixing bugs, Jian Zhaowen twirled a pen, sketching on paper: “After this relaunch, I must hire a team of moderators. The open-source moderation system we used earlier, even though fine-tuned for different scenarios, was too difficult to identify accurately. To avoid mistakenly flagging normal images, I didn’t set strict boundaries, but we still need human moderators for rapid deletions.”
“We’ll see. It’s all about money.”
“Just recruit in smaller cities.”
“That requires funding. We need a valuation in the hundreds of millions. Do you think you’re some big corporation dreaming impossible dreams?”
In the short term, they had to walk on two legs: insufficient manpower meant lowering the threshold for automatic message blocking to avoid reports—even if it meant killing thousands by mistake. Increasing accuracy involved training with more samples to optimize the recognition model—a purely labor-intensive task. From behind, Lei Zheng asked, “Master, how many days will this take?”
“At least three.”
Collapsing onto the sofa, Lei Zheng seemed satisfied. Turning to the operations team behind him, he said, “Leave Jian Zhaowen here. Let’s go have a quick meeting.”
Jian Zhaowen estimated he’d be working late into the night again. He sent Yu Zhimei a message and even took a photo: “I won’t be home tonight, but you have to believe me—I’m really working overtime.”
“Of course I believe you.” Yu Zhimei replied quickly: “If I didn’t trust you at this point, wouldn’t I be too petty? But if you’re working overtime with your ex-girlfriend, I’ll burn your company down.”
Absolutely not. Just as Jian Zhaowen had sent his reassurance, he heard familiar footsteps outside—the sound of high heels clicking against the floor. He knew them well. Qiu Nuo adored shoes that made a crisp, horse-like clatter, walking with her head held high and full of presence. She wore a black dress covered in logos, paired with flat boots. Striding grandly into the office, she plopped down on the sofa behind him: “Is this office really this small?”
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