When you confess your feelings

Wei Ting tightened Ning Zhichu's cashmere scarf slightly, his fingertips brushing against her earlobe, carrying the cool scent characteristic of the City of London. "Six months on-site, responsible for investment and financing of new energy projects in Europe, flying back once a month." He pulled a thermos from the side pocket of his suitcase, filled with freshly brewed brown sugar ginger tea. "Working in finance always keeps you up late; don't drink iced Americanos all the time if your stomach isn't healthy. I'll have Aunt Zhang bring you soup from the editorial office every Wednesday." Ning Zhichu gripped the warm cup, her gaze falling on the pearl cufflinks on his suit lapel—a birthday gift from her, the pattern engraved with the coordinates of the Brooklyn Bridge shimmering in the morning mist. "Remember to let me know you arrive safely," she said, tiptoeing to quickly kiss his chin. "London is colder than Shanghai; I knitted you a grey cashmere sweater and put it in your suit pocket, don't think it's ugly."

As the red light at the security checkpoint turned on, Wei Ting turned and waved, his figure in a dark gray custom-made suit gradually blending into the crowd. Ning Zhichu had just put her phone away when the screen vibrated and became hot—Su Xiaoran had sent a voice message, her Parisian accent exclaiming: "My darling! I've landed! Hongqiao Terminal 2 arrival gate, come pick me up! I brought you almond croissants from the Marais district!"

Half an hour later, amidst the hustle and bustle of the arrival hall, Ning Zhichu immediately spotted Su Xiaoran, who was wearing a bright yellow trench coat. Su Xiaoran, with her hair in a high ponytail and dragging a huge suitcase covered in airline tags, rushed towards Ning Zhichu as soon as she saw her. The scent of Chanel perfume mingled with the airport's disinfectant wafted over: "Haven't seen you in six months! You and Wei Ting, this couple in the finance industry, are practically overflowing with sweetness!"

As Ning Zhichu pulled his suitcase out, Su Xiaoran suddenly leaned over mysteriously and pulled a gold-embossed business card from her bag: "I've returned to China and joined Lu's Investment. I'll officially start as an investment analyst next week!" Ning Zhichu stopped in his tracks, almost bumping into the luggage cart in front of him: "Lu's? Lu Zexu's company? Weren't you studying for a master's degree in quantitative finance in Paris, saying you wanted to stay at Goldman Sachs as a trader?"

Su Xiaoran coughed lightly, pretending to adjust the belt on her trench coat: "Isn't this responding to the call of the motherland to come back and invest in new energy?" She avoided Ning Zhichu's gaze and secretly took out her phone—In the chat box, Lu Zexu sent a cold message: "Onboarding training at nine o'clock on Monday. Being one minute late will result in a deduction from your full attendance. I don't support idlers."

Ning Zhichu wanted to ask more questions, but Su Xiaoran pushed her towards the parking lot: "Let's go eat pan-fried buns first! I've been craving them for half a year. Oh, right, let's invite Lu Zexu too, just to get on good terms with our boss in advance!" Her voice was deliberately casual, but the tips of her ears were secretly turning red—who wants to get on good terms with their boss? She had clearly searched through all the job postings in Shanghai's financial circles before she found that Lu's Investment was recruiting analysts in the new energy sector.

The pan-fried dumpling stall was packed with people on Friday evening. When Lu Zexu pushed open the door, he immediately attracted the attention of several white-collar workers at the next table. He was wearing a black shirt with the cuffs rolled up to his forearms, revealing a Patek Philippe sports watch on his wrist. He frowned when he saw Su Xiaoran: "Twenty-three minutes late, is this the sense of time you had when you interned at Goldman Sachs in Paris?"

Su Xiaoran had just taken a bite of the pan-fried bun when she almost spat out the delicious broth: "President Lu, don't you know that the morning rush hour is like a parking lot? Besides, you're in the primary market, yet you're so stingy with your attendance bonus. No wonder no one wants to team up with you for due diligence!" She picked up a pan-fried bun and waved it at him, "Try it? It's a hundred times better than those frozen pan-fried buns that cost twenty yuan each downstairs from your company."

Lu Zexu didn't take it, but naturally moved the vinegar dish in front of her two inches to the side: "I know you don't like sour things, who are you putting it for?" He turned to Ning Zhichu, his tone softening: "Wei Ting had a drink with me before he went to London, and said that if you encounter any difficulties from listed companies while doing financial interviews, you can call me anytime."

Ning Zhichu suppressed a laugh, watching the two bicker. Back in university, they were arch-rivals in the finance department—Su Xiaoran was the aggressive type who dared to go all-in on new energy stocks in a simulated trading competition, while Lu Zexu was the conservative type who calculated every risk factor before taking a move. They teamed up for the National Financial Modeling Competition, arguing so much they almost overturned the computer lab, but ultimately won the gold medal with their combination of "aggressive strategy + risk hedging." However, after Su Xiaoran went abroad for further studies, they lost contact.

Halfway through the meal, Su Xiaoran suddenly slammed her hand on the table, pulled out her tablet, and flipped to an industry report: "By the way, the new energy battery project I'm in charge of next week, am I in the same group doing due diligence with you?" Lu Zexu, sipping his soy milk, didn't even look up: "Yes, I'm the project manager." He glanced at her, tapping the tablet screen with his fingertip, "In this report, the cost calculation for the cathode material is wrong by three points. Go back and redo it, and put it on my desk at nine o'clock tomorrow morning."

"Who made a mistake!" Su Xiaoran glared at him and shoved the tablet in front of him. "I used the latest quotes from Shanghai Metals Market, which are much more accurate than your due diligence data from last year!" As she leaned closer, her hair brushed against Lu Zexu's wrist, and he paused in flipping through the report, his ear tips turning almost imperceptibly red.

Ning Zhichu watched this scene and secretly sent a WeChat message to Wei Ting: "Xiao Ran and Lu Zexu are definitely having an affair. He remembers that Xiao Ran doesn't like sour foods, and he even deliberately picked on the small mistakes in her report." He quickly received a reply: "Lu Zexu drank with me last week and said that he had been waiting for Su Xiao Ran to return to China for half a year, and specially opened a new energy analyst position for her."

On Monday morning, the atmosphere in Lu's Investment's conference room was tense. Lu Zexu slammed Su Xiaoran's project due diligence report onto the table, its pages covered in red pen marks highlighting numerous errors: "The client's capacity calculations used theoretical values, without factoring in equipment depreciation; the competitor's market share data is from last year, and it has already dropped five percentage points in Q1 of this year." He leaned back in his chair, his tone icy. "Rewrite it. Give it to me by 5 PM, or you're out of the picture."

Su Xiaoran's fingers, gripping the pen, turned white as she suppressed her anger: "President Lu, the theoretical value is the industry average; the customer is still calculating the equipment depreciation rate. I just confirmed the market share data with the securities analyst this morning; the report you're reading is outdated!" She stood up, stuffed the report into her bag, and said, "Rework it if you want. This afternoon I'll show you what professionalism is!"

As she left the conference room, an analyst from her team leaned over and whispered, "Sister Su, don't be angry. Mr. Lu is like that with everyone. Last time, he criticized my photovoltaic project report as utterly worthless, but he secretly revised it all night and still said my framework was good at the meeting." Su Xiaoran was taken aback, a strange feeling rising in her heart, but she stubbornly said, "I don't care if he changes it!"

Working late into the night, only Su Xiaoran's light remained on in the office. Rubbing her sore eyes, she sighed at the Excel spreadsheet—the client's depreciation data was still delayed, and the latest market share chart was awaiting the brokerage's push. Suddenly, the office door was gently pushed open, and Lu Zexu stood in the doorway, carrying an insulated bag.

"Still not gone?" He placed the insulated bag on the table, which contained warm bird's nest porridge. "Aunt Zhang made it. She knows you have a sensitive stomach and always eat instant noodles when you work overtime." He glanced at the Excel spreadsheet on the computer screen, bent down, and pointed: "The depreciation rate is calculated by working backward from the industry average depreciation period, and the error will not exceed 0.5 percentage points; I had my friend at the securities firm send you the latest data on market share, which is in your email."

Su Xiaoran stood frozen, inhaling the sweet aroma of the bird's nest porridge, watching his focused profile. The lamplight fell on his eyelashes, casting a soft shadow, softening his usual sternness and adding a touch of gentleness. "How did you know I hadn't eaten?" she asked softly, poking at the bird's nest in her bowl with her spoon.

“Look at the coffee cups on your workstation, four of them are empty.” Lu Zexu sat in the chair opposite her. “You used to work on financial modeling until the early hours of the morning, and you relied on coffee to keep you going. Your stomach would hurt so badly that you would break out in a cold sweat.” He paused, then softened his voice. “When you participated in a modeling competition in college, I brought you a week’s worth of bird’s nest porridge.”

Su Xiaoran's heart suddenly started racing. She quickly lowered her head to drink her porridge, trying to hide her flushed ears: "Who asked you to meddle?" Despite her words, she followed his instructions to revise the report, her fingers flying across the keyboard.

At 4:30 p.m., Su Xiaoran placed the revised report on Lu Zexu's desk. He flipped through a couple of pages, a smile appearing in his eyes, but he deliberately kept a straight face: "Barely passing. Pay attention to the timeliness of the data next time." Su Xiaoran was about to retort when she saw the annotation at the end of the report—the tax deductions she had missed were filled in with red pen, and the latest tax incentive policy documents were attached next to them.

At noon, Su Xiaoran went downstairs to the coffee shop to buy coffee. Just as she was about to order a caramel macchiato, she heard a familiar voice: "One Americano, no sugar, no milk; one caramel macchiato, less sugar, less ice." Lu Zexu was standing in front of her. He turned around, saw her, and raised an eyebrow: "What a coincidence?"

“Unfortunately, I come to buy coffee at this time every day.” Su Xiaoran scanned the payment code before he could. “It’s on me, consider it a thank you for helping me with my tax data.” The cashier smiled and said, “Sorry, this is the last caramel macchiato.” The two of them froze at the same time. Su Xiaoran was about to give it to him when she heard him say, “Give it to her, I’ll just have an Americano.”

When Su Xiaoran received the coffee, her fingertips accidentally touched his, burning her so much that she quickly pulled them back. Lu Zexu looked at her reddened earlobes and chuckled, "You're such a grown-up, yet you're still as clumsy as you were in college. Back then, when we were doing simulated trading, I almost entered the wrong password." He reached out and wiped the water stains off the cup for her, his movements as natural as if he had done it a thousand times before.

Over the weekend, Ning Zhichu organized a gathering of friends at an open-air restaurant by the river. When Su Xiaoran arrived, arm in arm with Ning Zhichu, she saw that Lu Zexu was already there, with a picnic basket beside him containing cut fruit and her favorite almond croissants. "President Lu is quite enthusiastic, is he afraid his subordinates will say behind your back that you exploit your employees?" Su Xiaoran teased, but stopped when she saw the camera in his hand—it was the DSLR she had lost in college, with a little sun sticker she had drawn on it still on the body.

"I found it, and I haven't been able to find its owner yet." Lu Zexu handed her the camera. "There's a photo of you receiving your award at the financial modeling competition back then inside. I haven't deleted it." Su Xiaoran opened the camera, and the photos that popped up on the screen made her eyes well up with tears: the lights in the computer lab where she stayed up all night, her smile on the podium, and even her silly face when she secretly ate a croissant. Tears suddenly welled up, and she quickly turned her head away: "Who wants your old camera?"

Midway through the party, someone suggested playing Truth or Dare. When it was Su Xiaoran's turn, someone raised a glass and asked, "Did you come back to China for someone?" Her gaze instinctively turned to Lu Zexu, and just as she was about to deny it, she heard him say, "It was for me. She pursued me for half a year before I finally reserved an analyst position for her."

The room erupted in uproar. Su Xiaoran's face turned bright red instantly, and she reached out to hit him: "Lu Zexu! What nonsense are you spouting!" He grabbed her wrist, pulled her to his side, and said with a smile: "Isn't that right? You confessed to me back in college, saying that I looked cool when I was doing risk hedging. I didn't agree, so you went abroad and hid for half a year."

Ning Zhichu and his friends laughed and teased her. Su Xiaoran tried to break free, but he held her even tighter. The evening breeze carried the scent of the Huangpu River as he leaned down to her ear, his voice low: "Stop pretending. I know you came back to China for me." His breath brushed against her earlobe. "Actually, I've been waiting for you to say that for half a year."

Su Xiaoran froze, looking up to meet his gaze. Moonlight fell into his eyes, holding a tenderness she had never seen before. She opened her mouth, about to speak, when he interrupted her: "Play games first. I'll take you home tonight, and we'll have a good talk."

After the party, Lu Zexu drove Su Xiaoran home. The car stopped under the sycamore tree downstairs in the apartment complex, and neither of them spoke. After a long silence, Su Xiaoran spoke first: "Don't take my confession in college seriously. I only said it to make you jealous."

Lu Zexu suddenly laughed, reaching out to pinch her chin, his fingertips still warm from the coffee: "Are you angry with me? Angry that I changed your strategy in the modeling competition? Angry that I didn't go to Goldman Sachs for an internship with you?" He lowered his head, his lips only half a finger's distance from hers, "Su Xiaoran, the way you look at me is never like you're looking at an opponent."

Su Xiaoran's heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was going to burst out of her chest, but she still managed to keep calm: "And what about you? How do you feel about me?"

“Back in college, I thought you were too aggressive and not steady enough in investing.” Lu Zexu’s voice was carried by the evening breeze, with an unprecedented seriousness. “In the six months you were abroad, I read every industry analysis you published and tracked every simulated trade you made. I realized that without you around to chatter and make noise, even reading due diligence reports felt boring.” He reached out and stroked the top of her head. “I hired you into the company because I wanted to see you every day; I revised reports for you because I was afraid you would be harassed by clients; I brought you bird’s nest porridge because I was afraid you would have stomach aches and no one would take care of you.”

His fingertips slid to her wrist, gently caressing her pulse: "Su Xiaoran, I like you. It's not a fleeting feeling, it's a sentiment I've held for four years."

Su Xiaoran's tears finally fell, not from grievance, but from a sweet sense of relief. She reached out and punched him lightly: "Then why didn't you say so sooner! I was checking your WeChat Moments every day in Paris, seeing which female analyst you were doing due diligence with!" He grabbed her hand, pulled her into his arms, and rested his chin on the top of her head: "It's not too late to say it now."

Moonlight streamed through the car window, falling on their clasped hands. Su Xiaoran leaned against him, inhaling the faint scent of cedarwood on him, and suddenly recalled that late night in college—she was working on a model in the computer lab until she was about to collapse, and he sat silently beside her, making her a cup of hot cocoa, the screen displaying a revised risk hedging formula. It turned out that from that moment, the seed of their feelings had already been planted; it just needed time, amidst the ups and downs of the financial markets, to slowly settle into a deep and unwavering commitment to each other.

The next morning, as soon as Su Xiaoran arrived at the company, she saw a bunch of sunflowers on her workstation, next to a caramel macchiato, less sugar and less ice, with a handwritten note on the cup: "New energy project meeting at 10 a.m. today. The materials are in your email. Don't be late. — Lu Zexu." She picked up her coffee, her ears turning red, and looked up to see Lu Zexu standing at the office door, wearing a light gray suit with a small sunflower brooch on his lapel—it was a design sketch she had photographed at the Paris art exhibition last year, and he had actually had it made.

"Mr. Lu, the brooch is nice." Su Xiaoran swirled her coffee cup and deliberately raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, the person who designed it is very good.” Lu Zexu walked in and said to Su Xiaoran with a smile.

Looking at the tenderness in his eyes, Su Xiaoran smiled, unable to hide her joy. "Did you confess?" Lu Zexu nodded, his ears turning slightly red.

When Ning Zhichu received the photo from Su Xiaoran, she was video chatting with Wei Ting. In the photo, Su Xiaoran and Lu Zexu were holding hands, their sunflower brooches sparkling in the sunlight. "They're finally together," Ning Zhichu said with a smile, then turned to look at Wei Ting on the screen. "When are you coming back? I encountered a problem with a listed company's financial fraud during an interview, and I'd like to ask you for advice."

A smile appeared in Wei Ting's eyes as he held up his phone for her to look out the window: "I'm downstairs at your company. I just flew back from London and brought you a Chelsea scarf."

Ning Zhichu paused for a moment, then quickly ran to the window. Under the sycamore tree downstairs, Wei Ting, wearing the grey cashmere sweater she had knitted, held a bouquet of red roses and waved to her. Sunlight filtered through the leaves, falling on him with a warmth like that of early spring.

She grabbed her coat and ran outside, her heart filled with joy. It turns out that whether it's working side-by-side in the financial world or the push-and-pull dynamics of a bickering couple, the best love is one that slowly settles over time, supporting each other through ups and downs, eventually blossoming into each other's hearts, inseparable forever.