Chapter 22
Shen Fengni was awakened by the sound of cicadas.
My window seat in the café was separated from the bustling city life by a single pane of glass. The sun blazed, the air scalding. Scantily clad girls walked by, chatting and laughing, their aqua-green skirts gently rising, a summer ambiance even more striking than the shade of trees along the roadside.
My brain seemed to be malfunctioning and I couldn't recover for a long time.
The cool breeze from the air conditioner behind me brushed across the ends of my hair, making my chaotic thoughts a little clearer.
Shen Fengni looked around.
The elegantly decorated cafe, with its bright windows and clean tables, was mostly occupied. A lively tune played at the bar, waiters walked back and forth with trays, and the air was filled with the aroma of desserts and coffee.
Before me stood a half-empty cup of lemon tea, its half-melted ice reflecting a sliver of sunlight. Water droplets clung to the sides, leaving a small wet mark on the tabletop. Next to me, a book lay open and upside down on the table. It was a novel that had been popular for a while.
Where is this...?
Isn't she dead?
Shen Fengni rubbed his forehead, feeling confused.
"Wake up, sir! Be careful not to catch a cold if you sleep like this." A clear female voice came from behind. "How are you? Are you feeling well?"
Shen Fengni turned around and saw the young waiter walking towards her with a smile on his face.
Only then did she realize that she was covered with a beige air-conditioning blanket. It must be that the other person saw her sleeping and thoughtfully covered her with it.
"I'm fine, just a little sleepy." Chen Fengni took off the blanket and handed it over. "Thank you."
"You're welcome. I'm glad you're okay." The waiter took it and continued to work.
Shen Fengni lowered her head.
I wore a loose-fitting white cotton dress that ended just above my knees. On my wrist was a light pink strawberry quartz bracelet, beautiful and translucent, with a shimmering sheen.
Shen Fengni frowned and took off the bracelet.
If I remember correctly, this was one of the gifts Yu Qian gave her before their marriage. She said that strawberry quartz symbolizes sweet love and has a very good meaning.
At that time, Chen Fengni accepted it with great joy and wore it almost every day.
But later, after Yu Qian took off her disguise and recognized Yu Qian's true face, she threw the bracelet into the trash can.
Shen Fengni stared at the bracelet for two seconds and suddenly remembered something.
She took out her cell phone from her bag and checked the time. The screen showed July 2, 2123.
Shen Fengni's eyes widened in disbelief, and she quickly unlocked the app and continued browsing through various other apps. The date and time displayed on all the apps were exactly the same, without a single error.
She went back to half a year ago.
Shen Fengni took a deep breath and leaned back in his seat.
My mind was in a mess and it was difficult to digest such a strange reality for a while.
She took two sips of cold drink to calm herself down, then opened the "Moments" app on her phone.
The moment she saw the personal homepage, Shen Fengni breathed a sigh of relief.
The content on the page was both strange and familiar. The profile picture was a recent selfie of hers, with slightly curly hair draped over her shoulders and a smile between her eyebrows.
Because her account hadn't yet taken off, her stats were significantly different from six months later. She only had 30,000 followers, including a significant number of fake followers the platform had shoved in her way. She hadn't collected many badges of honor, and at first glance, she looked like a low-profile streamer whose streams rarely exceeded double digits.
But none of this matters.
Shen Fengni's gaze fell on the blank space behind the account nickname.
No suffix, no signing mark.
This means that she is free at this moment.
Shen Fengni's eyes became hot and she almost shed tears.
She forced herself to control her emotions, closed the app, and opened the memo on her phone.
Since college, Shen Fengni has developed the habit of keeping track of her schedule. Every few days, she creates a memo, writes down important tasks she needs to do in the near future, and completes them one by one to avoid missing anything.
The latest memo is packed with all sorts of wedding-related matters.
The first line of font is deliberately set to red, which is particularly eye-catching: The live broadcast will be suspended for one month, and we are preparing to get married.
From the smiley face that follows, it is not difficult to guess the joy in the heart of the person who wrote this line.
But in the eyes of Shen Fengni now, it was a completely different feeling.
She stared intently, carefully recalling the past.
The wedding with Yu Qian is scheduled for July 5th, which is less than three days away.
If she remembered correctly, she first confirmed the final layout of the venue this morning, and then checked the wedding process, guest list and other details again. She was busy until the afternoon before she had a break and found a coffee shop to rest.
Because I was so tired, I fell asleep on the table soon.
Shen Fengni looked at the items on the memo, which was long and seemed to have no end in sight.
The details were excessive, for fear that something might go wrong and ruin the perfect wedding in her mind.
At first, Shen Fengni didn't notice anything wrong, but from her perspective now, there were already clues of everything.
She had taken on almost all the preparations for the wedding by herself, running around and exhausting herself.
Yu Qian always said she was busy with company matters and often didn't see him for days, and she barely cared about anything about the wedding. Whenever Chen Fengni hesitated and tried to ask his fiancée's opinion, he'd always get the same response: "As long as you like it," "It's up to you."
It seems like he is doting, but in fact he doesn't care at all.
At that time, Shen Fengni was immersed in love and didn't even think about this.
Shen Fengni raised her hand and saw the engagement ring on her middle finger.
The diamond was crystal clear, gleaming beautifully in the sunlight. The platinum setting was shaped like a flower, its branches entwined and tightly clasping the diamond. It was like an exquisite trap, waiting only for the naive to fall into it.
If she had to do it again, she would never be fooled a second time.
Shen Fengni's eyes darkened slightly, and she slowly turned the ring on her fingers.
She and Yu Qian held their wedding first and then got their marriage certificate.
In other words, legally speaking, she is still single.
Everything is still possible, as long as she has the courage to give up everything.
My stomach felt sore and hungry.
Only then did Shen Fengni realize that she might not have eaten anything today.
She scanned the code with her phone and ordered a bowl of pasta.
There were many unread messages in the chat software list, and Shen Fengni read them while eating.
Most of them were from the wedding staff, and the content was about confirming various matters. Chen Fengni flipped through them hastily, replying to a few of them perfunctorily.
She has already made up her mind to leave Yu Qian. It is still unknown whether the wedding can take place, so there is no need to spend any energy on it.
Chen Fengni thought about it and continued to scroll down.
A familiar name caught her eye, causing her heart to skip a beat.
Broken branches.
The person she thought she would never see again appeared before her again across time and space.
Shen Fengni rubbed his sore eyes and clicked on the dialog box.
Zhezhi sent her a message at nine o'clock in the morning. The content was very simple, only three words: Good morning.
But she got busy early this morning and was so confused that she didn't have time to reply.
Shen Fengni glanced at the time. It was already five minutes past six in the afternoon.
She felt guilty and quickly typed: Sorry, I'm too busy today.
Zhezhi replied five minutes later, saying that he was in a meeting and would talk later.
It was as if a heavy weight had finally fallen from my heart, or as if a weary bird had found a place to rest. Those two lines seemed to fill an invisible gap, fitting seamlessly and perfectly.
Chen Fengni looked at the message sent by Zhezhi with mixed feelings.
At that moment she clearly realized that the broken branch meant much more to her than she had imagined.
As long as the branch is there, she will feel at ease.
Chen Fengni flipped through the chat history with Zhezhi, reading each one carefully.
She became friends with Zhezhi at the end of May, about a month ago.
At first, the content of their chat was that she would send a message to Zhezhi to express her gratitude after finishing her live broadcast every day. Zhezhi would also reply politely, and then the two would say good night to each other.
Later we gradually became familiar with each other. We would send each other messages in the morning to say hello, chat for a few minutes, and then go about our own business.
The content of the chats is very ordinary, just sharing some interesting daily life, and there are also a lot of chats about the live broadcast content.
Shen Fengni read slowly until she reached the last page.
Although the text was plain, her mood miraculously calmed down after reading it.
Never lose a broken branch again.
The sudden thought startled Shen Fengni herself.
However, Zhezhi is her important client and someone she regards as a good friend, so it is understandable that she has such thoughts.
Shen Fengni calmed herself down and ate the last bite of pasta.
However, at this time, Zhezhi was just an ordinary friend to her, and they were not particularly familiar with each other. She should be careful with her words.
As the sky gradually darkened, street lights came on one by one, and blurry human figures were reflected in the glass windows.
The evening breeze blew, the shadows of the trees swayed, the temperature was several degrees lower than during the day, and there was a constant stream of pedestrians on the pedestrian street outside the window, and their laughter carried far away on the wind.
Shen Fengni held her chin and fell into thought again.
Zhezhi first visited her livestream in mid-April. Back then, he was just a low-level account, visiting only every few days, but each time he would give her gifts worth tens to hundreds of yuan.
After about a month, Zhezhi appeared more and more frequently and gradually became a permanent presence. Consumption also gradually increased. It did not reach an extremely exaggerated level, but it was already ranked among the top in her live broadcast room.
After Chen Fengni goes off the air, she will maintain fan relations and will also inadvertently compare several sponsors.
In their daily conversations, Chen Fengni could feel that Zhezhi deliberately kept a polite distance from her, spoke little, never crossed the line, and could even be said to be a little distant.
Although she had a very good impression of Zhezhi at that time, since the sponsor was unwilling to say more, she naturally had to respect the other party's opinion.
Later, Chen Fengni took a long vacation because of her marriage, and had almost no contact with Zhezhi during that time.
The two of them really became familiar with each other after she signed a contract with Yu Qian's company.
Not long after signing the contract, the company arranged for her to participate in the guild competition, competing with hundreds of anchors within the guild, including a large number of outstanding competitors.
At that time, no one took Shen Fengni seriously, thinking that she was just a cannon fodder who would be eliminated in the first round.
After all, according to the competition system, live broadcast flow is the decisive key factor.
Unexpectedly, the always low-key Zhezhi suddenly took action, spent a large sum of money, overcame all obstacles, and directly won the championship for her as a newcomer.
Everyone was shocked, including Shen Fengni herself.
At that time, Shen Fengni felt very sorry and took the initiative to ask what she could do for Zhezhi. Zhezhi's request was to invite her to play the holographic ancient style online game called "Jianghu Nuo" together. The two of them traveled side by side in the world of martial arts, and their relationship became much closer.
Moreover, after the game, Zhezhi's consumption did not decrease anymore, but increased by several levels compared to before. Shen Fengni gradually realized how amazing the other party's economic strength was.
But all these glories are in the past, and she will not pursue them again.
Chen Fengni's material desires were never high, and after living his life over again, he cared even less about fame and fortune.
She wouldn't sign any more contracts, wouldn't participate in any more guild tournaments, and certainly didn't need Zhezhi to spend lavishly on her. Zhezhi just needed to be with her; everything else was dispensable.
The phone suddenly vibrated, interrupting Shen Fengni's thoughts.
The screen switched to the call interface, and the caller's name was clearly displayed as "Yu Qian".
Shen Fengni's eyelashes trembled slightly, and she instantly had the urge to hang up the phone or even throw the phone away.
But she forced herself to hold it back.
She wanted to leave Yu Qian, and that wouldn't change. But now that she had just returned, acting rashly wasn't a good option. She needed to take a moment to calmly consider her next plan.
The fingers holding the phone unconsciously tightened, and Shen Fengni picked up the call, "Hello?"
"I'm done." Yu Qian's voice came from the other end of the phone, "Feng Ni, where are you now?"
The lazy tone of voice made him sound like he had just woken up, not like he had just finished his work.
Based on Chen Fengni's understanding of her, Yu Qian might have drunk all night last night and just woke up from the bed of some little lover, thinking of her nominal fiancée.
As if it was the body's instinctive resistance, Shen Fengni held the phone farther away.
She replied calmly: "I'm on Chang'an Road."
"Okay, I'll come find you now." Yu Qian chuckled softly, her tone gentle but leaving her no room for refusal. "I have something to tell you. Wait for me for a moment."
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