Chapter 5: Mending Our World.

The next morning, while Lin Xi was in a meeting, my phone started vibrating like a fire alarm.

The caller?

Fu Ci.

After ten missed calls, I finally picked up at my leisure.

“Tạ Vãn, are you trying to get yourself killed?” His voice was practically grinding its teeth. “You’ve only been gone a few days, and you already have the nerve to ignore me?”

I was sitting out on the balcony, casually painting my nails, completely unbothered.

“Just tell me what you want, Mr. Fu. Lin Xi is home. If he hears you, he might not be too happy.”

A loud bang came from the other end, like he’d just slammed his hand against the desk.

“Mowan is meeting us tomorrow to discuss the partnership. The contract… go over it again for me. You know Shen Shulei only studies for fun. You’re the only person I trust.”

I curled my lips into a mocking smile.

I’m the only person you trust.

That line sounded painfully familiar.

So familiar it made me want to punch him.

A year ago, those exact words had been what lured me into that golden cage.

“Sure. Send it over. Don’t worry. I’ll put in a good word for you with Mr. Lin.”

The moment I received the file, I began my little work of “creative artistry.”

I copied a few passages from my old golden-cage bird journal and slipped them into the most critical sections of the contract.

The general idea?

Make sure anyone who finished reading it would have a hard time signing.

Once I was satisfied, I sent it back to Fu Ci with a smile as sweet and innocent as an angel’s.

To listen in on the meeting firsthand, I secretly slipped my phone—with the call still running—into the pocket of Lin Xi’s suit jacket.

Technology exists for one thing:

Drama.

At the meeting, the atmosphere was painfully serious.

The room was packed with financial heavyweights, all dressed in immaculate suits and radiating the confidence of people who had never once worried about money.

Fu Ci strode confidently to the podium and began presenting his PowerPoint.

Everything went smoothly.

Until they reached the most crucial part—the final stage of negotiations.

The slide suddenly changed.

A giant line of text appeared across the screen:

“I was the most vicious canary trapped in a wealthy man’s golden cage in Gangcheng. The day he flew off in a private jet to pick up his white moonlight, I packed my bags in the middle of the night and ran.”

The entire conference room fell dead silent.

Then came the muffled sounds of people desperately trying not to laugh.

Fu Ci froze where he stood, staring at the words on the screen as though he’d just witnessed a supernatural phenomenon.

Several seconds passed before he finally managed to mutter one quiet curse.

“Tạ Vãn, you—”

His assistant was practically winking himself blind beside him, but even that couldn’t save the situation.

Someone from Mowan finally took pity on him and broke the suffocating silence.

“Mr. Fu, why don’t you go over the key points first?”

Fu Ci’s face cycled through every shade imaginable before finally turning bright red with embarrassment.

“My throat is a little irritated… Let Xiao Liu take over.”

In other words, he’d completely run out of ideas.

For years, Fu Ci had been accustomed to relying on me.

He wasn’t stupid, but he’d lived comfortably for far too long. Apparently, his brain had decided to retire early.

The core of the entire proposal had always been in my hands.

There was no way his assistants could handle it on their own.

The result was exactly what I’d expected.

Fu Ci’s project was rejected outright.

When the panel of experts turned down the partnership, he practically wanted to drop to his knees.

“Mr. Lin, give me three more days! Didn’t you praise our proposal before?”

Lin Xi stopped walking.

He gave Fu Ci nothing more than a cold, indifferent glance before walking past him as though they were complete strangers.

Not long after, an announcement appeared on Mowan’s official website:

“Mowan will never again partner with companies that lack sincerity and professionalism.”

A slap straight to the face.

And one loud enough to echo throughout Hucheng’s entire financial world.

I was just about to hang up when I heard Lin Xi’s voice from the other end.

There was a hint of tenderness in it.

“So… all of Fu Ci’s contracts before this were handled by you?”

I popped another orange segment into my mouth and answered casually.

“Don’t underestimate me. I wasn’t just playing the part of a canary in a golden cage. Those major cases that shook Gangcheng back then? I handled them too.”

I grinned.

“Who knows? Maybe one day I’ll become your rival.”

Lin Xi laughed, his voice full of indulgence.

“Rival? What are you talking about?”

“Both Mowan and I belong to you.”

The moment I hung up with Lin Xi, Fu Ci called again.

The second I answered, he exploded.

“Tạ Vãn! How dare you set me up? Have you forgotten that I saved you back then?”

I calmly moved the phone away from my ear.

“I worked like a dog for you for four years and made you fifty million yuan. Isn’t that enough to repay the debt?”

My voice turned cold.

“Besides, you only saved me back then because I looked like Shen Shulei.”

“Don’t forget, your mother is still in Gangcheng!” he growled threateningly.

I laughed.

The same old trick.

“Sorry, but I already brought my mother back to Hucheng. Don’t believe me? Call her yourself.”

He had nothing left to say.

His tone immediately softened as he switched to pleading.

“Wanwan, I know I was wrong. Come back…”

I got goosebumps.

Without another word, I blocked his number and deleted his contact.

Three years later.

At a little roadside barbecue stall in Ketian, I was keeping an eye on my son, making sure the little troublemaker didn’t start playing with the glowing coals.

Then a sharply dressed “rich man” walked toward us.

The only problem?

His face was darker than the bottom of the barbecue pot.

Lin Xi glared at me.

“You let my son eat this?”

I calmly finished the piece of meat in my hand, then pointed toward the handsome young vendor beside us.

“His dad is that guy over there…”

The second the little boy saw Lin Xi, his whole face lit up.

He grinned so hard that drool immediately spilled down his chin and all over Lin Xi’s pristine white shirt.

“Daddy… Daddy…”

Lin Xi had always been a complete neat freak.

Yet now, he scooped our son into his arms and covered him with kisses, looking happier than someone who’d just won the lottery.

Then he practically sprinted into the kitchen to show my mother.

“Mom! He called me Dad!”

I sat on the sofa, watching him rush around in excitement, laughing so hard my stomach hurt.

The world that had once fallen apart around us had finally been stitched back together—by the two of us, with our own hands.

As long as we still had faith in each other, somehow, everything would eventually become exactly what we’d hoped for.

THE END.