Despite a day of clear skies, it started raining again at night. As Qi Shi'an's glass went from full to empty, and empty to full again several times, he couldn't grasp the drunkenness he sought. Instead, the cold wind blowing in made him increasingly sober.

"Mr. Qi, would you like another glass?"

The faint taste of alcohol lingered in Qi Shi'an's mouth. He shouldn't continue drinking, but his consciousness took over and he blurted out, "Give me a glass of butterbeer."

While waiting, he stared at his phone on the table, hesitating whether to open his mailbox and take a look. Perhaps the "Shen Duoyi" mentioned by You Zhe wasn't who he thought it was. It was very likely a coincidence of having the same name.

Duo meaning many, Yi meaning intention.

Shen Duoyi...

Such a beautiful name, to hell with coincidences.

Qi Shi'an forgot his profession, forgot how decisive he was as a trader. He hesitated until the butterbeer was served. Watching the bubbles constantly gathering in the glass, he felt the uneasiness trapped in his heart and lungs finally reached its peak.

Just like a stock price finally rising to the pressure line.

Entering the mailbox, the two most recent emails were from You Zhe and his secretary Annie respectively. Reason prompted him to open the second one first. The email contained tonight's opening data. His work was already delayed.

After replying to the email, only one unread message remained. He then realized that just now, besides reason, there was also some avoidance in his emotions. His fingertips lightly tapped and the email opened. The name field appeared first.

He reviewed those three characters again.

Qi Shi'an tapped the screen with his fingernail, taking in the other party's basic information. Graduated from a prestigious university, four years of work experience, a string of certificate numbers, and how much profit he created for the company.

Time was too magical. Compared to their first meeting, it was like a different world.

Scrolling down again, a photo unexpectedly appeared. Qi Shi'an didn't even have time to withdraw his finger, causing his fingertip to touch the other person's face. His gaze fixed on it, and the glass of butterbeer reflected his unconscious smile.

That smile concealed a hint of tenderness, and also implied a restless desire to conquer.

Perhaps it was the common problem with ID photos, but Shen Duoyi looked a bit stiff in the picture. His thin lips curved into a slight smile, his bright black pupils stared straight at the camera. It was probably due to the lighting that his fair skin was photographed in a warm tone. If he weren't wearing a sweater, one wouldn't have guessed it was taken in winter.

Qi Shi'an turned off his phone and finally remembered to drink that beer. He looked at the dazzling liquor cabinet inside the bar, Shen Duoyi's phone number rolling through his mind.

He arrogantly thought that he just found the coincidence marvelous, and didn't still have feelings for that person.

At this moment, the bartender spoke, "Mr. Qi, this is the first time this month you've stayed so long."

Indeed, drinking alone was very boring. Qi Shi'an felt that this bar not only had poor bartending skills, but was also good at driving away customers. He put down the empty glass and turned his head, seeing a good-looking side profile.

A high nose bridge, a bit of a lip pearl, glossy hair on the forehead, the whole person was gentle and quiet, so familiar. The other party seemed to sense his gaze and turned to face him.

The familiarity instantly faded away. Qi Shi'an felt a bit obsessed.

That person was still looking at him, then raised his glass and gave him a smile. In a place like this, a glance could hook up, a smile could tumble into bed. Qi Shi'an finished his drink and neatly left.

He didn't like playing the substitute game. When he liked someone, even if it was unrequited, it had a lingering taste in his heart. Others, whether one point or ninety-nine points, made no difference to him. They were all tasteless anyway.

Truly liking him, no one could replace him.

He only hoped that time would dilute this bit of thought. If it couldn't be diluted, he could only accept it.

But he had long accepted it, and then fate let him meet him again.

Entering the tallest building at the end of the street, Qi Shi'an sent Shen Duoyi's resume. Soon a call came in. He answered, "Invite him for an interview, the sooner the better."

This light rain had an astonishing endurance. When Shen Duoyi woke up in the middle of the night, it was still raining.

He glanced at his motionless phone, probably knowing the answer in his heart. Sleepiness gradually disappeared. He moved from the bed to the bay window, too lazy to turn on the light, so he nestled on it in the dark, thinking randomly.

Was the salary too high?

Or was something inappropriate?

Or was there a more suitable candidate?

Exploring the reason didn't have much significance. Shen Duoyi thought these were just distractions for insomnia. Suddenly a gust of wind blew at the window, raindrops pattering on the glass. He crawled to the balcony with a bad premonition and sure enough, found that the window wasn't closed, and the clothes hanging were wet again.

Doing housework in the middle of the night could really cure insomnia. When he returned to bed, he almost immediately entered dreamland.

In the morning, the noise of the soy milk machine arrived as scheduled. Shen Duoyi slipped into the quilt to resist, even ignoring the ringing phone beside his pillow.

Grandpa Shen pressed pause and slowly walked to the bedroom door to urge, "It's already ten o'clock, are you resting today? Get up and accompany me to the hot springs?"

Ten o'clock?

Shen Duoyi lifted the quilt and knelt on the bed to answer the phone, "Hello?"

The tone on the other end of the phone was a bit casual, but the voice was quite pleasant, "Hello, I'm Zhang Yiming from Ming'an Financial."

Shen Duoyi remembered that the tallest building at the end of the street was called "Ming'an".

Grandpa Shen waited at the door for five minutes, listening to the talking inside. He estimated that he could only go to the hot springs by himself. Grabbing his hat and cane, he was changing shoes when the bedroom door opened.

"Grandpa, wait for me." Shen Duoyi said, "I have an appointment tomorrow, I'll accompany you to the hot springs today."

There were only a few administrative staff outside Ming'an's foreign exchange department. The traders were all in the conference room having a meeting. Qi Shi'an's collar was loose, his shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and two gem cufflinks were casually thrown next to the ashtray.

Zhang Yiming found a seat and sat down, listlessly browsing "Precautions for Simulation Traders and Live Traders". After reading it three times, the glass door of the conference room finally opened.

Qi Shi'an was the first to come out. He casually threw a cigarette at Zhang Yiming. Zhang Yiming caught it and stood up, walking over and saying, "Can't quit? Not allowing smoking during meetings is really disrespectful to humanity."

"Sniffed it, didn't light it." Qi Shi'an was very self-disciplined, "If you have something to say, say it quickly, I'm busy."

Zhang Yiming said with dissatisfaction: "Because your drinking delayed you from the opening of the night market, there was a big drop today, of course you're busy, serves you right."

Qi Shi'an snatched the cigarette back and stuffed it into the cigarette case, turned around and walked to the door: "This is the foreign exchange department, don't talk about futures here." After saying that, he blocked the doorway, then knocked on the sign on the door.

"Trading floor, do not enter without invitation."

Zhang Yiming smiled faintly: "That actuary called Shen Duoyi, are you going to invite him or not?"

Qi Shi'an had already been too busy to remember, at this time he also smiled faintly with a sense of fatigue: "Since you ask like this, it seems you've already invited him."

Zhang Yiming nodded: "Interview tomorrow, are you coming or am I coming?"

"You go." Qi Shi'an didn't even think about it, he was afraid that Shen Duoyi still remembered him, and then would refuse the company's job invitation, and even more afraid that Shen Duoyi didn't remember him, and would exchange polite yet unfamiliar pleasantries with him.

As soon as Zhang Yiming left, Annie sent the itinerary for the next week. Only then did Qi Shi'an remember that he was flying to Germany for a meeting tomorrow. He had lived in Germany for more than half a year when he was studying, and had always wanted to go back and take a look, but at this time he had no expectations at all.

After a few rains, the temperature rose instead of falling, and he felt a bit inflamed from soaking in the hot spring for too long the day before.

Shen Duoyi went out early, and went to wash the car before the interview. In fact, he missed living in Qiuye Street very much. The neighbors there lived very leisurely and comfortably. When there was nothing to do on weekends, they would bring a plastic bucket to wash the car themselves. Dawdling along, after washing, they would watch some chess for a while, then bring the bucket home for lunch.

The temperature inside the Ming'an Building was kept at twenty-five degrees Celsius all year round, and every corner was spotless. In addition to the daily cleaning by the cleaning staff, an outsourcing company had to be hired every half a month for a comprehensive cleaning.

Zhang Yiming was still on the phone when he entered the elevator, lowering his head and asking, "Later at the interview, the person you asked me to invite, let's make it clear first, must we keep them?"

Qi Shi'an was already sitting in the office: "Depends on his performance, but I'm confident he can pass."

"Then I'll handle it as official business, aren't you flying to Berlin this morning?" Zhang Yiming took a sip of coffee, and at the moment he raised his head, he saw Shen Duoyi in the elevator, so he hung up the phone without waiting for Qi Shi'an to answer.

Shen Duoyi nodded: "Mr. Zhang?"

Zhang Yiming extended his right hand: "Hello, let's go directly to my office to talk later."

As they shook hands, Shen Duoyi asked straightforwardly, "Was it Mr. You who recommended me to you?"

"Yes, that was him on the phone just now." Zhang Yiming lied with a straight face, "We are friends, due to some circumstances he was unable to hire you, felt it was a pity, and it just so happened that our company also needed manpower, so he recommended you to me."

Shen Duoyi smiled: "I hope we can cooperate successfully."

From the moment the phone suddenly hung up, Qi Shi'an had been sitting in his chair without moving, occasionally glancing at his watch, calculating that the interview time had arrived, and the self-introduction should be finished.

Annie knocked on the door and came in, reminding: "Mr. Qi, it's time to go to the airport."

Qi Shi'an asked, "Has the driver had breakfast?"

"Huh? Let me ask." Annie was at a loss for two seconds, after contacting the driver, she replied, "He has eaten, haven't you?"

Qi Shi'an said, "Give him ten minutes to eat another meal, I'll wait for him."

After three minutes, Qi Shi'an finally got up from his seat, he picked up his bag and left the office with big strides, his pace gradually quickening, and halfway he turned around and headed towards another floor's meeting room.

The entire corridor was covered with thick carpet, and no sound could be heard whether walking or running. All the rooms facing the sun were meeting rooms of various sizes, and any department could come to hold meetings at any time.

In the largest one, Zhang Yiming and Shen Duoyi were standing by the floor-to-ceiling windows a meter apart, who knew what they were discussing.

Qi Shi'an walked to the outside of the glass wall and peeked openly.

In his field of vision, Shen Duoyi seemed a little taller than in his memory. The stand-up collar of his shirt covered half of his slender neck, with one shoulder in the shadow and the other in the sun. When he turned his face slightly to talk with Zhang Yiming, one could see the arc of his mouth corners symbolizing politeness, and his smiling brows and eyes.

Ten minutes were up, Qi Shi'an turned and left, his leather shoes making no sound on the carpet, so only the "thump" in his chest could be heard. He didn't know whether to be happy or sad to find that the Shen Duoyi who had bid farewell to his youth seemed even more refined.

Without even a fleeting glance, yet still mercilessly stirring up the still waters at the bottom of his heart.