In the blazing summer of Shencheng, the heat rolled through the air in waves.
Inside the huge two-story villa, everything was dead quiet. The only sound was the rapid clacking of a keyboard, sharp and nonstop, echoing through the empty space.
After who knew how long, the typing suddenly stopped.
The moment Ivy Holloway thought of the call her aunt had just made, her whole mood tanked. She couldn’t focus on work at all anymore. She got up, poured herself a glass of water, and stood there staring blankly at the screen, her mind completely elsewhere.
What was so wrong with being single? What was so wrong with being twenty-six?
And what kind of nonsense was that, saying if she didn’t find someone soon she’d be doomed to stay alone forever?
Ivy let out a bitter little laugh. Even with every cell in her body resisting the idea of a blind date, she still forced herself to move. She packed up fast, almost mechanically, getting ready to head out. Save the file, shut down the computer, change clothes, put on light makeup—done in one smooth run.
It was just a blind date. Not like it was the end of the world.
At this point, she’d practically met her way through the whole zodiac. She’d seen every kind of weirdo imaginable.
This time, if the guy was just normal, literally normal, she’d say yes. Happy now?
Still fuming, Ivy walked out the door.
It had been bright and sunny in the morning, but now the sky was packed with dark clouds. It looked like a massive downpour was about to hit at any second.
And seriously, who picked this café? It was ridiculously far from her place. To make things worse, her car had been sent in for repairs after a rear-end accident yesterday, so she had to call a cab and rush over, nearly late because of it.
She glanced at the message her aunt had sent her: Table 7.
She had never been to this café before. She lingered at the entrance for a while, looking around, before finally noticing the table number signs hanging overhead.
A small “7” came into view.
There was already someone seated there. From where she stood, she could only see the back of his head and his neat, short black hair. But somehow, even just that silhouette gave off a vibe that was hard to ignore.
Ivy pulled out her phone to check the time. Right on the dot. Thank God—at least she wasn’t late.
She quietly let out a breath and walked over.
The man seemed busy with work. His head was lowered, his attention fixed on a tablet as he scrolled through what looked like documents or reports. Ivy took a soft breath, steadied herself, and spoke first.
“Hello, my name is Ivy Holloway. Are you Mr. Mercer?”
The man across from her was looking down at his tablet. When he heard her voice, his fingers paused for a second. He casually set the tablet aside, then finally looked up.
Under the bright lights, his face came into full view—fair skin, sharp features, and that whole cool, distant vibe that made people instinctively keep half a step back. But what stood out most were his eyes. Deep black, like ink, with tiny glints of light in them under the lamps, the kind that made you want to look twice without even realizing it.
Ivy Holloway froze on the spot. "Wait... it’s actually you?"
A flicker of something unreadable passed through Ethan Mercer’s eyes, but it vanished almost instantly. His voice stayed calm. "Yeah. It’s me."
Ivy sat down across from him just as the server walked over. Before the menu could even be handed to her, she quickly said, "A latte, please. Thanks."
Then she turned to Ethan, her eyes full of genuine gratitude. "I really have to thank you for helping me yesterday."
The memory still made her scalp tingle a little. After her car got rear-ended, the other driver had gone full drama mode, pointing at her and yelling that she was some rich man’s mistress driving a kept-woman car, even trying to shake her down for money. If Ethan hadn’t stepped in when he did, she honestly had no idea how she would’ve dealt with that mess.
She really hadn’t expected that the guy she was meeting on this blind date would turn out to be him. Just realizing that made the knot of tension in her chest loosen quite a bit.
Ethan lifted his eyes and took a proper look at the girl in front of him.
She was strikingly pretty. Her skin was pale with a healthy flush, her features delicate and soft, her lips pink like cherry blossoms, and her long black hair fell neatly over her chest. But the most arresting thing was still her eyes—clear, bright, and so clean they almost felt unfair. Right now, they were fixed on him with pure sincerity.
The shy little girl from his memory had, without him noticing when, grown into someone this graceful and radiant.
Ethan pressed down the ripple in his chest and gave a faint smile. "It was nothing."
The more casually he said it, the more moved Ivy felt.
These days, people willing to stand up for a stranger, help out, and ask for nothing back were basically rare species. No joke.
Without hesitation, she slapped a mental label on Ethan: good person. The café wasn’t busy, so the server soon brought over her latte and set it on the table.
For a moment, silence dropped between them.
Ivy sat there stiffly, fingers curling around the armrest of the sofa as if she was trying to grab onto some tiny bit of security.
Ethan noticed how restrained she looked. Her gaze kept dodging, and there was a trace of panic hidden in it. So he asked gently, "Do you want some dessert?"
Ivy shook her head softly. While sneaking glances at the man in front of her, she nudged the ice in her cup with her straw and tested the waters in a low voice. "Can I ask something a little personal, Mr. Mercer? Are you really in that much of a rush to get married?"
A man like him—whether it was family background or personal ability—was obviously top-tier. Honestly, she couldn’t see why someone with his qualifications would need a blind date to sort out marriage.
"Married?" A trace of surprise flashed through Ethan’s eyes, but he covered it almost immediately and went along with her words. "Yeah. My family’s been pushing pretty hard."
At once, Ivy felt deeply understood. She looked at him with instant sympathy.
So this kind of pressure really was universal.
She had barely taken a sip of coffee when her phone rang. She shot Ethan Mercer an apologetic smile, then picked up with a puzzled look. "Auntie, what is it?"
Diana Holloway’s voice came through fast and anxious. "Where are you? Little Shen said he’s been waiting for you for almost thirty minutes."
"Aren’t I literally on the blind date right now?" Ivy Holloway blinked, totally confused, then turned and asked, "You’re Mr. Shen, right?"
Ethan Mercer pressed his lips together, clearly trying not to laugh, then gave a small nod. "Yeah."
Ivy instantly relaxed and hurried to say into the phone, "See? Hear that? I’m with him right now."
"That can’t be right. He just called your Aunt Feng a second ago. What is even going on..."
Beep, beep, beep.
He just made a call? How was that possible? Hadn’t he been sitting right across from her the whole time?
A terrible thought flashed through Ivy’s mind. She slowly lifted her head and looked at the table number card, then asked carefully, "This is table seven... right?"
Following her gaze, Ethan glanced up too. Even if the stroke on the "1" was written a little too heavily, there was still no universe where it looked like a "7." He gave a light cough to cover the awkwardness and said, "This is table one."
Ivy froze. The embarrassment hit so hard she wanted to vanish on the spot, like, full social death. She scrambled to gather her things and stood up in a rush, apologizing as she moved. "I’m so sorry. I got the table wrong. I’ll go right now."
She was just about to walk around him and leave when a cool, broad hand suddenly closed around her wrist.
The touch made her whole body tremble. That faint warmth spread from her wrist straight to her chest, and her heartbeat instantly went off the rails. She panicked a little, completely thrown off.
"Mr. Shen..." She lowered her eyes and met his gaze, but only for a second before looking away again. The wrist caught in his hand twisted lightly twice, a small instinctive struggle.
Ethan let go of her almost at once and pointed behind her. "Table seven is over there."
Ivy turned to look. All she saw was a man’s back. The top of his head was shiny and bald, with only a few lonely strands of hair hanging on around the edges...
