Belated Romance (Mu Tongrui)

Fu Corporation building was bathed in the warm morning sunlight. The entire city had just woken up, busy with traffic on the
roads.
Mu Tongrui busied herself with Ya Hua's animation draft ever since she reported to work at 9:30 a.m.
The draft to be submitted to Ya Hua was due by the end of the day. She needed to finish drawing the characters before leaving
work. She had already thought of the appearance of the characters, so there would not be any problem drawing them. It was just
a time-consuming process.
When she was about to end work for the day, Mu Tongrui printed out the draft and entered Xiang Nanqian's office.
“Ms. Xiang, this is the animation draft for Ya Hua. I have completed it.”
Xiang Nanqian glanced at her draft and sneered, “I thought you were really competent. Are you thinking of winning me by
submitting such a draft?”
“It is not up to me to decide if I can win you or not. Neither is it up to you. We can only wait and see the final results of the
competition.”
“Let me tell you this, Mu Tongrui. You have no chance of winning!”
Xiang Nanqian was unhappy with her. She also could not be bothered to argue with her. “Let's wait and see then!”
After Mu Tongrui handed in her draft, she sat at her desk and looked at the time on her phone.
She had thirty more minutes to go before work ended for the day. The thought of watching a movie with Fu Lingye made her
heart jump wildly with excitement.
She was preoccupied with her date with Fu Lingye tonight, so she sent him a message to ask——
“What shall we have for dinner later?”
His reply came very quickly. “You decide.”
Mu Tongrui felt that his lukewarm response did not show much enthusiasm. “The movie begins at 18:30. Let's buy some snacks
and have them in the cinema then head to a restaurant to have dinner after the movie. How does that sound?”

“Alright.”
A simple answer from Fu Lingye. It was just like his usual style, being efficient and clear.
After a few minutes, he sent another text message. “I need to hold a video conference after work. It will take about 30 minutes.
Come and wait in my office.”
Mu Tongrui remembered that she had driven to the Peninsula Hotel yesterday to look for Jia Yunsheng to sign the contract. After
that, she returned home in Fu Lingye's car, so she had left her car at the hotel's carpark. She figured that the parking fees might
have cost a few hundred and a lot more if she was not going to pick it up soon. “My car is still parked at the Peninsula Hotel. I will
head there after work, then drive straight to the cinema to wait for you there. You would be able to reach in time for the movie
once you are done with your meeting.”
.......
After work, Mu Tongrui headed to the Peninsula Hotel to retrieve her car. After that, she drove to the cinema. She bought a lot of
snacks, as well as a large box of popcorn and two cups of Coke.
However, apart from drinking water and coffee, Fu Lingye did not seem like the kind to consume carbonated drinks or even eat
popcorn. It just did not suit him.
Mu Tongrui imagined herself sitting in the theatre beside him, eating popcorn while watching the movie. The corners of her lips
rose slightly.
She sat on the couch in the waiting area of the cinema and waited for about twenty minutes. By the time she looked at the clock
again, it was already 18:10.
She did not know if his video conference had ended, so she wanted to send him a message. However, she was also afraid of
interrupting his work. After all, he was taking away precious time from work to accompany her to a movie. She felt that it was a
trivial matter so she did not want to rush him.
She needed to be more accommodating, if not how was she able to match up to those intelligent and beautiful women around
him?
While thinking, she continued to wait listlessly for him.
It was almost 18:20 when an announcement was made in the hall.

“To the audience members watching Contract Couple at 18:30, please proceed to the ticketing gate.”
The movie was about to begin in about ten minutes' time. Mu Tongrui could not resist sending a text message to Fu Lingye.
“Where are you?”
There was still no response even after five minutes.
Mu Tongrui proceeded to call, but the phone kept ringing and no one picked up.
Could it be that he was still in the midst of a video conference?
“Tongrui? It is really you, Tongrui!”
Ye Guo shouted at her with a box of popcorn in her hands. She pulled Qi Yanli along and walked over towards Mu Tongrui.
Oh dear. She actually bumped into Qi Yanli and Ye Guo at the cinema!
Ye Guo saw that she was holding onto two movie tickets and pretended to be angry with her, “Mu Tongrui, I asked you to
accompany me for a movie yesterday but you refused to! Tell me, who are you going on a date with?
Mu Tongrui grew anxious and said, “No one, just with a female classmate.”
“Female classmate? Oh, I remember you said that you do not really keep in touch with your female classmates! You said I was
the only one. Are you lying to me now? You even bought two cups of Cola and so many snacks! You are obviously out on a date
with someone!”
“Really, I am not. You do not know this high school classmate of mine.”
Ye Guo looked around, “Where is she then?”
Mu Tongrui glanced at her watch. It was already 18:25. It seemed that Fu Lingye was not going to make it for their date. She felt
moody, “I am being stood up. He is preoccupied with matters so he is unable to come. Please go ahead and watch the movie. I
will leave first.”
Qi Yanli extended a polite invitation to her, “Since you have already bought the tickets, then how about watching it together with
Guo and I?”

Ye Guo tugged on her arm, “Indeed, isn't it a waste to throw away all that you have bought?
“Alright, let's go! Let's go!”
There was another announcement reminding people to enter the movie theatre. Ye Guo carried the snacks and pulled Mu
Tongrui towards the ticketing gate.
........
After the movie had begun, the audience was laughing at the funny scenes, but Mu Tongrui looked at the big screen listlessly.
She was unable to laugh at them. She kept looking at her phone.
Ye Guo leaned towards her and whispered into her ears, “Are you being stood up by a man?”
“No... Stop making wild guesses.”
“Stop lying to me already. If it was a female classmate who stood you up, why would you look so despondent? This movie is so
funny. I notice that you keep looking at your phone. Are you waiting for him to get in touch with you?
Mu Tongrui no longer bothered to put up with the pretense. She explained with a tone of dejection in her voice, “Maybe, maybe
he is still busy with work.”
“Didn't he already promise to watch a movie with you? Why would he still be busy with work? He seems irresponsible. Even if he
is not able to make it last minute, he should still give you a call at the very least.”
Even though they knew each other for only a short time, Mu Tongrui was certain that Fu Lingye was not one who would break
promises like that. Could something have happened to him?
“Guo, do you think he might have met with a car accident on the way here?”
Ye Guo was speechless.
Ye Guo lifted her hand to do a forehead flick. “Mu Tongrui, have you gone silly? He is obviously standing you up on purpose.
What do you mean by a car accident? Do you really think you are in a drama?”
However, there was no response from Fu Lingye. He did not pick up her calls either. If nothing had happened to him, then could
it be that Sweetheart's fever had gone up again?

As her thoughts wandered, Mu Tongrui could no longer continue watching the movie. She picked up her bag and said softly to Ye
Guo, “I will get going. Continue watching without me.”
Ye Guo stared at Mu Tongrui as she got up and left her seat. She exclaimed with a hushed voice, “How can you choose him over
me? Come back! Come back...”