The second part, 'East Land Big Sugar,' Chapter 28

felt deeply indebted to anyone who did even the slightest thing for her, and was uneasy inside.After chatting casually while eating, Ruanruan glanced at the cured meat he was carrying and said, "Shall...Han Li saw the set of phone numbers, “Right, we haven't exchanged our numbers yet.”

It was Ivy who had recommended her business card to me, she added me directly on WeChat and we've been in touch ever since. As we were talking, she typed her phone number into the chat and sent it over.

Jiang Mu saw her phone, and his smile deepened: "Look at it again carefully."

Hàn Lì lowered his head to pick up his phone and glanced at the WeChat chat box. To his surprise, the first 10 digits of their phone numbers were identical, with only the last digit different—his was a 6, while hers was an 8.

"What a coincidence! Are these couple numbers" She thought it was incredible, could everything be destined

Jiang Mu smiled without saying a word, looking at her with a hint of fondness in his eyes, much like he would look at a little girl.

"What's wrong"

He finally spoke: "My phone number ends in 6, I've been using it for many years."

Because he kept bringing up his phone number, Han Li turned her gaze back to the set of digits, taking another careful look. Then, a very distant and blurry memory slowly surfaced in her mind, because the numbers were only one digit different from hers, just one digit apart.

She exclaimed incredulously, "You're Doujin's brother"

Jiang Mu smiled even wider, nodded, confirming her answer.

This time Han Li was truly shocked. This is beyond just fate.

Back then, when she came to Beijing for school, she just got this phone number she uses now. After about a month, she would receive similar messages every few days, saying they saw her family's gold ingots and where they were located.

She started by being confused, but after receiving it several times, she tried to contact the sender. That's when they realized they had sent it to the wrong number; they meant to send it to a number ending in 6, not 8.

They said that they saw a lost dog poster and when they saw a dog that looked similar, they provided the tip.

After learning the cause and effect, Han Li would directly forward any similar information to the person with the tail number 6. At that time, she didn't know whether the other party was male or female. For several consecutive years, as long as she received a message, she would forward it to the other party, and the other party would only say thank you every time, but never told her the final progress.

So the only person I've been texting is you.

"Yes, when you messaged me, Doujin had already been lost for over a year. I was abroad at the time, and every time I received similar leads, I could only ask my friends in China to help me verify them. But every time it ended without results, and eventually they were all too busy to help me verify each one."

That was Jiang Mu's first dog, and he was very close to it. Because it got lost and never found, it became a wound in his heart that he didn't dare to touch.

Han Li might not even remember herself anymore, but later on, whenever she received similar messages and the location was close to her, she would go there first, take a picture, and send it to him via text message, asking if that was the one.

Later on, such information became increasingly scarce. Over the following years, she would only occasionally receive one or two that were sent to her by mistake. By then, she had already left school and was working hard in her career. She didn't have as much time as before, so in those subsequent years, whenever she received similar messages, she would just forward them to him casually. Deep down, she knew that it was impossible for his dog to be found again.

Remembering this inexplicable connection across the void, Han Li was a bit too confident: "Did you like me back then"

Jiang Mu was straightforward: "I don't have feelings of liking, but I do pay attention. Every time you forward me a text message, I'll take a look at your updates. You can find your WeChat using your phone number, and back then you could still be visible to strangers."

I wouldn't say I like him. How could I like someone I've never met It's just that we kept in touch intermittently for many years because of our shared interest in Doujin. Every time I think about him, and how we both cared about Doujin, it feels heartwarming.

Actually, the last time Han Li contacted him was when she said she might change her phone number. If he needed to continue receiving Doujin clues through this number, she could give it to him.

At that time, Jiang Mu was still abroad, but he flew back to China especially for this. It's unclear whether it was for this phone number or for this person. It just felt like after so many years of contact, it would be nice to see each other one last time.

But he didn't show up in the end. At the tea restaurant they had agreed on, he saw her with a pregnant belly. Actually, even though she was pregnant, she was very beautiful. Besides her protruding belly, her limbs were slender and she was tall. Her skin was also very white. During the time she waited for him, she kept staring intently at the computer in front of her, busy working.

The moment he saw her, Jiang Mu knew that he had come back to China for her, not for the number.

But seeing her pregnant, he must have already been married. The little curiosity he had to learn more about her vanished in an instant.

Don't give yourself a chance to start, snuff out the tiny spark before it has a chance to ignite.

So I texted her, apologizing and saying that something came up and I couldn't make it. I also said to forget my number, assuming Doujin wouldn't come back anyway.

There has been no contact since then.

And Han Li, deep down, was a nostalgic person. She didn't give out her number, and she couldn't bear to delete it either, so she continued to use it. Her WeChat account was still linked to this number, and for years, her WeChat avatar and nickname remained unchanged.

So when she received Yvonne's push business card and sent a friend request to Jiang Mu, Jiang Mu saw this familiar avatar and thought it was his illusion or just a coincidence at first, until he saw the background picture of Moments, the memory deep in his mind came flooding back.

He's not the type who has time to browse social media, nor does he have any desire to pry into others' lives. So, he'd never deliberately looked at Yvonne's profile, even when she offered to introduce him to girls. He brushed it off with a smile. If not for that familiar profile picture, he wouldn't have accepted her request.

It wasn't this familiar avatar, and he wouldn't click on Yiwu's friend circle to see her share the public account link of their architectural design firm, looking for her presence.

On the design firm's public account, there are only a few articles mentioning her, most of which are about one of her designs winning some award, and some scattered photos, portraying the image of an intelligent and mature woman, which is the type he admires.

To say I was interested before would be a lie; to say it was love at first sight when I saw her picture is also impossible. It must have been fate. From the past to now, there's this sudden connection, like we've known each other for ages.

After adding him on WeChat, those days he was indeed out of town on a business trip. At the time, I hadn't thought it through properly, so I didn't want to act hastily and just kept silent.

Han Li, after hearing his words, also felt incredible about the fact that they had such a connection in the past.

Those years were the most difficult for her. The savings she had made from working on construction sites had long been spent. She had to juggle her studies with part-time work, and often felt like giving up. It was during those times that those mistakenly forwarded messages gave her a lot of strength. Seeing that others were still persevering for a slim chance, how could she notseas."Our homegrown talent has made it big! It's wonderful, simply wonderful!"That night, although Song Jingye still hadn't eaten his fill, Chen Ling had eaten well. Seeing her like this, he let out a...