I never thought I'd run into Shen Ci again under circumstances like these—right in the greenroom of the provincial TV station.
After Ms. Xu suddenly assigned me the interview, I rushed to the studio but was still a few minutes late. The moment I reached the door, the director snapped:
"What took you so long? We're about to start filming, and the station director is sitting inside waiting for you!"
There was no time to explain. I could only bow my head and apologize before flashing my work badge and pushing the door open.
The greenroom was spacious, with a pot of lush ivy standing out against the tabletop, water droplets rolling off its leaves and speckling the surface. Beside the tea table, the station director was chatting with a slender young woman. At the sound of the door, she looked up, gave me a cold glance, and sneered:
"Nam City TV's reporters really know how to make an entrance."
Maintaining my composure, I gave the director a slight nod.
"I'm sorry. Traffic was terrible, so I ended up a few minutes late."
The director waved me off.
"Go apologize to Mr. Shen."
I put on a perfectly polite smile and turned toward the sofa across from us. The man sitting there had covered his face with his suit jacket and was leaning back to rest. Tall and slender, with his long legs crossed and a pale, thin hand resting on his knee, he had an eerily familiar silhouette that made me startle.
In truth, that morning I'd only had time to skim the guest's brief résumé: no name, no photo, just a few dazzling lines of achievement:
* Admitted to Tsinghua University through direct admission after winning the Physics Olympiad. * Earned his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2023. * An expert at the leading AI research institute and a professor in Nam City. * The only Chinese person to receive the World AI Council's Achievement Award.
Carrying my respect for this genius with me, I approached.
"Excuse me, I..."
Before I could finish, the man on the sofa shifted slightly. His suit jacket slid off his face and fell to the floor. When I saw that face clearly, I froze, my heart seeming to miss a beat.
It was Shen Ci.
He raised an eyebrow and lazily looked up at me. Flustered, I hurriedly turned away. The young woman ran over, picked up his jacket, and began muttering reminders at him. He merely shrugged and replied nonchalantly, "Sorry," revealing the tiny mole at the corner of his eye.
"Xiaochu, what are you standing there staring into space for?"
Only when I heard him call me did I come back to myself. I stammered:
"I..."
Suppressing the emotion lodged painfully in my throat, I stepped forward and held out my hand.
"Hello, Mr. Shen. I'm Jiang Chu, the assigned reporter for today's interview."
Shen Ci lowered his head to tap at his phone and lazily let out an "Mm."
"I know you."
The recording session took place under the watchful eyes of the entire crew and the station director. The topic centered on his career and his AI research. Shen Ci was a man of few words, but every answer was razor-sharp. Especially when he talked about human-computer interaction and artificial intelligence, his eyes lit up with passion—just like those of the seventeen-year-old boy from years ago.
Throughout the interview, I had to remind myself not to zone out, but that handsome face kept pulling me back to memories from ten years earlier.
The first time I met Shen Ci was nothing like a romantic movie scene. That year, after evening self-study, I found a gold-embossed copy of Modern Physics. A week later, a classmate called me to the door. "Jiang Chu, someone wants to see you."
I hurried outside. The moment I steadied myself, I heard a soft laugh from beyond the door. Standing before me was a teenage boy in a white T-shirt, leaning against the wall beneath the blazing September sun. He squinted, revealing two pearly crooked teeth and a dazzling smile.
"Hi, I'm Shen Ci from Class 12-2. Did you find my copy of Modern Physics?"
That radiant image of him at sixteen was etched into my mind for an entire decade.
"...The final question."
I lowered my head to look at the cue card, drew a deep breath, then raised my eyes to meet his directly.
"Mr. Shen, may I ask if you're married now?"
I held my breath and waited.
Shen Ci looked at me casually and answered unhurriedly:
"No. But I was once."
My heart gave a painful throb. His answer felt like a period already placed at the end of the story, one nothing could change.
I smiled and nodded.
"Thank you for taking the time to do this interview, Mr. Shen."