Serena Holt never, not even in her wildest guess, imagined she would run into Ethan Mercer again in a situation this awkward.

Her hand was still gripping the doorknob, one foot already inside the private room, when she instantly felt something was off.

Luckily, Serena had always been quick on the uptake. After only a few seconds of stiff embarrassment, she put on a polite smile and said, "Sorry, I think I came into the wrong room."

Inside the booth, a man and a woman were sitting across from each other, both turning to look at her.

Serena tried her best to keep her expression easy, casual, like this was no big deal.

The woman sitting opposite Ethan Mercer nodded, probably wanting to leave a good impression on him too, and replied in a soft, gentle voice, "It’s okay."

Serena pressed her lips together. Even though she told herself not to, the corner of her eye still flicked toward Ethan Mercer.

He was leaning back against the chair, legs crossed, arms folded in front of him. The whole posture screamed lazy confidence, relaxed to the bone.

Serena didn’t dare study his face. Her back straightened instinctively, stiff as a board. She gave a small nod, turned around, pulled the door open, and walked out. She didn’t look back, just shut the door behind her with one hand.

Only when the door clicked fully closed did the breath trapped in her chest finally come out. Her whole body sagged a little, like the strings holding her up had suddenly gone loose.

Wanxiang was a leisure and entertainment venue, and this entire floor was made up of themed private rooms, all specially set up for blind dates.

She really had not seen this coming. Ethan Mercer had actually started going on blind dates too.

A man like him... how had he ended up here?

He had good looks, good background, good everything. He had never lacked female attention. Even when he wasn’t single, there had still been women throwing themselves at him. Now that he was divorced and completely unbound, it should have been even easier.

After standing there for a while, Serena let out a quiet, self-mocking laugh.

Whatever Ethan Mercer was doing now had nothing to do with her anymore. They had been divorced for two years. Their lives had split cleanly apart long ago.

Forget a blind date. Even if he got remarried tomorrow, that would be perfectly normal.

She took a moment to steady her emotions, then turned to check the room number behind her properly. Two seconds later, she understood. In her rush just now, she had mixed up the 8 and the 6.

Following the numbers to the room next door, Serena carefully checked the sign again before finally pushing the door open. At the same time, she spoke first, her tone apologetic. "Sorry, traffic was terrible. I’m late."

The man inside stood up at once, polite and well-mannered. "Miss Holt, hello."

Daisy Ellison, that little self-appointed matchmaker, had introduced Serena Holt to this guy. Supposedly he was a doctor, and on paper, pretty solid in every way.

Serena honestly hadn’t expected much. But the moment she saw him in person, she had to admit Daisy’s usually questionable taste had somehow pulled off a rare miracle.

Dr. Yang really was good-looking. Clean-cut, gentle, the kind of man who looked polished without trying too hard. Even the way he spoke and carried himself gave off that well-bred, educated vibe.

Still... a man this good had ended up on the blind-date market too.

That thought pricked Serena somewhere deep inside.

And, like a switch had been flipped, she thought of that man again.

Dr. Yang didn’t show even a hint of annoyance over her being late. He was calm and easygoing, all gracious manners. Maybe he was genuinely interested in Serena, or maybe he was just being considerate because Daisy Ellison had set this up. Either way, he patiently went over his background, his work, his family, his general situation, all of it in careful detail.

But Serena barely took any of it in. As his steady, unhurried voice flowed on, her focus started slipping, little by little, until her mind wandered clean off.

She thought of Ethan Mercer again.

If not for running into him today, she probably wouldn’t have thought about him in a long time.

They had been married for one year and divorced for two. In the end, the time they’d spent apart had already stretched longer than the time they’d ever spent together. No matter how much resentment or unwillingness she’d once held on to, time had sanded it down until almost nothing was left.

During those two years after the divorce, she had only paid attention to Ethan Mercer’s life at the very beginning. Not long after they split, she heard that he had gotten a girlfriend. People said she was the daughter of a family close to his, basically a childhood sweetheart, the kind of girl who had always belonged in his world.

The last tiny scrap of hope Serena had kept tucked away in her heart had probably shattered the moment she heard that.

Honestly, looking back, it made sense. Even before she’d fallen so low, she had never really been his equal. So now, with her life in this mess, what right did she have to think otherwise?

Later on, any news about Ethan Mercer only reached her in fragments, from magazines or passing headlines. Most of it she deliberately filtered out, like muting a topic she didn’t want to see. But now it seemed that he and that childhood sweetheart hadn’t made it to the end either.