I lit a cigarette, weighing the importance of this matter in my mind. Actually, I hoped that Chen Jingming and Fangyuan could work at Zhuomei, because their abilities were outstanding, and they could likely become Mi Cai’s support in the future. After all, Mi Cai’s foundation at Zhuomei was still unstable, and she needed to cultivate her own power.
Finally, I said to Fangyuan, “I’ll talk to her about it later.”
“How much chance do we have?”
I shook my head and said, “It’s hard to say…”
“Just do your best. You know, there are only Zhuomei and Baoli, two big department stores in Suzhou. If I can’t work at Zhuomei, I might have to leave Suzhou. I really don’t want to leave unless it’s absolutely necessary because it’s unfair to Yanyan… Sigh! I really don’t have any other choice, otherwise I wouldn’t come to you and put you in an awkward position.”
I patted Fangyuan’s shoulder to comfort him and said, “We’re brothers, so don’t mention being put in an awkward position. Don’t worry! I’ll definitely talk to Mi Cai and try my best to help you develop better at Zhuomei. After all, both you and Manager Chen have the qualifications, and I believe it’s also a good thing for Mi Cai.”
Fangyuan nodded and said, “Okay, then I won’t thank you.”
I smiled, then suddenly thought of a key issue. I said to Fangyuan, “By the way, if I approach Mi Cai about this, it will be impossible to keep Manager Chen in the dark about what happened last time. You’ll have to explain it to him for me sometime—I really don’t have the face to face him anymore.”
“There’s no rush to explain. If we can get the job at Zhuomei, then we can explain to him and he’ll be more likely to accept it. If we can’t get it done, then there’s no need to say anything. We’ll just keep it to ourselves.”
I had to admit that Fangyuan had thought things through comprehensively. For instance, if I went to explain to Chen Jingming before getting the matter resolved, he would probably still feel bitter about it. But if we succeeded, it would be a kind of psychological compensation for him, making my efforts a way to atone for past mistakes.
…
I left the small restaurant with complicated feelings. When I got home, I was about to call Mi Cai to have an initial discussion about this matter, but to my surprise, I saw her shoes on the shoe rack. Then I heard the sound of running water coming from the bathroom. She had actually returned from Shanghai tonight!
I sat on the sofa waiting. Moments later, she finished washing up and walked out of the bathroom, coming to stand in front of me and asked, “Where did you just go?”
“I was invited out by a friend to talk about something… How come you’re back from Shanghai already? Didn’t you say you were going to stay with Weiran?”
Mi Cai’s expression suddenly became complicated. After a while, she asked me, “Zhaoyang, are we good friends?”
I was quite surprised by why she suddenly asked this, but I still nodded and said, “Of course we are!”
“Then I’ll tell you anyway…”
I became even more surprised and finally asked after a while, “Tell me what?”
Mi Cai fell silent again, as if it was hard for her to say, which made me feel nervous and anxious. I urged her, “Come on, just say it already…”
Mi Cai finally gathered her courage and said to me, “…Weiran confessed his feelings to me today…”
My emotions surged. I seemed to see again the scene where Xiang Chen confessed his feelings to Jian Wei at Yan Yan and Fang Yuan’s wedding. A sharp pain surged in my heart, unstoppable.
After a long while, I forced a smile through the unbearable pain and said to Mi Cai, “I think you also have good feelings for him, so this should be a good thing, right?”
“Do you really think so?” Mi Cai looked at me and asked.
Suddenly, I really wanted to smoke, but I couldn’t light a cigarette in front of Mi Cai because it would expose my true emotions. If Mi Cai really accepted Weiran’s confession, I would be sad for a long time!
Seeing that I didn’t speak, Mi Cai sighed almost to herself, “Sigh! Why do friendships with the opposite sex always go wrong after being together for a while?”
Actually, Mi Cai’s lament was somewhat overgeneralizing. At least, my friendship with CC had never changed over the years.
Mi Cai sat down beside me and suddenly jumped to another question, asking, “Zhaoyang, after we’ve been together for a long time, will you also act like Weiran?”
“Uh… Do you dislike Weiran for doing this?” I finally managed to calm myself and changed the subject by asking.
“I don’t know…”
Mi Cai’s somewhat confused answer finally let me catch my breath. I quickly played the role of an emotional expert and asked, “Have you never liked any man all these years?”
Her expression turned gloomy again. After a while, she said, “No. Since my father passed away, I seem to have lost interest in everything.”
At that moment, I finally understood why she had such a cold personality. Perhaps before Mi Zhongxin’s death, she had been like any normal girl, laughing, joking, and acting coquettish…
After a long silence, I asked her indirectly, “Was Weiran’s confession not creative enough to move you?”
Mi Cai shook her head and said, “He recorded many moments we had together with a DV camera. Today, he rented out a cinema, filled it with flowers and balloons, and then played those moments in a screening room that only the two of us were in… I was really moved…”
“What a showoff!” I muttered.
“What did you say?”
“Very touching!” I quickly corrected myself.
Mi Cai nodded, as if still recalling the scene of Weiran’s confession.
“Then what? Did you accept him?” I asked nervously.
Mi Cai looked at me again and finally softly said, “Then… I ran back to Suzhou.”
Suddenly, an image of Mi Cai fleeing from the cinema appeared in my mind, but that didn’t necessarily mean she didn’t like Weiran. At least she hadn’t refused him outright. It was just that her attention had never been on love, so Weiran’s sudden confession hadn’t given her enough psychological preparation.
After another silence, I still asked with confusion, “You came back to Suzhou, why didn’t you go to his place, but came to me instead?”
“My mind is in a mess. Can I just talk to someone?”
“Why didn’t you go to CC?”
Mi Cai’s expression immediately turned displeased. She picked up her handbag from the coffee table and said to me, “Since you’re so unwilling to talk to me, I’ll go find CC. I don’t care to talk to you anymore either!”
Actually, I didn’t mean to be unwilling to talk with Mi Cai. I just thought it would make more sense for her to talk about such things with CC, since they were both women.
I grabbed Mi Cai, who was about to leave, and frowned, saying, “What a bad habit you have! Running out the moment someone says something you don’t like. Don’t you know this is called princess syndrome?”
Mi Cai pulled away from me and said angrily, “Why are you always so harsh on me, yet so good to me… How exactly should I feel about you?”
I was suddenly stunned. I had never known what kind of person I was in Mi Cai’s eyes. It turned out I had made her so confused… But it wasn’t intentional on my part. Whether I was harsh or kind to her seemed to be a kind of primal instinct, just like how I had fallen for her—with no particular reason, just instinct.
Speechless and at a loss, I completely skipped over the topic of Weiran’s confession to Mi Cai and changed to a serious expression, saying, “Don’t rush to get angry with me. I have something serious to talk to you about.”
Mi Cai looked at me, waiting for me to say what this serious matter was.
Finally, I calmed myself and started thinking about how to tell Mi Cai that Fangyuan and Chen Jingming were considering moving to Zhuomei.
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