After a night of almost no sleep, I briefly dozed off just before dawn. I hadn’t even had time to dream when the door to my room was opened by the boy, who shook me urgently and said, “Brother Zhaoyang, wake up.”
I opened my eyes and asked him, looking at his worried face, “What’s wrong?”
“Big sister Leyao just left, and she didn’t even respond when I asked her what was going on. I want to ask you, what’s wrong with her?”
A wave of uncontrollable sadness surged through me, but I still replied in a seemingly indifferent tone, “People come and go in life; why are you so upset?”
“She was clearly here to attend tonight’s event, but now she’s left. Explain to me why!”
“She had an urgent job offer, okay?”
“If she had an urgent job, why would she leave crying?… You must have upset her again!”
“She was just practicing her acting skills…”
Before I could finish speaking, the boy interrupted me, “Don’t give me that nonsense! No one would believe such a story, not even a three-year-old!”
After a silence, I finally said to the angry boy, “Everyone has choices and hardships in life; just leave it alone!”
“Big sister Leyao is such a big star who took a liking to you, but you don’t appreciate her… You’re just asking for trouble; you’ll regret it later!”
The boy seemed to have lost patience with me, slammed the door behind him as he left, and I was left alone in the room, staring blankly out the window for a long time. Her seductive smile appeared in my mind, followed by memories of our playful banter and teasing. I felt a pang of sadness, and warmth began to gather at the corners of my eyes. My vision blurred, the memories suddenly vanished, and I felt increasingly empty—until my phone suddenly rang with a WeChat notification.
I quickly grabbed my phone from the cabinet and opened the WeChat app. Sure enough, it was a message from Leyao: “Sometimes loving someone deeply isn’t enough; we also need fate… Since we’ve never shared a romantic connection, let’s never meet again… Zhaoyang, goodbye forever!”
My gaze lingered on the words “goodbye forever,” and once again I felt hollowed out with sorrow. Instinctively, I replied, “Goodbye forever?”
After a long while, I realized she had rejected my message and that I was already blocked on her WeChat. Only then did I realize: from now on, there would no longer be a woman in my world who delighted in giving me sarcastic likes. Our relationship had unknowingly reached its end amidst our teasing… Thus, whether I had slept with her or she had seduced me that night remained an unresolved question.
…
The morning after waking up, I plunged into busyness without even having breakfast. Zhou Zhaokun also arrived early at the event preparation site. After briefly discussing the event arrangements, he asked me, “Has Big sister Leyao not woken up yet?”
This was not something I could easily hide, so I told him, “She left for Beijing this morning!”
Zhou Zhaokun looked surprised and asked, “Why did she leave so suddenly?”
I hesitated slightly before replying, “Not sure, maybe her company had an urgent matter.”
Zhou Zhaokun looked disappointed but still smiled and said, “Work comes first; I wonder when we’ll meet again…”
I was distracted and didn’t hear clearly what Zhou Zhaokun said next, but whether I heard it or not wasn’t important anymore because Leyao and I had already made our “goodbye forever” agreement.
…
Time passed quickly, and by nine o’clock in the morning, Mi Cai, who had not yet left Xitang, arrived at the event site carrying several breakfasts. She left two portions and handed the rest to A Feng, asking him to distribute them to the staff still working hard at the site.
Under a shaded tent, I sat with Mi Cai eating breakfast. Her mood seemed to have improved from last night, perhaps she had already forgiven the scene between me and Leyao yesterday. Still, she remained quiet, and I couldn’t tell what she was thinking. I hesitated over whether to tell her about my “goodbye forever” agreement with Leyao so she could feel reassured.
After much consideration, I still chose not to say anything, because a mature love doesn’t require me to prove my loyalty by taking advantage of someone else’s departure.
After finishing breakfast together, Mi Cai cleaned up the containers and left, while I once again got caught up in work until I finally had a short break just before noon.
I chose a shady spot, one hand holding a cigarette, the other a bottle of mineral water, watching the tourists coming and going outside the inn until a red Cadillac appeared in my sight, snapping me out of my thoughts. The cigarette in my hand had already burned out unknowingly.
Jian Wei parked her car in front of me. Without getting out, she rolled down the window and said, “You’re so busy you’ve gone dumb; I could see your dazed look from far away!”
I didn’t respond, just looked at her car and noticed that besides the front bumper being scratched last time, this time even the rear was dented. I asked her, “Your bumper car has been hit again?”
“Don’t mention it. This time it was my fault—I oversteered while overtaking and scraped another taxi again!”
I sincerely exclaimed, “You’re really impressive. You even dare to overtake taxis… Are you competing with taxi drivers or something?”
Jian Wei opened the car door and sat beside me, still exuding her usual boldness, saying, “I just want to prove that there’s someone stronger than taxi drivers on city roads.”
“Like you, a female driver on steroids!”
Jian Wei glanced at me, seemingly uninterested in continuing this topic. Then, in silence, she looked around at the event site we had set up. I nudged her gently, concerned, “Be more careful when driving in the future. Fortunately, the previous collisions were just scratches; it would be dangerous if you had a serious accident!”
Jian Wei still didn’t respond. I looked helplessly at her car, the un-repaired scratches looking quite ugly. Perhaps there wasn’t a Cadillac in the entire country that looked worse than hers. I asked her, “You don’t even want to fix the scratches on your car? Driving it around like this affects the city’s appearance!”
Jian Wei replied indifferently, “As soon as this car hits the road, won’t everyone keep their distance? So why bother fixing it!”
I was helpless again, looking at the car. It somehow didn’t match her beautiful face. I didn’t say much more, after all, she didn’t care herself… Actually, sometimes I really was curious why heaven gave her such an impeccable female body, yet also gave her such a bold heart, making her seem more unique than ordinary women!
Yet thinking back to the moment she left, crying and writing “waiting” on the window with her lipstick, I realized she could also be gentle and loving. But what had changed her into the person she was now, I didn’t know. I could only attribute it to this personality being inherent in her, which had been amplified after years of independent living in the U.S.
After a brief silence between us, she finally said again, “By the way, the two prime advertising spots I got from Zhuomei have already been rented out—they’ve signed a three-year contract for a total of 5.2 million.”
“Not bad, your advertising company has taken another step forward.”
Jian Wei nodded, “Indeed, it’s another step forward, but I can’t take all the credit because the idea to resolve the PR crisis last time was yours.”
I unscrewed the cap of the mineral water bottle and took a sip without saying anything. In my heart, I felt a sense of loss. Although I could help Mi Cai resolve one PR crisis, I couldn’t solve the fundamental problems facing Zhuomei.
Jian Wei asked me again, “There’s been a lot of talk about Zhuomei in the industry lately. What’s the current situation there?”
“I can’t really explain it clearly. It’s just chaotic…”
“Is the problem with the investor?”
“Where did you hear this?”
“Now, who in Suzhou’s business circles doesn’t know about this…”
Before Jian Wei could finish speaking, I asked again, “What else have you heard?”
“Nothing much, just some guesses about the reasons for her falling out with Mi Cai…”
“More nonsense from those idle busybodies. What do they have to do with this?”
Jian Wei smiled and replied, “Then why do you care what they say?”
“So you’re deliberately trying to get on my nerves?”
Jian Wei didn’t respond to me. She opened the car door again, got into her “bumper car,” then drove it to a shady spot and directly went into the inn to book a room.
…
Time quickly approached evening, and the event proceeded according to the prearranged schedule. This time, the number of tourists attending the event was nearly half more than the previous time. Finally, A Feng, one of the event organizers, had to limit the number of visitors entering the venue to maintain order.
I set the theme of this public welfare event as “Sunlight at Night,” symbolizing that no matter how heavy the darkness is for vulnerable groups, we will always be a beam of sunlight, illuminating their lives.
Thanks to the previous experience, the event smoothly reached the stage of auctioning hotel rooms… At this moment, I couldn’t help but recall Leyao, who had once clashed with a red-clad woman during this segment. Now her departure seemed to leave a void in my heart, making me feel melancholy. I tried to comfort myself, thinking that time would eventually ease this sorrow, and perhaps soon I would be able to adapt to life without her.
After a brief moment of sadness, I took out the first room key from my pocket and said to the participants, “This is a single bed room with an exquisite layout and elegant decoration. The starting bid is 50 yuan; everyone is welcome to bid.”
Soon, the tourists bid the price up to 500 yuan. Just when everyone thought the bidding for this room would stop at 500 yuan, Jian Wei, who had been silent all along, decisively shouted out a price of 1000 yuan. The crowd was amazed, but this was only the beginning. The red-clad woman quickly offered 2000 yuan, which made me very curious. Subconsciously, I had expected her to wait until the suite was auctioned to bid, but I was even more curious whether Jian Wei, who never liked to admit defeat, would engage in a bidding battle with her right from the start, thus repeating the previous scene of the two women competing!
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