I was somewhat surprised by Mi Lan’s invitation to have dinner with her, because our previous prejudices against each other had been so deep. However, I didn’t think too much about it. After all, once I married Mi Cai, wouldn’t I still need to have dinner with this annoying sister-in-law from time to time?
I replied to Mi Cai, who was waiting for my response: “Sure, just give me a call tomorrow when we’re having dinner.”
Mi Cai softly replied with a “Mm,” then hesitated as if she wanted to say something else. I knew she was curious about what I had been doing in Beijing.
After a brief silence, I told her, “I’ve already arrived in Suzhou… CC has come back.”
This response seemed to reassure Mi Cai. Her tone became much lighter as she said, “I guess I can feel at ease with you now.”
I felt even more ashamed inside, hoping that my recent thoughts of running away with Leyao would turn out to be merely a mistaken impulse born out of pity, unrelated to my current relationship.
Mi Cai continued, “Zhao Yang, Uncle has already expressed his intention to resign at today’s board meeting. It will be finalized at the shareholders’ meeting a week from now. This time, he really means it.”
I felt a surge of joy inside, because this meant that my wedding with Mi Cai was truly drawing near. Once I ended my conflict with Mi Zhongde, Wei Ran, who would be left isolated and weak, definitely wouldn’t pose a threat to Mi Cai anymore… After years of turbulence, my life was finally about to find stability!
I asked Mi Cai, “How are you feeling now?”
“If Uncle really gives up his fight against me, of course I’m happy… But everything is happening so fast. I still have some unspoken doubts in my heart.”
“It’s good to be cautious, but sometimes excessive rejection of others’ kindness can bring many unnecessary troubles.”
“Mm, I hope I’m just overthinking… By the way, with Uncle preparing to step down, all the company responsibilities have fallen on me. I might get home very late tonight.”
“Shall I cook dinner for you?”
“The company has already prepared meals for us.”
…
After ending the conversation with Mi Cai, it felt as if half the burden on my shoulders had been lifted. I lay back on the grass, gazing at the sky painted by the setting sun, and no longer paid attention to the studded leather jacket and guitar lying beside me.
As the sky gradually darkened, the river once again reflected the lights from the street lamps. I sat up from the grass, took out a cigarette, lit it, and planned to leave after finishing it.
Halfway through the cigarette, I saw a graceful figure walking toward me along the riverside embankment. Instinctively, I thought it was Jian Wei. When she got closer, I found my intuition had indeed been correct. She still kept the habit of coming to the moat every day, which made me realize how easily I could find her now, yet during those agonizing three years, we had lived in two worlds that would never intersect, never daring to hope that we would meet again like this on the riverside embankment.
I picked up the guitar from the ground, grabbed the newly bought studded leather jacket, stood up, and walked toward the embankment…
We met halfway along the path, neither of us going up nor down. I nodded and smiled at her, and she responded with a smile too. Then we each continued on our original paths, quickly distancing ourselves from each other… Yet in this silent encounter, it felt as if we had shared a secret unknown to anyone else, which then dissolved into the night.
…
The next day, I continued searching for a suitable location for an inn in Suzhou. Eventually, I found a newly built commercial street in the southern part of the city. The architectural style of this street was relatively vintage. Since it hadn’t fully developed yet, it had a unique kind of tranquility. I immediately decided this was the perfect street for me to open an inn.
After more than an hour of discussion, I efficiently signed a three-year lease agreement with the property owner and paid her 200,000 yuan in rent upfront.
The inn, bar, and restaurant I was currently operating were all profitable, generating a steady income of about 40,000 to 50,000 yuan every day. Therefore, I had ample liquid capital at my disposal. In the past month alone, I had acquired a restaurant and now turned my plan of opening an inn in Suzhou into reality. My business had already entered a period of rapid, uncontrolled growth. My next step was to open two inns simultaneously in Nanjing and Hangzhou, forming a relatively complete commercial network in the tourism-concentrated areas of the Yangtze River Delta. Then, I would consider financing and truly begin to conquer the tourism market in the Yangtze River Delta.
I had a premonition that perhaps next year I would be on a path of rapid development, leaving my mark in the ever-changing business world and creating an immortal commercial legend…
In the evening, Mi Cai drove to the old house to pick me up for Mi Lan’s dinner appointment. On the way, we started chatting, naturally revolving around the topic of our upcoming wedding. I asked her, “What kind of house do you think we should buy?”
“Why do we need to buy a house?”
“Don’t we need a new house for our wedding?”
“We can just live in the old house… or the house Uncle gave to me.”
“I think it’s fine to have more houses. At worst, we can treat them as investments.”
Mi Cai smiled at me, perhaps recalling that penniless me from a year ago, who had survived by acting recklessly and stubbornly clinging onto her. In just one year, my life had changed so drastically. Life was indeed unpredictable. I had never dared to imagine that I would have the good fortune to marry a woman like Mi Cai. Thinking about it, I was indeed lucky, even though I often complained about life with the attitude of an angry young man.
Seeing that Mi Cai wasn’t particularly interested in the topic of houses, I tried to create a sense of connection by chatting about cars instead. I said, “Hey, I think I should buy a car now. It’s not sustainable to keep borrowing Ah Feng’s car.”
“Mm, a car is indeed quite necessary. What kind of car are you thinking about?”
“One that shows off my nouveau riche style.”
“Then how about a BMW?”
“X5 or X6?”
Mi Cai looked at me and said, “You’re teasing me again, right?… How could a man who always holds a guitar and sings folk songs like BMW cars?”
I smiled and said, “Actually, I really enjoy chatting with you about these little details of daily life. It gives me a sense of actually living together. What do you think?”
“I like it too. It’s just that you rarely bring up these topics.”
“That’s because you always have such a goddess-like aura… Every time I wanted to talk to you about these trivial things, I couldn’t help but think, how could you possibly be interested in such mundane stuff!”
Mi Cai smiled and shook her head, then said to me, “Alright then, tell me what kind of car you really want… I’ll go with you to take a look this weekend.”
“A BMW.”
“Are you really sure?”
…
Chatting about these small things, we arrived at the hotel where Mi Lan was waiting. At the same time, she also pulled into the hotel parking lot in her red R8. I deliberately glanced into her car. This time, she had indeed come alone, seemingly genuinely ready to turn our hostility into reconciliation and properly fulfill her role as my respectful sister-in-law.
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