Looking at this couple whose behavior was quite peculiar, Leyao whispered to me, “Zhaoyang, do you think something interesting is going to happen next?”
I observed the couple holding the child and flowers, and after a while I replied, “They definitely won’t give the baby to Boss Xia. It must be about the flowers then. If it’s about flowers, they must be expressing gratitude, so there must be an untold story behind all this.”
Leyao nodded and said, “That makes sense. I really like your intelligence.”
It had been too long since I last received any kind of affirmation, and even Leyao’s dubious compliment made me feel a bit proud. I couldn’t help but further speculate about the couple’s story with “Old City West.”
The woman handed the flowers in her hands to Xia Fanye, and with a voice full of emotion, said, “Boss Xia, we heard that Old City West is really moving to the western part of the city, so my husband and I brought Baby here all the way from Xining overnight. We wanted to come here and sit one more time before the move.”
Xia Fanye accepted the flowers from the woman with a smile and, with a voice full of emotion, asked, “You already have a child?”
“Yes, Baby was born in October last year. He’s already two years old!”
Xia Fanye looked at the child with a kind expression and, after a long pause, said, “I’m really happy for you… Please sit down. I’ll make you some coffee. No matter where we move, the taste of this Old City West will never change.”
The young couple nodded earnestly and, holding the child, sat down at the seat next to mine and Leyao’s. Almost at the same time, Mi Cai and CC, who had just finished performing, returned to the coffee shop. After each ordering a glass of lemon water, they sat beside me and Leyao.
Seeing Mi Cai and Leyao sitting together after changing clothes, I felt a bit dazed and had a strange feeling, relieved that they had only exchanged clothes and not souls.
Leyao lifted her arm, sniffed lightly at the sleeve, and asked Mi Cai, “Mi Zong, which perfume are you using? The scent is quite unique!”
Mi Cai smiled and replied, “It doesn’t have a brand; it was custom-made by a friend. If you like it, I can give you some.”
Leyao didn’t indicate whether she wanted it or not and asked again, “It must be the work of a master, right? Ordinary brands can’t produce such a fragrant yet not cloying scent!”
I had no interest in this kind of topic, so I moved my chair to the couple’s table next door and softly said, “Hello, I’m a friend of Boss Xia. I overheard your conversation just now and am especially curious to know your story with this coffee shop. Would you mind sharing it with me?”
When the couple heard that I was a friend of Xia Fanye, they looked at me with expressions full of gratitude and said, “Of course, we are more than willing to share our story with this coffee shop. We hope more and more people won’t be tempted by the material life of this world… Actually, one’s own efforts are the most important.”
I nodded and then patiently waited, while Mi Cai and the others seemed to have also heard the content of our conversation and looked over here. In fact, the distance between us was only half a step, so if we wanted to listen, we could clearly hear everything they said.
The one who shared this story was the man of the couple. He took a deep breath and looked at the child in his wife’s arms before finally saying, “Xia Ya and I fell in love during university. When others thought university love affairs were unreliable, we continued our relationship after graduation and planned to settle down in Xining and build our own small family…”
This was just the beginning, but it had already made my mood turbulent, because I had also once tried to defeat the legend that university love affairs are unreliable, but in the end I was utterly defeated, turning into a bloody and tearful chapter in my life that could never be erased!
The man continued, “However, the pressure of life was too great. Our parents came to Xining many times, trying to persuade Xia Ya and me to return to our respective hometowns to start new lives, including finding new relationships… But we kept insisting, because meeting someone you truly like and being together is just too rare in life!”
Because of similar experiences, I especially understood the feelings of this couple. Otherwise, why would I and Jian Wei have been willing to elope to Suzhou to live together back then? Feeling their pain, I asked again, “Then what happened?”
The man seemed to relive those feelings again, and with a very serious expression, continued, “Life was really tough. After graduation, Xia Ya and I could only survive on meager salaries in Xining, living without a tomorrow, endlessly experiencing the despair of life. Finally, Xia Ya’s health deteriorated from overwork, plagued by constant minor illnesses, and most of our income was spent on medical expenses… Actually, we just didn’t want to separate. If we returned to our respective cities, life would have been much better than in Xining!”
Mi Cai, who usually disliked interrupting others the most, suddenly interrupted the man and asked, “Then why didn’t you go to each other’s hometowns to live?”
The man smiled bitterly and said, “We are both only children in our families. How could our parents bear to let us live in another city thousands of miles away… Sometimes reality is just so cruel, making it hard to have both family and love… We also thought about buying a big house in Xining and bringing both sets of parents there, but that was really too difficult. We could barely maintain our daily lives, let alone dare to think about a house over one hundred square meters!”
“Then you decided to give up?”
The man nodded and said, “Xia Ya’s health kept getting worse, and she stopped working. We had borrowed money from all the classmates we could, and we really couldn’t hold on anymore… At this time, Xia Ya’s parents came to Xining again, urging her to go back, and had already found a suitable civil servant for her back home. The man is Xia Ya’s high school classmate, who has always liked her and doesn’t care about her past relationship with me during university. As long as Xia Ya is willing to go back, he can immediately prepare a house and a car to marry her… After a long time of pain, I finally persuaded Xia Ya to go back. I’m a man without ability; the only time I could accompany her was during our carefree university days. After graduation, I was simply unable to withstand society’s test, so I couldn’t selfishly delay her happiness… If I really loved her!”
After a long silence, the man’s eyes were filled with unshed tears. He continued with a choked voice, “That day, I packed Xia Ya’s luggage and sent her to the train station. We said goodbye many times, but we couldn’t let go of each other’s hands, because our minds were filled with memories of the times we had been together. Once she got on the train, these memories would only remain as recollections for the rest of our lives, never to be experienced again… Finally, as the train was about to arrive, she cried and asked me to fulfill a promise I had once made… I had promised her that I would take her on a trip to a city in southern China. We were born in the north and longed to experience the scenery of the south, especially with our beloved. I didn’t want to leave any regrets in the life after our love became history, so I went crazy one last time. I borrowed 1,000 yuan from my best friend and took her to Suzhou… We made a pact that after this last trip, we would completely forget each other and start new lives!”
Meanwhile, outside the coffee shop, Luoben began singing Zhang Xuan’s song “Yanhuo” again, filling the silent coffee shop with an indescribable sadness, yet there was also a force of rebirth, as if the flames of Yanhuo had broken through the darkness, using their brilliance to seek hope for tomorrow… The baby in the woman’s arms was still sleeping peacefully, which was a good thing, because his birth was already the most perfect outcome, why let him be tainted by the harshest process!
The man looked back at Xia Fanye, who was brewing coffee, took another deep breath, and continued, “Meeting this coffee shop was our lifelong fortune. It was Old City West that allowed our love to be reborn from the ruins of reality… That night, Boss Xia told us the story of Old City West, and we truly understood what the most cruel despair was. Compared to the story of Old City West, at least we were still alive and could still look into each other’s faces, smiling through the final leg of our journey… That night, Boss Xia said: once you come to Old City West, you cannot artificially erase this love, because we can still breathe, and our love is still breathing… He gave us ten thousand yuan, allowing us to return to Xining and continue living, until our love found hope… “
My heart felt as if it had been gripped by something in an instant, causing me unbearable pain and difficulty breathing. I knew that this ten thousand yuan must have been the compensation money from Zhuo Mei that Xia Fanye had received back then. He didn’t give all of this money to the parents of his deceased lover, but instead used ten thousand yuan of it to try to save a love on the brink of death. This act was undoubtedly cutting flesh from his own body, allowing others to continue living for love… At this moment, I seemed to see a pure and great force, the existence of which had already transcended all taboos and darkness in reality…
At this point, the man finally spoke with a bit of relief from a desperate situation, saying, “Later we returned to Xining, and I seemed to gain a strength. Fate began to favor me, and I used the ten thousand yuan Boss Xia gave me to start by selling Kongming lanterns, and then began producing them myself. In these two years, I’ve received only large international orders, becoming one of the largest suppliers of Kongming lanterns in the e-commerce field… Last year, we finally bought our own house in Xining, brought both sets of parents to live there, and in the same year we had our own Baby. We really carried our love to the end… Thank you, Boss Xia, thank you, Old City West… Thank you for this sad and beautiful love story… This trip to Suzhou is not only to visit Boss Xia and this coffee shop, but also to repay the money that once saved our love. Personally, I would like to donate one million yuan to ensure that this Old City West coffee shop will forever exist, bringing its strength to all those who are facing despair in their lives!!”
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