I finally had a legitimate reason to look at Jian Wei directly because of the previous question, waiting for her to give me an answer. It was quite unexpected that she reached out to me this time.
Jian Wei looked at me, so I finally got a clear view of her face. Her appearance hadn’t changed, and I felt an impulse—I wanted to hug her, regardless of who she was with now, regardless of her romantic relationship with someone else.
But in the end, reason overpowered impulse, and I just stared at her blankly.
After a while, Jian Wei said to me, “This time when I return to China, I don’t plan to go back to the United States anymore.”
I nodded but remained silent. Whether she went to the U.S. or not no longer had anything to do with me. At most, I could only view this matter from the perspective of an ordinary friend.
“What about you? How have you been these past two years?” Jian Wei smiled and asked me.
“Great! I live very freely every day,” I responded with a smile. But I only said half of the truth. Indeed, I lived freely—freely thinking about her, freely enduring pain, freely burying myself in the past love without moving an inch. Nobody could stop me from doing so. Isn’t that freedom!
“That’s good then.” Jian Wei nodded as she looked at me.
“What about you? How have you been?”
This question made Jian Wei pause before answering, “Although not as freely as you, I’ve also been doing quite well.”
I responded stiffly, “Haha, that’s pretty good too.”
We fell silent again. This silence seemed to mock our once talkative past. I felt uneasy but didn’t know what to say.
Apparently sharing the same emotion, Jian Wei finally stood up and said, “It’s getting chilly from the wind. I should go back now.”
“Oh… okay!” I responded but didn’t stand up.
Jian Wei looked at me for a moment, then turned around, leaving the lawn and walking toward her car parked by the riverside. I lit another cigarette, sitting in the same spot, still unable to figure out why she had contacted me tonight. We had gone through so much trouble to meet, only to exchange a few words, making this night seem thin and meaningless.
To be precise, this meeting with Jian Wei wasn’t entirely meaningless. When I returned to that old house, Mi Cai locked me outside no matter how hard I knocked, which made me wonder whether she and Jian Wei had planned this together—one lured me out while the other locked the door. But that wasn’t important. What mattered was that I had nowhere else to go again.
Sitting at the entrance of the stairwell for a long time, I finally decided to go to Luo Ben’s place to stay for the night. By now, he should have returned from the bar, hoping that Lily wouldn’t be with him tonight.
…
Returning to Luo Ben’s attic on the rooftop, I first listened at the door and confirmed the room was quiet before knocking. Soon, Luo Ben opened the door.
He was wearing pajamas, had a cigarette in his mouth, and looked surprised saying, “You’re back!”
“I’ve had a damn terrible day; don’t even ask!” I sighed. Today had indeed been awful for me. First, Mi Cai locked me in the house all day. Then I suffered from a stomachache due to overeating. Later, Jian Wei mysteriously invited me out. Each event was a torment, both physically and mentally.
“When have you ever had a good day?” Luo Ben remarked, then lay back on the bed, puffing on his cigarette and sipping beer.
I gave a helpless smile at Luo Ben’s teasing without saying anything further. After a quick washup, I also lay on the bed and lit a cigarette. The two of us smoking together soon filled the small room with a gloomy atmosphere.
Suddenly, Luo Ben asked me, “You haven’t come back these past two nights. Have you been staying with your new girlfriend?”
“No way. Even Leyao could tell she’s not my girlfriend. Can’t you see it?”
Luo Ben asked in surprise, “What’s going on?”
“She’s fake. She’s not my girlfriend at all.”
Luo Ben nodded and said, “You two indeed don’t seem to belong to the same world.”
“Yeah, she’s not good enough for me.”
“You’re awesome!” Luo Ben gave me a thumb-up.
I didn’t respond. I put out the cigarette, pulled the blanket over me, and as I lay down, fatigue overwhelmed me and I quickly fell asleep.
…
The next day, I got up unusually early, didn’t bother to have breakfast, and for the first time in my life, took a taxi to the company. As a result, I paid more than 30 yuan extra compared to taking the bus. This was clearly a waste of money, but if it hadn’t been for that hateful woman Mi Cai locking me in the house all day yesterday, causing me to miss a day’s work, I wouldn’t have needed to rush like this. I was probably going to work overtime tonight anyway. Thinking of this, my hatred for Mi Cai increased further, and I made up my mind to find time to talk with her recently—not about life, not about ideals, just about why she treated me like this.
Finally arriving at the company, I thought I had come early enough, but Fang Yuan was even earlier. Before I could greet him, he threw a file at me and said, “This is yesterday’s meeting materials. Spend half an hour reading them, then we’ll discuss the promotion plan against Zhuomei… ” He added after a pause, “Zhao Yang, time is pressing. Get into work mode quickly.”
“No problem,” I said, sat down, and started reading the meeting materials.
From these materials, I could see that yesterday’s discussion meeting hadn’t established a clear promotional strategy. Meanwhile, there was a disagreement between Chen Jingming and Fang Yuan regarding the plan formulation.
Chen Jingming leaned toward conservatism. His opinion was that it was better to follow the previous promotion plan to ensure completing the task within the scheduled period. Fang Yuan, however, hoped that this promotion plan would break through previous boundaries, truly reflecting the change and momentum of our Baoli Department Store becoming a top-tier department store, even if it meant slightly delaying the schedule.
I spent 20 minutes reading the meeting materials, then made a cup of coffee for both Fang Yuan and myself, and we started discussing. Naturally, I supported Fang Yuan’s idea. Since the company’s next strategic focus was strengthening the brand image, the promotional activities must break through compared to the past. Moreover, competing with Zhuomei was only part of the business operations. Obviously, it should give way to the strategic focus of strengthening the brand image. Of course, if we could break through in the promotion plan while completing the task on schedule, that would be even better.
After discussing, Fang Yuan and I reached an agreement—we would strive to develop a promotional plan that broke through previous boundaries within the allowed timeframe. However, the consensus we reached still required Chen Jingming’s approval, as he was the head of the planning department and had the power of veto.
The whole morning, Chen Jingming didn’t show up at the company. It wasn’t until nearly noon that he appeared and immediately called Fang Yuan and me into his office. He looked very excited, which left Fang Yuan and me quite puzzled.
Entering the manager’s office, Chen Jingming asked me to shut the door. Without even having time to drink a cup of tea, he told us, “This morning I met with the manager of Zhuomei’s investment department.”
Fang Yuan and I exchanged a look, both of us filled with bewilderment and shock. Chen Jingming had actually met with the manager from Zhuomei’s investment department during work hours—this was practically collusion!
Unable to contain his excitement, Chen Jingming explained to us, “I’ve been old classmates with Mr. Li from Zhuomei’s investment department. Today he brought me a piece of news that could potentially change the fate of both our Baoli and Zhuomei… There’s a huge storm brewing inside Zhuomei—an internal power struggle, targeting their newly appointed CEO.”
My heart skipped a beat. Wasn’t the newly appointed CEO of Zhuomei Mi Cai? Could it be that she was facing an internal power crisis at this moment? Although I suspected this in my heart, I remained expressionless and waited for Chen Jingming to continue speaking.
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