I never expected that the woman in red wanted me to persuade Mi Cai to remain in the commercial world and continue to struggle there. No wonder Mi Cai refused, because this completely contradicted our original plan. However, if Mi Cai still had the desire to make a comeback, I wouldn’t stop her. She was entirely free in my eyes.
I spoke sincerely to the woman in red, saying, “Returning to Xuzhou is a consensus we’ve already reached, and it’s what I hope for. Therefore, I won’t persuade her. Of course, I won’t stop her from accepting your proposal either. This matter really needs to be handled by you yourself.”
The woman in red looked at me with disdain, “Zhaoyang, you lack the spirit and the boldness of a real man!”
“What can you really achieve with boldness and vengeance? In the end, you still have to return to your daily life… For me now, pursuing an ordinary life is a return to simplicity after seeing through the illusions. The so-called boldness and vengeance only make people lose direction, turning them into someone who always lives in resentment, which is neither happy nor free…”
Mi Cai nodded, saying, “I agree with this point. Ms. An, just like Zhaoyang, I indeed have no more attachment to the business world. I just want to live a down-to-earth life, cherishing every detail. Sometimes, simple food and plain living may not be so bad after all…”
None of us took this conversation as a joke, so the woman in red fell into a thoughtful silence… In her silence, we arrived at the restaurant that specialized in Suzhou cuisine. We stood side by side, but because of the light shining in different directions, our shadows were separated to the left and right. Mi Cai and I went left, while the woman in red went right alone. She looked very lonely, her loneliness stemming from the unresolved love and hate in her heart, which I could clearly sense.
…
Inside the restaurant, we didn’t book a private room but chose a relatively quiet corner. Mi Cai and I sat together while the woman in red sat alone, looking desolate, her gaze fixed on a nearby family of three…
Mi Cai and I were discussing what we wanted to eat when she finally spoke after a long silence, “Tonight, why don’t you both have some alcohol with me… Maybe then I can share some of my innermost thoughts with you!”
Mi Cai nodded and immediately called the waiter, ordering a bottle of baijiu. Baijiu pairs best with Suzhou cuisine because its sharpness can counteract the sweetness of the dishes, while the sweetness of the dishes can soften the spiciness of the baijiu…
The alcohol hadn’t arrived yet, but the woman in red had already entered a state of indulgence. She took out a pack of women’s cigarettes from her handbag, pulled one out, and lit it between her slender fingers… It was the first time Mi Cai and I had seen her smoke. We exchanged surprised glances before looking back at her. Her smoking posture was beautiful, but what came from her mouth was endless melancholy and pain…
However, this was a commoner’s restaurant, and she wasn’t the only woman smoking there. No one seemed to mind as she filled the surrounding area with smoke…
I have a natural sensitivity to the smell of tobacco, and my thoughts couldn’t help but wander along with the smoke. I seemed to see once again the treachery of human hearts, and then thought of Yan Yan. She should still be kept in the dark by Fang Yuan, and she was also the biggest victim in the whole incident…
But I knew the truth between Fang Yuan and Mi Lan yet dared not warn her… She was pregnant; how could her emotions withstand such a shock? Her emotional state would directly affect the child in her womb… But if I didn’t warn her, I could only watch helplessly as Fang Yuan once again wove his lies, pushing her step by step into the abyss…
This man who placed human nature amidst the ever-changing clouds had once again thrown a dilemma at me… At this moment, I even hoped he would just keep hiding the truth so that Yan Yan could smoothly give birth to this child. After all, the child’s life was innocent and should not bear the collapse of his parents’ relationship!
As I was lost in thought, Mi Cai had already poured baijiu into both my glass and the woman in red’s. She said to me, “Zhaoyang, have some baijiu with Ms. An… Don’t drink too much, just enough to get the point across!”
As soon as Mi Cai finished speaking, the woman in red tilted her head back and drank the transparent glass of baijiu in one go. She exhaled heavily, and her face quickly flushed from the alcohol… The tears that fell from her eyes became even clearer and more crystalline. This crystalline beauty, however, was mixed with bitterness and pain and wasn’t as pure as it seemed on the surface!
Finally, the woman in red spoke to Mi Cai and me, “I once loved a man so deeply that I was poisoned by love… We had a marriage commitment, and I once felt my life was complete, full of anticipation as I went to France to complete the procedures that would allow me to marry him… But when we met again, it was at his wedding with another woman… What he did was like killing me with his own hands…!”
I heard extreme anger and suppression in her words, so I remained silent for a long time before asking her, “What did you do afterward?”
The woman in red’s expression was extremely complex, “He said responsibility was above everything else. Well then, I would turn him into a man who couldn’t bear any responsibility at all… I took over his company, left him with nothing, made him betray the employees who had high hopes for him, and made him infamous throughout the business circle…”
Mi Cai and I exchanged glances, and we already roughly understood who that man was… We never expected she had such a past with that man!! At first, I only thought that man was the legal husband of a famous female anchor, who later divorced and became a newly emerged young entrepreneur in recent years, and then suddenly fell from the business world… I was shocked by the insider information she revealed herself.
The woman in red seemed to have somewhat relieved her hatred, saying, “Everything he painstakingly built, in my world, could be destroyed effortlessly… What is he?… A father of entrepreneurship? Haha… Just a second-rate businessman!!”
I knew what she said was true, but she had indeed lost her composure due to the stimulation of alcohol and the deeply buried hatred in her heart…
She was completely losing it, picking up the wine glass again and downing it in one go. Tears kept streaming from her eyes, as if every drop carried all the grievances and pain she had endured over the years!
I also finished the wine in my glass before solemnly saying to her, “He meant nothing, yet he was the man you loved… Ms. An, you’ve schemed so much, but are you really happy?”
“I’m definitely not happy… So I once hoped he would be even more unhappy than me. But when I saw him become even more unhappy, I felt myself approaching collapse again and again!… This feeling makes me panic, makes me confused, makes me at a loss… How could I be so absurd?”
“You’re not absurd, just at a crossroads in your heart, you chose the wrong path… Your wisdom and hatred have become an inseparable heart demon… Ms. An, why not let your heart be cleansed and accept that man?… You were destined to be his woman, otherwise after so many years, you wouldn’t still be alone!”
The woman in red fell into silence. She seemed to be recalling all she had done over the years… Pain once again appeared on her face! But she murmured, “I love him, I want to be his woman, live for him, die for him… I don’t ask for much, just a proper wife’s identity from him… But this year, I’ve manipulated him in the business world at my fingertips, using dishonorable means… I feel dirty!… Just like you said, what’s the point of boldness and vengeance, in the end, you still have to return to life… But can I go back now?… Facing his repentance, I’m also full of repentance, afraid to expose all the things I’ve schemed for in front of him. I seem to have gone too far to turn back!!”
I continued to persuade her, “Ms. An, you’re very wrong. Just like you forgave his mistakes, he will definitely forgive you… Because, he might love you even more than you love him!! He’s just waiting for you to resolve your heart’s knot and give him a chance… You mustn’t let mutual suspicion drown and sink each other in a river of pain anymore… It’s really time to get ashore, Ms. An!”
After my words, the woman in red was lost in thought for a long time before finally speaking to Mi Cai and me, “Your choices tonight have greatly moved me… I should go back to his place to settle some matters… After that…”
The woman in red didn’t immediately say what would happen after that. She was making a careful decision. After drinking half a glass of wine, she continued, “After that, I will choose a way to minimize the damage and tell him everything I’ve done… And after that, I should go to a place that can cleanse my soul to repent… Repent for myself, and repent for him!”
Mi Cai nodded and said, “When I was into photography, I traveled all over the country. A place that can cleanse your soul must be Tibet. Go to Sakya Monastery there. It’s a very special temple, and you might gain many new insights!!”
…
That night, Mi Cai and I chatted with the woman in red for a long time. Her experiences gave us a deeper understanding of life, and made us even more resolute about our decision to return to Xuzhou, because life has a time limit. Within this time, we should do what makes us happiest. Whether material things are the most important really only depends on the choice of the heart!
After Mi Cai and I sent the woman in red to her hotel, we walked back to the old house, and since she was tired, I carried her on my back… The entire night was light and gentle for us who had let go of everything, until we saw the black Mercedes-Benz parked at the community entrance and Mi Zhongde standing by the car… The night grew even darker again.
He was watching Mi Cai, who was seeking a sense of security on my back, from a distance not too far nor too near!! He had found us here!! But for what purpose??
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