After I sent a message to the Rose Patient, who I suspected was CC, asking for her identity, I received no response for a long time. I knew this was not something I could rush, so I patiently waited, because she wouldn’t have added me without reason.
Finally, the phone emitted a notification sound again. I opened it eagerly, only to find a very long message. No wonder it had taken so long. I focused intently and read every word. She wrote: “Zhaoyang, you’re right—Rose Patient is indeed the old CC. I know you and Mi’er are about to get married. All I can offer is my sincere blessing… Please forgive me for not being able to attend the wedding and share your happiness, because for me, completely leaving the past behind is not just a casual game. I’m making serious efforts toward it, so please stop trying to find me… I’ve already married. Our meeting was simple, but the journey we’ve shared has been colorful and rich. That’s why, upon arriving at his hometown, I chose to marry him without hesitation… Once again, I wish you and Mi’er happiness. I hope you can cherish the happiness right in front of you, because no one will wait forever, and life ultimately cannot escape the vastness of time… Please take care, and take care again!”
My gaze finally settled on the word “take care.” My eyes felt sore, because this seemingly simple yet deeply expressive message had dismantled the once mountain-strong CC. She had completely denied her past. Perhaps this denial stemmed from her current happiness, and she no longer wanted to be disturbed. Indeed, she had married quickly after leaving. Now, she was a married woman. Perhaps she still smoked, drank beer, and sang songs, but her life would no longer connect with the past. To her, that once unforgettable past was now just a mistake brought by pain, so she called herself the “Rose Patient.” But she didn’t realize that her past had become Roben’s present… She also didn’t know that after she left, the woman named Weimanwen had already become inseparable from another man… Roben continued living in pain and loneliness!
Lost in thought, Roben walked out of the bathroom and asked me, who was staring at my phone: “Who are you texting with? I’ve never seen you so serious!”
I looked up at him, hesitated for a moment, and ultimately didn’t tell him it was a message from CC. Because knowing that CC had married, telling him would only bring him disappointment and pain. I even wondered—if back then he had chosen not to go to America, but instead followed CC’s trail to find her, what kind of ending might have awaited them?
I didn’t answer myself, because in the face of reality, all assumptions are foolish. Finally, I said to Roben: “Just chatting casually with a friend.”
Roben gave me a suspicious look, then lay on the bed and lit a cigarette. He looked somewhat desolate as he watched the raindrops beating against the window. This desolation seemed to stem from a spiritual connection between him and CC. In his subconscious, perhaps CC had already married someone else in a distant land, and she was just waiting for someone who knew her to confirm this fact to him.
I finally lowered my head, preparing to reply to CC’s message. I expressed my sincere blessings to her, hoping that one day, when she no longer distinguished so clearly between past and present, she would return to reunite with Mi’er and me. However, when I sent the message, it was rejected… It turned out she had only briefly been the Rose Patient, delivering her blessings to Mi’er and me before hastily saying goodbye again, leaving the mystery of life to us, her old friends who still missed her… I felt somewhat at a loss.
At this moment, Roben suddenly stubbed out the cigarette he hadn’t finished smoking and said to me: “Zhaoyang, after your wedding with Mi’er, I want to visit that small village…”
“What?”
“I want to visit that small village!”
“Didn’t you say you’d leave right after the wedding?”
“I hadn’t planned to go originally, but plans can change… I want to see how she’s doing!”
“I’ve told you she’s already married to Zhou Hang. Why keep poking at your own pain? Would that really make you feel better?”
Roben shook his head, took another cigarette from the pack, lit it, and took two puffs before saying: “I don’t know why, but I really strongly want to go!”
I fell silent because of this seemingly impulsive idea of his. Although Mi’er and I had concealed the full truth about Weimanwen and Zhou Hang’s relationship, it seemed that after a full circle, fate still wanted Roben to seek the truth under his own consciousness. However, as Mi’er and I had worried, after finding out the truth, what awaited him might be another round of pain caused by choices—what was the point?
I asked Roben again: “Must you go?”
“I must go!”
Seeing his firm determination, I swallowed back all the words I had intended to persuade him with and simply nodded. Because I clearly knew what attitude I should take in this matter: I would neither deliberately guide him nor make meaningless attempts to stop him. Regarding Roben and Weimanwen’s tangled and unresolved love story, it was best to let things take their natural course. However, I still felt curious: when Roben once again walked down that old path, would he encounter the same result or an unexpected ending?
At that moment, my phone rang. I thought it might be Mi’er, having finished talking with Mi Lan and now summoning me home. But it was an extremely familiar number. Although I hadn’t labeled the name, I had dialed it countless times and remembered it perfectly—it was Fangyuan calling.
I hesitated for a moment before answering the call, but I didn’t speak first. After a period of silence, Fangyuan said to me on the other end: “Zhaoyang, I’m waiting for you on the 18th-floor rooftop. I want to talk to you!”
“What more do we have to talk about?”
Fangyuan’s voice remained frighteningly calm as he replied: “There’s not much to talk about, but there is something worth discussing. Come up. It’s just a few steps away… I’ll wait for you!”
Without responding to Fangyuan, I hung up the phone because I needed some time to think—whether I should go and meet him. Eventually, I couldn’t resist my growing suspicions and left Roben’s room, climbing the stairwell toward the 18th-floor rooftop. Because I had a premonition that whatever message Fangyuan brought might relate to Yan Zhuomei… and likely what Mi Lan and Mi’er were discussing. I had long anticipated that Yan Zhuomei’s warning was not an exaggerated joke. She would definitely take real action. But what exactly was she planning to do to me and Mi’er?… I had already fallen into poverty in Xuzhou, with nothing more in terms of wealth to lose, and Mi’er was the same. What else did Yan Zhuomei have to threaten us with?… I really couldn’t imagine!
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