Chapter 9: Repaying Anger with Virtue

Mi Cai drove me here at a speed of 100 km/h for 20 minutes, which meant I was now at least 30 kilometers away from home. I felt like dying—how come all these bizarre things keep happening to me recently!

I picked up my slippers from the ground, adjusted my clothes, and looked up. Fortunately, the Big Dipper was still shining. I located the brightest star, Alioth, to determine the directions. Then I started walking toward the distant blurred lights, as if embarking on a lonely escape.

After half an hour, I finally saw a road with cars passing by. Upon closer inspection, I felt like strangling that evil woman—this was the Shanghai-Nanjing Expressway at the boundary between Suzhou and Wuxi.

…

It was almost dawn when a kind passerby finally gave me a ride to the city center. I then took a taxi back home, but without my wallet, I couldn’t pay the fare. I just threw the driver the half pack of cigarettes I hadn’t finished and ran off.

Inside the residential complex, my anger began to boil. I wanted to talk to Mi Cai—not about life, not about dreams, just why she had treated me this way.

Back in the apartment, I placed my guitar on the coffee table in the living room, walked up to Mi Cai’s bedroom door, and started pounding on it furiously: “Is it that fun to play with me? Do you even realize I have to work tomorrow…” I glanced at the window where the sky was already getting light and corrected myself: “Actually, it’s already today. After messing with me all night, how can I possibly work in this condition? If the boss gets angry and fires me, are you going to support me?”

I kept ranting, but there was no response from inside.

“If you want me to say even worse things, keep pretending you can’t hear me!” I shouted again, pounding on the door once more.

Still no reply.

“Could she not be back?” I wondered, twisting the doorknob and discovering it was locked from the inside.

Since Mi Cai already saw me as a scumbag, I might as well add the crime of breaking into her room. I took out the key to her room from the keychain, unlocked the door, and decided I had to talk to her, no matter whether she was asleep or not.

I turned on the lights and finally saw Mi Cai lying on her side in bed, covered with a quilt and facing away from me, still silent.

“You sure sleep soundly! Have you thought about what I’ve been through? The wind blew so hard on the way that my nose was running nonstop… Ah-choo!” I sneezed, rubbed my nose, and continued angrily, “Let me tell you, in my 20-some years of life, I’ve never met anyone who acts like you—so sneaky, so unscrupulous!”

Despite my endless scolding, she remained as calm and unmoved as a mountain.

Just as I was about to pull her up from the bed to confront her face-to-face, she suddenly started coughing violently…

Based on common sense, if my sneeze meant I was catching a cold, then her coughing definitely indicated a fever—most likely caused by catching a chill last night.

…

I stood there, stunned, and then shouted, “Finally, the heavens have opened their eyes! You’re getting what’s coming to you!”

Mi Cai coughed again but didn’t respond. I didn’t know whether she was just too tired to bother with me or too weak from the fever to argue.

“Get out.” Mi Cai finally said coldly after a long silence.

“No need to remind me—I prefer to ignore people in trouble. Let you cough yourself to death! Serves you right, this is your karma…” I said as I stormed out of her room.

I was about to take a hot shower and catch a quick nap, but then I kept hearing coughs coming from Mi Cai’s room.

I stopped on my way to the bathroom, suddenly falling into inexplicable inner turmoil. I felt that since I was the only man in the house and she was coughing so helplessly, could I really just stand by and do nothing?

“Alright, since I’ve been such a scumbag for so long, I might as well do one good deed today—call it a way to accumulate virtue.” I told myself.

…

I placed the towel in my hand on the sofa, walked into the kitchen, found a piece of ginger and a bag of brown sugar, and lit the gas stove to make ginger brown sugar tea.

I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open. I lit a cigarette to stay alert and watched the bubbling tea in the pot somewhat numbly.

The morning sun had already peeked over the eastern horizon outside the window. A breeze gently passed through the hanging spider plant on the balcony. A new day was beginning, radiating its age-old vitality and freshness. I was somewhat entranced—this world at dawn was enchanting, as if it belonged solely to me… Perhaps compared to this rare morning, I wasn’t really fond of the night’s neon lights after all.

Mi Cai’s coughing snapped me out of my daze. I realized the ginger tea had been boiling for quite some time. I turned off the stove, poured a bowl, and walked toward Mi Cai’s room.

…

“I made you some ginger tea. Drink it,” I said, standing beside Mi Cai’s bed.

“No need for you to be so considerate.”

“Who’s being considerate? I just don’t want your coughing to keep me awake!” I replied indignantly.

Mi Cai responded coldly: “Then move out, and you won’t hear it anymore.”

“If I move out, you’ll just cough yourself to death without anyone knowing. No more nonsense—drink this ginger tea now!” I said, placing the bowl down and propping up her pillow before roughly helping her sit up.

I touched her forehead and confirmed she indeed had a fever. I picked up the bowl from the nightstand and handed it to her: “Drink this first.”

Mi Cai didn’t argue with her own condition anymore and took the bowl from me, drinking it silently. Her expression was no longer as icy as before, though she remained quiet.

“After finishing it, stay under the covers and take a nap. Leave the bowl there; I’ll come back to collect it later. You have a mild fever. Take some fever medicine and sweat it out, and you’ll be fine.”

…

To prevent my condition from worsening, I put on a thick jacket before heading out. I rarely got sick, so I didn’t keep any regular medicine at home. I needed to go to the pharmacy to buy some fever reducers and cough medicine for Mi Cai.

It was still too early, and the pharmacies hadn’t opened yet. I ran to several places before finally finding an open clinic. After buying the medicine, I immediately took a taxi back. By the time I returned, it was already 7:30.

Back at the apartment, I entered Mi Cai’s room and found her already asleep. Seeing her breathing steadily and looking peaceful, I didn’t wake her. I took her phone from her bag, dialed my own number, and left a note on her nightstand: “When you wake up, remember to take the fever and cough medicine. If anything comes up, call me—I’ve already saved my number in your phone… From Zhaoyang, the scumbag in your eyes and the angel in mine.”

I gently tucked her in and left her room.

…

I took a quick hot shower, didn’t have time for breakfast, and then caught the bus to work, starting another day of work in a daze and exhausted state.

I was so sleepy that one yawn followed another. Eventually, I simply propped my chin on one hand in a highly skillful pose and fell asleep. Unless someone approached closely, no one would realize I was actually sleeping.

Fang Yuan, who was getting married soon, had been busy and didn’t arrive at the office until nearly ten o’clock. He immediately slapped me awake: “Did you go to a nightclub again last night?”

Thinking about last night’s events made me angry, but I didn’t want to take it out on Fang Yuan. I yawned again and replied, “Didn’t sleep well. I was messed up the whole night!”

Fang Yuan misunderstood me and said, “You need to take care of your kidneys. Even though you’re still young, you can’t keep messing around with women without restraint!”

“We’re both educated people. Can’t you be more subtle in your words?”

Fang Yuan smiled helplessly and then asked me, “Did you finish the plan for the GUCCI counter launch yesterday?”

“Done. I saved it in the document on the D drive.”

Fang Yuan nodded and handed me a note: “Zhaoyang, later on, I’ll ask the manager for a personal leave for you. Please accompany Yanyan to the mall and buy everything on this list.”

“Is it your wedding or mine? You want me to go shopping with Yanyan!” I asked, somewhat amused.

Fang Yuan sighed, “I have no choice. There’s so much to buy, and Yanyan can’t carry it all alone. I have to go to Shanghai with the Business Development Department to discuss setting up the GUCCI counter at our mall. I can’t let my personal matters affect the company’s months of preparation for this business development plan, can I?”

“Alright.” I agreed, then yawned again. After walking all night and staying up the entire night, how could I not be tired!

Fang Yuan patted my shoulder, “Do me a favor. I’ll treat you to dinner tonight.”

I waved at Fang Yuan, “Go take care of your things. Let me catch a few more winks!”

“Stop napping. Yanyan is waiting for you downstairs!” Fang Yuan paused, then lowered his voice and whispered in my ear, “By the way… Jian Wei replied to the email. She’ll probably come back from the US for our wedding day!”

I stared at Fang Yuan, suddenly wide awake. For a moment, I felt like I was caught between ice and fire. After three years, was she finally coming back?