The next day, Mi Cai and I got up early. We had breakfast at a nearby dim sum restaurant, then went to a gas station to fill up the car, and then left Xuzhou, the city that had gradually made us feel at home. Our destination was Suzhou, 500 kilometers to the south. My mood was complicated—I felt like I had lost everything in that city, yet gained love. Even now, I wasn’t sure whether I had abandoned a city, or whether it was the city that had rejected my escape.
With the Spring Festival approaching, traffic pressure increased sharply, and our journey was far from smooth. It wasn’t until the afternoon that we reached the Jiangdu section of the Beijing-Shanghai Expressway. We stopped at a service area. Unwilling to eat fast food in the crowded crowd, we bought two cups of instant noodles, poured boiling water into them, and ate simply in the car…
Mi Cai had little appetite, ate only half, and then placed the cup of noodles on the center console of the car. She looked blankly at the rows of cars stuck in the traffic jam on the highway. Soon, we would have to join this congested line again, not knowing what lay ahead, heading toward a destination we weren’t really looking forward to.
I said to Mi Cai, “I wonder when we’ll finally arrive in Suzhou. You should eat more.”
Mi Cai shook her head and didn’t speak… From her body language, I could see the heaviness of her thoughts. She might already have some bad premonition.
After a period of silence, I asked her again, “Do you think that Mi Zhongde won’t hand over the household registration book to us easily? Will he use this matter to stop us from being together?”
“He won’t stop us; it’s someone else!”
I was quite surprised. After thinking for a while, I couldn’t figure out who could influence Mi Zhongde. Finally, Mi Cai told me, “It’s my mother, Yan Zhuomei.”
I looked at her in shock. This was the first time I had learned her mother’s name, and I also understood the origin of Zhuomei Mall. There was indeed an unknown story behind it. At least I could guess that Mi Zhongxin had deeply loved Yan Zhuomei back then; otherwise, he wouldn’t have named his group after her.
After a long while, I finally calmed down and asked her, “Why would she stop us? And why would Mi Zhongde listen to her?”
Mi Cai’s expression was full of pain, as if recalling a past she had always refused to face. Finally, she said, “It’s a complicated matter. I’ll tell you more when there’s a chance. We need to get going now. Let’s try to reach Suzhou before dark. Maybe I’m just being too anxious and thinking too much!”
Actually, we had plenty of time on the way to talk about the past of her mother, Yan Zhuomei, but she kept avoiding the topic. I guess she would only choose to tell me the truth when the moment came that she could no longer avoid facing it. I knew that the old story between her parents had left a deep shadow on her, and that was why she always seemed so indifferent over the years—actually, she was using indifference to conceal her pain.
…
Night fell. After experiencing intermittent traffic jams, Mi Cai and I finally returned to Suzhou, the city that seemed to have a fateful connection with us. Entering the city, those neon lights were still shining with flickering glows from their fixed positions, just as before. The light penetrated the car windows, casting a fluctuating brightness inside the enclosed car. From the buildings under construction, came intermittent metallic friction sounds from the machinery, like roars, as if telling us that this city had never changed. It could make us intoxicated in the beauty of classical gardens, and also keep us awake at night with the noise of machines…
I finally asked Mi Cai, “Should we call them in advance to let them know?”
“No need. I actually hope that only Auntie is home right now. Maybe she will give us the household registration book…”
“This is just wishful thinking on your part, isn’t it?”
“Do you really want to face all of them… I really hope that they have all gone to Zhuomei’s headquarters in Shanghai, and that only Auntie is at home in Suzhou. Although we are not related by blood, she is the person who understands me most in this world. I think I can convince her.”
“Of course I don’t want to face them either. If things are as you said, that would be the best… Honestly, Suzhou is a place that makes people feel tired. Here, all I see are boiling desires. In my eyes, it is a city of desire wearing a beautiful coat, where we keep gaining and losing… repeating endlessly!”
“The nature of all cities is the same. The key is the kind of people you meet in this city. Only people can boil their desires in worldly affairs… pursuing the pleasure that desires bring!”
“Yes, you are objective, and I am subjective!”
Mi Cai didn’t say anything else. She accelerated the car, so the streetlights and interweaving lights receded faster. In less than ten minutes, we would arrive at that affluent area, where Mi Zhongde’s home in Suzhou was located. There, luxury cars everywhere would make people numb. Going there, no one would believe that on the far west side of the city there was a coffee shop called “West of Old Town,” and behind the coffee shop, in the next block, wandered homeless beggars who treated smelly trash bins as their source of life…
The car stopped in front of a villa. The maid opened the door for us. After we got out of the car, she looked at Mi Cai in surprise, and after a while, she called out, “Miss Mi,” perhaps in her mind, Mi Cai would never come to this place again.
Mi Cai asked her, “Auntie Li, is my aunt at home?”
“Yes, she is. But the chairman and others are not here. They have a meeting to attend tonight.”
Mi Cai nodded, then signaled me to go in with her. Under the guidance of the maid, we walked into the villa. When we only needed to face Mi Cai’s aunt, I felt my mood finally became less complicated. Borrowing the household registration book would just take a few words.
We entered the house. Mi Cai’s aunt was sitting on the sofa in the living room reading a newspaper. Suddenly noticing Mi Cai’s arrival, her expression was first surprised, then filled with joy. She put down the newspaper and walked toward Mi Cai, then hugged her, saying emotionally, “Xiao Cai, you came!”
Mi Cai nodded and softly said “Mm” in her ear. My gaze, however, was fixed on the wedding photo of Fangyuan and Mi Lan on the background wall of the living room. I felt a lump in my chest and was even more reluctant to stay here any longer, wishing Mi Cai would immediately bring up the purpose of our visit.
Finally, Mi Cai’s aunt let go of her and asked, “Xiao Cai, have you eaten yet? If not, eat with us. Your uncle and Xiao Lan will be back soon. They just called me, saying that the meeting has just ended.”
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