It had somehow started to freeze outside, with the sleet pattering noisily against the window. Roben dragged his hand heavily across his face and, looking up at me, said, “Do you really think it still makes sense to dwell on all this now? Or do you believe that, once we do, CC will come back?”
Roben had a point, but the lingering regret still carved deeply into my heart, making me sigh… At least after CC left, I began to sense the sudden disharmony of this city.
The pain had not yet faded from Roben’s face when he said, “Zhaoyang, my wedding with Manwen has been temporarily postponed…”
“What?!”
“You know Manwen is a rational woman, right?”
I nodded. “Yes, I’ve never doubted that.”
“She said I betrayed CC, and her too.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Roben lit a cigarette and, swallowing hard, said, “She didn’t say it outright, but I think she meant this: I made a foolish decision back then, driving her away from me in such a way. If I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have met CC. Even if I had met CC, as long as Manwen had been by my side, CC wouldn’t have developed feelings for me. And there wouldn’t be this unbearable heartbreak or the feeling of having nowhere to go now!”
“You’re overreacting. Isn’t CC the one who made her own choice?”
“Don’t you think her choice was made precisely because she felt she had nowhere else to go? You know how many years she spent in Suzhou and how many friends she had there. If she could, would she really be willing to leave all that behind?”
I had no reply. Roben did tend to see things more deeply than I did, even though we had both acted foolishly under the influence of love.
Roben continued smoking, while the wall clock ticked steadily. Finally, I asked, “So what does Teacher Wei think now? Did she specify a clear timeframe when she proposed postponing the wedding?”
“No definite timeframe. She said we won’t get married until CC does.”
“But CC has already left and no one knows where she’s gone. How come Teacher Wei, usually so rational, has made such an irrational decision?”
“But after she made this decision, I had no other choice.” Roben paused, then added, taking another long drag on his cigarette, “Perhaps it’s because I failed to give her a sense of security. She had been holding it in before, but this incident became the spark that set it off.”
I fell silent again, realizing how difficult it is to maintain a good relationship. Love alone is far from enough; you also need resilience to deal with unexpected events. And this resilience comes from mutual trust, which is the most precious and elusive thing. Even a couple like Roben and Wei Manwen couldn’t achieve complete trust.
At that moment, I could roughly guess what had been said the previous night in the hospital room among the three of them… Probably, Roben had already confessed his feelings for CC to Wei Manwen, and neither of them being the kind of woman who fights using underhanded methods, they each took a step back, leaving some space for the other. But as an outsider, I knew clearly that no matter what feelings Roben had for CC, he would still marry no one but Wei Manwen. Because between them, it wasn’t just love—it was also a sense of responsibility that outweighed everything else!
Finally, Roben stubbed out his cigarette and didn’t light another one. After a long silence, he said, “After this incident, I don’t really feel like getting married anymore. We’ll just delay it for now. Let’s focus on making music and start preparing for the next album ahead of time.”
“Sorry, buddy. I didn’t handle this well.”
Roben patted my shoulder. “I’ve just never had the courage to face it. What you did was actually a good thing. If all this had happened after I married Manwen, it would have been even worse. Knowing her temper, we might even end up divorced. And CC would have been held back by my indecision… Looking at it this way, maybe this is actually a better outcome.” He then took several long gulps from his beer bottle.
…
While drinking with Roben, I received a call from Fangyuan. He told me that the complete plan for Zhuomei’s Christmas event was ready and asked me to come take a look. If any modifications were needed, we could make the final ones. This couldn’t be delayed, so I immediately said goodbye to Roben and headed to the teahouse where I had agreed to meet Fangyuan.
Shortly after, I arrived at the teahouse and was surprised to see Xiangchen was already there, since I saw his Land Rover in the parking lot. It made sense, though, because he was also involved in Zhuomei’s event.
I hurried into the reserved private room and, upon opening the door, indeed saw Fangyuan and Xiangchen sitting in suits on the sofa, discussing the event plan. Seeing me arrive, Fangyuan urged, “Zhaoyang, come quickly and check. If there’s no problem with the parts your company is involved in, I’ll hand it over to the various departments of Zhuomei for execution.”
I nodded and sat down beside Fangyuan, then took the plan from his hands and started flipping through page by page. Although it was just a Christmas event, the plan was hundreds of pages long, reflecting how many resources we had mobilized. Integrating and utilizing all these resources was a massive and complex project. Fortunately, this was Fangyuan’s strength, or else such a well-organized and logically rigorous plan wouldn’t have been possible.
After half an hour, I had skimmed through the entire plan and focused especially on the parts involving our company, Luku. Confirming there were no issues, I handed the plan back to Fangyuan and said, “I have no problems with this. Whatever cooperation our company needs to provide will be carried out meticulously on the event day!”
Fangyuan placed the plan back into his briefcase and said to me, “Alright then. Xiangchen also has no issues. Let’s all work hard for a while. Let’s three brothers create a sales miracle in the department store industry together!”
Xiangchen and I both nodded. Fangyuan stood up and said, “Then you two chat for a bit. I need to head back to the company first to issue this plan to all the departments. Everyone’s been working overtime recently to prepare for this event.”
Xiangchen stopped Fangyuan and said, “Don’t rush off yet. I brought a bottle of 1982 Château Lafite. Sit down and have a glass with us.”
“That’s too extravagant! You should keep such wine for collection.”
Xiangchen smiled and shook his head, saying, “Today is a special day. Let’s toast to the success of our three brothers’ cooperation.” Saying this, Xiangchen handed the red wine to the waiter to open.
Even though it was a top-tier bottle of red wine, Fangyuan had no desire to taste it. After having one glass, he hurriedly left. Only Xiangchen and I remained in the private room. He swirled his wine glass, looked in the direction Fangyuan had left, and laughed, saying, “It seems everyone’s life has improved now. Back in college, we used to drink any kind of wine with all our might, but now, even this priceless 1982 Château Lafite is placed in front of him, and he doesn’t even take a proper sip before disappearing!”
I just smiled and didn’t say anything.
Xiangchen raised his glass to me: “Let’s drink. Finish it.”
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