The rain outside the bar was still falling. The folk singer had changed to another song and told us it was the last song of the night. I raised my hand and checked the time. It was already 11:30 PM. Suddenly, an overwhelming tiredness surged over me. My eyelids began to involuntarily close, yet I struggled to stay awake—at least until I could get back home.
Unfortunately, I had drunk too much. Amid my drooping eyelids, I could no longer resist the wave of dizziness and soon fell asleep.
When I woke up with a headache, I found myself already inside a hotel room. I pressed my hand against my head and shook it slightly before looking around. I saw Leyao lying on the sofa not far from me. The air conditioner was blowing warm air directly at her, but I felt a chill run through me. Instinctively, I pulled the blanket aside to check myself. I realized that apart from my shoes and coat being removed, all my other clothes were still on. In other words, after this chance encounter, Leyao and I hadn’t repeated our past mistakes!
I sat up from the bed and walked over to Leyao, calling out, “Wake up, wake up…”
Leyao opened her eyes groggily and yawned before saying, “You’re awake?”
“How did you bring me to the hotel? You know where I live, right?”
“Hey, hey, hey, don’t act like I took advantage of you… I couldn’t find your house key anywhere on you. If I didn’t bring you to the hotel, should I have thrown you into a roadside trash can?”
I suddenly remembered that I had thrown the key to my apartment into the car’s glove compartment. With Leyao’s careless personality, she definitely wouldn’t have thought to look inside the car.
Realizing it was my own fault, I stopped complaining and focused instead on my still-aching head, instinctively patting it to try to relieve some of the pain.
Leyao pushed off the blanket and sat up. Her body wrapped only in a towel almost blinded me. My male hormones immediately kicked in, but this primal sexual impulse was natural and free from guilt. After all, what man could resist such a half-covered temptation in the middle of the night, especially when Leyao was such a sexy and attractive woman.
Leyao immediately kicked me and said, “Don’t look at me like I seduced you… You, you idiot, threw up all over me as soon as we got to the hotel. If I didn’t take a shower, could I stand the stench of alcohol?”
I didn’t respond, whistling instead at the wall mural to distract myself. Even if I had the guts to be a beast, I couldn’t repeat that absurd night with her at this moment. Leyao, on the other hand, was very open. She sat up from the sofa, took her still-drying clothes from the air conditioner vent, and complained, “Not even dry yet… Zhaoyang, if you want me to leave, go get me some clothes now.”
I became more alert and suddenly realized an important issue. Ignoring the clothes matter, I anxiously asked, “Wait, you brought me to the hotel but didn’t book two rooms? Come on, what exactly were you thinking?”
Imitating my tone, Leyao angrily replied, “What, do you think I actually wanted to sleep with you? Since you lay down, you kept throwing up and asking for water. I’ve been running around nonstop, and my towel even slipped off twice. Do you think it’s easy for a girl like me? The worst part was when you drank the water I poured for you, gained some strength, and then started shouting about marrying Mi Cai again… I should have put some arsenic in the water and poisoned you, you ungrateful bastard!”
I sat back down on the edge of the bed, took out a cigarette from the pack in my briefcase, and lit it. My eyes caught sight of the resignation letter Yuanfang had asked me to pass on to Mi Cai. My heart sank again, and I forgot all about Leyao’s half-covered body. She didn’t say anything else, just hung her still-damp clothes back on the air conditioner vent, then lay back on the sofa, wrapping herself tightly in the blanket as if afraid I might attack her.
I only smoked half the cigarette before stubbing it out in the ashtray. Then I put on my coat and told Leyao, “I’m leaving first.”
“Don’t you even know how to say thank you, you beast?”
I stopped and looked at her. Suddenly, I felt that although she was careless, she was actually much more considerate than me. Saying “thank you” as I left would have made this somewhat ambiguous night seem purely like a friend taking care of another friend who had drunk too much. I immediately said “thank you” and headed toward the door.
But she called me back again: “Wait…”
“What now?”
“The money you gave me last time is all gone.”
“…That was fifty thousand yuan! You spent it all so quickly?”
Leyao casually replied, “Spent it all.”
“Big sister, I haven’t even spent fifty thousand yuan in the past half year. Can you at least show a little restraint? …Seriously, don’t you have any awareness? I’ve never seen anyone as idle and reckless with money as you in my entire life!”
Leyao argued confidently, “Doesn’t the girl need money for school? Don’t we need to pay rent? …In this city that sucks people dry, where can you survive without money?”
“You’re doing it on purpose! Last time when we went to Beijing, I saw with my own eyes that you flew first class.”
“I’m a public figure. Have you ever seen a star flying economy class?”
“Now you remember you’re a public figure?”
Suddenly, Leyao’s eyes welled up with tears. “Zhaoyang, I finally understand now. A person simply mustn’t fall on hard times. They say adversity reveals true friendship, and it’s absolutely true. The way you’re behaving right now is exactly like the old saying—when trouble comes, friends disappear. Pah! What kind of hardship is this that made you flee so far away? I’ve simply misjudged you as a friend!”
My head throbbed painfully as she scolded me. I didn’t care about anything else anymore. I squinted at her and said, “Don’t say anything else. I’ll transfer the money to your account tomorrow, okay, dear auntie?”
“Give it to me now. Who knows if you’ll back out tomorrow!”
“I said tomorrow, so tomorrow. I’m a decent, upright person. Why would I run out on you, a little hooligan girl?”
Leyao looked at herself and finally showed some understanding, saying, “Yeah, giving it to me now would look like a prostitution scene!”
“Good that you understand. No need to say it out loud…”
“Zhaoyang, you must be feeling really good inside, huh? A big star like me got ‘used’ by a little nobody like you!”
“I really don’t feel like joking with you now. If you have even a bit of mercy, just shut up and go to sleep quietly. Can you stop bothering me?”
Leyao finally sensed the heaviness in my mood. Her teasing expression disappeared, and she asked softly, “No wonder you drank so much tonight… What’s wrong?”
“As long as you don’t mess with me, I’ll be thanking the heavens. Don’t ask about anything else.”
I said this while heading toward the door. Leyao quickly stood up from the bed and grabbed me, saying, “Can’t you talk to me about whatever’s on your mind? Every time I see you looking so troubled, my heart aches…”
“Your towel is going to fall again.”
Leyao hurriedly let go to adjust her towel, and I took the chance to open the door and close it behind me. I said, “My whole life is just a mess. You can help me for a while, but not forever. Just think about how to live your own life well. Don’t forget what you once told me—become a master of life…”
Inside the room, Leyao’s faint voice came through: “If you just married me, no matter how messed up your life got, wouldn’t I have every reason to help you fix it? But no, you had to fall for a woman who doesn’t even seem to live in the real world. Zhaoyang, keep acting like a fool… Keep acting like a fool! When you’re in unbearable pain someday, whether I’ll help you or not will depend entirely on my mood… Because you’ve broken my heart!”
I couldn’t hear her clearly after that, but her recent habit of referring to herself as “this old lady” puzzled me a bit. Could it be that after adopting the girl, she felt a sense of motherhood? I wasn’t sure if my understanding was right… but I really didn’t like her calling herself “this old lady!”
…
After leaving the hotel, the rain was still drizzling. There was no sign of taxis on the road, so I sat at a bus stop shelter that could protect me from the rain and lit a cigarette. I stared blankly at the smoke dispersing into the cold rain, over and over again.
A moment later, my stomach suddenly felt as if it had been pierced by needles. Sweat poured from my forehead. That night, I hadn’t eaten properly at all. Instead, I had vomited so much from the alcohol that my stomach was empty. The pain in my stomach now was the heavy price of my indulgence.
Unable to endure it any longer, I took out my phone from my pocket, intending to call Roben to take me to the hospital, but I received only a voice message saying the phone was turned off. I gritted my teeth and decided to go to the hospital myself. From what I remembered, the nearest hospital was just across the street. I could make it there.
I hadn’t felt this beaten up in a long time. Drenched by the rain, I leaned on the street railing, dragging my unsteady steps forward, cursing Leyao for choosing such an out-of-the-way hotel where I couldn’t even hail a night cab…
My stomach hurt more and more. I squatted on the ground, gasping for breath, trying to ease the pain a little. Then I took out my phone again, preparing to call for an ambulance. I really couldn’t hold on anymore… but tragically, I found that my phone had run out of battery at this moment. Under the dim streetlights, I finally felt a sense of fear… I didn’t know how I would endure the unbearable pain that was coming.
Suddenly, a pair of bright headlights pierced through the dense night and came to a stop beside me. My heart leaped with joy—had someone finally noticed my condition and decided to help? But then I realized the license plate looked all too familiar. The next moment, I saw Mi Cai, her face filled with anxiety and heartache, quickly stepping out of the car… She had come for me. At such a late hour, in such a remote place, she had actually found me!
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