My heart was in chaos because of Leyao’s crying, and my words became clumsy in such a situation, as I could only look at her helplessly.
Yet, Leyao suddenly stopped crying and smiled at me, asking, “Zhaoyang, do you think my acting skills have become more and more refined?”
Although she might have been teasing me, I didn’t scold her as I usually would, because she might have been pretending to be carefree just to make me feel better.
Finally, I said to her, “Your acting skills have indeed improved, but you also need to take care of your own health. If you really can’t take care of yourself, you should hire a housekeeper.”
“I will consider doing that.”
I nodded.
Leyao then said to me, “Rest for a while, can you stay until this afternoon?”
I finally gave in and lay down on the sofa in the living room. Leyao went to her room and brought a quilt for me. Exhausted as I was, I soon fell asleep.
…
I slept until noon. When I woke up, the dining table beside me was already filled with meals Leyao had ordered from outside restaurants.
After washing up in the bathroom, I sat down with her at the dining table, ready to eat.
As soon as I picked up my chopsticks, Leyao handed me a bottle of yogurt, saying, “You stayed up late last night; drinking yogurt before meals is good for your stomach.” I took the yogurt from Leyao and said, “I always thought you were careless, but it turns out you can be quite thoughtful!”
Leyao looked at me and replied somewhat coldly, “That’s because you’ve never really tried to understand me. Everyone has two sides to their personality.”
“If you’re willing, you can even be versatile.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re studying acting; isn’t portraying multiple personalities something you can easily do?”
“Yeah, but why do I always seem so careless in front of you?”
Looking at Leyao’s half-smiling face, I immediately understood that, in fact, she showed her most unguarded and genuine self in front of me.
This was something that could only be understood implicitly, so I just smiled at Leyao in response, picked up my bowl again, and then we both focused on eating without further conversation.
After the meal, Leyao went back to her room and took out a bank card, handing it to me, “There’s 100,000 yuan on this card. Take it for now. If the inn encounters difficulties again in the future, remember to tell me.”
“Seventy thousand will be enough.”
“Having some working capital is not a bad idea.” Leyao said and then stuffed the card into my pocket.
I was silent for a while and finally accepted the money. I then said to Leyao, “Also, take care of your health here. The doctor suggested you buy some warming traditional Chinese medicine to regulate your body.”
“I know. You also need to take care of yourself and not overwork.”
After a few simple words of farewell, I left her residence with the bank card Leyao had given me. At the moment I boarded the plane, I suddenly felt as if I had left something behind in Beijing, but I couldn’t remember what it was.
…
After landing in Shanghai in the evening, I finally drove back to Xitang in the minivan. As soon as I parked the car, I took off my leather belt from my waist and walked into the inn.
Tongzi looked at me with a happy expression and said, “Brother Yang, you’re back!”
With a “Pap” sound, I slammed the leather belt heavily on the table. Tongzi hugged his head and crawled under the table, asking me with a crying tone, “Brother Yang, why are you so irritable?”
“You little brat, who let you touch my phone?”
“…I just… wanted to contact Leyao…”
“Get up.”
“I won’t… you will definitely hit me.”
“I won’t hit you. Just get up quickly.”
Tongzi peeked at me from under the table, seeing my expressionless face, and finally crawled out from under the table, grinning at me and said, “Brother Yang, I was wrong!”
“Wrong where?”
“Touching your phone without your permission.”
“Don’t do this again in the future. If you need Leyao’s number, just ask me.”
“Hehe… Brother Yang, you’re such an upright person, you won’t even have indecent photos or anything like that, so with absolute trust in you, I took the liberty to use your phone.”
“Damn… you even looked through the album?”
“Yeah, just took a quick look…” Tongzi paused and then exclaimed suddenly, “There are so many beautiful girls in the album…!”
I took the leather belt from the table again. Tongzi hugged his head, laughing loudly while running outwards, and soon disappeared from sight.
…
I tied the belt back around my waist, sat on the office chair, shook my head helplessly with a smile, lit a cigarette, then took out my phone and browsed through the album. Indeed, there were many beautiful girls, among whom the most photos were of Mi Cai. Only then did I remember that there was a time when I particularly loved collecting her photos.
After browsing through them one by one, I placed the phone back on the desk, but suddenly remembered: it seemed that I hadn’t contacted Mi Cai since she went to the United States. Instead, she would occasionally show concern for me, which was the opposite of the past. I didn’t know where this change came from, but it had indeed happened between us.
I picked up the phone again, deciding to show her some concern, so I sent her a message: “Have you gotten up yet?”
After waiting a little while, Mi Cai replied: “Hmm, just got up, getting ready to wash up.”
“Wait… send me a photo of your bare face before washing up.”
“Why suddenly such a strange request?”
I didn’t answer directly but urged her: “Hurry up and send it.”
Mi Cai didn’t refuse me and told me to wait a moment.
Actually, I just wanted to see if this woman had any moments when she wasn’t beautiful, because there’s no time when people are more disheveled than right after waking up.
Five minutes later, Mi Cai sent me a picture message. In the photo, her hair was messy and she was completely without makeup, yet she displayed another kind of effortless beauty, which made me a bit frustrated because sometimes I wished she could be more ordinary. So I replied with a very insincere message: “So messy! Go wash up quickly.”
But Mi Cai didn’t complain because of my insincerity; she calmly replied, “Okay… let’s chat later!”
…
Twenty minutes later, the night lights had already arrived in Xitang, but New York had just begun its day. So I lay listlessly on the office chair while Mi Cai energetically told me she was going for a run.
I asked, “Do you like listening to music while running?”
“I do. I especially like listening to ‘Dreams’ by The Cranberries while running!”
“I like that song too.”
“Suddenly missing the days when we used to sing together!”
“When you come back, we’ll sing together.”
“Okay, in Xitang?”
“Yeah, for my guests. Business will get better too.”
“Really?”
“Of course… The inn next door, the owner plays the erhu, and the owner’s wife sings Kunqu opera every night for the guests, so their business is much better than ours!”
Mi Cai sent a smiley face back: “Then let’s sing too!”
Because of this reply, I started daydreaming. If she wasn’t just playing around but instead placed the focus of her life on this inn like me, it would be wonderful. During the day, I would lead the tours while she looked after the inn, and at night we’d play the guitar and improvise a few songs for the guests.
If, for instance, my father and mother came to Xitang and tried to stop me from staying here, it would be great if she stood by my side and firmly told them that she would unwaveringly support me.
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