After having lunch with Leyao and Tongzi, the three of us went together to that nameless inn. The owner was still sitting at the front desk, smoking. He looked somewhat desolate, as he was about to leave this inn that had accompanied him for five years.
Leyao still stood beside me wearing her sunglasses and mask, while Tongzi stood behind us, as if afraid of being hurt by Leyao’s stardom.
I looked around the inn and finally said to the owner, “Boss, I’ve decided to take over this inn.”
He nodded and pulled out a contract for transferring the inn from a drawer, saying to me, “Sign it if you have no problem with the terms.”
I picked it up and took a look. In fact, there were not many terms—just a simple statement that I needed to pay him a one-time transfer fee of 50,000 yuan.
There was no need for excessive explanation when communicating with such a person. After understanding the contract, I immediately signed my name on it.
He gave me a copy of the contract. Leyao behind me paid him the 50,000 yuan transfer fee. Then he lit another cigarette, not even glancing at the inn again. He silently pulled out a suitcase from under the desk and walked outside, but stopped in front of the guitar hanging at the door.
I approached him with kindness and said, “If this guitar carries your past, you can take it with you.”
He shook his head and said, “No, maybe one day she will come back, and this guitar will tell her: I once waited here for her.”
“Then leave me your contact information. If one day she really comes back, she can find you!”
“When I decided to leave Xitang, whether or not she can find me has already become unimportant!”
“Is this a kind of giving up?”
He remained silent for a long time, then quietly dragged his suitcase toward the side of the Xitang River, his back figure seemingly melting into the river.
…
The inn owner just left like that. I only heard the bar owner Afeng call him Kangkang. Whether it was a nickname or his real name, I couldn’t tell. But our destinies had once intersected because of this inn. However, he chose to give up, while I regarded the inn as the starting point of my dream.
The whole afternoon, I was inventorying the items Kangkang left with Tongzi and recording them one by one. Leyao also helped with some tasks she could manage. Time quickly passed into the night.
The three of us went out to have dinner, after which Tongzi returned to the inn first, while Leyao and I strolled along the riverside of Xitang in the evening, enjoying the night view.
“Zhaoyang, will you stay in Xitang all year?”
I nodded.
“Not bad… Anyway, it’s close to Suzhou. Going back and forth takes only about an hour.”
“Why bring Suzhou into this?”
“Because Suzhou has someone you can’t forget.”
I didn’t respond, because I wasn’t even sure if the phrase “can’t forget” was an exaggeration.
“I’m curious, have you contacted Mi Cai since then?”
“I did.”
Leyao was silent for a while before smiling and asking me, “What did you talk about?”
“She asked if I would go back to Suzhou.”
“And how did you respond?”
“I said I wouldn’t.”
“What did she say then?”
“She said she understood.”
Leyao looked at me, then nudged me and said, “Go on, tell me more!”
“That’s all. There’s really nothing more to say.”
Leyao, either seriously or jokingly, suddenly blurted out, “That’s it? I thought Mi Cai was going to break up with you!”
“She already did. Is there a need to emphasize it again?”
“Of course. The reason neither of you ever said those two words out loud is because neither of you wanted to break up. It was just some issues that got in the way, leading to the situation you’re in today!”
I looked at Leyao, wondering when she, who usually seemed so carefree, had become so perceptive. But this kind of perceptiveness made me feel rather uncomfortable, as if I were a transparent person exposed in front of her, stripped of any depth.
Leyao continued, saying to me, “That day, Mi Cai went to Beijing to find me. I kept a cold face and was unwilling to talk to her, responding half-heartedly. She was so oblivious that if it weren’t for CC’s sake, I would have had my agent ask her to leave directly.”
“Why were you so harsh on her?”
Leyao smiled, looking at me and saying, “See, you still care about her a lot, right? After all, the subconscious can’t lie.”
Only then did I realize that Leyao had been testing me, so I decided to make a joke to steer away from this topic that made me uncomfortable.
“Isn’t she your fan? A mature film and television star should be polite to her fans!”
“Pfft!”
Leyao quickened her pace and walked ahead while I continued to stroll leisurely, my mind occupied with certain thoughts.
Leyao had already found a place with steps along the riverside and sat down. I sat beside her as well. Looking at her thin silhouette reflected on the river surface, I felt a strange emotion rising inside me and asked her, “What about you? Have you found someone special in your life?”
“Talking about relationships in my line of work is too much of a luxury!”
“There are true loves in the entertainment circle too, for example…” I stopped myself because I suddenly remembered that the celebrity couple I was about to use as an example had recently divorced!
“For example, who?”
“Uh… every circle has genuine feelings. You must believe in that.”
Leyao didn’t respond to my words. She gazed blankly at the river surface. At that moment, I faintly saw a sense of confusion about love on her face.
…
After a long silence, I finally broke it by saying to her, “Lend me your phone for a moment.”
“Why?”
“I’ve been out for several days. I want to call my parents to let them know I’m safe.”
Leyao took her phone out of her pocket and handed it to me.
After hiding my caller ID, I dialed my father’s number. A moment later, he answered.
“Dad, it’s me, your son.”
“Okay, where are you now?”
“…Shenzhen, I came to Shenzhen again.”
“What are you wandering around for all day? If you can’t stay in Suzhou, come back to Xuzhou.”
Hearing my father’s angry words, I suddenly realized something must have happened during my absence.
“Why are you suddenly asking me to come back to Xuzhou? You used to always support me staying in Suzhou!”
My father didn’t respond, instead asking with his usual authority, “You called without showing your location. Where exactly are you now?”
I gritted my teeth and answered, “Uh… some calls just don’t show the location!”
“Find a phone that displays location and call me back.” Before I could say anything else, my father hung up.
Hearing the dial tone, I felt unprepared. Suddenly, I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal to tell him I was in Xitang. Why did I lie and say I was going to Guangzhou back then?
Could it be that subconsciously I thought Mi Cai would ask my father about my whereabouts, so I told the lie about going to Guangzhou?
Was it possible that I wasn’t truly desperate about her, but had just left in anger?
I didn’t want to think about it anymore. The most important thing now was to find a phone with a Shenzhen area code and call my father back.
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