I didn’t want our relationship to face any more turbulence, so I couldn’t tell Mi Cai that I jumped into the river to retrieve that guitar. But I really couldn’t come up with a good excuse, so I chose to remain silent.
Mi Cai seemed determined not to give up on finding out the truth. She kept looking at me with questioning eyes.
“I had a bit to drink today, was feeling a little dazed, and accidentally stepped into the moat.”
“So you didn’t tell me because you didn’t want me to worry about you, right?”
I felt ashamed because of this lie and remained silent for a long time. Mi Cai, however, mistakenly thought I had confirmed her guess. She hugged me and choked up, saying, “I’m sorry. It’s my fault that made you feel bad. I should have returned to be with you from Shanghai earlier.”
I felt quite at a loss, and after a while, I said to her, “Actually, I’m the one who’s been bad, and I’m the one who should feel guilty.”
Mi Cai shook her head, stopping me from continuing.
Feeling guilty, I placed my hands on her shoulders and said, “You must be quite tired today. Go back and rest early.”
“I’ll go make you ginger soup. I’ll leave after you finish drinking it.”
…
It was already 11 PM when Mi Cai left. After that, I couldn’t help thinking a lot, reminding myself to keep my distance from Jian Wei. I understood that even if my encounter with her was accidental, it would still become a potential problem between Mi Cai and me.
Finally, after drinking the ginger soup and breaking out in a sweat, I felt tired. Faintly, the mobile phone’s text message tone rang. I thought it was Mi Cai checking in on me, so I hurriedly tried to clear my head and opened the message, only to find it was from Jian Wei.
“Zhao Yang, you’re not sick, are you?”
After a brief hesitation, I replied, as it was a message showing concern for me: “No, I’m fine. How about you?”
“I caught a chill and am getting an IV at the hospital now. It’s nothing serious.”
If it had been a few years ago, I would have rushed to buy nourishing midnight snacks and gone to the hospital to see her regardless of everything else. But now, after so much had changed, all I could do was send her this concern in the form of dry text: “Oh, then after you finish the IV, go back and rest early. Don’t overwork yourself.”
I thought our conversation would end here, but Jian Wei sent another message: “I heard you’re having some work-related troubles. By the way, our company is planning to discuss an annual advertising agency contract with a real estate company. If you’re interested, you could help follow up on it. If the deal goes through, I’ll give you a 10 percent commission on the project. How about that?”
I roughly estimated in my mind that if it was an annual advertising contract for a real estate project, it would at least be worth over a million. Ten percent of that would be 100,000, maybe even more. This was indeed tempting for me, who was currently unemployed.
After a little consideration, I replied to Jian Wei: “Thank you for your kind offer, but I can handle my job matters on my own. I wish your company continued success.”
Jian Wei didn’t reply to my message. Perhaps my sentence, “I wish your company continued success,” had created a great distance between us. But I indeed gained temporary peace because of this. Yes, peace was exactly what I needed most at this moment, peace to handle my job matters.
…
The next day, I got up early, had a simple breakfast, and then embarked on the long road of job hunting. It wasn’t until sunset that I finally had a brief respite, but the results weren’t very satisfying. At least, I hadn’t encountered any companies that showed strong interest in me. Most of them asked me to wait patiently for the outcome of the application. Although I felt anxious, it was indeed an expected result. After all, the one thing this society lacks the least is talent. I had already deeply realized this when I was looking for a job in Xuzhou. In the end, it was only with the help of Li Xiaoyun that I managed to get a relatively satisfactory job.
The sky grew darker. Tired, I came to the square where I often raced cars with Mi Cai. I found a wooden bench to sit on and absentmindedly watched the children playing with the racing cars, feeling an indescribable sense of envy, but even more helplessness—helpless about the distance of childhood, helpless about the disappointments of life.
“Uncle… Uncle, would you like to buy my flowers?”
I looked up and only then noticed a little girl selling flowers standing beside me. I smiled and asked her, “How do you know Uncle needs flowers?”
“Because you have a girlfriend, right? I’ve seen you bring her here to play with racing cars many times. But back then, I hadn’t started selling flowers yet… Hehe!”
Since I was bored anyway, I chatted with the little girl: “Then why are you selling flowers now?”
“There’s a sick kid in our class. She’s my friend. She’s really pretty, but she can’t afford treatment. We good friends decided to sell flowers at the square after school to raise money for her treatment. My house is closest to this square, so I’m selling flowers here… Uncle, please buy a few, okay? I’ll thank Dou Dou for you!”
“How much is one flower?”
“Five yuan.”
I pulled out 200 yuan from my wallet and handed it to her, saying, “Give me all of them.”
The little girl seemed to be calculating, and after a while, she said to me, “Uncle, I only have 30 flowers here. One hundred and fifty yuan is enough.”
“The extra fifty yuan is for you and Dou Dou to buy candy. Okay?” I said as I handed her the money and took the bouquet from her hands.
“Thank you, Uncle!” the little girl said happily.
Finding her adorable, I joked with her, saying, “Then give Uncle a kiss.”
“No, no. Your girlfriend is so pretty. I can’t kiss you. Otherwise, she won’t let you buy my flowers anymore!”
I was so amused by her that I burst into laughter, all the gloom of the day dissipating. I patted her head and said, “Uncle was just kidding. Of course, your kisses should be saved for your future little boyfriend. Sell all your flowers and go home quickly.”
The little girl nodded, said “Bye, Uncle” to me, and then skipped happily toward the exit of the square.
I looked at the bouquet in my hands and took out my wallet again. I found there was still more than 2000 yuan in cash. It seemed enough for us to have a candlelight dinner. Since we started dating, I had never really given her a bouquet of flowers or treated her to a romantic candlelight dinner.
…
I drove to the building of Zhuo Mei and stood by the roadside with the bouquet in my arms, waiting for Mi Cai to finish work. Unexpectedly, I noticed a white R8 and a Ferrari 458 parked in the distance, both with Shanghai license plates. I immediately realized that the R8 belonged to Mi Lan, but I wasn’t sure who owned the Ferrari 458. It might just be a passerby.
I lit a cigarette, although I expected that Mi Cai might come out with that woman who extremely annoyed me, I didn’t plan to avoid them.
When I was almost finishing my cigarette, I finally saw Mi Cai and Mi Lan walking side by side toward the parked R8 with the crowd. Looking closer, I noticed someone familiar following them. It was the former overseas student, Wei Ran. I hadn’t expected that he had returned to China again!
As I was stunned, the three had already reached the parked R8 and Ferrari 458. Mi Cai seemed to intend to get into the R8, but Mi Lan pushed her toward Wei Ran’s side. In the end, she still got into Wei Ran’s car. Then the two supercars soon disappeared from my sight along with the traffic flow…
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