After having dinner at Arin Restaurant, Leyao and I, with my guitar on my back, strolled along the streets of Suzhou at night. The fallen leaves, cold wind, lights and shadows, and towering buildings formed the city in the manner of late autumn.
Lighting a cigarette, I indulged in the hazy smoke after a satisfying meal. I couldn’t help but look back at the city repeatedly. When it was time to leave, I realized that I didn’t hate it as much as I thought, and even felt a bit reluctant to leave. At least, this city had recorded my youth, my life, and my love. Here I learned: thinking about someone alone is called loneliness; here I understood: if mutual affection between two people sublimates into marriage, it is called love, but if it remains only a memory, then it is just a legend, a lonely and bitter legend.
Tired from walking, Leyao and I sat on a bench by the street, both silent for a while. Finally, I asked Leyao, “How about you? Have you been doing okay lately?”
Leyao shook her head somewhat blankly and replied, “Same old, not particularly good. But I haven’t given up trying.”
I nodded, momentarily unsure how to respond, because I understood the meaning behind her words. When she said she hadn’t given up trying, she was actually questioning why I had given up.
After a brief silence, Leyao asked me, “When you return to Xuzhou, how do you plan to live?”
I took a deep puff of my cigarette, thought for a while before answering, “If my father is willing to arrange a job for me at his workplace, that would be best. If not, I’ll find a job myself, then find a woman to spend the rest of my life with, and finally wait for the inevitable aging, sickness, and death.”
“Don’t plan your life so subjectively far ahead. Life is full of changes, isn’t it?”
“Actually, I prefer a life that I can see the end of.”
Leyao smiled and said, “That’s why you imagine a crystal-clear city as your spiritual refuge.”
“Yeah, only something crystal-clear allows you to see the farthest without any obstacles.”
“Perhaps we really are not the same kind of people!” Leyao sighed.
“You’re right. The island with cooking smoke that you imagine requires swimming across a sea to reach. Therefore, compared to my crystal-clear city, you will experience much more.”
Suddenly, as if she had understood something, Leyao looked at me. After a long while, she said, “Have you ever felt that we are like two stars destined never to meet? I am at one corner of the world, while you are at the other end of the sky. We echo each other from afar but can never get close.”
I didn’t respond, only gazing into the distance. In a daze, I seemed to truly see that celestial city and the distant beach echoing each other, yet forever unable to approach.
That night, Leyao and I hugged each other in farewell. Perhaps after leaving Suzhou, we would indeed walk further and further in our respective directions, eventually forgetting that we once shared a night of passion. Perhaps life is composed of countless acts of forgetting, finally forgetting everything in death.
…
Three more days passed. During these two days, aside from eating, sleeping, and using the restroom, the only thing I did was bring potential tenants to view this single apartment I currently rented.
This afternoon, I showed the apartment to three different prospective tenants, but none of the deals were finalized due to various reasons. The last to come were a young couple who had recently graduated from university.
Holding hands, they walked around the apartment, inspecting it back and forth. Eventually, they seemed satisfied. The young man asked me, “How much do you want for the rent?”
“Deposit one month and pay three months in advance, totaling 5200 RMB.”
The young man and woman exchanged glances and whispered to each other for a moment before he said to me, “If you knock off the 200 RMB, we’ll take the apartment.”
“Little brother, 200 RMB isn’t just spare change. If I weren’t in a hurry to leave, I wouldn’t give it to you for this price,” I said firmly, which was indeed the truth. I had originally rented it for 5600 RMB and had lived here for less than a week.
The couple whispered again, and this time the woman said to me, “We’ll take 5200, but we need to move in tonight. Is that okay with you?”
I weighed it for a moment and replied, “Okay. If there are no other issues, let’s sign the contract now.”
They nodded, indicating there were no problems, and I immediately went inside to fetch the pre-prepared apartment sublease contract.
As the two were looking over the contract, my phone rang again. I instinctively thought it was another call from someone wanting to view the apartment. When I took the phone out of my pocket, I was surprised to find it was Mi Cai calling, someone I hadn’t been in contact with for several days.
This call stirred up a mix of emotions within me. I had once treated this woman terribly without any limits, and because of her, I had lost the hard-earned career opportunities in this city. Perhaps we were indeed destined to be adversaries, although for a brief period, we had somewhat acted like friends.
I walked outside and answered the call. Surprisingly, both of us waited for the other to speak first, as if by unspoken agreement.
In the silence, I finally couldn’t hold back any longer and asked, “You called me, so why aren’t you speaking?”
Mi Cai seemed to suddenly realize I had answered, “Ah!… Sorry, I was reading some documents and didn’t notice the call was connected!”
“Oh, you seem pretty busy. Aren’t you just a building manager at Zhuo Mei? It can’t be that busy, can it?” I knowingly teased, knowing full well she was actually the CEO of Zhuo Mei.
Mi Cai didn’t mind my teasing. She chuckled and said, “Yes, it’s been pretty busy, but I’m almost done.”
“Oh, well, what’s up? Did you call me because the apartment you forcefully occupied is leaking again?”
“No, I finished work early today. You mentioned before that I could come over for dinner, right?”
I was somewhat surprised. I had indeed said that to Mi Cai, but I hadn’t really expected her to come. Could it be that after resolving our disputes over the apartment, we could actually become friends?
Seeing that I remained silent, Mi Cai followed up, “Not convenient? Or are you not confident in your cooking skills?”
I snapped back to attention and asked Mi Cai, “What do you think of my father’s cooking?”
“Great!”
“Haven’t you heard the saying ‘a tiger father won’t raise a dog son’? Come on over. I’ll show you my skills tonight, so you won’t keep thinking I’m good for nothing!”
“Great! I’ll come over soon.”
“Fine, but buy the ingredients yourself. I won’t be providing them.”
I expected Mi Cai to accuse me of being stingy, but she simply said “Okay” and hung up the phone.
…
I returned inside, where the young couple had already finished reading the contract and signed their names.
Holding the contract, I approached them and said, “Can we discuss something? I have a friend coming over for dinner tonight, so I can’t move out tonight. I’ll deduct 200 RMB from the rent as compensation. Is that okay with you?”
The couple began whispering to each other again. I couldn’t help but feel exasperated. This young couple was really considerate of each other, discussing every trivial matter.
After waiting for a while, they finally finished discussing, and the young man said to me, “Deduct 400!”
I frowned and said, “Little brother, you need to be reasonable. 200 RMB is enough for you two to find a hotel for one night and even have some money left over for a late-night snack.”
“The contract is already signed. Now that we have the right to use this apartment, if you don’t deduct 400, we won’t agree to your request.”
“Damn it…” I instinctively swore.
The young couple seemed startled and looked at me with a hint of fear in their eyes.
I couldn’t help but find it amusing and said, “You two are so timid. Don’t try to act like those opportunistic hooligans!”
The young man finally plucked up his courage and said, “It’s your fault for not agreeing to deduct 200 earlier…”
I have always hated effeminate men. Impatiently, I interrupted him, “Alright, don’t push it. 400, right? I agree.”
The young man exchanged glances with the woman again, as if they had struck a huge bargain. Delighted, he took out his bag, counted 4800 yuan, and handed it to me.
I gave them a copy of the apartment sublease contract and a key. They then left, while I felt somewhat amused and frustrated, never expecting that I Zhao Yang would actually be taken advantage of, and by a sissy no less!
Without thinking too much about it, I picked up the mop and started cleaning the apartment to welcome Mi Cai. This was another chance given by fate to say goodbye to Mi Cai after parting ways with Leyao.
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