The moon was bright, the stars sparse, and the dim streetlights of the small town flickered on and off, illuminating the entire cold and desolate long street. In the dead of night, the trees rustled in the wind, and occasionally one could hear a group of exuberant youths, returning home after playing games, laughing and shoving each other as they walked past the building.
Ye Meng sat leaning against the headboard and brightened the lamp’s intensity. The yellowish light gradually changed to cold white. The blurry silhouette of the man became clear and crisp. She tilted her head, bored, and for the first time, carefully examined the man before her.
He was quite different from the youths downstairs. Li Jin Yu had a fair, lean face, with extremely thin lips and eyelids, clear lines, and a prominent Adam’s apple. If he wore glasses, he would look exactly like a refined scoundrel. Just looking at him like this, he seemed casual and relaxed, the kind that would involuntarily be handed a business card by a talent scout if spotted on the street. His brow was still clean and clear, without the carefree nature of youths. If he were truly like those youngsters downstairs, Ye Meng would think he was just an ordinary handsome guy and wouldn’t give him a second glance. But it was precisely this deep, repressed, mysterious, forbidden feeling combined with that handsome face that seemed to have an invisible thread pulling at her.
She wanted to know about his past. She wanted to know about his relationships. She wanted to know what kind of family he grew up in.
Li Jin Yu lowered his head and closed the WeChat interface. His arm hung casually between his slightly parted legs, and he told her quite directly: “Ye Meng, if I seriously like someone, it won’t change. I will like her forever, and she can only have eyes for me.”
He glanced back at her and continued, “But obviously, you’re not that person, so you’d better not provoke me.”
“How do you know I’m not?” Ye Meng asked with a smile, the light making her appear radiant.
It was only then that Li Jin Yu noticed a string of letter tattoos below her collarbone, which seemed to be someone’s name.
He sneered as he opened his phone, brought up the WeChat interface again, casually tapped, and a familiar conversation slowly flowed out into the calm room—
“You changed your tune so quickly; you said just yesterday that you would never go after Jiang Lu Zhi’s ex-boyfriend.”
“I did say that, but times change, people can’t remain unchanged forever. I usually had prejudice and didn’t look at him carefully, but yesterday at the bar I looked at him—he’s completely my type, I’ve never seen anyone who fits my aesthetic so perfectly, both sweet and seductive. Would I still be a woman if I passed up such a prime specimen? Besides, looking at it from another angle, Little Jiang has overshadowed me for so many years, wouldn’t I be evening the score if I got her ex-boyfriend? Anyway, I just like his face… Jiang Lu Zhi can consider herself lucky…”
After listening, Ye Meng still looked at him impassively. “You were there that day?”
Li Jin Yu locked his phone and said coldly: “No, a nurse in the ward recorded it for me, afraid I would be deceived.”
Ye Meng burst into laughter. “The nurse likes you, huh? Such a gossip.”
“The woman already has a child,” Li Jin Yu stretched his long legs forward, perhaps tired, his posture more relaxed, and he snorted lightly, “If you like my face that much, fine, I’ll rent it to you, twenty thousand a month, you can look at it every day, how’s that?”
Seeing her not respond, he gave another self-mocking smile, “I don’t care if you genuinely want to help me or if you’re just trying to get back at Jiang Lu Zhi, don’t find me any psychologists, or next time I’ll tie you up and throw you to the wild dogs on the back mountain.”
Ye Meng raised her chin toward the bulging guitar case in the corner, knowingly saying: “You were planning to tie me up today too.”
Li Jin Yu laughed despite himself, the corner of his mouth turning up slightly. “With your cleverness, have you ever suffered any setbacks from childhood to adulthood?”
The atmosphere lightened a bit. The two had their thoughts but managed, unusually, not to be at odds with each other.
“You just said twenty thousand per month, can I get a kiss for that?” Ye Meng began to tease the younger man again.
“No,” Li Jin Yu thought for a moment. “Make it fifty thousand, and you can get kisses and hugs.”
She feigned surprise: “Isn’t that too expensive?”
He smiled casually, not continuing the topic.
The light in the room was scattered. After a while, Ye Meng suddenly asked again: “Do you not want to date me?”
Both of their voices were hoarse, with Li Jin Yu’s being thicker. Perhaps due to staying up late to chat, his throat itched, and he coughed heavily, smiling helplessly as he shook his head: “No, I don’t. Are you always this direct when pursuing someone?”
“I’m being quite reserved, actually,” Ye Meng seriously asked, “But why? Is it that you don’t want to date me specifically, or that you don’t want to date anyone? You can’t be this self-destructive, right? My mother also had depression back then…”
Li Jin Yu turned around, his back to her again, his head sinking, the lines of his neck clear and cold: “Your mother, she still committed suicide in the end, didn’t she?”
“I don’t think she committed suicide, I just don’t have evidence.” Ye Meng shook her head, still holding onto her doubts.
Li Jin Yu gave her one last indifferent glance but spoke quite honestly, “Actually, I haven’t thought that much about it. I feel my life is quite peaceful now, and I don’t want anything or anyone else to change my current trajectory.”
“What trajectory?” Ye Meng asked.
Li Jin Yu smiled and said: “How do I put it—it’s really for my grandmother’s sake. If it weren’t for her, I would have died five years ago when my mother abandoned me. And now it’s already hard enough taking care of her, where would I find the energy to date?”
“Then why did you date Jiang Lu Zhi? She could change your trajectory?”
“Because she’s prettier than you.” Li Jin Yu glanced at her sideways, saying lazily.
Ye Meng was speechless: “You’re the most tasteless brother I’ve ever met.”
Li Jin Yu retorted calmly: “But you’re the sister with the best taste I’ve ever met.”
“…”
Neither spoke again. Their gazes met lightly in the dim light, and in that moment of stillness, it was as if they were held by the emotions in each other’s eyes, quietly observing for a moment. The next second, they both simultaneously lowered their heads and smiled softly, as if witnessing majestic glaciers melting, a fishing boat adrift on the vast sea returning to harbor. It seemed as though some indescribable emotion in the air had been diluted.
After that, they didn’t see each other again. Until the day Fang Ya En was discharged, Ye Meng accompanied Little Fatty as usual to climb ranks, directly helping him win his way to Supreme Commander, and even gifted him a set of skins he had been dreaming about. Little Fatty was moved to tears, and his surprise, Ye Meng went the extra mile and pushed a WeChat contact to him. Little Fatty cautiously opened it, “What’s this, sis?”
Even the old lady couldn’t help but peek over. Ye Meng bent at the waist, her back forming a smooth arc as she crouched down to help Fang Ya En pack her shoes. “The manager of MH e-sports club. Didn’t you want to be an e-sports player? They’re recruiting trainees soon, but you’re a bit older. I’ve talked to the manager in advance, you can go and try.”
“Is this for real?!” Little Fatty was extremely excited, jumping three feet high, somewhat incredulous. “You know MH’s manager?”
The old lady was on an IV drip, and she activated her taunt skill: “With his skill level, he’d be about right to be their keyboard punching bag.”
Ye Meng smiled and stood up from the ground, and as she looked up, she saw Li Jin Yu standing at the door. Today he had changed into a clean, fresh white sportswear, making him look even younger. Her gaze naturally lingered on him for a moment before quickly looking away. She said to the old lady: “That’s not necessarily true. He’ll know once he tries. The early stages of training focus on physical and mental fitness, and only then on game operations. Last year’s most valuable player at MH was technically the worst among the trainees, but he was the calmest of all, and the coach particularly appreciated that. I think Yang Tian Wei is quite similar to him in that regard.”
No matter how others cursed him as a noob in the game, he remained unfazed and stubbornly continued to feed kills to the enemy as always.
Yang Tian Wei was Little Fatty’s formal name. His original name was Yang Wei; this family seemed a bit careless when it came to naming.
Yang Tian Wei was greatly encouraged, and pumped with fighting spirit, his blood rushing to one spot. He began to shower praise: “Sister Ye Meng, you’re truly a good person. Whoever marries you must have saved the entire universe in their previous life.”
Ye Meng immediately poured cold water on him: “But honestly, at your age, many e-sports players have already retired. I’m just suggesting you try it out, not saying you’ll succeed. Don’t get too excited too soon.”
There are talented people, but they’re extremely rare, and not everyone gets to meet them. Ye Meng, as an outsider to e-sports, was certainly no talent scout. She just hoped Yang Tian Wei would recognize his limitations sooner, find a steady job, and help Li Jin Yu shoulder some of the family burden. Otherwise, with that voice, in a few months, he’d sound like a duck without even having to go to the docks.
The nurse happened to come by to change the old lady’s IV bag. Seeing the lively ward, her gaze swept over Ye Meng, almost imperceptibly, as she smiled and initiated conversation: “So lively here?”
Among all the nurses, this one was the old lady’s least favorite, and she rarely acknowledged her. Little Fatty was still immersed in the manager’s WeChat moments, and Li Jin Yu had nothing to say, so the atmosphere instantly cooled. The nurse gave a dry laugh and said to Li Jin Yu: “Handsome after your grandmother finishes this bag of IV fluid, come find me at the nurses’ station.”
Li Jin Yu agreed.
“I won’t disturb you then.” The nurse’s gaze slowly scanned Ye Meng up and down, making Fang Ya En want to gouge out her eyeballs, and she secretly glared at her as she left.
Ye Meng unobtrusively packed up her things, then took the guitar from the corner and handed it to Li Jin Yu. “Give this guitar to Qiao Mai Mai. Thank her for helping me so much last time. I won’t transfer the money, it’s about the cost of a guitar anyway.”
Li Jin Yu looked down at her for quite a while. “Alright.”
“I thought you wouldn’t take it,” Ye Meng half-jokingly said. “If I had known, I would have bought a cheaper one.”
“Then return it, it’s Qiao Mai Mai’s anyway.”
The two were half-blocking the doorway, one leaning lazily against the doorframe, the other standing opposite, with questions and answers flowing more freely than before.
“Is big sister this stingy?” Ye Meng said.
Li Jin Yu smiled without saying a word. He looked at the bags packed and ready on the floor. The white sportswear made him look especially like a young man. Leaning against the doorframe, he asked Ye Meng, “Need any help?”
“No need, Yang Tian Wei said he’d see us to the car. You stay and keep your grandmother company.”
…
After they left, the ward returned to quietness. The old lady saw through everything and said to Li Jin Yu, who had just pulled up a chair to sit down: “Castor bean, have you two exchanged WeChat contacts?”
Li Jin Yu paused slightly, then shook his head: “No.”
“Won’t you keep in touch?” The old lady frowned, blaming him for not knowing how to cherish. “Ye Meng might seem casual and carefree, but she handles things meticulously, and knows how to navigate social relationships. In all my years, I’ve never seen a young lady who knows how to get things done like her. What a good woman, and you just let her go.”
Ye Meng had gotten her driver’s license in college, and it was due for renewal at the end of this year. However, she was still a road menace. In Beijing, the subway and buses have been more convenient than driving for all these years. Now that Fang Ya En had injured her leg, she reluctantly drove under Fang Ya En’s urging, living up to her reputation by driving the newly bought Golf as if it were about to be scrapped.
Fang Ya En sat in the passenger seat and quietly reminded her: “Did you notice?”
Ye Meng was particularly focused. “Hmm? What?”
“A bicycle just passed by,” Fang Ya En said.
Ye Meng had just glanced at the rearview mirror, calm and collected. “I noticed, it was an old man.”
Her psychological resilience was especially good. The urgent, sharp honking from the vehicles behind had nearly turned into Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, but she remained unmoved, driving along at a leisurely pace. “I originally said we should take a taxi, but you insisted on seeing how bad my skills were.”
“I didn’t realize you were this bad!” But Fang Ya En quickly got used to these life-threatening honks and calmly chatted with Ye Meng, “You and Li Jin Yu haven’t even exchanged WeChat contacts?”
Ye Meng slowly pressed the brake pedal at the traffic light, somewhat amused, and said: “Yes, he acts as if dating me would cost him his life, how dare I provoke him?”
“These younger guys nowadays…” Fang Ya En clicked her tongue twice and sighed, “Let me tell you, that nurse has feelings for Li Jin Yu. With a child that big, and still flirting with young men. Even recording conversations! I was wondering why several young nurses at the station have been looking at you like you’re some kind of home-wrecker. What’s the situation between you two now?”
“After what he said, what else can I say? We go our separate ways,” Ye Meng leaned back in the driver’s seat, not taking it seriously, saying lazily: “Just a little episode, right? Perhaps an even more suitable younger guy will appear next. As for other people, just think positively—”
She casually and gracefully advised Fang Ya En, “Life is like Edward Scissorhands, isn’t it? Cut a piece here, insert some background music there, cut your complete life into fragments, then piece it back together into what they want to see. You have a different three-minute video in front of each person, but only you know that your life isn’t just those three minutes. Those long tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of hours behind the scenes, only you experience them. So, why trouble yourself for the remaining tens of thousands of hours over those brief three minutes? That’s just unnecessary anxiety.”
Fang Ya En was left speechless by her words, feeling a pang in her heart, but also feeling that her detachment and self-awareness were things others couldn’t emulate. “Ah, I just love your dominant energy. If you ever become disheartened and half-dead over a man someday, I’ll end our friendship.”
“Rest assured, at this age, all I do is admire good-looking appearances and tease younger guys a bit. I won’t get serious anymore,” Ye Meng smiled.