◎ Two Versions ◎

Luo Peiyin suddenly laughed: “Mr. Lin says this with such sincerity — it must be drawn from personal experience. I’m rather curious now: who cultivated you, exactly? Would you care to share?”

Lin Haichuan heard what sounded like “That’s very insightful” and assumed the other man was agreeing with him — but once the sentence was complete, he realized he had just been called a kept man.

Turning his own words back against him so smoothly, without so much as a flicker of embarrassment — this man had a certain skill set, no doubt about it. Keeping a straight face while living off a woman wasn’t something just anyone could manage. The whole manner of him — who knew how many people he’d deceived. Lin Haichuan had not originally intended to name names. It wasn’t his place to come between them — pointing out a boyfriend’s flaws in front of Gu Qiao would hardly make her happy. But with the conversation having gone this far, he was no longer inclined to spare the man any dignity.

Lin Haichuan kept his irritation in check and fired back: “I personally have no experience of being cultivated, but I do know someone whose experience in that area is quite extensive.” He smoothly shifted gears. “Xiao Tian, have you ever seen *A Beijinger in New York*?”

Her idol was speaking directly to her, and Xiao Tian responded quickly: “Yes — isn’t that the one with *I have chased you for ten thousand miles, yet you pay no attention to me*? Our shop manager even gave us the cassette tape of that song. It really is incredibly hard, leaving everything behind and going abroad — just look at the male lead: he plays the cello back in China, but when he gets to America, he ends up washing dishes at a restaurant.”

Lin Haichuan smoothly used Xiao Tian’s words as his bridge into the story he’d been building toward: “Most people would have it hard, but the man I’m talking about isn’t most people. He had a girlfriend back home doing business — earning in a single day what most people earn in a month. With a girlfriend like that, he didn’t need to go scrub dishes in some restaurant alongside the other broke students.”

Xiao Tian couldn’t help asking: “This man was living off his girlfriend?”

“You could put it that way. But later, his girlfriend ran into trouble in her business — a bank draft worth hundreds of thousands got frozen; the money couldn’t be withdrawn. On top of that, a crowd of people started coming to her place to cause trouble. The business she’d been running perfectly well couldn’t carry on, and she had to shut her doors and lie low. Faced with all of this, the man didn’t help — not even a glimpse of him. He just handed her a breakup.”

Xiao Tian was indignant: “That man is absolutely worthless.”

“Afterward, when the girl picked herself back up and made a success of things again, the man started hovering around again.”

Xiao Tian raised her voice involuntarily: “How could anyone be so shameless?”

Gu Qiao had not at all connected Lin Haichuan’s story to herself from the start — it really had nothing to do with her. She had always wanted to do something for Luo Peiyin, to cultivate him in some way. She’d simply never had the opportunity.

But by now, she was certain that the people in Lin Haichuan’s story were herself and Luo Peiyin — only with everything turned completely on its head.

She was just about to open her mouth to correct him when Luo Peiyin cut her off: “I’m quite interested in Mr. Lin’s story — but I find it doesn’t hold together very well. If this girl’s bank draft was frozen, shouldn’t she be the one going to confront whoever issued it? Why would people come to cause trouble *at her* place? That doesn’t quite make sense.”

“All those people had been deceived by a forged bank draft — everyone except this girl. So some of them concluded she must have been in on the scam. And since the fraudster’s bank account happened to hold exactly the amount that was paid out to her, there was nothing left for any of the others. So they came to her every day to make trouble — the logic was very simple: if I can’t make money, neither can you. When times are good, people talk about keeping the peace to keep the profit; once they’re losing money, all they want is to take others down with them.”

Gu Qiao turned to look at Luo Peiyin, his brow furrowed slightly. She told him, with some amusement: “I don’t know where you heard this version, but the story I know is completely different.”

Lin Haichuan wasn’t sure whether it was genuinely different or whether Gu Qiao was just defending him. He truly had not anticipated that the driver of this Cadillac would side with him so readily.

“I’m actually more interested in Mr. Lin’s story. The version you just told was too flat. Mr. Lin’s version has detail — and it’s logical. You said this girl went through something this serious, and her boyfriend didn’t come back to help her deal with it. Didn’t even show his face — and then ended things with her. She handled everything from start to finish on her own. Most people would question both this man’s capabilities and his character. I would.”

“I—” She had said she wanted to break up back then, never intending it to create any kind of reputation crisis for him at home — never expecting that his deliberately kept absence would end up looking like a stone she’d thrown at herself.

“In your story, even if this girl doesn’t question his character, she clearly has very little faith in his abilities. I don’t know which is more pitiful — to have one’s character doubted or one’s capabilities. From Mr. Lin’s tone, he clearly questions this man’s character but also seems to believe the boyfriend should have been able to contribute *something* of practical use.”

Lin Haichuan couldn’t tell whether his own hearing had failed or the man in front of him had somehow lost his mind. He had all but named him outright, and yet the man showed absolutely no reaction to the jabs — and when Gu Qiao started to speak on his behalf, he actually sided firmly with Lin Haichuan instead. This man had gone through university and studied abroad — even if his character was questionable, his mind surely shouldn’t be.

These two had him completely baffled.

And just then, Xiao Tian’s curiosity — already stirred up by all three of them — became too much to contain. She couldn’t help asking: “Manager Gu, could you tell us the version you heard?”

Gu Qiao drew a slow breath. Through the glass of the windshield, lit by the neon signs lining the streets, she watched the men and women outside — squeezing onto buses, then being squeezed back off.

Gu Qiao began to tell her own version of the story. Looking out through the front windshield with a quiet smile, she said: “This girl also wanted to do something for her boyfriend — to cultivate him in some way. But her boyfriend studied abroad on a full scholarship. He didn’t need her to cultivate him. Later, when the girl ran into trouble, she wanted someone to add flowers to her arrangement when things were already good — she wasn’t ready to accept her boyfriend’s help in a snowstorm. So she was the one who called and broke things off with all the pride of someone who’d come into a bit of money. Her boyfriend knew nothing of her difficulties, right up until the very end of their relationship.” She paused, then suddenly laughed. “That way, in his memory, his ex-girlfriend would forever be frozen as a wealthy, self-made woman with a bit of a swagger.”

Lin Haichuan, hearing Gu Qiao’s version, quietly updated the version he had held in his mind.

Two versions of the same story — completely different. Xiao Tian genuinely didn’t know which to believe: “Maybe the girl didn’t really trust that her boyfriend would help her — so she got in ahead of things and broke up with him first.”

“She trusted that he would come back to be with her — trusted it more than she trusted anyone. But when her boyfriend was ill, she hadn’t gone to America to be with him. Having trouble herself and expecting him to come back and deal with it alongside her — that didn’t quite balance out. A relationship can’t sustain that kind of imbalance indefinitely.” At the time, a small doubt had crept into her — a question of whether what she’d given would produce any meaningful return. Though after she called him to break things off, she had immediately put on his version of *Tomorrow Will Be Better* to cheer herself on.

But Luo Peiyin didn’t agree with her account: “Why do you assume that facing difficulties together wears a relationship down, rather than building its depth? Something too light and easy isn’t worth much.”

Gu Qiao understood. He was, once again, telling her: he had never wanted a relationship that knew only ease.

As an actor, Lin Haichuan was attuned to the emotional atmosphere of a room. Right now, he had a distinct feeling. The two people in front of him were sharing something between themselves — something that shut him out entirely. This man hadn’t been unaffected by his jabs. He simply hadn’t cared about Lin Haichuan at all.

It was the same feeling as back when the two of them had been taking photographs of him. For the most part, both of them had been looking at him — but then their eyes met each other, and they smiled, and just like that, Lin Haichuan ceased to exist entirely.

Over a thousand days of struggle, and here they were, right back to where they’d been. Lin Haichuan almost wanted to remind this pair of lovebirds that someone with a higher profile than both of them combined deserved a little basic courtesy.

The car pulled up to the hotel, and the doorman’s familiarity with Luo Peiyin exceeded Lin Haichuan’s expectations. He must be a regular guest here, for the doormen — who greeted countless people every day — to remember him so clearly.

Xiao Tian had not expected her first work trip to put her up in a hotel like this. She guessed it was the bonus of her idol’s presence — and that her manager, being generous-hearted, was unwilling to treat her differently. Her father worked at a state-owned company in a modest position; his per diem allowance for business trips was under fifty yuan a day. Her standard today far exceeded her father’s. She would tell her parents all about it when she got home.

Lin Haichuan had not particularly underestimated Luo Peiyin’s moral character — but he had apparently grossly underestimated his financial standing.

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