Before setting off for the neighboring city, Xu Zhi sat in front of her computer, lost in thought for a long time. Old Xu entered with a glass of milk, and seeing her unusually worried expression, he sat down on the edge of her bed, rubbing his leg. “Something on your mind?”
Could it be because of that Chen Luzhou boy?
Ever since Xu Zhi returned from Old Fu’s place, she had changed completely.
Next time he comes back for a follow-up, I’ll make sure to finish off that kid.
“Tell Dad about it.” Old Xu put down the milk, ready for a heart-to-heart talk.
It was nighttime, the bedside lamp glowing dimly. The moon was like a jade plate, spreading clean light outside the window. Xu Zhi looked up, sighing with a bit of confusion, “Dad, what do you think people live for?”
Xu Guangji noticed that in recent years, Xu Zhi often pondered philosophical questions, like why we live, and if we live to make money, should we die once we’ve made enough?
They had engaged in countless heated debates on this topic years ago but never concluded. Tonight, this girl seemed to have been triggered by something, bringing up this well-worn topic again.
Xu Guangji followed her train of thought: “Sometimes people live not just to make money, but also to spend it. Like your Uncle Cai, he loves traveling abroad all year round, buying specialties from all over the world. Remember that wooden carving he brought you from Nepal? Is it useful? Not really, but he’d feel uncomfortable if he didn’t spend money.”
Xu Zhi pondered this, absently peeling a banana from the table. As she ate, she argued, “If we’re going to spend it anyway, why bother making money? Wouldn’t people be much happier if we skipped this troublesome process?”
Xu Guangji: “…Then why do you think people eat? Why are you eating that banana? To defecate? If you skip the troublesome process in between and eat feces directly, would you be happy?”
Xu Zhi held a mouthful of banana, unable to swallow, looking at him with reproachful eyes: “Dad…”
Xu Guangji smiled triumphantly, pulling out a lens cloth from his pocket. He took off his glasses and began cleaning them meticulously, speaking to her earnestly: “Living is a process of enjoying the fulfillment of our desires. But human desires increase gradually. When you were five, your desire was just to eat candy. It was so easy to please you then – if you were unhappy, just giving you a piece of candy would make you grin all day. As you grew older, we found you harder to please. You weren’t satisfied with just candy or food anymore. You wanted to go to amusement parks, wear pretty clothes, and have your hair tied up in a high, tight ponytail every day. If I didn’t tie it well, you’d be upset all day. You wanted to be class monitor, to give orders.”
Xu Zhi tilted her head, trying to recall seriously, but couldn’t remember. She strongly suspected her dad was embellishing: “Was I like that when I was little?”
“I have video evidence, I’m not wronging you. I still have your elementary school class monitor election video,” Xu Guangji could still recite that speech, imitating her childish tone: “Hello everyone, I’m Xu Zhi. Napoleon once said, ‘A soldier who doesn’t aspire to be a general is not a good soldier.’ Although I’m not as rich as Lin Zixuan, I’m pretty. Lin Zixuan’s money can’t be spent on you, but my beauty is yours to enjoy unreservedly. You’ve all seen it. I hope you’ll choose me—”
“All right, that’s enough,” Xu Zhi was quite narcissistic as a child, but she didn’t expect Old Xu to still keep such an embarrassing history. “Where’s the videotape? Hand it over quickly.”
Xu Guangji ignored her, continuing to clean his glasses, smile lines deepening around his eyes. “We all grow up being chased by our desires. Sometimes, even Dad feels life is hard to bear, but before I knew it, I’d reached fifty. When you go to college, we won’t have many days left to see each other. Dad knows you’re feeling a bit empty after the college entrance exam, not knowing what to do next, right? People are like this. When they’ve been working towards a goal for a long time, and suddenly that goal is achieved, but they don’t know how to set the next goal, they fall into the state you’re in now, wondering every day what they’re living for.”
Xu Zhi glanced at him: “Dad, if I choose to go to Beijing…”
Xu Guangji’s hand paused briefly while cleaning his lenses, but quickly resumed, smiling as he put his glasses back on, “Go ahead, Beijing is great. I have no objection to wherever you go. Don’t worry about money, I’ll give you enough for living expenses. And don’t worry about me, I can communicate with others just fine now. Besides, there’s still Uncle Cai.”
He put his hand on Xu Zhi’s shoulder, rarely using her pet name, “Nan Nan, people become harder to please as they grow up, or rather, harder to satisfy. From being happy with just a piece of candy at first, to later perhaps not even being happy with a mountain of candy. Dad can’t please you anymore, but naturally, someone will come along who can. However, Dad still hopes this person will appear a bit later.” Seeing Xu Zhi lost in thought without responding, he casually asked, “But doesn’t the architecture department in Beijing require very high scores? Or are you not planning to study architecture anymore? Hmm, it’s good if you don’t. Dad thinks you could consider majoring in finance…”
Xu Zhi: “No, Chen Luzhou said the architecture department at Qing University is just average. I’m thinking of looking at architecture departments in Beijing and Shanghai.”
Xu Guangji: “…”
On Wednesday, Xu Zhi boarded the bus to the neighboring city. On the bus, she met the newly joined photographer – Feng Jian.
Feng Jian wasn’t as handsome as in his photo, a bit rounder in person, but not fat. His height was barely 1.8 meters, but his features were regular, with a rounded jawline that gave him an approachable, non-aggressive look. In a crowd, he wouldn’t be considered ugly, and could even pass for handsome.
But the photo he sent to Cai Yingying had been edited to make him look like a top-tier handsome guy like Chen Luzhou. Cai Yingying was inevitably a bit disappointed. Being in the same vehicle, she couldn’t show it too obviously, so she resorted to sending WeChat messages to Xu Zhi.
Little Dish: He’s a catfish! Wuwuwu, I thought we were having a streak of good luck lately, running into super handsome guys left and right.
Gardenia Doesn’t Want to Bloom: Isn’t he quite handsome?
Little Dish: Maybe we’ve been looking at Chen Luzhou for too long recently, but now everyone else looks off. How about you ask Chen Luzhou again? We can always keep the photographer position open for him.
Gardenia Doesn’t Want to Bloom: Then what about Feng Jian?
Little Dish: Wow, Xu Zhi, you want Chen Luzhou to come too, don’t you?
Gardenia Doesn’t Want to Bloom: It’s okay, I’m more familiar with him.
They had rented a business van, with just the three of them on board. Feng Jian noticed them fervently messaging back and forth, one side going “whoosh,” and the other side immediately “ding-dong.” Even a fool could tell they were chatting about him on WeChat, and probably not saying anything good, otherwise why wouldn’t they dare to say it to his face?
Feng Jian had chatted with Cai Yingying online before, so they were somewhat familiar. He directly called her name, “Cai Yingying, won’t you introduce this beautiful young lady?”
Xu Zhi was flawless in appearance, fair and delicate, the kind of person you’d notice in a crowd and want to ask for her name. Perhaps the only unremarkable feature was her face shape, which was slightly oval. Her eyes were bright and clear, with prominent, well-defined cheekbones. When she smiled, she looked pretty yet cute, like the girl next door. Some overly protective men would pay extra attention to her.
“Mm, I’m Xu Zhi,” Xu Zhi introduced herself. She didn’t like being called “young lady” by others. “Xu as in ‘two people,’ Zhi as in ‘gardenia.’ I’m responsible for writing the articles.”
“Hello, I’m Feng Jian. Feng as in ‘water and horse,’ Jian as in ‘audience with the emperor.'”
Xu Zhi made a sound of acknowledgment, said a brief “hello,” and then ignored him, lowering her head to play with her phone.
She’s quite aware of her beauty, Feng Jian thought to himself.
After this bland self-introduction, the atmosphere once again became awkward. So Cai Yingying and Feng Jian started chatting idly about everything from photography to internet celebrities, covering topics from all over. Feng Jian was quite talkative, not caring whether Cai Yingying wanted to listen or not, and not giving her space to interject. He talked non-stop about his past travel experiences. He did talk a lot, and he had indeed been to many places. He even told Cai Yingying that he had climbed Mount Everest, causing her to exclaim repeatedly, “Really? You’ve been to Mount Everest?”
Feng Jian felt she might have misunderstood due to watching too many movies, so he explained, “No, it was just taking a bus to the Everest Base Camp and staying overnight with oxygen tanks.” Feng Jian’s camera was full of photos he had taken. He showed them to Cai Yingying one by one, explaining, “This was taken in Ali, we also went to Hoh Xil, but drones don’t fly well there. In some places, you need to apply in advance to fly drones. We didn’t think of that before. Yes, this is Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. Have you been to Lijiang? If you go next time, I suggest not going during peak season. It’s impossible to buy cable car tickets then.”
The car entered the highway, but the chatter inside continued, mostly Feng Jian talking non-stop. Even the driver kept glancing back at him, stepping on the gas with more enthusiasm.
Compared to Feng Jian, Chen Luzhou was truly a man of few words. According to Zhu Yangqi, Chen Luzhou had been to many places too, traveling to one or two countries every winter and summer vacation.
As Xu Zhi thought about this, she felt a bit of an itch she couldn’t scratch. She opened WeChat and clicked on Chen Luzhou’s profile picture. His Moments background was probably a building he had photographed himself, though Xu Zhi didn’t know where. Judging by the architectural style, it should be in France, as it was a unique Gothic-style castle. His Moments hadn’t been updated, and they hadn’t been in contact for a long time. The last message in their chat box was from last week.
After coming down from the mountain, Xu Zhi had sent him a message once, asking which Hasselblad model his camera was. Xu Zhi wasn’t very familiar with cameras, she could only recognize the brand. Unless it was a popular model like Canon or Sony, she wouldn’t know. She only learned a bit about the Hasselblad brand later when helping her cousin look at cameras and realized that Chen Luzhou’s DSLR was a Hasselblad. But she didn’t mention she was helping him choose a lens, so Chen Luzhou probably thought she was just asking casually. He only replied with the model number, without even adding any extra punctuation.
That day when they were photographing the meteor shower, Chen Luzhou showed her photos on his camera. Xu Zhi saw that his camera’s memory card was already nearly full with almost ten thousand images, and he had a bunch of 128GB memory cards in his bag. Each card was labeled with a number. Xu Zhi thought he must love photography. But unlike Feng Jian, who immediately started talking about where he’d been and what photos he’d taken, Chen Luzhou probably didn’t want to bore them. Zhu Yangqi said that Chen Luzhou always seemed to be very considerate of others’ feelings.
Every time she was with him, they seemed to talk about topics she liked, about her things. She realized she didn’t know much about him at all.
— “Why are you so curious about what I’m studying?”
— “Sometimes, people can’t always do what they like.”
— “Then go study it, don’t mind what your relatives say.”
— “The specific choice is up to you. Just like today, you’re waiting for the starry sky, while I’m waiting for the autumn wind. Some people might persistently wait for flowers to bloom in the desert. Everyone has their own choices, their scenery.”
— “Our future isn’t determined by what others say, only by what we say ourselves.”
The more Feng Jian chattered endlessly beside her, eager to show them all the photos he had ever taken, boasting about how many awards he had won and that he was currently a director of the Qingyi City Photography Association, the more Xu Zhi found Chen Luzhou annoying. Why was he being so mysterious?
They arrived in the neighboring city at noon. This time, Xu Zhi and her team were exploring the internet-famous street, discovering hotels and food shops. The cooperating stores would provide corresponding fees, but the premise was that they needed to give constructive feedback, plus several social media advertisement posts. So, the expenses for food and lodging were covered by several cooperating stores. To put it simply, they were hired to advertise.
They arrived at a good time. The neighboring city was having a temple fair these few days, making it particularly lively. The internet-famous street was almost packed with people, with non-stop hawking sounds, but the overall environment was… hard to describe. The neighboring city was even smaller than Qingyi, with the city center being a single street that ran straight through. An ancient canal ran north to south, flanked on both sides by dilapidated but new rural construction-style old low-rise buildings. Black-tiled, white-walled buildings stood on both sides, very much like Qingyi before its renovation.
Xu Zhi wandered leisurely on the internet-famous street for a day. After eating three bowls of snail noodles with different flavors, to be honest, she felt that this money wasn’t so easy to earn after all.
The food was hard to eat, but you couldn’t write that.
The environment was also dirty and messy, but you couldn’t write that either.
Just now, before the chef put a handful of noodles into the pot, he had picked his nose. You definitely couldn’t write that.
If she praised this internet-famous street to high heaven against her conscience, she would feel uneasy. Xu Zhi was utterly perplexed, sighing helplessly. Should she compromise her principles for money?
So, Xu Zhi sat under the sunshade on the internet-famous street. Behind her was the bustling crowd – people carrying children, holding hands with the elderly, couples frolicking. On the road beside her, cars passed one after another, streetlights lit up in succession. It was as if someone had illuminated the path in her heart. She resolutely took out her phone and opened WeChat.
Xu Zhi sent Chen Luzhou a transfer of 250 yuan.
Then she put her phone on the table, waiting for his reply. Her eyes were on the noisy crowd, but her heart was strangely calm. She felt Chen Luzhou must have a solution.
About three minutes later, he replied.
Chen Luzhou:?
Xu Zhi: Companionship chat fee.
Xu Zhi: Now.
Xu Zhi: We’re friends, right? Or do you want a full price?