After that incident, all the matchmakers in the village blacklisted me.
Ding Zhitong sympathized with Gan Yang, saying, “Why did you buy in Dongman? It’s an old development, almost 20 years old. Don’t you understand what people want these days?”
Gan Yang continued the conversation, updating her on his recent situation.
As Ding Zhitong expected, since becoming an investor, Gan Yang now led a life flying between several cities. His days were consumed with either making money or strategizing how to make more. Beyond that, he disliked socializing, considering even a single extra word a waste of time. The only friends he still regularly interacted with were Wang Yi and Zeng Junjie, and even those relationships were work-related.
The contract manufacturing plants remaining in China had fully upgraded, transitioning from OEM to JDM and ODM models. The factories collaborated with Wang Yi’s laboratory for biomechanics and mechanical engineering research and testing. The lab was located at the Caohejing campus of the East China University of Science and Technology, and LT Capital had set up an office nearby in the entrepreneurial park. Gan Yang visited periodically.
Meanwhile, Chairman Liu maintained his habit of buying properties for his son, believing Gan Yang should have his place in Shanghai. After surveying various districts, he asked if Gan Yang preferred Qingpu or Sheshan.
Gan Yang didn’t understand why they were all so far away.
Chairman Liu explained, “I noticed there’s an excellent school near Qingpu development. It covers from kindergarten through high school graduation. Each class has a maximum of twenty students, and even the fourth-grade classrooms have toys. Every student seems happy…”
Gan Yang said he listened for a while before realizing this was a roundabout way of urging him to get married and have children.
“What about Sheshan?” he asked Chairman Liu.
“Sheshan has a mountain and an artificial lake,” Chairman Liu replied rather flatly. His preference was clear – he wanted Gan Yang to choose Qingpu and then settle down to marry and have children right there.
“Let’s go with Sheshan then,” Gan Yang said, pretending not to understand the implication. His message was clear: stop pressuring me.
“Oh…” Chairman Liu retreated, defeated.
But come the next major holiday when family gatherings were mandatory, or when Gan Yang had to return to his hometown for work, Chairman Liu would send photos in advance with captions like: “Even if you don’t think the photo looks good, it doesn’t mean the person isn’t attractive in real life. She has big eyes and a high nose bridge, and her height suits you well. You can come home and take a look before deciding.”
Followed immediately by: “Your mother is getting anxious.”
Ding Zhitong finally understood his intention and turned to look out the plane window, chuckling softly. Dusk was falling, the sky darkening as the city lights began to twinkle. The plane took off, leaving it all behind beneath the clouds.
Gan Yang felt awkward for a second but wasn’t afraid of her laughter. He asked directly, “Isn’t it the same for everyone? Don’t your parents pressure you too?”
Ding Zhitong thought to herself, “He knows how to relate.” Suddenly, they were kindred spirits again.
“How can it be the same?” she replied honestly. “You’re a 33-year-old successful businessman. I’m a 36-year-old spinster, practically 40 if you round up. It’s not just the older generation who doesn’t understand. Even some young girls think women like me are abnormal – either there’s something wrong with our personality or our mental state.”
Whenever this topic came up, she thought of her aunt.
Ever since Ding Yanming had called to lay out the situation, her aunt hadn’t given up on her. She just thought old Ding was being unreasonable. Later, she sent several WeChat messages, earnestly advising Ding Zhitong not to carry the burdens of the past! To move beyond the shadows! To embrace a new life!!
Each sentence ended with an exclamation mark, sometimes two. Reading them made Ding Zhitong’s heart race, yet she had no desire to explain further. Strangely, though the messages were just text, she could hear them in her aunt’s voice, automatically matching her tone. The noise gave her a migraine. If her former secretary knew about this symptom, she’d probably say Ding Zhitong was approaching menopause again.
She thought this was a universal social issue, but Gan Yang surprised her: “You’re mistaken there. The age discrimination in our area is quite gender-equal. Boys start going on blind dates at 18 or 19, or 21-22 at most after graduating college. At my age, matchmakers find it very challenging.”
“But you’re wealthy,” Ding Zhitong countered, disbelieving.
“Yes,” Gan Yang nodded. “Because of the money, and out of respect for Chairman Liu, when I went back for Chinese New Year this year, they arranged six dates for me in one day.”
Ding Zhitong was stunned, yet amused. “And the result?” she asked.
“The result…” Gan Yang tilted his head back and chuckled lightly. “I received an email around 7 a.m. and got pulled into a conference call that lasted until nearly noon. I missed half of the six dates. In the afternoon, I finally made it to the first house. The girl hadn’t even graduated from college yet – she was just home for winter break. She didn’t want to talk either and just gave me her family’s Wi-Fi password. She played games while I worked overtime.”
“How come she wasn’t interested in you?” Ding Zhitong asked teasingly.
Gan Yang replied, “I think she overheard me on the phone talking about white shoes, green shoes, and black shoes. I guess I have some kind of shoe obsession.”
Ding Zhitong didn’t understand at first.
Gan Yang explained, “Bai shoes firm, green shoes option, and the last one was Black-Scholes.”
Ding Zhitong said, “That doesn’t seem so bad. Next time, you should request in advance that anyone meeting you must have studied finance.”
Gan Yang corrected her, “It’s not that I mind them not knowing about option pricing models. It’s that they find me boring.”
“Well, it is pretty dull, turning a date into something like a job interview,” Ding Zhitong teased him.
Gan Yang didn’t seem to mind, saying, “Exactly. I don’t know who I learned that from. Asking someone while dating, ‘You know random doesn’t equal uniform distribution, right?’ And then there’s this problem that requires using Bayes’ theorem, calculating the revised probability in two parts, and then using the expected value and revised probability for optimal decision-making. You just give 1/1000 – do you think you’re in elementary school solving brain teasers?”
That “someone” caught Ding Zhitong’s attention.
She remembered now – these were all things she had said to him before. It was pretty boring indeed, but he had remembered it all these years.
Gan Yang continued, “Anyway, after that incident, all the matchmakers in the village blacklisted me.”
Ding Zhitong couldn’t help but laugh along with him.
Gan Yang watched her laugh, quietly for a while, before speaking again, “Actually, I think Dongman is quite nice. The location is good, it’s convenient to get around, and I heard it’s in the catchment area for a key primary school.”
The conversation had come full circle, back to this point.
By then, the plane had leveled off, and everything seemed to suddenly quiet down. But Ding Zhitong didn’t pursue the topic further.
Two and a half hours later, the flight landed at Hongqiao Airport.
On the shuttle bus, Ding Zhitong called Song Mingmei, asking as soon as the call connected, “Are you at home now?”
“What’s wrong?” Song Mingmei asked in return as if she had already sensed something.
Ding Zhitong tried to sound casual, saying, “I’m back in Shanghai, just got off the plane. Is it convenient for me to come over now?”
There was a pause on the other end, followed by what sounded like a laugh. “Ding Zhitong, you’re annoying…”
But Ding Zhitong could still detect a hint of something unusual in her friend’s voice. Her eyes welled up slightly, knowing Song Mingmei must also be thinking of the past – when they were both in New York, after the incident with Bian Jieming, she had rushed to Greenwich in the middle of the night. And later, whenever she had any trouble, Song Mingmei would be by her side at a moment’s notice.
Ding Zhitong spent her first night back in Shanghai at Song Mingmei’s place.
Given that it was her friend’s matter, she only gave Gan Yang a general idea. Guessing that Song Mingmei probably wasn’t in the mood to see anyone else, they called a car after leaving the airport. When they reached Song’s house, Ding Zhitong got out and sent Gan Yang on his way.
Song Mingmei came to open the gate for her. She looked no different from before, not at all like a patient.
“Did you come back alone?” Song Mingmei asked before Ding Zhitong could say anything.
Ding Zhitong’s face stiffened slightly as she countered, “How many people did you expect?” She wondered if Song had seen her arrive.
The flight had arrived late, and both children were already asleep. Song Mingmei took Ding Zhitong directly to the bedroom. As they changed clothes and washed up, they chatted, feeling just like when they used to live together in the dormitory.
The next morning, they went out together. After dropping the children off at school, Ding Zhitong accompanied Song Mingmei to the hospital to see the doctor and determine the surgical plan.
The doctor was a woman about their age, with short hair and a very efficient manner. Song Mingmei listened as the doctor explained her current options, inquiring about every detail of the treatment process. She seemed detached as if they weren’t discussing her condition.
Because it was classified as stage 4C, with poor morphology and symptoms of pain and effusion, the likelihood of malignancy was high. Even if benign, there was a possibility of turning malignant. The doctor recommended skipping the biopsy and proceeding directly to surgical removal. If intraoperative pathology confirmed malignancy, they would expand the range for a total mastectomy. If benign, they would perform a local excision to prevent deterioration.
The other indicators were between breast-conserving and non-conserving options. In such cases, doctors naturally let patients decide for themselves, with younger patients generally preferring to conserve as much breast tissue as possible. However, Song Mingmei wanted to opt for non-conserving surgery – a complete mastectomy with axillary dissection – solely to reduce the risk of recurrence.
“This decision will affect your physiological and psychological recovery, as well as your future quality of life. You must think this through carefully,” the doctor advised, glancing at Ding Zhitong who had accompanied her, as if asking her to discuss it as well.
Indeed, it was Ding Zhitong who called for a pause. She took Song Mingmei out of the consultation room, first finding a quiet place suitable for conversation on nearby Sinan Road to have lunch. Only after eating did she ask, “Why exactly are you doing this?”
“What if it recurs?” Song Mingmei asked in return.
“Wouldn’t it be better to leave that judgment to the doctors?” Ding Zhitong urged.
Song Mingmei fell silent for a moment, then sighed before saying, “But there are some risks that doctors can’t assess.”
“What risks?” Ding Zhitong didn’t understand, thinking she was only worried about recurrence.
Song Mingmei explained, “I’ve consulted a lawyer. Yulin is 6, and Yuqi is 8. For children this age, custody decisions are mainly based on what will affect their future lives. The problem is that there are two children, and courts generally split custody in such cases. I can prove that Deng Baiting rarely takes care of them, but he can also prove that I’m in poor health and unable to care for both. Moreover, his parents want Yulin.
“The first court hearing is in three months, and it usually can’t be settled then. So we’d have to wait another six months for the second lawsuit. The whole process takes at least a year. During this time, I need to complete the surgery, and subsequent chemotherapy, and recover to a state where I can take care of the children. If this attempt isn’t successful, I won’t have time to go through it all again.”
Ding Zhitong listened in shock. Even now, Song Mingmei was still like before, having considered everything thoroughly.