This was a well-known gray rhino, and also a complete black swan.
After those words, Gan Yang suddenly asked, “Did he transfer the money back to you later?”
“What?” Ding Zhitong didn’t understand at first.
Gan Yang said, “The money.”
Ding Zhitong was taken aback, then realized he was referring to the funds Feng Sheng had transferred away. This was the tacit understanding between two money-minded individuals. She turned her head to look out the car window, laughing uncontrollably.
Gan Yang pulled her close, enveloping her in his arms, holding her tightly as if telling her to stop laughing, yet his chest shook with laughter.
After a long while, Ding Zhitong, resting against his chest, nodded slightly and said softly, “It’s all in the past now.”
Gan Yang, his chin resting on her hair, repeated, “Yes, it’s all in the past.”
The car arrived at Dongman and entered the underground garage. Their homes were only three numbers apart, with their entrances facing each other across four rows of parking spaces. Without a word, Ding Zhitong got out of the car, and Gan Yang followed, taking the elevator up together.
It was a Monday afternoon, with clear skies outside.
They entered using the fingerprint lock. As usual, the room had blackout curtains drawn, with only slivers of light seeping through the gaps. The room temperature hadn’t risen yet, and the surrounding air was a bit cold. But they paid no mind, silently embracing and kissing.
Both knew the original plan was just to come back to change clothes, grab their laptops, and head to the office. They also knew that with the Spring Festival approaching, after the holiday, Ding Zhitong would make another trip to Quanzhou to meet with Dr. Chen. Then, she would return to Hong Kong.
It seemed nothing needed to be said; they simply indulged in this moment of intense intimacy, as if existing somewhere outside of time.
Skin against skin faces close. Warm, smooth, tight. They felt each other’s most heated parts, the rhythm of breaths and heartbeats, unsure if they were hearing it or feeling the vibrations in their bodies. Every caress, lick, and collision overlapped with countless memories, gradually climbing to the peak, yet still not satisfied.
He changed position, holding her hand against the pillow, their fingers intertwined, looking at her and saying, “Let’s take it slow…”
She understood the double meaning, her just-calmed breathing becoming rapid again, her body and mind flushing as if about to burst.
That night, Gan Yang called Director Liu, saying as soon as she answered, “I won’t be coming back for New Year’s Eve this year.”
Director Liu assumed it was the aftermath of last year’s six blind dates and quickly assured him, “Don’t come back. I promise there won’t be anything like last year.”
“It’s not that,” Gan Yang laughed, explaining, “I’m just spending New Year’s Eve in Shanghai. I’ll come back on the second day of the New Year, and I’m bringing someone with me.”
“Who?” Director Liu sounded a bit excited hearing this.
“I don’t want you to hear about her situation from somewhere else and then object, so I’ll explain clearly now,” Gan Yang chose his words carefully but without pausing, “She’s my classmate from Cornell, currently working in Hong Kong, ten months older than me, 34 this year, born in the Year of the Ox, previously married once…”
Director Liu suddenly went quiet, interrupting to ask, “What’s the girl’s name?”
“Ding Zhitong,” Gan Yang replied.
“Haven’t you mentioned her to me before?” Director Liu asked again.
Gan Yang felt inexplicably tearful, pausing before confirming, “Yes, it’s her.”
After a moment of silence, the other end spoke again, saying, “Alright, Mom is happy for you.”
Although he was already completely certain, hearing these words made his eyes wet, yet he smiled, saying, “Director Liu, don’t get too excited yet. She might not even want me. We’re mainly coming back this time because of work.”
“I understand—” Director Liu agreed, dragging out her words as she used to, “Director Long told me long ago that pressuring for marriage only works on children who can’t be independent and still rely on their parents financially. For someone like Gan Yang, you can at most use love to bind him a bit, but if you annoy him, forget about marriage, you won’t even see him.”
“Use love to bind?” Gan Yang rubbed his eyes, laughing through tears, “Did Director Long say that?”
“No, no,” Director Liu quickly backtracked, “She just told me to let you make your own decisions. She said she couldn’t understand a lot of what you do, but later it all proved to be right…”
Gan Yang had heard such words many times, so he interrupted, “Thank you, Mom.”
“Why are you thanking me?” Director Liu laughed on the other end, her voice a bit hoarse.
Gan Yang didn’t know why he said that, but at that moment, he suddenly felt that the ten years of separation and wasted time were all worth it.
Before the Spring Festival, Ding Yanming went on a ten-day whirlwind tour of the East and West coasts of the United States with members of the Minhang Elderly Branch of the Shanghai Photographers Association, sightseeing from San Francisco to New York, finally taking a flight back to Shanghai from JFK on the same flight as Yan Aihua.
Yan Aihua said she was just coming back for the New Year and would be staying at a hotel near Xinzhuang after arriving in Shanghai.
Although in recent years, she hadn’t been leading tour groups as intensively as before, often giving herself holidays during festivals, traveling between Hong Kong and Shanghai at least once a year, and bringing back more and more gifts for relatives.
Others assumed it was because her daughter was doing well, allowing her to enjoy life worry-free. But Ding Zhitong guessed that her relationship with the man from Long Island had likely changed. This time, she sensed something unusual but chose not to mention it.
During those days, the news had already started reporting on the COVID-19 epidemic. There were fewer people on the streets, everyone wearing masks, and the subway was eerily empty. But Shanghai always felt more spacious around the New Year, and the locals were used to it, not seeming too worried.
Auntie had booked a New Year’s Eve dinner at a restaurant near Qibao months in advance and had already paid, so naturally, they wouldn’t give it up. In a large banquet hall, dozens of unacquainted families sat together at round tables, with the big screen on stage showing the Spring Festival Gala as usual.
Perhaps because of old Ding’s phone call last time, she no longer asked Ding Zhitong if she had a boyfriend, instead pointing at her daughter-in-law and saying, “Look at Jingjing, born in ’94, her child is almost three and will start kindergarten this September.”
Ding Zhitong just smiled and focused on serving dishes to her grandmother. Grandmother couldn’t hear anyway and just kept eating.
Yan Aihua had been generous with red envelopes earlier, but now her words were equally sharp, immediately calculating, “Born in ’94, so she’s only 26 this year. Pregnant at 22? Our Tongtong was still doing her master’s in America at that age.”
Auntie retorted, “Why are you talking like old Ding? Studying, working, getting married, having children – they’re all important life events. They’re not mutually exclusive; it’s good to have them all.”
Yan Aihua replied, “Oh, is that so? I think life is like a buffet. Normal people only have so much appetite. You like beef tongue, I like botan shrimp – isn’t it better for everyone to choose what they like? Why insist on trying everything? Even if it doesn’t cost extra, your body is your own. If you overeat, you’ll end up in the hospital.”
Ding Zhitong laughed upon hearing this.
Auntie sighed beside her, saying, “Are you saying these things just to argue with me?”
“Argue with you?” Yan Aihua also laughed, but seeing the conversation was going nowhere, she fell silent.
Perhaps due to the epidemic’s influence, the New Year’s Eve dinner ended particularly early that day, with no customers waiting to take over the tables.
The restaurant staff said that starting tomorrow, their dining services would be suspended. The hotel part still had some guests, but they could only provide boxed meals. Once those guests left, that would be stopped too.
It was then that Ding Zhitong realized things might not be as trivial as she had originally thought.
It was a habit from her years of work to always look several steps ahead. Usually, for short-term forecasts, she used the moving arithmetic average method, exponential smoothing method, decomposition and control method, first qualitative then quantitative, product sales for at least half a year, technology development trends for at least five years ahead, and the broader environment even up to ten years later.
But infectious diseases were different. Everyone knew they had happened before and would happen again someday. But when exactly would it come? Where would it spread? And how big an impact would it have? Neither economists nor medical experts could predict.
It was both a well-known gray rhino and a complete black swan.
At that moment, she suddenly remembered Gan Yang looking at her in the serviced apartment in Hong Kong, saying, “This kind of thing will come again, and then you’ll know.”
At the time, it was just a casual remark in the heat of passion, but now it sounded like fate.
Leaving the hotel, she called a car at the entrance, planning to drop off Yan Aihua first before returning to Dongman.
On the way, Yan Aihua was still talking about Auntie. Ding Zhitong just listened, not saying much. She knew her mother and aunt had a good relationship; they had their rivalries when young, and criticized each other as they got older, but when it mattered, they were still sisters.
After talking for a while, Yan Aihua fell silent, then spoke again after a moment, “I broke up with the American.”
“Oh…” Ding Zhitong felt a jolt in her heart, yet found it not surprising at all, only asking, “When did this happen?”
“It’s been a while actually,” Yan Aihua replied, “Thinking about it, it didn’t make sense. What was it all for in the first place?”
“YeAh what was it for?” Ding Zhitong laughed, she didn’t know either.
Yan Aihua turned her head to look out the car window, murmuring, “People thought I was after his money, but I knew from the start I wouldn’t need it. I was angry at your father, you know? When he heard about this man, he immediately called me internationally and said, ‘Go with him, I can’t compare.'”
This was the first time Ding Zhitong had heard about these past events. She reached out to put an arm around her mother’s shoulders, feeling a sense of wonder. It seemed like a turning point in life when suddenly, parents started treating you as an equal.
Yan Aihua didn’t turn back, just sighed again, and said, “At that time, there was no comparison, but looking back now, what does it all matter?”
Moving arithmetic average method, exponential smoothing method, decomposition and control method, first qualitative than quantitative, Ding Zhitong thought once again, who can truly predict the future?