At dusk, a batch of newly ordered half-price coupons from the printing factory was delivered. Cheng Lele inspected the printing quality of the coupons, verified the text on the back once more, and then had someone count them into inventory.

Then she took out several stacks from inventory, stamped them with the date seal and the cinema’s marketing stamp, added two free VIP viewing cards, and sent Shen Dafeng to deliver them to Shenya.

Getting some inspiration from Zhang Ying, Cheng Lele was taking stock of what other connections she could use. Flipping through her contacts, she saw the name “Zhong Ming” and suddenly remembered that Zhong Ming had returned to Taixi. She had been busy recently and hadn’t visited him yet. She didn’t know where his bar was, what scale it was, or whether the customer flow was considerable.

Right now she was single-mindedly trying to upgrade pure friendships into complex monetary transaction relationships.

She picked up her phone and sent Zhong Ming a WeChat message: [Brother Zhong, give me an address. Tonight I’ll personally human-courier you an opening gift.]

[Isn’t that a bit too early? The opening was over a month ago. Why don’t you wait for the one-year anniversary to send it?]

[The gift wasn’t ready before, so it was delayed. Please be magnanimous, Brother Zhong. This time, your humble servant has prepared a lavish gift. I humbly ask Brother Zhong to accept it with a smile.]

[Alright then, present it for this sovereign to take a look.]

Then Zhong Ming sent a location pin. When Cheng Lele opened it, the bar was not far from the north part of the city. Her heart immediately sank halfway. That was Ocean Cinema’s territory. Even if she gave out coupons, people might not cross districts to watch movies on their side.

[Don’t you have any other branch locations?] Cheng Lele asked.

Zhong Ming: [Your dear older brother went bankrupt, so now you’re looking to latch onto me as your sugar daddy?]

[Bah, how has my dear older brother gone bankrupt?]

[…You said so yourself.] Zhong Ming sent a screenshot of a previous chat record.

Cheng Lele remembered and replied: [I share my dear older brother’s fate through thick and thin.]

Zhong Ming replied: [Are you two together? Have I been vindicated?]

Cheng Lele remembered that seven years ago when they separated, she seemed to have implied through her actions that Zhong Ming was her boyfriend. After all this time, she herself had forgotten about that episode.

However, since coming back, her dear older brother seemed to have never asked about Zhong Ming. He probably hadn’t believed it at all back then. Whether he believed it or not, on Singles’ Day, Cheng Lele decided she still needed to clarify things with him.

That evening, Cheng Lele carried a bag and took two buses to the bar “Ming.”

“Ming” was located behind the commercial street in the north part of the city, finding tranquility amid the bustle. In front of the bar was a small patch of green lawn. Ground lights outlined a narrow, winding path, and at the end of this winding path was the bar. The bar had a Japanese aesthetic. At the entrance hung a small light box with a white background and navy blue shop logo. With just a few strokes, one could tell it was a crowing rooster.

Before she even walked in, Zhong Ming came out to greet her.

Cheng Lele was startled. Zhong Ming’s signature mohawk was gone, replaced by a crew cut with the sides shaved very clean. The string of jingling earrings on his ear had also been removed, leaving only a row of empty piercing holes. If it weren’t for his robust constitution wearing short sleeves that exposed his tattoos, he would have looked like a college student.

Cheng Lele hadn’t seen him for half a year. She looked him up and down and said: “Wow, when you were in school you looked like a thug, and now that you’ve opened a bar, you’ve gone all refined scoundrel. Why do you always refuse to take the conventional path? Before I came, I had already thought up advertising slogans for your shop, but unfortunately now they’re all useless.”

Zhong Ming led her inside, asking: “What slogans? Let me hear them.”

“I have tattoos, I smoke, I run a bar, I curse, but I know I’m a good man.”

“It still works now.”

“No, you’re a good boy now. Saying that would be kind of pretentious.”

“Ming” was a quiet bar, not so noisy. Walking inside, the lighting was dim and ambiguous. In a corner of the bar, a woman in a black dress held a guitar, singing a song in a foreign language. It was hard to tell which country it was from, but it was lazy, lingering, decadent music.

Zhong Ming brought her to the bar counter. The two sat on high stools. Zhong Ming had the bartender pour a glass of soda water, specially served in a whiskey glass with a large, round ice sphere inside.

“It doesn’t make sense not to drink alcohol in a bar. Just put on an act.”

Cheng Lele had originally thought Zhong Ming’s constitution ran hot. Only after entering did she discover it was very warm inside. She took off her jacket, revealing a white short-sleeved T-shirt. When she propped both hands on the counter, half of the tattoo on her arm was exposed.

Zhong Ming glanced at the tattoo and said: “Yours has been around for a while, the color has faded a bit. Let me show you the one I got tattooed a few days ago.”

As he spoke, Zhong Ming rolled up his sleeve to show her: “Look.”

Cheng Lele leaned over to look. In a round circle, there was a big rooster—”Ming’s” shop logo. At first glance, it looked somewhat similar to her tattoo.

She also rolled up her sleeve, and the two arms came together to compare the tattoo designs.

Cheng Lele’s head was right under Zhong Ming’s chin. Zhong Ming disdainfully pushed her head back and said: “We haven’t seen each other in quite a while after all. Isn’t it worth washing your hair before coming to see me?”

“I washed it last night. Maybe the shampoo wasn’t good. Why are you so particular?” Cheng Lele had washed her hair at the hotel. She deliberately stuck her head under his nose again: “Does it smell bad? It’s supposed to be bergamot scent.”

Zhong Ming dodged backward. Seeing that Cheng Lele seemed to be in very high spirits, he couldn’t help asking: “What’s really going on between you and your dear older brother?”

“We made up.”

“That fast?” Although he had already guessed, hearing her personally admit it, Zhong Ming was still inevitably astonished. “You didn’t lay everything out to him, did you?”

Cheng Lele shook her head: “Not that. So many things are in the past. Bringing them up again would just ruin the mood, wouldn’t it?”

Zhong Ming clinked glasses with her noncommittally, the glass making a crisp sound: “So what’s the situation between you two now?”

Cheng Lele blinked: “I’m planning to confess to him in a while.”

Zhong Ming nearly spat out his drink. Cheng Lele handed him a napkin: “Is it really that serious?”

Zhong Ming took it, wiping while saying in a tone full of shock: “You’ve only been back a little over a month, and your situation has turned completely upside down—it’s impressive.”

Cheng Lele laughed: “I also think it’s very miraculous.” She sighed, “But my situation is different from others. Other people naturally come to like someone. My situation, how should I put it, is like a test-tube baby, artificially cultivated rice and such. Although it’s not quite the same as others, you can still see the results.”

Zhong Ming didn’t understand at all and didn’t plan to ask for clarification. He muttered: “If I’d known it would be so easy, you should have done this seven years ago. You wasted all this time for nothing.”

Cheng Lele thought about it: “Not really. Look, test-tube baby technology and artificially cultivated rice are all products of modern technology. You can’t blame ancient people for not doing these things just because we can do them now. Seven years ago, I might not have had this kind of will and determination. I might have given up easily midway. Now both our mental states, backgrounds, and thoughts have all changed, which has made some things possible. What’s that popular saying—everything is the best arrangement.”

Zhong Ming nodded thoughtfully.

The two were silent for a while. Zhong Ming suddenly asked: “Is Qin Rui still bothering you?”

“He sent me WeChat messages when I first came back, but there’s been no activity recently.” Cheng Lele took another sip of water. “Oh right, I’ll transfer you the last loan payment.”

“What’s your hurry?”

“If I don’t pay you back, I’ll be too embarrassed to see you.” Cheng Lele slapped her forehead and took out a small gift bag from by her feet, placing it on the bar counter: “I haven’t shown you the lavish gift I brought yet.”

Zhong Ming said “You didn’t have to bring anything,” but his eyes still lit up.

Zhong Ming took out a box from the gift bag. The box was also wrapped in a layer of blue candy paper, looking quite upscale. “Are you for real, Cheng Lele? Are you trying to borrow money again?”

As he spoke, Zhong Ming unwrapped the packaging and looked inside the box. A thick stack of Starlight Cinema half-price coupons.

Cheng Lele giggled: “Let’s say a movie ticket costs sixty yuan. I’m giving you half price, saving thirty. These are two hundred coupons, which adds up to a value of six thousand. Tell me, isn’t this a lavish gift?”

“Get out of here.” Zhong Ming tugged at her hair, and after tugging, he found her hair smelled bad and viciously flicked her forehead with his finger.

Cheng Lele watched him go from a face full of expectation to a face full of disappointment. She threw her head back and laughed for quite a while. Finally, she wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes and said: “Brother Zhong, I kept feeling something was off, like someone has been staring at us. Look, that beauty singing over there keeps glancing our way.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“I’m saying your romantic fortune is quite abundant.”

“That’s my older sister.”

“Your different-father-different-mother, especially outstanding older sister?”

“Yeah. She’s the bar’s major shareholder.”

Cheng Lele went “tsk tsk tsk” for a long time: “Oh my, this bar is called Ming, has a rooster logo, but I couldn’t tell at all—you’re just a minor shareholder.”

“Don’t talk nonsense.” Zhong Ming’s expression became somewhat uncomfortable. “We’re siblings.”

“Hey, back then who was the one telling me ‘no blood relation, no blood relation, no blood relation’?”

“Back then who was the one so scared they called in the middle of the night only able to yell ‘that’s my older brother, that’s my older brother’?”

Cheng Lele lowered her eyes and smiled: “Hey, what can I say? I’d seen too little of the world back then.” She held her cup and jerked her chin toward the distance. “I’m being stared at—what’s that idiom—like a thorn in my back. I’ll make a bathroom escape. When I come back, you tell me properly what resources you have on hand.”

As she spoke, Cheng Lele got down from the high stool and walked toward the bathroom.

Cheng Lele’s intuition wasn’t wrong. During the time she was chatting with Zhong Ming, someone had been staring at her. But besides that beautiful guitar-playing older sister, there was someone else.