I had sent Zhou Ting a long message. The central content was that we weren’t suitable for each other.

Most simply, at least for the next four or five years, I would be busy with this company. I couldn’t have children. Actually, I also didn’t feel I necessarily had to have children in this lifetime.

Zhou Ting didn’t reply.

The next day, he sent me WeChat messages as usual, sharing jokes, good morning and good night.

This was one of Zhou Ting’s characteristics—he habitually skipped over problems. For example, after parting unhappily with his parents, he didn’t try to talk it through with me clearly either. He just acted as if nothing had happened and continued chatting with me.

I didn’t reply anymore. Cruel as it sounds, we had only gotten in contact for the purpose of marriage. If marriage wasn’t possible, there was no need to force maintaining contact.

—Even to be friends, we needed to speak everything through clearly first. This kind of ambiguous contact wasn’t good for either of us.

When I went to see him, I thought he had probably figured things out and wanted to make things clear with me.

But what I didn’t expect was that when I opened that barbecue restaurant’s private room door, there were many people inside.

“Yo, Ren Dongxue, does the great beauty still remember me?”

One greasy-faced man came up, asking with a cold laugh.

I thought for a moment and recognized him as my vocational high school classmate, something like He Qiang.

I looked at Zhou Ting. He lowered his head, sitting there without saying a word.

“Zhou Ting, what does this mean? A class reunion?” I said.

He Qiang brazenly lit a cigarette and said, “You can break up with my brother, but you need to speak clearly. You know?”

I stood at the private room door and smiled, “What do you mean by speak clearly?”

“Spending my brother’s money, about to get engaged and married, then going to Fengcheng to get a hotel room with another man, right? Ren Dongxue, you play around quite a bit!”

My heart jumped. My first reaction was, how would they know?

But I didn’t respond. I still looked at Zhou Ting and said, “Zhou Ting, is this what you think too?”

Zhou Ting lowered his head and said, “I just want to know why you suddenly stopped being with me. They said you were playing me…”

“What else could it be but climbing up to a higher branch?” He Qiang said, “Seeing my brother is honest, you treat him like a monkey? I’ve seen plenty of gold-diggers like you.”

Echoing voices and laughter came from around the room.

The private room was filled with heavy cigarette stench mixed with the charcoal smell of grilled skewers. I stared fixedly at Zhou Ting, remembering when we first met, how he blushed when he smiled, how he told me he had liked me since high school.

An indescribable nausea rose in my heart.

Sure enough, you can’t harbor any illusions about men. Those beautiful images now seemed crawling with maggots.

I asked, “So what do you want?”

He Qiang said, “You make it clear—did you sleep with that guy or not? If you did, kowtow and apologize to my brother! Return all the money you spent!”

Zhou Ting tugged at him and was pushed aside.

I let out a long sigh. Amid their insults and clamor, I sat down without saying a word.

It wasn’t that I had nothing to say, but in this situation, whatever I said would be meaningless.

“Didn’t she always run around in high school? Used-up trash!”

“Treated my brother like Pleasant Goat! If you don’t make things clear today, don’t even think about leaving!”

They really hadn’t made any progress all these years.

Before they were a group of vocational high school students pretending to be gangsters collecting protection money.

Now they were a group of ordinary security guards, delivery drivers, construction day laborers… trying hard to play the mafia.

I had actually thought Zhou Ting was different from them.

I sat there, waiting quietly. Ten minutes later, a commotion came from outside. The barbecue shop owner was yelling hoarsely, “Which private room are you from! Don’t force your way in!”

The private room door was kicked open. Old Zhao brought in a group of people—foremen who had worked under me at Mr. Wang’s place. After I started my business, I had agreed with him to come work for me.

“Director Ren.” He called out, standing beside me with a fierce expression on his face.

He Qiang and the others panicked, clamoring non-stop, “What are you doing! I’ll report you! Don’t get violent!”

“I don’t want to do anything. Didn’t you want to talk? Now we can speak.”

When I was surrounded by a group of people with no ability to fight back, the words I spoke had no meaning either.

I took out my phone, pulled up a bank account screenshot, and placed it on the table, “Do I need to spend anyone’s money?”

Those men craned their necks to look. Their expressions immediately changed. They looked at me, then at Zhou Ting.

Zhou Ting said, “I didn’t say you spent my money…”

I said, “But you just think that I latched onto someone richer, so you found all these people to give you courage and get justice for you.”

Zhou Ting’s face flushed red. He stopped speaking.

He Qiang shouted from the side, “What are you acting all high and mighty for! Got a few dirty bucks, who do you think you are! Who do you think would still marry you! Used-up trash!”

“Watch your fucking mouth!” Old Zhao shouted over at him, but I stopped him.

I stared at He Qiang until his eyes started dodging.

“Zhou Ting and I were on blind dates. We never confirmed a relationship. The only reason I gave up on him was because I don’t like him. Now there’s a second reason.”

Before I got up to open the door, I looked at Zhou Ting one last time and said, “I look down on you.”

That day I gave Old Zhao and the others each a five-hundred yuan red envelope. They were all honest, down-to-earth workers. Though they stood there seemingly expressionless at the time, they were actually scared to death, legs cramping.

I thought this matter was over.

After the New Year, I smoothly signed the rental contract, completed company registration and tax registration on my own, and began renovations.

Yu Shixuan brought her team over to work.

Bao Long also brought people over and became vice president directly under me.

The company name was “Lifei Construction.” After all, the first project had the theme of a carp leaping over the dragon gate. “Li” is “fish,” “Fei” refers to “flying snow.” So it barely counted as having both our names.

Just when everything was proceeding in an orderly fashion, a post online blew up.

It told the story of how the poster’s friend had devotedly loved a girl for many years, then the girl, greedy for vanity, ultimately became a plaything of a second-generation official.

The girl’s photo in the post was pixelated, but people who knew her could still tell it was my face.

They thought that if my reputation was ruined, I couldn’t get married, which would be a tremendous blow to me.

But what could I do? I just found it funny.

I had too many things to do and didn’t pay attention. I thought this kind of thing would die down after a while.

But what I didn’t expect was that the person who ended up getting doxxed was Cheng Xia.

“Second-generation official” was really too sensitive a label, especially when Cheng Xia was also the protagonist of a certain hot incident.

His mother’s matter was dug up once again.

“The manager who embezzled laid-off workers’ money and got killed.”

“The victims were so miserable, yet he still cries injustice for his mother.”

“So he’s used to bullying others with power, going to steal other people’s girlfriends?”

For a time, people investigated his family background, his education, his social media.

Someone commented, “Doesn’t anyone think he’s quite handsome? Why would he steal someone else’s girlfriend?”

One comment was pushed to the top:

“He has problems. My friend dated him before and discovered he has particularly serious mental illness. When he has episodes, it’s really scary. She was so frightened she broke up with him immediately. I heard he’s a university teacher now. Can really anyone become a university teacher?”

I didn’t go online much. It was Yu Shixuan who called to tell me that I learned the online chaos had reached the point where many people were reporting Cheng Xia’s father.

At dawn, South-North University posted a Weibo: In view of recent public opinion issues, Teacher Cheng Xia’s teaching work will be suspended.

In the spring night rain, my hands and feet were frozen through.

He had depression. He had bipolar disorder. He said he was cured, but we both knew clearly that these could only be controlled with medication. There was no such thing as complete cure.

He was a patient.

Three years ago, that pale, frantic him jumping into the deep black sea appeared repeatedly in my mind.

Those rumor-mongers, I wouldn’t let any of them go. All of them, just wait for court!

I shakily lit a cigarette, letting my furious emotions calm down, then called Cheng Xia.

His phone was off.

The rain poured down. At first I held an umbrella, but later I couldn’t hold it steady anymore. My hair was completely soaked.

I finally ran to Cheng Xia’s home. The guard wouldn’t let me in. At first I tried to reason with him, but finally I just went crazy, shouting at him, “My friend is in trouble! Can you take responsibility!”

The guard was frightened by my ghost-like expression and followed me to Cheng Xia’s home. We knocked on the door for a long time. No one opened it.

All bad thoughts emerged. I imagined him sinking to the bottom of the bathtub. I imagined him taking sleeping pills. I imagined him using a knife to cut his wrists… My heart was tightly clutched. I didn’t know what to do.

The door suddenly opened. It was Cheng Xia’s father. He was bleary-eyed. Seeing me, he was very surprised, “Dongxue, what’s wrong with you?”

I said, “Uncle, where’s Cheng Xia? Why isn’t he answering his phone?”

“Ah, he left his phone at home and went out to buy breakfast.”

“Where did he go to buy breakfast?”

“Old Xu’s Wonton Shop, the one near the market street. What’s wrong?”

I turned and ran. His father shouted from behind, “Dongxue, child, take an umbrella!”

The sky gradually brightened. I ran past the breakfast stall frying dough sticks, past office workers waiting for the bus, past the dense traffic in the rain, past those yawning high school students.

I needed to see Cheng Xia, a safe and sound Cheng Xia.

I finally ran to the entrance of Xu’s Wonton Shop. This was an old establishment in our city. Many elderly people loved to eat there, so there was a very, very long queue.

I went to look one by one, but there was no Cheng Xia. I couldn’t find him no matter how I looked.

Just when I was about to cry from anxiety, an earth-shattering loud noise, like thunder right by my ear.

Everyone was startled. In the distance, in the construction site that was surrounded, yellow smoke filled the air. Old buildings were collapsing with a rumble.

It was demolition. The old building complex on Market Street was being torn down.

“So scary, why such a huge commotion!” The crowd began chattering and discussing.

“Should have been torn down long ago. I didn’t even dare walk under those old buildings.”

I looked there in bewilderment—the old street where I used to hop between houses, the bustling market, the old factory buildings marked with the character for “demolish” for over a decade, were actually collapsing before my eyes.

“Dongxue?”

A voice came from behind me. I turned around and saw Cheng Xia.

He was just like when we first met, especially upright, especially clean, so clean he was incompatible with this messy environment.

He wore a white hoodie, earphones in his ears, looking at me puzzled: “You’re here to buy wontons too?”

I walked toward him, remembering that many years ago, I had also walked toward him like this.

“Can I have your QQ? I’d really like to get to know you.” Ren Dongxue from fourteen years ago had said this to him.

“Why aren’t you holding an umbrella? Don’t catch a cold.” He tilted the umbrella toward the top of my head.

I suddenly rushed toward him, hugging him tightly into my arms. His body carried the same citrus scent as always, mixed with the moist and icy smell of rainwater.

The rain grew heavier and heavier. We stood at the entrance of No. 1 High School sheltering from the rain. Many, many years ago, he had also worn ugly school uniforms like these kids, and I would sneak in to find him.

“So you were worried I would… commit suicide?” He was amused by me, “Don’t worry, I need to keep my life to be with Dongxue!”

I didn’t laugh. I said, “The matter with Zhou Ting, I didn’t handle it well. I’ve caused trouble for you and Uncle.”

“The old man is about to retire, doesn’t care about these things.” He said, “I care even less. If I get fired by the school, I’ll come work at your company. You wouldn’t refuse me, would you?”

…His relaxed attitude about career was something I could never catch up to in several lifetimes.

He looked at the dripping rain from the eaves and suddenly said:

“These three years, I’ve taken medication every day, seen doctors all over the world, tried all kinds of unorthodox treatment methods—yoga, studying Buddhism, even electroshock therapy… all for this day, when you need me, so I can return to your side.”

I looked at him in surprise. I had always thought he had just been busy with his studies these three years.

“I’m a very weak person. Investigating the truth for my mother—didn’t find it out, got depression. Loved architecture, got hit by clients, doubted myself, gave up on everything. See, I’ve always given up on a better life because of weakness.” He smiled self-deprecatingly, “But I also have something I absolutely don’t want to give up, and that’s you.”

“When we broke up, it was because I didn’t want you to be affected by me and become an anxious and depressed person too. But later I regretted it! I went crazy wanting to return to your side. I wanted to be with you.” He sighed, “But I couldn’t.”

“I couldn’t let you take care of me. When something happened, I would go crazy first. If I wanted you, I had to be a normal person.”

His eyes reflected the sunlight, as clean and brilliant as that Cheng Xia from the beginning: “It was you who gave me strength, let me know I don’t have to live muddleheaded. I can live my most beloved life.”

I let out a long breath and smiled, “What does your most beloved life look like? Le Corbusier?”

“Being with you.” He looked up and smiled, “And being an architect for life, in whatever form.”

He asked again, “What about you?”

I said, “Building houses that can bring people happiness, then achieving financial freedom.”

How wonderful—those ignorant teenagers from back then had finally grown into adults who could bear wind and rain on their own.

How wonderful—we came from two different classes, bearing completely different fates and pains, but now, we both had goals worth achieving and directions to stride forward in.

How wonderful—after all these years, still by each other’s side.

Cheng Xia suddenly jumped up, “Oh no, my dad is still at home waiting for my wontons!”

“Ah right, you didn’t bring your phone! He still can’t reach you!”

He quickly ran forward a few steps, then stopped and turned back, extending his hand: “Let’s go! Dongxue!”

Sunlight hit the puddles, colorful and brilliant. The spring breeze blew willow catkins, lifting the hem of his clothes, carrying a warm breath that swept past the tips of my hair.

Yes, the rain had stopped. Dongxue was going to stride forward!