Lin Qile hadn't seen Yu Qiao for a long time. When they had a quarrel, it was the summer vacation after the freshman year. In the blink of an eye, a year and a half had passed before Yu Qiao came back.
This was a bit strange in itself. Lin Qile and Huang Zhanjie were chatting while queuing at the entrance of Nanjing Dapaidang. She saw Yu Qiao coming over from the crowd in the mall. Yu Qiao was carrying a few bags, which were new school bags and new shoes bought for his little cousin Yu Jin.
Lin Qile had known him since kindergarten, they played and quarreled every day, how could they suddenly become so awkward for no reason? Lin Qile couldn't figure it out. Today, she couldn't remember what she was struggling and distressed about every day when she was a freshman.
Huang Zhanjie walked out of the team and greeted Yu Qiao from a distance. "Captain Yu!" Huang Zhanjie said exaggeratedly and went over to shake hands.
Yu Qiao smiled and said, "Writer Huang!" He turned his head and glanced at Lin Qile, "Teacher Lin!"
Lin Qile smiled and shook hands seriously: "Hello, Captain Yu!"
Boss Cai Fangyuan arrived a little late. He said that he was at home late last night working on the website launch. He was too busy with the studio business and did not get up this morning.
Doctor Du Shangdu arrived even later. He just returned to the provincial capital for the day off. He had planned to bring his girlfriend with him, but his girlfriend went home temporarily, so Du Shang had to come alone for dinner.
"Why didn't Qin Yeyun come?" Du Shang ate some pickled pepper chicken nuggets.
Cai Fangyuan said: "Qin Yeyun is getting married soon and doesn't want to stick with Yu Qiao anymore, so she won't come."
Yu Qiao didn't make any noise, and Du Shang was shocked: "Marriage?!"
Cai Fangyuan gloated: "Yu Qiao was even nominated to attend the wedding." He glanced at Yu Qiao and said: "You didn't tell them?"
Huang Zhanjie asked Lin Qile what the difference was between Beijing roast duck and Nanjing roast duck. Lin Qile ate the roast duck and shook his head, saying, "I don't know, but they're both delicious."
Huang Zhanjie looked at her and said, "You have been in Beijing for three years, but you don't know much about Beijing's cultural traditions."
Lin Qile raised his eyes and asked quietly: "Huang Zhanjie, how much money can you make every month writing novels now?"
Huang Zhanjie's eyes suddenly turned evil and charming: "What are you doing?"
Lin Qile smiled and said, "Let me ask."
Huang Zhanjie put his hand under the table and gestured a number.
Lin Qile said: "Five hundred?"
"Five thousand." Huang Zhanjie said.
"Oh my god..." Lin Qile didn't dare to shout loudly. She was surprised and asked, "So many?"
When she was in high school, life was very simple. All she had to do was study hard and get good grades. But now that she is getting closer to adult society, Lin Qile feels that the gap between her and her friends is getting bigger and bigger.
"When I was doing my internship, I asked the teacher at the kindergarten," Lin Qile said at the dinner table, "She said that even in the better kindergartens in Beijing, teachers who have just graduated for a few years can only make 2,000 to 3,000 yuan."
Huang Zhanjie said: "That's impossible, you are from a 985 university!"
Lin Qile said: "Really, they teach children anyway, and I feel that they don't care much about academic qualifications... My senior sisters don't want to do this job, it's very tiring, and they can't support themselves..."
Du Shang ate some sweet-scented osmanthus cake and shook his head, saying, "How tiring it is to teach children? I thought our profession was hard enough and the pay was low enough."
Cai Fangyuan took Lin Qile's small porcelain bowl and helped her scoop the newly served Meiling porridge. "Don't worry," he said, "your partner earns a lot of money, let him support you in the future!"
Before Lin Qile could speak, Huang Zhanjie asked from the side: "Did Lin Qile find a partner in college?"
Cai Fangyuan said: "No, it's still that person, Jiang Qiaoxi!"
Huang Zhanjie was stunned: "Ah?"
Only a few old friends in the headquarters community knew that Lin Qile went to Hong Kong to find Jiang Qiaoxi during the National Day this year. Huang Zhanjie stared with wide eyes. After hearing about Lin Qile's experience from Cai Fangyuan, he lowered his head, picked up his phone and started typing. "What are you doing!" Lin Qile said.
"I-I-I will write down my inspiration." Huang Zhanjie said with his head down, and was punched by Lin Qile.
"Jiang Qiaoxi is in Hong Kong and has passed the interview with Morgan Stanley," Cai Fangyuan said with emotion, "My dad even said today that he will have to start with an annual salary of one million in the future!"
"What is Dalmatian?" Duchamp was puzzled.
Cai Fangyuan said: "If God wants financing, he will also look for Morgan Stanley!"
After finishing their meal, the group went to the cinema to watch Let the Bullets Fly. Lin Qile sat between Du Shang and Yu Qiao. She drank Coke and ate a bucket of popcorn. Du Shang and Yu Qiao took popcorn from the bucket she was holding while watching the movie. It was not until someone in the movie had their intestines cut out that Lin Qile threw the popcorn into Du Shang's hands.
Yu Qiao glanced at her from the side and said silently, "What a courage."
Coming out of the cinema, it was snowing outside. Before leaving, Huang Zhanjie talked to Lin Qile about his old schoolmate: "Feng Letian seems to be planning to take the civil service exam!"
Lin Qile put on his gloves and asked in surprise, "He really wants to be the president of the country?"
Huang Zhanjie shrugged and smiled: "No, I have to go first. I'm afraid it will snow heavily soon!"
"Goodbye!" Lin Qile raised his hand and waved at him.
Four people, the little "Gang of Four", were waiting for a taxi on the roadside in the provincial capital.
Cai Fangyuan lowered his head and swiped his phone, which was his newly bought iPhone 4. Du Shang stretched his head to look from the side.
"I feel like there's no difference between this phone and a computer," Duchamp said with emotion.
Cai Fangyuan frowned and said, "I was thinking about this today. Who would want to carry a computer that heavy if they have this..."
Cai Fangyuan was standing on the roadside and making a phone call to someone in his studio, saying that he would have a meeting in the evening to discuss making mobile phone software. It was said that people all over the world were using iPhones now.
"Are you going to Hong Kong to celebrate the New Year?" Yu Qiao put his hands in his pockets and asked Lin Qile.
Lin Qile stepped on the curb and nodded.
"Aren't you sticking to your parents all day long?" Yu Qiao said.
Lin Qile smiled and said, "We'll stick together again after we get back."
She didn't explain what she was waiting for.
Yu Qiao raised his head and looked at the snowflakes falling from the sky. He stretched out his hands, but he was wearing black gloves and could not catch the snow. The snow melted as soon as it fell into his hands.
"Is Canada very cold?" Lin Qile asked, looking up.
"It's okay." Yu Qiao said.
Cai Fangyuan got a taxi from the intersection ahead and turned back to call them. Yu Qiao reached out and rubbed Lin Qile's hair, rubbing all the snowflakes that his gloves hadn't caught into Lin Qile's hair. Lin Qile lowered his head and raised his neck again, hitting him from behind.
Lin Qile returned home and agreed with Qin Yeyun to meet tomorrow. She fell on the bed, without taking off her coat, and lay quietly for a long time. The cat came in from the living room, jumped onto the bed sheet, and snuggled in Lin Qile's arms.
Jiang Qiaoxi said: "What's wrong?"
Lin Qile choked up, holding back tears: "Every time after a party, when I saw Cai Fangyuan, Yu Qiao, Du Shang and Huang Zhanjie, I felt... so sad..."
Jiang Qiaoxi was silent for a while. He listened to Lin Qile's sobbing on the other end of the phone. He asked softly, "How is the luggage packed?"
Lin Qile cried for a while, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. She sat up and walked to the kitchen. She smiled and asked, "My mother has just steamed some jujube flour buns. How many do you want me to take?"
Qi Le, a high school junior, sent a text message to ask whether Rongrong had returned to the provincial capital during the winter break: "I haven't seen you for a long time since graduation. I just saw you on campus. Do you have time to go out for dinner?"
When Lin Qile saw the text message, she was sitting in McDonald's, drinking a milkshake and listening to Qin Yeyun talking about her boyfriend proposing to her. Lin Qile replied, "Sorry, I don't have time" and put the phone in her pocket.
"And you decided to get married?" she asked.
"No." Qin Yeyun said.
Lin Qile was stunned.
"But I told Uncle Yu," Qin Yeyun said, "my dad's legs aren't in good condition anyway, and if I get married someday, I can't wear a wedding dress and go to support my dad. Uncle Yu said, let Yu Qiao go and be my brother at the wedding!"
She said this with a smug look on her face and seemed to care nothing about her marriage.
Lin Qile said: "Your boyfriend must love you very much, otherwise why would he propose to you when you are only a junior in college?"
Qin Yeyun smiled and said, "He doesn't love me very much, he's just been spoiled by his family. His mental age is too young and he's childish to death."
Qin Yeyun took Lin Qile shopping and talked about her other boyfriends while they were shopping.
"Anything else?" Lin Qile said.
Qin Yeyun reached out and pulled up a sweater and took a look: "As for boyfriends, there's no such thing as too many."
"Men are all the same. They want you to be like an angel and a lady. If you can take care of him like his mother, he will propose to you," Qin Yeyun said. "There is a woman in our dormitory. She is usually big and strong and laughs in front of us, but she changes her appearance in front of men. It was only after I met her that I realized that I took men too seriously before."
Lin Qile suddenly recalled that on her 19th birthday in the second semester of her freshman year, Qin Yeyun cried on the phone all night.
Because Yu Qiao formally rejected her during dinner.
"You think Yu Qiao is so great," Qin Yeyun suddenly said. The diamonds on her nails could easily scratch the silk pajamas in her hands. She loosened her hands. "I think it's not difficult to take him down now. Just like my sister, add something to his wine, right? Has Yu Qiao seen this kind of posture? If anything happens, I will tell Uncle Yu. With Uncle Yu's temper, do you think Yu Qiao can still escape?"
Lin Qile looked at her.
"But it's not necessary." Qin Yeyun's tone suddenly softened. She shook her head, as if she just said it out loud to make herself feel good and relieve her anger. "With Yu Qiao, there's no need to do that..."
Lin Qile hesitated for a while: "I think... you should find someone you like and who also truly likes you, so that you can get married in the future."
Qin Yeyun said helplessly: "I want to, you know, but the reality is, the more men you meet, the more men you sleep with, the more you will find that there is no one who is particularly sincere. In fact, everyone is the same, married, not married, with friends, no one, in fact, no one can get what they want. It seems that I have this boyfriend or that boyfriend, but in fact, they are with me just to fill the void that cannot be obtained by each other."
"But you," Qin Yeyun stood behind Lin Qile, holding the two straps of her silk nightgown in her hands, gesturing in front of Lin Qile, she looked in the mirror, "you silly girl, you are about to sleep with your first man."
Lin Qile's face turned red, especially when he looked in the mirror, he didn't dare to speak.
Being considered as a success by Lin Qile is a major event in life, the most important threshold at the age of 20. But in Qin Yeyun's words, it is as common as eating a meal and drinking a glass of water.
Qin Yeyun said: "I hope he is also your last one."
"I don't think he really dislikes my old nightgown..." Lin Qile said as she paid the bill. Qin Yeyun thought her old nightgown was something only elementary school students would wear.
Qin Yeyun said: "It's possible, Jiang Qiaoxi may like your type, why don't you take them all with you."
Lin Qile's face turned even redder. They were discussing something so purposeful. She held the paper bag and continued to shop in the lingerie store with Qin Yeyun.
"I bought a new nightgown, new underwear, and perfume," Qin Yeyun said as she sat in a booth and drank black tea, "but I didn't buy shampoo and body lotion!"
"Shampoo?" Lin Qile said.
"Yes," Qin Yeyun lifted her hair, "When your hair is all loose and you sweat so much, he will definitely smell the scent of your hair. Buy a bottle of super-smelling shampoo, he won't be able to help but keep smelling it! He will think, wow, I love this woman so much, why does she smell so good, this is pheromone!"
Lin Qile used to think that men in romance movies liked to smell a woman’s hair just because they liked her.
Now that I think about it, it seems to be because of the shampoo.
"Do you want to buy it or not?" Qin Yeyun asked.
"Yes!" Lin Qile answered immediately without even thinking about it.
By the time they finished their afternoon stroll, it was almost dark. Qin Yeyun walked on the side of the road, her high heels tapping on the ground. Her boyfriend in the provincial capital was coming to pick her up.
"The first time..." Qin Yeyun looked at the snow on the roadside and recalled, "I was actually very nervous at the time and wanted to cry."
"Does it hurt a lot?" Lin Qile asked anxiously.
Qin Yeyun blinked and suddenly smiled. She said, "At that time, I thought, hey, how nice it would be if he was Yu Qiao."
Two young women in their twenties, standing close together, both laughing.
"It feels like that," Qin Yeyun threw her purse over her shoulder and said, "Protecting a man's self-esteem is a compulsory course for every woman. But sometimes it's instinct. When you see someone smiling at you, you will smile at him too. When you see how hard he is trying, you feel embarrassed to be too perfunctory, right?"
Lin Qile didn't understand what she said. Qin Yeyun lowered his head and asked, "Hey, have you seen Jiang Qiaoxi..."
Her voice became smaller and smaller, and she whispered into Lin Qile's ear.
Lin Qile's face turned even redder: "No!! How... could we meet..."
Qin Yeyun said: "You lived in his house in Hong Kong, didn't you see him? Didn't you notice him through his pants?"
Lin Qile didn't know if all grown-up girls would start talking about this kind of thing when they got together to chat. Qin Yeyun repeatedly told her to start taking birth control pills in advance: "The condom may be tight or loose, what if I really get pregnant?"
Lin Qile blushed and nodded quickly.
Qin Yeyun's boyfriend in the provincial capital parked his car on the side of the road and honked at them.
Qin Yeyun turned around and waved towards the car.
"Lin Yingtao," she looked at her and said to her, "You used to run from the mountains to the provincial capital, and now you're running from the provincial capital to Hong Kong..." Qin Yeyun suddenly paused, lowered her head, took a deep breath for a while, and suddenly hugged Lin Qile, "You and Jiang Qiaoxi, you must be happy," she patted her back hard and choked, "If a woman wants to mess with you, tell me, I'll tear her face apart!"
Lin Qile burst into tears all of a sudden. Holding the things in her hands, she hugged Qin Yeyun's waist tightly.
When she got home in the evening, Lin Qile took out the things she bought and looked at them, then packed them into boxes. She was going to Hong Kong the day after tomorrow, and she wanted to seize the time to spend more time at home with her parents and do something for them.
Mom was sewing a quilt on the big bed in the master bedroom.
"Your eldest aunt made a quilt for you and said she would use it when you got married," said my mother. "At that time, I thought my little girl was only a little old. Now I see that she is already 20 years old."
Lin Qile raised her head beside the bed and found a few white hairs on her mother's temples.
"Today, many aunties in the neighborhood asked me," said my mother, "Why did Cherry go to Hong Kong to celebrate the New Year?"
Lin Qile pursed his lips.
In the state-owned enterprise compound, there are no secrets between households.
"I said, Yingtao and her boyfriend went to Hong Kong to play!" Mom laughed, "I was embarrassed to say it was Qiaoxi..."
Lin Qile shouted: "Mom..."
She leaned over and put her arms around her mother's shoulders.
Lin Qile usually studied away from home, far from the compound, but she could imagine how many people had watched her and Jiang Qiaoxi's journey from the mountains to the provincial capital. Especially after Jiang Qiaoxi gave up his admission to Tsinghua University, he disappeared, his parents divorced and moved away, and Jiang Zheng was no longer a leader here.
Lin Qile doesn't care what others think of her. She has been a negative example of "don't fall in love too early" for almost ten years. But her mother cares about her daughter very much, especially since Cherry has grown up so much.
"Cherry," said her mother, as if she didn't know how to talk to her daughter, "If Qiaoxi is still the same as before, we can just... let it go... and just be friends with him..."
Lin Qile pressed his cheek against his mother's ear: "He is very good to me..."
"Really?" asked Mom.
Lin Qile lowered his eyes. His mother didn't use a particularly nice-smelling shampoo, but Lin Qile still missed her scent very much.
"If he treats me badly, I will go home," Lin Qile said. "I'm really not stupid."
Lin Qile wrapped himself in a down jacket at night, holding a lunch box in his hand, crossed the road in front of the community gate, and braved the cold wind to deliver steamed buns to Uncle Yu and Uncle Cai's homes across the street. Cai Fangyuan asked Lin Qile to send Jiang Qiaoxi's detailed address to him when he arrived in Hong Kong: "I asked him on QQ, why didn't he reply?"
Lin Qile said: "Maybe he is in the hospital, I didn't see him."
Cai Fangyuan nodded: "It's still hard to find this person. I want to ask him to help me buy a few mobile phones. Please ask him for me when you go there."
Yu Qiao's younger cousin Yu Jin is in the second year of junior high school this year. His uncle and aunt were not at home, and Yu Qiao was reluctantly tutoring Yu Jin at the dining table. When he saw Lin Qile coming, he pushed his cousin and put down his pen: "Ask your teacher Lin to teach you about Chinese reading."
Yu Qiao went to the living room to watch the football game on TV. Lin Qile frowned, and was called "Sister Cherry" by Yu Jin. She had no choice but to take off her gloves and sit down to explain the remaining half of the Chinese test paper to Yu Jin.
"Sister Cherry." Yu Jin looked at her.
"Do you understand everything?" After Lin Qile finished speaking, she put on her gloves and prepared to leave.
"Brother likes you, do you know?" Yu Jin suddenly said as he watched her stand up.
When Lin Qile came out of Yu Qiao's house, the ball game in the living room was still playing very loudly. Yu Qiao had been fascinated by watching football since she was a child. Lin Qile went downstairs and walked forward under the street lights on a winter night.
"Is it fun?"
Someone called her from behind.
Lin Qile turned his head away.
It’s Xin Tingting, my classmate at the South Campus back then.
Xin Tingting was too nervous in the college entrance examination in 2008 and performed poorly, and finally only passed the third-tier line. Lin Qile heard from her parents that Xin Tingting's parents blamed her for "premature love" during the critical period of her senior year in high school and asked her to repeat the year. Xin Tingting refused to study at first, but later she softened and repeated the year and was admitted to a local second-tier financial university, majoring in accounting.
Lin Qile walked over and spoke to her in a low voice in the white mist.
“I don’t like this major,” said Xin Tingting, who cut her hair short. “My mom chose it anyway.”
Lin Qile said in embarrassment: "I chose my major myself, but..." She smiled bitterly and told Xin Tingting about her internship experience again.
"Is it really that tragic?" Xin Tingting asked.
"Yeah." Lin Qile nodded.
"Then what are you going to do?" Xin Tingting asked.
"I chose it myself," Lin Qile lowered his head and said, "I insisted on it myself."
"I'm with him."
"Who?" Lin Qile asked.
"It was our class league secretary," Xin Tingting whispered, as if afraid to be overheard. "He waited for me for a year, the year I repeated a grade. After I finished my exams, he confessed his love to me, and I agreed."
Lin Qile nodded vigorously, very happy for her.
"I didn't contact you before," Xin Tingting looked at her apologetically, "When I was in my third year of high school, Jiang Qiaoxi passed away suddenly. People in the community were talking about you crying alone on the street. I knew you were very sad, but my parents wouldn't let me go look for you. I've always felt guilty."
Lin Qile shook his head, that was a long time ago.
"By the way," Xin Tingting said, "I heard that Jiang Qiaoxi is now studying at the University of Hong Kong and seems to be working as a tutor. Do you know Qi Le?"
Lin Qile neither shook his head nor nodded.
Xin Tingting said: "A few girls from South Campus are planning to go to Hong Kong as a group during this winter vacation, and they want to look for him while they're there."
Lin Qile said: "What do you want to see him for?"
Xin Tingting said: "Isn't there such a famous male idol in our high school class of 2005? How many girls had a crush on him back then... They probably wanted to have dinner with him, and they asked me about it. I said Jiang Qiaoxi's parents had moved away a long time ago and no longer lived in our community."
"Qile, are you in love now?"
Lin Qile thought about it and nodded to her.
Xin Tingting breathed a sigh of relief, as if she was happy for Lin Qile.
Lin Qile pulled her suitcase out of the gate. She saw him at first sight among the crowd in the airport reception hall.
As the New Year approaches, Hong Kong International Airport is filled with reunited families, lovers, and friends. Of course, there are also many more people facing separation and about to embark on a long journey alone.
Jiang Qiaoxi was wearing a light grey coat. He opened his arms and hugged Lin Qile tightly.
The author has something to say: －－－－－－－－
Notes to this chapter:
* "Let the Bullets Fly": A feature film directed by Jiang Wen and starring Jiang Wen, Chow Yun-fat, Ge You, Carina Lau, Chen Kun, Zhou Yun, Liao Fan, Jiang Wu and others. It was released in mainland China on December 16, 2010.