The sun is shining brightly in winter.
He Jinxi sat by the window in the cafe. She could get some sun and see all the customers coming in and out. When the waiter passed by, he asked her again if she wanted to order. She said, "I'm waiting for someone. Come along."
After a while, she looked at her watch and found that the other party was twenty minutes late for unknown reasons.
She was a little annoyed and picked up her phone to post a Weibo: Damn, was I stood up
She was about to leave in anger, but then she remembered that she hadn't ordered anything. If she just left like that, she didn't know how many cold stares she would get from the waiter. So she opened the drinks menu and ordered a cup of flower and fruit tea.
At this moment, a sports car ostentatiously stopped by the roadside, and a man wearing sunglasses got out. He walked straight into the cafe and looked around. There were not many people in the cafe, and the only single female customer was He Jinxi, so the man walked straight up to He Jinxi without hesitation and asked, "Ms. He?"
He Jinxi looked at the man dressed like a peacock and asked, "Mr. Zhan?"
"Yes." The man responded and sat down.
Ten minutes later, the two went their separate ways. He Jinxi immediately reported the result of the blind date to her cousin.
"that's all?"
"What else can I do?" she asked.
She hadn't had much hope at first. How could he be interested in a magazine writer like her who had no food to eat? Seeing him today, she felt that it was all just a boast. He was just a playboy, but she didn't even look down on him. He Jinxi never took this matter to heart again, because the deadline was approaching again. The editor sent her text messages, WeChat, and QQ messages every day to urge her to submit the manuscript. She had no choice but to stay at home for a week without going out.
On the day of submitting the manuscript, my cousin sent me another text message:
I saw Zhan Dongzhen in person today. How could he be like what you described
He Jinxi's cousin had a high school classmate who was a subordinate of this man named Zhan. Every day he tried different ways to introduce girlfriends to his boss and asked around for unmarried young women with a clean background. One day, he finally asked He Jinxi.
She scrolled down and saw a photo. The person in the photo was wearing a black suit jacket and dark brown pants. Although the shadow was a little far away and couldn't be seen clearly, it was definitely not the person she had a blind date with a few days ago.
She replied: Is this him
My cousin quickly replied: Isn’t that him you saw
Seeing this line, He Jinxi was immediately furious. When had she ever been looked down upon like this in her life? What a cat-for-a-prince, bullshit! She had always been a hot-tempered person. No matter if the other party was an editor or a reader, she would rather fight to the death than suffer in silence. She immediately dialed the phone number of Zhan Dongzhen that her cousin's classmate had left last time.
The first time, the other party hung up after two rings. She called again, and was treated the same way. This treatment made her even angrier, and she almost spit fire. How could someone be so disrespectful? What's so great about having a few stinky coins? So, He Jinxi gritted her teeth and called for the third time. This time, the other party finally answered.
"Hello..." A very low male voice came from the other end of the receiver, and the background sound was also extremely quiet.
But He Jinxi was already furious, and she didn't care about anything else. She scolded the other party for four or five minutes, and then hung up the phone without saying anything. After scolding, she turned off the phone and threw it directly on the sofa. Later, she found that she felt much more comfortable, even the air in the room became fresher, and the flowers and plants became more delicate and lovely. So mental illness is caused by repression.
She suddenly got inspired and put the name Zhan Dongzhen in her novel, making him a wretched, alcoholic, and womanizing man who eventually lost all his wealth. "I will make sure you never get love, be cannon fodder, beg for food, and be worse than an ordinary person." She said to herself proudly while revising the outline of the article.
In this way, she spent the day happily and fulfillingly.
The next day was the weekend, and her cousin suddenly asked her out of the blue to have dinner with him. But when she arrived at the destination, it was not her cousin who was waiting for her, but a man.
"He Jinxi?" The man sat on the sofa, did not get up, but said her name with a smile.
"it's me."
"I'm Zhan Dongzhen."
"Which number is this?" She didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"Guaranteed genuine." He smiled again and called the waiter to place our order.
He Jinxi was too lazy to be polite with him. She pointed at the most expensive and rare things that she was usually curious about but couldn't afford to order and ordered them all. After she was half full, she put down her knife and fork and said, "Thank you for coming to see me in person." She deliberately gritted her teeth when she said the word "in person", and then added, "Okay, we can be even now."
Zhan Dongzhen asked, "I heard you are a writer?"
"Magazine writer." He Jinxi corrected.
"What type of magazine?"
“Fantasy novel.”
"Fantasy novel?" He didn't quite understand.
"It's a story like this: all the women in the world are crazy about him, but he only loves me." She said while chewing something in her mouth.
Hearing this explanation, he couldn't help but laugh again. He Jinxi realized that this man loved to laugh. He was tall and thin, with thick eyebrows, but his facial features were very elegant and clean. At this time, Zhan Dongzhen's phone rang. He looked at the number, apologized to He Jinxi, and got up to answer the phone outside. He Jinxi didn't care and continued to deal with the dessert in front of him.
After a few minutes, he returned to his seat and suddenly asked He Jinxi if he had time to go to the concert together tomorrow night.
He Jinxi was stunned for a moment, and asked back: "Do you mean that you are satisfied with me and think we can continue dating?"
Zhan Dongzhen tilted his head and said, "Do you understand it this way?"
"Yes, but I refuse," she replied.
Why? She wasn't an escort, she could come and go at will? He had cheated on her once, she scolded him to vent her anger, and then they had dinner together again, they didn't owe each other anything.
When he got this answer, he just said “Oh…” softly, without any emotion on his face.
After dinner, he sent her home. On the way, He Jinxi suddenly asked him: "There should be a lot of women chasing you, why do you still need to go on blind dates?"
"Sister Fei is more anxious," he said.
Sister Fei is his subordinate, an old classmate of He Jinxi's cousin, and the matchmaker who introduced her to Zhan Dongzhen for a blind date.
"They said that you have always liked Sister Fei, but she is a married woman, so you have to remain single for the rest of your life." He Jinxi finally couldn't overcome his professional instinct and started gossiping.
Zhan Dongzhen shook his head and smiled when he heard this, then he actually asked, "Is there any other version?"
"Or maybe you're not interested in women at all."
"Go on."
She thought of her own deceptive novel outline, "Or you lose your true love forever and become cannon fodder for the male protagonist."
Along the way, she said a lot of things and teased him in various ways, but he didn't care and was in a very good mood. When saying goodbye, she suddenly asked, "What time is the concert tomorrow night?"
He understood instantly and smiled in the car, "I'll pick you up at seven."
He Jinxi was laughing all morning. She felt that she was beginning to like him a little, so she asked her cousin to ask that classmate about many things about this man. For example, he was originally the illegitimate son of the Zhan family. Because the legitimate sons were not ambitious, he finally inherited the Zhan family's business. No wonder he didn't have the kind of arrogant and arrogant rich people.
Before leaving, she took out all the clothes of the season at home and tried them in front of the mirror. She finally matched them to the one she was most satisfied with, and then she went out happily. Zhan Dongzhen, who came to pick her up, was the same as yesterday, quiet and peaceful, but He Jinxi felt that something was different. Their seats were at the front of the backstage. Zhan's invested a lot of money in advertising and sponsorship in this concert, so they got the best seats.
When He Jinxi saw those billboards, he couldn't help but ask, "Do you like this singer?"
"Not bad," he replied, "I just ordered some tickets to give to clients."
After the opening, the two seats next to them were still empty. Zhan Dongzhen looked sideways from time to time, with a complicated look in his eyes. He Jinxi, who was good at interpreting lingering love in words, was a very sensitive person. Now he understood most of it. At the end of the concert, the female singer sang her own famous song, which was also the most familiar song. Driven by the music, tens of thousands of people in the audience sang karaoke with the singer. He Jinxi couldn't help but hum along. After the song, he thought of those young times and couldn't help sighing.
After the curtain call, he took her home.
"Who would have sat in the empty space next to me?" She was never one to be secretive, so she asked him directly.
Zhan Dongzhen was stunned for a moment and replied, "My former fiancée and her current husband."
"She likes this singer?"
"Probably. The last song she sang just now was the one she used to play in the car."
"You are in a hurry to ask me to come here just to use me as a shield?" He Jinxi asked.
"No...not really." Zhan Dongzhen was a little embarrassed.
He Jinxi said: "Do you know what I really want to do now?"
"Slap me?" He didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"You have self-awareness."
After saying this, He Jinxi immediately got out of the car and left. She rushed forward in high heels, and the sound was unusually crisp on the night road. But Zhan Dongzhen didn't leave. It was almost twelve o'clock, and even if she really slapped him, he didn't dare to leave her alone on the road.
So, she walked angrily in front, and he followed from a distance behind. After walking for a while, her feet couldn't bear it anymore, and she turned around and saw Zhan Dongzhen's luxury car still behind. She suddenly felt that she was really asking for trouble for her self-esteem, so she turned around and went back to his car.
She said, "Come down."
Zhan Dongzhen didn't know what she was going to do, but he felt guilty and had to do as she said. But as soon as he walked up to her, she took a step forward and punched him in the stomach with her fist. It was so sudden that he could only endure it. It took him a long time to come back to his senses after the pain.
"Don't women generally like to be slapped in the face?" He frowned and said painfully.
"Who said I'm an ordinary woman?" He Jinxi replied.
"Are you calm now?"
"It's gone." She said, "Please continue to take me home."
Some time later, Zhan Dongzhen went to the same restaurant for dinner. When others were ordering, he suddenly remembered He Jinxi, who had sat opposite him last time. The next day, Zhan Dongzhen asked his secretary to find the magazines that He Jinxi contributed to. During lunch break, he flipped through them and saw his name on one of them. He patiently read the novel from beginning to end. Every time he saw his name appear in the article, he could almost imagine her gnashing her teeth and couldn't help but smile. On his way home from get off work, he called her.
"Miss He, are you free to have dinner with me?"
"What to eat?"
"It's your choice."
“I only eat the most expensive ones.”
"No problem." He smiled.
(End of full text)