“I won’t disturb you then.” The nurse’s gaze slowly scanned Ye Meng up and down, making Fang Ya En want to gouge out her eyeballs, and she secretly glared at her as she left.
Ye Meng unobtrusively packed up her things, then took the guitar from the corner and handed it to Li Jin Yu. “Give this guitar to Qiao Mai Mai. Thank her for helping me so much last time. I won’t transfer the money, it’s about the cost of a guitar anyway.”
Li Jin Yu looked down at her for quite a while. “Alright.”
“I thought you wouldn’t take it,” Ye Meng half-jokingly said. “If I had known, I would have bought a cheaper one.”
“Then return it, it’s Qiao Mai Mai’s anyway.”
The two were half-blocking the doorway, one leaning lazily against the doorframe, the other standing opposite, with questions and answers flowing more freely than before.
“Is big sister this stingy?” Ye Meng said.
Li Jin Yu smiled without saying a word. He looked at the bags packed and ready on the floor. The white sportswear made him look especially like a young man. Leaning against the doorframe, he asked Ye Meng, “Need any help?”
“No need, Yang Tian Wei said he’d see us to the car. You stay and keep your grandmother company.”
…
After they left, the ward returned to quietness. The old lady saw through everything and said to Li Jin Yu, who had just pulled up a chair to sit down: “Castor bean, have you two exchanged WeChat contacts?”
Li Jin Yu paused slightly, then shook his head: “No.”
“Won’t you keep in touch?” The old lady frowned, blaming him for not knowing how to cherish. “Ye Meng might seem casual and carefree, but she handles things meticulously, and knows how to navigate social relationships. In all my years, I’ve never seen a young lady who knows how to get things done like her. What a good woman, and you just let her go.”
Ye Meng had gotten her driver’s license in college, and it was due for renewal at the end of this year. However, she was still a road menace. In Beijing, the subway and buses have been more convenient than driving for all these years. Now that Fang Ya En had injured her leg, she reluctantly drove under Fang Ya En’s urging, living up to her reputation by driving the newly bought Golf as if it were about to be scrapped.
Fang Ya En sat in the passenger seat and quietly reminded her: “Did you notice?”
Ye Meng was particularly focused. “Hmm? What?”
“A bicycle just passed by,” Fang Ya En said.
Ye Meng had just glanced at the rearview mirror, calm and collected. “I noticed, it was an old man.”
Her psychological resilience was especially good. The urgent, sharp honking from the vehicles behind had nearly turned into Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, but she remained unmoved, driving along at a leisurely pace. “I originally said we should take a taxi, but you insisted on seeing how bad my skills were.”
“I didn’t realize you were this bad!” But Fang Ya En quickly got used to these life-threatening honks and calmly chatted with Ye Meng, “You and Li Jin Yu haven’t even exchanged WeChat contacts?”
Ye Meng slowly pressed the brake pedal at the traffic light, somewhat amused, and said: “Yes, he acts as if dating me would cost him his life, how dare I provoke him?”
“These younger guys nowadays…” Fang Ya En clicked her tongue twice and sighed, “Let me tell you, that nurse has feelings for Li Jin Yu. With a child that big, and still flirting with young men. Even recording conversations! I was wondering why several young nurses at the station have been looking at you like you’re some kind of home-wrecker. What’s the situation between you two now?”
“After what he said, what else can I say? We go our separate ways,” Ye Meng leaned back in the driver’s seat, not taking it seriously, saying lazily: “Just a little episode, right? Perhaps an even more suitable younger guy will appear next. As for other people, just think positively—”
She casually and gracefully advised Fang Ya En, “Life is like Edward Scissorhands, isn’t it? Cut a piece here, insert some background music there, cut your complete life into fragments, then piece it back together into what they want to see. You have a different three-minute video in front of each person, but only you know that your life isn’t just those three minutes. Those long tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of hours behind the scenes, only you experience them. So, why trouble yourself for the remaining tens of thousands of hours over those brief three minutes? That’s just unnecessary anxiety.”
Fang Ya En was left speechless by her words, feeling a pang in her heart, but also feeling that her detachment and self-awareness were things others couldn’t emulate. “Ah, I just love your dominant energy. If you ever become disheartened and half-dead over a man someday, I’ll end our friendship.”
“Rest assured, at this age, all I do is admire good-looking appearances and tease younger guys a bit. I won’t get serious anymore,” Ye Meng smiled.