After finishing the hotpot it was already close to midnight. We’d all drunk a bit, and I went outside first to call cars for everyone.
“Dongxue, you’re too polite, we can get our own cabs,” Qian Langfeng’s wife kept saying.
“It’s the same whoever calls them. It’s so cold, not freezing is what’s most important.” I smiled. “Today was so-so, but next time I’ll be the host and treat Brother Feng and sister-in-law to a Northeast meal.”
The cars came one after another. Fang Qiang was a bit drunk and pulled on my arm. “Dongxue, where do you live? I… I’ll send you home first!”
I said, “I live at Yuxin Garden, it’s especially far.”
Fang Qiang said, “Why live there! The rent must be so expensive!”
I smiled and said, “I don’t know, I bought it.”
Then I calmly pulled his hand away and stuffed him into the car.
“Impressive, Yuxin Garden is all large units—” Fang Qiang’s drunken voice grew more and more distant.
I turned back and saw Cheng Xia. He was obediently standing in place, burying his face in his coat.
I was a bit surprised and said, “Didn’t your car arrive ages ago?”
“I sent it away.” He said, “Walk for a bit?”
I hesitated.
A long time ago, every time after eating I would pester him to walk back. One reason was to digest, and another was that it wasn’t easy to see him, so I wanted to stay with him longer, and even longer.
But I knew I had to get up early tomorrow, and I had a whole head full of matters waiting for me to handle. “Walking” was really too much of a luxury for me…
“Okay, let’s walk.” I lifted my head and smiled deeply at him.
We walked along the seaside, chatting as we went.
I talked about my experiences in Africa—spiders bigger than heads, super cheap seafood, monotonous work, and life full of crises.
He rarely spoke, just listened quietly, occasionally asking a question.
“Can you imagine?” I said, “My room didn’t even have a table. When I got anxious I’d lie on the floor writing reports, hahaha!”
“Couldn’t you buy a table?”
“Even the nearest supermarket was especially far. Later Old Feng, that’s my leader, made one for me.”
Actually things like that were too expensive to buy in Africa. I looked and looked but couldn’t bear to buy one. Old Feng glanced at me, and the next day he showed up carrying two small tables.
I said, why two?
He said with a straight face, “A girl needs a vanity table.”
Cheng Xia didn’t speak again, lowering his head to look at his own toes.
I was most afraid of awkward silence, so I self-deprecatingly said, “But with how rough I am now, a vanity table would be wasted on me.”
There’s a saying that the face after twenty-five is one you give yourself.
When I was in my teens I was passable, but years of wind and rain made my skin rough and dark, my hair like a handful of dead grass. Standing together with girls my age from the city, we were completely two different species.
That day we walked five or six kilometers before taking a cab home.
The house I bought was on the first floor with a small courtyard. Grandma planted some fruits and vegetables inside, and what we couldn’t eat she would take out to sell.
Every time I saw this house, I felt that the countless regrets in my heart all receded like the tide.
I had offered up my beauty, six years of youth, and a young girl’s ease and happiness as a sacrifice to the god of fate.
In exchange for a warm home in this city.
This deal was incredibly worthwhile.
“It’s too late, my grandma’s asleep, so I won’t invite you in. Go back!” I said.
Cheng Xia nodded, walked away then turned back to say, “I think you’re very beautiful.”
I froze.
He said, “You posted a little leopard in your Moments. I thought it was especially like you—beautiful, full of vitality, just… running too fast.”
Before I could come to my senses, he had already gotten in a taxi and left.
I remembered that I had once gone to East Africa to watch animal migration and photographed a leopard with a pensive expression, with the caption: Who is it thinking of?
Visible only to Cheng Xia.
He didn’t like it. Good grief, so he was actually secretly checking my Moments!
I was a bit happy, and naturally forgot to ask what his last sentence meant.
Just like I deliberately ignored what he had experienced during these six years.
After the arduous initial adjustment period, the project began entering a stable phase.
Some people, unable to bear the deadly work intensity, resigned. Those who stayed developed some feelings.
When I could catch my breath a little, I treated everyone to dinner.
I said, “I’m also a worker. I don’t force everyone to fight desperately. I can only be grateful to everyone who stayed. Whether it’s bonuses or prospects, I won’t shortchange anyone.”
This was the truth. I decided to give them all the money I could apply for. For those with promotion opportunities, I submitted recommendations for all of them.