Chapter 2 – to meet
Friends from childhood always seemed to change from one stretch of time to the next. Often, after not seeing each other for a whole summer, they would return to school looking like completely different people.
After becoming adults, these changes gradually stretched out over longer periods of time.
Freshman year and senior year of university were two different versions of a person, just as the first year and third year of graduate school were two different versions, and just as someone who had just entered society and someone who had been beaten around by society for a while were two different versions.
When Xiang You and Meng Ou had just broken up, he was at the stage of having just entered society.
Now, he had been beaten around by society for a while, but unexpectedly, the changes in him were not that great.
A very clean-looking face, no beard, with a smooth, bare forehead.
His brows pressed low over his eyes, his eyes deeply set, making him always look somewhat defiant when he was not smiling. After being struck by society's big stick for a while, she had not expected it to have knocked the arrogance out of him yet.
But at the same time, when those eyes fixed intently on someone, Xiang You always thought of the enclosed playground slide she loved to sit on as a child.
“Gululu,” she went spinning down into his eyes.
It took her years to climb back out.
It was early spring, and Meng Ou was wearing a long black trench coat, unbuttoned to reveal a black shirt underneath.
His trousers and shoes were black too, and at one meter eighty-five, standing ramrod straight, he looked like a black stick planted right in the middle of the café.
Meng Ou was not very good at dressing himself, nor was his mind much occupied with it.
Xiang You had seen his wardrobe before. It was a whole row of black, white, and gray, arranged according to the depth of their colors. It was actually rather soothing to anyone with obsessive-compulsive tendencies.
He knew that an outfit should not have more than three colors, but he did not seem to know that wearing only one color from head to toe was a little strange too.
So he often wore all black.
Sometimes Xiang You would laugh at him and say he dressed like a gangster.
Usually, at times like this, Meng Ou would stare at her for a few seconds before delivering a sharp, dead-on comeback.
He would say she dressed like “a gaokao flunkie reminiscing about life in kindergarten,” like “a blood-soaked overworked office worker going out for revenge during off-hours after being given hell by a client,” or like “an environmental ambassador celebrating Arbor Day all year round.”
Depending on what she was wearing, he would come up with a different assessment every time.
Meng Ou's mouth was vicious, and Xiang You often could not win an argument with him.
But Xiang You liked bickering with him. She liked starting to act spoiled after realizing there was no way she could outtalk him.
Anyway, all she had to do was pout and her eyes would brim with tears, leaving Meng Ou at a loss for what to do. He would hold her and say, “If you're the ‘blood-soaked overworked office worker,’ then I'm the one who cleans up after you and takes the fall. I spent ten years in prison for you, and the moment I stepped out the front door, I saw you off another client, so I went right back and added another ten years to my sentence.”
There was no comforting anyone like that.
But somehow, he could always make Xiang You laugh and laugh.
After all, the point of comforting someone was to make them happy, and Meng Ou had succeeded.
Xiang You lowered her head and looked at herself.
A very ordinary white cotton dress. She had bought it at the night market near her school during her freshman year.
The style was old-fashioned, but the fabric was very comfortable, suitable for every day when she did not feel like socializing.
But it seemed a little unsuitable for meeting an ex.
Well, whatever.
It had been a thousand days already. She really did not feel much of anything anymore.
That was what she told herself, but Xiang You still could not help pulling her baseball cap back down over her head.
What was it again?
Meng Ou had once seen some joke somewhere saying that wearing a hat indoors meant “don't bother me.”
So every time Xiang You was annoyed with him, she would pull her cap down.
Sometimes she did not have a hat with her, and there was nothing on her clothes either, so she would spread all five fingers and place her hand on top of her head, pretending she was wearing a hat.
Then Meng Ou would ask if she was trying to get him sent to prison.
Xiang You had not originally wanted to pay him any attention, but the remark really piqued her curiosity, so she could not help asking why.
“Because having sex with an idiot is illegal.”
He was insulting her again, just in a roundabout way.
Xiang You was furious.
She simply turned her hand around and gave the hand that had been covering her head a sharp smack against his mouth.
Meng Ou put on an aggrieved expression. “You're just taking advantage of the fact that hitting people isn't illegal for you, aren't you?”
Her palm muffled his voice, making it sound somewhat indistinct.
And his lips had rubbed her palm until it was damp and slick.
•
Once she pulled her cap down, she really did feel quite a bit more at ease.
Xiang You lowered her hand from the brim, and her field of vision opened up somewhat.
And so, within that broadened field of vision, she locked eyes with that black stick.
A reunion after a thousand days.
What a ceremonious occasion.
If this were a television drama, it would at the very least have a BGM playing, with close-ups and long shots from 360 degrees, displayed for at least a full minute.
But the situation in front of her left her no time to pretend she was the female lead in a television drama.
Xiang You felt a little awkward. The hand she had lowered halfway went back up, pressing the brim of her cap down a little further.
Her field of vision dropped along with it.
Meng Ou's eyes disappeared, and the highest thing in view became his smiling mouth.
He was laughing at her again.
That bastard Meng Ou.
Xiang You cursed him inwardly and lowered her head to look at the coffee in front of her.
There was still more than half a cup left. Chugging it all down in one go was hardly realistic.
To lock eyes with him and then run away would make her look far too pathetic.
Besides, this really wasn't a big deal.
It was just an ex. Who didn't have a few exes?
He had merely happened to come in for a cup of coffee. It wasn't as though he were “a black stick-knife always ready to assassinate her.”
Xiang You tried to come up with a sentence in his tone, but she always felt like she was missing the flavor of it.
A whole mess of thoughts came rushing through her mind.
Then she heard a burst of footsteps approaching from far away, growing nearer and nearer.
With a “thump,” a strange-looking drink was set down in front of her.
And so, the first reunion between the two of them after a thousand days.
The opening line was not “Long time no see,” nor “What a coincidence,” nor “How have you been lately?”
Instead...
Xiang You stared at it and asked sincerely, “What did you order?”
“Raw coconut crispy bobo hazelnut chocolate crumble latte.”
“Pfft.”
Xiang You laughed again.
That barista had finally managed to sell this bizarre drink.
Good for him.
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