Chapter 22 – The End.
The wind chime by the café door suddenly rang again, announcing another customer.
From where Xiang You sat, she happened to have a clear view of the doorway.
In the corner of her eye, she saw a boy and a girl.
The mature look they had tried so hard to put together could not conceal the childishness on their faces. If nothing unexpected had happened, they were probably students from somewhere nearby.
The two of them walked toward the counter, chatting and laughing along the way. Xiang You did not know what they had been talking about, but suddenly the boy gave the girl’s ponytail a tug and took off running. The girl, furious, called out his name and chased after him, and the two of them collided in front of the counter.
A scene both unfamiliar and familiar.
Xiang You blinked, drew back her wandering gaze, and once again fixed her attention on Meng Ou.
She had already said it. She was no longer afraid.
Now, the one who had to face the difficult question was Meng Ou.
“If I come back, do you have any thoughts about that?”
The cunning Meng Ou tossed the question right back at her.
Back and forth, like a badminton shuttlecock flying endlessly over the net.
One shot landed squarely on her forehead, catching Xiang You completely off guard.
She had no time to strike back and could only resignedly pick up the shuttlecock that had fallen to the ground.
“What does that have to do with me…” It was a question with very little conviction behind it.
“Does it have nothing to do with you?” Meng Ou countered.
“Mm, it doesn’t.” Xiang You stubbornly insisted.
“It does.”
“It doesn’t.”
“It does.”
“It do…”
“It does.” Before she could finish, Meng Ou supplied the next word.
So even she could not tell whether he had answered her with “it does,” or simply finished her “it doesn’t” for her.
She did not understand how she had suddenly ended up playing such a childish game with Meng Ou.
What came next, were they supposed to say something like “bounce back” or “period” too?
Xiang You decided to admit defeat. “So what if it does?”
An unexpected good shot.
Meng Ou’s confidence suddenly deflated a little. He gave a bitter smile. “So your thoughts are very important to me.”
Her thoughts?
It couldn’t be…
Getting back together?
She had started this game of badminton, but after batting it back and forth, she was the one who ended up completely bewildered.
She did not know why she had asked that question just now.
It seemed like a moment of impulse, or perhaps simply her emotions getting the better of her.
That ambiguous, shifting atmosphere made it very easy to lose control.
Now that she had calmed down, Xiang You felt a little timid.
She ran her fingers over the cold wall of her cup. Caught between hesitation and regret, the corners of her eyes and brows drooped unconsciously.
Meng Ou stared at her.
After watching her for a while, he let out a soft sigh. “How about we talk about something else?”
As though she had caught a lifeline, Xiang You looked up. “Talk about what?”
“If I come back, do I still have a chance?”
“…”
Xiang You froze.
How was that talking about something else?
Xiang You stared at him with considerable indignation, displeased by his failure to keep his word.
Under her stare, Meng Ou could not help laughing. “Are you angry?”
Xiang You moved her eyes and mouth, trying to adjust them into a natural expression.
Then, trying a little too hard to cover it up, she cleared her throat. “I don’t want you to come back because of me.”
Meng Ou looked somewhat surprised. “Why?”
“Because I know that, in your heart, you still want to stay in City A. And besides, we haven’t seen each other for more than two years. I really can’t give you any guarantees or promises.” Xiang You paused. “I, I know what you mean, but… let’s forget it.”
Picking up an old relationship again was a lot like repairing a broken porcelain vessel.
No matter how perfectly the pieces were fitted together, no matter how bright the fresh coat of paint was, the cracks inside would never truly disappear.
Even that place where it had broken would become fragile from then on. If it broke again, there was a good chance it would split along the very same place.
To be hurt twice in the same place, how painful would that be?
The light in Meng Ou’s eyes dimmed in an instant.
He lowered his head and took a sip of his drink, his Adam’s apple moving with extreme slowness.
“Xiang You, what are we going to do?” he asked.
“What do you mean, what are we going to do…”
After delivering such a righteous and resolute speech, Xiang You once again found herself completely drained of confidence.
“How did I end up running into you today?” Meng Ou gave a rather self-mocking smile.
Xiang You wanted to ask the same question.
How could it be such a coincidence?
A thousand days.
How well she had lived through those thousand days.
She had gotten a promotion and a raise, and had even moved from sharing a rental to renting a place on her own. Life was busy, but full.
Failing the civil service exam had been a major setback, but at least she had passed the written exam on her first try. Maybe she would succeed next time.
And yet, on this very thousandth day, her phone app had the nerve to remind her.
She had only herself to blame, insisting on drinking such expensive coffee at a newly opened café.
And then, by an unfortunate coincidence, she ran into her ex.
“Forget it.” Meng Ou looked somewhat irritated. “When are you getting married? Just don’t invite me to the wedding banquet. I won’t be giving you a cash gift.”
“Then don’t invite me either. I won’t give you one.” Anyone could say something like that.
“I was joking.” Meng Ou gave two dry laughs. “It’s not like I’m really going to be stingy over a thousand or so yuan. Just tell me. I’ll have someone pass it on to you.”
What a boring joke.
“I’m not telling you.” Xiang You replied stiffly.
“Why?”
Did he really have to ask why?
On such a joyous occasion, why would she want her ex to come and spoil it?
Xiang You pursed her lips. “I don’t need the money.”
She said it with a completely serious expression, even a little fiercely.
But after Meng Ou heard her, he could not hold back his laughter.
He laughed so hard he bent forward, one hand braced against the edge of the table, his whole body trembling.
“You’re something else, Xiang Youyou.” He spoke between laughs. “A little rich lady, huh.”
“What are you laughing at…”
Was that really so funny?
Meng Ou coughed a few muffled times, gradually managing to stop laughing.
“What kind of person do you want to marry?” he asked, sounding very much like a host on an interview program, his voice gentle and warm.
Why were they all questions that were so difficult to answer?
Xiang You would rather go back and do logic puzzles.
What kind of person did she want to marry?
When she was little, she wanted to marry a prince, but by the upper grades of elementary school, she had stopped dreaming fairy-tale dreams.
The next time she thought about marriage was probably the day she returned to school during her final year of high school.
Meng Ou had refused to let go of her hand no matter what, and in front of their homeroom teacher, he had said he would treat the whole class to a wedding banquet.
After that, the next time she thought about marriage was that brief relationship she had had.
It was not that she wanted to marry him, but because of him, she had begun to look at marriage all over again.
And then she had arrived at a rather pessimistic conclusion:
“Someone suitable, I suppose,” Xiang You said.
Meng Ou blinked and repeated, “Someone suitable?”
“Mm…” No prince, and no Meng Ou.
That left only someone who was suitable in the conventional sense.
Meng Ou let out an “oh.”
Was he disappointed by her answer?
The wind chime rang again as someone pushed the door open and left.
Xiang You looked up. Before she could see the customer, her field of vision was first filled by a vast expanse of sunset.
Just as beautiful and abundant as the morning glow, yet signifying its disappearance.
Without realizing it, it was already evening.
She lowered her head and took a sip of her drink, then frowned. “I can’t drink any more.”
One cup of coffee had already been enough to fill her stomach, and this one was too unpleasant to drink. She did not want to force herself anymore.
“Then don’t drink it,” Meng Ou said.
There was no need to stay if she was not even going to drink coffee at the café.
“Then… I’ll head back first,” Xiang You said.
Meng Ou did not speak. He only looked at her.
His gaze was so direct, so completely undisguised, that he simply kept looking at her.
But she did not dare look back, afraid that if she was not careful, she would fall into that deep pool.
Xiang You suddenly felt a little sting in her nose, and, at a loss for what to do, grabbed her baseball cap.
Before she could put it over her head, she heard Meng Ou call her.
“Xiang You.”
Xiang You hurriedly pulled the cap down, and her vision was instantly blocked by half.
“Mm…” she answered dryly.
But Meng Ou did not say anything else, as though he had only wanted to call her name.
The two of them rose in tacit understanding and walked out together.
As they passed the two students, Xiang You happened to overhear a bit of gossip.
“Did the class monitor give you a sandwich yesterday morning?” the boy asked.
The girl asked curiously, “Why are you asking about that?”
The boy looked away. “Just asking.”
“Hey…” The girl reached out and patted him. “I like tuna.”
The rest of their conversation was swallowed up by the sound of the wind chime.
This time, Xiang You pushed the door open.
The sky that evening was brilliantly beautiful, almost to an unreasonable degree.
Xiang You took one last look at him.
He was dressed entirely in black, and beneath the setting sun, his whole figure was wrapped in a ring of golden light.
It made him look warmer by a few degrees, but also blurred him by a few degrees.
Xiang You waved. “I’ll head home, then. Be careful on the way.”
She waited two seconds. When no response came, she turned and walked toward the subway station.
Their first conversation had been that afternoon.
The boy finished talking to someone else, only then remembering that he had not sent over the bill for this table.
He turned back, pulled out a copy, and placed it on the table, only to find the girl staring at him with a face full of displeasure.
The boy found it a little strange. Almost excessively self-conscious, he bent over and rummaged through the things on the desk.
He pulled out a Chinese textbook, opened to the title page, and read the name written there.
“Xiang You?”
The first words Meng Ou ever said to her were her name.
After a long, winding story, it ended with her name too.
There was nothing more.
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