After temporarily saying goodbye to Le Yao, I returned to the attic. Opening the door, I found Robben sitting on the rooftop, cradling a guitar in his hands, but not practicing any songs. The scattered beer cans around him made him look somewhat decadent.

I handed him a cigarette and leaped onto the railing, lighting up the cigarette and listening to the sound of raindrops falling on the awning. It sounded like a sorrowful sob, wetting the dark night, waiting for dawn.

“Why are you down again?” I asked with a smile.

Robben tore open a can of beer and handed it to me. It seemed like our nights were only filled with cigarettes and beer. He said, “I’m down every day.”

“Well, you be down then. I’ve decided to be a positive man.”

“Really? Just don’t be all talk and no action.”

Although Robben was teasing me, I didn’t mind and laughed, “I’ll talk and act.” I paused and then said seriously, “It’s been over three years since graduation, and I’ve accomplished nothing. Seeing my classmates and friends getting married one by one, I feel quite empty inside.”

Robben nodded without saying a word, just threw away the empty beer can in his hand and took a deep puff of his cigarette.

I stood up from the railing, shouting at the vast city below that was shrouded in darkness, “I’m done playing around. I want to work every day, buy a house, marry a beautiful girl, have someone to talk to and sleep with when I come home every day…”

Suddenly, Robben strummed his guitar and hummed a song called “Don’t Be Silly”. I realized then that Robben was quite a piece of work too!

……

The next day, I arrived at the company early. At the same time, Le Yao also came to our company and met with a manager in charge of marketing at GUCCI. The manager praised Le Yao’s image and temperament as being very in line with GUCCI’s product positioning. I had no doubt about this. Although Le Yao was often carefree in front of us friends, when she was in work mode, she was elegant and fashionable, with a touch of exotic beauty. So GUCCI’s decision to have Le Yao shoot their promotional posters was not entirely a test of our sincerity in cooperation, but mainly because Le Yao was a good fit. This precisely highlighted the brand awareness of international first-line brands, who are often very cautious in their marketing and promotion.

While Le Yao was shooting promotional posters for GUCCI, the vice president of GUCCI’s China region also signed a contract with our department store to set up a counter as promised. The signing ceremony was very high-profile, with many media present. Our company also took this opportunity to officially announce that Baoli Department Store has entered the ranks of top-tier department stores.

The high-profile nature of this signing ceremony was also to pave the way for the full-scale marketing campaign that I was about to be in charge of. So my first real challenge in life officially began with GUCCI setting up a counter in our department store.

That night, our company hosted a banquet for the vice president of GUCCI’s China region and several accompanying staff. Of course, as one of the contributors, I was also invited, which made me feel somewhat flattered. After all, having worked at the grassroots level in the company for two years, I had hardly ever spoken a few words with the top management, let alone had dinner with them.

At the banquet, Chen Jingming praised me in front of the company’s senior management. By the end of the banquet, Li Junren, the executive vice president of Baoli Department Store, came up to me, patted me on the shoulder and said, “Young man, I remember you.”

Of course, this was just remembering. If I wanted the company’s senior management to really pay attention to me, I needed to seize this rare opportunity, do my best in this marketing campaign, and create value for the company.

……

After leaving the celebration banquet, I went to find Le Yao. Having completed her shooting task for GUCCI, she was going to leave Suzhou tomorrow and return to Hengdian to continue fighting for her acting career.

We sat next to a section of railway track. The track extended infinitely in the direction of the wind in the dark night, seeming so free. But I knew that perhaps the next city would be the end of this track.

A green train, which was rarely seen now, carrying a group of seemingly lonely people, hurriedly passed in front of us, leaving only some light and smell.

Le Yao, wearing a thick coat, sat next to me. There was some distance between our bodies, which made us more and more like friends.

I tucked in my clothes, lit a cigarette, and said to Le Yao, “When you go back to the crew, don’t let others bully you anymore.”

Le Yao hugged her knees with both hands, looking somewhat lost as she watched another passing train. After a while, she nodded and said to me, “Hmm… you should also work hard.”

“Hmm… Actually, I feel quite guilty. Because of my affairs, you have suffered so much. When I can’t sleep at night these days, I always want to go and beat up that actress.”

Le Yao smiled and said, “Don’t be like a child. Actually, I don’t even want to think about it anymore.”

“What are you thinking about then?”

“I don’t want to think about anything. Thinking too much makes me sad.”

I agreed with Le Yao’s words, but could she really do it? At least I often let my soul, trapped in flesh and blood, wander aimlessly, the more I think, the more it hurts.

After a long silence, I took an envelope out of my bag and handed it to Le Yao, saying, “This is your payment for this time, a total of ten thousand. You should count it.”

“Why is it so much?”

“Our manager said that as long as you could take the time to participate in the shooting this time, he was willing to pay three times the remuneration personally. Take it, it’s what you deserve.” I said and pushed the envelope into Le Yao’s hand again.

Le Yao took the envelope and stuffed it into her handbag. After that, we kept silent until we left, but we saw many trains whistling past with the wind.

……

On the way back, it was just past 10 o’clock. Actually, Le Yao and I didn’t sit by the railway for too long, but our hearts had traveled far with the speeding trains and couldn’t be reined in.

When I got back to my place, I found that Robben didn’t go to the bar tonight. Because when I was about to open the door, I heard a woman’s moaning sound from inside the house. It might be Lily, who he brought back last time, or it might be another woman.I felt a bit embarrassed to disturb anyone, yet I had nowhere else to go. After sitting downstairs for a while, I finally remembered that I had promised Mi Cai a few days ago to help her get rid of those cockroach corpses. It seemed like a good time to fulfill that promise.

I called Mi Cai, and she told me that she had been waiting for me to deal with the cockroaches in the old house, which was why she was still living in Liu’an Scenic Garden.

I told her that I was free to deal with it now, and she immediately said she was also available. So, from two different directions of the city, we headed towards the old house at the same time.

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Flowers, check-in, favorites, thank you—————–