During the meal, Le Yao’s mood was constantly unstable. I knew that without my affirmative response, she must be anxious. After all, she was just a woman, and unlike Jian Wei and Mi Cai, she was a woman who relied heavily on others. She seemed carefree, but in reality, she lacked a sense of security.

The dinner finally ended in silence. I booked a hotel room near the train station for Le Yao.

As I was about to leave, Le Yao grabbed my arm and asked, “Zhao Yang, when will you give me an answer?”

“Soon,” I replied succinctly. I had to make a decision as soon as possible because Le Yao couldn’t wait.

Le Yao let go of my arm, nodded, and said, “Then I’ll wait for your decision in Xuzhou.”

“Alright… rest well. Call me if you need anything. I’m leaving now.” I left the hotel under Le Yao’s hopeful gaze.

…

I sat on a bench under the city lights, holding a beer, staring blankly at the passing cars. My confusion stemmed from indecision. If I gave up my job for Le Yao and went to Suzhou, how would I explain it to Li Xiaoyun? Would an explanation even matter?

If I didn’t go to Suzhou, it would mean watching Le Yao fall into the abyss helplessly. I couldn’t do that. Remembering how she endured the humiliation of being slapped by other actresses for my job opportunity, my heart ached. This pain was unbearable, and only by agreeing to Le Yao’s request could I escape it.

In the midst of this dilemma, I felt helpless and lost… The ringtone of my phone, accompanied by a cold wind, brought me back to reality.

I fumbled to take out my phone from my pocket. It was Li Xiaoyun calling. I remembered that I had promised to have dinner with her, and it was already half past nine.

I answered the phone with mixed feelings, but remained silent, waiting for Li Xiaoyun to speak first.

“Zhao Yang, have you met your friend?”

“Yes, I just had dinner with her…” I replied apologetically.

“That’s what you should do,” Li Xiaoyun responded in a low voice.

“Have you eaten yet?”

“…Not yet, I’ve been waiting for you,” Li Xiaoyun said after a pause.

“Then I’ll come to you now, and we can eat together.”

“Okay.”

“You like Western food, right? I’ll take you to Fess for a steak.”

Li Xiaoyun finally laughed, “You’ve already eaten, you don’t have to spend so much. We can eat anything.” After thinking for a while, she added, “Let’s have rice noodles. I haven’t had them in a long time.”

“Okay…” I agreed, but the word ‘rice noodles’ brought back memories of eating rice noodles with Mi Cai in Suzhou. But after a fleeting moment, I had a subtle feeling. This feeling reminded me of CC, Robben, Circle, Yan Yan, Mi Cai, and the “Empty City” restaurant. All these people and things were related to Suzhou, but they represented a kind of beauty that I missed. This beauty made me suddenly miss my life in Suzhou.

I clearly hated everything in Suzhou, so why did I miss it now? What caused this change in my attitude? I didn’t quite understand! And many times, people don’t really understand themselves.

…

Twenty minutes later, I met Li Xiaoyun at a rice noodle shop. Li Xiaoyun ordered a bowl of rice noodles, and I sat across from her, accompanying her.

Li Xiaoyun ate slowly. Looking at me, who had been silent all along, she asked, “What did your friend come to you for?”

I didn’t know how to answer for a moment, and after a long time, I said, “She asked me for a favor.”

Li Xiaoyun smiled and said, “It must be a big deal, right?”

“How did you know?”

“If it wasn’t a big deal, why would she come all the way to Xuzhou to find you… But it’s your private matter with your friend, I won’t ask.”

Looking at Li Xiaoyun, I felt a sour feeling in my heart. She was really a decent and nice woman. I had a lot of good feelings for her, so it was hard for me to choose to leave Xuzhou. Plus, we were already engaged. If I really quit my job and chose to go back to Suzhou, it would undoubtedly be fatal to our relationship.

I nodded and fell silent again, but the tearing feeling in my heart became even more intense.

Finally, when Li Xiaoyun was about to finish eating, I took a deep breath and said to her solemnly, “Xiaoyun, I want to discuss something with you…”

Li Xiaoyun looked at me in confusion and said after a while, “Go ahead.”

“…My friend’s music bar is in trouble, and I might need to go to Suzhou to help for a while,” I said after a long silence.

Li Xiaoyun frowned almost instinctively and asked, “If you go to Suzhou, what about your job?”

After another deathly silence, I said in a low voice, “I can only quit this job. I know it’s abrupt…”

I was interrupted by Li Xiaoyun’s angry voice before I could finish, “If you know it’s abrupt, you shouldn’t make such a decision… Do you know how many all-nighters you’ve pulled and how much effort you’ve put in to secure your position at Orson Advertising?”

“I have no choice. I hope you can support my decision, okay?”

Li Xiaoyun laughed in anger and asked, “What about our relationship? How long are you going to stay in Suzhou?”

“I don’t know how long I’ll be there. If you’re willing, you can wait for me to come back…”

“Wait for you to come back, find a new job, and then let me cooperate with you to rebuild our relationship?… Sorry, I can’t do that.”

“Xiaoyun, can you not be so extreme? My friend’s bar has an investment of over a million, and she borrowed a large amount of high-interest loans. The bar is also in a lot of trouble. Do you want me to just stand by and watch her die?”

Li Xiaoyun nodded heavily and said, “Zhao Yang, what I admire most about you is your honesty. Can you answer a few questions honestly for me?”

“Yes,” I answered without hesitation.”Is that friend of yours a man or a woman?”

Li Xiaoyun’s first question caught me off guard, and it took me a while to reply in a low voice, “She’s a woman.”

Upon hearing my answer, Li Xiaoyun’s expression immediately turned sour. After a long pause, she asked me again, “What exactly is your relationship with her?”

“Friends.”

“Friends? Is a mere friend worth you giving up a promising career? Even our relationship?”

I felt frustrated, but still gritted my teeth and said, “I have to help her… because I owe her.”

“Fine, if you insist on doing this, I won’t force you, and I can’t. But I still hope you’ll go back and ask your parents if they agree with your decision.” After saying this, Li Xiaoyun picked up her handbag from the side and left in anger.

Suddenly, the seat across from me was empty. Looking at the bowl of rice noodles that Li Xiaoyun hadn’t finished, I once again felt my life being ruthlessly torn apart by fate in the midst of pain…