I was afraid that Mi Cai would not want to take me along, so I sprinted to her car, opened the passenger door, sat down, and quickly buckled my seatbelt. Only then did I feel safe.

Mi Cai looked at me helplessly and said, “Why are you always so nervous?”

“It’s because you always ignore me. If I don’t persistently stick to you, we can only gaze at each other across a chasm.”

“Who wants to gaze at you across a chasm!”

“You lack imagination. Just think about that scene, how helpless, how tragic…”

“And very sad!”

Seeing that I had successfully drawn Mi Cai into the conversation, I raised an eyebrow and said, “So you don’t want to gaze at me across a chasm because you would be sad not to see a complete me!”

Mi Cai glanced at me out of the corner of her eye but didn’t respond. She started the car and followed the flow of traffic on the road in the winter afternoon.

The sunlight filtered through the car windows and warmed us, driving away some of the winter chill and making us feel comfortable.

When Mi Cai drove onto a simpler road, I asked her, “I heard that Chen Jingming will be the executive vice president of Suzhou Zomei Department Store?”

Mi Cai nodded, confirming the truth of this news.

“…It’s hard to imagine that the interest groups within Zomei would easily support your decision, after all, the executive vice president is not an ordinary position!”

Facing my doubts, Mi Cai calmly said, “This time, they just met the right opportunity. You should know that Zomei’s store in Shanghai is about to start operating, and the headquarters will also move to Shanghai, so it leaves a lot of opportunities for Suzhou…”

Mi Cai didn’t continue, but I vaguely understood some of the reasons and asked, “So in the future, will your uncle focus on the management of the Shanghai headquarters, and you will mainly be responsible for Suzhou?”

“You could say that.”

I once again experienced Mi Zhongde’s cunning. He was gradually hollowing out Mi Cai’s power step by step. After all, the Zomei in Suzhou and the Zomei headquarters in Shanghai are completely incomparable, and after being isolated from each other, it is more conducive for Mi Zhongde to cultivate his own system. Perhaps his insistence on launching the “big city” strategy is motivated by this. After all, setting up a store in a top-tier city like Shanghai, the headquarters will naturally move there. On the contrary, if it develops in second and third-tier cities, the headquarters will still stay in Suzhou, which is not conducive to him getting rid of Mi Cai’s constraints.

Of course, if I can think of these, Mi Cai must also have thought of them. After a brief silence, I asked her, “So how do you plan to respond?”

Mi Cai looked at me and said, “I don’t want to talk about this with you.”

I felt a bit self-defeating, but still shamelessly asked, “Then what’s the purpose of you postponing the meeting with Chen Jingming and Circle for a week? You can at least tell me that, right?”

“You’re not involved, why should I tell you.”

Her attitude left me speechless, but I also vaguely understood that it might be because I had repeatedly refused to join Zomei.

Knowing that I wouldn’t get any answers, I finally stopped asking. Mi Cai also sped up, as if she couldn’t wait to drop me off at my destination and get rid of me.

But just last night, we happily collaborated on a song called “Elope” on WeChat. Why has she become so cold today? Women’s minds… I really don’t understand!

After Mi Cai dropped me off at my place, she left and went to Shanghai. As for whether it was for Wei Ran or for work, I wasn’t sure.

…….

In the evening, I had dinner with Circle, Chen Jingming, and Zhao Li. This time, Zhao Li was also going to jump ship to Zomei with Circle. After all, at Boli Department Store, he was also part of Chen Jingming’s faction. With Chen Jingming’s downfall at Boli, he naturally couldn’t stay, and following Chen Jingming and Circle was a good choice for him. At least when he came to Zomei, his position would not be lower than it was at Boli.

During the meal, Chen Jingming and Circle expressed their deep gratitude to me. Naturally, we didn’t skimp on the drinks, and it wasn’t until I was drunk that the meal ended.

On the way home, I didn’t choose any transportation, but swayed along with the crowd on the street, digesting the alcohol in my body.

When I got tired, I sat on the curb of the sidewalk, staring blankly at the passing crowd. I didn’t like these nights when I was alone at all, because after drinking, I always had so many complaints to vent, but who would be willing to listen to these complaints now?

So I missed my college life again. No matter how much I drank, there would always be someone who would stay with me till the end, patiently listening to my nonsense…

Thinking of those old times, I couldn’t help feeling melancholy. So I lit a cigarette for myself, regretting that I shouldn’t have drunk that much, because being alone after drinking is so lonely.

I took out the transparent film from the cigarette box and looked at the starry sky, but I couldn’t see that city and that long-haired woman anymore. Instead, I attracted the disgusted eyes of passers-by, who all avoided me, the drunk sitting on the side of the road.

They don’t understand! They are all ordinary people drowned in life, so they will never see that city in the sky. But I can see it, even if only occasionally!

The night began to sway in my mind. In order not to fall on the street, even without a guitar, I had to sing. I took out my phone, found the voice chat record with Mi Cai from yesterday, held down the voice key, and started singing loudly.

I sang a song for Mi Cai, “Times of the Past”, belting out with all my heart: “The most beautiful treasures in life are those times of the past. Even though we were so poor that all we had left was happiness, wearing old clothes, in the snowy winters of Hailar, the songs from the passing cars echoed. By the gentle summer nights of the Yimin River, the sound of the accordion drifted. Now we have changed, hustling every day for life, but as long as we think of the times of the past, your eyes will light up. The most beautiful treasures in life are still those times of the past. Friends raised their beers, on the table was only half a sausage…”

After finishing the song, I stared blankly at the message I had sent. I was lost in the lyrics, my eyes slightly heated, thinking of the lover I once deeply loved, and those best buddies. But just like the song says, we have all changed now. Those carefree days are ultimately frozen in a time and space we can’t touch, making me miss them terribly at this moment!

A moment later, Mi Cai replied: “It’s supposed to be a gentle and nostalgic song, why did you sing it so heartbreakingly?”

“To annoy you!” I replied to Mi Cai without any logic.

“It didn’t annoy me, on the contrary, it sounded nice… Can you guess which line of the lyrics I like?”

I went through the lyrics again in my mind, not caring which line Mi Cai liked, but sent her my favorite: “The most beautiful treasures in life are those times of the past. Even though we were so poor that all we had left was happiness, wearing old clothes.”

I lit another cigarette, waiting for Mi Cai’s reply, while examining myself. In the past, I was so poor that all I had left was happiness, but now I’m so poor that all I have left is sadness, which makes me yearn even more to return to those times of the past!

——————–

I highly recommend this song “Times of the Past”. It’s great and full of emotion.