Mi Cai tucked her messy hair behind her ears, nodded at Circle and Chen Jingming, and then stopped looking at them. This shift of gaze was precisely due to embarrassment and awkwardness.

Circle and Chen Jingming looked at me strangely, and I followed Mi Cai’s example, shifting my gaze to the other side.

Actually, I wasn’t embarrassed or awkward. Since I had already upset her, I might as well mimic her and annoy her once more.

Circle smiled at me, then said to Chen Jingming, “Mr. Chen, it’s windy outside. Let’s go sit in the bar.”

Chen Jingming also smiled and followed Circle into the bar, leaving only Mi Cai and me at the scene.

“Are you having fun, Zhao Yang?” Mi Cai asked with a stern face.

I nodded and quickly helped her straighten her slightly disheveled clothes.

Unexpectedly, Mi Cai stepped back and said, “Don’t touch me! I’m really annoyed with you!”

“Did I say I was annoyed with you when you were hugging me last time? Tell me, why can’t our relationship be equal?”

“How dare you bring up what happened last time! Weren’t you the one who carried me out of the car first!”

“Yes, if you hadn’t been sick and insisted on going to Shanghai instead of staying in Suzhou, would I have held you back… But what about you? You clung to me like a piece of iron, making me climb five floors. Didn’t I bear it all and not hold it against you?” I added with emphasis, “I want you to tell me, why can’t we be equal?”

“Because I’m a woman… I can…”

Before Mi Cai could finish her sentence, I interrupted, “I’m an alien. Do you have to build me a spaceship to satisfy me?”

Mi Cai looked at me speechlessly and finally said, “What kind of messed-up logic is that?”

“It’s a superior logic. In front of me, an alien, you, a woman, must look up to me.”

Mi Cai looked at me and then laughed helplessly, “I’m really amused by you!”

Seeing the timing was right, I took the opportunity to put my arm around her shoulder and coaxed, “You just laughed, don’t be angry with me anymore. At most, I won’t do that again in the future.”

Mi Cai didn’t struggle, but asked seriously, “First, clarify what you did.”

“After being verbally attacked by you, I couldn’t control myself and touched you.”

“What do you mean by touching! You make yourself sound like a hooligan.”

I asked in confusion, “Then how should I put it?”

Mi Cai thought for a moment and replied, “You shouldn’t have hit me… How many times have you hit me, do you remember?”

This time, it was my turn to look at her speechlessly. She had so easily pinned the notorious label of hitting women on me. It was even worse than what I had said about touching her!

“Who hit you!”

“You almost threw me to the ground, isn’t that hitting? You always threaten to strangle me, scare me with cockroaches, and a long time ago, you rudely pushed me onto the bed…” Mi Cai suddenly stopped, her face flushed, realizing that she had blurted out something that could be misunderstood in her emotional outburst.

I asked with a smile, “What did I do after pushing you onto the bed?”

Mi Cai glared at me, seemingly at a loss for words. After a while, she finally said, “You didn’t do anything else. Later, I pulled your hair and pushed you off the bed!”

“It was clearly you hitting me…”

Mi Cai finally lost in our verbal battle. After a long while, she said weakly, “You deserved it!”

“Yes, even if you beat me to death, I deserve it. If I touch you, it’s unforgivable. Today, I finally understand what hegemony is!”

Mi Cai lowered her head and said nothing…

Her silence made me feel uneasy, fearing that I had inadvertently said something that upset her. So I tried hard to recall which sentence was inappropriate.

Finally, Mi Cai looked up at me and said softly, “Every time, whether you’re really angry or just teasing… I’m always scared, I don’t feel safe at all!… Can you be nicer to me?”

I stared at her in a daze. She was asking me for a sense of security, but isn’t a sense of security something that only lovers ask for?

I felt a bit dizzy and couldn’t figure out what she was trying to express…

While I was distracted, a red Cadillac CTS drove up from a distance, gradually approached, and finally parked in the parking lot in front of us. Then I saw Yan Yan and Jian Wei get out of the car one after the other. They were the last guests to arrive today.

Jian Wei and Yan Yan walked up to Mi Cai and me side by side. Yan Yan, with a smile on her face, handed me a red envelope and said, “Circle and I didn’t prepare a gift, so we’re giving you a big red envelope, wishing your bar a prosperous business!”

“I’m already very happy that you came to support me, why are you giving me a red envelope!” I didn’t take the red envelope from Yan Yan.

Yan Yan forcefully stuffed the red envelope into my pocket and said, “You probably don’t even have money to buy cigarettes, stop pretending and just take it…”

Being exposed by Yan Yan, I felt a bit embarrassed, especially since I didn’t want to appear destitute in front of Jian Wei.

Unexpectedly, Jian Wei also took out two red envelopes from her bag and handed them to me, saying, “Xiang Chen is abroad and couldn’t come to congratulate you in person. Please understand. I’ll give his share on his behalf…”

I subconsciously replied, “One red envelope from the two of you is enough…”

The atmosphere instantly became awkward. Yan Yan quickly took a red envelope from Jian Wei’s hand and said with a smile, “Isn’t two better? Just take it, we have to go in, it’s freezing out here!”

Yan Yan stuffed the red envelope back into my pocket, then smiled at Mi Cai and walked into the bar with Jian Wei.

Once again, only Mi Cai and I were left at the scene. It seemed that no one else would come. In the desolate scene, the wind felt even colder.Mi Cai, with a hint of apology, said to me, “Zhao Yang, I forgot to prepare a red envelope for you. I’m sorry!” As she spoke, she pulled out a thick stack of money from her wallet, intending to hand it to me.

“Are you crazy? …You also invested in this bar, do you really need to give me a red envelope?”

However, Mi Cai, mimicking Yan Yan’s earlier action, took advantage of my distraction to stuff the money into my pocket. Then, she grabbed my arm, preventing me from taking the money out.

She smiled and said to me, “Aren’t you going to help me buy a guitar?”

I asked uncertainly, “With the red envelope you gave me?”

“The red envelope is already yours, use it as you wish!”

Of course, I knew that Mi Cai was trying to solve my predicament of not being able to afford a guitar in this way, but was it necessary?

So I asked her, “Don’t you think this is redundant? You could just buy it yourself!”

My question seemed to touch a nerve in Mi Cai. She frowned and said to me, “I just want you to give it to me, is that okay? …Is it okay, Zhao Yang?”

Her response made my heart flutter. Suddenly, in a moment of heated impulse, I asked, “Do you like me?”

——————–