In the darkness of the night, Jian Wei and I had almost stopped talking until I felt the urge to smoke again. I said to her, “Can I borrow a light?”

“Stop smoking.”

I didn’t respond, just looked up at the sky. Jian Wei followed my gaze, looking puzzled. I took the opportunity to snatch the lighter from her hand, calmly lit my cigarette, and started smoking leisurely. Then, I exhaled all the messy emotions in my heart along with the smoke.

Jian Wei didn’t argue with me. She hugged her knees and after a while, she asked, “Zhao Yang, do you remember how we met?”

“I remember…” I said, taking another deep puff of my cigarette. The scene of our first meeting emerged in my mind, but recalling it now, it felt like a distant dream.

Jian Wei chuckled and said, “It feels like it happened just yesterday.”

I looked at Jian Wei in surprise. Why did two people who had experienced love together have different perceptions of time? To clear up this confusion, I asked Jian Wei, “When we were together, what event left the deepest impression on you?”

Without hesitation, Jian Wei replied, “When you played the guitar for me during the campus top ten singers competition… What about you?”

“Every weekend, your father would pick you up from school in his Mercedes.” My answer was also immediate. It seemed that from that time, I had started to feel a bit uncomfortable, but I never magnified those negative emotions at school. I just thought it was enough for us to be happy together. But now, recalling the gap between Jian Wei and me, it was indeed the most profound. Of course, there were also beautiful moments, but for me at this moment, those beautiful memories were just a distant dream!

Jian Wei fell silent after my answer. After a long while, she said, “It’s late, I should go home.”

“Alright, drive slowly on the road.”

“I didn’t drive. The place I’m staying is very close to here.” Jian Wei said, already walking up the steps towards the riverbank.

Watching her retreating figure, I felt as if there was something I hadn’t said, but I didn’t know what it was. I felt a bit annoyed.

At this moment, Jian Wei stopped, turned around and said, “Zhao Yang, if the bar is busy on New Year’s Eve, call me. I’ll come and help… My phone number hasn’t changed!”

I just watched her, the scene of asking for her phone number when we first met came to my mind. Although she said the number hadn’t changed, it was no longer the number I could recite by heart.

…

When I got home, I braved the cold and took a shower, then habitually lay on the bed smoking, thinking about how to do a good job of the bar’s New Year’s Eve marketing. The more I thought about it, the more excited I became, and then I couldn’t sleep, staying awake until 4 a.m.

Lying in bed, bored, I opened WeChat and started browsing through my old conversations with Mi Cai, because it was a way to kill time for me.

Suddenly, I noticed that Mi Cai had changed her WeChat profile picture to the guitar I gave her. She also updated her status, which included several pictures of the guitar and a caption: Thank you, I really like it!

I smiled. It seemed she really liked it, as this was the only status update in her WeChat.

Looking back at our hundreds of pages of conversation, I realized that we had known each other for a long time. But the scene of our first meeting felt like it happened just yesterday.

I gradually started to feel sleepy, and my phone slipped from my hand, but then it vibrated. I received a WeChat message in the middle of the night, which instantly woke me up, because it was from Mi Cai.

“Zhao Yang, I’ve arrived!”

“You’re there?”

Mi Cai sent a shocked emoji: “It’s almost dawn in China, aren’t you asleep?”

“You know it’s dawn, and you’re still messaging me! Are you trying to keep me awake?”

“I didn’t mean to? I just got off the plane.”

“So you wanted to let me know you’re safe as soon as possible?”

“Were you worried about me?”

“What’s there to worry about? After all, the plane is known as the safest mode of transportation in the world… Welcome to America!”

Although I said I wasn’t worried, Mi Cai didn’t seem angry. She sent a smiling emoji: “Get up and have a glass of milk, then go to sleep.”

My mood suddenly changed. The care she was showing me was just like a girlfriend. I couldn’t help but wonder: Could it be that when she returns from America, we will really start a relationship?

I quickly got up, made a cup of warm milk, drank it all, and then texted Mi Cai: “Finished!”

“Send me a picture to see.”

I didn’t find it troublesome at all. I took a picture of the empty cup and sent it to her.

Mi Cai quickly sent a satisfied emoji: “Good boy, go to sleep!”

“You’re the good one!”

“No, you’re the good one.”

“I’m not as good as you.”

“You’re the best!”

And so, we started this seemingly boring conversation across a distance of more than ten thousand kilometers…

Wait, was it really boring?

“It’s not boring, at least in my heart, I long for her to be a well-behaved woman, so I don’t have to worry too much. And her? She probably expects the same from me.

…

When I woke up the next day, it was already noon. After hastily eating lunch, I received a text message from CC. She told me that she was now with Robben and Le Yao, which made me quite envious. After all, they all had someone to accompany them or were accompanying someone else, while I had to spend the New Year’s Eve alone in Suzhou.

All afternoon, I was still stuck at home working on the New Year’s Eve event plan until Jian Wei called.

I answered the phone with some surprise, “Hello, what’s up?”

“If you’re free now, could you accompany me to buy some office equipment needed by the company?”

I didn’t respond immediately, feeling that something was off about this.

Jian Wei added, “You should be free during the day, right? If you help me during the day, I can help you at the bar at night. Wouldn’t that be more efficient?”

I thought about it and didn’t refuse Jian Wei. Since CC left, the bar was in desperate need of a singer. If Jian Wei was willing, she could completely fill CC’s vacancy. Looking at it this way, it seemed to be a mutually beneficial arrangement.

…

Not long after ending the call, I met Jian Wei at a local square. We divided the tasks: I went to the computer market to purchase some office equipment like computers and projectors, while Jian Wei went to the furniture market to buy office desks and chairs.

By the time we met again, it was already dusk. We chose a fast-food restaurant by the roadside for dinner, and then I shared with her the results of my afternoon’s procurement.

After listening to my account, Jian Wei looked relieved and said to me, “Zhao Yang, thank you. With your help, the efficiency is much higher. Running around Suzhou these days is really tiring!”

I smiled and said, “Don’t thank me, we have a deal. You have to perform at the bar tonight.”

“That’s easy… Oh, you have to accompany me with that guitar tonight…!”

Before Jian Wei could finish her sentence, I was stunned. The guitar she gave me had been used to exchange for another guitar with A Ji, which I then gave to Mi Cai…

—