After staying in Xuzhou for another day, Mi Cai and I returned to Suzhou. After having breakfast and dinner together, she went back to her place in the wealthy district, and I returned to my old house.

Due to the fatigue from the long drive, I went to bed early. After a fitful two-hour sleep, I woke up and couldn’t fall asleep again.

Out of boredom, I picked up a magazine and lay in bed reading. Suddenly, I remembered the guitar incident. Jian Wei had taken the guitar away without a word. I felt that I owed A Ji an apology, both emotionally and rationally, so I immediately called him.

A Ji answered quickly. I said to him, “A Ji, Jian Wei told me about the guitar. I’m sorry!”

A Ji laughed helplessly, “Your ex-girlfriend is really something… No, you have to treat me to a meal to calm my nerves!”

“What did she do to you?”

“Let’s not talk about it, it was a nightmare!”

I gave a wry smile, knowing full well how fiery Jian Wei’s temper could be. After a while, I said to A Ji, “Are you free now? Let’s have a few drinks.”

“Sure, a bar or a restaurant?”

“The bar is too noisy, let’s go to a restaurant.”

……

In a restaurant, I ordered a lamb hot pot. A Ji and I chatted while drinking.

I poured a glass of wine first, raised it, and apologized to A Ji, “About the guitar, I’m sorry, bro. As soon as I have some spare cash, I’ll pay you back.”

A Ji clinked glasses with me, but he looked bitter, “Bro, it’s not about the money, it’s about the guitar! Does your ex-girlfriend even know how to play music? That good guitar is just a decoration in her hands… Sigh!”

After finishing his drink, A Ji poured himself another one. He looked quite depressed, which made me even more curious about how Jian Wei had managed to get the guitar from him.

I had another drink with A Ji, and finally asked, “How did she get the guitar from you?”

A Ji looked terrified, took a sip of his drink to calm his nerves, and then said, “That night, I was taking inventory in the music store when a red Cadillac pulled up outside. Your ex-girlfriend got out of the car, and her aura was so intimidating!”

“And then?”

“Without any nonsense, she asked me: Where’s the guitar?… Of course, I didn’t want to give it to her, I told her you had already sold it to me.”

“Go on.”

A Ji’s chubby face trembled, he lit a cigarette, took a deep puff, and said, “She turned around and walked away. I thought she had given up, but then she came back with a black bucket from her car. She told me the bucket was filled with gasoline. If I didn’t give her the guitar, she would set my store on fire!”

I broke out in a cold sweat, lit a cigarette, took two puffs, but didn’t know what to say.

A Ji wiped the sweat from his forehead with a napkin and continued, “I told her, if you dare to light it, I’ll call the police. She unscrewed the lid of the bucket and said to me, you can call the police if you want, let’s see who’s faster, the police or my lighter… I was so scared that my liver was trembling. I tried to snatch the bucket from her, but she suddenly burst into tears, begging me to give her the guitar. She said that the guitar was her life, it either stays with you or with her, no one else can have it!”

A Ji wiped the sweat from his forehead again, took another drink, and sighed, “I was so scared that I was stupefied, and I just gave her the guitar… Even if I didn’t want to, I couldn’t make a scene considering our relationship!”

After hearing A Ji’s detailed account of the incident, I felt a strange feeling in my heart. I remembered the night when Mi Cai and I confirmed our relationship by the city moat, while Jian Wei was heartbroken over the guitar. But why did she do that? Was she using the guitar to commemorate our unforgettable past?

If so, what’s the point? I was a bit confused.

“Zhao Yang, I’ve been thinking: Do you have any misunderstandings with your ex-girlfriend? Judging from her performance that day, from an outsider’s perspective, it really feels like she still has feelings for you!”

I thought a lot in my heart, the more I thought, the more it felt wrong. The more I thought, the more I felt that what stood between Jian Wei and me was not the passage of time, but a sincere communication. But what could honesty do?

After all, she was already with Xiang Chen, and I had started a new relationship with Mi Cai. Even if we could ignore the passage of time, we must not forget that things have changed, otherwise, the damage would be doubled.

I took a sip of wine and lit another cigarette, avoiding A Ji’s question with silence. A Ji didn’t ask further, he clinked glasses with me and started talking about other topics.

……

I got a bit drunk that night, so much so that when I got home, I couldn’t find the keyhole several times. When I finally got into the house, I didn’t even have the energy to boil a pot of water. I just lay down on the sofa and fell asleep.

When I woke up the next day, I was surprised to find a blanket over me, and I could hear the sound of boiling water from the kitchen. Then I saw Mi Cai coming out of the kitchen with a cup of hot milk.

I sat up from the sofa, pressing my aching head. Mi Cai handed me the milk and asked with a bit of reproach, “You went out drinking last night, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, I was drinking with A Ji.” I answered honestly.”I know. I went to see A Ji this morning. Look at you, you both drank, but A Ji still went to work at the piano shop the next day. What about you?”

I focused on the main point and asked, “You went to see A Ji?”

Mi Cai nodded, “…I wanted to buy back that guitar for you, but he told me that Jian Wei had already taken it.”

I wasn’t sure if it was nervousness or the weakness from the alcohol, but I broke out in a cold sweat. I tentatively asked, “And then?”

“Then I wanted to give him the money for the guitar, but he said you had already given it to him last night. Where did you get the money? If you had money, you wouldn’t have had to exchange your own guitar last time!”

I was grateful to A Ji in my heart. He was reliable when it mattered. I definitely couldn’t let Mi Cai pay for the guitar, otherwise the guitar I gave her would lose its meaning.

“I’ve been helping Le Yao manage the bar, she has to pay me, right? She transferred some money to my card a few days ago.” I gave Mi Cai a somewhat reasonable explanation with a straight face.

Mi Cai didn’t seem as alert as before, she just nodded, but she didn’t look too happy, probably because of my unclear relationships with Le Yao and Jian Wei.

I pulled her to sit next to me and tried to speak softly, “Jian Wei has taken the guitar now, we won’t have any contact in the future. As for Le Yao’s bar, don’t worry, I will return it to her soon, and there won’t be any dealings in the future.”

“Okay, you have to promise me, you can’t be that gardener who takes care of many flowers.”

I gently hugged her and whispered in her ear, “From now on, this gardener will only take care of you, the purest flower.”

“This is your promise to me!”

I nodded very seriously.

Mi Cai finally smiled and said to me, “Drink your milk quickly. While we have some free time these days, I’ll accompany you to the mall to buy some clothes later.”

“Why do we need to buy clothes?”

“To attend my uncle’s birthday banquet!”

“Do we need to buy clothes specifically for that?”

“There will be a cocktail party that night, we need to dress more formally!”

I suddenly realized, thinking that I really didn’t have a suit that cost over a thousand yuan, which obviously wouldn’t meet the requirements for attending a high-end cocktail party.