After ending the call with Jian Wei, I was in a daze for a long time, until the vendor, with dissatisfaction, yelled at me, “Hey, are you buying or not? If not, don’t block others.”

Only then did I put my phone back in my pocket and said, “Round off the change for this vegetable.”

The vendor impatiently put the weighed vegetables into a plastic bag, complaining, “The time you’ve wasted here is worth more than the change. Hurry up and take it, don’t hinder my business.”

I took out five yuan from my pocket and threw it on his stall, then picked up the plastic bag and headed towards another fish stall, starting a new round of haggling.

Holding the vegetables I bought for 50 yuan, I couldn’t help but feel pleased with myself. The vegetables I bought from this round of bargaining would be enough for Mi Cai and me to eat for many days. It seemed that this 1000 yuan could really last a long time.

A gust of wind blew, lifting the transparent plastic bag outside the vegetable market. Looking at its fluttering appearance, I suddenly felt that the bag of vegetables in my hand was extraordinarily heavy, and my life seemed to have lost its direction like the floating plastic bag.

Feeling the lights of thousands of households that came with the night, I couldn’t help but ask myself: Is this really the life I want?

……

This was another night when I prepared dinner and waited for Mi Cai to come back. Like the previous few days, she came back very late today, and I had reheated the braised pork into twice-cooked pork.

After washing their hands, the two sat down at the dining table for dinner. Mi Cai said to me, “Zhao Yang, don’t wait for me until so late in the future. You can eat first.”

“I only have an appetite when I see you eating.”

Mi Cai smiled happily and, like the previous few days, started to care about my work. She asked, “How’s your job search going?”

I hesitated whether to tell her about helping Jian Wei negotiate advertising business. In the end, I chose to hide it, shook my head, and said, “No progress yet, it’s not easy to find a job now.”

“Well, don’t rush, take your time.”

I leaned towards Mi Cai and asked, “Looking at your calm appearance, do you hope that I can’t find a job and become a househusband?”

“No, you’re overthinking it.”

Looking at her eager denial, I frowned and asked again, “Really?”

Mi Cai looked at me as if she had done something wrong, and after a while, she nodded, “Okay, I admit, I hope that every day when I come home, you will have prepared dinner for me and cleaned the house. As for work… you can do whatever you want!”

I gave a helpless bitter smile…

“Did I say something wrong?” Mi Cai asked me nervously.

“No, I was just thinking that even if I have a job in the future, I can still cook dinner for you and clean the house.”

Mi Cai shook her head, “I don’t believe it. There’s no such easy job, especially in your industry.”

So you selfishly hope that I can’t find a job forever?

“I was wrong!”

“I’ll punish you to eat this piece of fatty meat.”

Mi Cai: “……”

……

The next day, at two o’clock in the afternoon, I arrived at Jian Wei’s company as promised, ready to go with her to sign the advertising agency contract with Jinding Real Estate at three o’clock.

I sat in Jian Wei’s office smoking a cigarette, while Jian Wei was nervously preparing for the contract signing.

I finished a cigarette in boredom, then put out the cigarette butt in my hand and said to Jian Wei, “Why do I always feel that this contract was too easy to get!”

Jian Wei didn’t look up, still sorting out the documents in her hand, “Easy? I don’t think so!”

“A 5 million advertising project! It was secured in less than a week, isn’t that easy?”

“Because we were fully prepared… Opportunities are for those who are prepared, right, Zhao Yang?”

“That’s barely acceptable, but…”

“Don’t ‘but’ me, just wait for your project commission.”

Jian Wei’s impatience made me a bit helpless, and I chose not to say anything more. As she said, I just waited for the huge project commission, which was a huge amount for me.

……

At three o’clock, we arrived at Jinding Real Estate on time, and under my witness, Jian Wei and the general manager of Jinding Real Estate signed the annual advertising agency contract. When they officially exchanged the signed contracts, I finally confirmed that I was really going to get that 500,000 commission. My mood suddenly became subtle, after all, I had been poor for too long, too long…

After the contract was signed, Jian Wei hosted a banquet for Director Wang and other senior executives of Jinding Real Estate, and I was also invited to the banquet.

During the entire banquet, Director Wang praised me a lot, and Jian Wei also said something I will never forget in the midst of the praise.

She said: She has always had full confidence in me.

In the following time, while dealing with the toasts raised to me, I pondered over Jian Wei’s words.

Did she really never lose faith in me? If the answer is yes, then why did she decisively abandon me in the first place?

I laughed in my drunken daze, telling myself: Don’t be naive! Those were just her polite words in public. If she had never lost faith in me, she wouldn’t have given up on me, on our three years of relationship!

…

That night, I couldn’t resist the rounds of toasts from others, and drank until I blacked out. I didn’t even know how I got home until I woke up in the middle of the night, parched and thirsty.

After drinking a glass of water, I subconsciously picked up my phone and saw several missed calls from Mi Cai. I remembered that I had muted my phone while drinking. Even though I had told her that I was drinking with friends, she was still worried about me since I hadn’t returned home for a long time.

With a slight unease, I went to the living room, turned on the floor lamp, and knocked on Mi Cai’s door.

A moment later, Mi Cai came out of her room in her pajamas. She spoke to me calmly, “You’re awake.”

“Mm.”

“Are you thirsty? I’ll get you some water.”

“No need, I just had some.” After a slight pause, I asked, “Who brought me home tonight?”

“A man, I don’t know him. He must be a friend you were drinking with.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that Jian Wei had asked her employee to send me home to avoid any misunderstandings.

Unexpectedly, Mi Cai took out a bank card from the drawer under the coffee table and handed it to me.

“Why are you giving me a bank card again?”

Mi Cai shook her head, with her usual calmness, “This card isn’t mine. It was left by that man. He said it’s your commission from the advertising deal you made. There’s 500,000 yuan in it!”

I was stunned and looked at Mi Cai in a daze.

“Zhao Yang, haven’t you been looking for a job?”

“Mm… Yes, I have.”

“Then tell me what’s the deal with this 500,000 yuan… tell me the truth.”

I found it hard to speak.

“If you don’t tell me, I can find out the truth about this money. But I still hope you can tell me… I’m really scared that you did something wrong, scared that this is dirty money!”

“This money is really the commission from the advertising deal. If it was dirty money, he wouldn’t dare to have you transfer it to me.”

Mi Cai nodded, “That’s good… then tell me about this advertising deal you made. I’m very curious about it!”