I waited at the corridor for almost forty minutes, and Robben still hadn’t finished. I couldn’t resist the cold autumn wind and wanted to go up and urge him.

Just as I stood up, a woman named Lily came down from upstairs, and the air was filled with a strong scent of perfume.

“Finished?” I adjusted my clothes and asked.

Lily glanced at me displeased and said, “If it weren’t for you, I would have spent the night here.”

“Robben still has several bars to visit tomorrow, so don’t bother him.”

“I don’t understand why two men live together!” Lily complained to me.

“I’m just staying here for a while until I find a house to move out.” I explained to Lily with some guilt.

Lily nodded and then said, “I forgot to bring my wallet, give me 50 yuan for a taxi.”

I was a bit surprised, “Why didn’t you ask Robben just now?”

“I forgot, and I’m too lazy to go back up. Stop nagging and give it to me quickly.” Lily made a gesture asking for money.

“Are you a prostitute or something?”

Lily gave me a disdainful look and said, “Have you ever seen a prostitute who only asks for 50 yuan?”

“You have a point.” I took out my wallet from my pocket, but couldn’t find a 50 yuan bill. Lily directly took out a 100 yuan bill and waved it in front of me, as if I had slept with her.

After Lily left, I felt that staying at Robben’s place was not a long-term solution. After all, it was inconvenient and far from the company. I needed to continue looking for a house.

…

Back in the room, there seemed to be a lingering scent of debauchery in the air. I instinctively looked at the bed, but the sheets were still neatly folded.

“I didn’t do anything on the bed because I was afraid you wouldn’t be comfortable.” Robben explained to me.

“Thank you for that!”

Robben smiled and said, “No problem, sleeping or standing is the same.”

I put the cherries that I brought from Mi Cai on the table and said to Robben, “A friend gave them to me, try them.”

“Oh, they’re imported from Chile. Which friend of yours is so extravagant?” Robben picked one up and put it in his mouth.

I didn’t answer for a while, realizing that calling Mi Cai a friend was a bit wishful thinking. In reality, we were at most slightly closer than strangers. At least, Mi Cai was often annoyed with me.

“Just a friend.” I vaguely replied.

It was an insignificant matter, and Robben didn’t ask further. He took out the guitar from the guitar case, strummed the strings, and looked intoxicated. Then he asked me, “How did you get this awesome guitar back? Didn’t you use it to pay off your debts?”

“She returned it to me.” I answered truthfully.

“Who is she?”

“Do I have to write a book to answer you?”

Robben smiled at me with an understanding look and said, “Calm down…” Finally, he stopped asking me and started strumming the guitar. The song “Cinderella” floated out of the ten-square-meter attic with the autumn wind at night.

…

The night was quiet like a stagnant pool of water. Robben and I lay on the bed, each holding a cigarette, equally lost and silent.

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew forcefully from outside the window, dispersing the smoke that filled the room.

Both of us took a deep breath of the wild wind and exhaled heavily, and the smell of tobacco filled the room again.

I quickly finished smoking a cigarette and extinguished it in the ashtray. Finally, I asked Robben, “What are you thinking about?”

“Thinking about girls.” Robben took another drag of his cigarette.

I teased, “Didn’t you just sleep with Lily?”

Robben smiled and extinguished the cigarette in his hand. He took out another one from the cigarette box, lit it, and after a while, he said, “I wonder how she’s doing now.”

“If you miss her, why don’t you contact her? Just treat it as caring for an old friend.”

“Can you contact Jian Wei after breaking up for more than two years?” Robben asked me in return.

“Why are you bringing up Jian Wei?”

“It’s the same logic. What can change by contacting her? Just think like that!”

“I’m just feeling sorry for you. Clearly still in love, clearly forced by her parents, but in the end, leaving a name of betrayal in her heart.”

“As long as she’s happy, my little bit of grievance doesn’t matter.”

I also lit another cigarette and took two puffs, sinking into silence. I didn’t urge Robben to contact that girl from Beijing anymore.

“Let’s sleep, it’s almost dawn.” Robben extinguished the cigarette that he had only smoked halfway and said to me.

I looked out the window and seemed to see through all the darkness before dawn. I couldn’t help but sigh in my heart: Life is truly an unsolvable puzzle, full of right and wrong, truth and falsehood…

…

The next day, another busy day passed. This kind of busyness was something I hadn’t experienced in the first two years at the company. It was mainly because Circle’s work temporarily fell on me. But it wasn’t a bad thing. If I had the chance to become the team leader of the planning and copywriting group, then this was an early adaptation process.

Besides being busy all day, I also had other gains. I finally received my salary today, so as the end of the workday approached, I planned how to spend this month’s salary.

After thinking for a long time, I decided to use this money to invite Mi Cai to have dinner for the first time. I still remembered how I tricked her into attending Circle’s wedding under the pretext of having a meal a few days ago. She was so angry. There was no doubt that I had acted thoughtlessly in that matter. So tonight’s dinner, I must sincerely invite her, to apologize and to thank her for cooperating with me in the play at the bar the night before yesterday, so that I wouldn’t feel embarrassed in front of Jian Wei.

I found Mi Cai’s phone number and dialed it. She answered after a while, still in a calm tone, “Hello, what’s up?”

“I want to invite you to dinner tonight, would you honor me with your presence?” I said sincerely.

“Is it another one of your friend’s weddings this time?”I was at a loss for words. She always had a way of leaving me speechless with her calm demeanor. After a pause, I finally said, “This time it’s not about a friend’s wedding, I just want to invite you to dinner.”

“Oh, let’s skip it today.”

I felt a bit disappointed, but I insisted, “Come on, I got my paycheck today, and you were the first person I thought of. Don’t turn down my generous offer.”

“My car is in for maintenance, and it’s not very convenient to hail a taxi here. Maybe next time.” Mi Cai finally gave me a reason not to come.

“That’s easy to solve, I have a car, I can pick you up. Where are you?”

“You have a car?” Mi Cai asked, puzzled.

“Yes, it’s similar to yours. Please give me some face, I’ll take you to a very interesting restaurant tonight, I guarantee you’ll like it.”

After thinking for a while, Mi Cai finally agreed, “Hmm, I’m at Liu’an Scenic Garden, you can come over.”

“You live in Liu’an Scenic Garden!” I exclaimed, because it’s a high-end residential area locally. Mi Cai must have moved there because her bathroom was unusable due to the insecticide sprayed yesterday.

“Why are you asking so many questions?” Mi Cai hung up the phone after saying this.

I smiled and didn’t mind Mi Cai’s attitude. I had anticipated that she had other properties in Suzhou.

I put my phone in my pocket and said to Zhao Li, who was still busy next door, “Zhao Li, can I borrow your Alto Little Prince tonight?”

Zhao Li looked up at me warily and asked, “What are you going to do?”

“I’ll fill up the tank for you after I’m done, hurry up.” I said impatiently.

“You better not trick me.” Zhao Li said, taking the car keys out of the drawer and handing them to me.

……

As the sky gradually darkened, I drove Zhao Li’s Alto towards the “Liu’an Scenic Garden” residential area. I wasn’t fooling Mi Cai this time, the car I was driving was indeed similar to hers. Hers was an Audi, mine was an Alto, both in eye-catching purple-red color.