"Your eyes are very beautiful."
Wen Changling responded with a thank you, thanking him for the compliment and also for his eye drops.
The next day, Wen Changling worked the night shift. The entire department was very quiet at night, not too busy.
"Head nurse."
Tu Qizhen answered, putting aside what she was doing.
Wen Changling approached, "About yesterday—"
"I've already heard about it."
It must have been Madam Qi who complained. Wen Changling was just about to express her apology.
Tu Qizhen asked her, "How long did you talk with that mother and son yesterday?"
"About fifteen minutes."
"You're really patient. This morning when I got a call from Madam Qi, I couldn't listen for three minutes without getting fired up." Tu Qizhen gestured to her forehead to indicate her anger, "I don't know where Madam Qi gets her sense of superiority from, as if all the women in the world put together aren't worthy of her precious son Junjun. She speaks without any decorum and still has the audacity to come and complain. It's my fault, I trusted my classmate's nonsense and thought he really was some outstanding young talent and elite lawyer." After venting, she asked Wen Changling, "You didn't suffer any loss, did you?"
Wen Changling shook her head: "No loss."
"That's good then. No matter what that mother and son said, hurry up and reset to zero, forget all about it." One wouldn't need to think too hard to know that nothing good could come from Madam Qi's mouth, Tu Qizhen felt very remorseful, "Next time I'll introduce you to a real young talent, and I won't let you suffer any loss, I'll vet them myself."
Tu Qizhen wanted to find someone really good for Wen Changling, someone with not only a good family background but also good character.
"I'm not in a hurry to date," Wen Changling said shyly, "I want to take my time choosing."
Tu Qizhen proceeded to ask along those lines, "So, what type do you like?"
Wen Changling thought about it: "Someone well-behaved."
And not just that—
"Very well-behaved."
This answer surprised Tu Qizhen. She had thought Wen Changling would like someone who was dominant in personality, considering how agreeable Wen Changling was. She hadn't expected Wen Changling's preferences to be so different from the demeanor she usually exhibited.
After the night shift, Wen Changling took two days off. On Friday noon, Jiahui called Wen Changling, inviting her to a dinner gathering.
*****
The evening get-together was organized by Gu Yihuan, a half-competent bar singer with a big addiction to singing. He would call people out every now and then to hold a "personal concert" at the KTV.
Xie Shang might show up once or twice out of ten times.
Gu Yihuan was addicted to singing; he would sing alone, with a raspy voice that wasn't quite pitch-perfect, yet he favored love songs, the sappier the better for him, howling and wailing as if his heart was being torn.
In such an environment, Guan Sixing could still work on physics equations on his computer. Guan Sixing was a person who had only physics in his mind. When he was younger, his obsession with physics made him uncommunicative, leading people to think he was autistic. Elder Master Guan, wanting to change his temperament, specially sent him to the Flower Chamber Hall's Gu Family. The Guan Family was related to the Gu Family by marriage, and Gu Yihuan had been hyperactive since he was a child. Elder Master Guan thought that the combination of one quiet and one active child could complement each other. But after more than a decade, the quiet one was still too quiet and the active one too active; their magnetic fields never quite matched.
However, they got along well with Xie Shang.
Xie Shang was lost in thought and had been in that state for quite a while. He Dongzhou had known him for more than a decade and could tell with one glance that he had something on his mind.
"Who are you thinking about?"
Wen Changling.
The cigarette at the tips of his fingers had long burned into ash, but Xie Shang only now pressed it into the ashtray. He was thinking about Wen Changling, about how she had squatted at the door that morning.
She was alone, hugging her knees, squatting at the doorway, head bowed, staring quietly at the ground, immobile, like a piece of soulless wood.
Xie Shang passed by there: "What are you looking at?"
She didn't look up: "The ants are moving house."
Because it was about to rain, the ants were looking for a new home. Many ants, in groups aligned in a long line.
"I envy them." She kicked aside a stone obstructing the way for the column of ants, her head hanging low as if talking to herself, "They all have companions."
Wen Changling had no company.
Her mother and younger brother were no longer around.
Xie Shang had always been very aware of his own nature; he wasn't very compassionate, seeking revenge aggressively and with interest. Yet, such an ordinary remark momentarily stirred a sense of compassion within him.
The ant crawling slowly and with difficulty was rather like Wen Changling, like her when she was lost, going in circles without stopping.
There was a rose next to the wine glass, not fresh anymore, with petals listlessly curling in on themselves, also like Wen Changling, like her listless self hugging her knees.
Why does everything resemble her?
It's like seeing a ghost.
Xie Shang had just picked up the rose when someone came knocking on the door of the private room, without any rhythm, thumping away, and his mood reached an all-time high of irritation.
The door wasn't locked, a twist would open it, and the person knocking entered.
"Xie Shang."
Xie Shang raised his eyelids, looked toward the door without speaking, his fingertips caressing the thorns on the rose, his touch light, carrying a prickling itch.
He now felt that even the thorns of the rose were like Wen Changling.
The ghastly singing stopped, and except for Guan Sixing, the few people in the room turned to look at the person at the door.
It was Qiao Yi from the VIP ward of Dihong Hospital.
She entered, hemming and hawing for quite a while before she spoke, "I was playing a dare game with my colleague, can you come with me to our room?" Her target was Xie Shang, "Just show your face, it won't take much of your time."
This kind of scenario was common in entertainment venues.
Xie Shang had no patience to deal with it: "Sorry, it's not convenient."
If she went back like this, she would definitely lose face. Qiao Yi humbly requested, "Could you do it for Yingying's sake, just this once?"
The Yingying she mentioned was Fang Jiyin.
Fang Jiyin was Xie Shang's aunt's stepdaughter, making her his cousin without blood relation. And Qiao Yi was close friends with Fang Jiyin; because of this connection, Qiao Yi also knew Xie Shang.
"You've got the wrong idea," Xie Shang said, his tone not very pleasant, making it clear he was in a bad mood, "Fang Jiyin's face doesn't carry much weight with me."
Qiao Yi lost face, feeling a bit awkward: "Sorry to have disturbed you."
After Qiao Yi left, He Dongzhou asked Xie Shang, "Who was that?"
"Someone I'm not close to."
The minor disturbance passed, and Gu Yihuan continued with her wailing cries.
Xie Shang plucked one thorn after another from the rose, earlier lacking patience, now his movements on the rose were unhurried and steady.
Someone else came knocking on the door.
It appeared to be another person, the knock on the door was very polite; after a few seconds of knocking and waiting, the not fully closed door was pushed open. Xie Shang looked up, a thorn from the rose suddenly pierced into his fingertip, blood seeping out. He saw Wen Changling in the dim light.
Miss Wen, you've bumped into this yourself again.
Xie Shang put down the rose, took a piece of paper, and wiped the blood off his fingertip: "Did you also lose a game?"
Wen Changling didn't come in, just stood at the door: "Yes."
"What did they make you do?"
"Bring someone back." She added, "Of the opposite sex."
Xie Shang stood up: "Let's go."
Half an hour earlier——