Reunion in Nanjing City

After Yan Yue returned to Nanjing City, only three days passed before she received a call from Old Master Yan, telling her to come back to the old residence. She didn’t say yes, and she didn’t refuse either; the other end had already hung up.

Ye Bai tightened his grip on the steering wheel; the atmosphere in the passenger seat seemed a little heavy.

Yan Yue hadn’t hidden the call from him, so he had heard every word. He didn’t know much about the Yan family, but he knew things were complicated.

Because of his position, he had never overstepped by asking about Yan Yue’s private affairs. He only knew that her relationship with the Yan family didn’t seem to be good; otherwise, she wouldn’t have struck out on her own and founded Changyue Group.

But over the years, he had gradually realized that the Yan family had not only never hindered Changyue’s development, they had even helped it many times. It could be said that Changyue’s rise from an obscure little company to a major group with over ten thousand employees owed a crucial debt to the Yan family.

“President Yan, should we go back to the company first, or...?” he asked.

“To the old residence,” Yan Yue said lightly.

“Understood.”

Nanjing City bustled with traffic and thrived with prosperity. Giant screens along the streets kept playing clips of today’s hottest stars, and posters of male and female celebrities could be seen everywhere. Even people who never followed the entertainment industry could probably name a few of them.

Beneath a massive billboard, a girl wearing a mask looked up at the female celebrity overhead. The woman on the screen smiled brightly, her posture elegant and open.

Was there really something in the world that could make someone that happy?

Before she could look for long, a group of young men and women ran over laughing, admiration written all over their faces. They struck poses together and took photo after photo.

Qin Qingyan stepped back and headed for the milk tea shop.

After leaving Qingyi Village, she had boarded a slow train to Nanjing City, because her father was most likely here. After a day and a night of travel, she finally found a cheap hotel. Even so, getting to the city center by subway still took nearly an hour.

During the day she worked part-time at the milk tea shop, and at night she put on a mascot costume to hand out flyers. Only then could she cover the hotel and round-trip transportation costs.

Living frugally, plus the four thousand or so yuan she still had left, she could probably make do for half a year. Of course, that was only the best-case scenario. There were too many uncertainties and too many places where money had to be spent; with one wrong step, she might not even last two or three months.

But she didn’t have time to think about that now. She had to get back to the milk tea shop.

The black Mercedes stopped outside a quiet, dignified Chinese-style villa. Yan Yue sat in the car without getting out. Ye Bai didn’t ask anything; he just stayed there for more than ten minutes. Then, with a very light sigh, Yan Yue unfastened her seatbelt and got out.

Inside the villa, the living room was tall and spacious, and under the lights it looked solemn and refined. Dark wooden furniture filled the room, each piece carved with dragons and phoenixes; even the back of a chair had intricate openwork patterns.

In the center stood a smooth, lustrous jade tea table. Decades ago, Old Master Yan had wanted to make his wife smile; he had casually named a price, and no one had dared bid against him since. As for how much it had really cost, the outside world had speculated endlessly. Old Master Yan had only ever smiled and refused to answer. The only thing anyone knew for certain was that every cup and vessel on that tea table was worth a fortune.

Someone once said that once you stepped into the Yan family’s old residence, you would know what a wealthy madam looked like.

Yan Yue walked toward the back garden, where artificial hills and flowing water were surrounded by bamboo groves, and a stone path wound through the grounds. Yan Shoucheng was strolling with Yan Zhengqing and his wife, chatting and laughing about something; the family atmosphere was lively. When they saw Yan Yue, all three of them showed surprise and delight.

Fruit filled the stone table. Yan Zhengqing had peeled an orange for his father, but Old Master Yan waved him off, his eyes fixed on Yan Yue the whole time.

“Why did you get here so quickly this time?” Old Master Yan asked leisurely.

“I was passing through,” Yan Yue said with a smile. “There’s still work at the company. If there’s nothing else, I’ll leave in a bit.”

Yan Zhengqing frowned and reminded her in a low voice, “Yan Yue.”

Song Shuxiao hurried to grab his hand and gently shook her head, then looked at Yan Yue again with concern. Whatever Yan Zhengqing had been about to say was swallowed back down; he only gave a cold huff.

“You’ve managed Changyue very well. If you take over the Yan family in the future, I’ll be at ease.” Old Master Yan said with a smile, as if it were nothing.

Take over the Yan family... To her, no matter how grand the Yan family was, it was still just a gilded cage.

“The taller the building, the more people want to covet it; if it ever falls, that would be only natural,” Yan Yue said flatly.

Old Master Yan said nothing. He looked at his granddaughter and thought it over carefully. Counting it up, she was already twenty-two this year. So young, yet already capable of this much; she was the natural choice to take over the Yan family.

Still, Changyue wasn’t bad either.

“All right, I don’t expect you to come by every day. At least show up for the holidays, won’t you? I’m old; every day I have now is borrowed. I still want to spend more time talking with you younger ones.”

“Dad, what are you saying?” Yan Zhengqing said, displeased.

The others all looked at Yan Yue, urging her, hoping she would agree.

Again...

Yan Yue hid the emotions surging in her chest. When she was eighteen, because she refused to give in, they had ignored the fact that it was her birthday and left her alone on a deserted road. They had repeatedly made sure she would bend, but she hadn’t.

The early spring weather was cold, and drizzle fell steadily. She walked alone from before dawn until daylight.

She cried, then stopped; stopped, then cried again. In the end, she no longer even had the strength to open her mouth. She just kept walking, numb and mechanical. It was that night that all the anger, dissatisfaction, and grievance in her heart were chewed over again and again, then finally worn away.

She had no expectations of this family. Even though their attitude had softened a little over the years, the rain from that night was still damp on her skin.

Yan Yue stood up and smiled. “I will.” After giving them a polite bow, she left.

On the way back, Ye Bai didn’t dare ask anything. After coming back from the Yan family, when had she ever been in a good mood? He drove slowly and steadily, giving her enough time to gather herself.

Yan Yue rested her elbow against the car window. The lively city streets felt strangely familiar. Nanjing City didn’t seem to have changed much over the past few years; so much time had passed that she could no longer quite remember what it had looked like at first.

As they turned a corner, a slender figure in a mask walked with her head down. Among the crowd dressed in bright, flashy clothes, she stood out in a simple black hoodie, her hood worn loosely, her jeans a little too baggy.

Yan Yue’s gaze couldn’t help but settle on her. In her heart, a vague feeling flickered up and down, leaving her oddly unsettled.

A gust of wind blew, and the girl’s hood slipped off. Her hair was disheveled too. Frowning, she shook her head, flicking a leaf off her bangs, then pulled the hood back on and kept walking.

Yan Yue looked away, thinking about what she had just seen. The girl’s eyes felt strangely familiar; she must have seen her somewhere... but where?

“What’s wrong?” Ye Bai glanced at her and asked.

“Nothing. It’s gotten warmer,” she said casually.

“Yeah, it’s definitely warmed up a lot. But Nanjing City’s weather is hard to predict. One year it even snowed in March; didn’t they hold some kind of ice sculpture exhibition then? There were all sorts of frozen fish inside.” Ye Bai chuckled.

Yan Yue paused and turned to look at him. After a long moment, she slowly said, “Frozen fish?”

“Yeah.” Seeing her interested, Ye Bai grew more animated. “At first people thought it was done on purpose to draw attention. Later they found out the temperature was too low and the ice layer was too thick, so when the ice bricks were made, that strange thing happened.”

Yan Yue smiled faintly and looked ahead.

By afternoon, the sun was at its strongest, but before it could warm anything, the cold wind still made people shrink back. The girl wore thin clothes and waited at the traffic light. She had no time to care whether her body was cold or warm; all she could think about was how to make ends meet, calculating her expenses over and over.

No one knew how long the cold would last. The bag containing her thick clothes had vanished on the train, and no matter how long she searched after waking, she couldn’t find it. The conductor helped ask around for nearly half an hour, but in the end it still couldn’t be recovered.

At the time, she had only been glad that she’d sewn her money into the inside of her clothes beforehand.

She needed a thick coat. Even one that cost a little more, over a hundred yuan, would do. Otherwise, if she got sick, the money she spent might be even more.

Just then, the light turned green. The moment she looked up, she froze.

People flowed past in both directions, but she stood rooted in place.

Three or four cars away, the window of a black car was down. A woman had lowered her head and was sending messages on her phone. In an instant, scenes from Qingyi Village surged back into Qin Qingyan’s mind; among so many people, she remembered only her.

Since leaving Qingyi Village, only a few days had passed, yet she had already experienced many unsettling and frightening things. But the moment she saw that familiar face, she inexplicably felt at ease. It was as if she were still in Qingyi Village, as if everything were still the same as before.

She lifted a foot slightly, then stopped.

In Qingyi Village, she could feel the woman’s goodwill toward her, but she also knew clearly that it wasn’t because Qin Qingyan herself was so good or special; it was because the woman was simply a very good person.

So Qin Qingyan understood that if she took off her mask and crossed the street as if nothing had happened, Yan Yue would definitely recognize her; and right now, the woman was looking ahead.

But she still didn’t dare. She wasn’t afraid the woman would call out to her, but she was very afraid she wouldn’t.

The green light stayed on; the vehicles slowly started up and drove away.

Yan Yue kept watching the roads on both sides, but she never saw that figure again. Even after they returned to the intersection, she still hadn’t.

“Could I have been mistaken?” Ye Bai guessed. “After all, the whole country is so big; the chances of that girl coming to Nanjing City are still very small.”

Yan Yue didn’t answer. Thinking of the eyes she had seen earlier, she knew she wasn’t wrong; those eyes were exactly like Qin Qingyan’s, and there was an eighty or ninety percent chance it really was her.

They circled several nearby streets, but in the end, they still couldn’t find her.

Nanjing City at night looked even more prosperous, all red lights and wine, song and dance, people calling to their friends and inviting each other out. It was a paradise for the young.

Qin Qingyan wore a heavy, cute little dragon mascot costume as she handed out flyers one by one. Sweat had broken out on her forehead, and a few drops slid into her eyes, stinging sharply.

She held a flyer in her right hand, keeping it raised the whole time. When she saw students or parents with children, she would offer it out. Some people ignored her completely, as if they didn’t even see her, chatting and laughing as they walked past. Some students wanted to take photos with her. At first, she could only stand stiffly and maybe lift a hand, but later she even learned a whole series of playful poses to attract people.

Sometimes parents would take one look at the flyer and deliberately say loudly, “Art training class? Good schools still need to advertise? You people only know how to ruin our children! Handing out flyers and not even thinking about your conscience!” Then they would crumple it into a ball and slap it against the mascot costume.

Fortunately, she had only encountered that kind of thing once or twice. Most of the time, especially young students, would take them.

Around ten o’clock, after holding on for more than three hours, she finally got to rest. She changed back into her own light clothes, her skin still sticky with sweat. The night breeze was cool; even a slight gust made her feel a little cold.

Qin Qingyan shivered and pulled her thin clothes tighter around herself.

She hurried to the subway station, where the crowd was packed shoulder to shoulder. She lowered her head and moved through them, just like everyone else, waiting behind the yellow line. When the train arrived, the crowd surged in all at once; she felt as if she weren’t walking in herself, but being shoved inside against her will.

Inside the train, it was even more crowded than outside. The mixed smells of everyone’s bodies tangled together, and the steadily warming air made breathing difficult. Unlike others, who had friends to chat with or could bury their heads in their phones, she could only grit her teeth and endure the hour-long ride.

At last she emerged from the subway. There were very few people left on the street.

The hotel wasn’t far from here; only a few hundred meters away. As she walked this short stretch of road, she thought again of the girls she had seen by the billboard during the day, smiling so brightly. They looked truly happy.

She lifted her head. The sky was so dark she couldn’t see the end of it, like an abyss hanging overhead.

Nights in Qingyi Village were always full of stars, Qin Qingyan thought.

Eight hours during the day, three hours at night; and in just a few days, it had already become this hard to bear. Who knew how many more such days lay ahead.

And yet, this was still the best situation she had right now.