That night, the room fee he had sent to Mu Yicong was never accepted, and it automatically returned to Qi Yang’s account twenty-four hours later.
Sending money back and forth felt pretty stupid, so Qi Yang didn’t send it again. He figured he’d find another chance to give it to him later.
But after that night, the two of them hadn’t been in touch.
Now, running into him out of the blue, Qi Yang couldn’t help sighing to himself. This city was way too small.
“Your friend?” Su Jia reacted faster than he did and whispered to Qi Yang.
Qi Yang pulled his gaze away from Mu Yicong’s and continued what he had been doing. He took a cigarette out of the pack, then tossed the whole pack to Su Jia before answering, “Yeah.”
“What are you doing here?” Mu Yicong walked over, stopping next to Qi Yang, and gave Su Jia a once-over.
“Hello,” Su Jia said.
Mu Yicong nodded politely.
Right now, Qi Yang had a very strange feeling about Mu Yicong.
He no longer felt the same resistance to seeing him that he had before, but there wasn’t any extra emotion either.
It was like running into any random acquaintance on the street—no surprise, no excitement. Just a calm, distant kind of feeling.
So he lowered his head to light his cigarette, exhaled a stream of smoke, then pointed upward with the hand holding the cigarette.
Above them was the KTV entrance. Qi Yang didn’t even want to have much of a conversation with Mu Yicong, nor was he curious about why he was here at this hour—business or a date.
Su Jia had good boundaries. She took the initiative to say, “I’ll go check on Jiajia and Liu Dameng. They went to buy water ages ago and still haven’t come back. You two talk.”
“No need.” Qi Yang looked at her shoes. “Aren’t your feet cold?”
“I need to buy something too.” Su Jia smiled and shook his cigarette pack. “I’m taking this.”
With the crisp click-clack of her high heels fading into the parking area, Qi Yang turned to look at Mu Yicong.
Mu Yicong was staring at him with a complicated expression.
“Your girlfriend?” Mu Yicong asked.
“Liu Dameng’s friend,” Qi Yang said.
“Having a gathering?” Mu Yicong pressed.
“Yeah,” Qi Yang said.
Then silence fell between them.
Mu Yicong must have sensed the shift in Qi Yang’s attitude. He took a step closer and started, “You…”
Before he could finish, Qi Yang pulled out his phone and tapped a few times. A moment later, Mu Yicong’s phone buzzed in his pocket.
He took it out and saw that Qi Yang had sent him a transfer—the same amount he hadn’t accepted last time.
“I don’t need this,” Mu Yicong said, knowing exactly what the money was for, and prepared to refund it.
“Next month, I’m taking Qi Xing over. I might need to borrow your place again,” Qi Yang said. “If you don’t take it, I won’t bother you.”
Mu Yicong stared at him for a moment, then moved his finger and accepted the money.
“Do you do this with Liu Dameng too?” he asked again.
Qi Yang looked at him.
“Keep things this clean,” Mu Yicong said, shaking his phone.
Of course not with Liu Dameng.
Liu Dameng was his own people.
“Thanks,” Qi Yang said, not wanting to drag the conversation out any longer. He went back to smoking.
Liu Dameng came back carrying a plastic bag full of drinks and snacks. From a distance, he yelled at Qi Yang, “Damn straight guy, making you and Little Su wait. It’s freezing out, and you send her off to find someone? Which friend came? Let me see!”
“No, no!” Su Jia and Ma Jiajia were walking behind him, chatting quietly. Su Jia raised her voice with a smile to explain. “Hey, don’t badmouth me in front of the handsome guy, okay?”
“Don’t take his side just because he’s good-looking,” Liu Dameng said, deliberately trying to set them up. He kept his voice loud. “If you ever got together with him, wouldn’t you be pissed off every single day?”
Mu Yicong turned to look. As soon as their eyes met, Liu Dameng slowed down.
“Ah, Manager Mu,” he said, dripping with sarcasm. “What a coincidence, huh?”
Any guilt Liu Dameng had felt toward Mu Yicong had completely evaporated that day at the class reunion, after Mu Yicong had said, “Crawl over here, Qi Yang.”
“Who’s that?” Ma Jiajia tugged at his sleeve and whispered.
“A high school classmate,” Liu Dameng said deliberately. “The one I told you about.”
Mu Yicong didn’t care. He checked the time and said to Qi Yang, “I’ve got things to do. I’ll catch you later.”
Qi Yang tapped his ash onto the ground, not even bothering to look at him. “Yeah.”
After Mu Yicong got into the elevator and left, Qi Yang kicked Liu Dameng, who was now standing in front of him, and said with a laugh, “Grow up, will you?”
“The sight of him just pisses me off.” Liu Dameng opened the back door and let the two girls get in first. “What’s he doing here?”
“No idea,” Qi Yang said. He finished his cigarette outside the car, then told Liu Dameng, “There’s no need for that. He’s the one who helped me get Qi Xing’s hospital.”
“Shit.” Liu Dameng slapped his forehead. “Forgot about that.”
The drive from the KTV to Liu Dameng’s place was a bit of a distance. The couple chatted back and forth the whole way, suggesting that Qi Yang drop them off first and then take Su Jia home alone, hinting over and over that the two of them would be a good match.
Qi Yang basically didn’t respond. He just drove silently.
When they finally reached Liu Dameng’s place, he even insisted Su Jia move to the front seat, then clapped Qi Yang on the shoulder and told him to make sure he saw her all the way to her doorstep.
Qi Yang asked Su Jia for her address and turned the car toward her neighborhood. The atmosphere went from lively to awkwardly quiet.
“Want to add each other on WeChat?” Su Jia took out her phone and asked Qi Yang proactively.
“Don’t take what Liu Dameng said to heart,” Qi Yang said without moving, his eyes fixed on the road as he drove, trying to figure out how to politely turn her down. “He doesn’t really know when to stop.”
“I actually think he’s right.” Su Jia was sharp. She immediately caught his meaning and went straight for it. “You seem like a good guy. You’re exactly the type I’d want to get to know.”
Qi Yang stopped at a red light, turned to look at Su Jia, and smiled.
“I didn’t finish high school. My little sister is sick, and I take care of her with my mom now,” he said, unhurried. “It’s the kind of sickness that needs looking after for a lifetime.”
Su Jia was stunned.
“Dameng and I grew up together. He’s worried about me, and he got carried away. He didn’t tell you all this.”
“You’re a great person,” Qi Yang said. “No need to waste your time on me.”
His phone buzzed in his pocket. Qi Yang pulled it out—it was a message from Mu Yicong.
Mu Yicong: Call me when you get home.
Qi Yang didn’t reply. He locked the screen and tossed the phone into the center console.
“He really didn’t tell me that much detail,” Su Jia said. “Jiajia only said you’ve had a tough time—your parents divorced early, you and your mom take care of your little sister—but that you’re a genuinely good person.”
Qi Yang was a little surprised.
He’d only met Ma Jiajia a few times; they weren’t close. Clearly, Liu Dameng had been hyping him up to his wife.
“What kind of sickness does your sister have?” Su Jia asked curiously.
“Autism,” Qi Yang said.
Su Jia made an “oh” sound and turned her phone over in her hands.
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. You’re the one rejecting me before I even get a chance.” Seeing the light about to turn yellow, she smiled and held her phone out again. “Thanks for being honest. Jiajia was right—you really are a good guy.”
“At least add me on WeChat. Let’s start as friends. Don’t embarrass me like this.”
There was no way to refuse that.
Qi Yang unlocked his phone and scanned her friend code.
After dropping Su Jia off at the entrance to her neighborhood, she dug through her bag outside the car and tossed him a box of breath mints.
“Thanks for the cigarette,” she said, waving casually. “This is a thank-you gift.”
“Go on in.” Qi Yang didn’t refuse. He watched her enter the neighborhood, then drove home.
He hadn’t even made it one intersection before Liu Dameng called.
“Did you drop her off?” Liu Dameng asked eagerly. “So? Isn’t she a great girl?”
“You sure get updates fast,” Qi Yang said. “She just got out of the car five minutes ago.”
“She called my wife to say she was home, and my wife called me.” Liu Dameng had gone back to the KTV; there was noise in the background. “Su Jia has a good impression of you. And you—first time meeting someone and you dump your whole life story on them.”
Liu Dameng was an unbeatable buddy. He was fiercely loyal and stubborn to the point of being single-minded.
In his eyes, Qi Yang was a great person, his best bro, and he told his wife the same. He thought Qi Yang deserved a good girl as a girlfriend, so he’d set him up with Su Jia.
The conversation Qi Yang had had with him about imagining his own daughter was completely forgotten.
“Su Jia is nice,” Qi Yang said bluntly. “So stop setting me up from now on.”
“I really have no interest in settling down, Dameng.”
“It’s exhausting.”
Liu Dameng clicked his tongue and sighed on the other end, finally concluding, “You’ve been tortured into having gamophobia.”
No phobia was bigger than Qi Xing’s autism.
Zou Meizhu was waiting at home for Qi Yang to come back and watch the kid so she could go play mahjong. She was pacing in circles in the living room.
The moment Qi Yang’s key slid into the lock, the door was yanked open. Zou Meizhu had already changed her shoes. Clutching a small bag, she flew down the stairs two at a time. “Mom’s going out to play, son!”
Qi Yang sighed, then, out of habit, closed the door and went inside. He said a few words to Qi Xing and looked at the handcraft journal she’d made that day.
Catching a whiff of smoke and alcohol on himself, he patted Qi Xing on the head, grabbed his sleepwear, and went to take a shower.
After cleaning himself up and getting Qi Xing settled in bed, Qi Yang returned to his bedroom. He lay down and only then noticed that Su Jia had sent him a message an hour ago.
Su Jia: Did you get home?
After thinking it over, he typed back a few words: Yeah. Just saw your message.
Her reply came quickly: Looks like we live pretty far apart. I’ve already taken off my makeup and put on a face mask.
Every sentence Su Jia sent had a technique to it—seemingly casual, but always leaving an opening for the next topic.
High emotional intelligence, pretty, good at conversation.
If he were looking for someone to date, she would definitely be a great choice.
But deep down, Qi Yang felt nothing.
Unfortunately, when she’d added him, she’d said “let’s be friends first.” They were barely acquainted friends, so he couldn’t just rudely cut off the conversation.
While he was exchanging brief pleasantries with her, a notification from Mu Yicong suddenly popped up at the top of his screen.
Mu Yicong: Still not home?
Qi Yang opened their chat. He hadn’t even responded to Mu Yicong’s earlier message asking him to call when he got home.
He sent Mu Yicong a question mark.
Half a minute later, Mu Yicong called.
Qi Yang didn’t want to answer.
Not that resistant, angry feeling from before—it was more that, after fully realizing they lived in two completely different worlds, he simply couldn’t be bothered to have any extra interaction. He didn’t even want to talk.
But remembering he still needed to borrow Mu Yicong’s villa later, Qi Yang reluctantly pressed the answer button.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Nothing much,” Mu Yicong said. “Just wondering where you are.”
“Home,” Qi Yang said.
“Not out on a date?” Mu Yicong asked again.
Qi Yang really found this guy baffling.
What right did he have to ask?
“Do you have something to say?” Qi Yang reminded him. “If not, I’m going to sleep.”
“Nothing urgent,” Mu Yicong said slowly. “Don’t you still owe me that movie? Seems like it’s time to watch it.”
Qi Yang pulled the phone away and hung up.
He sent Mu Yicong a transfer of forty yuan, along with a few words: Go buy your own ticket.
