Chapter 4

  Nightlife starts waking up at 9 o'clock.

  I found a slightly quieter bar, ordered a margarita and stared blankly at the counter. The dazzling lights of City B made me feel a bit alienated, with people chatting casually in twos and threes around me, I found a very fitting word: alone.

  I sat at the bar for a while, occasionally one or two men came over to chat me up. When I got bored, I'd pick up my glass and chat with them, or rather, we'd flirt with each other, talking about nothing in particular, leaving some ambiguous space between us.

  Around 1 o'clock, Fu Andong called to check in: "You're still awake at this hour?"

  "Didn't you call because you hoped I wasn't asleep?"

  "You still have work tomorrow, go hang out with your friends."

  I deeply feel that Fu Andong is more and more treating himself as a leader: "I said to Fu Andong, are you getting close with Liu Xi's good things?"

  He was somewhat perplexed: "What... what does this mean?"

  "Otherwise, why do you always act like everyone's father? This is not good, managing this and that, nagging all the time. I'm telling you seriously, even if they ran away with the ball, there's no need to be so anxious. Nowadays, people who get on the bus first and pay later are all rich second-generation officials or wealthy people, it really shows their upbringing."

  "...Xu, I came with good intentions and a passionate heart to comfort you in the middle of the night, how could you be so unappreciative?"

  I sighed and said, "Which leader calls a female employee at 1 am to ask about her private life? If you keep doing this, I'll think you're hinting that I should follow the 'hidden rules'."

  Fu An Dong started laughing: "That's okay too, the leader's meaning is quite clear, don't you need to consider it?"

  "Do you want me to convey the leader's intention to Liu Xi?"

  Fu Andong has always had this bad habit of flirting with girls since he was young, and I remember one time in particular when we were in junior high. He was a sophomore then, and we attended the same middle school. My deskmate Zhang (a girl) had a crush on him and couldn't help herself. Zhang was a very straightforward girl, so she asked me to pass a note to him for her, which bluntly asked: "Are you interested in me?"

  Fu An Dong Hui's sentence was even more direct, shamelessly written: Not interesting.

  I'm walking on the street and I don't even want to admit that this is my only companion for life, a childhood friend who grew up with me in the same compound for 20 years. It's really embarrassing.

  It seems that women like this kind of shameless man, Pei Andong's luck with women is indeed very good, which led him to live for nearly 30 years without discovering his personality flaws, and his self-awareness level approaches negative infinity.

  After chatting for a couple of sentences, I hung up the phone. It was late at night and quiet everywhere. The man who was just beside me had vanished, so I picked up my bag and headed back.

  The street was very quiet, and I couldn't hail a taxi for a while. I walked back along the road, step by step, in my own shadow. After passing two intersections, on my left hand side was an old residential area. I vaguely remembered that there was a garden in the middle of the community, with two long benches next to it. One of the armrests was broken, and the other had been repainted.

  The lamp posts outside the residential area are dim and nostalgic, some memories are like old wine that rushes to the face, so strong that it makes one's eyes unable to open.

  Lu You and I lived in room 402 on the southernmost unit of this neighborhood, where we spent our brief but unforgettable cohabitation life a few years ago.

  It's a one-bedroom apartment, 50 square meters, decorated very simply.

  As I thought about it a bit, I had already entered the residential area. Except for one or two households that left their night lights on, I could only identify the direction by relying on the road lights along the way, which were either flashing or dim.

  My memory may be biased, but I can no longer find the southernmost unit. Looking up, the city's night sky is desolate and dull, finding a bit of nostalgic flavor, sentimentally as if I could see Lu You's black T-shirt fluttering on the balcony.