Afterwards 3
On that evening, Jiang Yumo had a dream, a dream of the summer when the college entrance exam ended.
The six of them went to take photos.
Under the teasing of Zhao Zheng and Yan Qing, she sat on Duan Ye’s shoulder. At that moment, she was both afraid and joyful, afraid of falling down. He reached out to support her and, seeing her genuine fear, he would laugh and reassure her, telling her not to be afraid, not to worry.
He would never let her fall.
That summer was truly wonderful. At eighteen, she really liked Duan Ye, liked him so much that she, who had always been sensible, made such a capricious decision. But what could she do? At that time, she didn’t want to be apart from him even for a single second. She still remembered how excitedly she told him about her college choices, the complicated expression on his face at that moment.
He was clearly very happy and even smiled.
But the emotions in his eyes were something eighteen-year-old her couldn’t understand at all.
It wasn’t until later that she found out he had given up better opportunities, a broader horizon, just to stay by her side. She suddenly realized that the emotion in his eyes was ‘pressure.’
But she had always wanted to tell him that she had never blamed him; it was her own decision.
She had never regretted it, until she found out about this.
She began to be careful, not daring to complain about anything related to her studies in front of him anymore, nor revealing occasional dissatisfaction with her job. Every time she saw him, she always tried to lift her spirits, to prove to him that her job was really good, but she wasn’t a machine, she was a human being, and she could get tired, get hurt, and feel sad. She didn’t mention the passengers’ making things difficult for her or her boss’s strictness, not even the news of plane crashes; she hid her fear deep inside. She also feared that he would see such news.
They didn’t know when, but they stopped talking openly.
He was probably the same, not mentioning the difficulties he faced at work, silently bearing the pressures from society and reality. He started working hard to earn money, and later, she received a call from Guo Shichao, only to find out that he was almost working himself to exhaustion just to buy a house, even considering participating in underground boxing.
So, she really regrets it.
She regrets the college entrance exam choices she made back then, and she regrets going to the city where he lives.
Sometimes she also fantasizes, if she hadn’t done that back then, maybe they wouldn’t be like this now?
—Duan Ye, I really regret it.
She woke up in the morning, glanced at her phone, and saw a message from He Yanbo : [Good morning, are you awake?]
Jiang Yumo cried last night, and her eyes were still swollen. She got up, looked outside, and finally breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that her parents weren’t at home.
After getting ready, she sat on the sofa, contemplated for a while, and replied to He Yanbo’s message : [Mr. He, I’m sorry.]
The adult world is like this.
With one ‘I’m sorry,’ she understands, and he understands too.
She was going to drive back to the airport in the afternoon. Her colleagues really liked the snacks in Ningcheng and asked her to buy some. As she was about to leave the residential area and get into her car, she unexpectedly ran into He Yanbo.
He Yanbo smiled, “Miss Jiang, I know I’m being abrupt, but I wanted to come and try.”
Jiang Yumo glanced at the time, and it was still more than an hour before lunch time.
She pondered and said, “Let’s have lunch. I’ll treat you.”
He Yanbo’s eyes lit up, and he nodded eagerly.
He Yanbo had driven here by himself, and Jiang Yumo had her own reasons for driving on her own as well. They both drove separately to the underground parking lot of the shopping mall. It was a weekday, and it was not yet lunchtime, so the well-reputed creative restaurants were not crowded, and they easily found a table.
Jiang Yumo ordered what she wanted to eat and then handed the menu to him.
“I feel that asking why is very impolite and abrupt,” He Yanbo said, “Actually, Miss Jiang, I’ve heard some things about you too. Ningcheng is too small; it always feels like as long as someone has the intention, even embarrassing incidents from when I used to play games in an internet cafe during high school, and the class teacher caught me, might also be heard.”
Jiang Yumo laughed.
“In a few more months, I’ll be thirty-two as well. I won’t hide it from you; at this age, not being married is considered unfilial in my parents’ eyes. Over the past few years, I’ve been on many blind dates and had relationships, but they all ended for various reasons. Sometimes I initiated the breakup, and sometimes it was the other party. To be honest, it’s been quite exhausting. But, Miss Jiang, I’m not lying when I say that when I see you, it feels like I’m back in my student days—impulsive and nervous. The day I met you, every word I said was rehearsed in advance.” He Yanzhou’s words were sincere, and Jiang Yumo knew it. His expression of enthusiasm and affection couldn’t be faked.
What does he like about her?
Flipping through their chat history, they hadn’t talked much or deeply.
“What I want to say is that everyone has a past, including me. I had a previous relationship that lasted for a few years, and I also had a previous relationship where we talked about marriage, but it didn’t work out in the end due to incompatibility. I hope you won’t be put off by this,” He Yanbo hesitated for a while before continuing, “Some people are meant to be kept in your heart but not meant to spend your life with. Life is too long, and you can’t predict how many people you’ll meet. Just like me, I never expected to meet someone like you.”
Jiang Yumo had been listening quietly all this time.
When he finished speaking and looked at her expectantly, she took out a small bottle of tomato juice from her bag.
Then, she picked up an empty glass from the table and tapped the glass with her fingertip. When He Yanbo looked over, she smiled and said, “This is him.”
Then she unscrewed the cap of the juice bottle and said, “This is me.”
This is her in her entire life, yes, she uses the word ‘entire life.’ It’s her entire passion and love.
She poured the juice into the glass, and not a drop remained in the bottle.
He Yanzhou was also a smart person. He looked at her steadily, his expression changing, and then he smiled, “I understand.”
Jiang Yumo apologized sincerely, “Actually, I’m at fault in this matter too, for taking up so much of your time. I’m really sorry. I will talk to the matchmaker and let them know it’s my fault.”
He Yanbo waved his hand and said, “Not so much time. That’s how blind dates are. But I still want to thank you. I always thought that at my age, it would be difficult to meet someone I like. Now it seems like I’m not too old, right?”
Jiang Yumo nodded with a smile, “Of course, you’re only in your thirties, still young.”
After finishing their meal and paying the bill, Jiang Yumo went to a shop in the mall to pack some radish beef offal. She drove around the city for nearly half an hour before finally heading in the direction of Duan Ye’s shop.
After parking the car, she got out, carrying the packed box.
It was lunchtime now, and today was unusually hot, with the sun shining brightly. Walking on the streets felt like dancing on a griddle.
Duan Ye was sitting in a chair, flipping through inventory and sales records while occasionally taking a bite of his meal.
The air conditioning was not on, and there was only an industrial fan blowing noisily.
Hearing a different sound, Duan Ye looked up and was surprised to see her at the door. However, he remained calm and covered the disposable lunchbox lid before getting up. He instinctively took out a tissue from the drawer to wipe his mouth.
Jiang Yumo walked in and handed him the packed box, saying, “I saw people lining up, so the food should be good.”
Duàn Yě took it and placed it on the table.
“How’s business?” Jiang Yumo chatted with him as if they were old friends.
“It’s not bad,” Duàn Yě replied. “Want to go upstairs? It’s too hot down here; the downstairs air conditioning is broken, and the repairman won’t come until tomorrow. There’s air conditioning upstairs.”
“Sure.”
She followed Duan Ye upstairs.
The second floor was quite spacious, more like half a warehouse. There were two rooms, one was an office filled with miscellaneous items, and the other was Duan Ye’s room.
Duan Ye opened the door and found the remote control on the bedside table, then pressed the button.
Jiang Yumo took a look around.
It was still very simple, a folding bed, a bedside table, and a somewhat old-looking double sofa.
Duan Ye closed the door again, making the already small room appear even smaller.
Jiang Yumo glimpsed postcards hanging on the wall above the bed. She bent down slightly to take a closer look, and as she did, her slightly curled long hair fell loose.
Duan Ye stood behind her, getting closer, and the faint fragrance still lingered in his nose.
Jiang Yumo was quite loyal, just like that with everything.
The dishes she liked at the age of eighteen, she still liked now.
Although others had given her many perfumes, there were several bottles on her dressing table, but she only used one regularly.
On many late nights, he could still smell it on her neck, on her wrist, on her clothes.
Several times later, when he passed by a counter at the mall where someone happened to be spraying the same perfume on their wrist, he would stop suddenly, overwhelmed by a sense of longing that he couldn’t suppress.
“Are they the postcards I sent you?” Jiang Yumo asked, hugging her arms and looking curious.
Duan Ye nodded.
As expected.
Jiang Yumo wasn’t that surprised either. That’s what her job was like, flying around all year round. When she had some free time after landing, she would meet up with colleagues to visit the local tourist attractions, and sometimes she would come across small shops selling postcards. She would send them to her friends and to him as well.
Unconsciously…
She counted them one by one. “Eleven in total.”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll send you another one this year,” Jiang Yumo added, “if I have the enthusiasm to go out and wander.”
Sometimes, breaking up isn’t necessarily a bad direction and ending.
At least for now, she would reveal the fatigue from work.
It’s strange; she didn’t initially like this job so much, but year after year, she went from economy class to first class. Earlier this year, she even became the regional chief stewardess through an assessment. There would definitely be difficult passengers, and when she first started, she would hide in the restroom and cry. But now, she could skillfully handle all sorts of problems.
If she were to change jobs now, she couldn’t imagine what she would do.
Occasionally, when she looked up at the planes in the sky, she gradually began to feel at ease.
“Okay.”
Jiang Yumo seemed to have really only come to deliver a plate of radish beef offal.
Before she left, she remembered something and turned to Duan Ye, “I’ve already clarified things with that blind date.
“I’ve only met him twice, had two meals, and watched a movie with him.”
She didn’t use ‘we.’
In both her and his hearts, ‘we’ could only be the two of them.
Duan Ye looked at her, and his throat moved slightly, “Was the movie good?”
Jiang Yumo shook her head, “Even with my low sense of humor, I didn’t laugh.”
A comedy, if not even someone with her low sense of humor laughed, you can imagine… the quality of the movie.
Duan Ye smiled, “Alright, when are you leaving?”
Jiang Yumo said, “I’m going to buy something for my colleague and then I’ll be leaving. There’s a flight taking off at eleven tonight.”
“Alright,” Duan Ye raised his hand to check his wristwatch.
It might seem to outsiders that a thirty-year-old man should wear a better watch, but for so many years, Duan Ye hadn’t changed his watch since he received it on his eighteenth birthday.
“I’ll drive you to work,” Duan Ye paused, “You look a bit tired, not really fit for driving on the highway.”
Jiang Yumo sighed and touched the corner of her eye, “Dark circles?”
Duan Ye smiled, “None.”
“What about your shop? Is it okay?” she asked.
“There are the employees, it’s fine.”
So, Duan Ye drove her car, and she sat in the passenger seat, heading north from Ningcheng towards the airport.
Along the way, they hardly spoke.
Old songs played in the car.
These were songs they had once loved. It seemed that at this age, they had an unusual attachment to listening to old songs. They were unwilling to try listening to the current popular songs and instead preferred to listen to songs that carried memories of their youth.
When they reached the airport parking lot, Jiang Yumo got out of the car, and Duan Ye did too.
Duan Ye offered her the car keys, but she didn’t take them. She lazily tied her hair with a hairband and said, “You can drive it back.”
“Alright.”
Jiang Yumo suddenly remembered something and added, “The gas card is in that compartment. You can find it yourself.”
Duan Ye replied, “I have a gas card.”
“Oh,” Jiang Yumo smiled, “That’s good. Gas prices are really expensive these days, after all.”
Duan Ye looked at her, reached into his pants pocket, and pulled out a wallet. Inside the wallet were the Polaroid photos they had taken back when they were in the rented apartment.
He was scooping watermelon balls for her when she suddenly attacked him with a kiss.
He took out a card from the wallet and handed it to her.
“What’s this?”
“A card.”
Duan Ye’s voice was low, and at this moment, the constant sound of cars driving in and the noise of tires rolling on the ground could be heard.
“I’ve always wanted to give this to you. I recently landed a big contract and managed to save up.”
“The password is still the same?”
“Yes, your birthday.”
What was Duan Ye thinking?
He knew that what she wanted wasn’t these material things, but he had never forgotten his promise to himself. He had sworn in his heart that he would give her a house, even if she didn’t know, even if in the end, she exhausted her love for him, he didn’t want to break this promise.
This is so painful to read for my weak heart 😭😭
Man it is so heart wrenching😥😥😥