Chapter 30 - 1#

A twenty-something man with a red nose from crying isn’t a pretty sight.

Besides, I knew full well that, strictly speaking, I was old enough to celebrate my sixtieth birthday. And here I was, clinging to an unmarried girl’s hand for dear life, sobbing uncontrollably.

Sigh, to be honest, even I found it embarrassing.

But I had already cried, and there was no taking back the tears I’d wiped away.

The key thing was, I had finally run into Li Ling.

That cheerful girl who was still in college, hustling to make ends meet and pay tuition.

I had looked for Li Ling before—several times, in fact. I went to the university where Li Ling and I had once studied together, but each time, the answer was that there was no Chinese-American student named Li Ling.

When I saw that photo of a bar hostess who looked a bit like Li Ling, my heart sank more than halfway. Now, at last, I had found her.

I had always known that if I had one thing I absolutely had to do in this cheap second chance at life, it was this—

In this life, I would make Li Ling happy.

That was why, when I decided to study abroad, I chose the same city. Even though our universities were different, at least we were in the same place, so I’d have somewhere to start looking. But I’d known Li Ling for so many years and rarely heard her talk about her family. All I could do was foolishly start from the university.

Finally, I found her.

But for me, this was a reunion. For Li Ling, it was our first meeting. I burst into tears, clung to her hand like I’d never let go, and even brought the store manager out. Li Ling and Cheng Chen ended up dragging me to a corner of the shop to calm me down.

Only after I caught my breath did Cheng Chen forcibly pry my hand away from Li Ling’s and drag me out of the shop.

But as soon as we were out the door, Cheng Chen slung an arm around my shoulder and said, wide-eyed, “Fatty, your acting is way too good.” I wiped my tears with my sleeve, the corner of my eye stinging from the friction, and stared at him blankly.

“Hey, quit pretending, Fatty. Tsk—good buddy, you’re something else. I’ll give you a whole year’s worth of cake vouchers.”

I sniffled, my voice thick, “What are you talking about?”

“Come on, still pretending!” Cheng Chen pulled me closer, lowering his voice. “My goddess is meant to be admired from afar, not touched. Fatty, thanks to your little crying act, I finally got to see her maternal, loving, radiant side—”

Then it hit me—so this was how General Cheng’s violent streak was triggered.

The next day was my day off. I got to the shop early and waited impatiently. I didn’t move from my chair until noon, when Li Ling’s shift started. Then I crept over to the counter. Li Ling gave me her usual professional smile—of course, she recognized me. She subtly moved her hands behind her back.

I felt a pang of sadness. It stung—after all, I had been too forward yesterday. No wonder I scared her.

Feeling sheepish, I ordered another hot cocoa and trudged back to my seat. I watched Li Ling’s smiling face from a distance and couldn’t help drifting off into a daze.

I thought, this must be what it feels like to be a father who can’t acknowledge his own daughter and is even rejected by her.

So melancholy. So desolate. So lonely.

I was so lonely that I stayed that way until evening. I only snapped out of it when my stomach growled from hunger. Suddenly, someone whispered in my ear, “Excuse me, sir, do you mind if I sit with you?”

“Oh, uh, no, I—” I shot up and turned around. There was Li Ling, no longer in her work uniform, wearing a light blue dress with lace trim. Her ponytail was down, and she gave me a bright smile.

“Sir, what’s wrong?” She put her hands behind her back—just like the cute gesture I remembered—and tilted her chin. “You held my hand and cried for a whole afternoon yesterday. Don’t grab me again, okay? I still plan to get married someday.”

I nodded blankly, then quickly stammered, “S-sorry…”

Li Ling let out an “mm,” then said, “Well, since you’re so sincere about apologizing, buy me dinner, and I’ll forgive you.”

I nodded frantically.

Li Ling laughed softly—a laugh that felt as distant as a dream. My eyes started to well up again.

More than a decade later, when Li Ling talked about our “first” meeting, her review of me was: “When your eyes get all watery, you look like a giant puppy—smart at first glance, but actually dumb and clumsy.”

Li Ling dragged me to a Chinese restaurant. We had similar tastes in most things, so I was a little emotional at this long-awaited reunion. I deliberately ordered her favorite dishes. She looked at me suspiciously and asked, “Hey, Mr. Ren Qiri, how do you know what I like to eat?”

My heart skipped a beat. I quickly waved my hands. “Oh, is that so? Ha ha, I like them too…”

“Oh, great, great.” She pretended to stroke her chin, then told the waiter, “Then bring us the most expensive one—yes, that one.”

…Her knack for taking advantage of me was still the same.

“Look at you, being so stingy. I was just joking. I skipped work tonight because of you, so you have to treat me to make up for it.”

I paused for a moment, then carefully asked, “You’re still in school, right? Isn’t it hard working so many jobs? Are you struggling financially…?”

Li Ling looked at me, seemed to think for a moment, then leaned in conspiratorially. “Actually, I was planning to rob the food court tonight. But I changed my mind. I figured extorting the big dummy who cried all over my hand was more my style.”

I laughed.

Li Ling was still as easygoing as in her past life, cheerful and open, but she kept everything bottled up inside.

“Watch me—food fight! Hahaha, the biggest piece of beef is—MINE—!”

Maybe because I understood her personality, we opened up quite a bit in just one evening. It turned out that in this life, Li Ling had gotten into a different university and was studying a different field. She earned her tuition and living expenses all by herself.

I might have understood the hardship before, but now I truly comprehended it.

Even though I had cut ties with the Ren family of my own accord, I still had Cheng Chen to help me from the start. No matter how hard things got, they were never that bad—not for me. But Li Ling was different. She struggled through reality all on her own, enduring far more hardships than I did. I remembered that Li Ling’s family situation wasn’t good. Her parents didn’t have US passports and worked hard at everything. Later, when she was older, her father injured his leg at work and became lame. He passed away a few years later. Her stepfather wasn’t very kind to her and her younger siblings. Still, she held on. She didn’t let life warp her, and she kept her beautiful heart.

Seeing her like this, I only felt a pang of pain—an indescribable pain.

When Cheng Chen talked about pursuing Li Ling, I grabbed him by the collar and threatened, “Are you serious this time? If you’re not sincere, don’t mess with her.”

Cheng Chen let out a “hey,” scratched his head, and blushed. He just smiled without saying a word. Then my phone suddenly rang. He jumped up and shook me by the shoulders. “Is it my goddess calling? Answer it, answer it! Ahhh—let me listen, let me listen!”

To be fair, Cheng Chen was a promising young man from a great family. In college, he never failed when chasing girls—he never lost once.

But this time, he seemed to have hit a wall. Not only was Li Ling’s attitude toward him merely friendly, but she also often turned down his invitations. Cheng Chen could only drag me along with him, and only then would Li Ling usually agree.

According to Cheng Chen’s explanation, it was because his goddess was shy and needed company. Plus, I had triggered her maternal instincts or something—none of which were real reasons.

I could see it clearly: Li Ling had no romantic interest in Cheng Chen.

But who knows?

Honestly, I hoped Li Ling would find a good partner in this life. Cheng Chen was a responsible man. All in all, he wasn’t a bad choice.

Maybe things like this just needed time to simmer before they developed flavor.

Love and romance—those were young people’s business. What was I, an old man who could already celebrate a birthday, doing meddling in that?

We fooled around like that for a while. One afternoon, Du Yijie called and said he had found something about Red Manro.

Given that there hadn’t been much progress on the Das Jin case, I discussed it with Catherine, and we decided to investigate the suspicious character Red Manro. Catherine wasn’t optimistic, though, since Das Jin’s background itself was a huge problem.

Even though US law is supposed to judge cases on their merits, it was hard to guarantee that the jury wouldn’t be influenced by Das Jin’s underworld background when making their final verdict. If we could prove that Red Manro was unreliable, it would have a decisive impact on whether Das Jin could get a lighter sentence or be acquitted.

Actually, Cheng Chen didn’t know that I was helping Das Jin with his defense.

He was a stubborn kid, and he still had some resentment toward Du Yijie. As for me, I could only say that it was work personally assigned by my mentor Catherine. Also, in Das Jin’s case, he might actually be innocent. Even if he did have some issues, even a heinous murderer has the right to a defense.

Then there was Du Yijie.

I still cared about him, just like Cheng Chen said. He might have changed a lot, but I still wanted to believe in that young man who once wrapped his arms around my waist and leaned his head against my neck like a child.

When Du Yijie said he had some important clues, Catherine was overjoyed—she had hit a dead end. But she was tied up with another big case, so I went to the meeting alone.

In a private room at a restaurant, Du Yijie handed me a stack of documents.

I flipped through them and couldn’t help but admire Du Yijie’s information network. I looked up at him gratefully and thanked him. Du Yijie poured me a glass of wine and said, “Xiaoqi, you don’t need to thank me. If Das gets into trouble, it’ll cause a fair amount of problems.”

I looked up at him. Under the light, the scar by the corner of his left eye was even more visible. Maybe it was my imagination, but even the color of his left eye seemed a bit lighter.

“Xiaoqi, is there something on my face?” Du Yijie waved his hand in front of my eyes.

I paused, then quickly said, “No, nothing. It’s just… in the end, I still had to trouble you. I—”

Du Yijie raised his hand to stop me. He lowered his head and chuckled softly, then looked straight at me without saying a word.

His gaze was a little sharp. I instinctively looked away. Du Yijie suddenly said, “Actually, I’m not doing this without expecting something in return.”

“Huh? What?”

Du Yijie smiled and swirled his wine glass.

“Uh… what kind of return?”

Du Yijie didn’t answer directly. He just teased, “You’ll find out soon enough.”

There’s a saying: “If you play in the underworld, you’ll eventually have to pay up. That’s the law of the jungle.”

I think I heard something like that in a 90s Hong Kong or Taiwan gangster drama.

Cough—when I had already changed into who knows how many suits, that saying suddenly popped into my head.

I walked out of the fitting room wearing a long-unfamiliar high-end suit. Du Yijie was sitting on the sofa, and the saleswoman led me over to him again.

“Mr. Du, what do you think of this one—”

Du Yijie stood up and looked me over from head to toe, his expression as serious as if he were appraising a priceless work of art.

“Hmm… not bad. But the sleeves here don’t seem to fit well.”

“Don’t worry, we have this other one here, designed and tailored by the famous Italian designer Las Vito—”

No exaggeration—I must have tried on nearly thirty pieces. Either Du Yijie had picky taste, or I really didn’t have the look of a rich man.

“There’s an important cocktail party the day after tomorrow. I want you to come with me.”

I stared at him in shock.

Du Yijie smiled, personally adjusted my bow tie, and before I could refuse, he said, “Good. We’ll take all of these.”

Someone, please tell me what’s going on.

The clothing store Du Yijie brought me to was very famous. Judging by how familiar the staff were with him, he must have been a regular. The suits he wore were similar in workmanship to the ones here. Du Yijie was tall and almost burly, and he could wear a suit impeccably, making him look even more handsome.

I looked at Du Yijie’s extravagance with a troubled heart, silently calculating how many years’ worth of instant noodles I’d have to eat to pay him back for all these clothes. Then I glanced toward the door, where two people had walked in—

Hallelujah, amen.

What wonderful day is this? God, I forgot my bedtime prayers last night. I confess.

Shu Yuan was intimately holding Wang Zheng’s arm, smiling as she walked in. I was about to look away when I heard Shu Yuan call out from behind, “Eustace, isn’t that…”

No, no, it’s all an illusion, an illusion…

“Brother Ren.”

Du Yijie heard her call and looked down at me. “Xiaoqi, are those your friends?”

I let out a breath. Shu Yuan had already walked over gracefully, smiling. “Brother Ren, what a coincidence. Are you here to buy clothes too?”

She had changed her hairstyle again, pulling it all up. She looked mature and charming.

I was a little dazed by her radiant smile. I forced a smile, but when I saw Wang Zheng beside her, the corners of my mouth froze awkwardly on my face.

He only gave me a brief glance before looking away.

I rubbed my nose sheepishly.

What was I so nervous about… ha.

Ren Qiri, look how pathetic you are.

“Xiaoqi.” Du Yijie walked over and put an arm around my shoulder, speaking gently with a smile. “Aren’t you going to introduce your friends?”

I snapped back to reality and stammered, “Th-this is… uh, we used to go to the same school. Th-this is Wang Zheng…”

Du Yijie nodded; he probably didn’t remember him well. I pursed my lips. “And this is Wang Zheng’s fiancée, Shu Yuan.”

Hearing this, Du Yijie smiled at Shu Yuan. “Congratulations.”

Shu Yuan blushed and smiled, her happiness written all over her face.

But then Wang Zheng raised his eyes, looking at me. He parted his lips slightly, then said hoarsely, “…Excuse me.” He covered his mouth with one hand and turned toward the restroom.

Shu Yuan looked after him with concern and said, “Eustace has been wearing himself out because of the engagement preparations. I told him to see a doctor, but he won’t listen.”

Wang Zheng did look unwell. I said, “You need to keep an eye on him. Wang Zheng has a habit of pushing himself too hard.”

Du Yijie’s phone suddenly rang. He looked down at it, tossed out a “I’ll take this call,” and walked away too.

Suddenly, it was just Shu Yuan and me.

Shu Yuan sighed and slowly flipped through the clothes on the rack. She pulled out one and said to me, “Brother Ren, do you think Eustace would look good in this?”

It was a light blue shirt. I nodded and gave a neutral review: “This would actually suit Wang Zheng pretty well. But he prefers white. You can ask him.”