Chapter 31: Lanterns in the Cold

After chatting for a while, we headed back.
Unfortunately, we ran into Yan Rong.
Perhaps it wasn’t chance at all. Perhaps she’d been waiting for us.
She approached with a pleasant expression.
“You’re back.”
“Mm,” Ji Feiyang replied.
“When you have some time, spend more of it with Jingyi. I’m still here to look after the hotel.”
Then she turned to me.
“Yijun, you know Jingyi, don’t you?”
I didn’t know her at all.
“I’ve heard of her.”
“She’s Feiyang’s girlfriend. He’s not getting any younger. They should get married this year.”
I’d already known they were together, but hearing Yan Rong say it still felt like a bolt from the blue.
For a long moment, I stood blankly.
“Oh,” I finally managed.
The afternoon passed in a daze.
“What’s wrong?” Zhou Guo asked.
“Nothing.”
My answer was flat.
“Come out with me tonight.”
I told her about Mrs. Huang’s daughter.
“You’ll help me, won’t you?”
“Through fire and water.”
A true friend.
Following the clues Mrs. Huang had given us, we found her daughter, Chen Xin, at a dance club.
All I had to do was ask a waiter whether he knew her. He pointed towards a girl dressed entirely in red on the dance floor.
Clearly, she was a regular.
Her short, reddish-brown hair looked like flames above her head. In a short red dress and white trainers, she bounced and jumped to the music.
Even from a distance, she stood out.
Was she really only sixteen?
I found that hard to believe. How could a sixteen-year-old look so worldly?
I pulled her off the dance floor.
“What do you want?”
She glared at me.
“I’m taking you home.”
“What? Do I know you?”
She shoved me.
Under the smoky eye make-up, her face still held a childishness she couldn’t hide.
“No. But you do now. You’re old enough to know better than to spend all your time running around outside. Do you know how worried your mum is?”
“My mum? Did she send you?”
Some of the hostility left her face.
Two or three rough-looking young men drifted over.
“More or less. Actually, I offered to help Mrs. Huang bring you home.”
“What’s going on?” one of the men asked, putting an arm around her shoulders.
“Nothing.”
She turned impatiently towards us.
“Go back. I’ll come home later.”
Then she walked away.
I caught her arm.
“How much later?”
“Will you leave me alone?” she shouted. “What’s it got to do with you whether I go home?”
“It’s got everything to do with Mrs. Huang. And right now, her business is my business.”
“You’re insane.”
Swearing, she shook my hand off.
We began struggling.
One of the men moved to help her. Before his fingers could reach me, Zhou Guo threw him to the floor.
Chaos broke out.
Someone screamed.
Only then did I realise how many of them there were. More kept emerging from the crowd.
The club’s bouncers arrived too, but they weren’t there to help us.
We were the ones causing the disturbance.
Zhou Guo really was a heroine.
She’d anticipated trouble and brought a leather whip. It cracked through the air, keeping everyone away from us.
After a brief fight, they understood what she was capable of. Since we were only defending ourselves, they stopped advancing.
Chen Xin struggled desperately in my grip, but I wasn’t helpless either.
Under Zhou Guo’s protection, we made it out of the club.
“You’re crazy. Where did my mum find you? This is ridiculous.”
Chen Xin cursed all the way.
But she was wary of Zhou Guo, so however much she complained, she still had to come home with us.
Mrs. Huang was overjoyed to see her.
Chen Xin stormed into her room and slammed the door.
“Thank you both so much. Miss Tang, I really must change my opinion of you. I always thought you were a spoiled young lady who didn’t know any better. I never imagined you could be so kind.”
Embarrassed, I said, “It was nothing. Thank her.”
I pointed at Zhou Guo.
“She did all the work. Without her, I couldn’t have brought Chen Xin back.”
“Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome.”

A few days later, Weiwei returned from her hometown.
By then, my job was at reception in the lobby. She, Zhou Guo and I worked the same shifts.
With few people around, we were chatting and laughing.
Then our smiles faded.
Ji Feiyang and Cao Jingyi walked in side by side.
They entered the lift, and the doors slowly closed.
“That’s Miss Cao,” Weiwei said, nudging me.
So she was the woman with the long, flowing hair.
“Oh.”
I pretended not to care.
But Yan Rong’s words came back to me: Feiyang wasn’t getting any younger. They should marry this year.
Without warning, my heart began to hurt.
I knew then that I’d fallen for him.
Did he like me?
I was sure he did. He treated me better than he treated other people.
But perhaps his affection was the same as Big Brother’s.
Suddenly, my life seemed pathetic.
Nobody I loved ever loved me back.
I must be a truly dreadful person.
Fear overwhelmed me, just as it had when I’d been afraid of losing Big Brother.
What was I supposed to do?
My thoughts scattered. If he didn’t love me, what could I do about it?
All the strength seemed to drain from my body.
Even breathing hurt.
On the Lantern Festival, Ji Feiyang was going out with Cao Jingyi to see the lantern displays.
As he was leaving, I asked, “Are you free tonight?”
“No. I’m taking Jingyi to see the lanterns.”
I gave him a disappointed smile.
“Do you want to go too? Ask Zhou Guo to take you.”
I shook my head.
“I don’t want to go.”
“That’s a surprise. You don’t want to go?”
He smiled and left.
As evening fell, Weiwei tried to get me to go with her.
She hadn’t expected me to refuse so firmly. Nothing she said could tempt me.
Eventually, she went with someone else.
Only Zhou Guo stayed behind to keep me company.
I sat on my bed with the paper lanterns I’d bought earlier, staring into space.
“Shall we light them?” she asked.
“I don’t want to use them up.”
“You can put in another candle when the first one burns down.”
True.
“But what if the lantern catches fire?”
“Haven’t you got plenty?”
I looked at the five or six folded lanterns in my hands and gave one to her.
“I’ll turn off the lights,” she said.
“Let’s take them up to the roof.”
“All right.”
Upstairs, Zhou Guo exclaimed, “It’s freezing. Aren’t you cold?”
“I’m all right.”
Claiming I wasn’t cold would have been absurd. But at that moment, the cold didn’t seem important.
“At least there isn’t much wind tonight,” she said with relief.
We lit the candles and sat beside the railing, each holding a red lantern.
The flames flickered inside, casting a warm glow over us.
I was miserable and had little to say. Seeing that, Zhou Guo simply sat quietly beside me.
We watched the lanterns.
Whenever a breeze passed, they swayed, their light moving with them.
My heart felt just as suspended and unsettled. Every movement made me fear that something would catch fire.
Then the lanterns gradually grew still again.
When one candle burned down, we lit another lantern.
Without noticing, I’d begun to grow stiff and numb.
“We’ll freeze up here,” Zhou Guo said. “Let’s go downstairs.”
Why had I wanted to light the lanterns on the roof?
Only because a certain person liked coming up to feel the wind.
Loving him seemed to mean loving the things he loved too.
“Zhou Guo, have you ever liked someone?”
She hesitated, looking embarrassed.
“I’ve never had a boyfriend.”
“But have you ever liked anyone?”
“No. Well… there have been people I thought were quite nice.”
She tried to get me downstairs.
I insisted I wasn’t cold.
One more lantern. We would go when it went out.
In truth, I was freezing, but I gritted my teeth and stayed. After so long, the cold had made me numb.
Zhou Guo had no choice but to remain with me, stamping her feet and hopping about to keep warm.
Then, suddenly, she ran downstairs.