Chapter Two: Reunion

"Mr. Zhang, it's been a long time!"

Lin Yu sat down opposite Zhang Yunzhou, took off her coat and hung it on the back of the chair behind her. Yao Fangfang consciously moved next to her, and Chen Guang, who was a step behind, sat down next to Zhang Yunzhou.

"Hey, who's this? Shanghai's environment really does nurture people." Zhang Yunzhou winked at Yao Fangfang.

“Our Banban is getting younger and more beautiful. I wouldn’t even recognize her if we walked down the street, wouldn’t I?” She said with a smile, nudging Chen Guang beside her with her elbow.

Chen Guang squinted, took a sip of wine from his glass, and smiled, "You were beautiful back in school, but you always had your eyes on your wife."

Yao Fangfang hugged her shoulders and shivered. "Greasy, really greasy. You two should drink a few more glasses to cleanse yourselves of the grease." With that, she gestured with her slender, white fingers between Lin Yu and Chen Guang as if she were directing a general.

"No, no, no, let me toast everyone first." Lin Yu tapped the bottom of his glass on the table.

"I'm sorry to have troubled you all with this trip. If you become successful in Shanghai in the future, I'll invite you guys over to enjoy your retirement." Before Chen Guang could react, he tilted his head back and drank the wine in his glass in one gulp.

"Don't drink on an empty stomach. Yao Fangfang can easily accompany you three times." Chen Guang picked up a piece of cooked meat, crossed the steaming hot pot, and placed it on Lin Yu's plate. He also pushed over two small dishes.

Lin Yu looked down and saw that one dish contained only sesame paste and chili oil, while the other contained vinegar, sesame oil, and chopped cilantro. A cold smile crept across her face. After all this time, it was astonishing that Chen Guang still remembered her trivial habits.

Lin Yu had casually mentioned this to him once when they were in school. She loved sesame paste, but had a weak stomach and felt nauseous if she ate too much. She always had a dish of vinegar on hand to cut through the greasiness. Chen Guang had laughed and said she was being fussy, dipping everything in vinegar, like a walking vinegar vat.

In the end, Lin Yu's accusation was confirmed. Since Chen Guang got married, the two had never spoken a word to each other, never met, and even their WeChat messages stopped at a sarcastic "goodnight."

In recent years in Shanghai, I've been so busy that I sometimes don't even have time to eat. I rent a place alone, and when I have a stomachache, I just drink cold water and take painkillers. Who remembers that we used to prepare vinegar and sesame paste when we ate hot pot?

The two butterflies on the table now resembled the open mouths of a clown, mocking Lin Yu's past affectations and the precious time he had wasted.

Lin Yu recalled the graduation dinner, when he arrogantly slammed down his glass, tilted his head back, and shouted at the class monitor across from him, "Today, if anyone dares to force Lin Yu to drink, I'll grab him and jump into a vat of wine for a naked swim!"

As a result, he got drunk first and climbed onto the fountain pool at the school gate, intending to jump in for a bath. He kept muttering that the Earth's revolution was too fast, making it difficult for him to stand. In the end, he had to be helped back to the dormitory by Lin Yu.

Chen Guang's fingers were long and slender, with distinct knuckles. His skin, which had been a healthy tan from long hours of outdoor activity, now looked sickly pale. The youthful vigor was gone; he probably hadn't played basketball in a long time, Lin Yu thought to himself.

"It would be great if you stayed in Linjiang after graduation. My cooking skills have improved by leaps and bounds in the past few years. You could come to our house for dinner every night for a year and we wouldn't eat the same thing twice."

Lin Yu was pulled back to reality by Zhang Yunzhou's sigh. "Who knows when I'll be back next time? I don't want to wait another three years, do I?"

"I think you just want me to babysit your kids, you're really asking for trouble." Lin Yu pointed his chopsticks at Zhang Yunzhou and poked at the air.

The hot pot restaurant was noisy and bustling, with everyone shouting. Lin Yu, his mouth dry, would occasionally raise his glass to take a sip, using the alcohol to relieve the dryness in his throat.

In a short while, her cheeks flushed, her consciousness seemed to be immersed in warm syrup, slowly floating with her thoughts, her body felt so light that it seemed to melt away, and even time became viscous and blurred.

She repeatedly pondered Zhang Yunzhou's words, feeling only bitterness and embarrassment. Her gaze unconsciously swept towards Chen Guang, whose face was veiled in a thin mist under the influence of alcohol.

Chen Guang was very different from the one she remembered; she had become taciturn, with a distant smile always on her face, unlike her former sunny and cheerful self.

He was no longer the clingy, sycophantic man who followed Lin Yu around with a grin, making irritating jokes that annoyed her but left her helpless.

Yao Fangfang suddenly slammed her wine glass on the table, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Speaking of Lin Yu's last business trip, I'm going to have to bring up the old grudges!"

Yao Fangfang deliberately brought up the old issue, raising her glass indignantly. "Chen Guang, aren't you going to have a drink?"

Chen Guang lowered his head and filled the glass to the brim. "Judge Yao, am I serving a life sentence with you? Every time we meet, I have to punish myself with three drinks!"

Zhang Yunzhou put his arm around Chen Guang's shoulder and said with a smile, "Today I'll teach you the rules of marriage survival: a woman's words are always right."

The hidden scars of this past event are like an untouched wound, covered up by jokes and carefully avoided by everyone.

Lin Yu buried his head in the mountain of fatty beef in his bowl, seemingly detached from the situation, eating heartily with his head down, like a ruthless meat grinder.

She chewed and swallowed mechanically until she had completely swallowed the last bite of meat, then raised her hand to press down on Yao Fangfang's hand holding the wine glass. "Did you get an annual pass at the hospital emergency room? Eat something before you drink. At this rate, even ten oxen couldn't handle it."

Lin Yu didn't want Yao Fangfang to make things difficult for Chen Guang anymore, after all, he was just a stranger who couldn't really be considered a friend. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and saw that Chen Guang's fingertips holding the wine glass were turning white. She looked up and looked into his bitter, dark, and unfathomable light brown eyes.

His memory suddenly flashed back to that dusk three years ago. Chen Guang was in a meeting in the west of the city when he received Lin Yu's message. He grabbed his car keys and rushed out, only to be stuck in traffic on the overpass during rush hour.

He clutched his phone, calling Lin Yu repeatedly, begging her to wait for him. Only when the line went dead did he finally realize that Lin Yu had unilaterally declared their relationship dead.

His hands, gripping the steering wheel, veins bulging, slammed his fist on the horn, the piercing sound drowned out by the traffic.

The explanation he had rehearsed countless times in his heart ultimately became a petition that could never be sent. This ill-timed evening rush hour not only blocked his car, but also forever blocked their last chance together.

Years later, Lin Yu finally understood that this broken promise was merely a foreshadowing of fate. Chen Guang eventually walked down the aisle with someone else, and Lin Yu was destined to meet Jiang Chuan at a specific time.

Their six-year relationship was like a cold hot pot; the mutton slices that were boiling and tumbling in the hot pot sank to the bottom of the thick white oil film, and the once delicious taste was left with only a fishy smell after it cooled down.

Those unspoken words, along with the solidified butter, are forever sealed in that twilight when they could not meet.

......

Zhang Yunzhou staggered, his body swaying from side to side, and he had to be supported by Yao Fangfang to move forward.

The two had just had a big argument that afternoon because of his frequent overtime work. Now, Zhang Yunzhou, fueled by alcohol, was waving his arms and loudly apologizing to Yao Fangfang, while vowing to love her until the end of the world.

Lin Yu rarely saw him lose his composure, so she watched with interest for a while, thinking that the conflict between the two of them today would probably be resolved.

"My husband is already so drunk, I can't take care of you two." Yao Fangfang, supporting half of Zhang Yunzhou's body, turned to Chen Guang behind her and said helplessly, "Take Banban back to the hotel, and remember to let me know you're safe when you get there."

"No need to trouble yourself, I can just take a taxi quickly. You should all go home and rest early." After downing two bottles of beer, Lin Yu felt like a boiling cauldron inside him, the heat spreading from his feet to the tips of his hair. It was as if if he didn't suppress the heat, the steam would blow his skull off.

My stomach felt like a runaway washing machine, churning the food inside erratically. A cold wind blew, and I found myself oscillating between lucidity and confusion. My vision was blurred with swirling fog.

Chen Guang ignored Lin Yu's refusals and gently tugged at her sleeve. She then leaned towards him without any self-control and almost fell headfirst into Chen Guang's strong chest.

Chen Guang held Lin Yu's shoulder at just the right moment. His voice rang out above Lin Yu's head, like a male radio announcer in the middle of the night, ambiguous and sticky, his breath carrying the lingering scent of tobacco and beer, spraying onto the whorl of Lin Yu's hair, bringing a tingling sensation.

"You all get some rest. I'll take Banban back. Don't worry."

So-so? Lin Yu tightened his collar, suppressing the chill, feeling that Chen Guang had no sense of boundaries.

......

The car's heater was on full blast, and the earthy scent, mixed with the faint fragrance of tulips, became less pure. Chen Guang sat upright in the passenger seat, looking every bit the model citizen.

After saying goodbye to Yao Fangfang, Lin Yu completely abandoned any pretense of maintaining her image. Shedding the restraint she had shown earlier, she threw herself onto the back seat like a sack of potatoes, her head wedged between the seat back and the window.

From this angle, the light shining through the overpass clearly shows Chen Guang's taut jawline and a bit of bluish stubble.

......

Lin Yu recalled that in the second semester of his junior year, Chen Guang always liked to skip the 7:30 pm self-study session to team up with the boys from the next class to play basketball. He seemed to be a magnet, having an inexplicable attraction to people like Lin Yu, and he was always surrounded by friends.

The seating arrangement for evening self-study was fixed. Lin Yu's seat was in the middle of the first row, while Chen Guang, due to his tall and strong physique, occupied a favorable position in the last row near the door, making him practically the chosen one to skip class.

Every time the teacher called roll, Lin Yu would naturally turn her head and give Chen Guang a smooth eye roll. Watching Chen Guang grin and wink at her, basketball tucked under his arm, denim jacket draped over his head, he freed his other hand, tapped his temple with two fingers, and then waved at Lin Yu with a dashing air.

"See you later!" Lin Yu knew this was his silent message to her.

During the two-hour evening self-study session, Chen Guang played basketball for two hours and fifteen minutes. The open-air basketball court, surrounded by iron netting, was Lin Yu's only route back to the dormitory.

In June, in Linjiang City, you can just take off your coat around noon, but the temperature difference between day and night is still huge. Lin Yu, carrying a backpack, wrapped his coat tightly in one hand and held Yao Fangfang's arm with the other to keep warm.

As they walked back to their dorm, the streetlights followed their steps, intertwining their shadows and pulling them back and forth like chewing gum.

Passing by the basketball court, it was exactly 9:40. I happened to see Chen Guang push past his opponent, jump, and shoot in one fluid motion. In those two seconds hanging on the rim, his white, oversized short-sleeved shirt was pulled up to one side by his raised shoulder, revealing glimpses of his tanned abs.

Lin Yu knew that Chen Guang was deliberately putting on a show in front of her. This feeling, both frank and secretive, surged through Lin Yu's heart like the ebb and flow of the tide, causing a surge of intense, bittersweet pain.

Upon seeing Lin Yu, Chen Guang ran towards the iron fence in a few steps, making the fence frame rattle as he bumped against it. He gripped the fence tightly with his fingers through the gaps, pressed his red, sweaty forehead against it, and shouted at Lin Yu.

"Hey, Banban, wanna go get hot pot? It's across from the school."

"No, it's too late. Curfew is at 10:30."

Chen Guang's eyes were bright and sparkling, with tiny starlight spilling from the upturned corners of his eyes and hanging on his thick, curled eyelashes.

"Access restrictions? Are you a primary school student? What are you afraid of with me here? I'll call the door open for you. Every dormitory auntie in the school wants to trick me into going back to be her son-in-law."

Lin Yu just rolled her eyes and didn't reply. Her teammates behind her recognized the school beauty and her little follower, and whistled good-naturedly. Their joking voices were indistinct, mingling with the hormone-filled night. Chen Guang laughed and picked up the basketball from the ground to throw it back.

Yao Fangfang chimed in, "Chen Guang, stop being such a scoundrel. Banban is a good student; don't let it affect her scholarship application."

Chen Guang, still grinning with his full set of white teeth, tearfully complained to Yao Fangfang, "Don't wrong me! My revolutionary friendship with Banban really blossomed in the study room."

"Yes, yes, yes, someone like you who only shows up in the study room during exam week is sure to be nominated for last year's deserter award." Lin Yu nodded at Chen Guang's head from afar, sounding exasperated.