Chapter 59 Ji Yun's Reminder

Friday night at 10 p.m., a members-only whiskey bar in Sanlitun.

When Huo Yanli arrived, Ji Yun was already sitting in the corner of the bar, with two glasses of amber single malt whisky in front of him. The bar was dimly lit, with low jazz music playing, and the air was filled with the mixed aroma of oak barrels and cigars.

"Ten minutes late." Ji Yun pushed one of the glasses towards him. "You'll have to drink one as punishment."

Huo Yanli sat down, unbuttoned his suit jacket, picked up his wine glass, and drank it all in one gulp. The liquid slid down his throat, bringing a burning sensation, which then transformed into warmth.

"What is it that you have to say tonight?" he asked.

Ji Yun swirled the wine glass in his hand, the ice cubes clinking against the glass. He was silent for a moment before speaking, "Lin Wei is looking for me."

Huo Yanli's fingers paused for a moment on the rim of the cup.

“This afternoon, she asked me to have coffee,” Ji Yun continued. “She said she wanted to catch up and talk about recent events. But after half an hour, the conversation went around in circles and eventually ended up talking about your wife.”

A low chuckle drifted from a corner of the bar; a few foreigners were playing a dice game. The jazz music changed, the saxophone melody becoming even more melancholic.

"What did she ask?" Huo Yanli's voice was calm.

"First, she asked if you were really married." Ji Yun looked at him. "I said yes. Then she asked what kind of person Mrs. Huo was, what her family background was like, and how your relationship was."

Ji Yun took a sip of wine, his tone clearly sarcastic: "I said Miss Song is a translator at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a very nice person. As for your relationship—that's between you two, it's not appropriate for outsiders to comment."

Huo Yanli didn't speak, but simply looked at the remaining whiskey in his glass. The ice had begun to melt, swirling in the amber liquid.

“She was silent for a long time after hearing this,” Ji Yun said. “Then she asked me if it was a political marriage or if my elders forced me into it. I said I didn’t know, but you’ve changed a lot in the last two years.”

"I've changed a lot?" Huo Yanli looked up.

"Don't you realize it yourself?" Ji Yun asked rhetorically. "The Huo Yanli of the past only had business in his eyes, only expansion, only how to make the Huo Group bigger. Now you..." He paused for a moment, "You care about the health of the people around you, you will take the initiative to call and ask about Song Zhiyi's wrist injury, and you will stare blankly at her back at the party."

Huo Yanli's fingers tightened.

"I didn't—"

"Don't deny it." Ji Yun interrupted him. "How many years have we known each other, Yanli? I can tell what you're thinking with just one look. What was your first reaction when Song Zhiyi was splashed with red wine at the party that day?"

Huo Yanli remained silent.

"You wanted to rush up and protect her, didn't you?" Ji Yun said. "Even though she didn't need your protection in the end, that momentary reaction doesn't lie."

The bar played a different song, Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit," her desolate voice filling the air.

"Yanli," Ji Yun's voice lowered, with an unusual seriousness, "Lin Wei is back, I know. I also know she looked for you. But what I want to say is—the past is the past."

Huo Yanli finally spoke, his voice a little hoarse: "I know."

"Do you really know?" Ji Yun looked at him. "Or do you only know rationally, but your emotions are still wavering?"

Huo Yanli didn't answer. He picked up his glass and took another big gulp. The spiciness of the whiskey spread from the tip of his tongue to his stomach, like a kind of self-punishment.

“When she took the money and left, you waited at the airport all night,” Ji Yun said. “The rest of us knew about this, but no one dared to mention it. Because it was your scar, and we couldn’t touch it.”

“But things are different now.” Ji Yun put down his wine glass and leaned forward. “You have Song Zhiyi now. No matter how you got married, whether it was a marriage of convenience or not—she is your wife now. She rushed to save your family members when they fell ill, she attended parties when your work required her, she even saved the grandson of the French ambassador on the battlefield… Yanli, if you miss out on a woman like that, you may never meet another one.”

Huo Yanli closed his eyes. Many images flashed through his mind: him spending the night at the airport watching plane after plane take off; Song Zhiyi's profile as she signed the marriage certificate at the Civil Affairs Bureau; Lin Wei crying at the class reunion; Song Zhiyi's focused gaze during acupuncture…

Chaotic, intertwined, and impossible to sort out.

“She asked me today,” Ji Yun continued, “whether Song Zhiyi was the kind of person who was good at pleasing elders, which is why she won your grandfather’s favor. I said no, Miss Song doesn’t need to please anyone at all. Just by standing there, she is a person worthy of respect.”

Huo Yanli opened his eyes and looked at Ji Yun: "You like her very much."

It's not a question, it's a statement.

“I admire her,” Ji Yun corrected, “and I’m grateful to her. Without her, my mother might not be here anymore. I will remember this kindness for the rest of my life.”

He paused, his tone becoming even more serious: "So Yanli, as a friend, I must remind you. Lin Wei's return this time is not simple. The questions she asked about Song Zhiyi were clearly made with comparison and probing. She wants to know the details of her opponent and how much of a chance she still has."

“Song Zhiyi is no match for him,” Huo Yanli suddenly said.

Ji Yun paused for a moment, then laughed: "Yes, she isn't. Because she wouldn't stoop to such competition. But Lin Wei will treat her as a rival and will do everything she can to win you back."

Huo Yanli rubbed his temples in frustration: "Lin Wei and I are over."

“Then you should let her know that clearly,” Ji Yun said, “instead of leaving her room for fantasy like this. You said ‘I’m married’ at the class reunion, but that was too light a sentence, so light that she could interpret it as ‘Although I’m married, I may not be happy.’”

"What should I do?" Huo Yanli asked, his voice unusually weary. "Should I just tell her I love Song Zhiyi? But I didn't even know that myself—"

He stopped.

Ji Yun looked at him, her eyes filled with complex emotions: "What don't you know? Don't you know whether you love Song Zhiyi or not?"

Huo Yanli did not answer. He stared at the remaining whiskey in his glass, watching the ice slowly melt and the liquid lighten in color.

“Sometimes I think,” he said slowly, as if talking to himself, “how would Song Zhiyi handle a situation where an ex comes back?”

Ji Yun raised an eyebrow: "What do you think she will do?"

“I don’t know,” Huo Yanli said. “But I guess she would probably analyze very rationally: what is this person’s motivation for coming back, what impact might it have, and what measures need to be taken to maintain the stability of the existing relationship. Then she would formulate a plan and execute it step by step without any emotional fluctuations.”

As he spoke, a wry smile played on his lips: "Just like how she handles everything. Efficient, rational, perfect."

"So you want her to be jealous like a normal woman? To have emotions like that?" Ji Yun asked.

Huo Yanli fell silent. He couldn't answer that question.

“Yanli,” Ji Yun sighed, “have you ever thought that the reason Song Zhiyi is the way she is now is because she has experienced too many things that we cannot imagine? On the battlefield, in the face of life and death, emotional entanglements may really seem… insignificant.”

The jazz music in the bar stopped and was replaced by softer piano music. The bartender wiped glasses at the other end of the bar, his movements skillful and quiet.

Huo Yanli finally finished the rest of his drink. He pushed the empty glass to the bartender: "Another one, please."

"Don't you have a meeting tomorrow?" Ji Yun reminded him.

"Just this one."

The new wine arrived quickly. Huo Yanli held the cold glass, watching the liquid sloshing inside.

“I promised Grandpa I wouldn’t get a divorce within five years,” he suddenly said. “There are still more than two years left.”

"And then what? Are you really planning to get a divorce more than two years later?"

Huo Yanli did not answer immediately. He recalled the photo of Song Zhiyi saving people in the field hospital—it was the one Huo Zheng showed him. In the photo, she was kneeling beside a simple operating table, her hands stained with blood, but her eyes were focused as if she were performing a precise surgical operation.

Would a woman like that be willing to stay with him after the five-year period is up?

“I don’t know,” he finally said.

Ji Yun patted him on the shoulder: "Think about it slowly. But before that, deal with Lin Wei's matter first. Don't let the shadows of the past affect the light of the present."

Huo Yanli turned to look out the window. The night in Sanlitun was still bustling, neon lights flashing, and crowds thronging the streets. The lights shone through the glass windows of the bar, casting dappled shadows on his face.

He thought of Song Zhiyi's eyes. They were always calm, like a lake in late autumn, without a ripple. But occasionally, when translating, when saving lives, a light would flash in them—a focused, resolute light, the light of an idealist.

Lin Wei's eyes... always held carefully calculated emotions; she had complete control over when to shed tears and when to smile.

Two women, two kinds of light.

One is a light he is familiar with, a light he once deeply loved, but which is now broken.

One was a light that was unfamiliar to him, one that he had just begun to see, an unfathomable light.

Which one should he choose?

Or rather, which one would choose him?

Huo Yanli drank the last sip of wine and put down the glass.

“Let’s go,” he said.

Ji Yun paid the bill, and the two walked out of the bar. The cool autumn night breeze swept over them, dispersing the stale air in the bar.

"Do you want me to give you a ride?" Ji Yun asked.

"No need, I've already called a designated driver."

While waiting for his designated driver, Huo Yanli stood by the roadside, watching the traffic flow on the street. Cars drove by, their taillights forming a red river as they sped off into the unseen distance.

His phone vibrated in his pocket. He took it out and saw a message from Lin Wei: "Yanli, are you free tomorrow afternoon? I have something I want to talk to you about in person."

Huo Yanli stared at the line of text, his finger hovering above the screen.

Then he typed back: "I have something to do tomorrow, sorry."

send.

Almost simultaneously, another message popped up. It was from Song Zhiyi, very short: "Mr. Huo, I'm going to the hospital tomorrow for a follow-up checkup on my wrist, and I'll also bring some traditional Chinese medicine for Aunt Ji. Is there anything you need me to bring for Grandpa?"

Calm, natural, as if talking about something extremely ordinary.

Huo Yanli stood at the bar entrance for a long time, looking at the two messages.

The night breeze lifted the hem of his clothes, carrying the scent of distant fireworks.

The designated driver arrived; he was a young man: "Are you Mr. Huo? Where are you going?"

Huo Yanli opened the car door and sat in the back seat.

“Ministry of Foreign Affairs dormitory,” he said.

Then he looked out the window; the city night was still going on.

He knew that some choices had to be made by himself.

Some paths he must walk himself.

The car smoothly drove into the night. Huo Yanli leaned back in the seat, his eyes closed, but the effects of the alcohol and Ji Yun's words were still churning in his mind.

"Ministry of Foreign Affairs dormitory." He was somewhat surprised when he gave the address. But the car had already turned around.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs dormitory area was quiet late at night, with only a few windows still lit. Huo Yanli had the designated driver stop by the roadside, but didn't get out. He looked up at the familiar window on the third floor—the light was still on, the pale yellow light filtering through the curtains, appearing warm and distant.

He didn't know what he was looking at, nor why he had come. He just felt that after his conversation with Ji Yun about the past and present, and after responding to two completely different messages from Lin Wei and Song Zhiyi, he needed to stay for a while in this place where he could glimpse a corner of her world.

The light from inside the window outlined a vague figure bent over a desk, steady and focused, as if the outside world's disturbances were shut out by that window, that curtain, that halo of light. Huo Yanli recalled her always calm and composed eyes, and her efficient and rational way of handling everything. Ji Yun asked, did he want her to be jealous? Did he want her to have emotions?

Looking out that quiet window, he suddenly realized that she didn't need to change. She was simply who she was; her world had its own rules and its own center. His attempt to intrude or judge was perhaps itself an offense.

After an unknown amount of time, the light in that window went out. The entire building fell into a deeper silence. Huo Yanli withdrew his gaze and told the driver the address of the Huo residence.

The car slowly drove away. He took one last look at the building that disappeared into the darkness.

Some lights can only be seen clearly when you get close.

Some paths require you to calm down and walk them correctly.