As she wished, Li Jing entered a key district middle school and became a high school Chinese teacher, standing on the three-foot-wide platform.
...
It's unclear how long this continued, but one day, as the city lights began to twinkle, Guan Hongqi saw off the last group of clients and sat alone in his newly renovated office. The large desk and leather chair couldn't dispel the emptiness in his heart.
Outside the window was the increasingly bustling night view of the capital, with neon lights just coming on, but his mind kept flashing back to the old books in the library, the fireworks at the alley entrance on a snowy night, and Li Jing's distant and calm gaze that night.
He loosened his tie in frustration, then finally picked up the phone and dialed a number.
"Strong Nation, it's me, Red Flag. Do you have time? Want to come out and have a drink with me?"
Half an hour later, the two sat in a corner of a well-established small restaurant.
The wooden tables and benches, full of the warmth of everyday life, seemed somewhat out of place with Guan Hongqi's sharp suit at that moment.
Sitting opposite Guan Hongqi was Guan's closest comrade-in-arms in the army and now works in the public security system.
He looked at Guan Hongqi across from him, who was drinking one glass after another in silence, and couldn't help but tap the rim of his glass with his chopsticks. "Hey! Hongqi, what's wrong with you? Did Sister Guan's company go out of business? You look like a wilted eggplant, all listless."
Guan Hongqi raised his eyes, which were bloodshot. He gave a bitter smile and took another swig of spicy Erguotou liquor. "Don't mention the company. My sister is very capable, and everything in the company is fine."
"Then who are you trying to impress with this attitude?" Lin Qiangguo frowned, looking at him. "What's wrong? Are you hiding something from your buddies?"
Guan Hongqi was silent for a moment, his fingers unconsciously stroking the rough glass, before finally speaking in a muffled voice, "I saw Li Jing today."
Lin Qiangguo was taken aback. "Li Jing? Aren't you two practically inseparable?"
He has met with Guan Hongqi quite often in recent years, and every time he brings his wife, Guan Hongqi will also bring Li Jing along.
Over time, they all became friends.
For some unknown reason, Guan Hongqi gave a self-deprecating twitch of his lips, “We used to be… really good friends, but now… I guess people don’t even want to see me.”
"Huh?" Lin Qiangguo's eyes widened slightly. He thought the two of them would get married after graduation. What happened all of a sudden?
"What... happened to you guys?"
Guan Hongqi pursed her lips and finally recounted the story of how he distanced himself after his birthday, and how he saw her chatting and laughing with a male classmate that night before they parted on bad terms.
His tone carried an unresolved frustration and a hint of barely perceptible grievance, "Anyway, that's how it is. We almost never contacted each other again. After graduation, we went our separate ways."
After listening, Lin Qiangguo frowned deeply. "Just for this? You guys... it sounds like there's some misunderstanding, right? Didn't you ask her? Maybe that guy really is just an ordinary classmate?"
"I asked! Her attitude was so cold, as if I was meddling in her business!"
Guan Hongqi's voice rose slightly, tinged with alcohol and pent-up anger, "I waited for her all day! I saw her with another man... I asked her what was wrong? And she just brushed me off with a 'What's the matter?'! Is Guan Hongqi so worthless in her eyes?"
After saying that, he took another gulp of wine, his Adam's apple bobbing. "In all this time, she hasn't even made a single phone call! Not even once! And she doesn't intend to explain herself. Maybe... all these years I've just been deluding myself, thinking we were already in that kind of relationship!"
Lin Qiangguo sighed as he looked at Hongqi, who was so fixated on this. "Hongqi, I'm not trying to criticize you, but you might have misunderstood this. Young ladies are shy, so maybe she's just waiting for you to speak first?"
You're a grown man, why are you arguing with someone about this? Just lower your head, talk things out, it won't hurt you, will it?
"Why should I bow my head when I did nothing wrong?" Guan Hongqi retorted, her stubbornness honed in the army coming to the fore. "Why is it always me who has to give in first? Can't she take the initiative just once? If she cared about me, would she have left me hanging for half a year? She's the one who should be explaining!"
The more he thought about it, the more he realized it made sense, and the more frustrated he became.
Lin Qiangguo saw that he was completely unyielding and knew that this guy was stuck in a dead end and wouldn't listen to anything he was told.
He shook his head helplessly, picked up the bottle and refilled Guan Hongqi's glass. "Fine, I wasted my breath. You guys have a mess of things to figure out yourselves. Come on, let's drink! Today, I'll drink with you until we're both drunk. When we wake up tomorrow, we'll go back to what we were doing!"
Guan Hongqi stopped talking, picked up his wine glass, clinked it against Lin Qiangguo's glass, and drank it all in one gulp.
The spicy liquid burned in my throat, but it couldn't suppress the disappointment and sadness in my heart.
He knew Lin Qiangguo had a point, but his male pride and the hurt of being ignored by her were like a wall between them, preventing him from taking that step forward.
The restaurant was bustling with noise, but his world was silent, save for the sound of swallowing bitter wine.
...
In the summer of 1985, the cicadas' chirping grew louder and louder, becoming increasingly annoying.
After graduating, Li Jing was assigned to a middle school as a Chinese language teacher. With some time before the start of the semester, she rarely left her house, spending her days locked in her small home, either burying herself in writing lesson plans or staring blankly out the window.
The old Watson fan in the house creaked and groaned, but it couldn't dispel the stuffy heat in the room, nor could it dispel the gloom in her heart.
Li Jing's mother, Wang Sufeng, has been observing her daughter for several days.
That afternoon, she finally couldn't resist asking casually while picking green beans, "Jing, it's been almost a month, hasn't it? Why haven't I seen Xiao Guan come to see you? Back in school, didn't you say he would come to see you every few days? Is he that busy with work?"
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