7. The little thing of taking a walk
The next morning, Fang Kaixuan waited for the restaurant owner. Seeing him approach, she quickly got up to greet him, but the owner gestured for her to wait. A short while later, he arrived with a tall, foreign man of similar stature.
The man had silver hair, a thin face, and looked very familiar. Fang Kaixuan recognized him at a glance—the founder of a well-known hedge fund. She wouldn't say she knew his several books by heart, but they were still her bedside books.
The boss and he were already acquainted, and the reason for inviting him to say hello was clearly to give her a chance to see her idol.
Her idol gave her a signed book. Fang Kaixuan had never been a fan of any celebrity before and didn't understand that kind of joy, but at this moment, she experienced the feeling of successfully meeting her idol. She was more excited than when she saw a muscular man, and her heart raced more than when she went on a date with her lover. Even though her idol had thinning hair and wrinkles, he still had his own aura.
The boss glanced at her, realizing how easily others could find happiness. It was just a small act of kindness that brought her joy.
It's incredibly fulfilling.
At six o'clock in the afternoon, she arrived at the hotel entrance as agreed. Her date was already there waiting for her.
It's truly bizarre. In the 21st century, the two of them hadn't even exchanged contact information, and their meetings were entirely based on verbal agreements.
There is a story in Zhuangzi about Wei Sheng who made an appointment with a woman to meet on a bridge. The woman did not come, and he did not leave even when the water rose. Wei Sheng kept his promise and refused to leave, so he hugged the bridge pillar and died.
"Zhuangzi must have made that up," Fang Kaixuan thought. "Who would be so foolish as to wait for someone for so long? When the flood comes, people will naturally flee." She knew there was no way she could be so foolish as to stay by the bridge pillar for anyone.
However, their classical dating style is also quite amusing. Even exchanging multiple contact methods doesn't guarantee you'll be able to reach the other person. One of the popular terms for relationships these days, "Ghost," describes someone who disappears without warning. One day they're all lovey-dovey and everything seems normal, and the next day they're deleted and blocked.
It's really convenient; you can end a relationship without having to explain yourself.
Open social media, and you'll often see women desperately asking: Why did he ghost me?
That's such a vivid description. A person who disappears without explanation in a relationship is indeed like a ghost, making you wonder if it was all just a dream and nothing ever happened.
As instructed the day before, Fang Kaixuan was dressed exceptionally thickly that day, like an animal that had grown thick fur in winter, making it difficult for him to bend his legs while walking. He was the same. Both of them looked quite clumsy.
The two of them walked slowly and unsteadily across the only main road in the town, turned a corner, and then walked a short distance along a path in the lush pine forest before reaching the entrance to the mountain route.
He prepared snowshoes and trekking poles for the two of them. The metal snowshoes were very difficult to put on, so he knelt down on one knee and said softly, "Lift your foot."
Fang Kaixuan now hates any man who speaks to her in a commanding tone. It's some kind of lingering effect. But for now, she obediently complies, standing on one leg, and to maintain her balance on the snow, she has to gently hold onto his shoulder.
That day he wore a royal blue down waterproof jacket, the texture of which felt rough to the touch. But this roughness also made her feel at ease.
It was probably just her imagination; despite the freezing temperature of her breath, she felt as if she could touch his body temperature through his coat.
One minute, sixty seconds, 60,000 microseconds—Fang Kaixuan arrogantly believed that this fleeting moment could be roughly equivalent to eternity, etched into her life, becoming a moment she would recall in the dead of night.
It seems that everyone has a candy jar in their heart, storing many unspeakable moments. Sometimes the sugar content is too high and cannot be digested at the moment, so it can be secretly hidden away and savored alone in the dead of night.
In the past, Chen Zhilun had a large jar of expired candy at her place, which unnecessarily nourished her for many years.
However, they have all been smashed to pieces.
After helping Fang Kaixuan put on both shoes, he had her jump in place on the snow to test if the snowshoes would come loose. They were essential for gripping the snow as she went up and down the mountain, so she couldn't be careless.
Fang Kaixuan felt incredibly foolish as he did it.
She wasn't good at snow sports, and wearing this gear made it even harder for her to move, making her look like a clumsy bear. He, on the other hand, probably because he often worked in the field, was still agile and free, like a cheetah, even though he was dressed in the same heavy gear.
He led her into the vast snowfield. Hand in hand, yet there was no ambiguity, for the two layers of thick, waterproof ski gloves provided enough warmth and also effectively blocked the transfer of heat.
It was just a small, hundred-meter-high peak, but it was covered in thick snow, and every step could result in a fall. The surrounding area was deserted and extremely quiet, save for the howling north wind that made their noses red. They trudged along like two astronauts, as if strolling on a weightless planet.
Fang Kaixuan thought sullenly that anyone would look ridiculous walking in snowshoes, and she wasn't the only one who would look so disheveled.
She gazed at the towering peaks that pierced the gray-blue sky in the distance: "Actually, I really wanted to go to the Aiguille du Midi this time."
“That’s easy. Chamonix isn’t far from here,” he said casually.
It's not that far, but compared to Fang Kaixuan who has already flown 10,000 kilometers to get here, it would be a pity not to go there on the way.
Fang Kaixuan wanted to go to Chamonix, not because it was the host city of the first Winter Olympics, but now a ski resort filled with the super-rich and celebrities every winter.
Chen Zhilun had been here years ago. He brought back a mug from the foot of the Southern Needle Peak as a gift for her, on which was written in French, “I’m off to Chamonix. I’m already missing you.”
They weren't together yet at that time, so it couldn't really be considered a confession. Longing can also exist between close friends.
Chamonix has become a knot in Fang Kaixuan's heart ever since. Now that it's so close, she has no time or opportunity to go there even once.
A former richest man once said that his happiest time was when he earned 30,000 yuan a month. Fang Kaixuan scoffed at this, believing it was just PR rhetoric. He reasoned that his company had thousands of programmers in that salary range, and this statement was merely a way to appease them, making them believe that earning 30,000 yuan a month was more fulfilling than being the richest man in the country.
You only realize this after some things have happened; perhaps the former richest man really thought that way. Because the happiness back then was grounded, and there was always the feeling that tomorrow would be better.
It can be better, and it certainly can be better.
Just like Fang Kaixuan's boss, who has already earned enough money to last several lifetimes, he still works more than ten hours a day, and is still giving orders on the phone a second before turning off his phone after boarding the plane.
Working with him, she often drifted off into thought, thinking: If I had even a tenth or a hundredth of his money, I would be in Ushuaia tomorrow, waiting for the ship bound for Antarctica, spending the rest of my life by the sea, never to return to that dark office, or to hold those ridiculous video conferences.
Su Shi said it so well: "The landscape and the moon have no permanent owner; the idle are the true masters." Wealth and leisure are what people envy most.
Everyone understands the principle, but few people can actually put it into practice.
Apart from the mysterious person in front of us.
He seemed carefree, friendless, and with nothing to do. He appeared here solely to create a dream for her.
Could he really be a prince charming who's fallen from the sky? Fang Kaixuan sneered inwardly.
Once you're over eighteen, who still dares to expect a prince charming or a knight in shining armor?
Something so perfect that seems to fall from the sky could only be a pig butchering scam.
*
In the snow-capped mountains during winter, one is most likely to realize the fleeting nature of happiness, because the sunset lasts only a few minutes. The round, golden sun has a cute, clumsy appearance, quickly hiding behind the mountain peaks. The last ray of sunlight brushes against your cheek, as if the light suddenly switches from warm to cool, and the air itself turns slightly blue.
They admired it quietly until the faint blue hue seeped into each other's eyes.
It was really getting dark.
"I would never have believed that I would have eaten and gone hiking with a complete stranger. If someone had told me this a week ago, I wouldn't have believed it."
“I wouldn’t believe it either,” he said seriously.
Really? Wasn't it you who approached me that day? If you're not used to approaching people, how could you have done it so naturally and without leaving a trace?
Who are you? Where do you come from? Where are you going?
When will you finally give yourself away?
///
The last sentence is so seductive! It's so captivating for the reader!
Continue tomorrow
Is this also considered Pygmalion?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
