Chapter 61 "Why did you and your ex break up...?"
Why did you break up with your ex?
"And you?"
After working for a period of time, Fang Minzhou would sometimes get to know some people, either actively or passively, due to personal relationships and work overlaps.
Recently, a senior undergraduate introduced Fang Minzhou to a man who had returned from overseas. "He also studied architecture and recently returned to China. At first glance, he seems a bit unreliable, but he actually has a lot of ideas. It's okay, we'll just have a meal and chat casually."
The senior student knew that Fang Minzhou's ex-boyfriend was an architecture student. Because Fang Minzhou never spoke ill of her ex-boyfriend, and she herself said that she did not "be bitten by a snake once and then keep her distance from architecture men," the senior student thought that she might prefer the type of STEM men who understand art.
Really? Fang Minzhou and her senior were just friends, so she didn't rush to deny it. After all, she didn't know what kind of person Wang Kan was. When she fell for him, he was still a good-for-nothing student at the bottom of the class.
However, since her senior had asked, Fang Minzhou accepted the invitation. Some people, you only need one glance to know you're not meant to be. After being in the workforce for a while, Fang Minzhou had learned to read faces. Before, she was always clueless, judging people simply as they were, at most distinguishing between beauty and ugliness.
He Wenlun's eyes lit up when he saw Fang Minzhou, but after a few words, he realized she wasn't interested and decisively stopped probing. In this kind of situation, it's rare for both of them to be honest, but when asked about some private matters, Fang Minzhou didn't want to talk about them, or at least didn't want to be the first to speak. But He Wenlun didn't care, "When I went back to China, the Chinese-Americans didn't want to, so we broke up."
"I see," Fang Minzhou replied.
The other person took a sip of their drink and gestured with their eyes that it was her turn.
"I'm about the same," Fang Minzhou said.
What does "more or less" mean?
"We broke up because we were in different countries."
“Then you could have just said ‘same.’ Saying ‘almost the same’ made me think…” He Wenlun found it amusing. He was being pedantic because Fang Minzhou had specifically asked him that question.
Ambiguous or suggestive remarks, whether intentional or not, at least show that the other person is tactful. This back-and-forth questioning is how conversations between adult men and women continue.
Fang Minzhou knew that He Wenlun had misunderstood, so she didn't bother to explain further and just smiled and said, "It's mainly because we're incompatible."
He Wenlun understood. "If you put it that way... mine counts too, every single one." He then chuckled to himself. "So you're saying, how come people with such incompatible personalities fell for each other in the first place?"
If it were anyone else, Fang Minzhou would have made some witty remarks at this point, and the two of them would have exchanged some views on relationships. But there was no need for that with He Wenlun. He was rather charming and didn't say anything polite. So Fang Minzhou simply said two words, "Yeah."
It seems that everyone's love story is like this, especially those that have become tragedies: the sweetness of being in love, the pain of breaking up, and the relief of being able to joke about the other person years later. Her story with Wang Kan can be summarized as nothing more than a common occurrence.
He Wenlun was speechless at Fang Minzhou's attitude, took another sip of wine, and Fang Minzhou curled her lips.
"Your smile is just right, it's not a downer," He Wenlun commented.
“Okay.” Fang Minzhou maintained her smile naturally.
After finishing his coffee, He Wenlun summarized, "I think Fang Minzhou is pretty good, very good. She has excellent education, career, appearance, and temperament, and her personality is surprisingly interesting." But then came the "but," he said, "I'm not planning to get married yet. I feel that if I'm going to date, I should find someone who is interested in and wants to date. What do you think? But then, shouldn't we look for someone younger?"
"I'm younger than you," Fang Minzhou said, purely as a correction.
He Wenlun was taken aback, then smiled, "I'm sorry."
Fang Minzhou returned to the previous floor to answer his question: "Regarding your question, it depends on the person."
"Does it depend on the person? But when you get older, you lose your passion. How different it was with your first love!"
"Where do you place the grandparents who are having twilight romances?"
I've never heard of such a thing.
He Wenlun pondered for a moment, then looked at Fang Minzhou with great interest.
I heard she majored in finance as an undergraduate, switched to computer science for her master's, and is now an engineer at a big company. When they met today, he made a point of dressing up, while she was clearly dressed in her usual work style, wearing a shirt and casual pants, her eyes remaining calm throughout, the kind of calm that comes from a calm sea.
But she used to be quite romantic.
Unfortunately, the man was in love but the woman was not. After the meal, the two politely said goodbye.
Not long after that, Fang Minzhou got a promotion and a raise, and He Wenlun seemed to have started a company together. They added each other as friends but naturally lost contact.
The senior student didn't feel sorry when she found out. She wasn't keen on matchmaking, but since Fang Minzhou didn't refuse, she kept an eye out for her, hoping that things would work out.
Fang Minzhou's salary continued to arrive in her account every month, and she became increasingly busy.
After interning in auditing, consulting, and banking during her university years, Fang Minzhou became certain that she didn't enjoy this type of work. She could continue, she could, but for her, the industry was like a large stage, suitable for someone who wanted to be an actor, but not her.
She had heard a saying: "A person needs a skill to live in this world." She didn't know if her father had first told her this or if she had read it in a book, but at the age of twenty, she was constantly thinking about what her skill was, and further, what kind of life she wanted.
Every time he spoke out of turn, Fang Minzhou would try to teach him a lesson, but Wang Kan never changed his ways.
Later, she chose to switch to coding. At the time, it was an impulsive decision. It was just that the easy programming courses she took made her feel a sense of accomplishment from solving problems in high school. She wanted to work in an environment where her efforts could be seen.
Back when she was staying up late to watch online classes, Fang Minzhou never imagined that her get off work hours would become later and later, and that she would gradually get used to it.
She is always able to adapt to many things, and more than one leader has praised her for her strong adaptability and resilience.
When Fang Minzhou first heard it during her internship, she thought it was a compliment. Later, when she heard it again after starting a full-time job, she smiled and accepted it as a compliment.
I sometimes think about these two words in my spare time.
If you can't, and keep falling behind, or if you underperform in an important exam, it indicates poor mental fortitude. Adaptability and resilience correspond to the ability to accept criticism, accept working overtime, and accept being eliminated in a competitive environment.
Fang Minzhou strives to be a good employee, just like a good student. She is always driven by her competitive spirit, which enables her to complete her work efficiently.
Fang Minzhou later discovered that she also had a relatively strong pain tolerance.
When I was a child, I had a fever in the middle of the night in the countryside and endured it until dawn before telling my grandparents; in junior high school, when I didn't know that I could take medicine to relieve pain, I endured menstrual cramps many times; I endured wisdom tooth inflammation while traveling; and after I started working, I also went to work while sick.
Fang Minzhou had talked to her parents about her work; to be precise, her parents had talked to her about her work.
That year, she decided to study abroad and change her major. Her parents had many worries and even argued about it, but in the end, they supported her. After she returned to China and found a job with a good salary, they were somewhat relieved, but they were still worried about her health.
Just like when her college entrance exam results came out that year, her father had some ambitions that he himself had not been able to achieve, and he hoped that she would realize them. He told her that health is the foundation of everything, and that she should take good care of herself first.
But after the unexpected death of a relative of his age, he became more conservative in his thinking and started looking for suitable jobs for her in their hometown. Even if she didn't go home, cities near Zhangcheng would be fine, as Beicheng was still too far away. Occasionally, when the father and daughter talked on the phone, he would casually mention that if there were any good boys, she could try to get to know them.
In her senior year of college, Fang Minzhou received an offer to study abroad. After her parents were overjoyed, they couldn't help but ask her what Wang Kan's plans were. Only then did Fang Minzhou tell them that she and Wang Kan had broken up.
She remembered that her parents were silent for a while on the other end of the phone, and then her mother sighed. Fang Minzhou knew that she was feeling sorry for her. Her father said that since that was the case, she should rest well and enjoy her last days of college.
Wang Kan had eaten at her house a few times, and her mother later grew to like him quite a bit, while her father always had a very serious expression.
After graduating, she returned home, and her mother closed the bedroom door and asked her why she broke up with her boyfriend.
Years later, Fang Minzhou gave He Wenlun the same answer she had given her mother back then: "Incompatible personalities."
When her mother asked when they broke up, Fang Minzhou had a hard time giving a clear answer.
So it's possible that at some point in time, they had already reached the crossroads of breaking up.
Everyone only has their own path to walk. It's just that at a certain stage of life, we get very close to each other, and it seems like we can cross that path with just one step, so we mistakenly believe that we will be lifelong partners.
That happened in the second semester of my senior year, in Jiangcheng.
The four years of university passed by in a flash, and the days after graduation flowed even faster. She went abroad to study and then returned to China to work. In the blink of an eye, almost three years had passed.
It's the end of the year again. Fang Minzhou has been so busy that she has only slept a few hours for almost half a month. Her colleagues joke with each other to be careful of their hearts, saying that they heard that so-and-so had died suddenly somewhere recently.
Late at night on the first day of December, the North City welcomed its first snowfall of the year. When Fang Minzhou finished her work for the day and looked out the window, she saw that there was already a little snow on the ground and rooftops.
She got up and walked to the elevator. The elevator doors opened, and she greeted her colleagues who came out. She entered the elevator car and pressed the button for the top floor.
There was a lingering smell of smoke in the elevator. When Fang Minzhou pushed open the rooftop door, she took a few deep breaths of the cold but fresh air.
The vast expanse of white snow seeped into the bustling night. Above the skyscrapers, all was silent; the sounds of car horns were muffled by the distance, barely audible compared to the roar of the wind. At least tonight, she had nothing to do, so Fang Minzhou allowed herself to enjoy the snowscape a little longer.
I went back to the office to get my bag, and my colleague next to me looked up and said, "Let's go."
"Um."
Did you hear me?
"What?"
"ambulance."
Fang Minzhou was taken aback. "...No."
The sounds of keyboards clicking in all directions rang out in a steady, rhythmic pattern.
Fang Minzhou looked towards the tea room, trying to imagine but unable to picture the scene. She opened her mouth, but all she could hear was the sound of keyboard typing.
"Sigh, I hope everything's alright," my colleague said. "I'm about to leave too, wanna go together?"
Fang Minzhou nodded and said, "...Okay."
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