Under the intense sunlight, I stared at Lu Jia like a wooden statue. I felt like it was a dream, yet everything seemed so real. I could even see what color socks a woman walking past me was wearing and what brand of cigarettes the man with her was smoking.
Dreams don't have such clear details, so this isn't a dream. After more than half a year, I actually met Lu Jia again. But during those six months, whenever I thought of her, I had already mentally prepared myself to never see her again.
I let out a sigh of relief and finally spoke to her, "Long time no see...it feels like a dream!"
Lu Jia smiled and replied, "I also wish it were a dream, but this is not a dream."
"I never imagined that the friend she was talking about would be you!"
Lu Jia wanted to say something, but the next moment she was pushed by the crowd. I then realized that this was not a good place to talk. I needed to take Lu Jia to a quiet coffee shop and find out the whole story. I wanted to know what the relationship was between her and the woman who had taken her phone number, and whether her coming to Dali was accidental or inevitable.
So I said to her, "Let's find a quiet place to talk."
"Yes, this is my first time in Dali, and I'm not familiar with the area. Can you lead the way?"
I nodded and took the suitcase from her. We maintained a delicate distance as we walked into the ancient city, one after the other, with the crowd. The last time we met was in my rented room, where we made love passionately, but it felt more like a dream than this! I can no longer tell which is real and which is fake; or whether they are both real and both fake, it all depends on how I think and how I perceive my relationship with Lu Jia.
...
In a quiet coffee shop near Jiulongju, Lu Jia and I sat by the window. I habitually ordered a glass of water, while Lu Jia ordered an Americano. Between the water and coffee was a fruit platter containing her favorite yellow peaches and dried mangoes.
She held the coffee cup in both hands and twirled it around, then said to me with some emotion, "I didn't expect you to remember what fruit I like to eat."
“You’re quite picky and don’t have many favorite foods, so of course I can remember them.”
Lu Jia smiled and replied, "I think I heard a hint of complaint in your words."
"I'm telling the truth. You're very picky about your clothes. You only like a few top-tier brands."
Lu Jia didn't seem to have any emotional change. She seemed to be in complete control when facing me, whether in the past or present. She replied, "So after the breakup, you categorized me as the more realistic and materialistic type, is that right?"
I squinted at her, and after a moment replied, "Does every breakup require a summary of what happened to the other person?"
"I don't believe you haven't summarized it."
"There's no point in talking about this now, is there?... I just want to know what your relationship is with the woman who took your number, and why you two are in contact?"
Lu Jia glanced at me, then calmly picked up her coffee cup and took a sip before saying to me, "She was the design director of my former workplace, and I was her assistant. I left in a hurry and didn't finish handing over my work. She hasn't found a suitable replacement yet, so she took over my work herself. To make it easier for her to communicate, I gave her my phone number."
At this point, Lu Jia smiled and said, "Anyway, I won't need this number after I go abroad, so I'll leave it with her as a work number. It'll be a keepsake."
"No, I remember your number was cancelled."
Lu Jia shook her head and replied, "I put you on my blacklist, and the notification I set was that the number was canceled... Actually, I've been using this number all along..."
I thought about it and it seemed like that was a possible way to do it. I then asked, "Since she's on the blacklist, how did she see the messages I sent?"
"You can still receive messages, they're just not in the normal message menu. She saw them by chance and unblocked you, which is why you were able to chat for so long."
I leaned back in my seat, and then felt a wave of dizziness… I felt like I had so many questions for Lu Jia, but I didn’t know what the point of asking them was. After all, half a year was enough time for us to become strangers and eventually go our separate ways…
If I were rational, at this moment, I could only treat her as an ordinary friend and offer her a normal welcome. The so-called truth would not bring us closer; instead, it would make things more awkward and painful.
Lu Jia spoke to me again: "Aren't you going to ask me how I've been doing these past six months?"
I looked up at her and asked somewhat mechanically, "How have you been?"
"Everything is going according to plan... I have successfully enrolled in school in France, and I am taking advantage of the holiday to come back and visit."
"I knew you could do it..."
"You're doing great too, doing really well in Dali..." She paused briefly, then smiled and asked me, "Have you noticed that we've both improved a lot since we broke up?... A year ago, I couldn't have imagined you would choose such a place and do such a career... It seems so cool!"
I came to Dali to run a guesthouse business entirely because of Wang Lei, so when Lu Jia said that to me, it felt like a sharp needle had pierced my heart. I replied with hostility, "Can we not talk about this... It has absolutely nothing to do with being cool!"
This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com