0016 Night Rose-C.TLAY,Night.16 Round yellow light bulbs hang from the blue-gray ceiling, like stars in the silent night sky.
Appetite decreases sharply in summer, and Thai restaurants with sour and spicy flavors have become the first choice for many gourmets. Recently, more people have been going out to eat. At almost 7:30, there were still rows of customers wearing masks waiting for their seats at the restaurant door. At this time, almost everyone's eyes were on the red-haired girl who had just walked to the door.
"Sawadee ka, how many people are there?" The front desk clerk looked at the female guest in front of her who was drenched by the heavy rain and took out a few tissues and handed them to her.
Ruan Mei took it and said thank you. She used a tissue to press the ends of her hair, which was still soaking wet, and said, "There's a seat available. Table number eight."
Xu Ziling was arranging the dishes when she looked up and saw Ruan Mei, who looked like a drowned rat. Her red hair looked like a rooster's comb deflated by the heavy rain.
She couldn't help but burst out laughing: "Were you driving with the window open? How did you get so wet?"
"Don't mention it..." Ruan Mei took off her mask and sat down on the chair. She angrily took away the soaked tissue and found some white paper scraps on the ends of her hair, like some disgusting white bugs clinging to them.
Ruan Mei smoothed her hair into a tuft with her fingers, suppressed her irritability, glanced at the table full of dishes, and her stomach rumbled.
She asked Xu Ziling, "Are the two friends you mentioned not here yet?"
Xu Ziling has two friends who are interested in online agency for sex toys, so she arranged for them to meet up tonight for a face-to-face chat.
"He just said he was taking the elevator up and should be here soon... Ah, here he comes." Xu Ziling raised her hand and waved in the air.
Ruan Mei turned around and saw two short-haired women walking towards their table, one wearing a pink dress and the other a navy blue dress.
She was slightly startled, because she had seen the girl in the navy blue skirt before.
The two walked to the table and greeted Xu Ziling. Xu Ziling introduced them: "Joanna, Fay, this is Rose."
Ruan Mei handed the two of them her business card and said with a smile, "I'm sorry, I got drenched in the rain on my way here. I look so disheveled. Please don't mind."
"Of course, let's eat and talk at the same time." Joanna in a pink dress took the business card with a smile.
Fay, who was wearing a blue dress, took the business card and looked back and forth between the red-haired woman and the card. She was a little surprised: "Are you... Ruan Mei?"
The sweet coconut juice moistened her throat, and Ruan Mei curled her lips: "Yes, long time no see, Xiaofei."
She only remembered the girl's first name, but forgot her last name.
"Is it really you?!" Fay was incredulous, looking Ruan Mei up and down. "You've changed a lot! You didn't have this hairstyle in college. You had long, straight black hair, right? Almost to the waist?"
Ruan Mei nodded and said, "Everyone, please start eating. Don't let the food get cold."
"I didn't expect you guys went to the same university?" Joanna picked up a piece of charcoal-grilled pork neck.
Fay scooped a spoonful of curry beef brisket, her spoon bouncing in the air with excitement, dripping a few drops of curry sauce onto the brown wooden tabletop. "Yes, we were in the same major, but in the class next to each other. Ruan Mei was very famous in our school. Back then, she was dating the student union president, and at the graduation ceremony, that senior even got down on one knee and proposed to her while presenting flowers! It was a real sensation in the whole school at the time!"
She took a tissue and wiped the thick sauce off the table, then continued to ask Ruan Mei, "How long have you and Huang Mingyan been married? Do you have children?"
Xu Ziling screamed in her heart, "Oh no!" and was about to change the subject when she heard Ruan Mei say calmly, "No, he and I broke up a long time ago."
The surrounding tables were filled with noisy conversations, but only their table suddenly became quiet.
"I'm sorry, I was so excited to see my old classmates. Don't take it to heart." Fay quickly dropped the topic.
"Hey, our topic tonight is something else, so let's not talk about such unlucky things." Xu Ziling knocked on the glass, and the ice cubes in the fluorescent blue soda drink hit the wall of the glass like an iceberg.
Ruan Mei put on a business-like smile and began to talk to the two of them about online agents.
Xu Ziling rushed to pay the bill, and Ruan Mei feigned anger: "Didn't we agree that I would treat you? Why are you rushing to pay the bill?"
"Tonight has reminded you of some bad things, so I have to pay for this meal." Xu Ziling took back her phone after scanning the code and continued to explain, "I didn't expect to run into your college classmate here. Fay and I are not close friends, she is Joanna's friend."
"It's okay. This is not a secret that cannot be told. It's just a breakup after seven years of relationship." Ruan Mei hooked her arm and walked out of the store. The other two were waiting for them by the fence of the mall.
"That doesn't count as a breakup. If it wasn't because of that bastard..." Xu Ziling frowned and muttered. She stopped talking when Ruan Mei shook her elbow.
"I'll send you photos of the goods, copywriting, and agency prices when I get back." Ruan Mei said to the two of them.
The conversation went smoothly tonight, and after understanding the process, Joanna made the decision. They had full-time jobs, so they wanted to open a small account to sell some things, without having to stock up on goods or incur any costs. Rose had an established process, so they just wanted to make some pocket money.
"Okay, don't worry. I'm more looking forward to the small toy you recommended tonight..." Joanna laughed softly. She had only bought vibrating toys before. Tonight, Ruan Mei recommended her an insertable entry-level toy so that she could use it together with the vibrator at home.
"I'll ask someone to deliver it to you tomorrow afternoon. Just bear with it for one more night." Ruan Mei also chuckled in a low voice.
Several people said goodbye and parted ways in the parking lot. When Ruan Mei drove onto the road, she found that the rain had stopped.
The golden street lights quickly flashed across the humid and sultry summer night, and the clouds illuminated by the city's neon lights obscured the stars and the moon that should have been hanging in the night sky.
The green light flashed a few times, then turned yellow, and then red.
Pedestrians whose faces could not be seen hurried back and forth, breaking the puddles on the zebra crossing into pieces, splashing out dirty, dusty water.
Ruan Mei turned on the wipers to scrape away the fog stuck to the glass. It was hot and humid outside the car, and fog would form every time she drove a certain distance.
There were many red dots on the phone for unread messages, but the person who had been released from the small dark room was quiet.
Ruan Mei puffed out her cheeks like a little goldfish with a red tail, but she couldn't bring herself to send a message.
That day, while she was eating her "luxury" lunch box with an extra grilled volcano sausage, she angrily unblocked Chen Shanye.
After all, we've slept together twice, so I thought I should at least have a few words with him and ask him clearly if he really has a family. If so, we should call it a day and not get stuck together anymore.
Who knows? Maybe it's one of his relatives' sons? Who knows? Maybe it's his nephew? Ruan Mei took a bite of the sausage to comfort herself.
But when she clicked into Chen Shanye’s circle of friends again, she only saw a long gray line.
Blocked? Or blacklisted?
The sausage in her mouth instantly lost its taste. She dropped her chopsticks and started typing in the input box.
Her fingertips trembled slightly, and she kept pressing the wrong pinyin on the keyboard. The words associated with the input method were always wrong. She kept deleting and retyping them, and she was so angry that it felt like a knife was scraping back and forth over her heart.
The "Chen Shanye?" and the little red dot that could not be delivered made her out of shape for the next few days. She sent the wrong goods, made the wrong order, quoted the wrong price, and even rear-ended a car while delivering the goods. She had to pay some compensation privately, and the scratches on the front of the car became more and more.
She didn't delete Chen Shanye's WeChat and phone number, but she didn't have the courage to take that step.
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