E ⋆ Chapter 5

On the last day of April, Yang Ke was invited to a newly opened nightclub by an investor.

He had originally intended to stay in the office and work, but his business partner Zhai Di knocked on his office door and half-persuaded, half-coerced him out of the company.

The nightclub atmosphere was not the kind Yang Ke particularly enjoyed. The music was too intense, and there were too many people.

He chatted with the investor for a while, then went upstairs to the quieter second-floor booth, drank half a glass of wine, checked his watch several times, and was just about to make an excuse to leave early when suddenly a beautiful woman sat down beside him and asked if he was alone.

He politely chatted with her for a few moments, bought her a drink, but politely declined her invitation to dance.

After the woman left, Zhai Di came over with his girlfriend, his arm around her, and teased Yang Ke in front of her: “It’s rare for someone to dare hit on you. You should really make the most of it.”

Yang Ke took a sip of his drink and didn’t respond to his joke.

“What type does Yang Ke like?” Zhai Di’s girlfriend asked very kindly. “Let me see if there’s anyone suitable around.”

Zhai Di sighed and said, “Forget it, he just…” He paused and ultimately chose not to continue.

Zhai Di’s girlfriend had also brought a few of her close friends along, and they all went down to the dance floor. Zhai Di didn’t join them and sat with Yang Ke for a while.

Zhai Di was Yang Ke’s university classmate and fellow fraternity member. After graduation, they started a company together, making him the friend who knew the most about Yang Ke’s private life.

After drinking for a while, Zhai Di suddenly spoke up: “Attorney Li asked to meet with me a few days ago.”

Yang Ke didn’t move. Zhai Di continued: “He asked me to persuade you not to test the limits of trust law. But I told him you never said anything to me about it, so I don’t know how to persuade you.”

“I haven’t done anything,” Yang Ke told Zhai Di with certainty.

“Whatever,” Zhai Di shrugged. “Just don’t get yourself into a lawsuit.”

“I won’t,” Yang Ke said.

Zhai Di hummed in agreement, clinked glasses with Yang Ke, was silent for a few seconds, then couldn’t help but ask out of curiosity: “How long has Yu Zhinian been back in the country? Has it been half a year yet?”

“Don’t remember,” Yang Ke said curtly.

“He really hasn’t come looking for you again?” Zhai Di asked again.

Yang Ke glanced at him and answered expressionlessly: “No.”

The DJ downstairs played a dance track that wasn’t quite so intense, and the surroundings became somewhat quieter.

“Actually,” Zhai Di said after a moment of silence, “when Yu Zhinian first left, I thought he was playing hard to get. He pursued you so relentlessly in university, and after finally getting to move in with you, he suddenly gave up. It doesn’t make sense.”

“But the fact that he left on his own initiative is a good thing,” Zhai Di suddenly began to advise Yang Ke. “Whatever you do, don’t think marriage doesn’t matter. Marrying someone you don’t love is still very painful.”

Yang Ke didn’t offer his opinion on Zhai Di’s musings and just drank on his own.

Zhai Di had probably drunk quite a bit downstairs already, and with the alcohol going to his head, he became more talkative.

He and Yang Ke reminisced about their university days, listing off things he remembered Yu Zhinian doing that he found pathological, and argued that since Yang Ke had never called the police or applied for a restraining order, Yu Zhinian should already be grateful. Yang Ke didn’t respond to any of it.

After another glass of wine, Zhai Di changed the subject and asked Yang Ke about Yang Zhongyun’s inheritance.

He said Attorney Li was very tight-lipped about the details of the matter and hadn’t explained it to him in full, but had more or less revealed some key information: “From what I gathered, the only way for Yu Zhinian to get the inheritance is through marrying you, right?”

Yang Ke said “yes,” and Zhai Di thought for a moment, then said: “The law has specific provisions about cohabitation time. In cases where there has been a clear de facto separation of more than half a year immediately before marriage, registration cannot proceed.”

“I have a feeling it won’t be long before he comes back looking for you. If it drags on any further, it’ll be troublesome,” Zhai Di said, and even began suggesting that Yang Ke move somewhere else for a while.

For some reason, Yang Ke felt somewhat irritated. He changed the subject, finished his drink, then called his driver to pick him up at the entrance and left the nightclub early.

On the way home, he casually scrolled through his chat history with Attorney Li and saw Yu Zhinian’s flight number.

Yang Ke stared at his phone screen and blanked out for a while in the car, thinking of nothing at all.

Then his secretary sent him next week’s schedule.

After reviewing the schedule, Yang Ke casually checked his text messages. He scrolled down many pages until he found the last text message Yu Zhinian had sent him.

Yang Ke used to delete Yu Zhinian’s text messages right after reading them and wouldn’t keep them on his phone. Because of this, the one Yu Zhinian had sent when he left was the only message from that number stored on Yang Ke’s phone.

Yang Ke just glanced at it quickly before exiting the text message interface.

Many times, when Yang Ke happened to come across this message, he felt he should treat it the same as the others and delete it too, not give it any special treatment.

But because it was already the last one, Yang Ke didn’t delete it.

He returned home. The workers had all gone to rest, and only a night light was left on in the entryway.

When Yu Zhinian had first moved in, he used to wait up for Yang Ke in the living room a few times.

Of course, Yu Zhinian wasn’t particularly good at what he called “waiting up.” He would always end up falling asleep on the sofa. Because of his restless sleeping, he would kick the blanket covering him off onto the floor.

Yang Ke wouldn’t bother with him and would just go upstairs on his own. Sometimes Yu Zhinian would catch a cold.

At some point, though Yang Ke couldn’t quite pinpoint when, Yu Zhinian stopped waiting up for him.

Yang Ke walked over to the kitchen counter and poured himself a glass of ice water, then went upstairs to work until 1:30 a.m. When sleep finally began to overtake him, he grabbed a book and returned to his bedroom.

This sociology work was full of professional terminology and was quite sleep-inducing for Yang Ke, who had studied finance. He fell asleep after reading only a few pages.

In his dream, Yang Ke’s phone broke and took about forty-eight hours to repair.

When it powered back on, the screen flooded with missed calls and message notifications, and Yang Ke slowly went through them.

Among them were calls from his deceased grandfather, text messages from his father, messages from Zhai Di, from clients, from university professors, and also from Yu Zhinian.

Based on the content of the text message Yu Zhinian had sent him, Yang Ke guessed that the message came from their high school period.

Back then their relationship was still pretty good. Yu Zhinian had probably been keeping his grandfather company while working in his grandfather’s study, and had sent Yang Ke a text message saying he was bored.

Yang Ke used to reply to Yu Zhinian’s messages in high school, so in the dream, he replied as well, saying: “There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Bear with it.”

Yu Zhinian sent him an unhappy emoji.

In the dream that followed, Yang Ke didn’t delete the text messages they had exchanged. Instead, he just played back the missed calls on his phone one after another, chatting with people he wasn’t interested in about topics he had no interest in.

Right up until the end, the dream never showed any scenario related to Yu Zhinian again.