On My Way - Chapter 72

Chapter 72 - Let’s Go, Dongxue

I had once written a long message to Zhou Ting, the gist of which was that we weren’t a good match.

To put it simply, for at least the next four or five years, I would be busy building this company. I wouldn't be able to have children, and honestly, I didn't feel that having kids was a necessity in this life.

Zhou Ting didn't reply.

The next day, he went back to sending me WeChat messages as usual, sharing jokes, saying good morning and good night.

This was one of Zhou Ting’s traits: he habitually skipped over difficult questions. For example, after his fallout with his parents, he didn’t try to clear things up with me, either. He just acted as if nothing had happened and kept chatting with me.

I didn't reply again. It sounds cruel, but we had only been seeing each other with the goal of marriage. If marriage was off the table, there was no reason to force a connection.

Even if we were to be friends, we had to be completely clear about things first. Staying in touch in this vague, ambiguous way wasn't good for either of us.

When I went to meet him, I assumed he had finally thought things through and wanted to clear the air.

But I didn't expect that when I opened the door to that barbecue shop’s private room, it would be packed with people.

“Yo, Ren Dongxue, pretty lady, remember me?”

One greasy-faced man stepped forward, asking with a cold sneer.

I thought for a moment and recognized him as a classmate from vocational school named He Qiang.

I looked at Zhou Ting. He was sitting there with his head down, not saying a word.

“Zhou Ting, what is the meaning of this? Is this a class reunion?” I asked.

He Qiang brazenly lit a cigarette and said, “Breaking up with my buddy is fine, but you have to make things clear, you know?”

I stood at the doorway of the private room, smiling. “What do you mean by ‘make things clear’?”

“Spending my buddy’s money, talking about marriage, then going to Feng City to check into a hotel with another guy? Ren Dongxue, you’ve got quite a wild side!”

My heart skipped a beat. My first reaction was: How could they possibly know?

But I didn't respond. I kept my eyes on Zhou Ting. “Zhou Ting, is that what you think too?”

Zhou Ting kept his head down. “I just want to know why you suddenly didn’t want to be with me anymore. They say you were just playing me…”

“What else could it be? You climbed onto a higher branch, didn’t you?” He Qiang said. “Seeing my buddy is honest, you decided to treat him like a monkey? I’ve seen plenty of gold-digging sluts like you.”

A chorus of agreement and loud laughter erupted around him.

The room was filled with a thick stench of cigarette smoke, mixed with the charcoal fumes from the barbecue grill. I stared fixedly at Zhou Ting, remembering how his face would flush when he laughed when we first met, and how he told me he had liked me since he was in high school.

A wave of indescribable revulsion surged through me.

It was true: you can never hold any illusions about men. Those beautiful memories now looked as if they were crawling with maggots.

I asked, “So, what do you want?”

He Qiang said, “Explain yourself! Did you sleep with that guy? If you did, kneel down and apologize to my buddy! And give back every cent you spent of his money!”

Zhou Ting tugged at him, only to be shoved aside.

I let out a long sigh and, amidst their insults and clamor, sat down without a word.

It wasn't that I had nothing to say; it was that under these circumstances, anything I said would be meaningless.

“Didn’t she always run off during high school? She’s just a broken-in slut!”

“Treating my buddy like a pushover! You aren't leaving until you make this clear!”

They really hadn’t grown at all in all these years.

Before, they were just a bunch of vocational school kids pretending to be thugs to collect protection money.

Now, they were just ordinary security guards, delivery drivers, and day laborers… trying hard to play gangster.

I had actually thought, for a moment, that Zhou Ting was different from them.

I sat there, waiting quietly. Ten minutes later, a commotion erupted outside. The barbecue shop owner was shouting at the top of his lungs, “Which room are you in?! Don’t go barging in there!”

The door to the private room was kicked open. Old Zhao led a group of people inside. They were the foremen who had worked under me when I was at President Wang’s company; after I started my own business, I had made arrangements for them to come work for me.

“President Ren.” He gave a nod, then stood by my side with a fierce expression.

He Qiang and his group panicked, shouting, “What are you doing! I’m going to report you! Don’t try anything funny!”

“I don’t want to do anything. You wanted to talk, didn't you? Now you can talk.”

When I was surrounded by a group of people, completely unable to fight back, my words hadn’t mattered.

I took out my phone, pulled up a screenshot of my bank balance, and placed it on the table. “Do I need to spend anyone else’s money?”

Those men craned their necks to look, their faces changing instantly. They looked at me, then at Zhou Ting.

Zhou Ting said, “I didn’t say you spent my money…”

I said, “But you still felt that I’d climbed up to someone richer, so you had to find all these people to bolster your courage and seek ‘justice’ for yourself.”

Zhou Ting’s face turned bright red. He didn't speak again.

He Qiang clamored from the side, “So what if you’ve got some money! Don’t act so high and mighty! You think anyone else would want to marry you? You’re just a broken-in slut!”

“Clean up your goddamn mouth!” Old Zhao roared, but I stopped him.

I stared at He Qiang until his eyes began to dart away in fear.

“Zhou Ting and I were on a blind date; we were never in a relationship. The only reason I gave him up was that I didn’t like him, and now there’s someone else.”

Before I stood up to open the door, I took one last look at Zhou Ting. “I look down on you.”

——

That day, I gave Old Zhao and the others a red envelope of 500 yuan each. They were all honest, simple workers; standing there with expressionless faces, their legs were actually trembling in fear the whole time.

I thought it was over.

After the New Year, I successfully signed the lease, finished the company registration and tax filing on my own, and started renovations.

Yu Shixuan brought her team over to work.

Tyrannosaurus also brought his people over and became the Vice President of my company.

The company was called “Carp-Fly Construction.” After all, our first project was themed around a carp leaping over the dragon’s gate. “Carp” (Li) stood for the fish, and “Fly” (Fei) alluded to “Flying Snow” (Feixue)—it just barely managed to include both our names.

Just as everything was progressing steadily, a post exploded online.

It told the story of how the poster's friend had been infatuated with a girl for years, only for her to become vain and eventually end up a plaything for a government official's son.

The girl’s photos were blurred, but anyone who knew me could still recognize my face.

They figured that if my reputation were ruined, I’d never be able to get married, and that this would be a devastating blow to me.

But what can I say? I just found it funny.

I had too much on my plate, so I didn't pay it any mind, assuming the gossip would blow over after a while.

But I didn't expect that the person who would end up being "doxxed" was Cheng Xia.

"Official's son" was far too sensitive a label—especially since Cheng Xia was already a protagonist in another trending event.

The incident regarding his mother was dredged up all over again.

“That manager who embezzled the laid-off workers' money and was killed for it.”

“The victims were so miserable, yet he’s still out here crying injustice for his mother.”

“So, he’s just used to throwing his weight around, even stealing another man’s girlfriend?”

Suddenly, people began digging into his background, his education, and his social circle.

Someone commented: “Does nobody else think he’s actually quite handsome? Why would he steal someone else’s girlfriend?”

One comment was pushed to the top:

“He’s sick. My friend dated him and discovered he has a severe mental illness. When he has an episode, it’s terrifying, so she broke up with him immediately. I heard he’s a university teacher now—seriously, just anyone can be a university teacher.”

I don’t really go online, so it wasn't until Yu Shixuan called to tell me that I realized the situation had spiraled to the point where people were reporting Cheng Xia’s father.

In the middle of the night, Nanbei University posted a statement on Weibo: In light of recent public sentiment, Mr. Cheng Xia’s teaching duties will be suspended.

In the cold spring rain, my hands and feet went numb.

He had depression, bipolar disorder. He had said he was cured, but we both knew that these things could only be controlled with medication—there was no such thing as being "completely cured."

He was a sick man.

Three years ago, the image of him as a pale, frantic figure jumping into the deep black sea appeared in my mind over and over again.

Those who spread these rumors—I wouldn't let them go. They could all just wait for their day in court!

I trembling lit a cigarette to calm my rage, then called Cheng Xia.

His phone was off.

——

The rain poured down in sheets. I held an umbrella at first, but later, I couldn't even hold that steady, and my hair was soaked through.

I finally ran to Cheng Xia’s place. The security guard wouldn't let me in. I tried being polite at first, but eventually, I went completely mad, screaming at the man: “My friend is in trouble! Can you take responsibility for this?!”

The guard was terrified by my ghostly appearance and went with me to Cheng Xia’s door. We knocked for a long time, but no one answered.

Every terrible thought rushed into my mind. I imagined him sinking to the bottom of a bathtub, I imagined him swallowing sleeping pills, I imagined him using a knife to slash his wrists… my heart felt as if it were being tightly squeezed. I didn't know what to do.

Suddenly, the door opened. It was Cheng Xia’s father. He was groggy with sleep and was shocked to see me. “Dongxue? What’s wrong?”

I said, “Uncle, where is Cheng Xia? Why isn’t he answering his phone?”

“Oh, he left his phone at home. He went out to get breakfast.”

“Where did he go for breakfast?”

“Old Xu’s Wonton Shop, near the market street. What’s going on?”

I turned and ran. His father shouted behind me: “Dongxue, you child, take an umbrella at least!”

The sky began to brighten. I ran past breakfast stalls frying dough sticks, past commuters waiting for the bus, past dense streams of traffic in the rain, and past sleepy high school students yawning their way to class.

I had to see Cheng Xia—a safe, unharmed Cheng Xia.

I finally reached Old Xu’s Wonton Shop. It was an old, well-established local spot that many of the elderly loved, so there was a very, very long line.

I went through the crowd, looking for him, but Cheng Xia wasn’t there. No matter how hard I looked, he was nowhere to be found.

Just as I was about to burst into tears from anxiety, an earth-shattering roar erupted, as if thunder had struck right next to my ears.

Everyone was startled. In the cordoned-off construction site in the distance, yellow dust filled the air as old residential buildings collapsed one after another.

It was a demolition—the old buildings on Market Street were being torn down.

“Scared the hell out of me! Why was it so loud?!” The crowd began to chatter excitedly.

“Should’ve been torn down ages ago. I never dared to walk under those old buildings anyway.”

I stared blankly at the scene. The old streets I used to skip through, the bustling market, the old factory buildings that had been marked with the character “Demolish” for a decade—they were all collapsing right before my eyes.

“Dongxue?”

A voice came from behind me. I turned around and saw Cheng Xia.

He was just as I remembered when we first met: tall, clean—so clean he seemed out of place in this messy, dirty environment.

He was wearing a white hoodie with earphones in, looking at me with a bewildered expression: “You’re here for wonton, too?”

I walked toward him, remembering how I had walked toward him many years ago.

“Can you give me your QQ? I’d really like to get to know you.” Fourteen-year-old Ren Dongxue had said this to him.

“Why aren’t you using an umbrella? You’ll catch a cold.” He tilted his umbrella to shield my head.

I lunged at him, hugging him tightly in my arms. He smelled of citrus, as always, mixed with the damp, cool scent of the rain.

——

The rain fell harder and harder. We stood at the school gate to take cover. Many, many years ago, he had been just like these kids, wearing an ugly school uniform, and I had snuck in to find him.

“So, you were worried I would… commit suicide?” He was amused by me and said, “Don’t worry. I have to save my life to be with you, Dongxue!”

I didn’t laugh. I said, “I didn’t handle the situation with Zhou Ting well, and it caused trouble for you and your uncle.”

“The old man is about to retire; he doesn't care about these things,” he said. “I care even less. If I get fired from the school, I’ll just come work at your company. You wouldn't turn me away, would you?”

…His relaxed attitude toward his career was something I would never be able to catch up to, even in several lifetimes.

He watched the raindrops falling from the eaves and suddenly said:

“For these three years, I’ve taken my meds every day, traveled all over the world to see doctors, and tried every alternative therapy—yoga, Buddhism, even electroshock… all for this day, so that when you needed me, I could return to your side.”

I looked at him in surprise. I had always assumed he was just busy with his studies during these three years.

“I’m a very weak person. I tried to find the truth about my mother’s death, but I couldn’t find it. I fell into depression, I loved architecture, but when the clients crushed me, I doubted myself and just let it all fall apart. See, I’ve always abandoned a better life because of my weakness,” he said with a self-deprecating laugh. “But there’s something I never wanted to give up, no matter what—and that’s you.”

“The reason I broke up with you back then was that I didn’t want you to be affected by me and become an anxious, depressed person too. But later, I regretted it! I went crazy wanting to return to you. I wanted to be with you.” He sighed. “But I couldn’t.”

“I couldn’t let you take care of me. Whenever something happens, I go crazy, but if I want you, I have to be a normal person.”

His eyes reflected the sunlight, clean and radiant, just like the Cheng Xia from long ago: “It was you who gave me strength, letting me know that I didn’t have to live a muddled life—I could live the life I loved most.”

I let out a long breath and laughed, “What is the life you want to live most? Le Corbusier?”

“Being with you,” he said, looking up with a smile. “And being an architect for the rest of my life, in any form.”

He asked, “What about you?”

I said, “To build houses that bring happiness to people, and then, achieve financial freedom.”

It’s wonderful, isn’t it? The ignorant boy and girl from back then have finally grown into adults who can bear the wind and rain on their own.

It’s wonderful that we come from different classes and endured completely different fates and pains, but now, we both have goals worth achieving and a path to stride forward on.

It’s wonderful that after all these years, we are still by each other’s side.

Cheng Xia suddenly jumped up and said, “Oh no! My dad is still waiting for these wontons at home!”

“Ah, right! You don’t have your phone! He can't reach you!”

He ran forward a few steps, then stopped and turned back, holding out his hand: “Let’s go! Dongxue!”

Sunlight hit the puddles, casting a kaleidoscope of colors. The spring breeze blew the willow catkins, lifting the edge of his hoodie and brushing past my hair with a warm, gentle touch.

Yes, the rain has stopped. Dongxue, it’s time to take big strides forward!