Chapter 7
Someone in the private room exclaimed,
“Damn, this is impressive.”
“Both of our department’s heartthrobs are here.”
“Tonight’s reunion is officially complete.”
“Exactly. Xie Yanzhuo never says anything in the class chat. I thought he wouldn’t turn up today.”
I pulled his jacket closer, thanked him, and went to the restroom to clean up.
Cheng Shu and I borrowed a hair dryer from the restaurant, dried our clothes, and went back to the private room one after the other.
Xie Yanzhuo sat beside me.
I returned his jacket and thanked him again.
Everyone had arrived.
While we waited for the food, Cheng Shu’s best friend suddenly addressed me.
“Meng Ning, Shu told me you’re getting divorced soon.”
“Would you like me to help you find someone new?”
She smiled at me teasingly.
“My manager is thirty-two and divorced too.”
“He does have a daughter, but he earns twenty thousand yuan a month. He even owns an apartment in the city, and the mortgage is almost paid off. He’s a really good catch.”
“Think about it. Divorced women are at a disadvantage to begin with. You’re definitely going to have trouble finding someone with qualifications this good.”
Beside me, Xie Yanzhuo had paused almost imperceptibly
when she mentioned divorce.
Then he took a sweet from the plate.
Unwrapping it and tossing it into his mouth, he asked her,
“Why didn’t you think of setting me up?”
“With what you’ve got going for you, you need me to set you up?”
The woman slapped her palm down and joked,
“Sure! What kind of woman are you looking for? What do you think of me, Mr. Heartthrob? Why don’t you date me?”
“Not much.”
He crumpled the wrapper into a ball and casually dropped it on the table.
“I like divorced women.”
His blunt rejection made it difficult for her to keep smiling.
“That’s a pretty unusual preference.”
“Is it?”
He returned her remark in kind.
“You keep bringing up divorce. I thought you liked them too.”
The woman took an embarrassed sip of water and dropped the subject.
The dishes began arriving one after another.
The awkward atmosphere gradually grew livelier.
No one was paying attention to our corner.
Leaning back in his chair, Xie Yanzhuo asked me,
“You’re getting divorced?”
Ji Yan and Cheng Shu looked ready to get back together.
I hadn’t taken his recent suggestion about announcing our marriage seriously at all.
Most likely, he had only said it in a passing fit of guilt.
So I nodded.
“Probably soon.”
He gave an apparently indifferent “Oh.”
A moment later, he chuckled for no reason.
I shifted the coconut chicken in my mouth to one cheek and turned to him.
“What are you laughing at?”
“I remembered a joke I heard yesterday. I’ll tell you.”
“Once there was a man who looked like a bicycle. Then one day, somebody rode off on him.”
We stared at each other in silence.
Xie Yanzhuo curved his lips. “Not funny?”
“Not funny,” I answered honestly.
He laughed again.
…How bizarre.