85. At Last, Believing That Some People Were Never Meant to Be Waited For

In truth, Chen Sufen was probing Isa’s thinking, trying to see what clever solution she might have for a problem even she could not solve.

“Have you thought about what you’ll do later?”

That was the normal way a sane person would think: at the very least, one had to find a road that led toward the future, even if it was only a small goal for the near term.

The sixteen-year-old girl from another land really had been thinking along those lines. She glanced back at Bai Haonan, who was lounging carelessly behind them, and admitted, “I want to open a shop.”

Chen Sufen was not especially surprised. “Where?”

Isa bit her lip and asked in return, “What do you think?”

Chen Sufen shook her head. “I’ve never thought about that. I’m still a university student; I’ve only ever done coaching part-time.”

Isa gave her a sidelong look and shared her own thoughts. “I’ve been selling roasted potatoes and roasted eggs at scenic spots since primary school. I’ve always dreamed of having my own storefront on the street. Back when I was in town with my brothers and sisters, all we could do was set up stalls by the roadside, but I know the business well. I’ve also been learning how other shops sell their things. I’d already made up my mind: once I escaped with A-Zhu and found a place to settle, I’d open a shop no matter what. Even if it were only a little grocery store, I could make it work.”

Chen Sufen felt sorry for such a well-planned young girl. “Too bad he simply has nowhere to settle down! Do you know what a great chance he had in Chengdu? More than a hundred thousand a month, and he threw it away so easily, all for a woman!”

To her astonishment, Isa answered perfectly, “Yes, just to come meet me.”

Chen Sufen did not know whether to laugh or cry. “That’s not what I meant! I’m telling you, he has nowhere to settle down. For at least the next three to five years he can only keep running and hiding outside, with not even an identity card. Do you plan to keep sneaking around like this with him forever, always on edge?”

Such thinking seemed a little too much for a middle school graduate. Isa turned and suggested, “How about we go watch a movie? Then we can have dinner afterward, and we’ll have a better appetite!”

At mealtimes, Bai Haonan drooling over Isa had become a fixed feature of the scene. For the sake of admiring a beauty, he would drool like a waterfall, and he always tried to invent a new dish each time. Isa did not mind performing this involuntary bodily reaction for him to see, and besides, she was already quite used to Bai Haonan’s way of speaking in what sounded like a suggestion but was really a decision.

“All right!”

Only when they were seated in the dark movie theater did Isa bring up the subject again. “Wherever you go, even if we just open a little grocery store, we can slowly build the business up. I’m confident of that, okay?”

Bai Haonan was exactly the sort of negative person one always found in any team: before even starting, he had a whole pile of reluctance. “As if that’s possible. We don’t even have money anymore!”

The screen was still running advertisements. Chen Sufen, sitting on Bai Haonan’s other side, leaned over with great interest to watch the strange patterns of light playing across the pale-faced girl’s features. “You don’t need to worry about that. Since I’d already made up my mind years ago, I’ve been saving whenever I could, living as frugally as possible. Of course I’ve saved some money.”

Bai Haonan was as surprised as Chen Sufen. He even looked Isa over from head to toe. “Where did you hide it? How did I never notice?”

Isa chuckled. “Don’t worry about that. Just tell me whether it’s possible or not.”

Bai Haonan was no different from when he had once refused Xiuer. “Absolutely not. I can’t sit still. These precious years, now that I’ve finally rolled out and don’t have to be that damned footballer anymore, I want to roam. I want to wander everywhere. How could I possibly squat in some stupid grocery store with you, counting every last penny of income all day long? That would suffocate me to death!”

The smile slowly faded from Isa’s face. “Then what will you eat? What will you wear? You spend money so carelessly. How are you supposed to live?” In truth, she had already been worrying over this for days. Their views on money were worlds apart.

Bai Haonan had never liked watching movies anyway. He only came here to get a little close to the girls, so now he finally felt he had found the right moment for a showdown. He turned to look at Chen Sufen, who was watching with obvious involvement, and leaned back in his seat so he could face both of them at once.

“I’ve never been the sort of man who knows how to live sensibly. Back in the team, I had food and drink because I followed Brother Chen around. Now I’m not worried about that at all. When you’re near the mountain, you live off the mountain; if I’ve got friends around, that’s great. If not, I can always go be a gigolo or hook up with some rich woman. If I have money, I spend it. If I don’t, I don’t. That’s my plan.”

Isa stared at Bai Haonan seriously. “Do you want my money?”

Bai Haonan snorted in disdain. “How much do you have? Keep it for your grocery store. And think it through: all you really want is a place to land after you come out. I suggest you go with her to Chengdu. I can’t stay there anyway, and if word gets out, it might even be tied back to my football past. So next I’m going to Guixi. There’s a childhood friend of mine there, though he’s not doing all that well himself. At most I’ll rest there for a bit, and then I’ll go somewhere else. If you follow me, you’ll only get more and more disappointed. Let me remind you again: I’m the classic kind of man who has nothing besides sweet talk and idleness. All I can do is fool girls. These past few days you should have seen that clearly enough.”

By then the Golden Dragon logo had already begun to flash on the screen. Isa glanced at the screen, then back at Bai Haonan’s face, still trying to save him as if he were a submerged dragon lying hidden in the depths.

“We have feelings for each other. We can live together. I’ll support the household. In walking marriages, there’s also the kind where you settle down like that. You can keep playing your games, as long as you don’t play with women. Do whatever you want. One day you’ll decide to stop playing and become a great hero again, all right?”

Bai Haonan rubbed at his stubble. “When there’s money, there’s affection. When the money’s gone, the bond ends too. Forget it. You’re a girl with your own ideas, and you can endure hardship. Just like Chen Sufen, you don’t need to hang yourself on a man like me. I’m really only suited to fooling around. Why don’t you play me instead, all right?”

There were not many people in the theater, but a girl in the front row may have caught some of their conversation. In the golden glow of the film’s opening, she even found time to turn back and look. She must have thought that this side plot was even more entertaining than the movie itself.

Chen Sufen was already used to it. She even watched with something close to a smile. When Isa looked at her, she nodded and offered her experience.

“See? This is what a top-tier scumbag looks like. He’s great in bed, isn’t he? Every move of his takes all your feelings into account, right? Not only does he satisfy you in bed and out of it, he even taught me a few lessons about life. If you really want future happiness, you have to choose a man carefully. Lao Nan, I honestly feel a little tired. I’m afraid I won’t live to see the day you ever become steady and grounded.”

By the end, her frustration was plain.

Bai Haonan even praised her. “That’s how it should be. If you can let go of that wrong idea, I’ll have a little less pressure.”

Chen Sufen let out a cold laugh. “You’ll have pressure?”

Her baby-faced expression was slightly twisted in the reflected light of the movie. Perhaps only she herself understood what she was feeling at that moment: more than ten or twenty years of emotion.

A feeling treasured since the earliest days of memory, only to be cast to the ground and trampled again and again—who could endure that?

And she was, after all, a modern woman with a higher education, not some foolish girl over there whose mind held nothing but her husband.

Bai Haonan noticed that the girl in front was clearly straining to overhear, so he lowered his voice. “Damn it, you two both know exactly what kind of man I am. Why keep dragging this out?”

But the foolish girl slowly drew the knife from her waist. The screen had just begun its melodramatic dialogue, yet the atmosphere between the three of them suddenly turned tense. Bai Haonan considered whether he should try to disarm her barehanded.

“Don’t be stupid!”

The mountain girl may have observed them for several days already and confirmed that Bai Haonan truly was the sort of scoundrel whose words matched his deeds. She pressed the blade’s point against his waist.

“I’m going with you!”

Bai Haonan held himself proudly. “What was it again? Freedom is the most precious thing of all! Better to die than submit!”

Even with the blade shining in the light, Chen Sufen still could not help laughing, though it was a bitter sort of laugh.

A man like this, so long as one did not speak to him of marriage, of rice, oil, salt, and firewood, of loyalty to love—he truly was the best companion in life.

But for women, a libertine who knew neither shame nor morality was simply a nightmare.

Isa’s knife tip began to tremble.