The Bustling Empty City

After lunch, I wandered into a nearby shop, and by the time I strolled to Kangpu, it was already 2:30 PM. Lin Feng greeted me with a shy smile. Every time I visit Kangpu, Lin Feng acts as if I’m there just to see him. Honestly, he hasn’t changed at all since he pursued me in college; it’s been eight years, and he still looks like a perpetually youthful science student, which is one reason I could never like him. Once, he invited me to see the moon at the Old Summer Palace, and on a whim, I went. It was supposed to be romantic, but he started lecturing about ancient history from the Former Qin dynasty, mixing official and unofficial histories. For the first two hours, I could interject, but then his glasses gleamed in the moonlight, and he just kept talking. By the time he got to Wu Sangui letting the Qing army in, I couldn’t take it anymore and fell asleep in his arms. I caught a terrible cold after that, and his roommates told me he was so excited he didn’t sleep for two nights. Since then, I’ve refused to participate in any of his planned activities. Lin Feng’s cleverness lies in never mentioning love, never giving me a chance to reject him. This has inadvertently led to our current ‘old married couple’ dynamic. I marched into the boss’s office with two hefty checks, “Here’s the money from the Sanya event and last month’s media campaign, all back!” The boss beamed, “Very good, leave them here, I’ll have accounting record them later.” As I turned to leave, I remembered something, “Oh, by the way, boss, I have a friend who wants to join our company. She’s a Chinese major, was a teacher for a few years, her writing is top-notch. I think Wu Xiaofei’s team is short-staffed, why not let her try out?” The boss agreed readily, “Sure, have her start on Monday!”