When Yu Mo stepped out of the Moye Road subway station, it was barely past nine in the morning, yet waves of heat were already rolling off the pavement.
她 adjusted her white silk dress and pulled a pair of sunglasses from her bag. She was sporting two heavy dark circles under her eyes today, which looked particularly jarring against her porcelain-pale skin. She suspected she was getting old; in her thirty years of life, such shadows had never graced her face before.
Of course, the man at home deserved much of the credit. Knowing full well she had a difficult battle to fight today, he had stubbornly pinned her down until midnight, ignoring her protests until she couldn't even lift a finger. All his usual talk about not letting her get tired seemed to have been tossed to the wind.
Groups of young women poured out of the station, chatting and laughing as they brushed past her, heading toward Jinning’s largest pedestrian street at Guanmiao.
Yu Mo immediately spotted the black sedan parked brazenly in the no-parking zone. The car’s body reflected a mesmerizing luster under the sun, its windows tinted so dark that nothing could be seen from the outside.
The driver, Xiao Zhang, stepped out and respectfully opened the rear door for her. Yu Mo leaned in and sat down, her gaze meeting a pair of amber eyes.
After seven months, they were finally meeting again.
Xue Shen smiled at her, a rare flash of genuine joy visible in his eyes. When he smiled, fine lines appeared at the corners of his eyes. With his jade-like complexion and dark, sword-shaped brows, he looked so clean he seemed almost untouched by the mortal world.
It was still the same eyes, the same brows, but he would never again be as high-spirited as he once was—winking at her, acting reckless and happy, or sharing those silent, knowing glances in the middle of a classroom.
The Xue Shen she knew was gone forever.
"Momo," he called her name tenderly, reaching out both hands toward her.
Those hands were slender and fair, with nails trimmed to a perfect, orderly curve. Yu Mo placed her hand in his, and they clasped hands.
"Momo, you’ve taken good care of yourself. I’m happy to see that. Sometimes I wish you could only depend on me, but then you wouldn't be you."
Outside the window, the plane trees were a lush, dripping green under the summer sun, which cast dappled shadows through the leaves. The moment Yu Mo turned her head, he caught sight of a red mark beneath her collar. It was an arrow straight to his heart.
"When you said it was over, did you really mean you’d never look back? Not even once?"
"Yes."
"I won't remarry, Momo. The position of Mrs. Xue will always be yours. Whenever you grow tired of playing around outside, you can come back."
His desire for material things had become very low; he was in no rush for anything. He could wait. His heart was a barren wasteland now, but back when he was young and there was still a crack in the door to his soul, this girl named Yu Mo had slipped inside. Now, she had left without a word, leaving him alone in a lonely world.
Xue Shen was not a man of empty words.
She remembered him once telling her on the sun-drenched roof of their school: "Momo, I will definitely make sure you live a good life."
He had kept that promise.
"A-Liang," Yu Mo called out.
That single name moved them both. There were only two people in this world who called him "A-Liang."
As a child, he had been naughty and overbearing. If the neighborhood kids didn't listen to him, he would beat them until they were black and blue. Whatever he wanted, he had to snatch. Even at a young age, he showed the makings of a "Chaos King."
His grandmother, who looked after him, was powerless to correct him. Aside from diligently offering extra incense to the Buddha, she gave him a childhood nickname: "A-Liang," meaning "The Good One."
Naturally, the brilliant and capable Director Tian and the highly respected Secretary Xue would never use such a name.
His grandmother had been gone for many years. Now, the only person who still remembered that name sat beside him, and he feared he would hear it fewer and fewer times as the years went by. From now on, there would be no more A-Liang who climbed walls to go to internet cafes or skipped class to fight; there would only be the young and successful, the powerful and influential Xue Shen.
Yu Mo loved A-Liang, not Xue Shen. He knew this, but he couldn't turn back time.
As the name "A-Liang" left her lips, Yu Mo’s tears began to fall.
A flicker of emotion crossed Xue Shen’s eyes. "Momo, you’re finally crying in front of me again. From the beginning to the end of this whole affair, you didn't shed a single tear. You felt I wasn't worth it. Now, you’re finally crying for me again."
He reached out to wipe them away but pulled back halfway. He said with certainty, "You’re leaving."
Yu Mo turned her head away, large tears rolling down her cheeks. "A-Liang, you have to live a good life."
A faint smile even touched the corners of Xue Shen’s mouth. Looking at the shadows cast by the plane trees outside, a couplet surfaced in his mind: *“Suddenly an old friend passes through the heart; looking back, the mountains and rivers are already autumn.”*
The rest of his life would be so very long. In a way, they had reached the "white-haired end" together after all.
The driver pulled up in front of the Tianxi Hotel and came around to open the door. The hotel’s lobby manager and bellhops hurried over to greet them.
"Miss Yu, President Xue."
Xue Shen turned to the driver. "Find someone to help move the things to the eighteenth floor."
Yu Mo’s mother was waiting for them by the elevator on the eighteenth floor. She was slender, retaining a youthful figure even with age. Her skin was fair, and she possessed a tranquil aura that made people feel an immediate sense of warmth. Today, she wore a simple silk blouse and a long skirt.
She greeted Xue Shen with a smile. Yu Mo walked over and hugged her, burying her face in her mother's neck. She caught the familiar scent of flowers, and the exhaustion of the past six months suddenly surged up, making her eyes burn.
Mother Yu laughed. "What a baby, still clinging on like this."
Yu Mo blinked away the heat in her eyes.
Standing to the side, Xue Shen said with a smile, "Mom, just let her act spoiled. She missed you."
Mother Yu looked at Yu Mo’s face and asked, "Why have you lost so much weight lately?"
"Mom, you have to scold her. She said she’s thrilled about her successful weight loss," Xue Shen said, giving Yu Mo a wink.
If it weren't for the heavy stone blocking her throat, Yu Mo would have thought nothing had changed, as if they had returned to the past. She took her mother’s arm, finally finding her voice. "Mom, why are you thinner too? Are you trying to outdo me?"
Mother Yu tapped her on the head. "Nonsense. I usually suffer from summer malaise; my appetite just drops. I’ll be fine once the weather cools down."
As soon as they sat down in the room, Xiao Zhang arrived with a luggage cart full of gifts. Mother Yu didn't decline too much, smiling as she praised Xue Shen.
Xue Shen said, "I’ve arranged for hairy crabs to be delivered tonight directly to the hotel as parting gifts for the guests. I ordered extra; you and Dad can arrange to give them to the staff as holiday gifts. It should be a decent gesture."
Mother Yu smiled. "You’ve always been thoughtful. You’re too thoughtful, really—treating Momo like a child when she’s a grown woman. By rights, these social graces should be handled by the woman of the house."
Yu Mo made a face from the side, making the other two laugh. Xue Shen instinctively reached out and patted her head.
They were all pretending that everything was fine.
During lunch, Yu Mo’s father finally returned. It was a family tradition: a private meal for the immediate family at noon, followed by a larger banquet with friends and relatives in the evening.
During the meal, it was mentioned in passing that Mother Yu hadn't been feeling well lately and was eating very little.
Yu Mo called out anxiously, "Mom!"
Mother Yu chided her husband for making a fuss. "What nonsense. It’s just the summer heat. At my age, isn't it normal to have some minor aches and pains? Don't be an alarmist."
Xue Shen set down his bone china chopsticks. "Mom, let me make an appointment with a doctor for you. It’s better to get a check-up just to be safe."
Mother Yu waved them off. "No need to worry. We’ve already booked an appointment. We just have to wait about a month; Director Hua happens to be abroad for an exchange program. It’s nothing."
Yu Mo and Xue Shen stayed to keep Mother Yu company. Soon it was three or four in the afternoon, and they began preparing for the evening banquet. It wasn't until past 11 PM that they saw off the last guest.
The hectic day passed quickly.
Back in her hotel room, Yu Mo went into the bathroom and placed a video call to Qi Lian.
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 莫邪路 | Moye Road | A street name. |
| 晋宁 | Jinning | The name of the city. |
| 官庙 | Guanmiao | A local landmark/pedestrian street area. |
| 薛慎 | Xue Shen | Yu Mo's ex-husband/estranged husband. |
| 小张 | Xiao Zhang | The driver. |
| 阿良 | A-Liang | Xue Shen's childhood nickname. |
| 苦夏 | Summer malaise | A Chinese medical/cultural term for loss of appetite and fatigue caused by summer heat. |
| 天玺 | Tianxi | The name of the hotel. |
| 华主任 | Director Hua | A medical professional. |
| 忽有故人心上过，回首山河已是秋 | Suddenly an old friend passes through the heart; looking back, the mountains and rivers are already autumn | A poetic couplet reflecting on past relationships and the passage of time. |
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