Chapter 16: Picking Someone Up

At the end of 2014, Beiwan experienced a rare cold wave.

A week of heavy snowstorms buried vehicles and blocked street corners. The once bustling snack street saw a sharp decline in foot traffic due to the low temperatures, leaving only indoor restaurants struggling to stay open.

Amid the swirling flurries of goose-feather-like snow, a solitary figure walked under a black umbrella, leaving a long trail of footprints in the snow. They didn’t stop at any of the street-side shops, walking alone, farther and farther away.

Those familiar with the snack street knew that every evening, this young man would walk from the school gate to the snack street, cross it, turn at the entrance of Jiang Family Noodles, cross the road, and head towards the residential area notorious for its old and dilapidated buildings.

It was as if he was following a predetermined route.

It was as if he were trapped, unable to leave.

By now, Ji Fanling had been missing for over a month, and discussions about her at school were gradually fading. Her only living relative had long since given up, and the police had no choice but to draw a final conclusion, officially declaring her deceased.

Only Fu Yingcheng was still searching for her, visiting every place she might have gone.

Over and over, he retraced the route she had taken that night, repeating it again and again.

He was inherently an extreme rationalist, never one to do anything futile.

Yet now, there was a quiet madness to his composure.

Perhaps it wasn’t so much about firmly believing she was still alive.

He simply refused to let the last person still searching for her disappear.

It was as if he believed that if he held on long enough, one day, as he passed the street corner, he would see the person he longed to meet.

…

Fu Yingcheng reached the entrance of the residential area and stopped in his tracks. Just as he was about to leave, he noticed a small truck parked outside the area. A middle-aged man was standing by the truck, arguing with the driver.

The man was moving house and demanded the truck be driven to the base of the apartment building. The driver explained that trucks were not allowed into the residential area, which made the man furious, cursing angrily, spitting out profanities like “Damn your mother and ancestors!”

Fu Yingcheng lifted the edge of his umbrella and saw the man’s face.

— Ji Guoliang.

In high school, Ji Guoliang had only been to the school once, and that was at the beginning of their first year. He had gone to Old Tang’s office, snot and tears streaming down his face, crying about the death of his wife, his family’s hardships, and how pitiful his daughter was, all to borrow money from Old Tang.

Soft-hearted, Old Tang lent him a thousand yuan on the spot. However, Ji Guoliang disappeared without a trace afterward. In the end, it was Ji Fanling who learned about the matter and secretly took money from home to repay Old Tang.

At the time, when Ji Guoliang was sobbing in the office, Fu Yingcheng happened to hear Ji Fanling’s name and glanced over, which was why he remembered him now. On a whim, he decided to follow him.

Ji Guoliang went upstairs, and after a while, he came back down carrying a cardboard box filled with miscellaneous items. He dropped it by the roadside, cursing under his breath.

The box contained high school textbooks, notebooks, pencils, a school bag, a girl’s hair ties, and a particularly striking photo frame that stood out among the old items. Inside the frame was a picture of a woman in a white dress, her features gentle and delicate.

There were also old clothes, worn-out pants, and even some dingy, gray undergarments, all piled together like trash.

“Finally moving out? Good riddance, get lost!” An elderly woman, just returning from the market with her groceries, hurled an angry curse at Ji Guoliang’s back.

The old woman shuffled forward, bent down, and rummaged through the box Ji Guoliang had discarded. “How could they throw all this away! Absolutely shameless.”

“Do you know this family?” a low, deep voice sounded from nearby.

The elderly woman looked up and noticed a black umbrella held above her head. The young man holding the umbrella was tall and handsome, with an expressionless face.

“I live right across from their place,” the woman finally found a way to vent her frustrations. “The wife in that family passed away, and the husband is nothing but a gambler. He sleeps all day and gathers a rowdy group at night, making such a racket that I can’t get a wink of sleep.”

“They only had one daughter, and she died in a car accident. How long has it been since her death? And that scoundrel has already thrown away all of Fanling’s belongings! It’s his junk that ought to be tossed!” she shouted angrily toward the upstairs window.

“Fanling,” the young man softly enunciated the name.

“…Yes, that’s right. The young girl was in high school, supposed to take her college entrance exams next year,” the elderly woman sighed. “Sometimes when I couldn’t carry a bag of rice upstairs, she’d help me with it. She even apologized, saying her family was disturbing my sleep. I told her, ‘It’s not your fault, is it? Why should you be the one apologizing?'”

“Such a good, well-behaved girl, and yet… sigh… sigh!”

The elderly woman hesitated, then stomped her cane angrily. “That scoundrel beat her every few days!”

The air fell silent for a moment.

Cold snowflakes landed on Fu Yingcheng’s dark eyelashes.

The young man didn’t respond, but the elderly woman kept muttering, continuing her story: “I just can’t stand his behavior. What kind of person beats a child? You don’t know, sometimes he beat her so badly… it was truly heartbreaking.”

“There was one time I thought something terrible was going to happen. I went to the neighborhood committee and even called the police. But the police said they could only give him a warning. After that, he got even worse, and poor Fanling suffered even more. I didn’t dare to call the police again after that.”

“Heaven must be blind. Why wasn’t it him who died instead…”

The elderly woman’s rambling voice gradually faded into the wind.

After a long moment, the young man bent down, taking the groceries from the old woman’s hands. His voice was dry and hoarse:

“I’ll help you upstairs.”

Because the landlord had threatened to withhold his deposit, Ji Guoliang was forced to move all of his belongings.

At this moment, Ji Fanling’s home was completely empty, with only walls stained yellow from cigarette smoke remaining.

There was no trace left of her ever having lived there.

The elderly woman returned home, ate her meal, and watched some television. When she opened the door to take out the trash, she was startled to find that the umbrella-holding young man was still standing in the hallway.

He stood there motionless in front of Ji Fanling’s door.

His shoulders were slender, and his frozen back was taut like a drawn bowstring, seemingly on the verge of snapping.

“Young man, you’re still here?” the elderly woman asked.

The elderly woman tried to persuade him, “It’s too cold in the hallway. Go on, there’s nothing left to see.”

Fu Yingcheng moved his lips but couldn’t manage to say anything. He only let out a strained, hoarse response before lowering his eyes, which had long since become dry and sore.

…

So it turns out, there’s something even more painful than losing someone you once knew—

It’s realizing, after she’s gone,

that she wasn’t happy when she was alive either.

*

In the Women’s Clothing Store.

After the store attendant left, Ji Fanling lifted her shirt in the fitting room, looking at herself in the mirror, turning slightly from side to side.

She had long stopped caring about her scars, to the point that she had forgotten how terrifying her body looked, enough to make someone scream in fright.

Maybe it really is…

ugly.

The girl expressionlessly straightened her clothes and walked out of the fitting room, noticing Fu Yingcheng’s gaze from not far away.

Ji Fanling thought that Fu Yingcheng wasn’t the kind of person who’d spend an entire day shopping, and she didn’t particularly enjoy the process of browsing either. So she cut straight to the point and said, “I’ll take this one. What do you think?”

Fu Yingcheng didn’t answer. He stood up, went to the register, and calmly said to the cashier, “Everything she just tried on, wrap them all up.”

Ji Fanling quickly turned her head. “What?”

The store clerk was momentarily stunned. “Including the short shearling jacket and the dark brown coat with the fur collar that you picked out earlier?” She clarified, referring to the white one and the long-haired one.

Fu Yingcheng: “Yes.”

Ji Fanling: “What???”

Ignoring her frantic looks from the side, Fu Yingcheng continued, “Are there matching pants?”

“Yes, yes,” the clerk eagerly replied. “To pair with the coat, these pants work well, and a skirt would look great too. Would you like to try an S size?”

“No need to try.”

When Fu Yingcheng heard there would be more trying on, a subtle hint of irritation flashed in his eyes. He tapped his fingers lightly and interrupted, “Just wrap them all up.”

Ji Fanling: “What??????”

“Alright, that’s three coats, four tops, three pairs of pants, and two skirts. The total comes to…”

“Hold it!” The girl stopped the store clerk from calculating the total and, unable to bear it any longer, tugged at Fu Yingcheng’s sleeve. “Weren’t you just going to compensate me for one piece?”

Fu Yingcheng lowered his gaze to look at her.

His eyes were pitch black, deep, and calm, so much so that she could clearly see her own reflection within them.

Even though they had been together the entire time, his gaze carried the feeling of looking at a long-lost acquaintance.

Like a solitary black statue, dusted with snow.

Ji Fanling froze for a moment, puzzled. “Fu Yingcheng?”

Fu Yingcheng paused briefly, then pulled his sleeve free from her hand and looked away.

“…I’m buying these clothes for my own sake.” Unlike his usual sharp sarcasm, his tone this time was calm, yet it inexplicably felt more displeased than ever before.

Even the way he reached out to pay carried an air of finality, leaving no room for argument.

“—So, it won’t count against you.”

*

Ji Fanling didn’t understand why Fu Yingcheng was suddenly upset, but she noticed that after buying her a whole heap of clothes and pants, then moving on to the shoe store to get sneakers, dress shoes, tall boots, and short boots, his mood seemed to subtly improve.

Ji Fanling had no idea that Fu Yingcheng had overheard the store clerk’s conversation, nor could she possibly know that he had visited her home after her death.

She could only guess.

Could it be that Fu Yingcheng had always thought she looked terrible from head to toe, and now that he finally had the chance to completely revamp her appearance, he could finally feel at ease?

It seemed highly likely.

Ji Fanling glanced at Fu Yingcheng, who was paying with an unchanged expression, and gradually felt numb to the situation.

Rather than saying something and risking his disdain, it was wiser to stay silent.

Besides, she had already gained so much; there was no point in acting coy. Regardless of his reasons, being gifted a whole wardrobe of winter clothes… it was hard not to feel a little grateful.

It felt like this winter might just be a warm one.

The phone in Ji Fanling’s pocket vibrated. She pulled it out and saw a new text message.

There was also a friend request on WeChat, sent by Cheng Jiali.

She froze for a moment, realizing that her WeChat account was linked to her phone number, which was how Cheng Jiali had managed to track her down.

However, she didn’t want to add Cheng Jiali as a friend, so she calmly ignored the request.

The second text message, however, was what truly mattered to her—

Ji Fanling’s eyes widened as she read it twice, just to be sure. Unable to contain her excitement, she jumped up and ran toward Fu Yingcheng, who wasn’t far away.

She had a job!

*