Ordinary Friends - Chapter 10

Qin Zheng’s resignation was within my expectations.

I really couldn’t think of any reason for him to stay.

He went through all the standard resignation procedures; I never intervened. It wasn’t until he had completed everything, on his last day at the company, that he unexpectedly sent me a message, asking if we could talk.

I didn’t know what there was to talk about between us.

On the night Li Nie publicly revealed my identity, Qin Zheng also called me, saying he was waiting downstairs at my place. Coincidentally, those days Li Nie had asked me to stay at the main house for a few days-he wanted to help me sort out the company’s interpersonal relationships.

I didn’t return to my own apartment, nor did I reply to Qin Zheng’s message.

After that, he tactfully stopped bothering me.

This time, perhaps because it was a final farewell, even though I didn’t respond, he still came to find me.

I’ve always admired a certain calm and composed quality in him-maybe it’s a trait that all successful people possess. He could pretend as if there had never been any disgraceful betrayal between us.

He was so unruffled that I even wondered if my memory was playing tricks on me.

His features were cold and sharp, betraying little emotion. He even smiled like an old friend, standing at the door and asking, “Shall we talk?”

I stayed silent. He walked in and handed me a cup of coffee.

I took it, and we stood side by side before the huge floor-to-ceiling window. Night had fallen; skyscrapers rose from the ground, their lights dazzling. Looking out through the clear glass, it felt as if we were standing in a galaxy of stars.

I heard Qin Zheng sigh beside me, “Do you remember when we first started working here?”

That was almost five years ago-two fresh graduates, standing just like this, gazing out over the city lights from a high floor.

Back then, he joined the company full of ambition, ready to make his mark, only to be assigned the most inconspicuous chores.

Later, he relied on his own abilities to secure a million-yuan contract. I still remember him clutching his aching stomach from drinking, his face pale but his eyes bright with excitement as he looked at me and said:

“Shiyue, I’ll give you a home in this city.”

In the end, that big contract became his supervisor’s achievement, and he only received a 500-yuan bonus.

He used that 500 yuan to treat me to hotpot. Sitting across from me, steam rising between us, I couldn’t see his expression clearly-only remember his voice. It was the first and last time I saw a kind of confused bewilderment on his face. He asked me:

“Shiyue, when will we finally make it in this world?”

After that meal, I went to see Li Nie. Ever since he divorced my mother, she hadn’t seen him again, let alone touched his money or resources. Even though he gave me a credit card with no limit, neither my mother nor I ever used it.

That was the first time I asked him for help-for Qin Zheng.

I still remember Li Nie’s surprised expression; he was undoubtedly pleased that I was willing to ask him for help. But I also remember his meaningful words: “Shiyue, if someone can’t handle even this in the real world and needs my help, then he’s not worthy of being my son-in-law.”

Even so, he did take notice of Qin Zheng and praised him a few times in public.

The preferences of those at the top are like guiding lights; naturally, Qin Zheng’s career flourished after that. He was smart and capable in his own right.
I just never expected that, somewhere along this path of merely coping, we would drift so far apart without even realizing it.

He was like a top scholar in ancient times, hoping to ascend in one leap through the favor of a “princess”-perhaps that was his way of making something of himself, at least in his own mind.

His tone swept over me from the cracks of bygone days, tinged with a nostalgic sigh: “How did we end up like this?”

I sneered, “Qin Zheng, don’t try to play the nostalgia card with me. I understand why you chose to perch where the branches are strongest, but now, don’t make me despise you any further.”

He laughed too, tilting his head to look at me intently. He didn’t continue, and after a while, the smile at the corners of his mouth faded bit by bit, replaced by a rare seriousness: “Can’t we even be ordinary friends anymore? Shiyue, I betrayed you, you kept things from me-doesn’t that make us even?”

“Qin Zheng.” I sighed, gazing back at him without a ripple of emotion.

“I don’t know what you mean by ‘even.'”

“Your so-called ‘even’ is based on my identity as Li Nie’s daughter. Have you really never thought about it? If I weren’t Li Nie’s daughter, what would have become of me now?”

“I would have watched you and the Chairman’s daughter sneak around, so in love, while under your power and pressure, I would have had no choice but to resign. Because of the non-compete agreement, I wouldn’t even be able to work in the same industry.”

“All these years of experience, all these years of work, all my efforts would have become nothing more than stepping stones for you and Li Qingqing’s happiness.”

“When I was wandering the streets, lost and broken, drinking in the cold wind, I imagined you and Li Qingqing enjoying the best life in the city’s skyscrapers.”

“Qin Zheng, now you’re telling me we’re even?”

“How do you think we could ever be even?”

In the end, I looked at his pale, dazed face and smiled faintly, distant and indifferent. I said politely, “Qin Zheng, there’s no such thing as even. What you owe me, you’ll owe for a lifetime, and I have no intention of forgiving you.”

“From now on, dust returns to dust, earth to earth. If we meet again, we’ll be nothing but strangers.”

After that, I didn’t waste any more time on him. I glanced at my watch and said courteously, “You should go.”

Qin Zheng’s departing figure was a little unsteady. I hadn’t seen him look so disheveled in years.

But this was the path he chose.

Later, at an industry summit, I ran into Qin Zheng once or twice.

By then, I had already taken over Li Nie’s position. Wherever I went, I was surrounded by admiration, while he stood on the outskirts of the crowd, starting over at a new company, climbing his way up again bit by bit.

He didn’t even have the right to speak to me.

Later still, when I was having dinner with Li Nie, he occasionally mentioned Li Qingqing’s love life, saying she’d been deceived both financially and emotionally, and that she had no sense at all.

I don’t know when Qin Zheng and Li Qingqing broke up, but for two people brought together by interest, it’s no surprise they parted for the same reason.

I held my teacup, gazing at the garden in full bloom.

April was deep into spring-another year had already passed.

The past, like a light boat, had long since sailed beyond a thousand mountains.