"Back then you were his little sister, now you're his wife. You should set your standards higher." He leaned back on one hand, clutching a beer bottle with the other, draining it in one gulp. "If I had the capability, I'd buy half of Tengcheng for you. That would truly make it the City of Luck."
"Keep dreaming." Miao Jing shot him a glance, her eyes sparkling with amusement. "This is already more than enough."
Chen Yi sighed and reached for the cigarette case in his luggage. He often kept a pack of cigarettes nearby but never carried a lighter. When lost in thought, he'd habitually smell the tobacco, rolling a cigarette between his fingers.
"On such a perfect day, could you make an exception and let me smoke? I feel like I need a puff of smoke to commemorate all these years of ups and downs."
Miao Jing only allowed him one drag.
He got up and went to the kitchen to light the cigarette using the gas stove, then returned to sit beside Miao Jing, pressing the cigarette toward her. "You take it."
Miao Jing wrinkled her delicate brows in distaste as she leaned close to the filter, taking a shallow inhale.
His lips immediately met hers, tasting the sweetness mingled with nicotine in her mouth. The smoke passed between them through their kiss as he savored the flavor on her lips—smooth, sweet, and dizzying.
They tumbled onto the floor kissing, the cigarette still held between his fingers but never brought to his lips again. As time stretched on, pale blue smoke curled around them, a long ash quietly falling to the floor until everything settled into stillness.
It still felt like the flutter of first love from their youth—just the two of them at home, sharing kisses tinged with cigarette smoke and intimacy, a memory neither had ever forgotten.
After returning to Tengcheng, their new life quickly filled up. Chen Yi first went to pick up his car—driving a Cadillac again after so many years, purely for nostalgia's sake. Miao Jing joined Tengcheng's new auto parts company as a design engineer, located right next to her former employer's main factory, where she conveniently bought a commuter car.
As for Little Orange, who was about to start elementary school, besides finding her a school and helping her settle in, they needed to find her friends. Fortunately, Bo Zai had two children, so they took them all to the amusement park for some wild fun. For this occasion, Miao Jing exceptionally allowed Chen Yi to take Little Orange to the night market for supper at 10 PM. The brightly lit, bustling night market astonished Little Orange—in Bogotá, she had never been out past 9 PM nor bought ice cream from roadside shops without adult supervision.
Chen Yi kept busy with social engagements. First, he invited Zhou Kang'an home for a lavish dinner, though naturally he had to catch up with Bo Zai and the others over food and drinks first. He brought Miao Jing along, and when she entered the private room, the atmosphere briefly froze.
Those in the know remembered how cold and distant these two had been when they were siblings—Miao Jing rarely bothered with Chen Yi, never minced words, and sometimes bluntly shut him down. Bo Zai recalled more vividly how Miao Jing had publicly mocked Yi Ge and the strange tension during the hospital days, plus those first couple of years in Bogotá when she supported the household while Chen Yi stayed home doing laundry and cooking, resigned to being a househusband. So everyone was stunned to see Miao Jing sitting meekly beside Chen Yi at the dinner table, tender and compliant, quietly refilling his tea and water.
"Yi Ge really is something," everyone chimed in enthusiastically. "Thriving wherever he goes—with such a beautiful daughter and such a devoted wife."Chen Yi leisurely ate the shrimp Miao Jing had peeled for him, his eyebrows arching high: "You can mess around outside all you want, but at home, you still need to have some backbone."
After dinner ended, Bo Zai accidentally saw Miao Jing kick Yi Ge when getting into the car.
Chen Yi actually had a small factory back in China, jointly established with a Colombian friend in Guangzhou, mainly targeting the Colombian market. Returning to Tengcheng, he also needed to manage the trading company.
He had actually brought back an investment too, preparations having begun even before returning to China.
That day, Chen Yi finally took Miao Jing and Xiao Chengzi to visit their old home.
The residential area had become dilapidated, with nearly everything nearby demolished, leaving no trace of how it used to be. Only those two old buildings stood alone, gray and dusty in the unfamiliar surroundings, like elderly people devoid of any vitality.
A large "Demolish" character was written on the gray wall.
"Mom, Dad, the houses here are so run-down," Xiao Chengzi said curiously, looking around.
The key made a rusty creak as it turned in the lock. Pushing the door open, the furnishings felt both unfamiliar and intensely familiar—a two-bedroom, one-living-room apartment with dusty old furniture, a sofa and TV covered in dust sheets. Forcing open the two bedroom doors, dust rushed into their nostrils with the airflow. The rooms were simply arranged, with two conspicuous, bare beds.
The left room was Chen Yi's; the right was Miao Jing's.
"This is the home where Mom and Dad grew up, the rooms they lived in."
"Dad's clothes from his youth, Mom's textbooks from when she was little, the alarm clock that jingled for over a decade, the cups they drank from together..."
Miao Jing's fingers trailed along the wall, brushing off the dust. Unexpectedly, her eyes welled up with tears. Xiao Chengzi squeezed her hand and asked innocently, "Mom, did you and Dad live together since you were little? Were there only the two of you living in this house? Where were your parents?"
She forced a smile at her daughter, two tears trickling down the corners of her eyes.
Chen Yi patted their daughter's head, his dark eyes deep and silent, not saying a word as he pulled both Miao Jing and Xiao Chengzi into his embrace.
"Just in time—this whole area is going to be demolished. I bought this plot of land, Miao Jing. With such good feng shui, you can imagine the future... All of this is yours..."
Maybe I can't buy you a city, but at least I can buy you a home—
Right where we first met.
—The End—
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