Extra Story 4 - Year after Year, and Today Once More
New Year's Eve, 8 a.m.
Outside the window, crackling firecrackers sounded, occasionally mixed with the giggles of children playing.
Gu Kaiyang pulled off her eye mask, yawned again, and slowly sat up in bed, stretching her arms overhead.
She was busy with work all year round, and only during the New Year holiday could she get a good, full sleep.
Because New Year's greetings kept coming in via text messages, the phone on her bedside table kept lighting up automatically.
She didn't look at it. Nowadays, she no longer needed to stay on high alert, clutching her phone for fear of missing an important call from her boss.
Gu Kaiyang was thirty-five this year, the editor-in-chief of the top-tier men's magazine Zero Degree in China. A few years ago, she gained public attention after participating in a reality dating show for ordinary people, gradually developing into a well-known fashion blogger with thirty million followers on Weibo.
The loft apartment she had once emptied her savings to buy had long been replaced by a spacious, riverfront penthouse with panoramic views, and her Beetle had been upgraded from a Mercedes-Benz to a Ferrari.
The life she had fantasized about at fifteen, she had fully achieved by thirty-five.
The only slight imperfection was that at thirty-five, she was still single.
All these years, Gu Kaiyang hadn't been in a relationship—no time, and she hadn't met anyone who caught her eye enough to make her willing to waste time on them.
If she had to trace back to her last crush, it seemed to go back to Zhou Jiaheng, whom she met while participating in that reality dating show.
Zhou Jiaheng was now the actual head of the Junyi Group. A few years ago, he married a gentle and beautiful high school English teacher.
At the time of the wedding, Gu Kaiyang was on a business trip in Milan and couldn't attend the ceremony, so she generously sent a red envelope via WeChat.
For nearly half a month afterward, Ji Mingshu and Jiang Chun spoke to her cautiously, afraid of stepping on a landmine and upsetting her.
Gu Kaiyang felt a bit helpless and somewhat amused.
In truth, she really didn't think there was anything to avoid. Back when she participated in the show, she had indeed been somewhat interested in Zhou Jiaheng. Zhou Jiaheng was exceptional in every way, handled social situations with grace, and with the other male contestants as foils, developing a crush on him was a natural thing—something she had never denied.
However, Gu Kaiyang wasn't the type to hold on to something she couldn't have. There had never been a start between them, and Zhou Jiaheng had shown no interest in her whatsoever. After feeling down for a few days back then, she had moved on completely.
She had explained more than once to Ji Mingshu and Jiang Chun that this was all in the past, but those two, having watched too many dramas, kept projecting scenarios onto her, leaving her genuinely exasperated.
Although she was already awake, Gu Kaiyang didn't want to get up and wash up, nor did she want to go out for breakfast. The reason was simple: once she ran into her parents and the aunts and relatives coming over for the New Year's Eve dinner, the conversation would inevitably turn to finding a partner within three sentences.
In a big city like Pingcheng, being thirty-five without a relationship or marriage wasn't particularly unusual. But back in her hometown, no matter how capable or financially successful she was, she was inevitably labeled an "old maid."
Sometimes, she felt the urge not to even come home for the New Year.
Her hometown mostly favored sons over daughters. In the past, since she was the only child, her parents hadn't shown such tendencies and had even supported her studying design abroad.She had always believed her parents were different, but the year she graduated from university, they unexpectedly gave her a younger brother without any prior discussion. From time to time, they would remind her that they had funded her study abroad, implying she must fully support her brother in the future.
Gradually, her relationship with her family inexplicably grew distant. After starting work, she sent more and more money home but made fewer and fewer phone calls. Coupled with the relentless pressure to marry over the past seven or eight years, her emotional ties wore thinner, and conversations became increasingly strained.
Lying flat, she slept for another half hour. The noise outside grew louder—the aunts and relatives had likely all arrived. Hiding any longer would seem inappropriate.
She got up, washed, and applied her makeup, casually picking up her phone to check it.
Zhan Xingyi: Happy New Year’s Eve, Editor Gu. /grin
Seeing the latest WeChat message from Zhan Xingyi, Gu Kaiyang was slightly surprised.
Zhan Xingyi was a male celebrity, officially twenty-seven years old, though she suspected his actual age might be a year or two older. Fortunately, he had a youthful aura. After struggling for a few years without much success, he had rapidly risen to fame with two hit dramas in the past two years, quickly joining the ranks of fresh-faced idols.
She and Zhan Xingyi occasionally crossed paths due to work. Before the New Year, when she returned from a business trip in Paris, she happened to encounter him being harassed by obsessive fans. He had swapped outfits with his assistant but was still recognized by casual fans, unable to escape for quite some time. Without overthinking it, she stepped in to cover for him and gave him a ride back to his hotel.
At the time, Zhan Xingyi thanked her profusely. She didn’t stand on ceremony and asked him for a stack of signed photos on the spot, thinking they would come in handy for handing out to the star-struck young girls among her relatives during the New Year.
Seeing Zhan Xingyi’s WeChat message, Gu Kaiyang paused for a moment. For the sake of the signed photos, she casually replied, "Happy New Year’s Eve."
Upon receiving her reply, Zhan Xingyi began pondering how to continue the conversation. But she didn’t take it seriously. After replying, she tossed her phone aside and went out to socialize with her relatives.
During the reunion dinner, the round table in the living room was packed with two full tables. As the most accomplished yet unmarried "old maid" of the Gu family at thirty-four, Gu Kaiyang naturally became the center of attention. The conversations revolving around her inevitably focused on the topics of dating and marriage.
Knowing this was coming, Gu Kaiyang had mentally prepared herself. After all, she only saw these relatives once a year. Whatever they said, she would listen politely and respond accordingly—it wouldn’t cost her anything.
Her mental preparation was thorough, but she couldn’t withstand some distant relatives who overstepped their bounds, acting as if they were entitled to an opinion and speaking increasingly inappropriately under the guise of caring elders seeking superiority.
Gu Kaiyang endured it repeatedly, but when a distant cousin ten times removed suggested setting her up with a nearly forty-year-old divorced minor clerk, she finally couldn’t hold back. With an equally sarcastic tone, she retorted, "Cousin, do you have some misunderstanding about what ‘good conditions’ mean? His annual salary isn’t even as much as my monthly bank interest. How would we manage?"
The cousin’s face flushed red and then turned pale. "He’s an honest man!"
Gu Kaiyang scoffed lightly. "At the Polytechnic University across from our house, I could find a male student and spend tens of thousands a month supporting him. I bet he’d be honest too, and he’d be young—no need for me to raise someone else’s baggage."
"Gu Kaiyang!"“How can someone in their thirties be so bad with words!”
Her mother set down her chopsticks and scolded with a stern face.
Gu Kaiyang: “If you can’t speak well, isn’t it enough to know how to make money?”
The atmosphere at the table turned awkward. Other relatives tried to change the subject and smooth things over. Having vented her anger completely, she no longer felt like staying and excused herself with a casual reason.
She was about to report her glorious victory to her girlfriends when she opened WeChat and found several new messages from Zhan Xingyi.
Zhan Xingyi: Thanks for covering for me last time.
Zhan Xingyi: By the way, Editor Gu, what are your plans for the New Year?
Zhan Xingyi: Are you in Pingcheng?
Gu Kaiyang was no naive young girl. Staring at these messages for a while, she sensed something unusual.
She carefully recalled her previous interactions with Zhan Xingyi.
He was quite sunny.
Had a bit of a “little puppy” vibe.
Had a good reputation in the industry.
But he wasn’t even thirty yet.
Gu Kaiyang didn’t know what she was thinking. After a long while, she replied: What about you?
Zhan Xingyi replied instantly: I’m in Pingcheng.
Zhan Xingyi: Spending the New Year alone this year.
Zhan Xingyi: If you’re in Pingcheng, want to grab a drink tonight and watch the Spring Festival Gala?
Gu Kaiyang stared at the words “watch the Spring Festival Gala” for a long time, unable to suppress the curl of her lips.
Gu Kaiyang: Okay.
After replying, she opened a ticket-booking app and booked a flight back to Pingcheng.
New Year’s Eve, 2:00 PM.
The snow in Pingcheng had stopped, leaving a thick layer of fresh snow on the ground. Jiang Chun and Tang Zhizhou were in the yard making dumplings with their children.
Jiang Chun and Tang Zhizhou had a pair of twin boys in the third year of their marriage. Their grandmother named them: one Tang Jingxing, the other Tang Xingzhi.
Jiang Chun had specifically looked up the origin of the names: “High mountains are looked up to, noble deeds are followed.”
After reading the explanation, she whispered to Tang Zhizhou, “Jingxing corresponds to ‘high mountains.’ Did his grandmother think Tang Gaoshan didn’t sound as nice as Tang Xingzhi, so she didn’t make their names symmetrical? But these pronunciations ‘hang’ and ‘xing’ are so awkward. It’d be much smoother to just call them Tang Dalu and Tang Gaoshan.”
So whenever Jiang Chun got angry, she’d shout:
“Tang Gaoshan! If you don’t eat now, you’ll never eat again!”
“Tang Dalu! Turn off the TV right now! Otherwise, you’ll never watch Ultraman again in your life!”
Due to daily brainwashing by Jiang Chun, the devil mom, Tang Jingxing once wrote his name as Tang Dalu on a first-grade exam. Later, his paper got mixed up with another child’s who was actually named Tang Dalu, causing quite a mix-up.
But Jiang Chun showed no remorse. Even while making dumplings for the New Year, she didn’t forget to use her affectionate nicknames to motivate the two little ones:
“Tang Gaoshan, where are your dumpling pleats? They’re so ugly—Zhuo Bao definitely won’t eat them.”
“Tang Dalu, don’t put so much meat in! How can Zhuo Bao, who’s so small, eat such a big piece?”
That’s right. Jiang Chun, with her far-sighted planning, had mentally reserved Zhuo Bao as her future daughter-in-law ever since Ji Mingshu’s Zhuo Bao was born. She frequently brought her two boys to see Zhuo Bao, encouraging them to compete fairly.
But no matter how much Jiang Chun pushed them, the dumplings the two boys made in the end were still a pitiful sight.
When dropping off dumplings at the Ji residence on the way, Jiang Chun sighed worriedly, “With these two, I might never get to become in-laws with my dear Xiaoshushu in this lifetime.”Tang Zhizhou reversed the car into the garage in one smooth motion, leaned over to help her unbuckle the seatbelt, and gently patted her small belly, his voice tinged with laughter. "You can still rely on her."
Hmm... The little one in her belly had already been confirmed to be a girl. If she were to become Cen Yan's wife in the future, it didn’t seem like a bad idea.
Thinking of this, Jiang Chun happily narrowed her eyes with a smile.
New Year’s Eve, 7 p.m.
As usual, Ji Mingshu and Cen Sen returned to the Ji residence in the afternoon and headed back to Nanqiao West Lane in the evening. The only difference now was that whenever they went out, they had to bring along Cen Xiaoyan and Cen Xiaozhuo.
In the evening, after eating two dumplings sent by her Aunt Little Earth Goose, Cen Xiaozhuo yawned sleepily, her little mouth agape. Meanwhile, Cen Xiaoyan and the other children from the Cen family excitedly carried several cardboard boxes from the trunk, ready to set off fireworks.
Feeling a bit too full, Ji Mingshu cozied up to Cen Sen, wrapping her arm around his as they strolled outside to aid digestion.
Nanqiao West Lane had remained unchanged over the years and had even been included in the plan to restore ancient streets. It was likely to retain its original appearance for a long time to come.
The snow was thick, and Ji Mingshu trudged forward in her lambskin boots, stepping heavily into the deep snow. As she gazed at the familiar street scene, memories of the past involuntarily surfaced.
"Do you remember the New Year’s Eve when you confessed to me? Right here, at this very spot." Stopping in front of a lamppost at the entrance of the lane, Ji Mingshu suddenly reminisced.
Cen Sen gently embraced her from behind. "I remember."
Ji Mingshu seemed to recall something, unable to suppress a secretive smile that curled at the corners of her lips.
"Hmm? What are you smiling about?"
Ji Mingshu quickly composed herself, clearing her throat with feigned seriousness. "Nothing... It’s just, I think this is what they call 'whoever falls in love first loses.' Look, you confessed to me first, and now I have you wrapped around my finger, right? So I think we should raise our Zhuo Bao to be a bit more aloof in the future, so she won’t be so easily fooled away. Don’t you agree?"
Cen Sen couldn’t help but recall the time Ji Mingshu had quietly confessed her feelings while he was asleep. A faint smile tugged at his lips, but he simply went along with her words. "Yes, you’re right."
New Year’s Eve, midnight.
Clusters of New Year’s fireworks soared into the sky, illuminating the quiet night of Pingcheng as brightly as day.
Gu Kaiyang, bundled up with only her eyes visible, and Zhan Xingyi clinked glasses with laughter in a small tavern, wishing each other a Happy New Year.
Jiang Chun, Tang Zhizhou, and their two little ones sat around the dining table, enjoying steaming hot dumplings while counting down with the host on TV.
Ji Mingshu and Cen Sen had built four abstract little snowmen in the yard. Zhuo Bao was still asleep, and the thoughtful Cen Xiaoyan gently covered her tiny ears.
At this moment, the old year’s contract expired, and a new year’s renewal began.
May every year and every day bring us back to this very moment.
OpenNovel