Seizing Dreams

The sun has risen, and it was a new day. The explosions of firecrackers going off could be heard outside the window. Fu Liqun, who was lying on the bed, raised one hand and placed it against his forehead as he faced the sunlight outside his bedroom window. Ou Qihang didn’t have a good sleeping posture and was currently all over Fu Liqun, burying his head on his chest while both his legs were entwined around his waist. Fu Liqun turned sideways and pushed his forehead, then Ou Qihang turned over, bleary-eyed, and lay flat on his stomach.

Fu Liqun got off the bed and drew the curtains. In the distance, Mt. Qingsong was covered with a layer of snow; it glistened brightly as it reflected the brilliance of the morning sun.

A beanbag was placed facing the French windows. Fu Liqun sat down and his whole body sunk into it. On the night before the Spring Festival, he was sitting on the sofa with his arms around Cen Shan as they recounted their stories after they had bid farewell. As they looked at the starry river on a wintry night beyond the windows, they had spoken a lot.

“We haven’t spoken like this in a very long time.” Fu Liqun said.

Cen Shan said apologetically with sorrow, “I’m sorry.”

Fu Liqun smiled and embraced Cen Shan. Cen Shan sighed again, then buried her head in front of Fu Liqun.

“Never mind.” Fu Liqun said, “People who are loved need not apologise.”

Cen Shan didn’t know how to respond to that. Fu Liqun continued, “At the airport that day, you almost made me completely wilt away.”

On the day he left Ying City, Cen Shan’s story still started with other people. Fu Liqun remembered it very clearly. At that time, he was carrying a sports bag and was wearing the lucky bracelet that Yu Hao had woven for him. When he had seen Cen Shan arrive at the airport, he had thought he was dreaming. He had too many things he wanted to say, but he didn’t know where to start. He had nothing left that day and was even shouldering a debt of 100,000 yuan.

“Don’t you have anything you want to say?” Cen Shan frowned.

“What can I say?” Fu Liqun smiled bitterly, “Everyone only listens to the words of a victor, who would care about the mood of a loser?”

“I want to listen.” Cen Shan repeated, “I want to listen, if it wasn’t…”

“Your father’s right,” Fu Liqun looked at the howling winds outside the airport and said, “I’m just a sweet, silly person.”

Cen Shan stopped talking. People came and went in Ying City’s airport. Fu Liqun continued, “I still remember when we talked about breaking up two years ago, you mentioned Shijie.”

They had a Shijie in junior high school who was very optimistic about their future and was three years older. She was the one who played matchmaker for Fu Liqun’s and Cen Shan’s first date. When they became third years, their Shijie graduated and fell in love with a classmate. That man was very poor. The two of them stayed in a rented apartment, and lived the typical ‘smiling while sitting on a bicycle‘ life, even though their families opposed their relationship.

Shijie’s life was often pitied by others. After Cen Shan’s father knew about it, he often cited it as an example to Cen Shan. However, Fu Liqun had seen that guy a few times, and he was a really good guy and not just good in the sense that he was a good guy who, ‘treats you well, but has no other good points’. Instead, he was an ambitious, gentle, and considerate man. To be honest, he did much better than Fu Liqun.

However, the two of them still eventually parted. After Shijie broke up, she found a husband who loved her dearly, and she became the lady boss in her husband’s company. She would drink afternoon tea every day and travel around the world. The other guy left Ying City and went on to make a living in Shanghai. He became an excellent fund manager with an annual income of more than 2 million yuan.

If their Shijie and that guy continued to persist in staying together, Shijie would have wanted to stay in Ying City to accompany her parents, and her boyfriend wouldn’t have left. He would have only been able to find a job with a monthly salary of about 4 to 5,000 yuan, while Shijie would be so busy with work that she would have become a battered and exhausted person. Her hair would be a dishevelled mess, she would be raising her children, and she would quarrel all day with her husband over the powdered milk money for their children, the schools they would enroll in, and other such necessities in life.

After their separation, the guy had both a car and a house, and his career was thriving. Their Shijie lived a life without any worries about food and clothing as well. It was a good decision for both of them.

What does that prove? Fu Liqun often couldn’t help but wonder, was there really that many ‘it can’t be anyone else but them’ in people’s lives? He knew that Cen Shan had wavered before, and he himself had wavered before as well. Has everyone wavered before at some point? After a moment of pain, would everyone be able to slowly walk out of it?

Those promises made when we were young and ignorant would turn into a dream that we can never return to along with the passage of time.

When he asked Yu Hao on the phone if he had wavered before too, Yu Hao’s reply without the slightest hesitation was, “Never ah.”

“There are a lot of paths in life, right?”

That day, Zhou Sheng said to him on the sofa, “Some paths are very difficult to traverse, and you’d have to choose one in the end. The key is, both of you must clearly know what you want in the future.”

From the outside came the clattering of plates and bowls bumping into one another, running water, the murmur of conversation between Zhou Sheng and Chen Yekai, and the sizzling of fried eggs on a pan. Fu Liqun closed his eyes and felt the warmth of the sunshine on his face. Ou Qihang had woken up too and was laying flat on his stomach as he used his phone.

On the second day of the New Year, Chen Yekai brewed coffee in the living room. Yu Hao called his friends one after another to pay his New Year greetings, while Zhou Sheng cooked breakfast in the kitchen. Fu Liqun was in high spirits. Everyone sat at the dining table. Zhou Sheng held up a cup of coffee and said, “Let’s make a toast? Xiao Ou!”

Ou Qihang was still foaming at his mouth as he brushed his teeth. When he heard Zhou Sheng, he quickly rinsed his mouth, wiped his face with a towel, and went over to sit down.

All of them clinked cups and began eating Zhou Sheng’s fried rice with eggs.

Ou Qihang, “……”

Ou Qihang, “Who fried this? It’s so delicious!”

“Xiao Ou! Your sleeping posture is terrible.” Fu Liqun said.

Chen Yekai said, “He almost kicked me out of bed several times for the past few days…”

Ou Qihang, “Qun Ge, you’ve trained your body to be in really good shape.”

“Da Gege’s chest very comfortable ba?” Fu Liqun said.

Ou Qihang, “Become my private coach bei, train me a bit.”

Yu Hao, “What are you guys talking about?! This is such a mess…”

Ou Qihang, “Leave some for me …”

Zhou Sheng, “There’s enough for everyone! Are you guys all rice buckets? There’s 4 kilograms of rice here!!”

Yu Hao’s head was spinning from all the noise early in the morning. Ou Qihang said, “Are we going to the amusement park today? Yu Hao, shall we go to the amusement park to play?”

“Eat your rice.” Chen Yekai said, “The matter regarding the Golden Crow Wheel hasn’t been resolved yet.”

Ou Qihang said, “But it’s the New Year, it won’t be a problem to play for a day or two. Am I right, Yu Hao? You want to go too, right?”

Yu Hao, “……”

Yu Hao thought, I do kind of want to go, I haven’t been to the amusement park in a long time.

“How do you feel now?” Chen Yekai asked Fu Liqun.

“I feel like I’ve suddenly come to terms with reality.” Fu Liqun answered, “No, it’s as if I’ve suddenly thought through things and come to terms with reality…After waking up, a lot of things don’t induce as much anxiety as they used to. In any case, I’ll work even harder from now on. Brothers, if there’s anything you need my help with, feel free to call me at any time.”

Everyone nodded. Fu Liqun stretched, glanced at everyone, and said, “Or I can invite everyone out to play? Although I haven’t returned what I owed yet…”

Zhou Sheng said, “Ai!”

Fu Liqun bought tickets to the amusement park for them on his phone. Yu Hao asked, “Invite sis-in-law along bei?”

“Your sis-in-law just got back home yesterday, don’t torment her by making her run around again.” Zhou Sheng said.

Fu Liqun said, “I’ll ask.” After saying this, he went to one side to call Cen Shan and stood in front of the French windows. Zhou Sheng looked at the electronic tickets on WeChat.

Chen Yekai asked Yu Hao, “How far have you gotten on your graduation thesis?”

Yu Hao immediately regretted it. Why didn’t he reject the suggestion to go to the amusement park?!

“I’m not even done with 10 percent of it.” Yu Hao answered, “I think I shouldn’t go then, the two of you can just go ahead…”

Ou Qihang, “You have to balance work and play, together…” As he was talking, Fu Liqun ended the call, came back, and his expression was a bit strange.

“What’s wrong?” Yu Hao asked.

Fu Liqun looked like he wanted to smile but he was trying his best to refrain from doing so. “Your sis-in-law’s father is here, he wants to talk to me alone.”

“What the fuck!” Everyone cried out at the same time.

Ou Qihang said, “Sis-in-law went to lay all her cards on the table yesterday?”

Chen Yekai said, “How will you guys be talking about it? Isn’t that a little too straightforward?”

Fu Liqun shrugged. He pondered for a moment, then said, “He asked me to set a meeting time and place. He wants to discuss some conditions with me.”

Yu Hao, “We can all accompany you?’

Chen Yekai, “Find a higher-end hotel? What does he want to discuss?”

Fu Liqun said, “He’ll definitely take a cheque over and ask me to fill it in myself. What else can we discuss?”

Zhou Sheng, “The meeting place can be set anywhere?”

Fu Liqun, “He said anywhere is fine. I’ll have to at least find someplace where we can have tea.”

Zhou Sheng and Fu Liqun looked at each other. Fu Liqun suddenly fell silent, and a mischievous smile appeared on both their faces. Yu Hao had seen this sort of rapport in the dormitory too many times; this was a kind of omen signalling the advent of a prank that would make one’s hair stand on end.

Zhou Sheng, “No! No! No! He already asked you to state your terms now! You want to…”

Fu Liqun, “Yes! What hotel?! I won’t go!”

Yu Hao, Zhou Sheng, and Fu Liqun had lived together for so many years, and he could immediately guess what the other wanted to say, so he instantly burst out laughing and said, “No way, the two of you are crossing the line!”

Fu Liqun said overbearingly, “Let’s go!”

Zhou Sheng said, “Let’s go! We’re not scared of him!”

Ou Qihang, “???”

Chen Yekai, “……”

Yu Hao, “Wait! Find some clothes for Gege and wax his hair before going!”

Ou Qihang went to take a hair dryer, Zhou Sheng went to rummage around for clothes, and Chen Yekai went to look for wax.

Two hours later, the amusement park.

Yu Hao, Zhou Sheng, Chen Yekai, and Ou Qihang each held a cup of hot chocolate. They saw Cen Shan’s father, Cen Yongchang.

He was a very energetic middle-aged man dressed in a suit. He was actually quite good-looking, and the air around him was a bit similar to the old lady-killer Zhou lai Chun. However, in comparison to Zhou Laichun’s hoodlum boss’ atmosphere that couldn’t be concealed, Cen Yongchang was clearly more amazing and more reserved. He had few wrinkles and appeared quite fit so one could tell that he often worked out. Cen Yongchang wore a scarf and didn’t exhibit any clear hostility to Fu Liqun in the amusement park.

Yu Hao watched from afar. When Cen Yongchang turned around, Yu Hao looked as if he had discovered a new continent. He said to Zhou Sheng, “He really looks like that dragon!”

Cen Yongchang’s smile lines and gaze were indeed very similar to the dragon in Fu Liqun’s dream!

Fu Liqun was extremely polite in front of Cen Yongchang. He wore a slim fit suit jacket. During this period, he had a well-sculpted figure from all his training and had become slightly thinner from starving in the pyramid scheme organisation. Now that the knot in his heart was untied, he was a lot more vibrant. He had specifically cut his hair before the New Year and before leaving today, they had even spruced up Fu Liqun a little.

A middle-aged man who looked both rich and refined stood with Fu Liqun, and they were actually around the same height. Yu Hao thought that Cen Shan’s father must have been at the level of a male god when he was younger.

“This scene looks like a middle-aged CEO keeping a young wolfhound…” Zhou Sheng held his forehead with one hand as he looked as if he couldn’t bear to watch.

Yu Hao answered a call — it was from Cen Shan. Cen Shan felt that something was amiss when she woke up today and quickly arrived at Ying City, but Cen Yongchang had already arrived.

“Uh…We are at the amusement park? Did you guys quarrel last night?”

“We didn’t. Why did you guys run off to the amusement park?” Cen Shan said, “Give me a minute, I’ll be right there. I just so happened to be nearby.”

“Look! Look!” Ou Qihang quickly pushed them and motioned for them to see, “They really went up!”

“Hahahaha! Hahahahahahaha!” The four of them were about to go mad from laughing.

Fu Liqun had invited Cen Yongchang onto the ferris wheel! Chen Yekai held his cup of hot chocolate and could barely keep a stable footing. Zhou Sheng really couldn’t stand this kind of prank, but Cen Yongchang had even said before, “We can talk wherever you want”, so he was brought onto the ferris wheel by Fu Liqun!

Before they got up, Yu Hao even held up his camera and adjusted his lens to take a photo of Fu Liqun and Cen Yongchang to take a picture of this historical moment.

Cen Shan came. She saw four handsome men laughing so hard outside a restaurant that they were barely capable of self-care, and she asked, baffled, “Where’s big guy? What are you guys laughing at?”

Zhou Sheng waved his hand at once and pointed at the ferris wheel. He said, “He and your father are…in, in the ferris wheel. Hahahahaha!”

Cen Shan, “……”

The staff closed the door. Fu Liqun looked at Cen Yongchang politely.

Cen Yongchang said, “Is there any special meaning in choosing this place?”

Fu Liqun, “No. I just happened to plan an outing to the amusement park with my bros today, so I thought we might as well have our discussion here. May I know what you’d like to talk about?”

Cen Yongchang, “……”