Faint sunlight streamed through the window, falling on the pillow. Liang Ruixi turned over, and when he opened his eyes, he was still a bit disoriented, unsure of where he was.
He had just had a dream, a dream that took him back to his childhood. The few jasmine plants in his maternal grandmother’s courtyard had grown thick and tall, like small trees.
In May, the courtyard was filled with fragrance. His aunt, on a bright day, held a basket and picked jasmine flowers to make soap. The whole scene was like a moving watercolor painting.
Liang Ruixi shielded his eyes with the back of his hand, letting his mind clear. He reached for his phone and glanced at it; it was almost eleven o’clock.
The bedroom door was ajar, and a faint scent of rice wafted in. Liang Ruixi got out of bed and went out, seeing Zhou Yan already dressed neatly and sitting at the coffee table working.
“Awake?” Zhou Yan put down his laptop and said, “Come take your medicine first.”
A glass of warm water and pills were prepared on the coffee table, with a cup of finished coffee beside them.
“What time did you get up?” Liang Ruixi sat down in Zhou Yan’s previous spot, casually glancing at the document on the other party’s laptop.
“Eight o’clock.” Zhou Yan said, getting up and heading towards the kitchen.
“So early…” Liang Ruixi finished his medicine and went over. He saw Zhou Yan ladling porridge, with small steamed buns, shredded chicken, and other snacks and side dishes beside it. He asked in surprise, “Did you make all this?”
“I only made the porridge; the rest I bought outside.” Zhou Yan raised his chin, motioning for Liang Ruixi to help him carry it out.
A round wooden table and two chairs were placed in the living room, just enough space for the food Zhou Yan had prepared. When the two sat down, they were so close that they might bump heads if they leaned forward.
Liang Ruixi took a sip of porridge and asked, “I just saw the document on your computer. Is Yayan Law Firm the one you opened?”
“En, do you remember Ruan Yadong?” Zhou Yan asked him.
“I remember.”
Liang Ruixi had heard Zhou Yan mention in college that Ruan Yadong was his senior in high school.
Their high school was called Jinwai, very famous in Nanshi. The two of them had even organized a law interest group there back in the day.
Ruan Yadong was a year ahead of Zhou Yan. After the college entrance examination, he went to the law department of Yanda University. During college, Zhou Yan had also shown Liang Ruixi videos of Ruan Yadong in university law debates. He was incredibly eloquent and persuasive, truly a remarkable figure that Liang Ruixi greatly admired.
Zhou Yan said, “After graduation, he worked as a lawyer in Yancheng and was one of the founders of Yayan Law Firm. Last year, he planned to expand into the Haicheng market and asked me to partner with him.”
Liang Ruixi joked, “‘Yayan’ — is that you two’s CP name?”
Zhou Yan paused, his chopsticks still in his hand, and looked at him. “Besides him and me, the law firm has two other partners, mainly in Yancheng. The character ‘yan’ doesn’t represent anyone specific. I never thought about forming a CP with him.”
Hearing his serious explanation, Liang Ruixi couldn’t help but let out an “uh,” thinking to himself, I was just joking, just like back in college when people said we were a couple…
He felt that Zhou Yan had become much more serious in the few years since graduation. Could it be because he became a lawyer?
After quickly swallowing a small steamed bun, Liang Ruixi asked again, “Don’t you do litigation? I saw you seemed to be writing a legal opinion on the liquidation of a company’s asset management plan.”
“Eat slower,” Zhou Yan reminded him, saying, “The law firm is just starting out in Haicheng. We’re not too picky about work right now; we’ll take whatever business we can get.”
“What about in the future? What area will you mainly focus on?”
“Not sure, let’s just take it one step at a time.”
Liang Ruixi asked casually, and Zhou Yan answered even more casually, just like when he was asked last night if he would return to Nanshi. Zhou Yan’s answer also reflected his uncertainty about future development and choices.
Liang Ruixi, as if a memory had just surfaced, asked, “Do you still remember when people in college asked you what you wanted to do in the future?”
Zhou Yan responded with a questioning “Hmm?”
Young students gathered together would often enthusiastically imagine their futures. Once, their classmates were chatting, and some said they wanted to become famous lawyers, others wanted to be chief legal officers in large companies, and still others boldly declared they wanted to join the Constitution drafting group and contribute to the history of Chinese law…
And as the most outstanding student representative among them, Zhou Yan was naturally asked about his future dreams.
Liang Ruixi remembered a passage Zhou Yan had spoken at the time.
He had said that the dreams we have now might not be our final choices because when we are young, we are always influenced by the environment and disturbed by worldly standards of fame and wealth. We mistakenly take other people’s success as the benchmark, blindly rushing in one direction, only to forget to look at what other possibilities there are along the way. In the end, we might even forget what we were originally like.
Everyone fell silent after hearing this, seeming to understand and yet not quite, but also feeling inexplicably that Zhou Yan, who could say such things, was impressive. Later, the male students even used Zhou Yan’s words as a pretentious golden quote, claiming it demonstrated the wisdom and philosophical thinking of F University Law School students.
If it were someone else constantly expressing uncertainty about the future, they would definitely be labeled as “unreliable” or “muddled-headed,” and their subsequent career wouldn’t necessarily be smooth. Yet, Zhou Yan had received first-class scholarships for four years at F University, held the titles of president of the law department’s student union and outstanding student union cadre, and smoothly passed the civil service and judicial examinations after graduation. He had worked within the system, also at well-known domestic law firms, and had started his own business in the shortest possible time…
“Ai, someone like you is just like those freaks who say, ‘I’ll just take the exam casually’, and then get full marks in all subjects. It’s truly infuriating.” Liang Ruixi exclaimed.
Zhou Yan nodded slightly, accepting Liang Ruixi’s assessment, and then said calmly, “Uncertainty is uncertainty, but the things I should obtain, I still need to obtain, so that when I figure out what I want to choose in the future, I’ll still have options.”
Liang Ruixi: “……” F*ck.
Zhou Yan finished the rest of his porridge in a few quick mouthfuls, put down his bowl and chopsticks, and looked at him, saying, “Tell me about you.”
Liang Ruixi tensed up like a bad student being stopped for a talk by the head teacher. “Tell you what about me?”
“Yesterday, seeing that you were sick, I didn’t ask. What’s the deal with you opening a bar with that friend surnamed Jiang of yours?” Zhou Yan asked, crossing his arms. “Wasn’t going to nightclubs everywhere enough? You even had to open your own place to be wild as well?”
Liang Ruixi hurriedly explained, “I was just going out to work and earn extra money!”
Zhou Yan raised an eyebrow. “Working?”
Liang Ruixi nodded. “Yeah, it started the year before last, I think. Wasn’t it around the time my grandfather had just passed away? I wasn’t in a good mood, so I went to a bar with my colleagues at night to relax. There was a female singer on stage who invited people to sing, so I went up and sang a duet with her. After we finished, the bar owner approached me and asked if I could come regularly, saying he’d pay me a performance fee…”
He tried singing for a while and found that he could earn a considerable amount of extra money each month. Through customers and fellow singers he met, he was introduced to many other bars. He was in the habit of posting photos of the bars he went to for singing on his social media, creating the impression that he was living a carefree life, which gave others the false impression that he spent all his time in nightclubs.
Last year when he went back home for the Lunar New Year, he met up with Jiang Cheng in Changshui. He heard that Jiang Cheng wanted to open his own bar.
Although that kid was Liang Ruixi’s junior high classmate, he was a complete academic failure. He started hanging out in society right after graduating junior high and didn’t settle down to learn bartending until his early twenties, which became his means of livelihood.
However, business in Changshui wasn’t particularly booming, and opening a bar solely funded by himself would involve a certain amount of risk for Jiang Cheng. Liang Ruixi asked him if he wanted to try coming to Haicheng. It just so happened that Liang Ruixi often sang in bars, so if Jiang Cheng came to Haicheng, Liang Ruixi would also have a regular place to perform.
Jiang Cheng had always admired him, so he agreed without hesitation. Liang Ruixi also invested some money, and that’s how “Expecting Possibilities” came to be.
Zhou Yan didn’t react until Liang Ruixi mentioned the name of the bar, then he paused slightly. “Your bar is called ‘Expecting Possibilities’?”
“Yeah, it’s that concept of justification in criminal law,” Liang Ruixi said casually. “Although it just opened, it feels like business is okay, and this way I don’t have to run around everywhere anymore.”
Zhou Yan frowned. “I remember you used to say you wanted to be a lawyer. Don’t you want to anymore?”
His tone sounded like he was reprimanding Liang Ruixi for not focusing on his proper profession.
Liang Ruixi was taken aback by Zhou Yan’s words. Indeed, he had chosen F University Law School with that very aspiration in mind. But as Zhou Yan had said, youthful dreams weren’t necessarily the final choices.
The year he graduated, he took the judicial exam and missed the lawyer qualification certificate by two points. If he had stubbornly insisted on that path back then, he probably would still be struggling to make ends meet.
“Ai, I’m not like you. I didn’t even pass the bar exam back then. I haven’t thought about it for three years already, and I’ve almost forgotten all my professional knowledge.” Liang Ruixi said guiltily.
After weighing the options, he gave up on the bar exam and went to work as legal counsel in a company recommended by a senior classmate. After all, in his view at the time, establishing himself in the city was far more important than pursuing a distant dream.
The salary and benefits at the large company were quite good. As time went by, with the establishment of the bar and the division of his energy, Liang Ruixi gradually gave up the idea of becoming a lawyer.
Zhou Yan seemed to want to say something more, but he stopped himself, finally just saying, “Alright, I don’t care if you open a bar and sing, but you have to change your eating habits. How long has it been since we last saw each other? Look at what you’ve done to yourself.”
“What have I done to myself?” Liang Ruixi asked, following his lead.
“Do you want me to get a scale for you to weigh yourself? Or should I repeat what that doctor said last night for you to hear again?” Zhou Yan said.
“No, don’t.” But being cared for by Zhou Yan like this made Liang Ruixi happy inside. He then said, “You’re really something too, your ex-girlfriend is about to marry someone else, and you’re still worried about me. What about you next? What are your plans? Find a new girlfriend in Haicheng?”
As soon as these words came out, Zhou Yan’s expression changed again. He glared at Liang Ruixi, looking angry.
Liang Ruixi’s scalp tingled under his gaze, and he immediately wanted to make a quick escape. “Okay, okay, you still have work to do. I’ve had my sleep and mooched a meal, so I won’t bother you anymore.”
A hint of surprise flashed in Zhou Yan’s eyes, which was quickly replaced by a rather disappointed look as he turned his gaze away.
That instant somehow touched Liang Ruixi, making him feel that Zhou Yan might not want him to leave.
He hesitated for a second before asking, “Can I… come find you anytime in the future?”
The author has something to say:
[Little Interlude]
Liang Ruixi: Brother needs me; I’ll have to come see him often.
Zhou Yan: If it weren’t for that last sentence, in my heart, you’d already be a dead man.
