“Oh, really? Oh!” A memory surfaced in Zhang Yuwen’s mind too. “Yeah, I remember! My grandparents brought me here, I think, when I was four… Yeah, that’s right!”
Zhang Yuwen stopped feeding the fawns, but several more deer came over to join them. Huo Sichen drove them away.
“That year, I pestered my grandfather to bring me here to feed the deer,” Zhang Yuwen went on, immersed in his memories. “He didn’t want to leave the resort, though, so the couple in the next room over brought me here.”
“Were there two brothers in that family? One nine years old, one seven?”
“I think so? Yeah! Was it in the spring?”
Huo Sichen gave Zhang Yuwen an earnest smile.
“Was it you?” Zhang Yuwen asked incredulously. “You and your brother?”
“My memories are hazy.”
“What a magical coincidence, if that really was you,” Zhang Yuwen marveled.
“I only remember that my father rarely took me and my brother out to play, so that day left a deep impression on me. I think…I think I was attacked, yeah.”
“Yeah! The younger brother was knocked over by a deer when he tried to protect me.”
Huo Sichen laughed. “Was I that weak then?”
“There were a few of them,” Zhang Yuwen told him. “Yeah, it was two brothers. The older one came and chased the deer away. The younger one hit a rock and ended up bleeding from the head.” He made Huo Sichen come closer so he could check his scalp, but sustaining an injury that young was unlikely to leave a scar.
“Find a scar?” Huo Sichen laughed. “I guess not.”
Zhang Yuwen smiled, still absorbed in those memories. Every time he glanced at Huo Sichen, Huo Sichen was watching him with a smile in his eyes.
“So, fate is predetermined by heaven,” Huo Sichen said. “I can’t believe I met you when I was seven. But why didn’t we write to each other after we went back?”
Zhang Yuwen’s memory was fuzzy. It had been more than twenty years ago. “You said you didn’t live in Jiangdong when we parted ways. I was only four, I didn’t understand anything.”
“Yeah.” Huo Sichen thought about it. “After that trip, my father took us abroad.”
“There should be photos somewhere.”
“I’ll ask my brother to go back and look for them. We moved house a few times, though, so it’s possible we don’t have them anymore.” He took out his phone and sent a message to his older brother across the ocean. His brother replied with a promise to find them when he had the time.
More details were coming to Zhang Yuwen, but further away, chaos had erupted. A deer was tugging on Chang Jinxing’s camera, and Zheng Weize was calling for help. It looked like the incident at Elephant Gorge was about to repeat itself. Zhang Yuwen and Huo Sichen rushed over to help and used the crackers to lure the deer away.
Elsewhere, in a sunny spot, Xiao-Qi was having a great time. Still in Yan Jun’s arms, she petted a quiet, docile fawn.
Chang Jinxing took a lot of pictures. Afterward, the group set off for a nearby temple to pray for the new year. There were few people around at one in the afternoon. The main hall had paper slips for making wishes, and after they donated money for incense, each of them received a slip, wrote their wishes at the counter, and went to tie it to the tree outside.
“What did you wish for?” Huo Sichen asked.
“We aren’t supposed to show each other,” said Zhang Yuwen.
“But we can see it after we tie it up,” Huo Sichen deadpanned. “Does your wish have anything to do with me?”
Zhang Yuwen gave in and showed it to him. “I wished for your career.”
“How did you know?” Huo Sichen asked, looking stunned.
“Know what? Let me see yours.”
Zhang Yuwen tried to get Huo Sichen’s slip, but Huo Sichen wouldn’t show it to him. “What did I say when I was drunk last night?”
“Nothing. Isn’t it normal to make a wish for someone’s career? Come on, show me,” Zhang Yuwen insisted. Huo Sichen remained silent. “You must have wished for yourself…” He grabbed Huo Sichen’s slip, took a look, and returned it to him, smiling.
“I made a wish for you too,” said Huo Sichen. His wish slip said, May Zhang Yuwen have a good marriage.
What’s that supposed to mean? Zhang Yuwen wondered. He figured that it probably made some kind of sense in Huo Sichen’s mind.
As they hung up their wish slips, Zhang Yuwen’s curiosity got the better of him. He peeked at his roommates’ colorful slips—pink was for marriage, yellow for health, blue for career, and gold for wealth.
Yan Jun’s was yellow. It said, May everyone I love stay healthy.
Chen Hong was for his career: Here’s hoping I can reach new heights next year.
Chang Jinxing’s: Get rich overnight in the new year!
And finally, Zheng Weize’s: I wish for all of us to live happily together forever.
When they saw Zheng Weize’s wish, a vaguely guilty silence fell over the rest of them.
“I’ll treat everyone to lunch today,” Zheng Weize announced, smiling.
“Sure!” said Chang Jinxing, bright despite the awkward vibe.
Zheng Weize treated them to pizza from the shopping street outside the temple, and afterward, they split up to walk around. Chang Jinxing had his camera around his neck, and he seemed to have made up with Zheng Weize, who kept getting Chang Jinxing to take photos of him. The others didn’t intrude on them. Yan Jun and Chen Hong walked together, Xiao-Qi once again fast asleep in her stroller.
Zhang Yuwen, for his part, was too sleepy to walk around. He chose a warm, grassy spot near the garden and had Huo Sichen sit down so he could rest his head on Huo Sichen’s lap and sleep.
“You didn’t sleep last night, did you?” Huo Sichen asked.
Zhang Yuwen covered his face with his jacket to shield himself from the winter sun. “Is your career not going well?”
Huo Sichen thought for a moment. “I’m considering a job change. I can’t work with my current partner anymore.”
“A partnership is like a marriage. Over time, people change.”
“An apt analogy. As expected of a writer.”
Zhang Yuwen didn’t answer. He was waiting for Huo Sichen to share more of his own accord. If they really wanted to be together, this level of mutual understanding was necessary. He decided he would eventually tell Huo Sichen about his real financial situation, too, but not just yet.
He could tell that Huo Sichen was proud. It wasn’t obvious from his usual behavior, but a big part of his self-confidence stemmed from his career, wealth, and social experience. So Zhang Yuwen kept reminding himself to tread lightly so as not to step on his ego.
Eventually, Huo Sichen said, “When I think about my expenses, I find it hard to make a decision.”
“You don’t live extravagantly, though.” Zhang Yuwen smiled. “Or is there someone else helping you spend your money?”
“I still have a mortgage to pay off. And I also want to give you a better life.”
Zhang Yuwen was touched. He could tell that Huo Sichen’s feelings were genuine, because Zhang Yuwen himself had said the same words to his ex. A man’s love was, for the most part, pragmatic; it was mainly reflected in his considerations for the future, including how to give his lover a better life, what kind of family to build, and how to ensure they could stay together without the other suffering.
“I don’t spend that much,” said Zhang Yuwen.
“You lead a simple and frugal life. Your inner world is strong and rich, but I still hope… Anyway, I’m still thinking it over.”
“Changing jobs?”
“Yeah. I don’t want to speak ill of my partner. We’ve known each other for a long time, after all. No matter how bad the mess is, it’s of my own making. It’s pointless to pretend otherwise. All I want to do now is to split on good terms.”
The way Huo Sichen thought was similar to Zhang Yuwen. They shared a lot of values. “If it really bothers you, you can consider giving up your shares. Is your company listed?”
“No. I’ve been thinking about that too.”
“What are the shares valued at?”
“Nearly two million.”
“Your partner isn’t likely to buy out your shares with hard cash,” Zhang Yuwen said. “The more you drag it out, the uglier it will get. It’s better to give it up earlier.”
“You know a lot,” Huo Sichen commented.
“It’s just common sense.”
Huo Sichen held Zhang Yuwen’s hands under the coat. “To most people, two million is not a small amount.”
“Yeah, that’s true.” Zhang Yuwen’s monthly investment income was over two million. Now he was wondering, Was I too casual about that?
“Another problem,” Huo Sichen continued, “is that if I leave this company, I’ll have to find a new job, and I can’t get a satisfactory annual salary in CTO-level positions with the market how it currently is. You know, the economic downturn and all…”
“Oh? Have you been sending out your resume?”
“No, my position is usually filled through referrals from industry peers. The market rate is only approximately twenty-six or twenty-seven thousand.”
“That’s a lot!” Zhang Yuwen said quickly, trying to make up for his earlier composure. Then he added, “My salary is only a fraction of yours.”
“It’s different for you,” Huo Sichen said offhandedly.
“Huh?”
“I mean, you don’t have that many expenses. I still have a monthly mortgage of over ten thousand, and then there are the daily expenses too,” Huo Sichen explained. Zhang Yuwen wanted to ask if he had any savings, but he held himself back. “Anyway, that makes it hard for me to decide.”
“A new job at a new company won’t necessarily be better than the old one,” Zhang Yuwen said.
“Yeah, all crows under the sun are black.”
At this point, Zhang Yuwen was so sleepy he couldn’t keep his eyes open anymore. He rolled over and fell asleep.