The next day at work, he offered to take her, but she said no, and told him to go have fun by himself. He said no, he didn't like it here, and that he would take her there, then wait for her to have lunch and then wait for her to get off work.
Shi Nan said he was clingy, but he was secretly pleased.
Lan Di escorted her into his office, saying, "Take my phone and don't go far. I'll call you at noon." He obediently nodded.
Not long after, her colleague said the manager wanted to see her. She knocked on the door and went in, then stood there stunned. In the office, besides the person she was supposed to see, there was another person—Lan Di, who had promised to wait for her call half an hour earlier.
The manager said, "Shi Nan, you know him, right?"
Unaware of the situation, Shi Nan pursed his lips and said, "Of course."
"Yes. He's already told me about your resignation, and we've almost finished talking. I agreed. The issue now is the handover of your work. I said I'd need another six months, but he said that's too long. So tell me, how long do you want it to last?"
Shi Nan stared at Lan Di in disbelief, but the man remained seated on the sofa without blinking, as if things had come to this point and there was nothing he could do about it.
"Don't I still have two years left on my contract?"
"He has agreed to pay the full termination fee."
Shi Nan stared wide-eyed at the person on the sofa. Before she could react, Lan Di got up, pulled her out of the room, and said to the manager, "Sorry, we'll discuss this privately and give you an answer later."
The man outside the door nearly exploded, yelling, "Who gave you the right to make that decision on your own?!"
Lan Di looked at her and said, "Do you think I would let you stay in a long-distance relationship with me any longer? Either you go back to Beijing, or I come here. Which do you think is more feasible? Besides, I don't feel at ease with you staying here."
"What's there to worry about? I've been on my own for three years now."
“How can I feel at ease when someone is eyeing you covetously?” He was referring to Hitta.
Shi Nan snorted, "Besides you, I really can't see anyone else eyeing me covetously."
Lan Di snorted.
After thinking for a moment, Shi Nan said, "Three months."
"One month."
"Too short. Just three months, not a day less. If you don't agree, I'll go in and tell him I'm not resigning."
Lan Di remained silent, and Shi Nan knew that this meant he had tacitly agreed.
Shi Nan called her mother to tell her that she was resigning and returning to China. Her mother replied, "Shi Nan, I've really done my job raising you well. You didn't listen when we were at home, but now that you're back and thinking about it, don't you realize that what I said is all true?"
"Mom, what you said is absolutely true."
"Is it Comrade Xiao Ye who came back with you, or Xiao hope's friend?"
"Neither of them. I've brought you someone who's even better looking than either of them."
"Forget it. A man's career is more important. Don't just focus on looks. Just find someone who can take care of you in the future. What they look like doesn't matter."
"You wouldn't mind if I looked like Zhao Benshan, would you?"
"This... as long as it makes you happy, I'll endure it."
Shi Nan gritted his teeth, "Mother, you really are my mother."
Three months passed in the blink of an eye. During this time, Lan Di came again and stayed for three days. Before Shi Nan returned to China, he wanted to come and help her get her things, but she said it wasn't necessary. She only had some books and clothes, and no other luggage. She told him to just pick her up at the airport.
Madeline and Hita came to see her off at the airport. Hita gave her a pair of wooden shoes. Shi Nan said, "Hita, let me teach you another Chinese saying: 'There are plenty of fish in the sea.' You will definitely find your true love."
Shi Nan leaned against the window on the plane, looking at the clouds. It had only been a month and a half, and he had just visited a month and a half ago, but she still felt lovesick. Just thinking about seeing him in a few hours made her heart pound.
But what are her symptoms now? On one hand, she misses him and loves him, but on the other hand, she still rejects any further intimacy with him—she still can't untangle that knot.
At the exit, Landi awaited her with embraces and kisses. He cupped her face, whispering between kisses, "You're finally back."
She nudged him, pointed to his side, and blushed as she lowered her head. Only then did he notice a middle-aged couple standing there, their faces familiar. He realized what was happening in the next second and quickly stepped forward, "Hello, Uncle and Aunt, I'm Lan Di, Shi Nan's boyfriend."
Shi Nan blushed and whispered, "Mom, this is... Zhao Benshan."
Before Lan Di could even wonder what was going on, Shi Nan's mother spoke up first, "Lan Di... oh~~~ I remember! I called Shi Nan many times." Lan Di smiled and said yes. "Silly child, if you had just said you were her boyfriend, I would have given you Shi Nan's phone number in the Netherlands. Hey, don't blame your aunt, Shi Nan said she wasn't familiar with you back then." Lan Di smiled and said it was okay. "And you, Shi Nan, when I asked you last time you came back to China, you actually hid it and said you didn't have a boyfriend!"
"Mom, I'm not lying to you, but it's a long story. I'm starving, I need to eat."
Shi Nan rode in Lan Di's car while her parents drove their own. Inside the car, he grabbed her and questioned her, "You actually said you weren't familiar with me! I should have told Auntie that we weren't familiar, not familiar enough that she knew exactly how many hairs were on my legs."
Shi Nan was in pain from being pinched and kept begging for mercy, "Let me go, it hurts~~~ I didn't lie back then, there was nothing wrong at the time."
"So what's there now?" he asked, his eyes shining, still pinching his finger.
"Didn't you just confess yourself? What else do you want to hear?" Lan Di introduced himself as her boyfriend so directly that she couldn't pretend with her mother anymore.
"You kissed in front of them, what's there to hide?"
Too.
Shi Nan's parents invited Lan Di to their home for dinner, and despite Shi Nan secretly pinching him, he readily agreed. Shi Nan was called to the kitchen to help by her mother, while Lan Di naturally stayed behind to talk to his father.
"You silly girl, you actually lied to your mother and said he looks like Zhao Benshan! Now I know why you left Xiao Ye and Xiao Xi behind; this young man has grown up to be so handsome..."
Shi Nan pleaded earnestly, "Mom, I'll say it again, no man likes to hear others say he's 'well-behaved,' so please don't say it again."
After dinner, Shi Nan was sent to the kitchen by her mother to wash the dishes, knowing that they were being questioned and scored inside.
She saw Lan Di downstairs and said, "So, did my mom ask you anything that upset you?"
"She likes me more than anything." Lan Di had much more confidence in Shi Nan than in Shi Nan herself.
Back home, Mom was full of praise, "Shi Nan, I never expected you, who's always so absent-minded, to be so decisive when it comes to finding a boyfriend." She then turned to Shi Nan's dad and asked, "Right?"
The father always sees things differently from the mother. He said, "There is still a flaw, but if you look at it from another perspective, it may also be a strength."
"Where are the flaws! Are you just nitpicking because you think she's too perfect?"
"He's too sentimental. Men who are too sentimental are unlikely to achieve much in the business world. But that also means he'll be good to men, so from that perspective, I don't object to anything."
“This young man is already the second-in-command of XX’s domestic branch at such a young age, which is already quite outstanding. Besides, most importantly, he’s good to my daughter.” Then she said to Shi Nan, “Mom can tell that he’s really good to you.”
Shi Nan is currently unemployed, and his greatest pleasure is eating out. He didn't enjoy the food in the Netherlands, so he's making up for it since returning to Beijing. Besides regularly dining with his friends Lan Di and his parents, Shi Nan also occasionally meets up with people like Shang Tang Bei.
That day, she thought about it and called Wang Fan, inviting him and his wife out for dinner. When she arrived at the restaurant, only Wang Fan was there. "Zhang Fan didn't come?"
"She's pregnant, and it's not a good time for her to move around, so she's staying home all day."
Shi Nan hurriedly said, "Congratulations! You two are really quick. I'll come to your house to see her another day."
Wang Fan just smiled, and after a while asked, "Shi Nan, I want to ask you something."
"ask."
When you broke up with me back then, you said you had fallen for someone. Who was that person?
Shi Nan never expected that he would ask this question so many years later. Just as he was hesitating about how to answer, Wang Fan threw out another question, "Is it Lan Di?"
She froze. Then she nodded, looking confused, clearly waiting for his explanation.
“He came to my wedding, didn’t he? After I got back, Zhang Fan told me that he had seen his picture and that he always wrote to you. That time at the movie theater, you two barely said a word. I thought it was because you hadn’t seen each other for many years and were estranged, but I never expected…” Wang Fan shook his head self-deprecatingly, “I never expected that he was the one who took you away from me.”
“He didn’t rob me,” Shi Nan said hurriedly. “I got myself into this mess. He didn’t do anything to wrong you.”
Wang Fan smiled wryly, "Shi Nan, are you in such a hurry to defend him because you're afraid I'll hold a grudge against him?"
Shi Nan lowered his eyes and pursed his lips.
“That day, when he was drinking with me, he said, ‘Wang Fan, I’m really jealous of you.’ At the time, I thought he was jealous that I got married early, but now I realize that his jealousy had something else in mind.” He looked at Shi Nan, who blushed.
"Shi Nan, are you two together now?"
"They're together, but... there's a flaw."
Wang Fan smiled and didn't press further. "If your relationship started when you broke up with me, then over the years, you must have experienced quite a few ups and downs. You left me for him back then, and you haven't been with anyone else all these years, so I think he holds a very important place in your heart. Shi Nan, no love is perfect; there will always be flaws. But since you're together in the end, you should cherish it. I sincerely hope you're happy. Back in school, Lan Di was like me—not very talkative—but I could tell he liked you back then. Actually, there was a reason I couldn't help but confess to you back then: you two sat in front of and behind each other, often whispering to each other, which made me uncomfortable. I thought I had to make the first move."
“............”
"But now I've learned that what's meant to be yours will be yours, and you can't lose it; what's not meant to be yours, you can't force it no matter what. Since there are three of us, and I'm the extra one, then I'll just offer my blessings."
I do
Lan Di had always wanted to move back to his old home. He didn't like his current apartment; he loved it there and missed it. It was there that he and Shi Nan had their first time, their passionate, wild, and unrestrained indulgence.
He wanted to go back with his Shi Nan, but he still couldn't cross the line with her.
Shi Nan sometimes stayed overnight at Lan Di's apartment, but it was torture for him. He could kiss her, touch her anywhere, and even bring each other to orgasm with his hands, but they couldn't actually have intercourse, because every time that moment came, she would still tell him with red eyes and tears in her eyes that she was heartbroken.
She understood the torment he must have felt holding her tightly all night without being able to penetrate her. And for her, it was the same; he had aroused her until she was drenched in sweat, and she knew her body craved him, yet she still couldn't overcome that hurdle.
So when he asked her to move in with him, she simply refused.
This tug-of-war, where they loved each other deeply yet were caught in a dilemma, came to an end in the blink of an eye.
During their meal that day, Lan Di said, "Shi Nan, my parents are coming back for the New Year in a few days, and I'd like to take you home with me."
Shi Nan thought for a moment, then nodded and agreed. Lan Di smiled, unable to hide her joy no matter how hard she tried.
Shi Nan said, "It's just meeting your uncle and aunt, why are you smiling like you've become emperor overnight?"
Yes, for him, that was the ladder to heaven. Shi Nan didn't know at the time that he had specially invited his parents back; he wanted to know if she was resistant to them, and he wanted to show his parents his attitude that he wanted this woman.
On the way, Lan Di asked her, "Shi Nan, do you remember when was the last time you went there?"
"Of course. Four and a half years ago," Shi Nan blurted out.
So she remembered it so clearly too.
This was the first time Shi Nan had seen Lan Di's father. She had met his mother at the airport; she wasn't stunning, but her demeanor was very dignified. Now, seeing his father, Shi Nan understood how Lan Di had come to be like this: in his fifties, he was still dashing and upright, clearly very handsome in his youth.
Shi Nan greeted them, and Lan Di's father invited her to sit down, which Shi Nan thanked.
Once seated, the father began, “One year when I returned to China, Lan Di gave me a letter and insisted that I take it back to Beijing and mail it to him as soon as possible. That was the first time I learned your name, Shi Nan.”
Mr. Shi blushed and smiled slightly. He continued, "Now I understand why my son pursued you and waited for you for so many years. I think his analogy is very good, the daisy. You know, in his home in Japan, he always keeps fresh daisies in his room."
She glanced at Lan Di, who pretended to be nonchalant, but his face was slightly flushed. Daisies—wild chrysanthemums? He always had them displayed when he was in Japan? Shi Nan really didn't know that; she remembered seeing them in his apartment, but she hadn't seen them since they reconciled.
"Back then, he insisted on returning to Beijing after graduation, which we disagreed with. Of course, I now know the general outline of your on-again, off-again relationship over the years. His final decision to return to Tokyo was somewhat of a twist of fate. You've seen his later achievements and accomplishments, so we don't need to comment on whether his decision was right or wrong. Since you're both in Beijing now and still have feelings for each other, we naturally approve. It's rare to see such enduring affection among young people these days, given how many years you've persevered for each other."
Lan Di's mother had been watching Shi Nan closely when she spoke up, "When I heard your voice on the phone that year, I imagined what you would look like. I never expected you to be such a delicate girl." She was actually very kind. Although the phone call back then had caused some misunderstanding between her and Lan Di, Shi Nan didn't really blame her.
"She's not weak at all," Lan Di muttered from the side. Shi Nan heard this and pouted at him, but her parents saw it and exchanged a knowing glance.