After he finished speaking, he slid the table aside, the corner scraping sharply against the floor. He stepped sideways, making a path for her to come out from inside.
Li Yingqiao still didn’t move. Instead, she leaned forward slightly, tilting her face up to seek out the eyes beneath his hat brim, trying to discern whether his words were true, curiosity making her voice rise at the end: “Really—so you won’t play with me anymore?”
Yu Jinyang just turned his head to the side and said softly, “Are you coming or not?”
“Okay, okay.”
Only then did Li Yingqiao rise from her seat, listlessly walking past him, casually measuring their heights with a gesture as if unconcerned.
“But how did you get so tall? Did they cut off a chunk of my legs or what?”
Her gaze trailed downward.
He said nothing, turned, and grabbed an umbrella from behind the bar.
Just as he straightened up, Li Yingqiao stood behind him.
“No need for an umbrella. I’m driving. We can just go straight from the hotel’s underground parking to the mall.”
Yu Jinyang glanced at her, then handed her the umbrella anyway.
He pointed with his chin to the red mark on her neck.
“Don’t get sunstroke and then get rained on. Keep it in the car for now. Return it to me next time.”
Li Yingqiao hesitated for a moment before taking it.
“Actually, Meow, I wanted to ask you for a favor.”
Yu Jinyang leaned against the bar, looking down at her.
His expression showed no surprise; instead, he silently exhaled in relief. After all these years of no contact, for Li Yingqiao to come directly to him like this, so proactively, meant she probably really needed help.
Otherwise, after all these years, she wouldn’t bother with him like this.
He nodded. “Go ahead.”
Li Yingqiao’s eyes wandered across his face for a moment, but her lips remained tightly sealed, as if held by a thread through a needle’s eye.
She seemed reluctant to speak.
Yu Jinyang didn’t push her.
With one hand in his pocket, he leaned on the bar and patiently waited for her to continue.
“You don’t have a girlfriend right now, do you?”
“No.”
His answer was brief.
Though many relatives had been urging his parents to arrange blind dates for him, he didn’t mention that.
“What do you want to say?”
His eyes were like a clear, gentle lake, quietly looking into hers with calm and warmth.
Li Yingqiao suddenly felt she couldn’t say what she had intended.
Even though this was the reason she came today, after so many years apart, if they started like this, Yu Jinyang might really get angry.
So she changed the subject, coming up with a casual excuse, smiling as she said, “No, just asking casually. So, can you go have a meal with me tomorrow? Secretary Li said he wanted to give me a welcome dinner, but I don’t really want to go alone.”
Back then, when their college entrance exam results came out, Li Boqing had even grandly announced he would throw them all a celebration banquet in town.
Li Boqing was old-fashioned; ever since he successfully switched careers from business, he’d started adopting bureaucratic habits.
That banquet made Li Yingqiao uncomfortable all over.
Even after all these years of experience dealing with people like Li Boqing, she clearly lacked patience.
In some ways, she was very much like Liang Mei, and to this day they understood perfectly why Liang Mei had come looking for her back then.
Yu Jinyang hesitated for a few seconds, his broad and upright figure bathed in the dim bar light, standing silently like a rooted tree.
His gaze was deep and heavy as he looked at her, never speaking.
She read his silence as reluctance.
Li Yingqiao had no choice but to say, “Meow, forget I said anything.”
Yu Jinyang lowered his eyelids and said, “Okay, send me the address on WeChat later.”
“Wow, Yu Meow Meow, after all these years, you’re still so easy to talk to!”
Li Yingqiao laughed, patting his shoulder, then started regretting her hesitation.
She should’ve just told him straight away—asking if she could borrow his Shanghai residency to help Aunt Li Shuli get a mortgage on a small apartment there.
He was the first to push open the door and pressed the elevator button without a word.
“Why are you like this? You don’t even like being complimented?”
“What’s not to like?”
He glanced at her.
“If you also find Secretary Li annoying, then don’t go with me. I can manage on my own.”
This wasn’t what she really meant.
“It’s fine,” he said, “I’m free tomorrow anyway.”
Li Yingqiao gave him a sly smile.
“Meow, like I said, it’s really good to see you.”
Silence fell until the elevator doors slowly closed.
Yu Jinyang’s offhand voice floated back, “Stop flattering me.”
Then he ignored her completely.
When they reached the parking lot, Li Yingqiao unlocked her car and prepared to get in.
Turning back to say goodbye, Yu Jinyang still stood where he was, not moving or replying.
Actually, Li Yingqiao had grown quite a bit too.
She had been beautiful and striking since childhood, skinny in middle school to the point of looking slightly malnourished, but her back was always perfectly straight.
Even in the dull gray school uniform, she stood out in the crowd.
Tang Xiang had often told him that when she picked them up from school as kids, Li Yingqiao was always the easiest to find.
Now, she no longer wore the tight, scalp-pulling bright ponytail from back then.
Her hair fell casually around her neck, with only the wispy baby curls at her forehead retaining some of her childhood playfulness.
Especially when she smiled, she hadn’t changed much since those days.
Back then, her whole being was stiff as a flagpole, her gaze sharp and unyielding.
Now she was full and relaxed, much softer, like a leaf blossoming with the tenderness of spring—carrying fresh refinement and maturity alongside the stubborn youthful spirit.
Leaning on the car door, seeing no response from him, she waved her hand in front of his face.
“Hey~ Yu Meow Meow, say goodbye.”
“Li Yingqiao,” he called her back.
His voice wasn’t loud, but the emptiness of the parking lot made it sound like a muffled stone dropped into deep water.
Yu Jinyang stood with his hands loosely in his pockets, watching her.
“You haven’t gotten into any trouble out there, have you?”
“Don’t worry about me a bit,” she said as she closed the door, rolled down the window, and waved.
“See you tomorrow.”
Yu Jinyang slouched in the driver’s seat for a long while without starting the car.
He flipped through WeChat on his phone, then sighed and tossed it into the armrest compartment.
What he should have asked was, in fact, how she’d been all these years.
Though her answer would surely have been, “I’m fine. Very good. Especially good.”
Back when they both left Fengtan for university, it was the same day.
His train left at 12:15 for Shanghai, and hers left at noon for Beijing.
At the bustling train station, they looked at each other for a long time.
Yu Jinyang’s side was noisy. Except for Great-Grandmother and Grandpa, almost everyone in his family was there.
Even the Labrador he’d raised in high school followed along, wagging its tail, wanting to see him off.
Yu Jinyang hugged it, kissed it repeatedly, and coaxed it back onto the train.
For some reason, Aunt Li Shuli didn’t come to see her off that day.
Tang Xiang and Yu Renjie never noticed Li Yingqiao in the crowd; they were too busy arguing with Grandma.
Because Grandma had secretly slipped a red envelope into his pants pocket, which Tang Xiang Lady spotted immediately.
She confiscated it on the spot and scolded Grandma soundly—
“Jinyang’s already this old, don’t keep stuffing him with red envelopes. You’re spoiling this kid. Besides, we’ve been sending him living expenses for six months already, don’t hide money from us anymore. If I catch you again, his allowance gets cut in half…”
Grandma wrestled the envelope back from his mother’s hand.
Usually frail and delicate, at that moment her strength was extraordinary; he couldn’t push her away. Her dry palm gripped his wrist tightly, determined to shove that envelope into his pocket while muttering assurances: “This is the last time, the last time, I promise. He’s never left here before, finally got into college, needs some money on hand when he’s out there…”
“You say that every time.”
“Alright, alright, I’m in charge here. Mom, let’s listen to Xiangxiang. That’s not how we spoil the child,” Yu Renjie put in his two cents without much weight.
Yu Jinyang just listened as Grandma and his mother argued back and forth.
Not far away, Dagu and Xiaogu hurried past the entrance, handing him two boxes of corn cakes to eat on the train, plus a big bag of snacks.
Xiaogu, who couldn’t speak, signed to him to take good care of himself on the journey.
Before he could thank her, Dagu, flushed with worry, stuffed another red envelope into his pocket.
He could only laugh helplessly as his mother immediately unloaded the same tirade on Dagu, word for word.
Then it was time to check tickets.
In that noisy, chaotic atmosphere, he quietly watched Li Yingqiao on the opposite platform—pulling her suitcase alone and resolutely boarding the northbound train to pursue her studies.
In a corner where no one noticed, they shared one last glance across the crowded platform. Fengtan still didn’t have high-speed rail then.
Li Yingqiao smiled at him through the green carriage window, her gaze resolute yet strangely heart-wrenching.
He actually knew what she wanted to say—not goodbye, not farewell.
Back then, she must have said—
“Yu Meow Meow, I’m going to change the world now, don’t miss me too much.”
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