The Alley Was Always This Long – Chapter 70

One Day

A very, very good day in one’s life.

[This is an ordinary day in my life,

            

But also a very, very good day in my life.]

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Cheng Xiang was not the cool sort of girl.

She didn’t subscribe to the “even if the whole world is against me” attitude sung in lyrics. When she liked someone, she wanted her friends and her parents to like her too.

            

Still, why was Tao Tianran on such bad terms with her own family?

Tao Tianran had only mentioned it in passing, but Cheng Xiang had ended up pacing around her room three times with her arms crossed.

The next morning, Director Ma brewed some red date and millet porridge¹. As she ladled a bowl for Cheng Xiang, she noticed her daughter staring intently at her. Touching her own face, she asked, “Is there something on my face?”

            

“No,” Cheng Xiang said, picking up a piece of eight-treasure pickles² with her chopsticks. “I was just looking at that sweet face of yours. Your wrinkles seem a bit shallower lately, you know?”

“Is that so?” Director Ma beamed, practically radiating joy.

Cheng Xiang buried her face in her bowl and took a gulp of porridge. She found it hard to imagine what it would be like to not be close to her own family.

            

After breakfast, she headed to work. At her desk, she held her phone by her fingertips, tapping it against the desktop rhythmically. Tap, tap.

With a sharp bzzzt of vibration, a WeChat message came in.

Cheng Xiang tapped it open. It was from Tao Tianran: 【What does your friend like to eat?】

            

Cheng Xiang replied: 【Ziqiao.】

【Hm?】

【Don’t say ‘my friend.’ You should call her ‘Ziqiao.’】

            

Tao Tianran sat in her office, staring at her phone screen.

She was someone whose personal relationships were always detached and faint.

Since everything eventually passed, she rarely tried to get close to anyone. In her previous timelines, the few times she’d eaten with Qin Ziqiao were all arranged by Cheng Xiang. The moment Cheng Xiang stepped away, the two of them would just bury their heads in their respective phones.

            

Back then, Qin Ziqiao had been nothing more than “Cheng Xiang’s friend.” Although they’d shared a few meals, she’d never even figured out what Qin Ziqiao liked to eat.

With this tiny, quiet remark from Cheng Xiang, she suddenly realized where the problem lay.

【Okay. What does Ziqiao like to eat?】

            

Sitting at her computer, Cheng Xiang hunched her shoulders, cradled her phone in both hands, and smiled.

【Make sure you don’t pick some Japanese restaurant or French cuisine. The two of us are pretty local when it comes to dining.】 Cheng Xiang had originally wanted to write “basic,” but after a second thought, she typed “local” instead.

Then she added: 【Just go with some old Beicheng copper-pot hotpot³, or maybe some lamb spine hotpot⁴. Haha, do you even know what lamb spine is? Is it a sheep or a scorpion?】

            

Cheng Xiang rested her chin on the back of her hand, giggling to herself with a series of soft pffts. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted her boss walking in, so she quickly sat up straight and slowly dragged her drawing tablet over.

Her phone sat vertically in a cat-paw-shaped stand, the two tiny paws firmly holding the screen in place. Peeking out of the corner of her eye, she saw that Tao Tianran had sent a meme of a puppy rolling its eyes.

Pfft. Cheng Xiang laughed again.

            

She picked at the little cat paws of the stand, thinking to herself: How wonderful.

Even if the future held many foreseeable and unforeseeable moments of heartbreak, before any of that could happen, this thing called falling in love had set off tiny fireworks in the broad daylight. Those small moments were not grand, nor would they rise above the rooftops for everyone to see. Instead, they remained hidden in the palm of your hand, gently warming the lines of your palm.

Meanwhile, in Tao Tianran’s office.

            

Yi Yu sat across from Tao Tianran, grinning as she watched her. “Why the animated expression, Teacher Tao? If you keep this up, I’m really going to start suspecting you’re actually dating someone.”

Tao Tianran cast a sideways glance at her.

She weighed her words before asking, “What do you think?”

            

“About what?”

“If you’re hosting someone you aren’t very familiar with for dinner, where’s the best place to go?”

“Thirty thousand yuan.”

            

Tao Tianran stared at her, speechless.

“No, I’m serious,” Yi Yu said, uncrossing her legs and leaning over the desk. “Just pile on the abalone, lobster, and Royal Salute. For thirty thousand yuan or so, it won’t put too much pressure on them. No matter how unfamiliar you are, you’ll definitely win them over in a single meal.”

Tao Tianran decided she shouldn’t have asked Yi Yu in the first place.

            

Yi Yu continued to ask, “Who are you treating to dinner anyway? A client or a friend?”

“Get out.”

“Or are you going ‘out’ with someone special?” Yi Yu teased.

            

Tao Tianran glared at her.

Yi Yu burst out laughing and stood up. “Fine, fine, I’m going.”

Humming a little tune, she stretched her arms out wide, then reached back to rub her lower back.

            

Ah, caring for that capybara lately had really left her feeling completely rejuvenated, both body and soul.

During the lunch break, her assistant and colleagues went downstairs for lunch. Tao Tianran headed to the pantry to brew some coffee on her own.

She spotted Yu Yusheng sitting alone at her workstation. Leaning halfway back in her office chair, she stared blankly at her phone with one hand, while her other hand lazily twirled the ends of her curly hair.

            

Carrying her coffee over, Tao Tianran curled her knuckle and tapped the edge of the desk. “Not going to lunch?”

Yu Yusheng remained slumped in her chair, curving her lips in a lazy, charming smile. “On a diet.”

Tao Tianran hesitated for a moment.

            

“Is something on your mind, Teacher Tao?”

“You’re a Beicheng native, right?”

“I am.”

            

“It’s like this. I need to treat someone to dinner.” Tao Tianran set down her coffee cup, pulled out her phone, and showed the screen to Yu Yusheng. “They’re also from Beicheng. I selected a few restaurants.”

Yu Yusheng took the phone and scrolled down the orange app⁵.

Tao Tianran stood beside her desk, explaining, “This copper-pot hotpot place is an old establishment with a great reputation, but it only has a main hall, though the environment is quite nice.”

            

“This other one is also copper-pot hotpot. The private rooms are decent, but when I looked through the reviews—yes, you can tap on it—some people mentioned that the mutton rolls weren’t very fresh.”

“This one serves lamb spine hotpot. The ingredients and environment are both okay, but it’s located on a famous tourist street, so parking is difficult to find. I’m not sure if that would ruin the dining experience…”

Listening to her go on, Yu Yusheng let her lips curve upward.

            

Tao Tianran paused.

“One, two, three…” Yu Yusheng counted them on the screen. “Teacher Tao, out of these nine restaurants in total, how long did it take you to find them all?”

Tao Tianran pursed her lips.

            

“My goodness,” Yu Yusheng said, tossing her thick curls back and laughing. “Ever since I started working at this company, I’ve never heard you speak so many words at once.”

“Who are you treating to dinner anyway?” she asked.

“Her friend,” Tao Tianran replied.

            

“Oh—” Yu Yusheng drew out her words knowingly. “Her friend—”

With her cold, elegant features, Tao Tianran had rarely been teased like this in her life. She curled her fingers, pressing them into her palm, only to find that she didn’t mind it at all.

Taking back her phone from Yu Yusheng, she asked, “Which one do you think is better?”

            

“If it were up to me,” Yu Yusheng pondered seriously, “I would choose the first one. Even though there are no private rooms, the bustling, lively atmosphere of the main hall is actually quite nice. Since you’re not very familiar with her friend, Teacher Tao, a quiet private room might actually feel a bit awkward. Plus, their meat is delicious, right?”

“Yes.” Tao Tianran lowered her elegant chin slightly. “Thank you.”

“Nervous?” Yu Yusheng curved her charming, cat-like eyes.

            

“Not really.” Tao Tianran slipped her phone back into her trouser pocket and picked up her coffee cup.

Before stepping back into her office, she turned her head to catch a glimpse of Yu Yusheng’s back in the empty room.

Yu Yusheng was still leaning back in her chair, the heels of her pumps resting on the floor as she rocked her swivel chair back and forth, looking completely indifferent and lazy about everything.

            

But it turned out that when you hid someone deep in your heart, hearing others speak of their own happiness would make your eyes light up ever so slightly, before growing dim again. And when you smiled, a trace of melancholy would linger at the corners of your mouth.

It was as though the faint movement of those lips was stirred by a gust of wind that had blown past many, many years ago.

“Hiss…” The moment Yi Yu walked into Tao Tianran’s office with her back hunched like an old great-grandmother, Tao Tianran knew something was terribly wrong.

            

“I can’t go on⁶ anymore, Teacher Tao,” Yi Yu groaned, bracing one hand against the edge of the desk. “This time, I really can’t go on. It’s not that I’m trying to skip the meeting, but I threw my back out. It’s serious—incredibly serious.”

It truly was incredibly serious. During their final moments on Qin Ziqiao’s bed the previous night, she’d felt the mattress beneath them shudder. When Qin Ziqiao finally withdrew her fingers, Yi Yu realized she could no longer stand up straight.

As expected of a capybara keeper—how on earth was her stamina so incredible?

            

Wincing as she bent over, she quietly changed Qin Ziqiao’s contact name on her phone to 「Little Tank」.

Just early this morning, 「Little Tank」 had called, saying she’d asked her mother and wanted to recommend a local Beicheng medicated plaster⁷ that was highly effective for treating lower back strains.

Standing in Tao Tianran’s office with her back hunched, Yi Yu pleaded, “Teacher Tao, please go to the meeting in my place today. I’m really not lying to you—just smell the musk scent radiating off me!”

            

Left with no other choice, Tao Tianran had to make the trip on Yi Yu’s behalf.

It was an industry forum for the jewelry sector. The event was actually of quite a high standard, gathering various high-end international jewelry brands and design companies, as well as upstream and downstream sectors like raw materials, manufacturing, legal affairs, and brand management.

Only someone like Yi Yu, who had “more money than brains,” would be too lazy to show her face at such an event.

            

Tao Tianran did a round of networking on her behalf, handing out business cards one after another. The subsequent cocktail party didn’t seem to hold much value, and just as she was preparing to leave, she caught sight of someone in the crowd.

Tao Tianran walked over and offered her business card.

Qiao Zhiji stood out even among the thick crowd. The contrast in her appearance was striking—she possessed a graceful, oval face reminiscent of a lady from ancient paintings, yet her aura was incredibly sharp and cold. Wearing a slightly long blazer cinched at the waist with a lambskin belt, she looked down at Tao Tianran’s business card.

            

She then raised her head, giving Tao Tianran an extra glance before handing over her own card.

Tao Tianran took it, scanned the details, and nodded. “President Qiao.”

Qiao Zhiji asked, “Does Kunpu have any plans to change its law firm recently?”

            

“Not at the moment,” Tao Tianran replied. “Actually, I wanted to ask if you have any plans to purchase jewelry recently, President Qiao?”

“I’ve heard of your reputation, Teacher Tao,” Qiao Zhiji said, her tone cool but polite. “I also have friends who collect your design works. But if I may speak frankly, your design style doesn’t quite align with my personal preferences.”

“Kunpu doesn’t only have me as a designer. If you’re interested, President Qiao, you’re welcome to visit our company to learn more.”

            

Qiao Zhiji faintly pressed the corners of her lips together, almost imperceptibly.

From the moment Qiao Zhiji had glanced at the name of 「Kunpu Design Company」 on the card and given her that extra look, Tao Tianran was certain that she knew Yu Yusheng worked there.

“Perhaps… some other time,” Qiao Zhiji said with a slight hesitation.

            

Wait? Wait for what?

Qiao Zhiji had known since the very first day she returned to the country that Yu Yusheng was employed at Kunpu. She’d been waiting—waiting until she secured her partner title, waiting until her position at the firm was more stable, waiting until she’d finished her current case, and waiting until she’d finished the next one.

By the time she reached this point, she didn’t even know what she was waiting for anymore. Only then did she realize she was actually afraid.

            

Her feelings toward Yu Yusheng were far too complicated. She was afraid to face Yu Yusheng, and she was equally afraid of facing the version of herself from the past who had possessed nothing at all.

In a low voice, Tao Tianran said, “President Qiao, most of the time, time won’t wait for you.”

She gave Qiao Zhiji a polite nod of farewell and turned to leave.

            

In the past, Qiao Zhiji had been exactly like this, waiting and waiting. By the time she finally went to find Yu Yusheng, the real Yu Yusheng was already gone.

If Tao Tianran hadn’t known Yu Yusheng’s ultimate fate, she, like everyone else, would’ve assumed that Yu Yusheng was living a wonderful life—brimming with talent, languidly charming, and utterly free.

But looking back with the knowledge of how it would end, one could see that beneath Yu Yusheng’s charming smiles, there was actually a deep, lingering grayness. Where did that grayness stem from? No one had a definitive answer.

            

Tao Tianran wanted to reverse Yu Yusheng’s tragic ending.

This was why she had advised Yu Yusheng to move out of the Yu family home.

This was why she had just dropped that subtle hint to Qiao Zhiji.

            

Yet, she didn’t dare to push too hard.

After undergoing countless resets, she was terrified that even the slightest alteration might disrupt the narrative thread of this specific timeline. It had taken her so many attempts just to lock down this one precise path.

Tao Tianran didn’t dare to force a dramatic change.

            

She was simply offering reminders in the most natural way possible, hoping that any change to their end would happen of its own accord.

Even so, a sense of unease still lingered in her heart. She couldn’t be sure if rewriting the ending for Yu Yusheng and Qiao Zhiji would inadvertently trigger some unpredictable consequence.

Cheng Xiang lay on her stomach on her bed, texting Qin Ziqiao with her slender legs kicked up behind her, gently swinging her feet. 【TTR wants to treat you to dinner. How about tomorrow night?】

            

It was hilarious—she was too embarrassed to even type out Tao Tianran’s full name to her own close friend. What kind of shorthand was “TTR” anyway?

With a faint smile playing on her lips, Cheng Xiang rolled onto her back, holding her phone up in front of her face with both hands.

Qin Ziqiao replied: 【Tomorrow won’t work.】

            

Cheng Xiang’s hand twitched, and the phone slipped, nearly smashing right into her face. She jerked her head to the side just in time, caught the phone, and immediately dialed Qin Ziqiao’s number.

“Why won’t it work? You’ve got to give her a chance.” Cheng Xiang stared at the phoenix tree⁸ inside her bedroom, her thick eyelashes filtering the warm yellow light from the ceiling.

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t give her a chance, I just said tomorrow won’t work,” Qin Ziqiao said, her voice sounding a bit nasal.

            

Cheng Xiang sat up abruptly. “Are you sick?”

“No,” Qin Ziqiao paused for a moment. “It’s just… I’m a little tired. My hands are sore.”

“Tsk,” Cheng Xiang said sympathetically. “Feeding capybaras every day and pitchforking all that grass must be exhausting.”

            

Qin Ziqiao sounded like she was rubbing her nose, her response quite nasal and weak. “Yeah.”

“Then you…” Cheng Xiang lay back down, rolling over to prop herself on her side. “You get some good rest first. When are we having dinner then?”

“The weekend.”

            

“Saturday night?”

“Sure.”

Hanging up on Qin Ziqiao, Cheng Xiang sent a message to Tao Tianran: 【Dinner with Ziqiao on Saturday night, how does that sound?】

            

Tao Tianran replied, “Okay.”

【Are you nervous?】 Cheng Xiang shifted back to her favorite position on her stomach, her slender legs kicking up and down. 【Why do I feel like I’m actually a little nervous myself, hehe.】

Tao Tianran replied: 【I’m not nervous.】

            

Since Qin Ziqiao wasn’t off work this Saturday, Tao Tianran typed into the text box in the afternoon: 【Should we go pick up your friend?】

Then she deleted the phrase “your friend” which she had typed out of habit, replacing it with “Ziqiao.” After another moment’s thought, she added “Qin” in front of “Ziqiao.”

She sent it to Cheng Xiang, who replied: 【Let me ask her, hehe.】

            

She sent a text to Qin Ziqiao. Since Qin Ziqiao’s phone was locked in her locker during work hours, she didn’t reply until she was about to leave, sending a voice message with a frantic, “No, no, no, no, no!”

What was that about? Qin Ziqiao set her phone down, feeling inexplicably stifled.

She and Cheng Xiang were clearly the closest of friends. Now, Cheng Xiang wanted to come pick her up with someone else, as if Cheng Xiang and Tao Tianran belonged to one camp, making her feel like an outsider.

            

So Cheng Xiang told Tao Tianran that there was no need to pick her up.

Tao Tianran also replied with a voice message. Her tone was cold and clear, yet her breath sounded soft. “What about you?”

“What about me?” Cheng Xiang asked, pretending to be oblivious.

            

“Do you want me to pick you up?”

Sitting at her desk with her legs crossed and tangled together, Cheng Xiang smiled secretly. Just then, Director Ma yelled from outside the room, “Xiao Xiang!”

“What is it?” Cheng Xiang craned her neck and shouted back. At the same time, she lowered her head to type: 【No need! Let’s just meet at the entrance of the hotpot restaurant.】

            

“Peel some garlic!”

“Coming!”

Slipping her phone into her pocket, she ran out, shuffling in her slippers.

            

Spring was deepening. In the north, spring was incredibly brief—it was like a stray cat poking its head out from a wall corner; by the time you realized it was there, it had already slipped around the bend, leaving not even a tail for you to grasp.

Before long, the air would carry the scent of early summer.

The sunlight was pleasantly warm. Director Ma had carried two bamboo-backed chairs out into the siheyuan⁹ courtyard, placing a wicker tray filled with unpeeled garlic cloves between them. Cheng Xiang sat down, peeling garlic while balancing her chair on only two legs, rocking back and forth.

            

Director Ma smacked the back of her hand with a bunch of fresh garlic sprouts. “Sit properly! Aren’t you afraid of falling?”

Beside them, next to a cracked flowerpot painted with the traditional plum blossoms, orchids, bamboo, and chrysanthemums, a bamboo basket held washed red jujubes spread out to dry in the sun. Director Ma hadn’t washed these; it was Cheng Xiang’s father, Deputy Director Cheng, who had prepared them with his characteristic southern fastidiousness—even his way of eating dates was meticulous.

Cheng Xiang pulled out a tissue, wrapped a red date, and popped it into her mouth.

            

As her teeth scraped the sweet flesh from the pit, her round eyes squinted against the bright sunlight.

Director Ma glanced at her. “What are you smiling about?”

“Who says I’m smiling?”

            

“I feel like you’ve been acting strange lately.”

“Not at all,” Cheng Xiang said guiltily.

She just felt that this was a very, very good day in her life.

            

The sunshine was warm and cozy, the date in her mouth was sweet, and she was chatting aimlessly with her mother. Her heavy phone rested in her pocket, its screen still open to her chat history with Tao Tianran.

This was just an ordinary day in her life, but it was also a very, very good day. How many more of these wonderful days would she get to have in her lifetime?

As she got ready to leave, Director Ma asked her, “Where are you heading off to?”

            

“Didn’t I already tell you?” Cheng Xiang smoothed down her bangs. “I’m meeting Ziqiao for some copper-pot hotpot.”

Carrying a bowl back to the kitchen, Director Ma eyed her. “Is that shirt new?”

“Huh? No, it’s not,” Cheng Xiang lied, feeling a little self-conscious.

            

“I’ve never seen you wear it before.”

“Then you must have remembered wrong.” Cheng Xiang practically flew out of the courtyard. “I’m leaving, Mom!”

She rushed over to the bus stop. They had agreed to meet at seven o’clock. The sky hadn’t completely darkened yet, painting the horizon in shades of orange and pink. Standing by the bus stop, Cheng Xiang tapped her foot against the ground repeatedly before hopping onto the bus and spinning around the handrail.

            

She tugged at her shirt again, gazing out the window.

The bus driver glanced at her, speaking with a thick, local Beicheng accent, “Hey, young lady, isn’t there an empty seat right behind you?”

Cheng Xiang grinned. “I saw it! Thank you. I ate a bit too much, so I just wanted to stand for a bit and digest.”

            

In reality, she hadn’t eaten anything yet.

Her stomach was completely empty, but her heart was filled with a restless flutter. It made her want to run, to dance, to tap her feet repeatedly—anything but sit down properly in a seat.

She raised a hand to cover her stomach.

            

The feeling of liking someone wasn’t as romantic as people on the internet described. She didn’t feel a thousand butterflies fluttering in her stomach. Instead, she just felt a dull ache that tugged at her heart, making it thump heavily against her chest with every beat.

Stepping off the bus, she saw that the restaurant Tao Tianran had chosen sat right next to a scenic district. On a weekend evening, the area was teeming with people.

With her bag slung over her shoulder, Cheng Xiang walked toward the restaurant entrance. Once there, she stood obediently off to the side and pulled out her phone to text Tao Tianran: 【I’ve arrived.】

            

Tao Tianran replied almost instantly: 【Okay. Please wait for me for a bit.】

At that moment, Tao Tianran was stuck in traffic.

Because Cheng Xiang had told her there was no need to pick her up, she’d accepted an unavoidable online video meeting in the afternoon. After the meeting, she’d changed her clothes and set off, only to find that Beicheng’s weekend traffic in late spring was exceptionally congested.

            

Tao Tianran rested her fingertips on the steering wheel, tapping rhythmically as she glanced at the clock display on the dashboard out of the corner of her eye.

If I’d known, I wouldn’t have agreed to that meeting.

Upon receiving Cheng Xiang’s message, Tao Tianran had initially wanted to reply that she might be ten minutes late, suggesting that she and Qin Ziqiao head inside to order first.

            

But after typing out the beginning of the message, she found herself deeply unwilling to send those words.

So she deleted it character by character, only replying: 【Please wait for me for a bit.】

Tao Tianran didn’t even know how many times she’d recalculated her navigation route, or how many small alleys she’d squeezed through.

            

Fortunately, just as she drove into the parking lot, a space had opened up. After parking the car, she grabbed her bag and rushed toward the entrance, a flurry of thoughts passing through her mind:

If only I hadn’t taken that meeting.

If only I hadn’t changed my clothes after the meeting.

            

Clutching her phone in her hand, Tao Tianran kept her eyes on the advancing clock as she walked. In the end, she began to run, her high heels clicking against the pavement.

Beside her lay the inland lake known locally as a “sea,” where the neon lights of countless bars blurred into a hazy backdrop as she hurried past. Tao Tianran thought to herself that whenever she faced Cheng Xiang now, she truly felt utterly flustered and lost.

Was this what people on the internet referred to as the wife-chasing crematorium¹⁰? And to make things harder, she had to pass the best friend’s test first.

            

From a distance, she spotted a slender figure standing near the entrance.

Tao Tianran checked the time on her phone once more—she’d made it just in time. Slowing her pace to a walk, she held her bag and phone in one hand while using the other to smooth out the creases along the back of her shirt.

Cheng Xiang spotted her as well. She raised a hand, brushing her bangs to the side.

            

Once she reached Cheng Xiang, Cheng Xiang curled her lips into a smile. “Hi.”

Her breath was still uneven. “Hi.”

“Why were you running?”

            

“I wasn’t running.”

Cheng Xiang clicked her tongue. “I saw you running.”

Tao Tianran looked down at her without speaking. Just then, some intoxicated diners stumbled past, bringing a strong scent of alcohol with them. Tao Tianran lightly grasped Cheng Xiang’s arm and gently guided her to the side.

            

Slipping to the side with her, Cheng Xiang asked, “Were you afraid of being late? The weather is so nice today, so there are tons of sightseers out. The traffic must’ve been terrible, right?”

Tao Tianran simply said, “I wouldn’t be late.”

As Tao Tianran lowered her wrist, Cheng Xiang suddenly reached out, pressing her index and middle fingers together, her soft fingertips gently rubbing against Tao Tianran’s pulse point. Tao Tianran’s breath hitched slightly. Having just run, she wore no perfume, yet a subtle, clean scent drifted from her skin.

            

Cheng Xiang tipped up slightly on her left foot, leaning in close to her ear. “I think you’re nervous.”

Releasing the breath held in her chest, Tao Tianran felt her newly recovered breathing falter once more. Amid the bustling crowd of diners, she kept her voice low:

“Yes, I’m nervous.”

            

Cheng Xiang pursed her lips and stepped back. Tao Tianran gazed at her fluttering lashes and her small, fair nose catching a speck of ambient light. This time, it was Tao Tianran who lowered her head slightly, whispering near Cheng Xiang’s ear:

“To help ease my nerves, why don’t we talk about something else? Summer is almost here. When are you going to take me to your bedroom to see that phoenix tree?”

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