In Another Life, We Were Old Friends

"Have you ever regretted it?"

Once youth has passed, all that passion and brightness fades from memory with the years. In the end, everyone has to return to the daily grind.

At midnight, fragments of our younger days seep through the darkness, one by one, and the question comes with them: "Have you ever regretted it?"

If only I'd been brave enough to take his hand that year.

If only I hadn't met him that year.

If only I'd made that decision that year.

If only I hadn't done that thing that year.

Life seems to be full of regrets.

"Have you ever regretted it, or not?"

Wei Qiuge shook her head. "Not even a little."

It seems all the people and things from the past are links in a chain, one hooked to another. Without those mistakes, there would have been no right choices. In the end, to have those right moments, even the mistakes become precious.

*

The hotel lobby was quiet in the early hours. Jet lag left Wei Qiuge uncharacteristically dozing on a sofa in the lobby.

"Let's go." At the familiar voice, she instinctively got up and followed its command.

Only after coming to her senses did she realize those words hadn't been meant for her.

Xiao Nian looked at her, seeming a little lost, and asked quietly, "Who's that?"

Wei Qiuge considered it carefully, then chose the most fitting word: "Acquaintance."

The next morning, as Wei Qiuge brushed her teeth, someone knocked at the door, urgently and without a trace of patience.

"You just woke up too?" she asked, opening the door for Xiao Nian while brushing her teeth.

The visitor answered calmly, "I've been awake for a long time."

Only then did Wei Qiuge look up at the visitor's face. It wasn't Xiao Nian. It was the Acquaintance who had appeared in the hotel lobby the day before.

"Won't you invite me in?" he asked.

By the time Wei Qiuge had finished washing up and left the bathroom, he was already sitting upright on the sofa with his legs crossed, utterly at ease. Somehow, that made Wei Qiuge, the host, feel awkward instead.

A while later, in the hotel corridor, Xiao Nian was on his way from the next room to see Wei Qiuge when he passed the man again.

"Acquaintance, huh?" Xiao Nian said after entering the room, his eyes saying, "Let's see you talk your way out of this."

Wei Qiuge finally told the truth: "My ex-husband."

Xiao Nian's eyes went wide. He leaned half his body out the door, trying to get another look at the man's back, and mouthed an exaggerated "Wow."

"Do you want to hear a story? A rather long one, about twenty years, starting when I was fifteen."

Happy New Year! It's 2022, and everything is a fresh start.

2021.12.31

A little note: In His Years, chapters 48 and 51, there are two pots of braised pork knuckles in Tangtang's hands.

Theme: You have to learn to love yourself before you can understand how to love others.