Rebirth on the Doors to the Civil Affairs Bureau

***

Xia Feng read Yu Dong’s reply and smiled. It looks like she was having a good time back home.

“Xia Feng, there’s a beautiful woman outside looking for you!” The hospital rented 2 apartments for the doctors who came to the United Stated for the exchange program, 1 for men and 1 for women.

Xia Feng and Li Qiguang along with another male colleague lived together. As they were here to work hard, they rarely get weekends off so it wasn’t unusual for Li Qiguang to be carrying takeout when he rushed to Xia Feng.

Beauty? Xia Feng was confused, but went out anyway.

“Xia Feng?” It was An An. She was wearing a black and red skirt, making her look sexy and charming as she sweetly smiled at him.

“An An?” Xia Feng was somewhat surprised, and asked, “Why are you here?”

“I haven’t seen you!” An An was unhappy as she petulantly said, “You came all the way to New York without telling me, I had to ask around for half a day before I found you.”

In fact, An An knew early on that Xia Feng was coming to New York, but she didn’t reach out to him, instead waited for Xia Feng to meet with her voluntarily. But a week had passed since his arrival and Xia Feng seemed to have no intention of talking to her at all.

So the anxious An An came to him in person.

Xia Feng didn’t know what to say, after all, the 2 had long broken up.

“You’re so guilty!” An An pretended to be angry and said, “I’ll forgive you if you invite me to dinner!”

Xia Feng knew that An An was trying to give him an out. After thinking for a while, he eventually nodded and said, “OK!”

An An smiled and settled down.

The 2 people went to a nearby shopping mall to eat steak, An An skillfully took the menu from Xia Feng’s hands and said, “Let me order for you. The steak and dessert in this restaurant is pretty great!”

Xia Feng, who didn’t like to eat steak very much, silently nodded.

“Thank you Xia Feng!” An An said happily, “Your hands are truly meant for handling knives. You cut steak so well.”

Xia Feng smiled politely and didn’t say a word.

“Xia Feng, you know what? This is the first time I’ve had steak since I came to America!” An An suddenly said.

“Why?” Xia Feng knew that An An liked to eat steak, so this information was a but unexpected to him.

“Because there wasn’t anyone here to help me cut the steak.”

Xia Feng focused on cutting his own steak, as if he never heard An An say these words.

“By the way, what happened to aunt after her operation? How’s her recovery going?” An An saw that Xia Feng stayed silent, so she quickly changed the subject.

“She’s with my father in Hainan, recovering well.” Xia Feng answered.

“I used to listen to you talk about your parents and I’ve always admired them. When I come back to China, I’d like to see them. Hey, didn’t aunt like Leonardo? I’ll ask my friends if they can get an autograph!” An An said.

“Don’t make such a joke.” An An tensed.

“You know I’m not kidding.” Xia Feng was trying to cleanly state the situation.

“But I never agreed! you can’t break up on your own, it’s not your call!” Because they were still in the restaurant, An An tried not to shout.

Xia Feng had never been good at arguing with women. They’ve been dating for years, but the only quarrel he ever had with An An was when he proposed to her. In the end, when she refused he told her that they had to break up.

“I’m married!” Xia Feng said resolutely.

“Impossible!” An An said with a complete look of disbelief.

“You know I don’t like to lie about such things.” Xia Feng calmly stated.

“But I also know you won’t get married to just anybody.” An An was very sure about this, “I know better that anyone just how much you envy aunt and uncle’s relationship. I don’t know how many times you’ve told me that marriage has to between 2 people that love each other, rather than a hopeless inevitability.”

“And you refused me!” Xia Feng regretfully smiled, “Maybe you don’t love me as much as you previously thought!”

“No!” An An anxiously explained, “I was only 22. I just graduated from college. I don’t want to get married so early, I just wanted to start my own business.”

“Let’s stop talking about this.” Xia Feng shook his head, after all, there was no longer a reason to talk about the past.

After dinner, Xia Feng walked An An to the bus stop. As they passed through the shopping mall, Xia Feng glanced at the bags shown in the windows and stopped.

Buy a nice bag, nothing too expensive, the most important thing is that it looks good!

It was the last item on Yu Dong’s list.

“What’s the matter?” An An noticed Xia Feng’s gaze and said, “Are you interested in that bag? A present for aunt? Do you want me to help you pick? I have a good eye when it comes to these things.”

Xia Feng looked at her. Hearing An An’s words, he wondered why he suddenly remembered what Yu Dong said the day he first brought her to see his parents.

Xia Feng shook his head and refused.

An An later sat on the bus, thinking about the future. Xia Feng will be staying in New York for 3 months. In the past he never stayed angry at her for more than a month.

After seeing An An off, Xia Feng returned to the store and went up to a clerk asking, “Which bag’s currently popular with young women?”

Shanghai, in Xiaoyue Studio! 𝑓𝗿𝐞𝘦𝘄ｅ𝘣n𝘰𝘷eƖ.c𝘰𝗺

“How’s Xinxin doing?” Yu Dong asked Xiang Xiaoyue.

“Still sad!” Xiaoyue remembered Ren Xinxin, who was crying in her apartment all day long. Suddenly, she became uncertain. “Did we make a mistake?”

“No!” Yu Dong replied, resolute.

“You’re right, 3P is only done by scum men, we definitely don’t want that for our friend.” Xiaoyue gritted her teeth.

Yu Dong looked at Xiaoyue guiltily and said, “Uh… that’s not exactly!”

“What did you say?” Xiaoyue cried out.

“I didn’t actually see him doing the deed, I only saw him having an affair with multiple women.” Yu Dong said, “That already makes him pretty scummy in my opinion. And the way he treated Xinxin was unacceptable.”

Xiang Xiaoyue who was distracted by a different topic immediately yelled: “Yeah, he definitely took advantage of poor Xinxin. He said that she was only interested in his family’s money, like that somehow makes him every girl’s dream.”

Yu Dong nodded in agreement.

“Yu Dong, if we keep doing well, maybe one day our studio will be bigger!” Xiang Xiaoyue puffed up her chest.

Yu Dong thought about it. Xiang Xiaoyue married 2 years later in her previous life. She went to Singapore to settle down and transferred the studio to another party.

“Hey, why aren’t you saying anything?” Xiaoyue saw Yu Dong blankly looking ahead and urged her.

“Give me some shares!” Yu Dong suddenly said.

“Alright.” Xiaoyue thought about it, then nodded, “We got Steven’s contract because of you after all. How about we divide the work, I’ll look for jobs, you can talk to them and get the contracts, oh and Xinxin can also help, she can do some dubbing. After all, out of the 3 of us Xinxin was the best in dubbing during university.

Yu Dong didn’t mind this and nodded, but suddenly thought of something and asked: “What about Xinxin’s child?”

“What else can she do? She has to get rid of it. It’s only been 2 months anyway.” Xiaoyue said.

When she heard this, Yu Dong startled.

Yu Dong met the little child in her previous life, and she was a beautiful little girl. She remembered visiting Ren Xinxin and seeing a little girl wearing a pink princess dress, calling out aunt in a sweet voice.

Yu Dong suddenly felt the mere idea of losing that girl unbearable and said, “Let’s wait until Xinxin’s mood stabilizes.”

“Sure,” Xiang Xiaoyue then shook her head and helplessly said, “Both aunt and uncle Ren are pretty explosive right now anyway, and Xinxin doesn’t dare go home.”

“Xinxin’s a good girl.” Yu Dong decisively said, “It might be hard for them to accept right now, but they’ll come around.”

“No matter how hard it is to accept, you can’t push your daughter into the pit of fire!” Xiang Xiaoyue angrily said, “When I brought Xinxin back home that day, aunt gave her one heck of a scolding. Xinxin didn’t dare say anything. I couldn’t help it and ended up telling aunt about Lu Xuan’s affairs and guess what she said? aunt Ren actually said: ‘What man doesn’t waver? as long as he doesn’t take it home, then it’s fine. When he’s had enough, he’ll naturally come back to you.’ ”

“It was so horrible, if it was my mother saying this, I wouldn’t hesitate severing my mother-daughter relationship with her.” Xiang Xiaoyue grew angrier just thinking about it.

Listening to this, Yu Dong suddenly thought of her own mother. In her previous life, every time she went back home, her mother would end up crying. In the end, Yu Dong became afraid of going back home and making her mother cry.

“Dong Dong ah, you’ve grown so big, yet you still can’t find someone, how pitiful. Everyone needs a family. What’s the use of simply making more and more money? The important thing is getting married and having children, someone to depend on when you get older. You should get to know your brother’s children because when you get older, you’ll have no one to rely on except your own parents and we won’t be here forever.”

“Mom, I just haven’t found the right one yet.”

“I’m thinking of my own mother!” Yu Dong said with a smile.

“Then why is your face so scary?” Xiang Xiaoyue didn’t understand.

“Remember how I wanted to marry Fang Hua? My family disagreed, and I ended up running away from home. But look at how things turned out…” Yu Dong smiled bitterly.

“That man’s a scum too!” Xiaoyue sighed, “Look at you, why did you girls end up loving such men? You should learn from me and instead be the slag.”

“Yes, you’re the best.” Yu Dong perfunctorily said.

………..

Yu Dong returned home at 3:00 a.m. and remembering Xia Feng’s instructions, opened her phone and messaged him in QQ.

[ I’m home! ]

[ Go to bed early, and look at your email tomorrow morning. I sent a few photos I need your opinion on. ]

[ Alright! ]

[ Goodnight. ]

Pictures? Yu Dong was too curious to wait and in the end took out her computer to log into her email. The email contained a photo of a black purse, small and delicate. The email also contained a brochure, giving the name of the bag (2007 Prada’s Classic Money), and the tagline: Every woman should be spoiled!

Suddenly a small smile appeared in Yu Dong’s face.

If I had met you in my previous life, would I have still been a golden leftover?

Or was I reborn just so that I could meet you?

(T/N “leftover woman” is a successful career woman who has remained single)

****