Chapter 88

That night, the snow kept falling quietly in Jianghai.

The snow fell silently outside the windshield, trapping a taxi on the side of the road, as well as the quiet inside the car window.

The falling snow reflected the two silent faces in the front window. No one spoke.

“When did you come back?” Yang Lei asked, breaking the silence.

“Just came back,” Fang Yu replied quietly.

Shadows covered most of Fang Yu’s face. His voice was even deeper than it was in the past.

“Why did you start driving this?”

Yang Lei chatted calmly, like they were just friends who separated yesterday.

“I came to see someone. He has something to do, so I’m taking his place for two days,” Fang Yu said.

“That’s not cool. You’re in Jianghai, and you haven’t come to see me.”

Yang Lei smiled slightly, as though he were joking. He reached into his pocket to take out a cigarette.

Fang Yu didn’t reply. He was silent.

Yang Lei didn’t speak. He took out a pack of cigarettes.

“…Afraid of seeing me?” Yang Lei said. He laughed in self-mockery, lowered his head, and knocked out a cigarette.

He tapped it, but he didn’t light it.

Yang Lei thought that he had to smoke one to calm himself. However, he didn’t expect that he was calmer than he thought.

He had thought about the circumstances when he met Fang Yu again. He thought that it would be many years later. At least, not now. He also thought about many situations when they met, but he hadn’t thought about this one.

The years hadn’t left too many marks on Fang Yu’s body. Fang Yu was still so handsome and clean. He just looked colder than he was in the past, and he was more silent.

“Are you doing well?”

Yang Lei heard Fang Yu ask him.

“I’m okay,” Yang Lei said. “Still in the army. Used to be in the Zhou Qiao brigade. Right now, I’m in an armor regiment.”

On his day off, he came out without wearing a military uniform. Yang Lei knew that Fang Yu didn’t know about his current situation.

“That place is remote, next to a small town. Even if I said it, you wouldn’t know it.”

Fang Yu didn’t speak. He was listening.

“I heard that you have a factory in the south. The situation has been pretty good in recent years. How is it? It must be profitable.”

Yang Lei smiled, asking Fang Yu.

Three years ago, when Yang Lei went to the south to find Fang Yu, the two veterans told him that Fang Yu was running a factory. At that time, the speed of economic development in the south was much faster than that of the north. In those years, there were a bunch of people who set up factories in Guangdong and Fujian. As long as they were willing to bear hardships, many had become the new rich.

Fang Yu was capable. He could succeed anywhere. Yang Lei knew this.

Fang Yu didn’t reply. Yang Lei didn’t ask again.

When they stopped, neither of them spoke.

It was snowing heavily outside. There were fewer and fewer pedestrians.

Snow fell on the front window and melted quietly.

In the silence, Yang Lei heard Fang Yu’s deep voice.

“Are you getting married?”

Yang Lei was stunned.

He realized and thought of that wedding photo. Over the past few days, there were always people who knew him who had seen that photo and called him, blaming him for not being cool. He was about to get married, but still kept it a secret.

On the back seat of the car was a big bag of stuff. The packaging of the red happiness character was bright and festive. It was obviously wedding supplies.

“Yeah.”

Yang Lei made an affirmative sound as an answer.

“Is the date scheduled?”

“Probably after New Year’s.”

Yang Lei looked out of the window.

Fang Yu didn’t answer.

“What about you? Ying-zi didn’t come back with you?” Yang Lei asked.

Fang Yu paused for a moment and said, “She’s in Chaozhou.”

No one in Jianghai knew where Fang Yu had been in the past three years. It was only now that Yang Lei heard of this city.

There was a doll accessory hanging in the car. The owner had hung it up, and it swayed slightly.

“You must have children,” Yang Lei said.

Three years. Most of Yang Lei’s friends who had dated and married three years ago already had children running all over.

Fang Yu didn’t reply.

Yang Lei looked at the snow outside.

Starting from 1999, it would snow heavily every year during the winters of Jianghai. Once he saw snow, Yang Lei would realize that another year had passed.

“There wasn’t any news about you these past few years. I thought that you were probably doing pretty well, so I didn’t bother you,” Yang Lei said calmly.

“There’s no need to hide from me. Really. There’s no need.”

Yang Lei knew why Fang Yu didn’t leave a message to the old brothers in Jianghai and why he insisted on leaving initially.

In recent years, Yang Lei had become mild and mature. He was no longer that boy who was completely dominated by emotions a few years ago. He was already a man.

Throughout these years, he had thought about what he would say to Fang Yu if he met him again. Every year, his thoughts were different and changing. By now, Yang Lei could already sit calmly with Fang Yu, chatting and talking to him like an ordinary old friend he hadn’t seen for a long time.

Time made the bygones be bygones.

“There’s no need for the two of us to not even be brothers. Don’t you think so?”

Yang Lei said. He glanced at Fang Yu, smiling peacefully, with bitterness…

Someone pulled open the car door.

“Young man, let’s make an agreement and share a car! It’s too difficult to get a taxi!”

A middle-aged man covered in snow got into the back seat, discussing with Yang Lei.

Yang Lie hesitated for a moment.

“You sit. I’m getting out.”

Yang Lei opened the car door and took his things.

“Okay, you can keep working,” Yang Lei said to Fang Yu. He turned around and walked into the heavy snow.

“Yang Lei!”

Yang Lei stopped.

Fang Yu got out of the car and stood on the snowy ground.

“Get in the car. I’ll take you.”

Under the streetlamp, Fang Yu’s shadow was very long.

Yang Lei turned around. The two of them looked at each other across the snowy ground.

An empty car came behind Yang Lei. The taxi driver honked his horn.

“Are you coming?” The taxi driver stuck his head out and asked Yang Lei.

Yang Lei lowered his head and opened the car door.

“Okay, this one is the same.”

Yang Lei looked at Fang Yu.

“Goodbye.”

The taxi driver stepped on the accelerator, turned the car around, and drove away.

In the back view mirror, Fang Yu was still standing alone in the snow. Yang Lei didn’t look back…

Yang Lei leaned against the car seat and rolled down the window.

The snow was heavy, and with the cold wind blowing hard on his face, it was bone-piercingly cold. Yang Lei didn’t feel anything…