#41: Those Old Memories

While Shi Min was showering, Luo Mingjing stood by the large window in the room, looking out at the night view of Haishi.

He struggled to recall, comparing the unfamiliar buildings under the night sky with the old map in his mind, slowly finding the direction of his home.

Behind the myriad of twinkling lights, there was an area of detached seaside villas, dotted with a few sporadic orange lights.

Shi Min walked out with a towel draped over her head and asked what he was looking at.

“My home,” Luo Mingjing said, “Shall we go home? I’ll show you where little Luo Mingjing grew up.”

Shi Min paused slightly, her gaze unconsciously drifting to Luo Mingjing’s lower body.

Luo Mingjing also caught on, realizing that his phrase “little Luo Mingjing” had triggered an association in the CEO’s mind. He helplessly said, “...When I was little! CEO, please don’t always think about the lower half. Our relationship can be purer once we’re out of bed.”

Shi Min smiled faintly, averted her gaze, and nodded, “Okay, let’s go see. After I blow-dry my hair.”

“Come.” Luo Mingjing sat over, wrapped an arm around her waist, pressed her down to sit, and picked up the towel to dry Shi Min’s hair.

Shi Min leaned into his embrace and praised, “You’re very much like a good wife and mother.”

“Don’t compliment me with such strange words. It’s just blow-drying hair,” Luo Mingjing laughed, “It’s convenient.”

“I’ve noticed...” Shi Min squinted like a cat, her dark pupils unmoving as she stared at him, seriously saying, “After I slept with you, you became more considerate. These past two days, you insist on holding me when you sleep, which you didn’t do before.”

Luo Mingjing turned on the hairdryer, a gentle breeze blowing Shi Min’s hair. As his fingers ran through her strands, he suddenly felt a softness, like her fragrant hair gently wrapping around his heart.

Luo Mingjing said, “It’s like being close to you. You are... family, my girlfriend, that kind of feeling.”

Before, they had maintained a polite distance when interacting, but after their intimacy, the distance vanished.

He had completely opened up, bringing Shi Min into his safe zone, wanting to possess her and warm his heart at all times.

Both of them put on jackets over their pajamas and drove home, back to the house where Luo Mingjing grew up.

There was no one at home, not a single person.

The empty yard, however, wasn’t desolate because the property management regularly pruned the flowers and plants. Luo Mingjing went to the property office to get the gate key, pushed open the iron gate, and said to Shi Min, “My dad probably hasn’t been back.”

“Whose house is this?”

“It might be mine.” Luo Mingjing squatted down, illuminating with his phone, and behind the lush evergreen at the entrance, he found the house key he had sealed with wax on the edge of the fence when he left home. He said, “The key is still here, after four years.”

Shi Min helped him hold the phone. Luo Mingjing scraped off the wax from the key’s edge, blew away the debris, and opened the door.

He pushed open the door, turned back, smiled at Shi Min, and said, “Sister Shi, please come in, no need to change shoes.”

Luo Mingjing was in a good mood, not ecstatic, but very calm.

These past few days, he had transformed from a lifeless, empty, despondent state to an active, vigorous state of moving forward with courage, then rapidly ascended to a state of enlightened peace, and now settled into this optimistic tranquility.

Luo Mingjing tried to turn on the lights. The moment the living room lit up, Luo Mingjing raised an eyebrow, his tone suddenly cheerful, “There’s electricity!”

He walked around the first floor and said, “Maybe a housekeeper has been here to clean.”

It wasn’t as desolate as he’d imagined; there were no cobwebs in the corners, and the dust on the coffee table and speaker cabinet wasn’t very thick.

Shi Min picked up a photo placed on the speaker cabinet and looked up, comparing it to the long-haired man in front of her.

“Is that my photo?” Luo Mingjing asked for the frame, took a look, and laughed, “Ah, senior year of high school, taken the day I received my T University admission letter. So young.”

In the photo, Luo Mingjing still had short hair, standing under the plane trees at the school gate, wearing a white shirt. Dappled light spilled over him as he pointed to the admission letter in his hand, the camera capturing the moment the breeze lifted his bangs, preserving his bright smile.

Shi Min asked, “Ten years ago?”

“Mm.” Luo Mingjing said, “This was when my mom was happiest. She placed it in the most prominent spot in the living room, just for people to see.”

“I see.” Shi Min said, “Luo Mingjing, I think you’re what people call ‘the perfect child’.”

Luo Mingjing immediately retorted, “No, you are.”

“Tall and handsome young man, good personality, good grades, and helps with housework and cooking at home. What mother wouldn’t want such a son?”

“Wrong,” Luo Mingjing said, “When my mom was still around, I couldn’t compete with her for cooking. She was home every day, and that was the only thing she could do. I never entered the kitchen. After my mom passed, I started learning to cook. My mind was in a haze back then, and I ate the food Qianqian made for several days until I couldn’t stand it anymore...”

Luo Mingjing recalled the taste, frowning in disgust, “It was too awful. One time, I cried while eating, which scared Qianqian too. I had to find something to do. She was repeating her senior year of high school, so busy, with so many things... I dug out all the recipes my mom remembered and started learning to cook.”

“Your skills are good,” Shi Min said, “You successfully captured my stomach.”

Luo Mingjing’s thoughts were interrupted, and he laughed, “You’re so annoying. For a year... cooking, doing housework, taking Xu Qianqian to class. I was a nanny, cook, and tutor. Although my state was very bad then, my mind would be very calm when I was cooking and doing housework.”

So, that year, whenever he felt anxious, he would get out of bed in the middle of the night and start washing dishes, wiping floors, and cleaning the room again.

Shi Min reached out and rubbed his hair, indicating, “Mingjing, from now on, my stomach will rely on you.”

“You got it.”

Shi Min half-jokingly, half-seriously said, “Mingjing, I think... if you could have children, you’d probably even take on the tasks of giving birth and nursing them.”

Luo Mingjing paused, then burst into laughter.

“Shi Min, don’t go too far!” Luo Mingjing said, “I must clearly define my role. I’m a dad, a dad, with no milk!”

Shi Min asked with a smile, “Do you like children?”

Luo Mingjing lowered his head and laughed, “How could I not like them? I do... Why are you asking this now... what do you mean?”

He looked up, his eyes full of anticipation.

“Just asking,” Shi Min said faintly, “Just casual chat, no specific purpose, don’t overthink it.”

“Oh.”

“Are there any other photos?” Shi Min asked.

“Yes, I’ll find them for you.” Luo Mingjing happily pulled her upstairs and started going through bookshelves. “This one, and this one... My mom organized my photos from childhood to adulthood in order, with notes on the back: where it was taken, why, the date, my age, and so on...”

Luo Mingjing moved the chaise lounge over, brushed off the surface dust, and invited Shi Min to sit.

He sat next to Shi Min, opened the photo album, and looked at the pictures with her.

“Preschool drawing competition, at the Chairman’s Square in Haishi, chalk drawing.” A tiny boy, with his back to the camera, wearing a white baseball cap and the blue cultural shirt uniformly issued by the kindergarten, drawing an eagle on a huge blackboard.

“This is the day I won a provincial award for traditional Chinese painting, posing with my teacher.” The boy, wearing a red scarf, held up his trophy, smiling broadly, his eyes crinkling into slits.

“Junior high, first time using scissors to trim my mustache. I remember waking up one day and finding two whiskers on my chin, and I actually took a picture... My mom really is something.” This one must have been at home, a youthful boy standing tall like a small tree in front of a mirror, holding scissors and smiling at the camera.

“This one is... a family photo.” A family of four, including Qianqian.

Shi Min’s hand paused, and she commented, “You look a lot like your father.”

“Right?” Luo Mingjing said, “My father’s side all have this kind of look.”

Tall, fair-skinned, deep-set eyes, and sharp features. However, from this family photo, Luo Mingjing’s expression resembled his mother’s, too vibrant and sharp, whereas Luo Mingjing’s father’s appearance was softer and more approachable, very refined.

“His appearance is too deceptive. He looks like a good-tempered scholar, but he’s actually a...” Perhaps not wanting to comment on his father, Luo Mingjing stopped speaking. His gaze fell on his mother, who was smiling happily beside them, saying, “Hmph... He deceived my mom. Let’s turn the page.”

Shi Min turned the page.

Another photo came into view: Li Xiang and Luo Mingjing, arms around each other’s shoulders, standing at the entrance of T University, holding their admission letters, smiling at the camera.

“...Do you want to interview me about my current feelings?” Luo Mingjing said.

Shi Min said bluntly, “He and Wang Zhenyu are both scum in my eyes.”

“He’s very selfish,” Luo Mingjing said, “But before, I thought I understood him. His dad died young, and you could tell his mom had a relationship with my dad for a while. Li Xiang didn’t know then, and things got a bit ugly in the end because Li Xiang and I were staking out the hotel, and we unexpectedly saw her and my dad go in. He once told me that he couldn’t face me and my mom, and I said I understood.”

Luo Mingjing closed the album: “I was too focused on myself. When I came to my senses, I didn’t have many friends around, only him, who I grew up with. I thought we could be like brothers for life, putting aside the grievances of the previous generation.”

Shi Min said, “You’re a very simple person.”

Luo Mingjing smiled wryly, “Am I?”

“Perhaps you were too lucky before, only focusing on what you liked, and never experiencing setbacks. Your mind is simple, and even that kindness carries an idealized innocence.”

Luo Mingjing suddenly laughed, “Has anyone ever told you that you’re very good at reading people?”

“That’s our Shi family’s specialty,” Shi Min said, “I’m different from you. My upbringing was simpler, but I’ve never been so engrossed in something I liked that I forgot myself. I’ve met all kinds of people, so, Luo Mingjing, you have to admit, I’m more psychologically mature than you.”

“Yes, Sis,” Luo Mingjing responded cooperatively.

Shi Min smiled slightly.

Luo Mingjing muttered to himself, “Would I be too shameless like this? At such an old age...”

“As long as you’re happy, reputation doesn’t matter.”

Luo Mingjing tidied the study and found the property deed.

After glancing at it, he handed the deed to Shi Min and said, “This house is mine.”

Shi Min briefly looked at it and asked him, “Are you going to sell it?”

“Mm,” Luo Mingjing said, “My mindset is different now than four years ago when I left. Back then, I just wanted to leave and didn’t think much... Now, I’m thinking of selling the house and completely forgetting Haishi.”

Just as Qianqian had said.

The only beautiful memories Haishi held for her were of her aunt and brother. Her aunt was gone, and after the successful rights defense, there was no one or anything left in Haishi worth her concern.

“I’ll sell the house and discard Luo Heqiang. From now on, I won’t ask about his life,” Luo Mingjing said, “My mom waited for him for half her life, even sacrificing her life, and he didn’t even come back to look. In my heart, my home no longer includes him. From now on, he’s a stranger.”

“After selling the house, I want to buy Zhengzhi Art Studio,” Luo Mingjing turned his head, raised an eyebrow with a smile, and said, “Shi Min, from now on, that two-story building in Bottle Alley will be my home.”

Shi Min’s brows relaxed, and she smiled faintly, “After tomorrow, we’ll move out the things we want to take. I’ll help you find a buyer. Let’s go.”

She said, “New year, new beginning.”

Luo Mingjing said, “Do you know, Shi Min, I have a feeling.”

He said, “Things will only get better.”