Chapter Fifty-Eight — National Day Arrangements

At night, still clinging to a lingering obsession, she quickly drifted into slumber. In the dreamlike, ephemeral, and dewy state of that night, all the negative energy was quietly digested.

Yi Shu felt a sudden clarity, just as she had once spoken those seemingly ambiguous words to Yan Lu—Xu Shixi too was but a puppet at the mercy of fate, powerless to control his own life.

It is rare in life to meet a kindred spirit; such encounters must be cherished as one journeys on.

“Yi Shu.” Xu Shixi hugged her from behind. “There’s something I forgot to tell you yesterday.”

Su Yi Shu was brushing her teeth at the sink, mouth full of toothpaste foam. She mumbled, “What is it?”

She glanced up into the mirror and saw the relaxed, natural expression on his face, which set her at ease and she continued brushing.

“Tomorrow is National Day. The company has organized a six-day, five-night trip.” He pressed his lips close to her ear. “Family members are allowed. Would you like to come with me?”

“But…” Yi Shu spat out the foam, wiped away the last traces from her lips, removed his hands, and turned to face him. “I have to work during the holiday—you know how it is. Sales is busiest during holidays.”

A fleeting look of disappointment flashed in Xu Shixi’s eyes. Just like at Xunyuan Company, of all the departments participating in this group trip, the sales department was conspicuously absent. They had to fight tooth and nail through the National Day battle, laying a solid foundation for the month’s and even the entire year’s performance.

Kaisheng had been preparing for National Day for half a month. Liu Hanzhang had circulated orders from higher management: during the holiday, unless there was a funeral, no leave would be granted.

Yi Shu had once been sternly warned by Liu Hanzhang: to survive in a brick-and-mortar store with fluctuating sales, she had to give her utmost, never letting her guard down for an instant.

After National Day would come Double Eleven, then Double Twelve, then Christmas, New Year’s, and pre-holiday promotions. In the latter half of the year, almost every industry seemed to enter a golden season.

In previous years, Double Eleven meant working day and night, to the point of utter exhaustion. In her first year at Kaisheng, Yi Shu nearly collapsed at her desk. Yan Lu bluntly told her to quit on the spot and go home. Later, her deskmate Guo Yamei shared two years’ worth of hard-won experience.

Yi Shu still remembered Guo Yamei’s warmth and kindness from those days. As for how Guo Yamei became increasingly irritable later on, there was no way to trace it. At first, when Guo Yamei’s words became sharp and difficult, Yi Shu chose to keep the peace, thinking everyone has their bad days. But as it happened more often, and she reached her limit, she began to respond in kind. After three or four years, she had grown accustomed to this tit-for-tat mode of interaction.

“Do you really want me to go with you?” Yi Shu was moved by the misty look in his eyes.

“Of course.” He brightened, as if seeing a ray of hope. “It wouldn’t be much fun without you.”

Xu Shixi recalled past company trips, where colleagues brought their families, couples whispering sweet nothings along the way. Only he and Qiao Siming were always alone, naturally paired as companions. Outsiders might have thought they were indifferent to women. After all, Qiao Siming had never seriously dated an official girlfriend, and Xu Shixi seemed destined to be single.

“Is everyone from your department going?”

“Everyone except one who’s going back home.”

Yi Shu lowered her long lashes. “Is she going, too?”

Xu Shixi was taken aback. It seemed Tang Dai would always be the chasm and gulf they could never quite cross. He nodded helplessly; to lie would only make things worse once exposed.

In short, he had drawn clear, unwavering boundaries with Tang Dai, believing he had handled the past properly. Yet she often overstepped her bounds, trespassing into his territory. When facing an invader, he would of course send them packing. Entanglements were inevitable in the process. He believed Yi Shu would come to understand him, must understand him—otherwise, how could there be anything everlasting?

“Maybe I’ll try asking my supervisor,” Yi Shu wavered.

Work, once her top priority, now took second place, replaced by love.

She didn’t blame Xu Shixi; she trusted his character. But she didn’t trust Tang Dai. After recent events, she had fully witnessed her capabilities. As the saying goes, keeping what you’ve built is harder than building it. Xu Shixi was an outstanding man, surrounded by women vying for his attention. For her sake, he had surely filtered out many distractions.

“No need to force yourself,” Xu Shixi said, understanding her predicament. It didn’t matter if she couldn’t go—as long as their hearts were together, whether traveling or staying at home, there was no difference.

After breakfast, Xu Shixi took a detour to drop Yi Shu off at her job in Textile City.

As the car left the garage, Yi Shu lowered the window and looked out at the gloomy sky, the air heavy with the impending storm.

After a day and night of wind and rain, the temperature had dropped by more than ten degrees.

All around, fallen leaves carpeted the ground.

During her lunch break, Guo Yamei asked Liu Hanzhang for leave. Sitting across from her, Yi Shu could clearly hear the thunderous roar from the other end of the phone.

Startled, Guo Yamei pulled the phone from her ear, nearly dropping it.

The kindergarten where Guo Yamei’s son attended had organized a one-day National Day outing, requiring a parent to accompany each child. If the parent couldn’t make it, the child couldn’t participate. After all, during National Day, crowds would be overwhelming, teachers were spread too thin, and it was easy for something to go wrong. One accident and the compensation alone could bankrupt the kindergarten.

Yi Shu couldn’t help feeling sympathy. In a way, Guo Yamei was both a trailblazer and a local fixture, shielding others from disaster.

Yi Shu abandoned her own thought of asking for leave. If a single day off was so hard to get, a six-day holiday was out of the question. Unless she quit, there was no other way. And even quitting required a month’s notice, or else she’d forfeit a month’s wages.

Around National Day, business at Textile City was inevitably affected. The factories and groups buying fabrics and accessories all closed for the holidays. Only some foreign clients came as usual. Chinese festivals meant nothing to them.

Guo Yamei left work an hour early, asking Yi Shu to help with the day’s accounts. Seeing her earnestness, she agreed, hoping Guo Yamei would at least remember this small kindness. She didn’t expect anything in return, not even gratitude—just peaceful coexistence, free from targeted hostility.

At 5:15, she exited the east gate of the building. Textile City was shrouded in heavy clouds. The trees by the lakeside rustled in the wind.

Yi Shu worried about the next day’s weather. She checked her phone: showers were forecast. Exiting the weather app, she accidentally opened the dialer. Xu Shixi’s number topped her call log.

Earlier that afternoon, Xu Shixi had called to ask if she’d managed to get leave. It was clear he cared deeply about this. When he heard she hadn’t succeeded, he simply said it was fine and hung up.

After getting off near Fuyuan, Yi Shu headed to a nearby resettlement community. Last time she’d passed by, she’d noticed some fruit and vegetable stalls at the gate. Much more convenient than going all the way to the supermarket in the trade city.

The vendor, seeing her unfamiliar face, tried to overcharge her. But Yi Shu was no novice at bargaining. Since childhood, she had been the one buying all the groceries and household necessities. She’d honed her haggling skills over the years. To her, saving even a few cents, accumulated over time, was no small sum. Her family couldn’t afford waste.

In the end, she spent less than twenty yuan on two bags of vegetables and a small piece of pork belly. She planned to make a dish she hadn’t cooked in ages: dried pickled greens with pork. She still had some of the preserved vegetables Yan Lu’s mother had given her last time. Every year, Yan’s mother would dry some herself. When she was little, Yi Shu’s own mother would grow mustard greens and prepare them by hand. Most neighbors made their own preserved vegetables and dried bamboo shoots, but such things were rare now. The packaged kind sold in supermarkets never tasted quite right.

As Yi Shu approached the elevator, she happened to see Xu Shixi coming up from the basement. Tang Dai was with him. Yi Shu smiled at him, said nothing, and turned away to stand in front of them.

Tang Dai deliberately struck up conversation, “Shixi, don’t be late tomorrow. We’re meeting at eight at Yuncheng North Station.”

Yi Shu watched Tang Dai’s affected manner reflected in the elevator’s metal doors, choosing to remain silent and let her perform her solo act.

After a brief acknowledgment, Xu Shixi ignored whatever Tang Dai said next.

Perhaps Tang Dai herself didn’t realize that she was, step by step, rewriting her image in Xu Shixi’s eyes.