Late at night, Ao Chen had just finished composing a piece of music, lit a cigarette for himself, and leaned against the sofa in front of the floor-to-ceiling window to smoke. The ashtray next to him was full of cigarette butts, one pressed against the other, densely packed.
Recently, his composition work had led to some insomnia. Although insomnia was normal for him, it had become increasingly severe of late.
He didn’t know whether it was because this song was closely related to Huo Qi, causing his mind to wander and leaving him with no focus at all.
He kept writing, then zoning out, with extremely low efficiency.
He had no desire to continue writing at all. The more decisively they had broken up in the past, the more he now regretted it.
Ao Chen rubbed his hair in irritation, put out the cigarette in his hand, took out his phone to look for Huo Qi’s number, but couldn’t find it among his contacts.
He paused, tried social media, and still couldn’t find it.
He clearly remembered that he had never deleted Huo Qi’s contact details, which meant there was only one possibility: Huo Qi had deleted him.
The corners of his mouth twitched slightly. It was outrageous. After their amicable agreement to part ways, Huo Qi had cleaned the slate so thoroughly that it was he who now seemed like a nagging mother.
He stared at his own reflection in the window, "Ao Chen, Ao Chen, you too have seen this day? Tell me, after all the affection and the nights together, you were so nonchalant about breaking up, and now here you are mourning like a poet in autumn. Does she even remember you? She probably couldn’t get far enough away from you."
Even though he was aware of it all, the more he thought about it, the angrier he became.
Ao Chen felt that if he didn’t contact Huo Qi to vent a bit, his composition might take three years and still not be completed.
After sighing for a while, he found some comfort and fumbled for his phone, reaching out to a friend—someone who was a mutual friend of both him and Huo Qi.
When Davis received the call from Ao Chen, he was a bit surprised, "Didn’t you go back to China? Isn’t it the middle of the night over there? Don’t you need to sleep?"
Ao Chen sighed and got straight to the point, "Do you have Huo Qi’s phone number? Give it to me."
The friend was astonished, "What kind of joke is this? You two made such a scene back in the day. What do you take me for? Huo Qi told me not to give you his number. He said he knew you were up to no good and wanting to rekindle old flames."
Ao Chen: "...When did he tell you that?"
The friend thought for a moment and answered, "It was a week after you guys broke up. He said your taste really was just so-so, liking to rekindle with exes, too shameless. We didn’t notice that before, but after he mentioned it, we realized that you always liked getting back with your exes, a blatant playboy."
Ao Chen: "...Am I looking for humiliation by contacting you in the middle of the night?"
"Not at all, but I just wanted to ask, Mr. Big Composer Ao, can you not let go of Huo Qi? Since you clearly can’t bear to part, why didn’t you consider it more when you broke up? Huo Qi really liked you. You haven’t seen how he was in the first three days after you guys split. Weren’t you even colder?"
Ao Chen, "So it’s all my fault now, among all our friends?"
"Actually, you can’t blame everyone for thinking this way. When you were with Huo Qi initially, we all thought you two would definitely make it to the end. No one expected you to suddenly break up and just give up. Don’t you think you were actually very good and passionate towards Huo Qi at that time? Could it be you were afraid you’d fall too deep and end up getting hurt, so you decided to cut losses in time? You knew you’d regret it, but you still did it; you’re a coward."
Ao Chen wanted to hang up. His friend’s words cut into him like a knife, scraping him clean, making everything crystal clear.
He still couldn’t cheer up. After a while, Ao Chen said calmly, "Since you won’t tell me, let’s just hang up then."
Davis, "Ao Chen, it’s not just me who won’t tell you. Ask all these friends we have in common, who would tell you, eh? Everyone is your friend, but also Huo Qi’s friend. Huo Qi is much younger than you; you didn’t cherish him, and in the end, you dumped him without even explaining why. Huo Qi getting back to good terms with you would just be masochistic, don’t you think?
If you’re serious this time, I think you’ll have to endure a lot. But if it’s just the same mindset as before, better not to disturb Huo Qi. I think it’s not easy for Huo Qi to move on. His view of love is different from yours, and what you’re doing is a bit too much."