Su Ziceng treats her with the attitude of treating a completely normal person. Sister Mu is reluctant to leave "Admiration" largely because she doesn’t want to be treated as a disabled person. She doesn’t want everyone who sees her to have a pitying and compassionate attitude.
"This area has changed a lot." Su Ziceng heard Sister Mu’s sigh from behind, and they stopped. Without realizing, they had already reached the central park of Zone 5. The place they stopped at was under a billboard being constructed, with several construction workers assembling steel frames. Painters were mixing pigments beside them. A breeze from Sixth District blew away the smell of paint.
"The changes will be even greater in the future, Sister Mu, let’s leave the past behind," Su Ziceng noticed a blank, unpainted billboard. In a few years, countless high buildings will rise in Mo City, the roads will be filled with various cars, and the scent of the sea breeze will also be hard to detect.
Sister Mu bent her right leg and leaned on a nearby railing. The steel frame of the billboard had just been erected, imposingly beside the road. In the park, a pregnant woman walked past with the support of her husband.
Sister Mu pointed her finger at the happy couple, "I once had such happiness; a man who loved me, and a child about to be born, but all that is past, and yet I can’t move beyond it."
"I thought women like Wen Zimu had learned to birth away their sorrows," Su Ziceng had no chance to experience the taste of motherhood. During her ten years of marriage, in the earliest years, she was frail due to a kidnapping and by the time her health was restored, she then devoted herself to various cosmetic surgeries, and her body was no longer suitable for pregnancy.
"Birthing sorrow? That’s another new phrase, Ziceng, you bring more surprises to me than all others combined," Sister Mu deliberately ignored that forgotten name.
"Perhaps you prefer I call you New," Su Ziceng made a curtsy with a bent knee, but she was wearing a British-style coat, which made the gesture seem somewhat out of place.
"You know everything, you’re really clever," Sister Mu laughed, fine laugh lines appearing at the corners of her eyes, perhaps due to the sunshine or her smile, making the fragile-looking Sister Mu resemble the enchanting and superior Wen Zimu, "But still call me Sister Mu."
"In Paris, I met Miss Bao Qin, she asked me to say hello, that YSL lady," an old acquaintance’s greeting should evoke some emotions.
"People still remember me?" Although Sister Mu had long left the runway, she was well aware that the competition in the fashion world was fiercer than any other area, this year’s styles would not make through the next year, and a model from ten years ago should have already disappeared in the dust of memories.
"I also met a girl named Lin Ying. Because of you, she decided to pursue the runway," Su Ziceng decided that if there was a chance, she would definitely introduce Sister Mu and Lin Ying.
"Really? The outside world’s splendor no longer has anything to do with me," Sister Mu straightened up, the sun making her dizzy. It was time to go back, too many memories would sweep her into a vortex of memories, making it difficult to break free again.
Su Ziceng opened her mouth, wanting to say something more, but Sister Mu had wrapped a hard shell around her heart, making it difficult for outsiders to break through.
"Hello! Are you the one from Admiration?" A timid female voice and the sound of high heels stopping, a fashionably dressed female white collar blocked Sister Mu’s path.
The female white collar held a folder in her hands, looking like she was in a hurry to handle errands, her face still red from hurried breathing, and her eyes sparkling with surprise.
Who is she? Su Ziceng was recalling, unsure when she had visited "Admiration" as a female customer. Su Ziceng had only been a sales guide for two months, so her memory was a bit vague. Strangely, Sister Mu also appeared puzzled.
"Don’t you remember me? I am," the female white collar lifted her long hair, simply tied at the back, her chin under the sunlight casting a beautiful curve.
That woman from Sixth District who had been domestically abused. Su Ziceng and Sister Mu realized at the same time. That woman who left Sixth District wearing a gown, covering her scars with makeup in despair.
"That’s me," the female white collar laughed, her laughter sounding like a whiskered tit flying high in the winter sky.
"I divorced that man, and then found a secretarial job in a newly built office building in Fourth District. Now a man is pursuing me, and I’m going to get married next year," the female white collar seemed like she was meeting an old friend she hadn’t seen for years, sharing everything that happened around her, dispelling the earlier loneliness and despair, her world now far from the grayness.
"Congratulations," Sister Mu said softly, the female white collar bowed deeply, then firmly held Sister Mu’s hands, "Thank you, you changed my life."
Indeed, a person’s path can completely alter its trajectory because of someone they meet by chance.
The happiness of the female white collar was contagious to Sister Mu and Su Ziceng. Watching the female white collar reluctantly leaving, Sister Mu did not pull her gaze back for a long time, only after a while she said: "I should be thanking you."(To be continued. If you work, you are welcome to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote on the recommendation ticket and monthly ticket. Your support is my greatest motivation.)