The colorful photographs fell like snowflakes, scattering on the teak floor boards in the living room in stark contrast. Little Temptress stood beside Gu Nianzhi, still fuming, as she knelt down to pick up a few photos, but she suddenly burst into laughter. The classmates who were eagerly spectacting rushed over as well and grabbed the photos. Jiang Hongcha and Mei Xiwen’s jaws dropped, neither of them unable to process what was happening.
Gu Nianzhi pointed at the photos their classmates were now howling with laughter over and gave Mei Xiawen a bitter smile. “Mei Xiawen, because you chose your first love, she came all the way to the States to show me your nudes. Would you please tell me what kind of joke this is? I don’t understand and of it—you city people and your games.”
Mei Xiawen finally came to his senses, his fair face flushing and contorting with embarrassment. He screamed at the classmates, “What are you looking at?! Give them to me!”
“Class Rep, what are you so upset for? Can’t we check out your beau’s lovely body?” Little Temptress giggled as she passed a photo to Mei Xiawen and continued to say, “Class Rep, you look slim in your neat attire, but you have actually been hiding such a body underneath! Look at that little belly, maybe it’s time you hit the gym?”
Mei Xiawen snatched the photos away and glared at Gu Nianzhi. “How did you get ahold of these?”
“Me?” Gu Nianzhi shrugged. “Ask your woman; she’s the one who gave them to me.”
“I didn’t!” Jiang Hongcha cried with indignation. “I only spoke to you and had a coffee. When did I ever show you these photos?!”
“Oh, so you did go to the States to find Nianzhi?” Green Tea Fang rolled her eyes when she understood the story and turned to Mei Xiawen. “Class Rep, how indecent of you. You’re setting Nianzhi up just because she rejected you, right?”
Mei Xiawen’s face paled, then flushed again; he refused to admit anything. However, he was speechless in front of all his classmates. These people all knew that he had ardently pursued Gu Nianzhi during school, but that she had never accepted him. He could’ve lied about the six months promise they’d made after graduation, but this precious window of opportunity had been destroyed by this b*tch, Jiang Hongcha. He turned, enraged, and shouted at Jiang Hongcha, “When did you go there? Why didn’t I know about it?!”
“Wow, it looks like your girl has east-west breasts. Look at how they turn away to the sides!” A few guys started laughing and making fun of Jiang Hongcha.
“Give those back to me! Give them back! Don’t look!” Jiang Hongcha was mortified; she wanted to a dig a hole. She saw Gu Nianzhi’s smug face and recalled her conversation from before. “You people can’t look at my photos!” She pointed to Gu Nianzhi. “I’m going to sue you! You’ve violated my privacy!”
“Sue me?” Gu Nianzhi pointed a beautifully painted fingernail to her chest. “Are you sure about that? Don’t you know what I major in?”
Jiang Hongcha retreated a few steps as she warned her, “So what? These are my personal photos and you’ve circulated them. That’s violating my privacy!”
Mei Xiawen scowled at the people passing the photos around. Although everyone was unwilling to give them back, they still begrudgingly collected all of them to set on the coffee table. Mei Xiawen grabbed them as his eyes shot daggers and turned to once more glower at Jiang Hongcha. He suddenly raised his hand and slapped her hard on the face.
Jiang Hongcha’s head violently swung back and she fell to the ground. She covered her face and sobbed. “What did you hit me for?! She is the one who’s violated our privacy!”
“I have violated your privacy?” Gu Nianzhi chuckled and shook her head, “Miss Jiang, may I ask if you were the one who took these photos?” Jiang Hongcha hid her face with her hands and was suddenly quiet. “It doesn’t matter if you keep quiet; your phone or cloud drive would have backup copies, I’m sure, so we’ll know as soon as we check. Even if you delete them, a technician can always recover them,” Gu Nianzhi said nonchalantly.
“So what if I took them? That’s still between me and Xiawen!” Jiang Hongcha removed her hands to indignantly glare at Gu Nianzhi. “Can you prove that I’m not wrong?”
“Miss Jiang, did you not visit the States and specifically seek me out in order to ask me to stay away from Mei Xiawen? And did you not also say that you two had gotten back together since long before?” Gu Nianzhi flung the questions at her.
Jiang Hongcha nodded dumbly, “So what? That still doesn’t prove—”
“Can’t prove what? You were the one who took the photos and you personally came to the States to show them off to me. May I ask what reason I would have, therefore, to violate the “privacy” that you had already boldly revealed to me?” Gu Nianzhi laughed mirthlessly and pointed at the photos in Mei Xiawen’s hand. “It’s just like posted nudes on a porn forum; are you going to lock up every person who has seen them then?”
Jiang Hongcha was furious, but knew that she couldn’t out maneuver Gu Nianzhi, even though she was setting her up. Gu Nianzhi wasn’t afraid to use the photos; she had certainly thought of all the consequences, including any legal liability.
“Well, we’ll conclude today’s business here. In the past and in the present , I had never exceeded, nor will I ever exceed, the realm of friendship with Mei Xiawen. As of today, however, that friendship ends.” Gu Nianzhi tightened her scarf around her neck and buttoned up her coat. She looked around at everyone in the room. “Take care, everyone. If there’s any event that Mei Xiawen will be attending, don’t invite me. And at any event with me involved, please don’t think to invite Mei Xiawen. Thank you and goodbye.” Gu Nianzhi turned to leave, the sound of her heels tapping on the floorboards and reverberating in everyone’s hearts.
With her departure, she had made it clear that she was really breaking up with Mei Xiawen completely. Her roommates, Green Tea Fang, Little Temptress, and Lady Cao immediately followed her and walked out. “Mei Xiawen, we’re leaving with Nianzhi. Where there’s you, there’s no us.” They picked up their bags and phones to chase after Gu Nianzhi.
The rest of the party members looked uncomfortable; they weren’t keen on staying. Mei Xiawen had humiliated himself, and though these people came from high status families, he wasn’t in the mood to interact with them. Everyone soon left in a hurry.
Green Tea Fang, Little Temptress, and Lady Cao had ran after her, but Gu Nianzhi was already entering the elevator. They rushed to the other elevator and pressed at the button for the first floor. Once they stepped out, they saw that the sky was already dark and the street lamps were on. Far into the distance, Gu Nianzhi’s lone figure was towing her cherry blossom pink suitcase. They called after her and ran to follow after she rounded the street corner, but by the time they had reached the same spot, Gu Nianzhi was nowhere to be found. They followed in the same direction to the pedestrian exit of the complex, until they reached the security booth. Green Tea Fang stepped forward and knocked on the window. A young man in uniform opened the door, his surprise at seeing the three young women huddled out in the winter’s night evident. Little Temptress asked, “Did you see a tall and pretty girl walk through here, rolling a pink suitcase?”
The security guard had a strong impression of Gu Nianzhi and quickly said, “I saw her! She went that way.” He pointed to down the road and then informed them, “She was the woman who waited here for over two hours before going in. Has she left already? Weren’t you guys having a party?” He knew that when the rich folks threw their parties, they often went on until morning; he often had to go considerable extents to quiet them down since the bawdy revelry sometimes disturbed the neighbors and caused commotions.
Green Tea Fang exhaled sharply. “What? You said that girl waited out here for over two hours before coming in?” The girls were stunned. This meant that Gu Nianzhi had already been here for quite some time.
“Yes, she arrived at 2:30, and I’d called the homeowner in Room 138 of Building 5, but no one picked up until after 5:00. He’d called back then and asked if his guest was here yet.” The security guard was confused. “What’s happened?”
Little Temptress and Lady Cao understood then, snorting at the same time.
“Mei Xiawen is so cunning! No wonder he took our phones as soon as we got there and said that it was so we wouldn’t get distracted. He just hadn’t wanted Nianzhi to get through to us!” They looked at their phones and saw that Gu Nianzhi had called around 3 in the afternoon and had even left voicemails asking after their whereabouts and stating her arrival.
Everything matched up with the security guard’s words. Even if it had seemed before that they were siding for Gu Nianzhi unconditionally, they were able to justify themselves now. “That’s excessive! How could Mei Xiawen do something like that? He insulted her just because she rejected him.” Little Temptress spat in the direction of Mei Xiawen’s apartment and and continued her rant. “I must’ve been blind to think he was a good person and to have encouraged Nianzhi to accept him!”
“Forget about it, we didn’t know his true nature. We were just classmates before, but now we’ll just cut all ties with him from here on. These kinds of people are deplorable.” Lady Cao didn’t want to talk about Mei Xiawen anymore. She changed the subject. “Let’s go after Nianzhi, she’s just arrived here and doesn’t even know her way around the capital. Who knows where she could have gone?” The three girls began calling her number.
Gu Nianzhi had heard her roommates shouting after her, but she hadn’t wanted to speak to them at that moment. She was in a terrible mood and didn’t want to take it out on her friends—all she wanted was to hide alone somewhere far away and tend to her wounds. She walked quickly onto a small path with her suitcase rattling behind her. She switched off her phone as she wandered through the streets. The night grew darker and the temperature was dropping. The stores on the streets blared merry caroling tunes and Christmas trees lined the avenue she was on. Nearby, a man dressed as Santa laughed heartily, the sound mingling with the cheers of the children who were taking photos with him. Couples walked past her, many holding candied apples and sharing bites of the sweet treat. Gu Nianzhi ignored them; she had no idea where she was going. She walked past several bus stops until she saw one further ahead that could take her directly to the airport. She didn’t want to hail a cab or take a bus any time soon though; she just wanted to find a place to sit alone. Dragging her suitcase along, she walked another half an hour before arriving at the bus stop.
It was Christmas Eve, so very few people were wandering the streets; no one would be taking the bus to the airport in the middle of the night. Gu Nianzhi found it oddly comforting. She sat alone on the bus stop bench and stared blankly up at the sky. The streetlights were dim and the road was devoid of anyone else. The sound of Christmas music drifted from a few streets away. It echoed like a long forgotten memory in the night air. Gu Nianzhi sat like a statue, her lonely shadow absolutely still on the white pavement. After some time, snow flakes began to fall. Gu Nianzhi reached out her hand to catch one: it melted when it touched her palm. She looked up at the increasingly heavy snow and smiled softly. Soon afterwards, a church bell tolled the midnight hour. At the same time, her phone chimed and she looked down to see a flood of Christmas texts. She saw ones from Little Temptress, Lady Cao, Green Tea Fang, Brother Xiong, Brother Ze, her American classmates, including Allan, and even He Zhichu. However she saw that there was no word from the person she missed the most. Gu Nianzhi picked up her phone and began mass texting Christmas greetings.
…
Huo Shaoheng had just been released by General Ji earlier that afternoon. It had only meant to take two months to complete the mission, but General Ji had encountered another issue and was delayed by over a week. Huo Shaoheng took a red-eye flight to the C City base, and so was only made known once he had landed that Gu Nianzhi had transferred to the capital for a reunion party. Although something felt amiss, Huo Shaoheng was drowned in two months worth of work that had piled up in his absence. He worked for a full ten hours before taking his first break. Looking at his phone, he saw it was already past midnight. It’s already Christmas, huh? Huo Shaoheng realized with a start. He wondered if Nianzhi was spending the holiday with her friends. Big Xiong and Little Ze were busy with their own tasks, and had left after greeting Huo Shaoheng. Suddenly, Huo Shaoheng saw Gu Nianzhi’s Christmas greeting flash on his phone. He smiled as he dialed her number called her.
Gu Nianzhi was still starting at her phone and had been about to shut it off to preserve the battery when a special ringtone sounded in the early morning air of the Imperial capital. It’s Huo Shao! Hands trembling, Gu Nianzhi had been waiting to answer this one call. She had never thought that he would call today, but he actually had! Gu Nianzhi’s heart pounded as she answered the call and said, “Huo Shao? Is that you? Are you back?” Gu Nianzhi’s sweet voice traveled through the speaker and seemed to tickle Huo Shaoheng’s ear.
“Mhmm, I’m back.” Huo Shoaheng’s deep voice instantly swept away the fog in her heart and filled her with an aching, blooming warmth.
“Merry Christmas.” Huo Shaoheng murmured.
“Merry Christmas.” Gu Nianzhi was just barely suppressing herself from sobbing and looked up at the dancing snow. “Merry Christmas, Huo Shao,” she repeated happily.
“Call me Uncle.” Huo Shaoheng gently insisted. “It’s late, go to bed early.”
“Ok.” Gu Nianzhi replied softly, “I’ll sleep now.” She hung up after finishing her sentence and remained sitting alone at the bus stop. Huo Shaoheng was a little surprised that her mood hadn’t seemed as perky as was common for her. If she’d truly been alright, she would’ve chattered on instead of hanging up so quickly as she had.
Huo Shaoheng immediately called Zhao Liangze. “Nianzhi went to a reunion at the capital today, yes? Who is watching her over there?”
Zhao Liangze reported the person’s name and phone number, then asked, “What is it?”
Huo Shaoheng ignored him and connected to the person in question. Apart from not knowing what had happened inside Mei Xiawen’s apartment, he reported everything else. Huo Shaoheng realized that Gu Nianzhi had waited outside Mei Xiawen’s apartment complex for over two hours before she was let in, then left in less than half an hour and had walked out on the street, alone. She had been sitting in a remote bus stop for a few hours since.
Huo Shaoheng balled his hands into fists and then unclenched them, expression strained. He hesitated at his office desk before he used started up a program. This would directly connect to the Nandou system and view the real time situation of any location in the world. He entered the location from Gu Nianzhi’s cell signal, then mobilized the satellite’s real time tracking system. The Nandou system on the screen displayed the night view from the capital on the monitor. Huo Shaoheng clicked on the cursor to continuously enlarge the image. He saw the brilliant lights focusing on the streets, walkways, parks, when finally the bus stop began to appear on the screen. A lone figure sat on the bench and snow was drifting from the sky, filling the screen. Snow dusted the top of the person’s head, and they were looking down into their hands. At that moment, it felt like someone was squeezing Huo Shaoheng’s heart; Gu Nianzhi’s lonely silhouette was making his chest ache. Before he realized what he was doing, he had already dialed Yin Shixiong.
“Get me a plane, I’m flying to the capital right now.”
“Roger!” Yin Shixiong immediately coordinated with various personnel to not only obtain a plane but also arrange flight routes. Some time past midnight, a special military aircraft ascended into the the C City skies and soared towards the capital. In under an hour, the aircraft landed at the Imperial Capital International Airport. Half an hour later, a procession of military vehicles sped down the highway towards the 3rd Ring Road in the city.
…
Gu Nianzhi was frozen from head to toe but had no where she wanted to go. Where could someone like her possibly go anyway? She was someone without a past or future. In this vast world, where would an orphan girl like her find shelter? Suddenly, a string of shining headlights suddenly appeared from the other end of the street. She blocked her eyes with her arm, but was able to make out a grand procession headed her way. It’s so late. Why would a procession pass through here? Gu Nianzhi lowered her arm and realized that the first car had a military license plate! Her heart thumped faster, then nearly stopped: The car in the middle was luxurious and unbranded. It parked before her, and the car door opened as a tall figure stepped out before her. The m custom military uniform made him appear even more strapping, the golden pine branches and single gold star on his shoulder glittering in the night. Underneath the military cap was that handsome face that had given her many a sleepless, wishful night. He was staring right at her, his face not the serious mask she remembered it to be, but concerned and gentle. It’s uo Shao! Huo Shao has come to pick me up! The tears she had held back all day finally fell as she stood up on her cold, shaky legs and dashed towards Huo Shaoheng. He opened his arms and embraced her tightly. In the snowy night, the tall man stood still as he held the sobbing girl in his arms.