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Reborn, I Dumped My Female CEO 29 Days Before Her Scheduled Breakup — Now She Begs Me Back

Some women don't break up with you, they schedule it. My female CEO girlfriend put our breakup in her calendar 100 days ahead, with 8 million ready so I would go quietly. In my first life, I died seven months after she used it.

I was reborn on day 71, with a pen in my hand and the contract that would destroy my father's tea empire waiting for my signature, so this time I refused to sign and ended it 29 days early. She said no. Then I saved our family with a frost nobody else saw coming, exposed the best friend who wrote both our tragedies, and finally learned what she whispered at my grave.

An original rebirth story from Rebirth No Regrets.

All stories are original works of fiction. Names, characters and events are fictional. Visuals are AI-assisted illustrations.

#rebornstory #rebirth #femaleceo

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Fun
Transcript
00:00Some women don't break up with you. They schedule it. My girlfriend put our breakup in her calendar
00:05100 days ahead, between a board meeting and a dental cleaning. Day 100. End it. Do not let
00:11him talk. Transfer 8 million so he goes quietly. In my first life, I found that entry on the day
00:17she used it. Seven months later, I died in a fire, guarding a building that used to belong to my
00:23father. Then I opened my eyes on day 71, with a pen in my hand, and 29 days still left
00:29on her
00:29clock. So I ended it first. And the coldest woman in the city looked straight at me, and said,
00:35No. My name is Jiang San. In my first life, I was the joke of every banquet in this city.
00:41You've seen men like the man I was. Silver hair styled up like a rooster. Silk shirts in leopard
00:47print. Open to the third button. A lime green sports car that announced me two streets before I arrived.
00:53My best friend, Ding Rui, picked every piece of it. Bold is how a Jiang man gets noticed,
00:59he used to say. Fixing my collar like a proud brother. I believed him for six years. My father
01:06built Jiang T from one cart on Lantern Canal into 40 tea houses and a mountain plantation called
01:11Cloud Ridge. He wanted a son who could taste the difference between a spring leaf and an autumn
01:16leaf. He got a son who could tell you which nightclub poured the coldest champagne. And I
01:21wanted exactly one thing. Ruan Wei. She was the president of Ruan Group, the beverage and retail
01:27empire, whose drinks sat in every convenience store fridge in the province. 29 years old.
01:32Black hair, white suits, eyes like the edge of a glass. She never raised her voice, because
01:38she never needed to. I chased her for two years. Flowers to her office every morning, which she
01:44handed to the cleaners. Gifts she returned unopened. Songs I posted with her name in the
01:49caption. Then one rainy night outside her tower. She finally turned around and gave me a deal.
01:55One hundred days, she said. If I feel nothing by day one hundred, you disappear from my life.
02:01Completely. I said yes before she finished the sentence. I thought one hundred days was a door.
02:07It was a fuse. On day 71, at the Ruan Group's spring banquet, Ding Rui pressed a folder into my
02:14hands right before my big moment. A packaging partnership between his family's company and
02:19hours. Your dad already agreed, he said. He just needs the vice president's signature.
02:25That's you now, brother. I signed it on top of a guitar case, half drunk, then walked on stage and
02:31sang her a love song in front of 300 guests. She left during the second verse. 300 phones followed
02:37her out the door, and then swung back to me. 29 days later, she called me into her office,
02:43turned her phone around, and let me read the calendar entry myself. Eight million landed in my
02:48account before I reached the elevator. I sent it back. Then I did everything a broken fool does.
02:53I waited outside her tower every night. I believed every rumor Ding Rui whispered to me.
03:00Especially the one about Tan Yi, the quiet scientist who ran her research lab. I wrote ugly posts about
03:06him online. Tan Yi sued me. And I deserved it. Then the folder came due. Page 11 of that packaging
03:12deal,
03:12made Jiang Ti, the guarantor of a bank loan, for a company called Silverleaf Trading.
03:18180 million yuan. Silverleaf defaulted in its first month. Exactly as it was built to.
03:24The bank came from my father. My father's heart gave out in a meeting room. Our tea houses were sold
03:30one by one. And Cloud Ridge went for the price of a parking lot. The buyer was Silverleaf's parent
03:35company, Ding Rui's family. By winter, my father lived in a care home called Pine Garden.
03:41And I worked nights as a security guard at our old roasting house on the canal.
03:45The same building where I learned to walk. New owner. 14 yuan an hour. One night. The old wiring
03:52in the drying room caught fire. Old Tian, our head roaster for 30 years, had been sleeping in the back
03:58because he had nowhere else to go. I dragged him out through the smoke. Then I went back in for
04:03the
04:03little brass scale my mother used to weigh every first harvest, because I was still a fool, even at the
04:09very end. The smoke found me before the flames did. I don't know how long a ghost is supposed to
04:14stay. Mine stayed long enough to watch. I watched Ding Rui step out of a black car at dawn, look
04:20at
04:20the sheet over my body, and turn to his assistant. Make sure the insurer lists the cause as the
04:25watchman's negligence, he said. He always was careless. I watched him cry at my funeral. Real tears.
04:32Beautiful speech. Then, in his car afterward, he laughed into his phone about the land deal.
04:38And I watched Ruan Wei. She stood at the very back, in black, without an umbrella. She didn't cry.
04:45She didn't speak to anyone. She was the only person who stayed until the last shovel of earth.
04:50And right before she walked away, her lips moved. The wind took whatever she said. I decided it was
04:56finally. The last thing I saw was my father in his wheelchair at Pine Garden. Holding my photo with
05:01both hands. Asking a nurse why his son was late for tea. Then the world went white. And then it
05:06was
05:06loud. Music. Glasses. Someone laughing too close to my ear. A pen in my hand. The tip already touching
05:14paper. Sign it. Brother, said Ding Rui. Your song is next. I looked down. The folder lay open on the
05:21guitar case. Exactly where it had been the first time. Same cream paper. Same blue ink. Pooling. At the
05:28tip of the pen. Same signature line. Waiting for me like a trapdoor. My hand was steady. That was the
05:34strange part. In my first life. It had been shaking from champagne, and nerves. Now it felt like the
05:40hand of a man, who had already burned once. Brother? Ding Rui tapped the folder. They're waiting for you
05:46on stage. I lifted the pen off the paper, and turned to page 11. Ding Rui's smile didn't move. But
05:53his
05:53fingers did. They slid onto the corner of the folder. Ready to close it. Rui, I said. Why does
05:59a packaging contract need my father's company to guarantee your loan? What loan? He laughed. That's
06:05standard language. The lawyers put that in everything. 180 million yuan of standard language. It's a
06:12formality. Sin. Silverleaf is our partner. Partners back each other. He leaned in. Warm and easy. The way
06:20leaned in a thousand times before. Since when do you read contracts? Since I died because of this
06:25one. I thought. I closed the folder, and handed it back. Since tonight, have your lawyers send it to
06:31my father's office on Monday. Without page 11. For half a second, his face showed me something I had
06:38never seen in six years of friendship. Not confusion. Calculation. Then the warmth came back on like a lamp.
06:45Sure. Sure. You're the boss. He tucked the folder under his arm. Now go. Song. Stage. You're goddess.
06:53I looked across the glass pavilion. 300 guests. A string quartet. A champagne tower. Catching the
07:00lights off the lake. And on the stage, my guitar on its stand. Under a spotlight Ding Rui had paid
07:06for.
07:06In my first life, I walked up there, and made the whole city laugh. This time, I walked past it.
07:13I found her on the terrace. Alone. With her back to the party. White suit. Black hair falling
07:19straight to the middle of her back. A thin gold watch on her wrist that she checked twice while
07:24I crossed the stone floor. She heard my shoes, and didn't turn around. If you're going to sing,
07:29Ruan Wei said, do it inside. The acoustics are better. And I'll be farther away. I'm not going to
07:35sing. That made her turn. She looked at my silver hair. My leopard shirt. The gold chain,
07:41Ding Rui, had clasped around my neck, an hour earlier. I watched her brace for whatever ridiculous
07:47thing I was about to do. I knew that look. I had earned that look. Ruan Wei, I said.
07:52Let's end it tonight. Silence. Inside, the quartet started a waltz.
07:57You don't have to wait 29 more days, I said. You don't have to keep sliding me around your calendar,
08:03like a dental appointment. And you can keep your 8 million. I don't need to be paid to go quietly.
08:07I'll go quietly for free. The glass in her hand stopped halfway to her lips. That was when I
08:14realized my mistake. The entry. The money. The exact words. In this life, nobody had shown me
08:20any of it. Not yet. Her eyes went very still. Who showed you my calendar? Nobody. Then how do you
08:27know about the money? I could have lied. I was a gifted liar in my first life. I lied to
08:32my father
08:32about where his money went. I lied to myself about what she felt. But. I was so tired of lying
08:38that I
08:39just shrugged. Lucky guess. She set the glass down on the stone railing. Very carefully. The way you
08:45put down something you're afraid of breaking. No. She said. No. What? No. We're not ending it
08:51tonight. She folded her arms. The agreement was 100 days. I don't end agreements early. And neither do
08:57you. I actually laughed. In my first life, I would have given a kidney to hear Ruan Wei refuse to
09:04let
09:04me go. Now it just sounded absurd. It was never an agreement. I said. It was pity. Then you can
09:10be
09:10pity for 29 more days. She picked up her clutch. Dinner tomorrow. 7. Do not be late. She walked past
09:17me into the light. And 300 heads turned to follow her. The way they always did. Nobody looked at me.
09:23For the first time in years. I didn't need them to. I left before dessert. Ding Rui caught up with
09:29me in
09:30the parking lot. A little out of breath. Still clutching the folder. Sin. What happened in there?
09:35Everyone was waiting for the song. I didn't feel like singing. He stared at me. Then he laughed and
09:40slapped my shoulder. You're drunk. Go home. Sleep it off. And we'll do the signing on Monday. I'll bring
09:46breakfast. I unlocked the lime green car. It chirped like a toy. Rui. I said. Who picked this
09:53color? You did. No. I said. You did. I drove away before he could answer. In the mirror. He stood
10:01under the parking lot lights for a long time. Folder pressed to his chest. Not smiling at all.
10:06At home. I didn't sleep. I sat on the floor of my walk and closet and counted. 41 leopard print
10:12shirts.
10:1319 gold chains. Not one thing I would have chosen for myself at 20. At 3 in the morning.
10:18My phone buzzed. A message from Ruan Wei. Day 72. 6.55 would be acceptable. At 7 in the morning.
10:26I sat in a barber's chair on T Street. The kind of shop with a cracked leather seat and a
10:31radio
10:31playing opera. Black. I said. Plain black. Like a man who works for a living. The barber. A woman in
10:38her 60s. Held up a lock of my silver hair like it was evidence at a trial. Young man. Who
10:44did this to
10:44you? A friend. Then get new friends. It took 2 hours and 3 rounds of dye. When she spun the
10:51chair
10:51around. A stranger looked back at me from the mirror. A man with clean black hair and tired eyes
10:57who looked a lot like my mother. I hadn't seen that face since I was 20. I paid her double.
11:03She tried to refuse. I told her it was the best advice I'd gotten in 7 years.
11:08Jiangti's head office was still where my father had put it 30 years ago. On the second floor of our
11:13very first tea house on Lantern Canal. Red lanterns along the eaves. Wooden stairs that
11:19creaked on the fourth step. The smell of roasted leaves soaked into every beam. In my first life.
11:25I came here twice a year. Both times to ask for money. My father's assistant nearly dropped a tray
11:31when I walked in. My father looked up from a stack of invoices. Took off his reading glasses.
11:37Put them back on. And took them off again. Sin? Morning dad. Your hair. I got tired of it.
11:43Jiang Dong was 58, with a gray crew cut, and the hands of a man who still picked tea himself
11:49every April. He'd raised me alone since my mother died. He'd forgiven me for everything.
11:54Mostly by pretending not to notice it. He noticed this. Did something happen with Ruan Wei?
11:59He asked carefully. Something's going to happen with Silverleaf Trading. I said,
12:04and sat down across from him. Dad? Did Ding Rui tell you I'd approve their packaging deal?
12:09He blinked. Rui said you'd looked it over, and liked it. He said you wanted to take responsibility
12:14for something. I thought it would be good for you. He stopped. A little embarrassed.
12:19Your first real signature. My chest tightened. In my first life, my father trusted my signature
12:25because he wanted so badly for me to deserve it. Read page 11. I said. Then tell me if you
12:32still want
12:32my first real signature on it. He found his copy in a drawer. I watched him read. I watched his
12:37face
12:38change at page 11. The way mine should have changed 7 months and 1 death ago. That's a guarantee.
12:44He said quietly. For their bank loan. 180 million. Rui never mentioned this. Rui mentions what he
12:52wants mentioned. I took the folder from him, and dropped it into the shredder bag beside his desk.
12:57Let's pause anything with Silverleaf. I'll explain more when I can prove it.
13:01My father looked at me for a long moment. Then he nodded, slowly. Like a man stepping onto ice that
13:08might hold. One more thing. I said. You're seeing a heart doctor this week. My heart is fine.
13:14Dad. For me. He grumbled about it all the way down the creaking stairs. But he made the appointment
13:19while I stood there. And that was enough. Before lunch, I walked to the roasting house at the far
13:25end of the canal. It was a long brick building, with a tin roof and 12 iron walks set into
13:30clay
13:31stoves. In my first life, it was the last place I ever saw. I stood in the doorway for a
13:36full minute
13:37before my feet would move. Old Tian was at the third walk, turning leaves with his bare hand.
13:4366 years old. White crew cut. Forearms like knotted rope. He taught me to roast when I was 9. I'd
13:50stopped visiting when I was 20. He glanced at my hair and went back to the walk. Lost a bet?
13:551-1. I think. Then make yourself useful. Bring me the trays. I brought him the trays. I brought him
14:02water. I stood beside him for 3 hours, while the leaves turned from bright green to dark jade.
14:07And I didn't say much, because the last time I'd seen this man, I was carrying him through smoke.
14:12When we finished, he wiped his hands on his apron and looked at me sideways.
14:17Your mother used to stand right there, he said. Same way. I had to step outside after that.
14:22At 6.55, I walked into the restaurant Ruan Wei had chosen. A quiet room on the 42nd floor of
14:29her own
14:30tower, where the waiters moved like they were afraid of making noise. She was already seated.
14:35She looked up. And stopped. It was a small thing. Most people would have missed it.
14:40Her fingers paused on the stem of her water glass. Her eyes went to my hair. Then my plain white
14:47shirt.
14:47Then my hands, which still smelled faintly of roasted leaves. For the first time since I'd known
14:53her, Ruan Wei looked at me like she had no idea what I would do next. You're on time, she
14:58said.
14:58You told me not to be late. I sat. When the waiter came, I ordered plain green tea,
15:03and whatever she recommended. I asked her about the new cold brew line her company was about to
15:08launch. I listened to the answer. I didn't take a single photo. I didn't compliment her once.
15:13At 8.30, I put down my napkin. You're leaving? She said. I promised to be on time, I said.
15:20I never promised to stay late. I'd spent two years trying to make Ruan Wei look at me.
15:25It turned out all I ever had to do was stand up and leave. The cold brew line was called
15:30Clear Spring.
15:31In my first life, it was the biggest disaster of her career. I remembered every detail,
15:37because I had read every article about it on the nights I was most jealous of Tanyi.
15:41Ruan Group bought its tea from Ding Supply. The company Ding Rui's family had run for 40 years.
15:47They promised a premium mountain green from contracted farms. Clear Spring launched in May.
15:52Within a week, the bottles on store shelves had turned cloudy. Within a month,
15:57a university lab found residue from a banned pesticide. The whole line was pulled. The board
16:03needed someone to blame, and the quiet scientist who designed the recipe was easier to blame than
16:08the president. Tanyi resigned in June. I celebrated with Ding Rui that night. That's the kind of man I
16:13was. Now, on day 74, I sat in my father's office and read the public Tinder Ruan Group had posted
16:21for
16:21Clear Springs Tea Supplier. Applications closed on day 79. Final selection by blind tasting.
16:27In my first life, Jiang tea never even applied. My father assumed Ruan Wei would never want anything
16:34with the Jiang name on it. After what I had done to her inbox, I filled out the application myself.
16:40Ding Rui showed up that afternoon, with two coffees and a grin.
16:44Look at you, he said, strolling into my father's office like it was his. Black hair. White shirt.
16:50You look like an accountant. Is this for her? Because, brother, I hate to break it to you.
16:56It isn't working. Her assistant posted a picture from your dinner, and there was only one dessert
17:01on the table. I ordered tea. He laughed, perched on the edge of the desk, and slid a coffee toward
17:07me.
17:08Then his eyes landed on my screen. Clear spring? The laugh got thinner. Sin, Ding Supply already
17:14has that contract. It's basically signed. Then you have nothing to worry about. I'm not worried.
17:20I'm looking out for you. He lowered his voice. Your dad's cash is tight. He needs the silver leaf deal.
17:26You walk into Ruan Group's lab with your dad's old leaves and loose, and every buyer in the province
17:31hears the Jiang air embarrassed himself again. Is that what you want? Six years. For six years,
17:37he'd spoken to me in exactly this voice, and I had mistaken it for love. Rui, I said. What does
17:43silver leaf actually do? He held my eyes. Packaging. Then why does it need a loan the size of a
17:48mountain?
17:49He stood and picked his coffee back up. You know what, brother? You're stressed. I'll come back
17:54when you're yourself again. When he left, I opened the coffee he'd brought me and poured it into my
17:59father's potted orange tree. It was petty. It felt fantastic. On day 76, the heart doctor called my
18:06father back in. I sat in the waiting room for two hours, staring at a fish tank, remembering a
18:12different hospital, a different doctor, and the words, too late. When my father finally came out,
18:18he looked annoyed, which was the best expression I had seen on him in two lifetimes.
18:23A narrowed artery. He grumbled. They want to put a little tube in next week. A stint. They say it's
18:29routine. It is routine. They also say if I'd waited a few more months, I'd have had a serious attack.
18:34He gave me a strange look. How did you know? I could have told him. I could have said,
18:39because you collapsed in a meeting room while bankers took our name off the door.
18:43Instead, I put my arm around his shoulders, the way I hadn't since I was a boy.
18:48You go gray around the mouth when you climb stairs, I said. I noticed. He didn't speak for a while.
18:54Then he patted my hand twice. Hard. The way he used to when I skinned my knee.
18:58That evening, a black car parked at the end of Lantern Canal. I was at the fourth walk in the
19:04roasting house. Sleeves rolled. Sweat in my eyes. When old Tian elbowed me without looking up.
19:10Your girl's here. She's not my girl. She's my sentence. Ruan Wei stepped through the doorway
19:16in her white suit. Like a swan that had wandered into a coal mine. Every roaster in the building
19:21stopped moving. She looked at the walks, the fire, the leaves, and finally at me.
19:27Day 76, she said. I'm exercising my rights. Your rights? You're my boyfriend for 24 more days.
19:33I'm allowed to visit. She looked around for somewhere to sit that wouldn't ruin her suit.
19:38There was nowhere. She stayed standing. Why are you here? Because I work here. Since when?
19:44Since I stopped being an idiot. Old Tian made a sound that might have been a laugh.
19:48She watched me for almost an hour. She didn't check her watch once. I know. Because I checked
19:54it for her. When the batch was done, I poured a cup from the first roast of the day and
19:59set it on
19:59the brick ledge beside her. It's bitter at first, I said. Drink it slowly. She stared at the cup for
20:05a
20:05long time before she picked it up. Her hand wasn't quite steady. She drank it all. Then she set the
20:11empty cup down, turned, and walked out without a word. Old Tian watched her go. That one doesn't
20:17visit roasting houses, he said. She's exercising her rights. Hmm. He flipped the leaves. Then why
20:23did she look like she'd seen a ghost? Two days later, Ruan Group announced the finalists for
20:28Clear Spring, Ding Supply, and Jiang Tea. The tasting was held on day 80, in the Ruan Group
20:34Research Lab, on the 30th floor. White benches. White walls. Rows of porcelain cups with nothing on
20:40them but numbers, so nobody could tell whose tea was whose. Tan Ye ran it. In person, he was nothing
20:47like the villain I had invented on my worst nights. Round glasses, a gray sweater under his lab coat,
20:53the careful hands of a man who measured things for a living. He shook my hand without the slightest
20:57idea that, in another life, I had tried to ruin his. Ruan Wei sat at the far end of the
21:03bench with a
21:04notebook she never opened. Ding Rui arrived last, in a navy suit that cost more than my father's car,
21:10carrying two lacquered tins. He set them down and leaned toward me. Relax, brother. When this is over,
21:17I'll still buy you dinner. Losers eat free. The first round was hot. Three tasters, two samples,
21:24ten minutes. They smelled, slurped, spat, and wrote. When Tan Ye read the scores, Ding Supply led by a
21:31single point. The tasters loved its fragrance. Bright, sweet, almost floral. Ding Rui spread his
21:39hands like a magician who had just pulled a rabbit out of nothing. Honestly, I'm impressed Sen made it
21:44this far. Two years ago, he thought oolong was a dog breed. A couple of the assistants laughed.
21:51Ruan Wei didn't. Clear spring isn't served hot. I said. Everyone looked at me. It's a cold brew.
21:57It sits in a bottle on a convenience store shelf for 90 days, under bright lights, next to the energy
22:03drinks. Nobody in this city will ever drink it the way we just did. I turned to Tan Ye. So,
22:09test it the
22:09way your customers will. Brew both samples cold, seal them in your real bottles, and leave them under the
22:15shelf lights overnight. Then taste. Ding Rui laughed. That isn't how professional tastings work.
22:21No, Tan Ye said slowly. But it's how products fail. He pushed his glasses up his nose.
22:26He's right. We should have designed the test that way from the start. Ding Rui turned to the end of
22:32the bench. Miss Ruan. This is a stunt. Ruan Wei finally opened her notebook. She wrote one line,
22:39closed it again, and said, Do it. At 8 the next morning, we were all back in the lab.
22:45Tan Ye didn't say anything. He just carried the bottles to the window and held them up,
22:50one in each hand, against the morning sun. Jiang Ti's bottle was pale gold and clear enough to read
22:56through. Ding Supply's bottle looked like dishwater. A gray haze hung through the whole thing,
23:01and a fine brown ring had settled at the bottom like silt in a ditch. The room went quiet. Fine
23:07leaf dust, Tan Ye said. And something sprayed on the leaves to brighten their color. It looks lovely in
23:13a dry tin. It breaks down in cold water. Within hours, he set the cloudy bottle on the bench, very
23:19gently,
23:20the way you'd lay down a confession. I'll be sending Ding Supply's sample out for a full residue
23:25screen. That's standard procedure from now on. Ding Rui's face didn't change. His ears did.
23:31They went red at the tips, the way they had every time he lost at cards in university.
23:36Ruan Wei signed with Jiang Ti before noon. Exclusive supply for Clear Spring, with an advance of 12 million
23:43yuan on signing. That same hour, I moved our tin printing away from Ding Supply, which had printed
23:48every Jiang Ti tin for 20 years. I gave the new printer my mother's original sketch of our logo,
23:54a tea branch over three mountain peaks, and asked them to copy it exactly. 13 leaves, the way she drew
24:01it. The old plates had only ever printed 12. In the elevator lobby, Ding Rui caught my sleeve.
24:07You got lucky, he said quietly. That's my second lucky guess this month, I said. I'm on a streak.
24:13He let go of my sleeve. For the first time since we were 18, he didn't call me brother.
24:19That afternoon, I spent almost the entire advance. 9,000 rolls of white frost cloth.
24:2540 kilometers of sprinkler line. Every idle flatbed truck in the county, hired for the first two weeks
24:32of April. I had them all delivered to Cloud Ridge, where our tea bushes were just pushing out their
24:37first pale buds. My father stood at the edge of the plantation, with his reading glasses pushed up on
24:43his head, watching the trucks unload. Sin, he said, the weather bureau says this is the warmest spring
24:49in 10 years. The weather bureau is going to be very embarrassed. Do you know something I don't?
24:54I knew the night of April 9th. I knew the temperature on this ridge would fall to minus 4 just
25:00after 2 in
25:01the morning. I knew every plantation in the province would lose its spring harvest by sunrise, including
25:06ours, in my first life. I knew my father would stand in these rows afterward, touching blackened buds,
25:12and saying nothing for an hour. Dad, I said, trust me one more time. He looked at the white rolls
25:19stacked under the bright spring sun. Then he laughed, short and tired. I trusted you to waste
25:25my money for 10 years, he said. I suppose I can trust you to spend it. By the weekend,
25:30Ding Rui had found a new nickname for me. The Frost Cloth Fool. Somebody posted photos of my trucks
25:37unloading white rolls in perfect sunshine. And half the people I used to drink with shared them with
25:42crying laughter faces. A few of my father's old friends called him, very politely, to ask whether
25:47I was feeling well. On Sunday night, Tan E invited me for beers at a street stall behind the Ruan
25:53group
25:54tower. He was easy company. He talked about water temperature and leaf grades like other men talked
26:00about football. Halfway through the second bottle, he pulled out his phone and showed me a photo of a
26:05woman laughing at a piano. My fiancé, he said. She teaches music at a primary school. We're getting
26:11married in October. I stared at the photo for longer than I meant to. Funny thing, he went on,
26:18rubbing the back of his neck. Someone keeps sending gossip accounts pictures of me and Miss Ruan in the
26:23same elevator. Like it's a scandal. We work in the same building. I take the stairs now, just to stay
26:29out
26:29of the rumors. I knew exactly who had been sending those pictures. In my first life, he had sent them
26:35to me first. Tan Yi, I said. I owe you an apology, you'll never understand. He blinked behind his
26:41glasses. Then he lifted his bottle. Then I'll accept one I'll never understand. We clinked, above us.
26:48The lights of the Ruan group tower went dark, floor by floor, except one, near the top. My phone buzzed.
26:55Day 85. I'm coming to Cloud Ridge tomorrow. Writes. She came to Cloud Ridge, in sneakers.
27:02In two years, I had never seen Ruan Wei, in anything but heels. Now, she climbed out of her
27:08car in white canvas shoes, a plain shirt, and her hair tied back with a black band. Like she was
27:14trying very hard to look like someone who belonged on a mountain. She walked the rows without asking
27:19permission. She touched the new buds with one fingertip. The way people touch something in a museum
27:24when the guard isn't looking. Then, she found the work shed, and the whiteboard inside it.
27:29April 9th. Two in the morning. Minus four. Circled three times in red. Why April 9th? She asked.
27:36Lucky guess. You have a lot of those. She turned to look at the white rolls stacked under the eaves.
27:42If you're wrong, you've buried 12 million of my money in a hillside. Your money's already in the bushes.
27:47It's very happy there. She almost smiled. I watched her catch it and put it away.
27:53How many people do you need that night? Every pair of hands I can find. She took out her phone
27:58and typed something. 20 from my Eastgate warehouse. They'll be here on the 8th, with their own boots.
28:04She slid the phone back into her pocket before I could thank her. Day 86. I've exercised my rights.
28:11You can go back to your bushes. At 9 that night, she sent me another message.
28:15March. Roof. Ruan Group Tower. 10. The wind was strong up there.
28:20The whole city spread out below us like a circuit board, and she stood at the railing with her phone
28:25in her hand, and her jacket pulled tight. She didn't say hello. She just held the screen out to me.
28:31It was a screenshot of a group chat from two years ago. My old friends. Ding Rui had written.
28:37I bet you can't land the Ice Queen in a year. My watch against your car. And under it.
28:41My own name. My own words. She'll be mine within a year. Keep the watch polished. Below the screenshot.
28:48A message from an unknown number. He never loved you. You were a bet. I read it twice.
28:54My face went hot. The way it does, when you see your worst self from the outside.
28:58I wrote that. I said. I was drunk. Rui dared me. And I would have said yes to anything if
29:05it meant
29:05people laughed with me, instead of at me. I'm not gonna tell you it's fake. I know it's real.
29:10She took the phone back. I've known what you were for two years. That isn't why I said yes to
29:15you.
29:15Then why? She looked out at the city, for a long time. When she spoke again, her voice was different.
29:21Lower. Like she was reading something she had memorized, and never said out loud.
29:26Eight years ago, my father died. His funeral was at the East Hill Memorial Hall. The creditors came.
29:33Men in good suits. Waiting in the courtyard to talk about his debts while he was still lying inside.
29:38I was 21. I went out the back door, and sat on the steps because I couldn't breathe.
29:43The wind pulled a strand of hair across her face. She didn't move it. A boy sat down beside me.
29:49He didn't ask my name. He had a thermos and two paper cups. He poured me some tea. And it
29:54was so
29:55bitter, I almost spat it out. And he said, bitter first, sweet later. That's how good tea works.
30:01That's how everything works. The roof seemed to tilt under my feet. East Hill. Eight years ago.
30:08The same week my mother died. I was 20. And I'd escaped from a hall full of relatives who kept
30:13telling me to be strong. I found a girl in black on the back steps, shaking. And I poured her
30:18the
30:19last of my mother's tea from the thermos my mother had packed for me that morning. I said my mother's
30:24words because they were the only words I had left. I never knew her name. I never saw her again.
30:29Or I thought I hadn't. A year later, I found out who that boy was, Ruan Wei said. The Jiang
30:35Air.
30:35I went to find him. He was standing on the roof of a lime green car in a nightclub parking
30:41lot,
30:41pouring champagne over his own head while his friends filmed it. She laughed once, without any
30:46humor. So I left. And when you started chasing me, I said yes to 100 days because I wanted to
30:52know if
30:53that boy was still in there somewhere. By day 90, I had decided he wasn't. She turned to face me.
30:59Then, on day 71, a man with silver hair walked onto my terrace and told me I didn't have to
31:05wait.
31:05And on day 76, he poured me a cup and told me it was bitter at first. I couldn't speak,
31:11because I was standing in a cemetery again. In the rain, in my first life, watching the only person
31:17who stayed until the last shovel of earth. Watching her lips move right before she walked away.
31:23The wind hadn't taken her words. It had only held them for me, until I was ready to hear them.
31:29Bitter first, sweet later. She hadn't said finally. She had said goodbye to that boy,
31:34in his own mother's words, over his grave.
31:37Who are you? Jiang Sin? She asked quietly. How do you know my calendar? My money? A frost that no
31:44weather bureau can see? If I told you, I said, you'd book me a doctor. Try me. Not tonight.
31:50She studied my face for a long moment. Then she looked down at the phone in her hand.
31:55This arrived an hour ago, she said, from a number I don't recognize. Who would want me to see this
32:01now?
32:01The same person who's been sending gossip accounts pictures of you and Tan Yee in an elevator.
32:06I watched her understand. It moved across her face like a cloud shadow over a field.
32:12And I understood something too. In my first life, she must have received this same screenshot,
32:17around day 98. Right before she wrote, do not let him talk. My first life wasn't one tragedy.
32:24It was a play, and Ding Rui had written both our parts. She stepped closer. Close enough that I
32:29could smell the cold on her jacket. 14 days left, she said. I know. Then stop being so polite to
32:36me.
32:36I can't, I said. Not yet. The last man who loved you didn't know when to let go.
32:41I need to know I'm choosing you. Not repeating him. She nodded slowly, like it hurt, and like
32:47she respected it anyway. And on April 9th, at 2 in the morning, the sky made the next choice for
32:53both of us. On April 8th, the sky over Cloud Ridge was perfectly, beautifully clear. That was
32:59the danger. No clouds meant no blanket. Whatever warmth the mountain had soaked up during the day
33:04would pour straight back into space the moment the sun went down. The trucks came up the switchback
33:09road at 4 in the afternoon. 20 workers from the Rouen Group warehouse climbed out in rubber boots,
33:15exactly as promised, followed by every roaster from the canal. Old Tian in front, complaining
33:20about his knees. My father came too. His stand had gone in on day 82, and the doctor had told
33:26him to
33:27rest. He told the doctor that resting was for people without a plantation. I put him in the work shed
33:32with a thermos, a blanket, and a thermometer, and made him promise not to touch a single roll of cloth.
33:38At 10 at night, it was plus 6. At midnight, it was plus 2. The workers' breath started to show,
33:45in the floodlights. Now, I said, we unrolled the frost cloth row by row. Two people on each side,
33:53stretching it over the bushes like bedsheets over sleeping children and pinning the edges down
33:57with stones. Then we opened the sprinkler lines. Old Tian had explained it to the warehouse crew,
34:03in his own way. When water freezes on a leaf, it gives off a little warmth. Not much. Just enough
34:09to
34:09keep a bud alive until morning. So we keep them wet, and we keep them covered, and we don't stop
34:14until the sun comes up. At 11, a car I knew pulled into the gravel lot. Rouen Wei got out
34:20in rubber
34:20boots, and a borrowed Zhang Tea work jacket, two sizes too big, with the sleeves rolled four times.
34:26Her assistant, Gia, climbed out behind her, holding a flashlight and a face full of regret.
34:32Miss Rouen, Gia was saying, you have a board meeting at 9. Then I'll be at the board meeting
34:37at 9. Rouen Wei pulled on a pair of work gloves and walked straight into the rows.
34:42Where do you need me? I could have sent her to the shed. I sent her to the east slope,
34:46the steepest one, because that's where I was going. We worked side by side for three hours,
34:51without saying much. Her hair came loose. Mud crept up her boots to her knees.
34:56At one point, she slipped on the wet slope, and I caught her by the elbow before she went down.
35:01For a second, she held onto my arm a little longer than she needed to.
35:05Don't, I said. I'm not doing anything. You're holding on. She let go. Then she bent down,
35:12grabbed the next stone, and pinned her corner of the cloth so hard the bush underneath probably felt it.
35:17At 2 in the morning, my father stepped out of the shed with the thermometer in his hand.
35:21Minus 4, he said. He didn't say it loudly. He didn't need to. Every head on the ridge turned
35:27toward him. And then, one by one, toward me. Nobody spoke. The sprinklers hissed. Ice was already
35:34forming on the cloth. A thin glittering crust under the floodlights. Keep going, I said. Don't stop
35:41until sunrise. Nobody stopped. Dawn came slowly. Pink at first, then gold. And as the light reached
35:48across the valley, it showed us, everything. Every slope around us was white. The plantation
35:54across the river. The government test fields below the road. The big commercial farms on the eastern
35:59hills, where Ding Supply bought its leaves. All of it sparkled in the sunrise like a sugar cake.
36:05And every single bud under that sparkle was already dead. Then we pulled back the first sheet of
36:10cloth on Cloud Ridge. The buds underneath were wet and shining and green. Alive. Row after row after
36:16row of them. Someone in the warehouse crew started clapping. Then, everyone was clapping and laughing
36:22and hugging strangers in mud-splatter jackets. Old Tian sat down right in the dirt and covered his face
36:28with his hat. My father walked into the nearest row, touched a bud with one finger, and started to cry
36:34and laugh at the same time. The way he had on the day I was born. According to my mother,
36:40your mother would have smacked you for scaring us like this. Old Tian said from under his hat. And
36:44then she'd have made everyone breakfast. I walked up to the top of the ridge, where nobody could see
36:49my face. She followed me. We stood there in the new light. Both of us filthy. Both of us shaking
36:55from
36:56the cold now that we'd finally stopped moving. Below us, the valley glittered like a graveyard
37:01made of glass. Her phone buzzed in her jacket pocket. She didn't have to take it out. I knew
37:06what it was. An alarm, set 100 days ago, between a board meeting and a dental cleaning. She took it
37:13out anyway. She looked at the screen for a long time. Day 100, I said. I know what day it
37:19is.
37:20Then you know what it says. I kept my eyes on the valley. The agreement is finished.
37:24Ruan Wei. We're done. No. You don't get to refuse an ending. Watch me. I finally looked at her.
37:31Her eyes were red. From the cold, or something else. Her chin was up. She looked exactly like
37:38the girl on the back steps at East Hill, holding a paper cup with both hands, refusing to fall apart
37:43in front of a stranger. Your calendar told you not to let me talk. I said gently. So I won't.
37:48Jiang Sin, if I stay today, I'm still the man who couldn't let go. And you're still the woman
37:54who's counting days. I zipped up my jacket. Ask me again when you've stopped counting.
37:58I walked down the slope. Behind me, her voice cracked across the whole mountain. I refuse.
38:04Do you hear me? I refuse. Every worker on Cloud Ridge heard her. The president of Ruan Group,
38:11mud to the knees, shouting at a man's back. I kept walking. It was the hardest thing I had done
38:16in
38:16two lives. By noon on day 100, the frost was the only story in the province. Every spring harvest
38:23from the river to the eastern hills was gone. The weather bureau issued an apology. Tea prices
38:28tripled in a week. And the photos of my trucks unloading white rolls in the sunshine started
38:33circulating again, with very different captions. My father's phone rang all afternoon. The same old
38:40friends who had called to ask whether I was feeling well, now wanted to know if Jiang Ti had any
38:45spring
38:45leaves to spare, at any price. We didn't. Every leaf on Cloud Ridge was promised to clear spring.
38:52Ding Rui came to the tea house on day 103. No coffees this time. No grin. His suit was wrinkled,
38:59and there was a gray shadow along his jaw, where he hadn't shaved. I knew why before he opened his
39:04mouth. In February, Ding Supply had sold forward contracts to three supermarket chains, promising
39:10them cheap spring tea at a fixed price. Every farm Ding Supply bought from had frozen. Now they had
39:16to deliver tea that didn't exist, or pay penalties that would swallow the company whole. Sell me Cloud
39:22Ridge's harvest, he said. Double the market price. Today. It's promised a Ruan group. Break the promise.
39:29Pay the penalty. I'll cover it. He leaned over my father's desk. Sin. After everything I've done for you.
39:35What have you done for me? Rui. I made you. It burst out of him. You were a sad little
39:41boy,
39:42crying behind a memorial hall. I taught you how to dress. How to walk into a room. How to make
39:47people
39:47look at you. You made a clown. I said. I'm just returning him. He stared at me like he had
39:53never
39:53seen my face before. Maybe he hadn't. Then he straightened his jacket and walked out, and the
39:58fourth stare creaked under him like it was glad to see him go. Two days later, Tenyi called me.
40:03The residue screen on Ding Supply's tasting sample just came back, he said. Banned pesticide. Not a
40:10trace, Sin. A real amount. He let out a long breath. If we had chosen them, Clear Spring would
40:15have gone on sale with that inside. Miss Ruan has already removed them from every supplier list in
40:21the group. I sat with the phone against my ear for a while, after he hung up. In my first
40:26life,
40:27that exact pesticide ended his career and buried the biggest launch of hers. In this one,
40:32it was a line on a lab report. Filed away before anyone could get hurt. I thought that was the
40:38end
40:38of it. I had forgotten what Ding Rui does when he's cornered. He doesn't stop. He doubles down.
40:44Ten days later, tins of Jiang Tea Cloud Ridge Spring started appearing in wholesale markets and
40:49online shops across the province. Half the market price. Beautiful tins. Exactly like ours. Then a
40:56careful tea shop owner in the North District sent one to a lab, because the price looked too good to
41:01be
41:01true. The result went up online that night. The same banned pesticide. By morning, the whole city
41:07was calling us the poison tea family. Buyers cancelled orders by the dozen. Our tea houses
41:12emptied out. A woman threw a tin at the front window on Lantern Canal and walked away crying.
41:17My father sat in his office with his hands flat on the desk, very still. The way he had sat
41:22in a
41:23meeting room in my first life right before his heart gave out. I put a hand on his shoulder.
41:27Dad. Breathe. This time, I know where the bottom is. At Ruan Group, the board called an emergency
41:34meeting. Jia told me about it later, in a whisper, like a spy. Four directors demanded that Ruan Wei drop
41:41Jiang Tea before Clear Spring hit the shelves. One of them called it simple risk management. Another
41:47called me, her boyfriend. In a tone that made the whole room go quiet. Ruan Wei listened to all of
41:53them. Then she stood up, walked out of the boardroom, took the elevator down to the lobby,
41:58and stepped in front of the reporters who had been camped there since dawn.
42:01Every leaf Jiang Tea has sold to Ruan Group has passed our lab, she said. Every single one. If
42:08someone is selling poison with the Jiang name on it, then bring me one of those tins. I was already
42:13on
42:13my way. I walked into the lobby 20 minutes later with two tins in my hands. One I had bought
42:18from a
42:18stall in the wholesale market at 6 that morning. The other came straight off our own shelf. A woman
42:24in a dark uniform walked in beside me. Officer Ma, from the city's market regulation bureau,
42:30who had answered my call before breakfast. I set both tins on the reception desk. Under the cameras.
42:36Count the leaves, I said. The logo on our tins was a tea branch over three mountain peaks.
42:41My mother drew it 30 years ago, on the back of a receipt, with 13 leaves on the branch.
42:46When I moved our printing away from Ding Supply, I had the new printer copy her sketch exactly.
42:52The genuine tin had 13 leaves. The fake had 12. The way Ding Supply's old plates had printed it
42:58for 20 years. And look here. I tilted the fake toward Officer Ma. A hairline white scratch ran
43:04straight through the third mountain peak. Ding Supply's original plate cracked in a winter storm
43:09about 10 years ago. They never replaced it. Every tin it ever printed carries that line.
43:14I put the tin down. There's only one plate in the world with that crack.
43:19It's in Ding Supply's print shop on Harbor Road. Officer Ma turned the fake slowly in her gloved hands.
43:25Then, she slid both tins into an evidence bag. We'll be visiting Harbor Road tonight,
43:31she said. The cameras swung toward Ruan Way. She didn't look at me once. She answered three more
43:37questions in that calm, cold voice that used to frighten me. Then turned and walked back to the
43:42elevator. I caught up with her just before the doors closed. You didn't have to do that,
43:47I said. Your board will make you pay for it. I didn't do it to win you back. She kept
43:52her eyes
43:52on the floor numbers. I did it because it's true. I know. The doors closed between us.
43:58And somewhere across the city, in a print shop on Harbor Road, Ding Rui was making the last choice
44:04of his career. I heard the rest of it the next morning, from the last person I expected.
44:09At seven, before the tea house opened, someone knocked on the front door on Lantern Canal.
44:14My father went down to answer it. When I followed him, I found Ding Hai standing on the step.
44:20Ding Rui's father was sixty, broad and heavy, a man who had built his packaging company with my
44:25father back when they were both selling from carts. He had always seemed enormous to me.
44:29That morning, he looked like someone had let half the air out of him. He didn't come in.
44:34He bowed to my father, deeply, the old way, and stayed bent over for so long that my father
44:40finally took him by the arms and pulled him upright. Old Ding, my father said. Sit down.
44:46You look terrible. Ding Hai sat. My father poured him tea. And with his hands wrapped around the cup,
44:52Ding Hai told us what had happened on Harbor Road. The news about the tins had reached him at dinner.
44:58He drove to the print shop himself, at midnight, because he didn't believe it.
45:02The lights were on in the plate room. He found his son there alone, with the old cracked plate
45:07clamped to a workbench and an angle grinder in his hands, trying to cut it into pieces.
45:12He was crying, Ding Hai said. He kept saying it was only metal, that nobody could prove anything
45:18from a piece of metal. Ding Hai took the grinder out of his son's hands. He unclamped the plate and
45:23wrapped it in a shop towel. Then he walked his son out to the old company van, the same one
45:28they had
45:29used to deliver boxes 30 years ago, and drove him to the police station himself.
45:33I sat with him while he talked, Ding Hai said. All night. He told them everything. Everything
45:39turned out to be more than tins. Silver leaf trading belonged to Ding Rui alone, behind two layers of
45:45relatives' names. The bank loan was real, and the default was planned from the first day.
45:51Jiang Ti was supposed to be left holding 180 million yuan of debt, so that Ding Rui could buy
45:56Cloud Ridge for almost nothing, and sell it to a resort developer who had already offered him a
46:01fortune. The elevator photos of Tan Yi, the old screenshots sent to Ruan Wei. Even the leopard
46:07shirts and the silver hair, chosen year after year, so that nobody in this city would ever take
46:12the Jiang air seriously when it mattered. Ding Hai put down his cup. His hands were shaking.
46:18Forty years, old Jiang, he said. Forty years, we've known each other. And my son tried to take
46:24everything from yours. My father looked at him, for a long time. Then he refilled his cup.
46:30Your son tried, my father said. Mine stopped him. Drink your tea, old Ding. It's going cold.
46:37I walked out to the canal, so they wouldn't see my face. The water was green, and slow,
46:42and full of morning light. In my first life, Ding Hai bought our roasting house at an auction,
46:48and never once came to visit my father at Pine Garden. I had hated him for it, right up until
46:53the fire.
46:53Maybe he never knew. Maybe nobody ever tells the fathers anything, until it's too late.
46:59Ruan Wei had been coming to the roasting house every morning since day 100. Not to the tea house.
47:05Not to my office. The roasting house. At 6, when the walks were lit and the first batch of the
47:10day
47:10went in, she came in plain clothes and her white canvas sneakers, tied her hair back, and stood at
47:16the fifth walk, while old Tian taught her to turn leaves. She was terrible at it. She burned her
47:22fingertips twice in the first week. She never complained. She never spoke to me, unless I spoke
47:27first. And I almost never did. She's not leaving, old Tian told me on the 10th morning, with something
47:34close to approval. That one has roots. Gia came by one afternoon to drop off contracts, and stayed
47:40long enough to vent. She's cleared every meeting before 9 o'clock for the whole month, she said,
47:45throwing up her hands. The board thinks she's lost her mind. The president of Ruan Group,
47:50stirring leaves in a brick shed. Do you know what her calendar says now? Every morning at 6?
47:55Tea house. Do not be late. The morning after Ding Hai's visit, Ruan Wei stayed behind when the
48:01roasters left for breakfast. I was scrubbing the third walk. She came and stood across from me,
48:07on the other side of the stove, her fingertips still red from the week before.
48:11I've never begged anyone, she said. I put down the brush. Not the creditors at my father's funeral.
48:17Not my board when they tried to take the company from me at 22. Not anyone. Ever. Her voice was
48:23steady. Her hands weren't. I'm begging you now, Jiang Sin. Not for 100 days. Not for any number.
48:31Just don't make me stop coming here. The roasting house was very quiet. Somewhere outside,
48:36a boat horn sounded on the canal. In my first life, I had stood outside her tower every night for
48:42weeks,
48:42begging for exactly this. For her to look at me the way she was looking at me now. I used
48:47to think
48:48that if she ever did, I would fall to my knees. I didn't fall to my knees. I looked at
48:53the clay stove
48:54between us. At the place where, in another life, the fire had started. Clear spring launches at Cloud
49:00Ridge on Saturday. I said. First flush. Come. As your girlfriend? As whoever you are now. I said.
49:08No title. No number. Come as yourself. She held my eyes for a long moment. Then, she nodded once,
49:15picked up her bag, and left without another word. Old Tian stuck his head back in from the doorway,
49:20where he had obviously been standing the whole time. Saturday, he said. Good. I'll roast the best
49:26batch of my life, and you'd better not waste it. On Saturday, Cloud Ridge looked like a wedding
49:32without a bride. We set long wooden tables between the rows. Under strings of paper lanterns borrowed
49:38from the tea house. Buyers came from every corner of the province, because ours was the only clean
49:43spring tea left within 500 kilometers. Tubs of ice held the first bottles of clear spring,
49:49pale gold and perfectly clear. Tan Yee stood beside them with his fiancée, holding up a bottle that had
49:55sat in a sunny lab window for three weeks. Still clear. He kept telling everyone who would listen,
50:01and a few people who wouldn't. Not a speck. My father gave a short speech with good color in his
50:06face,
50:07and broke down halfway through, when he thanked Old Tian. Old Tian pretended not to notice.
50:13He was busy at a portable walk at the end of the row, roasting the first flush in front of
50:18everyone,
50:19turning the leaves with his bare hand while cameras clicked around him like crickets.
50:23Ruan Wei arrived last. She came alone. No assistant. No driver standing by the car.
50:28No white suit either. She wore a simple ivory dress, and the same white canvas sneakers she had worn on
50:34the night of the frost. A little stained now, at the toes. Half the province turned to look at her,
50:39as she walked up the slope. She didn't look at any of them. She walked straight to me,
50:44and held out her phone. The calendar was open. There was only one entry on the whole screen.
50:49Day one. Ask him again. Underneath it, in small gray letters, the app said it would repeat every day.
50:56And date? Never. I deleted the other one, she said. And all the old ones. Every deadline I ever set
51:03for
51:03a person. I don't schedule endings anymore. I looked at the screen for a long time.
51:09Jiang Sin, she said. Her voice was low. Meant only for me, though everyone nearby had stopped talking.
51:16Will you start again with me? No contract. No count. Not because I'm sorry, though I am.
51:21Because eight years ago, a boy poured me a cup of tea on the back steps of the worst day
51:27of my life,
51:28and I've been looking for him ever since. I didn't answer right away. I walked to the end of the
51:32row,
51:33to old Tian's walk, and took two small cups from his tray. He handed me the pot without a word,
51:38but his eyes were wet, the old fraud. I poured the first cup from the first steep, strong and dark,
51:44and gave it to her. She drank it. She winced so hard her whole face scrunched, and then she laughed,
51:50a real laugh, surprised out of her. I'd never heard her laugh like that in two lifetimes.
51:55Then I poured the second steep from the same leaves. Lighter. Gold. I handed it to her,
52:01and watched her drink it, and watched her eyes fill. Bitter first, I said. Sweet later,
52:07she whispered. One condition. Anything. Never give me an end date. She held up the phone,
52:13still open to that single entry. I already didn't. I took her hand. Her fingertips were rough now,
52:19with two small burn marks from the fifth walk. I had never held a hand I liked more.
52:25Somewhere behind us, one of the warehouse workers from the night of the frost shouted.
52:29The frost cloth fool got the girl, and the whole ridge burst out laughing. My father laughed loudest
52:35of all. That night, sitting on the steps of the work shed with the lanterns, going out one by one
52:40below us. I told her everything. The banquet. The folder. Day 100. And the 8 million I sent back.
52:47The leopard shirts. The posts about Tan Yee. The bank. The meeting room. Pine garden. The fire in
52:55the drying room. And the brass scale. And the smoke. The funeral in the rain. And a woman at the
53:00back
53:01with no umbrella, whose words the wind carried away. She didn't interrupt once. When I finished,
53:07she was quiet for so long, that I thought she was deciding which doctor to call.
53:11So I said it at your grave. She said finally. You did. She leaned her head against my shoulder.
53:17Then I'm glad I get to say it to your face this time. Clear Springs stayed clear on every shelf
53:22in
53:22the province through the whole summer. It became the best-selling drink Ruan group had ever made.
53:28Tan Yee was promoted in June, and married in October. And Ruan Wei and I sat together at his
53:33wedding. At a table near the piano, while his new wife played. Ding Rui was sentenced in the autumn,
53:38for fraud, and for selling contaminated goods. His father rebuilt the packaging company from the
53:43ground up. Honestly, this time. These days, Ding Hai shop prints our tins again. Thirteen leaves,
53:50every single one. He checks them himself. The roasting house on Lantern Canal was rewired from
53:56end to end. My mother's little brass scale sits on the shelf beside the third walk, where old Tian
54:02can keep an eye on it. My father has never seen the inside of Pine Garden. He's far too busy
54:07picking tea. And every morning at six, the walks are lit. And a woman who used to run her whole
54:12life
54:13by the clock, stands at the fifth walk, turning leaves, late for nothing. Some women don't break
54:19up with you. They schedule it. Mine scheduled the rest of her life, and left the end date blank.

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