Summer #16

Don't Turn from Summer (莫负寒夏) by Ding Mo (丁墨)

Chapter 16

Mu Hanxia lies in bed, motionless.

The feeling is like walking in an icy-old snowy world. The chilly wind blows out from the heart and seeps into the whole body.

When she thinks of tomorrow, she is no longer full of hope. Instead it’s like enormously deep, dense, and turbulent fog that’s so disturbing.

She pulls herself up and goes in the shabby mottled bathroom, taking a prolonged hot shower and rubbing her skin red all over before she comes back out.

Then she throws herself into the bed and wraps herself in the quilt.

Exhausted.

She quickly falls asleep.

--------

Early in the morning, the bright sun is almost rising above the horizon again.

Mu Hanxia and He Jing are having breakfast on the first floor of the supermarket.

He Jing notices that Mu Hanxia is extremely quiet today. She stares at the swollen eyes of Mu Hanxia and asks, “What’s the matter? What happened to you?”

Mu Hanxia just smiles, “Nothing. I still can get up the mountain and fight the tiger.”

She is as easy as usual, but He Jing is skeptical.

Mu Hanxia gulps down her breakfast quickly and asks, “What time is it?”

He Jing takes out her cell phone and takes a look, “6:50, you don’t have your phone with you?”

“Forgot where I left it yesterday.”

Mu Hanxia didn’t realize her cell phone is missing until this morning. She tried to call it but it’s turned off. Either she left it in the dinner room, or in Lin Mochen’s car. Although Lin Mochen sent her messages once, she does not remember his phone number. She can only wait until they meet next time.

He Jing says, “Xia, if there’s something, be sure to talk to me. Don’t hold things back to yourself.”

Mu Hanxia, “Hmm.”

--------

The office is bright, bustling with people scurrying around. Everything is as usual.

Mu Hanxia has been working on the complicated basic sales data all day at her desk. In the late afternoon, the manager asks her to send documents to Meng Gang.

Mu Hanxia says, “Manager, I’m not done with the work at hand yet. Could you ask another one to do it?”

“Don’t you see everybody else is busy? Put down your work for a minute and hurry up!”

The door to the General Manager’s office is left ajar. Xiao Chen is not on his spot outside the door. Mu Hanxia pauses quietly for a moment and knocks on the door.

“Come in.”

Mu Hanxia pushes the door open and walks in. Without looking at him, she puts down the documents and says flatly, “Manager Meng, here are the documents.”

She can feel Meng Gang’s sharp eyes resting on her.

She turns to leave.

“Wait a minute.”

Mu Hanxia stops and turns to look at him.

He is still the usual steady look, sitting behind the office desk and looking at her with unfathomable eyes.

Mu Hanxia suddenly hates to look at his eyes, but right then he speaks, “Yesterday...I’m sorry.”

Mu Hanxia says nothing. He says softly, “I drank too much. I apologize, Mu Hanxia.”

Mu Hanxia feels as if some air within is suddenly deflated, but leaves her with even more feeling of powerlessness and reluctance. She knows he misconducted because of drinking too much. She also knows that with his shrewd and cautious nature, he wouldn’t have got to that point. But how can she turn the page and wipe everything off simply like this?

“Manager Meng, if there’s nothing else, I’d better go now.” She says quietly.

Meng Gang gazes at her. The wind is blowing on the curtain behind him. The sunlight is very quiet.

He says, “In a few days, you should leave Le Ya. I have a friend who has an high-end supermarket in the Ming Han District. You can go there. As an experienced store assistant, your income won’t be less than what you have here. The finance department here will also give you three months' extra pay.”

Mu Hanxia’s hands slowly clench into fists.

She suddenly smiles, and says with somewhat indignantly, “OK.”

There is nothing else to say. She turns to walk toward the door. When she pulls open the door, she hears Meng Gang’s even voice, “Mu Hanxia, what I said before, they are all truly from my heart.”

--------

It’s night, the sky is dark.

Mu Hanxia lies in bed , unable to fall asleep.

Anger, sadness, disappointment, uncertainty...all tangled together and weaved into some kind of dull and lingering pain, heavily pressed above her like an gigantic mountain.

Does she hate Meng Gang? If it wasn’t the many favor he did her or his special promotion, she could not have entered the sales department, leaving the career level of store assistant behind her. She can’t hate him for all this.

But does she blame him? Yes.

The schemes of a man, the hidden lust. When he wants her, he makes her believe he’s out of good intentions. Now he needs to protect himself and knows that she won’t be his, he mercilessly kicks her away.

Attempted rape. The mistake Meng Gang made can be thus defined. A man like him will never allow such a serious mistake to threat his career and life. So, before she takes any action, he takes first move and expels her to prevent any possible future problems.

A work opportunity so hard-earned by her, he doesn’t have the least of care when he destroys it.

......

So does she really have to go to that supermarket, which is not nearly as good as Le Ya, and go back to the position of a store assistant, with no hope to ever stand back up again?

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Lin Mochen is driving to Mu Hanxia’s home along the road they took the other night.

It’s getting dark, the setting sun spreads into the car. On the passanger seat, there’s a cell phone.

That night after getting Mu Hanxia home, he found the cell phone on the back seat only when he got back to his own home. It’s out of batteray, a very cheap brand, and isn’t compatible with his charger. So he just left it in the car.

Now, it’s already three days and that woman hasn’t come to look for him.

Red light at the intersection. Lin Mochen stops to wait. In front, there are people coming and going, and some peddlers with their stands by the street. He notices the cherries on a stand, small ones, smooth and shiny with yellowish red. Not very good type. They must taste rather sour.

After passing the intersection, Lin Mochen pulls the car over by the curb and gets a pound of the cherries, which he tosses onto the passenger seat.

It’s near her home. The small restaurants and food stands along the street are filled with people. Lin Mochen drives slowly past them and suddenly sees Mu Hanxia in his white T and jeans at a grill stand, eating kebabs. Opposite her sits another girl.

Through the dim street light and the noisy voices, her smile feels so tranquil.

--------

“Xia, you’ve really decided to leave?” He Jing asks with some sadness.

“Hmm, I’m determined to go.” Mu Hanxia’s answer is crispy.

“But...what kind of job can you find? Something like this incident is very annoying, and it's bullying. Like you said, we can’t sue him or do nothing about him, we just think ourselves attacked by a dog. But since the wage and benefits are promised, you should go to the supermarket Meng Gang told you about. Why suffer losses?”

“No, I’m not going.”

He Jing knows there’s no use trying further to persuade her and sighs. Then she hears her say, “But, I definitely won’t leave with my tail between my legs. I will do something.”

He Jing: “Huh, what thing?”

Mu Hanxia’s smiles have disappeared, her eyes calm and bright, “I’m going to make everyone know that I have talents. I’ll make them look at me differently. No matter how Le Ya will go through the ups and downs, I’m going to keep hold of my own professional life.”

The sky is already dark. The cars and people are coming and going non-stop around the corner. Lin Mochen is a few steps behind Mu Hanxia, clearly hearing her explain her thoughts to her friend, “These days, although I only did data processing in the sales department, I discovered some regularities and opportunities between market demands and supplies while working on all those data. I wasn’t sure whether my thoughts were right or not and mentioned them to the old employees. But they just didn’t care.

These days, Meng Gang discusses with all the departments every day about all kinds of strategies to fight against Yong Zheng. But I have a feeling they haven’t grasped the key of the problem.

The key is, Lin Mochen single-handedly pulls Yong Zheng’s overall performance above Le Ya. It is impossible to get right back into the tie position. We need a chance, first to hold back the rising of Yong Zheng and then look for opportunities to turn the table around.

This chance has to be very unexpected and unprepared by them, while noticeable and attractive enough to the customers. It will cut a gash in the seige of Lin Mochen, and make all customers to turn their attention back to Le Ya and say, ha, Le Ya is actually not bad at all. We got to win a round and then plan for the long run.

I only have a vague idea right now. But how to carry it out, how to make others listen to me, I haven’t figured out yet. Anyway, I’m going to give it a try.

Tomorrow, I’m going to Hai Nan, there’s some friend over there.”

......

He Jing only partly understands what she says, but is affected by her and becomes solemn. After a moment, she pats Mu Hanxia on her hand back, “Hey, there’s a handsome guy in suit standing behind you. Seems he’s looking at you.”

Mu Hanxia turns around and is surprised. She smiles, “when did you come?”

Lin Mochen replies, “Just now.” And walks up to them.

Mu Hanxia stands up. Lin Mochen hands the cellphone and the cherries to her. He Jing, who’s right beside them, notices the Porsche car key in his hand and secretly sucks in a breath.

“Thank you. I thought to contact you tomorrow. The cherries...”

“Go wash them.” He says.

“Oh...” Mu Hanxia makes an eye contact with He Jing and goes to ask for water from the stand owner.

After learning that this cool-faced guy-in-suit is the well-known Lin Mochen, He Jing excuses herself after just a little while, not sure out of fear of him or to leave space for them.

Mu Hanxia tosses a cherry into her mouth. Slightly sweet, so sour, and a little tart. She glances at Lin Mochen, who’s eyes seem to show a hint of smiles.

“You like some?” She asks.

“No.”

Mu Hanxia takes two more looks at him, then looks at the orange street light extending forward, and says, “Shall we take a little walk?”

Lin Mochen’s face is somewhat unclear in the night light. He answers, “OK.”

The two of them walks side by side for a while; two shadows, a long and a short, are on the ground.

He says nothing, while Mu Hanxia is a little lost in thoughts.

She thinks to herself, how strange the world is. He is the boss of the opponent, is the one whom everybody in her company hates so much. Others all say he is not a good one, but he would send her home at that night, and now he brought her a bag of cherries.

The thoughts have drifted too far.

Mu Hanxia looks up at him smilingly, “Lin Mochen, are we friends now?”

“You want to be my friend?” Instead of answering, he asks.

Mu Hanxia feels a little awkward and says, “Nah. I was only asking a question, not making a request.”

Lin Mochen smiles suddenly, “It’s fine to be friends. But you give up Le Ya first.”

Mu Hanxia tosses another cherry into her month, and chews without saying anything.

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Mu Hanxia asked for a few days’ leave from the company. The next afternoon, she arrives in Hai Kou by train.

It’s very hot down here. Mu Hanxia is sweltering in the crowd. At the exit of the railway station, she immediately sees Zhang Yulei, her former classmate, who is tall with a dark skin, thick eyebrows and big eyes, waving to her with a smiling face.

Mu Hanxia also beams and quickens her steps toward him. Zhang Yulei gives her a big hug, “My class captain, why? Finally come to Hai Nan for some fun?”

Mu Hanxia gives him a slap on the shoulder, “I just come to visit you. Isn’t it OK with you?”

“OK, OK. How I’ve been looking forward to it, OK? Go, get in my car first.”

Haven’t seen an old classmate for so long, Mu Hanxia is also quite excited. They get in the car while talking and laughing. As the car leaves the station, Mu Hanxia glances out of the car and feels something flash by.

She thinks she has caught a glimpse of someone familiar.

But, except Zhang Yulei, she knows nobody else in Hainan. She must have been mistaken, she tells herself.