As Beautiful As Beijing / As Beautiful As You

Vol. 1 Stars - Ch. 30 Different Things

Outside the car window, streetlights flashed quickly.

In the back seat of the taxi, Ji Xing hugged the stack of letters of intent tightly, her expression dull and her eyes empty.

The shadows of the trees kept passing over her pale face, like a slide show that repeated over and over again.
At one o'clock in the morning, she was on her way to the West Fifth Ring Road.

Her mind was empty, and she didn't think about anything. Only occasionally, that winter night appeared in front of her. She climbed the six flights of stairs exhaustedly, and Shao Yichen stood at the door waiting for her. His eyes were bright, smiling at her and opening his arms.

There was another sharp sting in her eye sockets, and she closed her eyes painfully.

The streets of Beijing late at night were unobstructed. It took one or two hours to walk during the day, but it only took half an hour at night.

It was a summer night, but Ji Xing was shivering. She ran into the community with the stack of letters of intent, pressed the elevator, and went straight to Shao Yichen's home.

She stood at his door and made a phone call.

In the silent night, she heard the bell ringing on the other end of the door.

The person inside didn't answer; She stood outside and refused to hang up.

The bell rang, she stared at the door and gritted her teeth.

Just when she thought she had to call a second time, the other end finally picked up.

Silence.

Shao Yichen didn't speak, and Ji Xing didn't speak either.

After a long silence, he said, "Hello?"

She said, "Open the door."

The other end paused.

After a while, the door was opened.

Shao Yichen looked at her calmly, perhaps with a hint of forbearance, but it flashed by and was extremely unreal. His eyes were also red and swollen, because he had cried alone.

"You..." He just spoke, but fell silent again.

Ji Xing stuffed the letter of intent in her hand into his arms, like offering a treasure: "Yichen, look, I'll show you." 

Her eyes sparkled, and she looked at him closely, like a child who wanted to share her favourite toy with him: "Yichen, look quickly, this is the letter of intent for cooperation signed by several research centres and Xingchen today. In a while, Xingchen's products can start clinical trials. The company will be less busy when it is on the right track." 

She stuffed the thing into him with force and hurriedly turned the paper, "I'll show you, look."

Shao Yichen held it in his hands, looked down, and smiled, sincerely: "I knew it would succeed. Congratulations."

Ji Xing looked at him stubbornly, waiting for him to say something else. But Shao Yichen just smiled, and for a moment he almost wanted to say something, and his body seemed to shake to get closer to her, but he didn't. 

His smile became a little bitter and twisted, as ugly as crying, and he didn't say a word.

Ji Xing still looked at him, her eyes changed from stubborn to dull and absent-minded.

She stood there for a while, not knowing what she was thinking. Suddenly, she pushed him aside and rushed into the door, opened the shoe cabinet, turned out all his shoes and looked through them, not knowing what she was looking for. She didn't find what she wanted, so she got up and rushed into the bathroom, opened the cabinet on the sink and looked for toothbrushes and toothpaste.