Jiang Yixi would never forget that day when Zeng Nan performed at the company's tenth-anniversary gala.
That was five years ago. The guest list had been mishandled, and several important guests hadn't received invitations. During a break in the reception, the hired band launched into a rock version of "The Internationale": Arise, ye prisoners of starvation and cold! Arise, ye suffering masses of the world! The singing drew people in, but it was just a minor interlude at the party. Yet Yixi remembered it for a very, very long time.
As a lowly employee at the company, she met the lead singer, Zeng Nan, after that day. When Jiang Yixi had nowhere to stay, Zeng Nan introduced her to the shantytown where his band rented a place.
They became neighbors. The vacant lot in the shantytown bloomed with morning glories in shades of blue. When they chatted, Zeng Nan always called Yixi "Morning Glory."
Yixi asked why. Zeng Nan said he'd read it in a botanical book: morning glory leaves are a deep, rich green, and they carry a faint, sweet scent.Morning glories bloom at dawn and wilt before noon, hence their other name, "morning glory."
As he spoke, he gazed at Jiang Yixi. He said she was beautiful, like a morning glory at dawn.
They spent their days chatting. Yixi shared her dream: to leave the cheap shantytown soon and move to an upscale CBD residence.Zeng Nan declared his dream had nothing to do with money—he wanted to spend his life with the girl he loved, playing rock music forever, even if it meant drinking Siberian wind for a lifetime.
Zeng Nan played guitar for Jiang Yixi, told her jokes, washed her hair. Often they'd chat on the bench, sometimes drifting off to sleep mid-conversation. When she woke, Yixi would find herself resting her head on Zeng Nan's shoulder.
Yet no time was more beautiful than that—until Zeng Nan shattered it all.
II
When Zeng Nan asked Yi Xi to accompany him back to his hometown to visit his parents, hoping she would accept his love, she refused outright. Yi Xi said Zeng Nan was a "Beijing drifter," and that the meager savings he'd earned from years of performing couldn't even buy a bathroom.Yixi declared, "Zeng Nan, you're not my ideal. You're not why I came to Beijing. Do you understand? We can't be together, and I won't be with you. I'd rather be the one listening to songs at parties than the girlfriend of the singer."
"Your meager savings won't buy me a home in Beijing, let alone afford me a comfortable life."A cool breeze rustled the morning glories, brushing their cheeks. Yixi cried, confessing her love for Zeng Nan, yet she had to reject him. Yixi declared, "The boyfriend I choose won't be as poor as you." Outside the small cottage, a thin moon rose, trembling faintly in the wind like the bubble gum she blew as a child.Zeng Nan couldn't recall how he'd rushed outside, bought stacks of beer, and downed bottle after bottle. He couldn't recall how long Yixi had stood beside him, weeping. He couldn't recall how he'd laid all his savings beside her—money that wouldn't even buy a bathroom... Zeng Nan turned and fled, vanishing like a shadow beyond the sprawling shantytown.
This all happened two years ago. Two years ago, Zeng Nan played rock music night after night at the small bar where he performed. Everyone said he'd gone mad. Two years ago, Zeng Nan's online signature was "Morning Glory," another name for the morning flower.
But from that moment on, everything changed.
To escape Zeng Nan, Yi Xi moved away from the shantytown.Yixi introduced Zeng Nan to a well-off girl from Beijing. He refused at first, but her admiration and persistence gradually won him over. Yet standing beside her, Yixi could still see the sadness and evasion in Zeng Nan's eyes. Yixi told herself this was for the best—for both of them. They would eventually forget each other, each find their own happiness, and everything they'd given would be worth it.
Yixi did eventually leave for abroad, studying language under the clear skies of a British town. Often, she thought of Zeng Nan. She imagined him beside the small shack in the shantytown, surrounded by morning glories, chatting with that woman—perhaps just as she had once done with him. Would Zeng Nan tell her that morning glories were also called "Asagao"?
A faint ache in her heart reminded Yi Xi that even from such a great distance, she couldn't forget Zeng Nan.
Time slowly passed. Jiang Yi Xi was no longer the girl who once rented a room in the flower-filled shantytown. She gradually became a woman of deep secrets, yet her longing for Zeng Nan only grew more intense.
A year in England, a year back in Beijing—she never encountered Zeng Nan. Instead, she met the girlfriend she’d introduced to him, standing beneath the eaves of a Beijing store.
Next Page: They Say Love Once Dwelt Here${FDPageBreak}
Three
It was March 2007. March in Beijing brought intense sunlight and wind.A year after returning to Beijing, Yixi saw the woman walking beside another man in Wangfujing, smiling charmingly. That man was not Zeng Nan.
Yixi felt she was going mad. Weren't they together? Why weren't they? Standing awkwardly before the woman, she stammered out only "Zeng Nan." The woman gave a cold laugh. "What?"You get to leave him, but I can't? You get to abandon Zeng Nan, but I can't?" The woman began to cry as she spoke.
"You think I want to leave him? I don't want to be with him. I'm not like you. I don't crave prestige. I only want love. I secretly liked him long before you introduced me to Zeng Nan, but he never gave me love."
"He still can't forget you."
"A man like him? All ideals, no substance. Out of touch. Fan Xiaoxuan gambled away her entire family fortune on her band, joking about borrowing money from Xiaoxi. What about Zeng Nan? He never loved me. He waters wild morning glories. In his dreams, he calls out your name. When he's sick, he thinks of you."I told him I despised him too—a penniless man like him deserved no love. He didn’t care that I left, but he cared about these words, because they were your words. Only this way could I wound him."
"The one who should apologize is you, not me; the one who deserves blame is you, not me.Jiang Yixi. You wounded his love, then introduced me to him when he still loved you. It's all your fault, Jiang Yixi."
Yixi stood dumbstruck beneath the eaves, unable to recall when the woman left or how long she'd stood there. All she remembered was that moment—the clear realization of her regret.Truthfully, the regret had begun long ago. She couldn't turn back then because Zeng Nan had another woman by his side. Now Zeng Nan was alone, and Yixi could finally do what she wanted. She and Zeng Nan could finally reclaim the love they had lost long ago. Four Yixi began searching for Zeng Nan in Beijing. She searched for three years.
Zeng Nan no longer lived at his old place, and there was no trace of him.
Yixi imagined countless times what Zeng Nan might look like now. She pictured him perhaps teaching children to play the piano somewhere, or maybe even poorer and more down-and-out, unable to afford a shack in the slums, having gone to some unknown place far away.Yixi scoured every bar in Beijing, every venue where someone might perform, but found no trace of Zeng Nan. She then traveled to his hometown, searching high and low. Yet, unexpectedly, it was not in his hometown that she found him. Instead, by chance, upon returning to Beijing, she encountered Zeng Nan in the lobby of a luxury hotel, savoring a glass of red wine.
It had been five years since they parted ways. From the spring of 2003 to the spring of 2008, Zeng Nan seemed unchanged—still handsome, with thick eyebrows, a square jaw, and a radiant smile. But his clothes had transformed. Gone were the ordinary T-shirts he used to buy from street vendors; now he wore casual wear that was clearly expensive.Where he once drank only beer, he now sipped red wine, passionately discussing vintages and oak barrels.
Zeng Nan had gained weight. His former defiant solitude had felt genuine; now, though friendly to everyone, he seemed distant. He told Yixi he was about to marry the owner of a Beijing bar.He used to be foolish, believing love was everything. He pursued Yixi, but when she left, he turned to a local Beijing woman. Unexpectedly, she too left him because of his poverty. After much reflection, he finally understood. The bar owner had always harbored feelings for him. Why not take the easier path like Yixi? Why make things hard for himself? So he chose to be with that wealthy woman.Back then, he wasn't afraid of hardship—he was just used to being poor. But after living comfortably with that woman, he understood Yixi. Who wants to suffer? Now, if someone else asked him to endure hardship, he wouldn't want to either.
Zeng Nan asked Yixi if she was okay. Had she found someone who could give her a comfortable life? Zeng Nan said, "Money really is great, Yixi. Giving up on each other back then was the right choice."
Yixi nodded. "Yes, yes."
Yixi didn't know if she should tell Zeng Nan she'd met the woman who'd left him. That woman hadn't left him because he was poor, but because there was no love. She also didn't know if she should tell Zeng Nan she'd never forgotten him, regretting their parting the moment they separated. After meeting that woman, she'd spent three years searching for him.
She once desired so many things. Only after experiencing life's splendors did she realize what she truly wanted was love.
She returned to being a simple woman, doing ordinary work for meager pay. To find him, she cycled three hours daily, living in a tiny basement—yet she felt no hardship. Because finding Zeng Nan would make it worth it. Being with Zeng Nan meant fearing no hardship, for he too feared no hardship.