Chapter 28: The Drunken Butterfly

Silence spread in the approaching long night. Xu Yingchun sighed inwardly and said, “What a mess this all is.”

“Not someone from our circle,” said Xu Yingchun. “Should be an outsider. I heard they met through a friend’s introduction.”

“Friend?” Chen Fangli looked at the cigarette in his hand and sneered, “You believe that? Which of her friends do I not know?”

Wang Zhao’s social circle was limited to this area, and he knew basically everyone she knew. After years together, their social circles had greatly overlapped. But almost all their friends knew about their relationship. Chen Fangli was certain that no one would dare introduce a man to Wang Zhao, nor would anyone do so.

Xu Yingchun said, “What does it matter whether I believe it or not? They’ve already gotten their marriage certificate. What else can I say? Besides, I haven’t even met that person yet. I just heard he’s a few years younger than Wang Zhao. I guess it must be true love, otherwise why would they rush into marriage so quickly?”

Yes.

In Xu Yingchun’s view, Wang Zhao’s marriage came too suddenly, as if something was chasing her from behind. None of their old classmates had received any news, otherwise it would have caused at least a small stir.

She couldn’t help but privately suspect if Wang Zhao had been threatened, or if there was some difficulty she couldn’t speak of that necessitated an immediate marriage. Even if not, it wouldn’t have been this rushed. At least she should have notified her closer friends, or hinted at it on social media.

This fellow went straight into marriage, catching them off guard, often making them doubt if a large chunk of their life had been cut out. Otherwise, how could they have no memory of Wang Zhao and Chen Fangli breaking up and finding new love?

Chen Fangli remained silent.

Xu Yingchun said, “I haven’t handled this well. Let me call you a designated driver to take you home. I’m not comfortable with you driving alone like this.”

Chen Fangli tossed away the cigarette in his hand, rubbed his fingers, and stopped Xu Yingchun’s action: “I haven’t lost my senses to that extent. I’m not drunk, there’s no need to specifically find a designated driver.”

“Alright, I won’t say more. I’m heading back now, we’ll be in touch later.” Chen Fangli waved his hand, walked a few steps to open the driver’s door, sat down, rolled down the passenger window, and leaned slightly towards the woman outside the car, “The classmates should all be at the club by now, you go ahead and greet them.”

“I’ll come out for a proper gathering once I’ve settled down and have some time.”

Xu Yingchun frowned at the person in the car.

But Chen Fangli had already started the car. Xu Yingchun couldn’t say anything more, she just raised her phone, “Drive carefully, pay attention to safety, and let me know when you get home.”

Chen Fangli nodded, and the car drove off. Xu Yingchun’s phone vibrated several times, probably messages from their classmates. Xu Yingchun didn’t look at any of them. She waited until Chen Fangli’s car merged into the traffic before withdrawing her gaze. She couldn’t help but sigh again and ran her hand through her hair.

Unusually irritated.

She ignored the constantly flashing messages in the class group chat and opened Wang Zhao’s chat window. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard for a long while, but she still didn’t send a message.

She had already meddled once before, and this time, after hesitating for a long time, Xu Yingchun closed the window.

In her understanding, Chen Fangli was a very rational person, and he would eventually find out about this. Since Wang Zhao had already posted on social media, she had probably considered this situation. So Xu Yingchun could only pretend not to know. It’s most taboo for outsiders or third parties to meddle in a couple’s relationship.

Chen Fangli, however, drove alone, not going home, but finding a nearby bar and walking in. When one is depressed and can’t find anyone to talk to, they particularly want to drink.

Of course, Chen Fangli used to never touch alcohol, but in half a year, he had changed a lot, and so Wang Zhao seemed to have become somewhat unrecognizable.

He went in and ordered a glass of absinthe. This was a quiet bar, not as noisy as other bars, with people sitting sparsely in the booths.

Chen Fangli sat directly at the bar, put his phone aside, and started drinking the glass of absinthe. No wonder it’s called absinthe, the color is like bitter gourd juice, and as soon as you drink it, you feel an indescribable bitterness spreading in your mouth.

After drinking one glass, he asked the bartender to mix him a gin, with lots of ice, mixed with tonic water and lemon, with a faint aroma of juniper.

This sip washed away much of the taste of absinthe. However, mixing drinks makes it easy to get drunk.

Chen Fangli, such a proper man, had just sat down at the bar and ordered several different drinks, looking like he was drinking to drown his sorrows. This immediately caught the attention of several people in the booths.

Seeing the young man sitting opposite drinking like this, the bartender couldn’t help but advise him. Working here for nearly half a year, she had seen many frustrated people. Those in bad moods like to come here for a drink.

Some were heartbroken, some had family issues, and some were former founders of well-known companies burdened with huge debts.

Most men were here due to relationship problems, most women due to career issues, and a small portion of people’s frustrations were not beyond these few points. The bartender felt that in this half year, she had seen stories from the poorest to the richest people.

Thanks to her boss being a wealthy person who opened this bar, often having rich friends come to support, she had seen many wealthy people and her ability to recognize brands had skyrocketed during this time.

The clothes on the young man in front of her looked good, probably a foreign brand. She had seen a rich second generation wear it before, so these privileged sons mostly drink to drown their sorrows over relationships, with a small portion due to family reasons, such as parents preferring the sensible eldest daughter, favoring daughters over sons, or being more fond of the youngest daughter or son, and so on.

Anyway, they’re not worried about survival.

Having seen so much, he became increasingly indifferent. He had suffered much more than these people, not even qualified to pity them. So Chen Fangli’s dejection didn’t evoke any sympathy from him, after all, the few drinks this person just ordered were half a month’s salary for him.

The bartender was just afraid that if this person continued drinking like this, if something happened, it would implicate the bar and affect his job.

Chen Fangli seemed not to hear and ordered another drink. His alcohol tolerance wasn’t that bad, he knew how much he could drink, and wouldn’t put himself in a dangerous situation.