Journey of Lies

"Yes, I saw you. You sent me a message asking for help, how could I not help? I've always considered you my best friend. Now this group of friends are all scoundrels," Ren Jiayi said, cutting the almost cold fish fillet on her plate and eating it with Thai chili sauce. "But it was during the pandemic, so I delivered the medicine and ran away. It was a contactless delivery."

"I really want to thank you for that time. Xiujie said you gave me fever reducers and masks. Masks were a rare commodity back then."

Ren Jiayi raised her glass and clinked it with Jiang Xia's. "It's all in the past. Stop thinking about Xu Xiujie. You're still young. You have to look forward."

Ren Jiayi said the last sentence while looking at Sheng Zhi in front of her.

Jiang Xia bit the straw and drank the last of his drink in one gulp, then took another sip before putting the glass down. "Don't joke with me. There's actually something else I need to figure out in Chiang Mai."

"you say."

"Xiu Jie has a regular therapist in Bangkok," Jiang Xia said, glancing at Ren Jiayi. Seeing her wide eyes and surprised expression, she leaned closer and said, "I've already met her. At first, I thought they..."

"What did you think they were doing?" Ren Jiayi put down her knife and fork, placing her hands folded on her knees. "They're not in that kind of relationship, are they?"

Jiang Xia quickly waved his hand, "That's what I thought at first, but I don't think so."

"Xiaxia, is it because you're not feeling well after Xu Xiujie left that you're overthinking things?" Ren Jiayi held Jiang Xia's hand worriedly. "If you're feeling down, I'll take you shopping and having fun recently."

After much hesitation, Jiang Xia relayed what Guo Peng had said to Ren Jiayi.

"Good heavens, what kind of classmate are you? How can you talk nonsense at a memorial service for someone who has passed away?" Ren Jiayi picked up her glass and found it was empty, so she waved to the bartender to bring her another one.

"I think it's true. My classmate is very honest and upright. Besides, there's no point in him making this up, is there?" Jiang Xia said, fidgeting with her hair.

Ren Jiayi pulled Jiang Xia over the table, and downstairs, pedestrians and motorcycles passed by in the alley.

"Xiaxia, you need to make your own judgment about this. Based on your understanding of Xiujie, is he capable of doing something like cheating? Or did you already suspect something was wrong?"

Jiang Xia shook her head and said frankly, "You may not know, but in the past few years, Xiu Jie has lived here for almost ten months of the year. I'm too busy with work, and I can only manage to take more than ten days off during the National Day and Spring Festival holidays. He only goes back to China to stay during these two months."

"Don't you two have a good relationship?"

"How do I call them? After a while, I really can't tell the difference anymore."

Jiangxia didn't eat much. Right now, as she was thinking, her stomach felt empty. She grabbed a piece of Thai fried chicken wing and bit into it, but the taste was a little numb.

"I remember when we were in school, you would go to see Xu Xiujie every week. Our school wasn't far away, but it was still eight kilometers away. In the summer, you would ride your electric bike there, and when you came back, you would be all sweaty but smiling more happily than anyone else. In the winter, you would take the bus and have to transfer once. Sometimes you would miss the last bus back and end up taking a taxi back..."

But these were merely proof of her love for Xu Xiujie.

They've been dating for ten years, and they've only argued a handful of times. Almost every argument they've had has been about marriage.

Once, Xu Xiujie got angry and, in the heat of the moment, smashed a canvas in his studio. Jiang Xia still remembers that it was a painting of black roses. He had painted it with great care, starting after returning from Thailand and working on it for three days straight, all because she brought up the topic of marriage again.

That day was her twenty-sixth birthday, but she jokingly expressed it as a wish.

If you don't mention marriage, their relationship is indeed very good.

"Xiaxia, I really think you're overthinking it. You haven't seen that high school classmate for many years. People are under a lot of pressure these days, so they might say the wrong thing or deliberately provoke others..."

Jiang Xia wanted to explain for Guo Peng, but before she could speak, Oscar brought over two glasses of wine.

Oscar leaned down and kissed Ren Jiayi, not even a light peck, and Jiang Xia subconsciously lowered her head to hide her embarrassment.

Ren Jiayi stood up with Oscar in her arms, took one of the cocktails and handed it to Jiang Xia, her face beaming with happiness: "I have to keep him company, you drink slowly."

Jiang Xia smiled and nodded, watching Ren Jiayi follow Oscar into the crowd.

The wine in the open, short-stemmed glass is pale pink when held up to the light, and two cherries are skewered on a bamboo stick.

Jiang Xia took a small sip. The initial taste was sweet and cloying, like cherry syrup. Before she could even swallow it, a fiery and intense flavor surged up.

Jiang Xia frowned, swallowed, and quickly ate a cherry.

Unexpectedly, the cherries had been soaked in high-concentration alcohol. As soon as she bit into one, the juice burst out, causing her to cough violently.

I was about to get up to get some tissues when a tissue box was handed to me the next second.

She was the only Asian woman at the table besides herself and Ren Jiayi.

Jiang Xia overheard them talking and mentioned that her name was Yuki, that she was of Japanese and Thai descent, but that her dress and appearance were completely Chinese, and that she even spoke good Chinese.

"My name is Yuki. I heard them call you Jiang Xia. You've had your second drink. Be careful you don't get drunk."

The girl then sat down in Ren Jiayi's seat. Jiang Xia took the tissue, spat out the cherry, and wrapped it up. "Thank you, your Chinese is really good."

I attended university in China.

The two sat together and chatted for a while. Jiang Xia realized that Yuki's target was not her.

"Actually, I wanted to ask, are you two a couple?" Yuki asked, pointing to Shengzhi's empty seat.

Jiang Xia quickly waved his hand: "No, we're just friends, ordinary friends."

"Could you give me his contact information? WhatsApp, WeChat, or Line are all fine."

Seeing the girl take out her phone, Jiang Xia frowned slightly, brought her wine glass to her lips, and said, "I'm sorry, I don't know if he agrees or not. Why don't you just ask him directly?"

The next second, Yuki smiled and revealed her cute tiger teeth: "It's okay, I'll add you first. We can hang out sometime. I've lived in Chiang Mai for more than half a year, so I'm a relatively new member."

The two added each other on WeChat. Jiang Xia's landscape profile picture seemed to belong to a different era compared to the other person's sexy bikini photo.

"He's really handsome, and he's Chinese, right?"

"Um."

"Did you see that? Those two Russian sisters were hanging around him all night. What's his name? Sheng... Zhi? Zhi?"

Following Yuki's gaze, Jiang Xia squinted and looked into the distance. A dozen meters away, Sheng Zhi had a Russian beauty on each side, and their wine glasses were quickly emptied. He wondered how many glasses they had already drunk.

Perhaps their gazes were too direct, for Sheng Zhi looked up and stared straight in her direction.

"He's looking at you," Yuki said, fixing her hair and waving in that direction. She smiled at Jiang Xia and asked, "Aren't you two really a couple?"

Jiang Xia touched her ring finger. Although she didn't have a ring, she still explained, "I'm already married."

"I really couldn't tell." Yuki was a little surprised, but then a hint of relief seemed to appear in her eyes.

Before I knew it, the cocktail that had been pungent just moments before was now empty.

Jiang Xia put down his wine glass, looked around, and found that Ren Jiayi and Oscar were nowhere to be seen.

"Yuki, do you know where Jiayi went?"

Yuki, looking down at her phone playing a match-3 game, said, "She should have gone down with Oscar."

Go down? When we came back up, there didn't seem to be any empty tables on the first floor.

"I called her."

"No," Yuki interrupted, then smiled and whispered something in Jiang Xia's ear, "...Do you understand?"

Jiang Xia blushed. Everyone here is an adult, and she shouldn't be making a fuss, especially since this is Chiang Mai, Thailand, which has some strange characteristics.

Yuki sat with her for a while, then her friend pulled her to another spot.

Jiang Xia sat alone. The bartender noticed that she was all alone, so he chatted with her for a few minutes and then gave her a drink.

This is my third drink tonight.

Jiang Xia wanted to refuse, but on a night like this, it seemed harmless to have a few more drinks.

She didn't have to worry about work the next day, or her parents seeing her disheveled state reeking of alcohol, and she no longer had to agonize over whether Xu Xiujie should marry her...

She couldn't even name the third glass of wine; it had no acidity at all, but rather a hint of cucumber and bitter melon fragrance.

As the third cup was about to be finished, Ren Jiayi returned, followed closely by Oscar, who was unsteady on his feet. Several buttons on his shirt were casually undone, and hair of the same color as his hair was faintly visible on his chest.

"You like this kind of thing?" Ren Jiayi asked with a smile, standing in front of Jiang Xia.

Jiang Xia then noticed that Ren Jiayi had several hickeys on her neck, her eyeliner had smudged onto her lower eyelids, and most of her lipstick was gone.

Ren Jiayi straddled back to her seat, let out a soft sigh, and downed the remaining wine in one gulp.

"If you like this kind of European or American look, I can introduce you to someone. Oscar has a cousin here too."

Jiang Xia smiled and shook her head, taking it all as a joke.

Ren Jiayi turned on her phone's front camera to touch up her makeup. Her technique was skillful, showing that she had touched up her makeup quite often in such dimly lit places.

Jiang Xia watched her apply lipstick quietly, his gaze involuntarily drifting to her neckline. Aside from the few hickeys, her collar was slightly exposed when she bent over, revealing a thin scar on her left chest, about a hand's width below her collarbone.

Jiang Xia first pulled her collar up a little, then couldn't help asking, "Why is there a scar?"

"What?" Ren Jiayi was stunned for a moment, then realized what she meant, put away her lipstick and said, "One year I accidentally slipped off my board while surfing and got a cut. I was thinking of getting a tattoo to cover it up, but I haven't decided what to get...maybe a rose. You know me, the most common is the most elegant."