When Bright Moon Encounter the Dark Clouds

She did not know that aside from looking for the killer, I had also traveled to many places such as Tibet, Yunnan, Inner Mongolia, and Xinjiang. These places far from civilization gave me a moment of peace in my mind.

Then just like that, my troubled heart sank into the villages in the snowy mountains, the vast lake, and the snowy plains.

Tan Jiao was the only thing that really riled me up.

However, it now seemed like she had calmed down too.

Without any more clues and the mysteries of the ship going nowhere, I felt like I had no reason to return to Dali anymore.

……

I never used to check social media such as Weixin, QQ, or Weibo. However, one time after I searched for the name Qi Zhu, I began to check out her Weibo every day. She seemed to like posting about her life. Every little detail about her life could seemingly be found there.

1st of July 2017.

“I’m in a very bad mood today. Feeling really awful. Don’t ask me why. It’s just a relationship problem. Those who love me please give me a big kiss.”

I checked the date of this post and saw that it was the day I left Dali. There were some internet slang that I was not familiar with, but it was funny to me for some reason. However, after that short moment of laughter was over, a heavy feeling returned to my chest.

3rd of July.

“Maybe I should go blind dating again…”

I lowered my face and saw that I had squeezed my cigarette out of shape unknowingly. As I scrolled through the comments section, I found a bunch of comments that objected to that.

The southern peacock: “Blind dating? How long have you not been writing?”

Cute and Round: “My goddess, you’re still young. Spend more time at work and not love.”

Hey, You: “Goddess, you’ve gone mad, right? Didn’t you say you’ll be single forever?”

The Joy of Being In The Arm of My Idol: “I’m focusing on work ‘again’. This means she had failed once at least. Hehe.”

……

As I scrolled through her Weibo, I somehow felt at ease. No wonder she was that cute, her world, her readers, were all that cute.

5th of July.

“I went boating today. Even though it was very sunny, I still went boating. Am I foolish for doing that? But when I look at the blue skies, white clouds, and mountainous scenery before me, I feel that everything can be forgiven.

“If you guys ever miss someone, try writing their name on a piece of paper and throw it into the water. Looking at that person’s name fading away to the distance on that paper is somehow meditative.”

The comments below that wrote:

Beer and Dumplings : “Oh no Qi Zhu, don’t scare us. Did you break up with someone?”

Lazy Person: “Don’t be too invested… Thinking about your ex is a bad thing… Go back to writing.”

The Sun Never Sets: “Why do I sense a hint of sadness from this? I feel bad for our goddess, don’t make fun of her guys!”

……

This time, I could not smile at all after reading that. In my mind, I could totally imagine Tan Jiao doing this, something dumb that she would insist on doing.

8th of July.

“Went to have dinner with @TherealZhuangyu. We should enjoy our lives and not waste it on sorrows. For singles like the two of us, men and dating are just like clouds in the sky.”

10th of July.

“What should we do today? Let’s get the car washed and drive around on this sunny day!”

12th of July.

“The most painful thing in the world.

“He’s the dark clouds and you’re the moon.

“The bright moon encounters the dark clouds.

“But the moon is unaware that the clouds have disappeared.”

————First section “Passing Light” finished ————