midsummer night

The flowers all over the tree come from only one seed in the ice and snow.In the three hundred poems, what is repeated repeatedly is only the word that was not uttered when I was young.

—— Xi Murong

Spring in St. Gettysburg is still cold and the sky is leaden.Looking out of the hotel window, the buildings in the distance are covered with a layer of fog.The interior is a classical golden wall pattern and a deep red carpet, the tone is warm and appropriate.A huge crystal chandelier hangs on the top of the banquet hall. The light is like scattered diamonds. The brackets of the chandelier are scattered around and the edges are curved upwards. It is a luxurious old-fashioned craftsmanship.

He Xiyuan stood at the handrail of the stairs in the banquet hall and looked at the chandelier. The flowing large spots of light were like diamonds in the window.

From the perspective of return on investment, diamonds are less cost-effective than gold, which is anti-inflation and has high liquidity.But he still likes to look at shiny objects. After all, the life around him is quiet, and it is rare to see a speck of light.

He Xiyuan has graduated for two years and works as an analyst in the Beijing branch of Jianling Capital.There are almost no Omegas among the nearly ten people in the department.Because of his academic background and internship experience, he was able to go from intern to retention, and was responsible for project valuation and industry survey within the group.

Global mining resources have been nearly exhausted decades ago. Precious metals such as gold and silver ran out first, followed by rare metals.

The annual gold conference is a gathering of high-level mining companies that still have inventory and production capacity around the world to discuss resource allocation and investment opportunities.

The mining industry is in decline. There are many family businesses and chaebols, and there are also many old Alphas.The executives and bosses of the world's major mining companies tried to talk with various accents. The gray-haired old Alphas inquired about business opportunities with each other, and the air was mixed with the smell of sticky pheromones and cologne.

He Xiyuan followed the investment director Gao Qingnian to participate in a few days of meetings. Before coming, he had investigated the background of some of the participating Alphas. After the meeting, he went straight to several senior executives of gold mines in Eastern Europe and South America.

Gao Qingnian is a middle-aged Alpha in his 30s, and he still looks young among the elderly Alphas in Europe and America, while He Xiyuan looks like a young Beta.Alphas of his height were all fatter than him, and their round waist pushed him half a meter away when they shook hands.The Alpha who was taller than him hardly noticed him, as if he was a Beta waiter in a hotel, or an unknown assistant in a certain company.

In the hotel lobby at 8 o'clock in the morning, the participants and the hotel waiters hurried past.

He Xiyuan's buffet breakfast plate is filled with golden fried eggs and black pepper sausages, with a cup of hot coffee in hand.The interior is bright and warm, but the food tastes bitter and bland.

On weekdays, He Xiyuan likes to eat a donut or pancake in the morning, but because of jet lag, he has no special appetite today.

After breakfast, half an hour before the morning meeting, he walked out of the restaurant and stood on the second floor of the lobby looking at the scenery outside the window in the morning.

The lobby is very empty, with simple lines in the space layout, and the fabrics, wall decorations and lamps are retro and soft and complicated Eastern European style patterns.

The sun shines on the dark red carpet, and the dust floats slowly in the air.

He stood by the window thinking about his next itinerary and future arrangements.

He has been in Jianling for two years, and this is the first time he has gone abroad to attend a conference.He was a young Omega, mostly translucent, like dust on a woolen carpet in the morning.

For several years, he sat as an assistant in the conference room, recording meetings and building valuation models.Next year, I may be able to take charge of my own work, release pre-trial reports and be in charge of negotiations with my own projects.He may be able to recruit one or two hard-working Beta or Omega assistants to handle complicated matters, and compete for investment projects and resources with other private equity Alphas in the Jianling Group.

In this industry with such a high elimination rate, a group of Alphas come and go every year, and he doesn't know how long he can last.

He is still young, but he has already sensed the aging of his body.The sound of shoulder and neck bones stretching when you wake up in the morning.His energy is limited, and he is not passionate about work. What supports him to get up on time every day is about the monthly salary that is transferred into his bank account.

A middle-aged Beta in the mining investment sector is roughly what his future looks like.Wearing a gray sweater every day, sitting in the office to modify the display details, from [-]:[-] am to [-]:[-] pm, often being suddenly recruited to another city for a business trip for a meeting for a project, the middle-aged is still alone, tossed in the manipulation of time and capital displaced.

In Beidu's office, most of the Omega employees are engaged in other functions in the slightly crowded office next door.The entire office area is divided into two parts, with a glass wall standing in the middle.

Every morning, He Xiyuan sits in the large office area formed by Beta and Alpha, presses the button of the coffee machine by the window, and listens to the sound of mechanical rolling.Hot water is filtered through the coffee grounds, and the aroma fills the air.

The blurry distant view outside the window is neither fog nor haze, a typical landscape of Beijing.

This kind of weather has become the symbol of the city, just like the people in this city, like sand and mist, walking slowly, dragging their old bodies floating on the dilapidated streets, and can be blown away by the wind in a blink of an eye.

From a very young age, He Xiyuan felt that his life was gently pulled by the throat by a sense of powerlessness, sometimes strangling him, making him almost give up resistance.

In the few years after graduating from university, people around him hinted or expressed that he should find an Alpha to settle down before a rapid estrus, get married and have children, and accept a mediocre life.

However, for him, the estrus period no longer exists, Alpha is even more impossible to talk about, and the road ahead is vague and blank.

When He Xiyuan turned around, he saw an Alpha youth sitting on the sofa not far from him in the lobby.He didn't notice when the other party came in.

Alpha, wearing a snug gray suit, was reading a Russian-language newspaper.The dark curly hair was covered with light golden light in the morning light.

The lobby in the morning was too quiet, and when the sun shrouded Alpha's body, it cast a silhouette on the bridge of his nose.One half of the face is in the light, the other half is in the dark.His face was extremely handsome, with three-dimensional features, and firm lines of jaw and figure.

A section of white shirt was exposed from the cuffs of the dark gray suit jacket, pinned up with metal cuff buttons.His posture is very relaxed, as if he is sitting in his living room in home clothes.

He Xiyuan originally thought he was a guest of the hotel, but after seeing Alpha's face, he froze.

The other sat there, like a boyhood that suddenly appeared in a dream, bearing the torrential rain of the whole summer, floating before him on a St. Gettysburg morning.

The complicated wall decoration patterns and the scenery outside the window are like a picture frame, and He Xiyuan is a person outside the picture.

In the past years, He Xiyuan had only a few similar moments.The earliest time was many years ago, when he was young, he secretly fell in love with Lu Chengfeng, and then he approached Lu Chengfeng tremblingly, following the other party's trajectory around half the world.

Many years later, He Xiyuan thought that their lives would no longer overlap, but when the other party appeared in front of him, he still felt his heart pounding, which made him at a loss.

Lu Chengfeng is one of the hasty silhouettes of his life, just like the black-and-white movie star photos he flipped through when he was a child, and repeatedly looked at the light captured by the photographer on a certain day, month and day.Most of the black-and-white screen stars he likes have passed away or are old. He is destined to repeatedly touch the light and shadow with his fingertips.

At this moment, Lu Chengfeng, who hadn't seen him for many years, was within ten steps away. He stared at the other person's silhouette with eyes like a photographer's lens, trying to see clearly the other person's appearance, the curvature of the eyebrows and the slender knuckles.

Many years have passed, and his mind has become peaceful.Contrary to his boyhood fantasies, he knew he couldn't touch each other.Besides, Lu Chengfeng must not remember him anymore.

The plot of love at first sight upon reunion in the novel will not happen in reality, and the novel is an illusory mirror image of escaping from reality.

He Xiyuan turned his head to look at Alpha's figure. After 30 seconds of peace, the other party put down the newspaper and turned his head towards him.

He Xiyuan turned around in a panic, not daring to look at Alpha, and left through the side door as if nothing had happened.He walks lightly, like a calm and quiet cat.

Behind him, Lu Chengfeng watched his slender figure disappear into the complicated golden porch and red curtains. There seemed to be a very faint citrus smell in the air, and when he tried to distinguish it carefully, the smell had dissipated.