Xiao Chun | Tailor and Xiao Shuang

If you went to Midnight Diner around 2015, you must have known Tailor. From Fujian, a man of few words, often wearing a baseball cap, his thin figure often moving between the tables and the kitchen. As we joked, Tailor was the third-generation owner of Midnight Diner. During the same period, there was also a girl named Xiao Shuang in the diner. Regular customers probably remember her too. She was very young, with short hair, loved to smile, and had a face full of youthful innocence and collagen. She was also a capable hand at Midnight Diner. The story I want to tell today is about them.

Before Tailor became the third-generation owner, when everyone still called him Little Tailor, he was already having an "office romance" in the diner, with Xiao Shuang. I can't remember exactly when they got together; maybe I forgot, or perhaps I never knew. Anyway, they just ended up together like that.

At that time, Midnight Diner was just beginning to become an internet-famous restaurant. In the tiny kitchen, five or six people were busy at the same time. They had no time for flirtatious glances or teasing in the "office." They looked no different from ordinary colleagues. Instead, it was me who often joked about them in the midst of busy work, making everyone burst into laughter. Tailor and Xiao Shuang would also laugh awkwardly, but they couldn't stop working. This scene often appeared in the kitchen. Some customers would wonder what the people in the kitchen were laughing about. Other customers said, "You have such a great working atmosphere."

I forgot how long they were together. I only remember that in the later stage of their relationship, Xiao Shuang was very unhappy. Probably because Tailor was too self-centered, didn't know how to take care of others, very much a straight guy, only caring about his own feelings. In the end, Xiao Shuang left Midnight Diner.

When facing the breakup, the self-centered Tailor was not as calm as everyone thought. Sometimes he would sit alone smoking in silence, sometimes sighing, and sometimes he would talk to me about their conflicts. I would also help analyze and give advice like a self-appointed mentor, pretending to be someone who had been through it all.

During that period, after closing every day, Tailor would change the diner's music and play Wu Bai's "Ring" on repeat.

One day, after the diner closed, Tailor shut the door and said to me, "Xiao Shuang is leaving Dali. She's going back to her hometown with a guy, and they might get married. Her train is at seven in the morning." I asked, "Then what?" Tailor said he regretted it. He had been thinking all these days and realized his selfishness in the relationship, and that he still liked Xiao Shuang. I asked again, "Then what?" He said he wanted to wait for Xiao Shuang at the train station entrance. Even if it was as hard as looking for a needle in a haystack, even if Xiao Shuang had another guy by her side, he still wanted to make one last attempt to win her back and tell Xiao Shuang that he knew he was wrong. If he could win her back, great; if not, at least he would have no regrets.

After he told me, I was suddenly moved. I was moved by Tailor's courage at that moment. I said, "Go. Don't worry about anything at the diner. Just go find Xiao Shuang." At past six, before dawn, Tailor set off for the train station, leaving me alone in the diner to make braised pork, beef brisket, black jelly, and scallion oil, working all the way until past eleven in the morning. For Tailor's love, I paid a huge physical price that day.

At the end of the story, Tailor returned disappointed. Xiao Shuang boarded the departing train on time. Tailor never mentioned the details of his attempt to win her back, though I could roughly imagine. He didn't say, and I didn't ask.

Yesterday, Xiao Shuang returned to Dali. It had been so long that she had grown a lot rounder, but her personality hadn't changed. She was still carefree and seemingly thoughtless, but the way she spoke revealed maturity. And she had become a little millionaire. I invited Tailor and Xiao Shuang to hang out at Jason's place. He Chen was also there. The old colleagues from back then gathered again after many years, had a meal together, and chatted.

After it ended, I drove Tailor and Xiao Shuang in my car. Suddenly, the scene felt incredibly strange and unbelievable. I said, "Xiao Shuang, let me play a song that belongs to you." Xiao Shuang looked bewildered, not knowing what I was talking about. I said to Tailor in the passenger seat, "Play it." Then Wu Bai's "Ring" echoed in the car, and the lyrics scrolled on the screen. At first, Xiao Shuang felt embarrassed, thinking the lyrics were cheesy. I turned to look at Tailor; only the shadows of streetlights passed across his face one after another, revealing no expression. When the song ended, Tailor didn't say a word.

The return trip was short, only a few songs away. I never thought there would be a day when the people in the story would come together again, talking about the past as if it were someone else's story, so casually. I have no idea what Tailor and Xiao Shuang were thinking. But I truly felt that it was so good back then, everyone was so good, and youth was so good.

At the destination, everyone got out, said goodbye, and went their separate ways. I think this story, perhaps only until yesterday, has finally come to a true end.

So good.

Xiao Chun, 2023.4.25

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