At the end of the meeting, it was lunch time, and Ruby Lin and Sun Yao wanted to invite Wu and Lu to lunch, so I hurried back to the almost empty office.

When I returned to my desk, I found a book lying on the table, the cover of which had been neatly wrapped in the finest kraft paper, and when I opened it, I saw that it was my copy of The English Patient that had been borrowed by Halu. The seat on the opposite side of Halu was empty, as if the man had never been here today. I rubbed the book cover repeatedly with the palm of my hand, and was instigated by an irresistible force that seemed to be drained of my soul to feel the texture of the vellum.

Who will wrap a book jacket these days......

I complained in my heart, and when I really felt a little troublesome, a media salesperson who happened to pass by and was not very familiar with walked up to me and asked recklessly: "Mr. Deng, what book are you reading?" ”

I shoved the book into my bag, prevaricated with nonsense like "Young Lei Zhenzi vs. Frieza", which no one would understand, grabbed my backpack and walked out of the office as if I had something to do.

Straight down the freight elevator from the parking lot, my mood sank. Sitting in my old X-Trail, I have a little sense of stability, and I don't have a place to go, I just want to sit all the time.

Just before I was about to fall into some hopeless emotional quagmire, Ruby Lin's message woke me up from another universe.

He called me to meet at the izakaya he frequented, and reminded me to avoid the elevator and leave the office as soon as possible.

Understand, ignition, lightly press the accelerator, and the steering wheel hits a circle and a half.

Hidden in a towering residential building, it's hard to find her face if you don't ask, but it's hard not to fall in love with her if you do.

Jingji is really a pure traditional izakaya, the wooden sliding door is opened, the waitress in short-sleeved Japanese service clothes and her hair combed into a high bun will come out to greet you with the most unexpected enthusiasm, and the diners on the first floor will sit around the kitchen, everyone will drink while chatting one-on-one with the nearest waiter - no matter how many times you visit, the conversation will never stop, unless you seem to need to be quiet, the wine will not stop, and the skewers and other snacks will be so delicious that you don't want to go home. The first floor of Jingji is always in full swing. It opens at 12 noon and is open until 2 a.m., this is Jingji, an izakaya to an izakaya that can no longer be an izakaya.

I remember working overtime until the wee hours of the morning one day, because I was hungry and my nose was held by a certain fate, and I was really startled when I opened the door - a room full of Japanese office workers filled the small space - people mistakenly thought that I had become Goro Ininoshigashi (the protagonist of the Japanese drama "Lonely Gourmet") shuttling through the streets of Tokyo at night.

I chatted with the good-looking waitress for a long time, and simply ordered a salmon roe chazuke with grilled salmon, which tasted so good that I couldn't say anything, and I also drank a lot of it, but I forgot what we were talking about at the time. I only remember that after eating, the guests left the table one after another and returned home, when I was the only one left, I was very embarrassed to speed up the speed of eating, and the honest boss lit a cigarette and sat opposite me, and said to me with a smile, I can't swallow the rice in a hurry to protect my stomach, only the guests in Jingji did not close.

How could you not fall in love here?

Since then, Jingji has become my private hideaway after working late nights. Later, because of work, I took Ruby Lin to go there alone, and it became a secret base for me and Ruby Lin.

I arrived early, and Ruby Lin didn't sit in the place where he usually sits. I sat down in the "special seat" first, amusing the beautiful waitress and comforting her resentment, while slowly waiting for Ruby Lin's arrival.