2024-12-18 #1
Travels with zl (Part 2): Happy Days and Farewell
“Hey, zl, now that we’re on a business trip in Suzhou, if we don’t stay in a hotel, the monthly business trip allowance can totally cover the rent. That means the money we save on rent can go wild on decorations!”
“Holy crap, you’re right!”
(Too bad a month after saying that, the business trip allowance disappeared.)
Life in Suzhou felt like college. We lived in the High-Speed Railway New Town at the northernmost edge of the city, where there was nothing around. By nine every night, the streets were dead silent—hardly a soul in sight. There were very few rental apartments near the company, so most people chose the same apartment building, just a ten-minute walk from the office. It became the dormitory of Momenta University.
zl and I started trying to build a life. For example, I finally learned how to cook. zl also bought a bunch of stuff. Even the COVID outbreak didn’t disrupt any of it; instead, it actually brought us closer to our other colleagues. That’s when playground got familiar with us too. Soon we found ourselves hanging out at playground’s place downstairs all the time, playing Super Smash Bros.
That’s why, every time I look back on my time at MMT, I feel happy and warm.
At the time, zl’s girlfriend of four years was studying in Canada (which was also a major reason for zl to go abroad). Before the pandemic hit, he went to visit her and brought back a bottle of ice wine for me. Over the following five years, I moved a total of six times, and that ice wine was one of the few things I kept with me wherever I went. At first, I just never found the right moment to open it. Later, it became deliberate—no matter where I was, it always lay in my fridge.
In the fall of 2021, zl set off to study abroad.
One person in the photos, @playground, didn’t want their picture shown.
zl said I could post his photos freely.
This is the bottle of ice wine.
🧩Fragment Story