After hanging up with Wei Zijin, Wang Xiaoliang stood in front of the fish tank for a long time.
The arowana swam over along the glass, then swam away again. He watched the fish, and the fish watched him. Neither had much of an expression.
He called Lu Sining.
She answered after two rings.
"Sis."
"Xiaoliang."
Lu Sining's voice was soft, deliberately hushed. Was she afraid of disturbing the sleeping Huang Xueli?
"Are you doing okay?"
"I'm doing fine." She paused. "Xueli is still asleep."
Wang Xiaoliang murmured an acknowledgment and said nothing more.
Lu Sining continued, "He's too tired. People like us, with so much weighing on our minds, rarely get a good night's sleep. Let him sleep. There's nothing to think about now."
She said that last sentence very slowly.
There was nothing to think about now.
He didn't know how to respond.
After a few seconds of silence, he changed the subject.
"Sis, there's something I've never understood."
"Go ahead."
"Why does my brother always call you Hongqiu when he talks to me?"
The other end went quiet for a moment.
Then Lu Sining laughed. It was a very quiet laugh, as though she was afraid of waking the person beside her.
"My name used to be Lu Hongqiu."
"Huh?"
"I thought it sounded old-fashioned ever since I was little. Lu Hongqiu-say it yourself. Doesn't it sound so eighties? Even seventies wouldn't be a stretch. It just sounds old."
"Later, when I went to college, I changed it to Lu Sining. I chose it myself. I thought it sounded nice and fresh. I changed it on my household register and ID card and everything. It took so much effort."
"Once, we were chatting, and somehow we got onto the subject of names. So I told him about