On a slightly warm afternoon, I had a meeting with the screenwriter of a certain movie. I was the original author, he was the adapter. We drank iced coffee and discussed those romantic plot points.

In one draft of the script, the screenwriter wrote a line where the heroine says to the hero: "For my sake, you must live on well."

At that time, the heroine was already dead; her remaining words were written in a text message.

I said, "Could you delete that sentence?"

The screenwriter asked me, "Don't you think they loved each other at that moment?"

I said, "People who love each other don't say things like that. Because they didn't end up together in the end, for people like that, what can be spoken is not love."

I said, "Love is a fragile thing. If you can't possess it, it's better not to say it. Saying it will only cause heartbreak."

Actually, even if you don't say it, she or he knows. If you say it and she still doesn't understand, then she isn't the one who loves you. So some things are better left unsaid; some riddles don't need to be guessed at all.

I learned this from J.

J is a genius, always smarter than me. I studied medicine in the US, while J studied mathematics in the US. I wanted to integrate into American society, trying to make myself look presentable, but J was always unkempt, just like when he reigned supreme in the Peking University mathematics department.

J studied for a full seven years for his PhD, two years longer than usual, because for the first five years, J was constantly playing video games.

J's skill at playing games was shocking. That was the era of single-player games, and developers always hid various little puzzles in the games. You could clear the game without solving them, but you wouldn't get the most powerful items or achieve the most perfect ending.

Of course, you could look up walkthroughs online—back then, walkthroughs were often secretly released by the developers themselves—but J never did that. J relied solely on his own intuition and repeated attempts.

Finally achieving the perfect ending, letting the hero and heroine live happily ever after, J would drink beer, drinking until he was dead drunk to celebrate, as if through his efforts, the world had gained a bit of beauty and a tragedy had been stifled.

J hated tragedies. J believed that people who loved each other would end up together. J said game developers actually shared his mindset, so in a tragic script, they would always leave a chance for you to defeat fate and win the beauty back.

I once sat beside J watching him play; it was truly an IQ crush. He pointed to a line spoken by the hero and said to me, "Look, he said this sentence here, asking me to go to Luoyang to find a key item. This is a hint the developer gave me. If I don't find that item, my girl will die."

So J searched for that item in Luoyang, walking through every corner. He was afraid the girl in the game would die; he would save her even if his eyes turned red from exhaustion.

Yet in reality, J remained alone.

When graduation was approaching, J felt his life had two possible futures. One was to go to a consulting firm and become a consultant, which was a supreme job.

The top five consulting firms in the world all claimed they only recruited the smartest people. They provided solutions for the world's top companies and government heads. They paid every consultant a starting salary of nearly 1 million RMB, regardless of whether you worked in the US or the Angola branch.

The other future was to go to a game company and become a game tester. The monthly salary at the time was about 3,000 RMB, unkempt, sustaining life on barbecue skewers and beer. J loved games too much; he felt that a game tester and a high-and-mighty consultant held equal attraction for him.

In the end, the temptation of salary defeated the temptation of games. J decided to try out for McKinsey, the strongest consulting firm in the world.

McKinsey's interview process at the time was divided into three rounds. In the first two rounds, you had to face the interviewer and instantly answer some strange questions completely unrelated to your major, such as how many ping pong balls you think fit in a Boeing 747. You could use pen and paper for calculations.

The third round tested your social skills. You needed to have lunch with the interviewer and discuss current events. As everyone knows, being a consultant is an upper-class profession, and practitioners should be upper-class people.

J passed the first two rounds with ease because he was a genius, but he hit a wall in the third round. Because during lunch, succumbing to his appetite, he ordered a roast chicken for himself... Usually, interviewees would order a sandwich that could be eaten elegantly, but J ordered roast chicken, so he had to disassemble that chicken with a knife and fork and finish it.

He spent almost three hours. The interviewer finished lunch in just half an hour, which meant they had to wait patiently for him for two and a half hours, waiting for J to dismember that greasy roast chicken and eat it all.

But at the end of the story, J still got the job because his performance in the first two rounds was too outstanding, enough to prove he was one of the smartest people in the world.

After getting the position, J asked the interviewer, "I still have half a year before graduation. May I ask what preparations I need to make in the next half year to join a top company like McKinsey?"

The interviewer said, "Practice your English properly. Honestly, I didn't understand a word of the English you spoke. I was just stunned when I saw the calculation results you wrote on the paper."

I wrote so much about J's background just to show that J is a genius, a game-loving, lonely genius with terrible English who could conquer the world solely on intelligence.

J, with his poor English, was sent back to work in Shanghai, holding his 1 million annual salary.

In 2004, J leapt to become one of the most elite young people in the world. That year, J had just turned 27. In his third month in Shanghai, he fell in love with a 22-year-old girl named Ah Yao.

Ah Yao was a rich girl, very rich, with a father of high social status. Ah Yao was beautiful and chivalrous; she would help anyone she thought was worth helping. Ah Yao was interning at another consulting firm and hadn't graduated yet.

Ah Yao was a princess and J was a genius, but there was still a long distance between a genius and a princess. The biggest obstacle between them was that Ah Yao had a very reliable boyfriend. The boyfriend had already gained the approval of Ah Yao's family; in a way, Ah Yao was engaged.

Ah Yao was very good to J, perhaps because J looked so ignorant and innocent, like a child. J had been abroad too long and didn't understand Chinese affairs at all, so Ah Yao introduced him to friends. When J needed a pretty girl to attend important occasions with him, he could often ask Ah Yao out. J had ulterior motives, while Ah Yao always left gracefully after the event to go back to school to see her childhood sweetheart boyfriend.

I advised J, "That girl has no interest in you. You are chasing a phantom."

J said, "No, no, I will catch her, because she gave me a hint."

J showed me his text messages with Ah Yao. Honestly, the content of the messages was truly lackluster.

J: I have a reception tonight, can you accompany me?

Ah Yao: Bah! Am I your sidekick? I have to write a thesis.

J: I'm sitting in the company in a suit right now. I don't know jack shit. How can I go?

Ah Yao: You win. You owe me a meal.

There was another text where Ah Yao asked: J, have you ever had a tooth pulled? Does pulling a tooth hurt?

J: I have. It hurt so much I felt like I was going to explode. Are you going to pull a tooth?

Ah Yao: I'm right outside the clinic door. I'm about to explode.

J: I'll go keep you company! Ah Yao: Who are you to come keep me company?

There was another text where J said: It's snowing. I remember it snowed the last time we ate together too.

Ah Yao said: If you want to treat me to a meal, just say so directly.

Honestly, judging from the texts, Ah Yao really didn't have any special feelings for J, but J insisted that Ah Yao liked him. Ah Yao didn't accept him only because her boyfriend was approved by her family, and she was suffering inside.

I looked at J like I was looking at a madman, but J said, "I'm not crazy. I understand Ah Yao, just like I know the hints the game developer gives me."

I said, "Bullshit! Ah Yao is a rich girl, okay? She doesn't have to fear anything in this world, nor does she need to suffer any grievances. If she likes you, why doesn't she say it directly? Is she really a princess? Is she engaged to the Duke of Wellington?"

J said, "Everyone in this world has things they are afraid of. Ah Yao is afraid, but I cannot be afraid."

We all wished J good luck and waited to see his failure.

A year later, Ah Yao and J held their engagement ceremony. Out of surprise, I flew specifically to attend their ceremony. I asked Ah Yao, "Did you agree because you couldn't stand J chasing you anymore, or did you like J from the start?"

The always chivalrous Ah Yao said, "I liked him from the start, but I was very afraid."

I said, "Then why did you never tell J?" Ah Yao said, "Why did I have to say it? I feel that the person I like will definitely be able to find me, even if I hide at the ends of the earth."

I sincerely blessed J, and I didn't mind at all whether J stealing someone else's partner was immoral, because in this world, how rare it is to have someone understand you without words. When love reaches the point where it doesn't need to be spoken, even the King of Heaven cannot stop it.