Chapter 75 75. Third Person

After Du Jiahao finished his half-joking, half-serious remark, Xie Kang didn't know what to say, so he simply kept silent. Xie Kang continued, "I've been drifting for several years, and I want to find a place to settle down. I'm unfamiliar with other places, so it's easier to work here."

"Who is that kid?"

Du Jiahao got angry: "They have names, like this kid and that kid."

"Okay, okay, what's your name?"

Du Jiahao glanced at Xie Kang and said reluctantly, "Li Meng."

"Whose surname is this?"

Du Jiahao saw the mocking look on Xie Kang's face, and as always, he felt a surge of anger in his heart. He became more and more convinced that he and Xie Kang were incompatible. This man was very self-righteous because he relied on his cleverness. He was more restrained when he was with Zhuang Yongyuan, but it was really unbearable to be alone with him.

He said unhappily, "That was his name when I saw him in the orphanage. Coincidentally, Yao Xiting's girlfriend's last name is also Li."

"What will happen when he grows up?"

"What should I do? I didn't become rich like Zhuang Yongyuan, but raising a child is not that difficult."

Xie Kang also became impatient: "I'm not talking about money. When Li Meng grows up and asks you about what happened with Yao Xiting, what will you tell him?"

"Tell me the truth." Du Jiahao looked at Xie Kang in disbelief. "What's there to hide? Yao Xiting and I are just this kind of people. We're born that way. We don't steal or rob. What's there to be afraid of?"

Xie Kang once again showed an expression as if he had thought of something but was unwilling to say it. Du Jiahao was annoyed by this and changed the subject: "You came here just to tell me you resigned?"

"I also want to ask you, where do you think it would be suitable for me to go after I resign?"

"Why are you asking me? We are not on the same page. You might as well ask Xu Zhen."

"Haven't you been to many places?"

"I told you, I'm fine as long as I don't starve to death. You..." Du Jiahao looked at Xie Kang, his smooth, scar-free, sunburn-free skin, his meticulously groomed hair, clothes, and accessories, his shirt cuffs perfectly cut. He smiled and said, "You wouldn't want to live that kind of life."

"Do you know me well? That's all."

Although he was complaining, Xie Kang's face showed no anger and his tone was calm.

The two of them stopped talking, and the atmosphere became awkward. Du Jiahao was the first to break the silence: "Okay, if there's nothing else, I'll leave first. It's not good for Li Meng to sleep too late."

He stretched and stood up. Xie Kang nodded and followed him out of the office.

When passing by the kitchen, Li Meng couldn't wait to throw himself into Du Jiahao's arms, as if he had been waiting for a long time. Du Jiahao picked him up again and let Li Meng lean his head on his shoulder. The two of them were whispering something.

This novel family of three, who were put together with no blood relationship and no traditional love, were in a hurry to go home. After saying a simple goodbye to Xie Kang, they hurried to the car. Just before getting in the car, Du Jiahao remembered to tell Xie Kang to ask the kitchen to make him some midnight snack if he was hungry, and then he couldn't wait to get in the car.

Xie Kang, alone again, watched Du Jiahao's car drive away. He could imagine Yao Xiting driving, Du Jiahao sitting in the back seat with Li Meng. He'd feel stuffy in the car, half-open the window, then close it again, worried Li Meng would catch a cold. A compilation of hits would play in the car, and after returning home, they'd take turns taking hot showers and tucking into warm beds to start the day and prepare New Year's Eve goods.

Without love and sex, being with friends is also a kind of life, and it seems pretty good.

She doesn't rush for her ideals, but like Xu Zhen, she marries someone of equal status, has children, and lives a happy life in the secular world, without worrying about the daily necessities of life. She is rich in both emotional and material things. She is also truly happy, and her smile is more heartfelt than any of them.

Xie Kang realized that he could no longer be like he was at eighteen, thinking that his life would be wasted if he didn't live a certain kind of life.

He came to find Du Jiahao specifically and waited for him for several hours on a winter night, but Du Jiahao could not give him an answer.

He had impulsively thrown away his previous life and now didn't know where to go. The place he wanted to go most was the one he had given up years ago.

Du Jiahao said he and Xie Kang were not of the same ilk, but Xie Kang now had no idea what kind of person he was. For the past twenty years, someone had shown him the way. He'd become a child prodigy featured in the Pingnan Evening News and topped the high school entrance exam. It was his parents who had carefully paved the way for him. He played in a band and was rebellious in college because he saw everyone playing music as being like that. When he returned to Pingnan, his career path was clear.

How much does his every move, every breath, overlap with his true self?

Or did he not have a true self at all? From beginning to end, he was just a nondescript cloud, drifting everywhere with the wind, just a wet particle that could not control its own body.

Xie Kang didn't dare to think about it any further. If he went any further, he would collapse and become a madman wandering the streets.

He closed his eyes, and Zhuang Yongyuan's image slowly became clear in his mind. He missed Zhuang Yongyuan, he needed Zhuang Yongyuan, but this was all he could do, this was the end. Fate is limited between people; missed opportunities are missed opportunities. It was he who had reached out and pushed Zhuang Yongyuan away.

For the next few days, Xie Kang didn't leave the hotel. His phone was turned off, the TV was on 24/7, and he would wait until the wee hours of the morning to go downstairs for the buffet breakfast, his only meal of the day.

The people in the news were all smiling. When they mentioned that tomorrow was New Year's Eve, Xie Kang was in a daze for a while before he remembered that he had promised his mother to go to the hotel for a family dinner on New Year's Eve, and also remembered not to mention his resignation at the banquet.

Xie Kang felt a little uneasy when he walked into the first-floor lobby of the Haiyuan Hotel. The light from the crystal chandelier was too bright and dazzling, and he ducked his head to avoid the shimmering light.

Mingming had been coming in and out of this place with his family since he was a child, but after resigning, he no longer had a proper identity to speak of. He was neither a student nor a teacher. For a moment, Xie Kang felt like he was walking naked in front of everyone, and he felt uncomfortable all over.

The private room was located in Room 666 on the sixth floor, one of the most popular in the restaurant. Because his uncle's family had returned home, and this family dinner brought together three generations of the Xie family, a rare occasion, Xie Tao had called long in advance to reserve the room and even added a red envelope of 5,000 yuan.

The dinner was scheduled to start at seven o'clock sharp, but as a junior, it was his duty to arrive at the box early to help with the reception. Without thinking, Xie Kang left at six o'clock. When the hotel elevator reached the sixth floor, it was only six twenty.

Halfway to the private room, Xie Kang stopped at the door of the food delivery room.

He had an instinctive aversion to the people and things behind the box door. He didn't want to go in, dreading the next few hours.

Xie Kang coughed nervously, wanting a cigarette, and pulled out his pack before putting it back. He still had some sense left in him, and didn't want to smoke in the public hallway. While he was distracted, he overheard the waiters chatting in the food preparation room.

"Where's that guy who just came the day before yesterday? Didn't we say we were in a group?"

"You mean that handsome guy?"

"Yeah, where did he go? Do you have his phone number?"

"You're not going to hide away somewhere to slack off, are you?"

"He looks quite decent, I don't think so."

"Don't act foolishly just because someone is pretty!"

"The cold dishes for 666 can be brought over now."

As soon as he finished speaking, the half-closed door of the food delivery room was pushed open from the inside, and two women in waitress uniforms walked out, one of them holding a platter of cold dishes.

They were startled to see Xie Kang, lost in thought, standing at the door. The older waiter took a few deep breaths, put on a professional smile, and asked Xie Kang, "Sir, are you having trouble finding your private room? Which one do you want to go to? I'll show you the way."

Xie Kang shook his head: "No need."

He heard the waitress say they were going to 666, so he simply followed them. When they found Xie Kang following him into 666, the two waitresses looked surprised, but they still arranged the dishes calmly and opened the red wine and poured it into the decanter.

There were two tables in the private room. Xie Tao and his wife sat at the table near the door. His aunt and her family had also arrived. The two children were chasing and playing in the room.

Xie Tao glanced at Xie Kang without saying anything. Yang Ruihui stood up and said with a smile, "Kang Kang, you're finally here."

Uncle Xie Kang nodded at Xie Kang: "You are still so busy."

Yang Ruihui took over the conversation: "Yes, they have to rush some materials and urge us to come here first."

Xie Kang exchanged a few pleasantries and sat down next to Yang Ruihui. Looking through the reflection of his phone screen, he realized that from the moment he entered the private room, he had unconsciously adopted a polite and courteous smile, just as well-trained as the waiters.

The relatives arrived at the box one after another. Except that Xie Tao hardly spoke to Xie Kang, everything was normal, just like the nearly one hundred family dinners he had attended in the past.

Everyone was punctual and arrived before seven o'clock, filling up two tables.

At seven o'clock, Xie Kang checked with the waiter, and the first dish, poached nine-segment shrimp, arrived promptly. Everyone drank, chatted, and peeled the shrimp. Even the clumsiest fingers became nimble, the translucent shells dropping into the bone dish, the shrimp meat sinking into their mouths, their lips fluttering as they chewed.

"Kangkang, Kangkang!"

Xie Kang came back to his senses when Yang Ruihui called him. He reflexively raised his glass and looked for someone to toast at the table. Yang Ruihui then quietly reminded him, "Uncle asked how your work is going."

Xie Kang put down his glass slowly and said to his uncle, "It's just okay, just going to and from get off work every day."

Someone asked, "What is your job title now?"

"Let's wait and see if I can get promoted to the next level in the second half of the year." Yang Ruihui answered fluently and glanced at Xie Kang, as if warning him not to let anything slip.

"It's still too slow. Ideally, we can get Level 1 within five years. Kangkang has been working for six years, right?"

“There are fewer places in recent years, and there are veteran teachers waiting in line ahead of us.”

"That's not what I meant. Your father still doesn't take it seriously and hasn't found a solution for you."

The waiter came in again, this time with abalone soup, placing small bowls before each person, interrupting the conversation. Xie Kang lifted the lid of the soup bowl. The abalone, sliced ​​in patterns, dipped in the sticky golden broth, reflecting a bored light.

The uncle tapped his wine glass on the table and said, "You can't say that. The environment is different now."

He looked at Xie Kang with a serious expression: "It's a pity for Kang Kang to stay in Pingnan."

Xie Kang toasted him and swallowed the spicy white wine in one gulp.

Xie Tao took a big sip of the golden soup and said, "What's so regrettable? The most frightening thing for people is not being satisfied."

The uncle then said to him, "Let's leave work as it is for now. What are your plans for marriage?"

Aunt Xie Kang then said, "Kang Kang, don't underestimate marriage. It's also an opportunity."

Xie Tao looked up and said to the others, "This abalone is not cooked well. It smells fishy."

"I haven't eaten yet, I'll give it a try."

"Mine is OK, maybe there's something wrong with your bowl, Tao."

Xie Kang stood up quickly and said eagerly, "Dad, I'll help you change it."

Without waiting for Xie Tao to speak, Xie Kang took the bowl of abalone soup in front of his father and went out. After putting the abalone soup down in the serving room, Xie Kang realized that the skin on the palm of his hand was red and painful.

He didn't go back to the box directly. Instead, he found a toilet and hid in the cubicle to smoke.

His chest tightened, his scalp throbbed, and a sharp pain shot through his palm. Xie Kang looked down and realized he'd been holding a cigarette butt. He flushed it down the toilet, staring at the dark red wound. Suddenly, he scratched at it with his fingers, leaving blood smearing under his nails.

Xie Kang didn't want to go back to 666, but he still washed his wounds in front of the sink, washed his face, and made himself presentable. He looked up, wanting to take a good look at himself in the mirror before leaving, but his vision was blurry.