Chapter 17: Can Get Rid of Singleness in Seconds

Xu Ke thought the two of them sitting together were quite pleasing to the eye, so he didn't go over to disturb them.

However, Ma Xiao, who was drunk and dazed, was walking towards him with his head swaying.

Seeing this, Xu Ke stepped forward and pulled him: "Hey! Brother Ma, happy birthday! I came to bother you today without a gift. Come on, come on, let me toast you."

Xu Ke didn't know how many times he had toasted him.

Ma Xiao waved his hands and said with a thick tongue, "No, no, no, no, no, I'm so happy that you can come!"

Xu Ke poured him a glass of wine and clinked glasses: "I'll drink it, you can do whatever you want."

Ma Xiao was too embarrassed to be so casual. He tilted his head back and drank till the bottom was reached. After finishing his drink, he said, "I'm sorry. I did drink a bit too much today. I'm going to take a rest first. I apologize for the poor hospitality."

Xu Ke pretended not to hear and started talking loudly: "Hey! Our birthday boy is having a good time today, but we're not! How about asking him to perform for us?"

Everyone started to cheer: "Let's do a piece, let's do a piece."

With various encouragements, Ma Xiao sang a song "Green Flower in the Army".

On the other side, Zhou Ran and Yan Nian didn't care at all about the lively atmosphere on the other side.

There wasn't much to talk about, we basically communicated with each other out of the corner of our eyes.

After Zhou Ran finished his steak, he stood up and went to a quiet place to answer a phone call. When he came back, he left in a hurry.

…

The party had not yet ended, so Yan Nian and Xu Ke said goodbye first, and Ma Xiao arranged a car to take them home.

Xu Ke couldn't drive after drinking, so he had to squeeze into the same room with her tonight.

Yan Nian is very dependent on Xu Ke. With her around, the atmosphere at home becomes much more lively and relaxed.

Yan Nian sat by the dressing table, wiping her face as she looked at Xu Ke, who was sprawled on the bed, playing with her phone. Then she remembered she had something else to ask her: "Sister."

Xu Ke: “Hmm?”

Yan Nian asked, "You added Zhou Ran on WeChat. Did you tell him anything?"

Hearing this, Xu Ke sat up and asked, "Did he tell you that?"

It's more than just a simple "say." Yan Nian hummed, not telling Xu Ke the specific circumstances of the situation.

Otherwise Xu Ke would have laughed his teeth off.

"Oh!" Xu Ke sat cross-legged on the bed, pulling at his curly short hair. "I asked him for his WeChat account, which was pretty easy to get. Mainly to help you see what this guy is like, but his Moments is empty. It looks like a business account, with only some company promotional links. This time, I have to check it out for you."

"Did they say anything else?" Yan Nian was secretly worried about having a cousin who was a community leader. Now that she was facing Zhou Ran, she didn't think about it in any other way.

Zhou Ran's attitude towards her was merely a relationship of superiors and subordinates mixed with personal connections.

"Then, I told him I was your cousin and asked him to take care of you at work." Xu Ke winked at her. "He agreed readily."

"..." Yan Nian wondered if he was really that straightforward, "Have you ever asked him if he's single?"

Speaking of this, Xu Ke became interested: "Yes."

Xu Ke crawled from the head of the bed to the foot, and asked mysteriously: "Guess what he said?"

Yan Nian was unusually expectant: "What did you say?"

Xu Ke coughed twice and imitated Zhou Ran's behavior: "Well! It's hard to say. There are many people chasing me. I might not be single in the next second."

After saying that, Xu Ke lay on the bed and laughed: "Fuck, hahahahaha."

Yan Nian translated: "It means that with his superior conditions, he can get rid of being single in no time."

Xu Ke laughed so hard that she cried: "Yes, your leader is too narcissistic, I can deal with him, hahahaha."

Yan Nian didn’t ask anything else. It was enough that the cousin Sheniu was a narcissistic leader.

The chat with Xu Ke ended here. After she finished laughing, Yan Nian went to bed, turned off the lights and went to sleep.

Just as he was about to fall asleep, Xu Ke suddenly said, "Nian'er."

Yan Nian suddenly opened his eyes, his nerves unbalanced, and he couldn't help but feel a little nervous: "Huh?"

Xu Ke said, "I feel like the way he looks at you is different from the way he looks at others."

Yan Nian kept his eyes open for a long time without responding, then turned over and lay on his side with his back facing Xu Ke.

I don’t know if Xu Ke was talking in his sleep, but he started snoring as soon as he finished talking.

Yan Nian was feeling sleepy again.

She was dazed, as if someone was calling her.

"Yan Nian, Yan Nian."

A tall and thin boy in a light blue T-shirt was waving at her. Her face was not clear and everything around her was blurry, as if they were in a shopping mall.

"Yan Nian, come here."

Yan Nian was tripped by something and couldn't get free, so she wanted to go over and take a look.

"Yan Nian, come here quickly."

The scene changed, and Xu Yiqing's hysterical face appeared before him: "Why are you so useless? Why can't you just listen to me? I gave up my job and everything for you, and this is how you repay your mother? You must cut off contact with him, do you hear me!"

"Why do you keep making me angry? Kneel down, kneel down."

"Give me your phone. If you can't disconnect it, I'll help you."

"No, no, please, I can handle it myself." She held the phone tightly.

His voice came from the phone: "Yan Nian, you have never liked me, right?"

"Excuse me."

"No...no." Yan Nian wanted to explain, but the other party had already hung up the phone.

Yan Nian suddenly opened his eyes.

Everything was pitch black before my eyes, but once I regained consciousness, all my senses were magnified. My limbs felt weak, and I was sweating profusely.

Yan Nian’s first reaction was that he was dreaming, and he dreamed of Zhou Ran.

After calming down for a long time, she moved her feet. Her cousin's legs were pressing on her and the quilt was all over her.

Yan Nian gently pulled himself out and sat down, groping for the cell phone on the cabinet next to him to check the time.

It was just after three in the morning.

With my cousin's bedtime words and the real scenes in my dream, it was difficult to fall asleep again.

Yan Nian opened WeChat and saw new updates in his circle of friends.

Qi Jin posted this an hour ago. The background was a photo of five men sitting together in a bar, and Zhou Ran was also in it.

Because of the dim lighting, it looks blurry.

Yan Nian gave him a thumbs up, turned off his phone and sat at the head of the bed, feeling a tight pain in his chest.

Perhaps it is because late at night is when the mind is most vulnerable, and all the unpleasant memories from the past spread rampantly and came one after another.

Ever since they agreed to Zhou Ran's confession, their need for excuses to chat has escalated to the point where they would send each other messages to inform each other of any small matter.

Not long after school started, Zhou Ran went to Lingyun University to see her twice, usually on Saturdays and Sundays, when time was tight, so he hurried back to school the next day.

A week before May Day, Zhou Ran took the initiative to ask for a three-day holiday to go to Lingyun to see her and brought her a gift.

The coastal city where Zhou Ran lived was quite far away from her. Yan Nian even thought about going to find him and traveling at the same time.

But thinking about her family, she gave up because she would have to use countless excuses to cover up a lie.

Therefore, she did not refuse Zhou Ran from coming to see her, and it just so happened that she also had something to give Zhou Ran.

Looking forward to that day.

As summer approaches, the weather in Lingyun is very bad, indicating heavy rain and strong winds.

Zhou Ran booked a flight early in the morning, but unfortunately the flight was delayed.

Send her a message to tell her not to worry and she will definitely go.

When getting on the plane, remind her that it’s time to depart.

After receiving the news, she has been in a stalemate with her parents for the past three hours.

Zhou Ran arrived at the airport around four in the afternoon. Knowing that she wouldn't answer the phone, he sent the message after he arrived.

Zhou Ran: [Your boyfriend has been transported to Lingyun Airport.]

Zhou Ran: [Come and claim it quickly.]

The phone was placed on the table, being watched by three people at the same time. It was as if her secret was exposed to the public, and shame, guilt, and resentment all came out at the same time.

Yan Nian remembered very clearly that the weather was gloomy that day and it didn't rain until the evening.

Just like her relationship with her parents, there is no light and it is filled with endless darkness.

In the end, she was unable to make it to the airport, her cell phone was taken away, and she didn't know how long Zhou Ran stayed at Lingyun Airport.

When I contacted him again about half a month later, Zhou Ran just said on the phone that it was okay, he had a classmate studying at Lingyun University, and he went to play with his classmate for three days.

No wonder she didn't go to the airport to pick him up.

He also said that he would come to see her again when he had the chance, but she told him at that time: "No, don't come to see me again."

There was dead silence on the phone. After a long time, Zhou Ran smiled and asked why.

She panicked and said that she didn't get the elective course and her family was very disappointed in her.

In fact, when she secretly filled out her application form, her family was already extremely disappointed in her and didn't want to care about how she performed in college.

Zhou Ran comforted her in return.

She said something that completely cut off their contact: "I'm sorry, Zhou Ran! I don't want my family to be disappointed in me, so from now on, let's not contact each other."

After hearing this, Zhou Ran talked a lot on the phone.

At that time, she was standing in the corridor of the hospital, her mind was blank, and she didn't want to answer anything. She listened to the voice on the phone and looked at her mother who fainted in the ward door because of her anger, her eyes red.

She didn't say anything. She heard Zhou Ran sniff and said to her in a muffled voice, "Excuse me!"

As her eyes blurred, she gritted her teeth and said calmly, "Hang up!"

Zhou Ran is very good, but she doesn't deserve him.

When she was about to hang up the phone because she didn't want him to hear any of her emotions, she heard him say in a low voice: "Yan means color, Nian means miss, I get it!"

His voice was dull, lost and weak at that time.

There has been no contact since then.

......

For the next week, Yan Nian did not see Zhou Ran come to work at the company.

I heard from Gu Pingping that some foreign businessmen came from the coastal area on a business trip.

Yan Nian still arrived downstairs at the company at nine o'clock, and then queued up for the elevator to the 32nd floor to punch in at ten past nine.

My current task is to cooperate with everyone to complete overseas contracts and translate some promotional materials.

Yan Nian was particularly careful about all the legal clauses in the contract.

Every day I am busy with translation, proofreading, reviewing and editing.

She is still in her internship period, and there are rumors that she is a relative with unstable foundation.

In addition to free time, analyze and study the grammatical structure of each clause.

Qi Hui and You Jia were just finding fault with him even more.

It was not until she revised it many times that she was satisfied. Yan Nian naturally had no objection to their pursuit of perfection.

It is better to check more than to make any mistakes.

Yan Nian was not upset by these things. She was quite indifferent to the intrigues in the workplace. Xu Xinrui sometimes admired her.

…

Written translation is rather boring, and sometimes I have to sit in front of the computer for a whole day.

Recently, he has been working overtime lately, which has disrupted Yan Nian's daily routine. There is a gray look in his eyes and his mental state is not so good.

I felt a little dizzy when I stood up from my workstation, so I stood on the edge of the table for a while.

Xu Xinrui behind her noticed her abnormality and asked, "Yan Nian, are you okay?"

Yan Nian paused for a moment, then shook his head while holding the cup: "It's okay."

I went to the tea room to have a cup of coffee to refresh myself. On the way back, I met Zhou Ran leading a middle-aged man and woman in.

The man in a suit and tie was none other than Boya's chairman, Zhou Ji.

There is a small mole on the tip of her nose and the woman with noble air is Zhou Ji’s wife, Zhao Ning.

She had seen them in the company's information. Both of them were very young, and according to people in the company, they were a model couple that everyone envied.

Zhou Ran is a combination of them, and has completely inherited their good genes.

"Mr. Zhou, Mr. Zhao, Mr. Zhou." Yan Nian called out to three people in one breath.

Zhou Ji and Zhao Ning smiled and nodded at her at the same time.

After the others walked to the front, Yan Nian followed behind and returned to the translation team.