Chapter 22 I! Want! To! Go! Home!

“No.” Jian Zhen’s answer was as consistent as ever: “I came here to find Lin Sheng’s whereabouts, and I won’t leave until I have a clue.”

"You swear?" Bubble must have drunk too much to even make such an unreasonable request.

Jian Zhen didn't refuse; instead, she smiled and nodded, saying, "I promise you."

Bubble picked up the fresh beer keg and, with a show of righteous indignation, clinked it against hers.

As the night deepened and the dew grew heavy, the crisp "clang" from the food stall, carried away by the bustling noise, gradually dissipated into the slumbering city. After a whole night, it finally quieted down, merging into the cool air and becoming ice crystals that condensed on the flowerbeds in the early morning.

Temperatures in southern cities have reached their lowest point of the year, which also means that the New Year is just around the corner.

Starting from the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, Jian Zhen received five phone calls from home every day. Her mother pretended to be angry on the other end of the phone and said, "Grandma has issued three imperial edicts to urgently summon you home. If you don't come back, you will become the first unfilial descendant of the Jian family to be hung on the wall for all to see."

She covered the phone and apologized repeatedly, but when she looked up, she met Lao Le's scrutinizing gaze.

Laur had gotten to know her better lately, and he was speaking more directly, asking casually, "Are you putting on a show for me?"

Having her sob story exposed, Jian Zhen simply dropped the act and confronted the issue, saying, "I've already submitted the last cut of episode 6, so why can't you approve my leave?"

"Without a V-editor, there's a possibility of rework. If you leave, who am I supposed to turn to?" Lauler remained utterly ruthless.

Jian Zhen was indignant and stubbornly demanded fairness: "Then Cici and the others have all left!"

“They’re on annual leave, I have no right to refuse.” Lao Le thought of Jian Zhen, who hadn’t been with the company for a year and didn’t have any annual leave yet, and how pitiful she was in comparison. So he casually brushed her off with a sentence: “What’s your hurry? Bubble is still here, isn’t she?”

"Hey! No no no..." Bubble, who was passing by, was talking to her parents on her phone about where to buy New Year's goods after get off work. She was startled by the news, straightened her neck, shrank her shoulders, and tiptoed away.

"Bubble's home is three kilometers away from the company, how can that be the same!" Jian Zhen was about to slam her fist on the table, but Lao Le remained unmoved.

She had no choice but to grit her teeth and resort to tantrums: "Director Lao, the 27th of the twelfth lunar month is my grandmother's birthday. If you don't let me go by the 26th, I won't exist at Qili next year."

Lauler leaned back in his office chair, crossed his arms, and stared at her through his frameless glasses for a full half minute before finally relenting and saying, "You can buy a ticket for after 4 p.m. on the 26th."

Yes! Jian Zhen came out of Lao Le's office, as cheerful as a swallow returning to its nest. She grinned and walked back to her workstation, her smile never fading. On the way, she bumped into Ms. Han, the general affairs manager, who was about to leave work, because she was looking down to buy a plane ticket.

"Hey, watch your step, what's making you so happy?" Ms. Han teased her.

"I got the leave!" Jian Zhen exclaimed excitedly, holding up her phone.

"Isn't taking leave to go home reasonable, legal, and a matter of course? Look at you, you've been trained like this, your mentality is all warped." After Ms. Han finished mocking, she strode away, but Jian Zhen seemed to have been struck by lightning, and slumped down at her workstation, lamenting and reflecting on her situation: It's all this lousy job's fault!

When Jian Zhen opened her WeChat Moments, she saw that Zixin was on holiday and Da Mei had also taken an early Spring Festival break. They had all posted happy holiday photos. Jian Zhen liked each one, but didn't see any activity from Xu Weisheng. She scrolled through her friends list and found his almost-hidden chat box.

The last time the two had a conversation was more than half a week ago, when Hsu Wei-sheng said that there were still some undelivered Lunar New Year gift boxes from the tour this year, and asked if she wanted him to send her one.

Jian Zhen was disdainful. This was a common item that everyone had, and it didn't deserve to be given as a gift. Xu Weisheng was too embarrassed to even give it to her.

Hsu Wei-sheng added, "Many of the game figurines in the gift box are limited editions, and they sell for quite a high price on the secondhand market."

Jian Zhenyi firmly refused him: "Don't try to tempt me with such petty benefits. I will not consider any game company."

“…Okay.” Xu Weisheng said with a hint of helplessness.

Now, several days later, she couldn't help but ask, "Mr. Xu, when exactly does your company start its holiday?"

"What?" Xu Weisheng replied quickly.

"Just asking out of curiosity."

"It seems money can't sway you, but a vacation is still a possibility," Xu Weisheng said astutely.

"Not even during the holidays!" Jian Zhen resolutely exited the chat interface, packed her things, and left work. With the end of the year approaching, the streets were already decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations. She wrapped her woolen coat tightly around herself and walked through the cheerful crowd. She stopped at the zebra crossing, where a mother and son on an electric bike were also waiting for the red light.

The little boy held up a candied hawthorn skewer, grabbed a hawthorn berry by his mouth, turned his head sharply, tore off the whole berry, and chewed it with relish. His mother turned around and saw this, warning him, "Can't you wait a bit before eating? Be careful the skewer doesn't stick into your head!"

"That's what I deserve," the little guy replied magnanimously.

Jian Zhen chuckled, pulling her coat tighter around her. The boy's mother rolled her eyes at her son, speechless, then met Jian Zhen's gaze, who was watching the spectacle, and complained to her son, "You'd think the family owes him snacks—"

"We're not allowed to eat them at home!" the little boy argued. "It's because you and Dad won't let me eat candied hawthorns in front of Grandma!"

"Grandma has diabetes. If you eat candy in front of her, won't that just make her drool?"

The green light came on, and the mother and son were still arguing back and forth, but the speed of the electric bike had already left Jian Zhen far behind. She crossed the road against the wind and felt a little envious for no reason. Having traveled thousands of miles from north to south, this was the first time she had felt homesick.

On the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month, Jian Zhen, who was experiencing homesickness for the first time, finally returned home. When the plane landed at the Capital Airport, his family, young and old, actually sent two cars to pick him up.

"Isn't this a bit too extravagant?" Jian Zhen joked. "How am I supposed to ride? In my dad's car, and then get off halfway and switch to my aunt's?"

"This child is really something, always talking nonsense!" Mom patted Jian Zhen on the back of the head and scolded, "Your aunt has something to do. She has to pick up a customer, but their flight was delayed and they haven't arrived yet, so she came with us to pick you up."

"Oh!" Jian Zhen scratched the back of her head, grinning from ear to ear. "Auntie, aren't you coming to our house for dinner today?"

"Of course I'll go! How can I not go to Grandma's birthday party? I'll go this afternoon after I finish what I'm doing here." Her aunt pinched her shoulder and said with concern, "Look how thin this child is, she's practically a sheet of paper. This afternoon, Auntie will make you some zucchini and egg dumplings, so eat a few!"

"Yay! Long live zucchini and eggs!" Jian Zhen bid farewell to her dear aunt and led her family home with bags and packages. Upon entering the house, she first greeted her grandmother warmly, and then sat on the warm carpet to play a guessing game with the dog.

"Left hand or right hand?"

The golden retriever placed its paw on her left fist.

"Hahaha! You guessed wrong! It's the right hand!"

In the kitchen, the nanny, Aunt Zhang, smiled and said to Jian Zhen's mother, "After working away from home for half a year, Zhenzhen has become even more like a child!"

No one knows a daughter better than her mother. The mother only needed to glance back at her daughter to point out the crux of the matter: "She has truly experienced what it's like to be an adult, and knows it's not easy, so she wants to come back and act spoiled for a few days."

"Why don't you try to persuade her? It would be so much better if she came back to work."

"She's so resourceful. If I told her, she'd probably find me annoying. No worries, Sister Zhang, just wait and see. If I don't urge her, someone else will."

Sure enough, during the dinner, Grandma personally came to urge him: "Have you had enough fun in that place full of miasma? When are you planning to come back?"

Jian Zhen blinked: "Ah, Grandma, the air in Guangzhou is really nice."

“What’s so good about it? I heard that there are cockroaches everywhere, and the rats on the street—” Grandma gestured and exaggeratedly said, “They’re as big as hedgehogs, even cats run away from them.”

“Well…” Jian Zhen changed the subject, saying, “That’s how it is in the subtropics.”

"So, when are you coming back?"

"Grandma, I have a proper job, I'm not going out to play." Jian Zhen took a deep breath, lowered her head, and hesitated, "Let me finish what I need to do first..."

At the dinner table, Jian's parents exchanged a knowing glance; their attitude had softened—good news!

Jian Zhen didn't need to look up to know what her elders were thinking. She had traveled a long way to escape one net, thinking she had returned to a warm and comfortable nest, but in less than a day, she found herself in another net.

Her mood suddenly plummeted. She hastily ate a few zucchini and egg dumplings, then made an excuse that she was full and went out to the yard to build a snowman.

This year the snow was thick, and Jian Zhen, carrying a shovel, worked hard all by herself, and soon she had piled up a gourd that was smaller at the top and larger at the bottom. She was so engrossed in refining her work that she didn't notice her aunt walking up behind her.

"Zhenzhen." Her aunt pulled down the hood of her down jacket, and Jian Zhen turned around, revealing a face red from the cold: "What's wrong, Auntie?"

"I have good news for you."

"What?" Jian Zhen smiled dismissively. Her aunt was deeply involved in the film and entertainment industry and always brought her many novel secrets when she was a child, but in recent years she has lost interest in celebrity stuff.

"There's some news about the film and television adaptation rights for 'Billiard Boys'," Auntie whispered, making a shushing gesture, and then quietly waiting for Jian Zhen's reaction.

She first doubted her hearing, then froze for two seconds before realizing what she had heard and jumped up in ecstasy, almost falling on her aunt: "Really! Really, Auntie!"

"It's true, but the details haven't been finalized yet, so we can't disclose them to the public for now!"

"Ahhh, that's great!" Jian Zhen cried tears of joy. She ran around her still-unfinished snowman twice, and in her excitement, she took off her scarf and hat and put them on her snowman friend who had overheard the good news.

Unable to sleep in the middle of the night, she got up from her bed and looked through the thick windowpane. She saw her loyal snowman listeners still standing in the yard, and felt that all happiness was so solid and believable.

Just then, her phone vibrated beside her pillow, notifying her of an incoming message. She had a feeling it was him, and when she turned it over, sure enough, it was.

Hsu Wei-sheng: "Sending emojis in the middle of the night instead of sleeping, is it haunted?"

Jian Zhen said with a grin, "I have some fantastic news."

Hsu Wei-sheng: "Are you going to tell me or not? If you don't, I'm leaving."

"I can't tell you this on WeChat; it's confidential for now."

"Shall we talk in person?" Xu Weisheng had just finished his online meeting with his lawyer. He glanced at the car keys on the table, then looked back at his phone screen and typed, "Send me your address, I'll come pick you up."

It will be later today.