Chapter 35

"It's obvious that he wants to cheat us out of our money. If we give him money, he says it's true. If we don't give him money, he says it's false. He treats us like fools," Zhou Yiheng said, speaking up for him.

A rare flicker of anger crossed Yang Ye's otherwise calm face. The corners of her mouth twitched, and the noisy sounds around her seemed to vanish in an instant, leaving only her own rapidly beating heart. Yang Ye took a step forward, but Zhou Yiheng, standing nearby, sensed her impending outburst first.

He quickly reached out and held Yang Ye back as he tried to step forward, while smiling at Fang Zhiyang, "Teacher Fang, we have something else to do, so we'll leave first."

After saying that, he quickly pulled Yang Ye away.

"Let go," Yang Ye said from behind, but Zhou Yiheng pretended not to hear and instead quickened his pace.

Only after pulling her away for a distance did Zhou Yiheng breathe a sigh of relief.

The arm that was being held loosened slightly, and Yang Ye immediately shook off the hand that he was holding. The force was so great that Zhou Yi staggered sideways and almost tripped over the stone steps on the side of the road.

"Why did you pull me away? Didn't you see I had something else to say?" Yang Ye stopped, the anger in his eyes almost turning into reality.

Zhou Yiheng steadied himself and took a deep breath. He was usually nervous when talking to Yang Ye, but now he looked at her intently. He knew Yang Ye was angry, and seeing her eyes burning with anger, but with an unprecedented calmness in them, he gently persuaded her, "Boss, don't be impulsive."

"Impulsive? How am I impulsive?" Yang Ye sneered, his voice sharper than ever. "I just want to ask clearly, didn't you hear what Fang Zhiyang said? That liar anchor devalued good things to nothing. He even shamelessly told Fang Zhiyang to buy cheap genuine goods. Buying genuine goods means loving history, and not being able to afford them is a betrayal. What a ridiculous theory! What about the genuine goods? Do I not want to buy them? If everyone has genuine goods, then what is the point of museums?"

Yang Ye seemed to have found an outlet for her words. Her speech became faster and faster, her voice higher and higher, and every word was filled with the emotions that she had suppressed for a long time.

Zhou Yiheng stood there quietly. He listened to Yang Ye's complaints, felt her venting, and saw the corners of her eyes turned red because she was too excited.

"Everyone is talking about history. Don't I know how good the history before was? But does it still exist now? If it doesn't, what else can we prove except a bunch of useless old stuff? Do you know how old Fang Zhiyang's stuff is? Over a hundred years. How many things can happen in a hundred years? Even the truth can be said to be false."

"Boss" Zhou Yiheng wanted to go over.

Yang Ye pushed away Zhou Yi's body that was blocking her way. She sniffed and walked towards the campsite. Too many complicated emotions made her completely forget that the purpose of her trip was to buy water.

Zhou Yiheng saw this and hurriedly chased after Yang Ye, saying, "Boss, don't be angry. Now that it has happened, we need to think of countermeasures and solutions instead of just being angry."

At the campsite, Li Cheng and Liu Guoxing were still eagerly waiting for them to come back with the water they bought.

In the open grass, the two of them lay on a picnic mat. They crossed their legs, sprawled out with their arms and legs spread out, looking up at the sky with empty eyes, immersed in a state of boredom and emptiness.

Unlike their dazed expressions, Xiao Xiao was actually quite happy. She even went to the music festival up ahead to inquire about the situation. She had originally wanted to go in, but after asking the security guard at the gate, she gave up. The festival required tickets, and they had all sold out a month in advance. But the security guard also said that as long as you didn't go inside, standing back and listening was not much different from going inside.

She stood there for a moment, noticing a number of stalls selling water and snacks. The music festival was so lively, and in such an open park, it was only natural that many vendors would come.

There were many mineral water bottles that had been used but not taken away lying on the green and yellowed and trampled grass. An auntie in sanitation work clothes was picking them up one by one with a plastic bag.

Xiao Xiao walked to the nearest stall and asked, "How much is the water?"

The stall owner had just moved the empty foam boxes to the back. When she heard the question, she turned around and looked at the bottle of mineral water that Xiao Xiao picked up. "Ten yuan."

The music festival had been going on for a while, and the lively music, screams and cheers coming from there could be heard clearly even from outside.

From the beginning to the end, there will be about three to four hours when not many people come out. Take advantage of the free time now to clean up the things on the stall, take away what needs to be taken in advance, put the unsold ones together, and wait until the end to see if they can be sold again.

The stall owner wiped his hands on a towel and tore off a plastic bag from the side and handed it to her. "How many bottles do you want?"

"Do you have a big bottle?" Xiao Xiao asked.

“The big bottles are sold out, only these small ones are left.”

"Then I want five bottles. How much are the drinks here?" She tilted her head and saw the colorful drinks in the thermal box. The ice cubes inside had melted into water.

After packing the bottles of water she ordered and temporarily placing them on the table, the boss pulled out another plastic bag and said, "These are eight yuan, these are ten yuan."

Xiao Xiao picked up a few bottles and came back to see Li Cheng and Liu Guoxing lying on the picnic mat with their arms outstretched. Liu Guoxing's face was still covered with the hat he had just brought.

She put her things on the picnic mat and asked, "Is the boss not back yet?"

"Yes." Li Cheng licked his dry lips. Just when he moistened his lips, the cold wind that blew in took away the moist feeling. He could only keep switching back and forth between licking his lips and swallowing his saliva.

"I've bought the water," Xiao Xiao said, taking out the half-drunk Coke she had just drunk and waking the two of them up.

Liu Guoxing sat up on the picnic mat and looked at the bottles of water and drinks beside him. "We still have to rely on Xiao Xiao. I don't know how long we have to wait for them."

Li Cheng also sat up, took out the mineral water, unscrewed the bottle cap, and drank half of it in one gulp. His dry throat finally stopped itching. "I don't know where those two who bought water went. They didn't go back without telling us, did they?"

Xiao Xiao said: "That's not the case, the boss is too lazy to walk"

Liu Guoxing and Li Cheng looked at each other and exchanged meaningful glances. Leaning forward slightly, he cautiously approached Xiao Xiao's position. Li Cheng lowered his voice and asked quietly, "Tell us the truth. What is her current relationship with Xiao Zhou?"

Xiao Xiao was puzzled and looked at them with a strange expression, "It's just the relationship between boss and employee."

Liu Guoxing watched Xiao Xiao's reaction and nudged Li Cheng with his elbow, signaling him to change direction. Li Cheng nodded and sat cross-legged. "Apart from this, didn't you order anything else?"

Xiao Xiao asked back: "What do you want to know?"

"She hasn't thought about finding an assistant for so many years, but when she did, she found someone who looks so similar," Liu Guoxing suggested.

"Professor Liu, what you said is wrong. I am just an assistant hired by the boss."

"You are an exception." Liu Guoxing was stunned and smiled apologetically, but then he felt that this might not be accurate. "When we came to you, we persuaded her for a long time before she came to her senses."

"You know, Yang Ye's situation is special, so she's always wary of outsiders," Li Cheng continued. "We talked to her for almost half a month before she agreed, but she told you back then that she could only find a female assistant, so that it would be convenient for us to live together."

"Did she want to find a girl before?" Xiao Xiao asked.

"Yes," Liu Guoxing continued, "I advised her to find two people, one boy and one girl. When she went out to work, the boy could help with carrying things and doing manual labor. After all, it's always convenient to have a boy around when you're in a strange place. The girl could do some clerical work, but she didn't want that. She wanted a girl."

"But when she asked me to find an assistant last time, she didn't say what gender I was looking for."

"Look, here comes the problem." Li Cheng grasped the key point and asked tentatively, "Yang Ye, have you had any thoughts in that area recently?"

"Oh~" Xiao Xiao suddenly figured it out. She raised her eyebrows slightly, and the corners of her mouth pulled up uncontrollably. "I want to know if the boss is looking for a partner."

"She has an idea?" The two said in unison. Liu Guoxing gave Li Cheng a reproachful look. He cleared his throat and then pretended to be serious and said, "We are not gossiping, we are just concerned about our friend."

"Yes, yes, we just want to care about her," Li Cheng also agreed.

"You said that she hasn't looked for Xue Shangyang since she broke up with him for so many years, and now she meets someone who looks so similar, so we are worried," Liu Guoxing hesitated to speak.

"What's there to worry about?" Xiao Xiao asked confusedly.

Li Cheng took over and finished the rest of the conversation for him, "Old Liu is afraid that she will use him as a substitute."

Xiao Xiao's face, once full of gossip, flashed with helplessness and embarrassment when she heard their story. She glanced back and forth between Li Cheng and Liu Guoxing, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "If you two had said one of you had feelings for her, I might have believed you. But a body double? How could you have come up with such an outrageous and ridiculous conclusion?"

Li Cheng argued, "There's nothing in today's society, and there are still so many things like this on the Internet."

"Please look at something serious," she laughed twice. "What about a substitute? That's impossible. The boss always thinks Zhou Yiheng is too inexperienced. He is clumsy and doesn't know anything when he does things."

Liu Guoxing has a different opinion. "She once told me that when she first met Xue Shangyang, she thought he was too pretentious, but in the end they were together. She has been thinking about him for so many years and hasn't forgotten him."

"Ah, she hasn't forgotten yet?" Xiao Xiao was surprised

"I don't know what's her memory like. She can't forget it even after decades," said Liu Guoxing. He caught a glimpse of Yang Ye and Zhou Yiheng walking back towards him. He exchanged glances with them, and the three of them quickly gave up the current topic. Instead, they pretended to be nonchalant and started discussing the current weather, with a seemingly natural but slightly stiff smile on their faces.

Li Cheng pretended to cough twice, then stood up and stretched his arms. "This weather is quite comfortable."

"Yes, it's time to come out and bask in the sun," Liu Guoxing also said, but his eyes kept glancing at the two people walking over, looking at them.

Yang Ye walked in front, his usually cold face now slightly red, and the way he suppressed his anger made them feel uneasy.

"I'm back," Li Cheng whispered, but there was no response.

Zhou Yiheng followed behind, his steps somewhat flustered and nervous, unlike Yang Ye's angry expression. Li Cheng glanced at Xiao Xiao, who looked at him puzzled. Li Cheng's eyes moved, and he pursed his lips to indicate something. Xiao Xiao's expression became strange, and the corners of her mouth twitched. She opened her eyes wide in confusion and looked at Li Cheng in surprise.

Li Cheng pulled her up from the picnic mat, pushed her shoulders, and pushed her towards Yang Ye.

"Go" Li Cheng waved his hand.

Seeing Xiao Xiao walking towards Yang Ye, Li Cheng quietly walked over to Zhou Yiheng, half covered his mouth with his hand, and asked in a low voice, "What happened? Why does she look so bad?"

Zhou Yiheng sighed and glanced at Yang Ye, who was still angry and sitting on the bench over there. "I ran into Teacher Fang on the way to buy water."

"Lao Fang?" Liu Guoxing came over and asked, "Why did you react like this when you met Lao Fang? Did you have a fight?"

Zhou Yiheng swallowed his saliva, his dry throat feeling even drier after walking all the way. He took a deep breath, and waited until his saliva had almost moistened his throat before he spoke, "Didn't Teacher Fang ask the boss to look at something before? The boss told him to go to a specialized appraisal agency, but Teacher Fang didn't go?"

"Well, then?"

"Teacher Fang heard that there was a very popular treasure appraisal anchor online, so he tried to connect with him. However, this connection required payment first, and Teacher Fang didn't pay, so he had to wait in line. The anchor initially praised Teacher Fang's things to the sky, but later said that Teacher Fang's things were fakes, devaluing Teacher Fang's things to nothing. He also promoted it to his fans in the live broadcast room, telling them to be vigilant and not to be fooled by fake things. Later, the anchor came to Teacher Fang again and said that he would give Teacher Fang another chance, as long as he paid the appraisal fee first, he could connect again. I guess the anchor was trying to cheat money."

"Old Fang is really something," Liu Guoxing said with a sigh. He frowned, took out his cell phone and went to the side to make a call.

Li Cheng asked: "What's next?"

"Teacher Fang may find another anchor to authenticate the product later, but because the previous anchor has too many fans, even if a young anchor recognizes it as the real thing, the fans below will flood the screen saying that the product is fake, and the young anchor will be scared and dare not tell the truth."

"How can there be such a wicked person?" Li Cheng also said, he turned his head to look at Yang Ye sitting over there, "No wonder she is so angry"

Liu Guoxing's phone rang several times, but no one answered. He came over and asked, "Where can you see Lao Fang?"

"At the main gate," Zhou Yiheng said.

"You guys stay here first, I'll go over and take a look." Liu Guoxing put down his phone and hurried to the main entrance.