Chapter 72

Mo Daoyan still relied on his relationship with Chen Ruchao and borrowed a phone in the nurse's duty room to call Qiao Zhuoyuan. He saw with his own eyes that Qiao Zhuoyuan rushed to meet Ji Xilin. His calm expression was washed gray and dim by the mist in the night. He returned to the ward and did not see Tong Yufei when he came in. He searched up and down the stairs and finally found her in the bathroom on the third floor.

She had just vomited in the toilet and was rinsing her mouth to clean it. As soon as the toothbrush touched the root of her tongue, she vomited again.

Interviews involving dinners were common, but getting a female reporter drunk like this was rare. She was also a very adaptable person, so how could she be tricked so badly? He walked over with the IV pole in hand and patted her on the back: "Who did you interview today?"

Tong Yufei leaned on the water counter, catching cold water in one hand as she splashed it over her face. She didn't answer Mo Daoyan. She prided herself on knowing some Tai Chi push hands, but when she met a few old officials, all her tricks became child's play. At the table, people filled their glasses to the brim, passed the delicious dishes around again and again, spoke beautifully, were polite and attentive, and answered all the questions, but they refused to get to the point. They drank white wine and beer in turn, and although they didn't pass out after the meal, they couldn't get a single useful word out of them. She slept all the way to the hospital on the bus, and she was just feeling better. She had been able to hold on when talking to Mo Daoyan just now, but now her stomach was burning again, burning like a prairie fire, and she couldn't even stand.

Seeing that she was in real pain, Mo Daoyan pulled out the IV needle on the back of his hand, stuffed the clothes into his bag, left all the milk and fruits to the patient in the next bed, and half-hugged and half-carried her out.

Amidst the howling night wind, Tong Yufei regained consciousness and asked, "Where are you going?"

Mo Daoyan kept walking: "Discharge from the hospital and go home."

"Your injury hasn't healed yet."

"It's nothing serious. The discharge procedures will be completed tomorrow. Sister Ji encountered an unexpected incident, and someone from the company's technical department needs to take charge. If I don't go back tonight, I have to rush back tomorrow morning. It doesn't matter whether I go back early or late. I can still get a good night's sleep if I go back now."

Taxis have appeared in Xicheng in the past two years, but their number is very small, mainly concentrated in the train station and the city center. Not only are the fares expensive, but it is also difficult to find a taxi at night, and they will not go to where she lives.

Tong Yufei broke free from his hand, clutched her stomach, and breathed a sigh of relief: "If you want to leave, go ahead. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"On the day I took Ye Yimo to the hospital, I drove here and parked in front of the cafeteria. Come home with me."

"That's not my home."

Mo Daoyan thought he was Tong Yufei's best hangover cure. She'd been vomiting so much she couldn't even walk, but the mention of their past relationship instantly made her like a cockfighting rooster, its comb shaking in preparation for a fight. He drove over to the cafeteria, tied the bicycle she'd left at the hospital the previous night to the roof, and shoved her into the back seat. She refused to yield, scratching and biting his hand, but he subdued her with both hands: "I'm taking you home now, but if you make trouble again, I can't promise I'll take you anywhere."

The wound was tearing at his abdomen, so he shouldn't have driven fast. However, the pain grew worse with every passing second. He shifted the gear to the highest gear, sped all the way, and finally arrived at the Oil and Cotton Factory No. 3 on Hefeng Road.

He had been to this place before and brought her a quilt and a heater. The Machinery Factory and the Oil and Cotton Factory were both old factories with poor economic performance, but their temperaments were very different. The broken bricks and tiles of the Machinery Factory stood in the morning mist, like an old stubborn man who was facing elimination by the times but was unwilling to admit defeat. There was also a bit of a bleak air of making a comeback in his decadence. At this moment, the stars and the moon shone together, covering the sky above the Oil and Cotton Factory. The entire dormitory area was silent, like a gentle old man who had seen through the world and could laugh at success or failure.

As Mo Daoyan looked at the gray and white walls, he thought, what a warm scene it would be if these dark windows could light up one after another with the lights of thousands of homes in the evening.

The car had just stopped in front of the dormitory when the expected "nose pulling" sound came. Tong Yufei climbed up from her seat, picked up the hair tie that had fallen off, tied her hair up again, got out of the car and walked into the dormitory area. The window of the sentry box was opened from the inside, and the guard on duty turned on a searchlight for her, carving out a cold white light path in front of her.

Mo Daoyan followed the light inside and caught up with her in front of Room 2. "It'll take at least an hour to drive back. Can I stay here for the night?"

She spoke with exhaustion: "There's a hotel nearby."

"I'm injured."

"This place is shabby and the room is small..."

"Can't we stay in the hospital ward as well?"

"It rained a few days ago, and the sheets and quilts in my brother's room are a little damp, and they haven't been changed yet."

"Tong Yufei, I can't take it anymore."

Mo Daoyan walked in uninvited, her eyes wandering around the room. The furnishings were simple, and most of the furniture was moved from the tube building. Even the layout remained the same. The two desks were still next to each other, so that she could keep an eye on her brother who was doing the carving at any time while he worked. After all, it was a job that required using knives, and there were safety risks.

Tong Yufei first checked his injuries, making sure the gauze bandage was intact and there were no blood stains. Then she went to Ye Yimo's room to change the sheets and quilt, intending to let Mo Daoyan sleep in Ye Yimo's room. Ye Yimo was currently living with Tong Zhaoyang, and she would bring him back tomorrow. As soon as she put the quilt cover on one corner, she felt dizzy and her hands and feet trembled uncontrollably. Her usually skilled movements became clumsy. It was not until Mo Daoyan came in to help her straighten the corner of the quilt that she was able to finish it.

There is a half-open simple wooden wardrobe in Ye Yi Mo's room, with many scarves knitted by her hanging on it. Mo Daoyan once thought that they were knitted for him, but now they are hanging there quietly. He didn't know whether they were given to Ye Yi Mo after he refused to accept them, or whether they were originally prepared for Ye Yi Mo and knitted for him just by chance.

When Tong Yufei lifted the blanket, a gust of cold wind blew, and her legs suddenly gave way, collapsing like a broken reed. Mo Daoyan reached out to catch her, but was dragged down with her by the force of her fall, landing firmly on top of her. The electricity supply was low, so candles were still the most common means of lighting. A single white candle hung by the bed, shedding tears, its crimson flame dancing in her pupils. Days of running around had drained her strength, and she couldn't even lift her fingers to resist. Her body was limp.

He leaned over to kiss her. The smell of alcohol in her mouth had long faded, but she still turned her face away, but brought her burning ear to his mouth. When his hot and wet tongue rolled over the sensitive earlobe, she hummed a few times, like a heart-stirring moan, and like a resentful resentment of wanting to refuse but also to accept. It was simply the best aphrodisiac. He turned her face over, held her lips and sucked them carefully. Because of her injury, he reduced his strength by seven points, and his movements were much gentler than usual. Her tense body gradually relaxed, and finally she fell asleep in the simmering kiss.

Only when she is extremely tired, she may be able to completely relax in front of him.

Mo Daoyan carried her back to his room, covered her with a blanket, and returned to the living room alone. His eyes fell on the backpack on the table. It was Tong Yufei's interview bag. He walked forward, unzipped the backpack, took out the information inside, quickly scanned the names of the marked interviewees, silently memorized them in his mind, and put them back as they were.

The kitchen was nearby, and while rice and flour were plentiful, the vegetable basket contained only a few cabbages, two water radishes, and a handful of wilted beans. The oil drum was empty, with only a few grains of solidified oil floating at the bottom. Living in such conditions, the money he had to pay back must have been saved through years of frugality, and he wasn't afraid of starvation. Ye Yimo was completely neglected, but with her strong sense of responsibility, she would have stuffed her brother's mouth with the last spoonful of rice before she died. How many ingots did Zhao Yueqing burn to the Goddess of Childbirth to be able to give her son such a living Bodhisattva as a sister?

This is not accurate. Tong Yufei is not a living Bodhisattva, and the brother he has is not someone Zhao Yueqing prayed for.

He once visited the management station where Zhao Yueqing worked and chatted with her colleagues. Apart from the old incident of reporting corruption, he also learned that Zhao Yueqing was very good-looking, with two long, shiny black braids that reached her waist, a slightly darker complexion, and a plump figure. But even such a woman could not raise her head in front of Ye Conghai.

An uncle said, "Comparisons are fatal, and comparisons are detrimental. She's a good wife, but she's far inferior to the one Ye Conghai found earlier. I heard that woman knows how to dress, loves reading, speaks fluent Russian, and sings Russian songs well. Most importantly, she gave him a son. Although the child isn't very bright, he left Ye Conghai with a lifelong memory."

Only then did Mo Daoyan realize that Ye Yimo was not Zhao Yueqing's biological son.

An ancient poem says: "A river of spring water and a river of waves, one mountain higher than another." Those who have read a little are always obsessed with the saying "clothes are worse than new, and people are worse than old." Others say that Ye Conghai is obsessed with that woman, but every time he and Zhao Yueqing go out, they smile and rarely get angry. No one can tell what the relationship between the couple is like.

Those people still remembered Tong Yufei as a child, the time she accompanied Zhao Yueqing to the company and worked overtime with her. They praised her for her sweetness, and when the company distributed sweet dates, she greeted everyone with a happy new year's greeting and devoured them all. Then, in the middle of the night, she developed a toothache, and Ye Conghai hurriedly carried her to the hospital. Most of the time, she quietly hunched over her desk, doing homework or flipping through comic books. If someone coaxed her into singing or dancing, offering her a banana, she didn't feel teased and performed with open arms.

The uncle finally sighed, "At that time, we all thought that she would either become a big star or be cultivated by Ye Conghai and Zhao Yueqing into a talented woman. Who knew that so many things would happen later."

Mo Daoyan extracted a very important piece of information from this: Ye Yimo's biological mother was still alive and seemed to be living a good life. He chased after the uncle and asked, "What was Mr. Ye's ex-wife's last name? Where did she work?"

The uncle said, "She's not my ex-wife, but just my lover. Maybe it was just a fleeting romance."

An aunt nearby said, "Ye Yimo was born out of wedlock. I heard he wasn't even full-term when he was born. The woman disappeared the day after he was born. Old Ye has kept silent about the child's biological mother for years, and Xiao Zhao has never asked. We just know there was such a person, but who she was, God knows."

Another aunt took over and said, "If a mother doesn't want to have a child after giving birth, it's either because she's afraid of being exposed and embarrassed to face others, or because she has a better place to go. It's probably these two reasons."

Everyone talked at once, but they were unable to piece together the specific features of the mysterious woman. However, as the saying goes, "everything goes well, every time a goose flies by, a sound is heard." He would definitely meet her in person if he had the chance in the future. Whether he would take Ye Yimo with him was another matter, but at least he had to let her know who had been paying off her romantic debt all these years.