Wang Yaqiang and Liu Dawei came over early this morning and took Zhao Chengjun to the company to play all day. He ate all three meals in the cafeteria.
Zhao Chengjun was so engrossed in his play that he didn't want to come back. Even after arriving home, he clung to Wang Yaqiang's hand and looked at Zhao Jingyu with a strange gaze, as he didn't recognize his third uncle.
“This is your third uncle.” Yang Yuelan pushed Zhao Chengjun toward Zhao Jingyu. “Quickly call him third uncle.”
Zhao Chengjun glanced at Zhao Jingyu, then quickly lowered his head. He only recognized his third aunt, not his third uncle.
"You've grown so tall." Zhao Jingyu didn't remember this little nephew much. He reached out and patted his head, saying expressionlessly, "Go study!"
Zhao Chengjun hummed in agreement, picked up the comic book, walked to the new house, and knocked on the door: "Third Aunt, let's read a comic book together!"
"Okay, we're coming." Xu Qingning came out of the house, greeted them, and led Zhao Chengjun to the kang (a heated brick bed) to read.
"Boss, you scared your little nephew," Wang Yaqiang chuckled. "Is it cold in the provincial capital?"
"It's cold, I'm freezing." Zhao Jingyu glanced at Xu Qingning, picked up his chopsticks and started eating. He had said he wasn't hungry, but now he was really hungry. "It's at least two or three degrees colder than here, and it's windy too."
Yang Yuelan and Xu Qingning have both eaten.
I left him a big bowl of hand-pulled noodles with cabbage, eggs, and a delicious sauce; it smelled wonderful.
“Yes, it gets cold when the wind blows there, it’s a dry cold, and it’s windy all day long.” Liu Dawei has been to the provincial capital several times. “Unlike here, the wind here stops after a day at most, it rarely blows continuously.”
“By the way, boss, Wu Yong called me yesterday. I told him you’re back, and he said he’ll be coming over in the next couple of days. He also said he has something to discuss with you.” Wang Yaqiang came for this reason. “When he arrives, he can stay in our courtyard. We have empty rooms there, so it shouldn’t be a problem for him to stay for a month or two.”
“Okay, you make the arrangements first. I’ll prepare some bedding and stuff for him.” Zhao Jingyu readily agreed. “When I was in the Northwest, I was with him every day. He’s just like you guys; he’s one of my good brothers.”
Xu Qingning listened on the kang (heated brick bed) and began to make plans in her mind.
I don't know if the little cotton left at home is enough to make a quilt. If it is, it's not difficult.
"I heard from my aunt that you encountered a lot of trouble in the provincial capital?" Liu Dawei asked with concern. "Are even guesthouses unsafe now? How could you encounter thieves?"
"They were just two thieves, they couldn't take a beating at all." Zhao Jingyu finished his large bowl of noodles. Yang Yuelan came over to collect the bowls and chopsticks and told them to sit on the kang (heated brick bed) and chat, as it was warm there.
Wang Yaqiang and Liu Dawei didn't stand on ceremony. They took off their shoes and climbed onto the kang (a heated brick bed), asking Zhao Jingyu with great interest, "Tell me quickly, what happened to those two thieves in the end?"
“They’ve been taken to the police station.” Zhao Jingyu sat down next to Xu Qingning and put his arm around her from behind. “Actually, I noticed them a while ago. I thought there were several of them, but it turned out there were only two.”
"They both dared to break into the house and steal?" Wang Yaqiang almost laughed himself to death. "Why haven't I had such a good opportunity? It's been so long since I've had a proper fight with someone."
"Haha, they were just unlucky. Of all people to steal from, they dared to steal from the boss." Liu Dawei was also very excited. "Even if there were two more, let alone two people, they wouldn't be a match for the boss. Just thinking about it is exciting."
"..." Xu Qingning was stunned when she heard this.
How come I never noticed before? These people's thought processes are different from normal people. Ordinary people would be terrified if they encountered something like this.
But they seemed quite excited.
"Mainly because they had knives, and there were other people staying at the guesthouse. I was worried they would hurt others, so I made sure to finish quickly." Zhao Jingyu played with Xu Qingning's hair and said casually, "They were too weak. They couldn't even hold a knife properly. I kicked them away with one kick. I think their wrists are broken."
Yang Yuelan was also frightened after hearing this.
Good heavens, those thieves even had knives! That's terrifying.
"They deserved to have broken their bones, who told them to run into a tough nut to crack?" Wang Yaqiang was very interested in this kind of thing, as if he had been injected with chicken blood. "Back in the day, the three of us musketeers would go out in the middle of the night to catch thieves. Dawei, do you remember? Once, we chased three thieves all the way to a cemetery. They hid inside and didn't dare to come out. We were guarding the intersection and we all fell asleep."
"Yes, I also saw a few blue flames, drifting around everywhere." Liu Dawei also remembered and laughed, "In the end, those three thieves were so scared that they peed their pants and knelt down to beg for mercy, saying they would never dare to steal again."
“Those were good times!” Wang Yaqiang stroked his chin, reminiscing about the past. “Later, no thieves dared to make a move within a ten-mile radius of the Ocean Company. It was quite difficult for us to catch a thief; we had to go far away to do so.”
“Even if there are thieves now, we don’t dare to catch them,” Yang Yuelan couldn’t help but interject. “As long as they don’t steal from us, we shouldn’t provoke them, and we should just live our lives peacefully.”
She hasn't lived with her son all these years.
Hearing about these things now still makes me nervous.
Xu Qingning also found it quite scary.
She had been married to Zhao Jingyu for so long, yet she knew nothing of these things and had never heard him mention them.
The author's creation of a villain unexpectedly triggered so many hidden plot points, which they enjoyed immensely, but she was terrified when she heard about it.
The two chatted for a while and then left.
Seeing Zhao Chengjun lying silently on the kang reading a book, Zhao Jingyu asked Yang Yuelan, "When did he arrive?"
“They came the day before yesterday.” Yang Yuelan mentioned Zhao Jingwen and Wu Xiufang. “The two of them live in the dormitory. They said it was too cold in the dormitory, so they let Chengjun stay here for a while. They will take him back after they find a place to live.”
"What about his schooling?" Zhao Jingyu calculated the time; winter vacation hadn't started yet. He wasn't interested in his two older brothers' affairs, nor did he want to ask whether they were looking for jobs.
“My mom asked for leave for me.” Zhao Chengjun finally raised his head and looked timidly at Zhao Jingyu. “She said I can study at home by myself.”
Zhao Jingyu didn't say anything more.
After returning to the room, Zhao Jingyu took a fairy tale book from the desk and began to tell his child a story. His voice was deep and resonant, and he made a perfectly good story sound eerie.
The baby inside him seemed to be protesting, kicking him incessantly.
Xu Qingning simply stopped him from speaking, and her tone was anything but gentle; it even sounded a bit creepy to her.
"My tenderness is only for you." Zhao Jingyu hugged her, lowered his head and kissed her, and said emotionally, "Tomorrow I will take you to see Director Chen for a check-up. Don't be afraid, I will always be with you."
...
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