Chapter 125 A Little Interlude
When did the two children leave the house?
"After lunch, Shuai Shuai and Nian Ping went inside and didn't come out. I only realized they were missing when I brought them fruit inside."
"Don't rush."
"Okay, okay. I'm not in a hurry."
The weather in Beicheng this year has been quite hot, with midday temperatures reaching nearly 40 degrees Celsius. Ruanqiu was worried that Li Shuaishuai's health couldn't handle it, so she simply asked the child to stay home and rest these days.
Chen Yun walked around the alley, went into Li Shuaishuai's house for a look, and quickly came out.
“I know where they went.”
On the desk in the room, there were fragments of a piggy bank, and next to it was an internet cafe flyer.
Chen Yun handed the flyer to Ruan Qiu.
"Two years ago, when Nian'an was applying to the Film Academy, Nianping said that he and Li Shuaishuai wanted to apply to the Computer Science department. Did Shuaishuai mention it to you?"
Choosing a major in college is only one aspect; the most important thing is the school Gao Nianping chose in Guangzhou.
This means that Li Shuaishuai will leave Ruanqiu...
"I didn't mention it." Ruanqiu's face turned pale instantly, and her vision blurred slightly due to her anxiety.
Chen Yun helped Ruan Qiu up.
"Let's find the child first."
Chen Yun understood Ruanqiu's anxiety as a mother. Seventeen or eighteen-year-old boys are at the prime of their youth, and it is indeed difficult for them to accept being confined at home every day.
Half an hour later, Chen Yun and Ruan Qiu found Dongsheng Internet Cafe.
Gao Ming rushed over from the company after hearing the news.
The three stood in front of the heavy glass door, with Gao Ming pushing open the internet cafe door, which was already faintly filled with the smell of smoke.
The smell of sweat and smoke mingled with the heat and hit us in the face. The internet cafe was cramped, yet it was crammed with more than twenty computers. Apart from the glass door, there was only a small window at the far end.
Chen Yun was choked by the stench and felt a little suffocated, but her eyes kept searching the internet cafe.
The space was so small that a quick glance revealed two people huddled together in front of the computer by the window, their heads close together.
"Gao Nianping." Gao Ming's voice lashed out like a whip, breaking the clatter of keyboards in the internet cafe, but only for a moment before the noise returned.
Parents come to the internet cafe every day to catch their children. From the owner to the customers, everyone is used to it. Only a few people, who are curious, take off their headphones and secretly watch the excitement.
Neither Gao Nianping nor Li Shuaishuai were wearing headphones. Their smiles froze instantly, and they looked towards the door in horror.
"Handsome!" Ruanqiu called out as well.
"mom."
"Aunt Chen."
The two boys jumped up.
The anger was instantly ignited by the red oil left on Li Shuaishuai's lips, burning Ruanqiu's vision. She rushed over and grabbed her son's arm, her nails digging almost into Li Shuaishuai's flesh.
"Are you crazy? How dare you come to a place like this! There are so many people here, so many people smoking, all the smoke is going into your lungs... Do you want to kill yourself and then make your mother die before you're satisfied?"
Her voice was so sharp it was almost a scream, which made Li Shuaishuai's shoulders involuntarily hunch up as if he wanted to hide his head. His eyes widened in horror as he looked at his mother, who was screaming at the top of her lungs.
"Nianping, you're so insensible!" Chen Yun stared at Gao Nianping with a serious look. "Shuai Shuai has just recovered. Didn't you see how much Aunt Ruanqiu sacrificed for Shuai Shuai's recovery?"
A sharp sigh escaped from his nose.
"What are you doing at the internet cafe?" Gao Ming asked.
Gao Nianping's face turned bright red, and he was too ashamed to look up, afraid of seeing the disappointment in his parents' eyes.
"I...I just wanted to show Shuai Shuai what Guangzhou University is like, I wanted him to see the school environment."
Gao Nianping will take the college entrance examination next month, while Li Shuaishuai is only in his second year of high school this year because he took a year off.
“I asked Nianping to bring me here. I…I…I also want to go to university.” After Li Shuaishuai finished speaking to Ruanqiu, he turned to look at Chen Yun.
On the computer screen, which was flashing lights, there was a webpage that had been open and hadn't been closed. The webpage prominently featured an introduction to Guangzhou University.
“Aunt Chen…” Li Shuaishuai began, his voice trembling with tears in his eyes, “I asked Nianping to bring me here. I felt I was all better, and I just wanted to… just like other high school students, I just wanted to see what an internet cafe is like.”
“Mom, we asked the doctor, and he said Shuai Shuai can go out to play and eat snacks,” Gao Nianping quickly explained.
In the afternoon, they went to the hospital to see the head of pediatrics who had been in charge of treating Li Shuaishuai. The doctor told them that they could live like normal children in the future, as long as they did not engage in dangerous sports.
"Mom, I'm all better now!" Li Shuaishuai suddenly looked up, tears welling up in his eyes and streaming down his face. "Mom, I can eat spicy food, and I can play basketball with my classmates. I don't want to stay at home every day."
Ruanqiu staggered a few steps from the shock of those words. She looked at Li Shuaishuai with mixed feelings, her emotions churning.
Chen Yun watched quietly.
The two boys are already taller than their parents, but they are in the prime of their youth. Their loyalty to their friends and their longing for a new life after recovering from a serious illness are both so beautiful.
She couldn't bring herself to say no; instead, her heart was filled with heartache.
"Let's go." Gao Ming picked up the hat and put it on Li Shuaishuai's head: "Go home and watch the flag-raising ceremony. If you want to criticize someone, you have to eat first."
Everyone left the internet cafe and headed towards Guanming Hutong.
"Did you see Shuai Shuai's expression just now?" Chen Yun suddenly asked.
"I understand perfectly." Tears welled up in her eyes and slid down her cheeks. Ruanqiu couldn't quite describe her feelings at that moment; she felt sad, but that wasn't entirely it.
Chen Yun took Ruan Qiu's arm and pulled her to slow down.
"Sometimes I wonder, what is our ultimate goal in all these desperate efforts to snatch our children back from the clutches of illness?"
"The ultimate goal?"
Ruanqiu never thought about it. She only remembered that Shuaishuai had been looking forward to getting pregnant for many years. When she was pregnant, all she could think about was that the child, whether male or female, would be healthy.
Later, when her child fell ill, she only hoped that he could recover and grow up and live like a normal child.
"You hope your child will grow up healthy, right?" Chen Yun asked.
Ruanqiu nodded emphatically.
"Do you think Shuai Shuai looks like a normal child now?"
This year marks three years since Li Shuaishuai recovered and was discharged from the hospital, but Ruanqiu seems to still be trapped on the day she heard the news.
She meticulously arranged everything, and at the slightest disturbance, she would snatch Li Shuaishuai into her den like a frightened rabbit.
Forget about sweating like a high school boy, he can't even seem to live a normal life.
"The doctor said that Shuai Shuai has been clinically cured. The next step is definitely the child's psychological recovery. We can't leave him at home to take care of him for the rest of his life, can we?"
What Shuai Shuai longs for as a normal life means unknown fear to Ruan Qiu.
“Overprotecting him will only make Shuai Shuai timid and stay in one place, unable to go anywhere. He will eventually have to leave home to go to university and start working. We can’t just move next to the school and keep picking him up and dropping him off, can we?”
Ruanqiu squeezed her eyes shut and chuckled.
She really thought that way...
"What I mean is that we can take it one step at a time. For example, as a first step, we can take Shuai Shuai to the movie theater and let them ride bicycles in the park..."
This step-by-step approach is not only aimed at Li Shuaishuai, but also a process of gradually letting Ruanqiu let go.
"I'm just worried about what will happen if Shuai Shuai's illness relapses?"
"So everything has to be within our control, one step at a time." Chen Yun smiled and pointed to the three people who had walked a long way ahead: "Look how happy Shuai Shuai is. If the child is happy when he comes out for a walk, you're happy too, right?"
Ruanqiu wiped her face, feeling both amused and exasperated.
In fact, the doctor had already said that Li Shuaishuai should increase his outdoor activities to boost his immunity, otherwise he would have a hard time catching a cold or fever in the future.
She just couldn't bring herself to take that step.
"Let's not talk about Shuai Shuai, let's talk about you."
"What did you say about me?"
"You're always chasing after Shuai Shuai, shouldn't you have some life of your own?"
"My own life... I have no interest in it."
"Gao Ming said that I can't even come close to your business acumen, so you've never thought about returning to the clothing industry?"
"The space for the garment industry in Beicheng is too small. You have no idea that it's harder than climbing to heaven to open a garment factory."
Beicheng's location is special. To open a factory in the capital, you need to have connections, let alone a self-employed individual like Ruanqiu who has no background.
"Who gave you permission to open a garment factory in Beicheng? Isn't Shuai Shuai going to take the entrance exam for Guangzhou University next year?"
Ruanqiu: "..."
"You said Shuai Shuai wants to apply to Guangzhou University... does that mean you also want to go back to Guangzhou and reopen the garment factory?"
Thinking in this direction, Ruanqiu's heart softened instantly, and tears welled up in her eyes again.
"You know, the older you get, the more tears you shed! When you're in your sixties or seventies, you'll be crying all the time..." Chen Yun joked.
"I can cry whenever I want, and you're being quite nosy." Ruanqiu wiped away her tears and slapped away the hand that was holding her arm.
Chen Yun gasped in pain, rubbing the back of her hand with a wry smile: "Why is your grip still so strong?"
"Regardless, those two boys still need to be punished for sneaking into the internet cafe today!"
Even if Ruanqiu agrees to gradually help Li Shuaishuai return to a normal life, the first step must not start with internet cafes.
Even normal kids get beaten by their parents if they go to internet cafes.
"I'll beat up Gao Nian'an, but you, Shuai Shuai...?"
Chen Yun usually plays the bad cop at home, so it wouldn't be a problem if she did it again today. The only question is whether Ruan Qiu can bring herself to do it.
"Why bring up something you shouldn't talk about!" Ruanqiu quickened her pace in annoyance.
"Dad, the handover ceremony has begun!"
The people in front suddenly stopped. Gao Nianping pointed to the live broadcast of Hong Kong's return to China that was playing on the store's TV.
Then everyone quickened their pace without prior arrangement.
There was no way they would get beaten up; the matter ended with Gao Ming providing each of them with a computer.
From then on, the two children would chat for a few minutes every day through the computer's chat software.
***
Guanming Hutong.
"Welcome, welcome. Please come inside and rest for a while. We'll start the meal once everyone is ready."
"Uncle Liu, please come in."
"Master Jiang, you're here too! Nian'an is watching TV in his grandma's room, you can go directly to her."
"Director Cao!"
Gao Ming quickly spotted the leader of the group of people who were walking slowly in through the door.
Cao Shengli was the leader, with Cao Chunjuan holding Cao Lei beside him, and the entire Cao family following behind.
“I already told you to call me Uncle Cao from now on, why call me Director Cao?”
Cao Shengli grinned so wide his eyes disappeared, and his already protruding belly became even rounder, just like his ever-rising position over the years.
Since the Material Supply Department was abolished, Cao Shengli has risen in rank instead of being demoted, and after ten years of hard work, he has become the deputy director of the Beicheng Market Supervision Administration.
Cao Chunjuan's second husband was also a staff member of the Administration Bureau. Both of them were remarried and each had a child.
When they got married, Chen Yun and Gao Ming also sent gifts.
I never expected that the entire Cao family would come out today... just to attend a college entrance celebration banquet.
A banquet celebrating Gao Nianping's admission to Guangzhou University.
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