Living often means enduring humiliation and barely surviving.
The curtains couldn't block the blazing light spilling out from the gaps; the next instant, the curtains flew open, and blinding white light rushed in.
Wen Dai, who had just come out of the bathroom, lowered the curtain remote. She picked up her phone, which was charging on the bedside table, and saw a new transfer from Chen Sizhe on WeChat. Last night before going to bed, she had transferred the five thousand yuan that Yang Qing had given her to Chen Sizhe in full.
The screen displayed an orange-red transfer message, with 2500 clearly embedded in it.
[Chen Sizhe: I've said before that I have a cooperative spirit and I don't try to take everything for myself]
Her mind went blank for a moment, but her body reacted first. A soft laugh escaped from her nose, a sound that even Wen Dai herself found surprising. Her finger, hovering over the screen, finally tapped down, and she replied with an OK emoji.
The timing of their departures was perfect; the doors opened at the same time. Because of yesterday's dinner mix-up, Wen Dai deliberately let her politeness die first. After all, she didn't want Chen Sizhe to accuse her of having ulterior motives towards him again, nor did she want the waiter to recommend couple's dishes to her again.
Their gazes met instinctively; she raised her head at him, he lowered his head at her, and their subsequent cold laughter was synchronized.
Wen Dai pushed the door open again, saying, "What a coincidence! I might as well bring what I need later. We can head out right after breakfast. I'm too lazy to come back." She squeezed through the gap and went back inside, not even leaving Chen Sizhe with her back. The person who had been standing at the door just moments before disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Incredibly, even though Wen Daibi went back to her room to get her things first, when she came out, Chen Sizhe was already standing outside the door with his bag, waiting for her.
Adjusting the shoulder straps that were digging into her shoulders, Wen Dai glanced at Chen Sizhe's outfit, and after looking him over for a while, she looked up at his cold, fox-like eyes and said sincerely, "You look like a high school student about to go to school right now. It's pretty good. You've done a great job of looking young and easily made yourself look ten years younger."
"You drank lemon juice this morning? It must have been concentrated, it tasted sour." Chen Sizhe sneered, then walked alongside her toward the elevator.
Because there were other people in the elevator, the two temporarily stopped fighting.
Breakfast was quickly finished because the boss, who had previously said he wasn't in a hurry and let them rest first, suddenly changed his attitude and made a series of phone calls to Chen Sizhe's phone while they were eating, asking them every few minutes if they had finished eating.
Wen Dai took out a bottle of mineral water from her bag and gulped down several mouthfuls. She squatted by the roadside, rubbing her stomach, which was bloated and painful from eating too much at once, and muttered, "It could have been dealt with yesterday, but he wanted people to rest. It's only a little past eight o'clock now, and he's already urging people to rush over."
Standing next to the hotel's iconic landmark, Chen Sizhe, who had broken away from her stance, said, "Eight o'clock is normal for work hours. You should know this in your line of work. Maybe he was just doing well yesterday so he wasn't in a hurry, but perhaps a problem has arisen today."
The driver, sent by their boss to pick them up, arrived shortly after. Once they were in the car, Wen Dai asked, "How is your boss doing right now? Do you know?"
The driver glanced at Wen Dai through the rearview mirror, his hand on the steering wheel and the other on the gear shift. "I don't know. How could I possibly know about the boss's private affairs? But—when the boss was urging me to pick you up just now, he was speaking very urgently, and his voice seemed to be trembling a little."
...
The villa is located in the suburbs; perhaps calling it an estate would be more accurate.
The automatic gate opened, and the driver took them into the manor. The underground parking lot was neatly filled with business and outdoor vehicles. The driver was very considerate; after getting out of the car, he simply went over to give them directions and then left.
Wen Dai and Chen Sizhe took the elevator and followed the driver's directions to the fourth floor.
A moment later, the elevator doors opened with a ding, and slippers were placed on the side of the elevator, with shoe covers on a shelf.
Before Zhan Wendai could put on her shoe covers, her hand had barely touched the shoe cover bag hanging on the rack when a series of hurried footsteps sounded. Even though one could only hear the sound and not see the person, one could tell from the chaotic footsteps that the owner was in a panic.
The boss, who only made a sound, had fallen over. Wen Dai remained in the position of holding shoe covers, her gaze fixed on the man who had tumbled towards her from a distance.
His thick black hair was piled up haphazardly, as if it had been chosen by a bird as its nest. His face, which resembled an jujube pit, was almost a real jujube pit, with wrinkles imprinted on his cheeks. Strangely, the whites of his eyes were a mixture of yellow and blue. At first glance, they appeared yellowish, but upon closer inspection, one could discern a faint, shimmering blue within them. His pajamas were somewhat disheveled, with creases visible everywhere.
The way he stopped was even more ingenious. He knelt down at Wen Dai's feet, and then seemed to try to stand up, but slipped and fell back several times. The sound of his knees hitting the ground was painful to hear.
Wen Dai abandoned her plan to get shoe covers. She squatted down and, together with Chen Sizhe who had come over, helped the boss up from the ground.
"Uh... Boss, what's wrong with you?" Wen Dai still didn't know the boss's name. She supported the boss's arm with all her might.
The man, whose legs had gone limp, glanced at them from both sides. With a mournful smile, he said, "Isn't it obvious what happened to me? I'm just getting my comeuppance. My name is Cao De."
For Wen Dai, the ability to see spirits can be divided into automatic and manual modes, with the automatic mode being random. Previously, being able to see Hao Hao on Yang Qing's body was the automatic mode being on, but now... Wen Dai craned her neck and searched all over Cao De's house, but couldn't find a trace of the spirit.
She and Chen Sizhe helped Cao De to the sofa in the living room, then put him down on it. She rubbed her aching arms and glanced at the trembling Cao De on the sofa, saying, "To handle this, Mr. Cao, you'll need to provide the details. Since you were able to cross provincial borders to find Chen Sizhe, it means the people you found locally couldn't handle it. I suspect you weren't just randomly followed on the street. If you have any grievances, please tell me the truth. If you lie, I can just look into your past."
"Actually, it's nothing..." Cao De, huddled on the sofa, mumbled, "She...she was my former secretary. She jumped off a building a while ago, and after that, I started experiencing frequent sleep paralysis. I always have nightmares about being chased by ghosts, and I gradually became weak all over. I consulted several fortune tellers in the area, and they all made grand promises when I paid them, guaranteeing a permanent solution. They said they would directly eliminate the thing attached to me, but I only felt comfortable for two days before being tormented again."
Wen Dai tilted her head back, remained silent, and stood to the side with a mocking look in her eyes, arms crossed, glancing at Cao De.
On the other side, Chen Sizhe still had a blank face, maintaining a disdainful attitude.
The sneer came from Wen Dai's nostrils, followed by a click of her tongue and a breath. She turned her head and looked at Cao De again, a mocking smile playing on her lips. "As expected of the boss, you're too good at talking—Boss Cao, please sort out our relationship. We've taken your money, so we have to do our job. But how can we do our job if you don't tell us the truth? Trust is essential between people. There's more than one way to exorcise evil spirits. Killing too many people will bring karmic consequences. We shouldn't fight unless absolutely necessary, so please explain yourself clearly."
“She’s right. Mr. Cao, personally, I don’t like accepting orders from clients who lie. I don’t want to be tainted by your karma.” When Cao De looked at him for help, Chen Sizhe’s eyes drifted away, his words chillingly blunt.
Having placed almost all his hopes on the two people in front of him, Cao De hurriedly sat up when he realized they were considering abandoning the deal. He clenched his fists, his brows furrowed for a moment, before finally stopping his hesitation and saying, "I'll talk!"
"About four years ago, she had just graduated from university and was looking for a job. When she applied, I thought she was good-looking, so I hired her as my secretary. Later, I used the approachable older brother persona to get closer to her and learned that she came from a rural background, her family was short of money, and she urgently needed money. At a drinking party, I shielded her from a lot of drinks—which secretary doesn't shield their boss from drinks? After that…" He paused slightly, his eyelids lowered, as if he only dared to stare at his own thighs, and he mumbled the words: "I pretended to be drunk and leaned against her. In the car, I confessed to her that I liked her and poured out my difficulties. After that, we had a real relationship."
Perhaps recalling the woman's innocence and naivety from back then, Cao De's downcast eyes glazed over for a moment, and he whispered, "Actually, I genuinely liked her back then. We maintained that relationship for four years. When we were together, we were just like a real couple. Later, my wife asked me to break off all contact with her because she was pregnant, and my wife and I didn't have any children. I gave her five million as a breakup fee so she could have an abortion, and I also introduced her to another job... I thought that would be enough for her to live comfortably. I never imagined she would jump off a building."
Wen Dai turned her gaze to Cao De's side, where she saw a woman who hadn't been there before—with waist-length hair and a face that would be the subject of discussion on forums if posted on various college campuses; her lower abdomen was still slightly protruding, her face turned to the side towards Cao De, her eyes, lined with blood, trembled, and transparent tears rolled down her cheeks.
Stepping into the scene, she couldn't help but feel moved. Wen Dai paused for a moment, then stepped closer, raised her hand and touched Cao De's brow. A few words, tinged with unease, escaped her lips: "Turn your head."
He subconsciously turned his head, and the woman who had only haunted his dreams or frightened him in reality with her ghostly image had materialized. Cao De's heart stopped abruptly at the sight of her resentful, eerie appearance; his breath caught in his throat for a moment before returning to normal. He swallowed, his gaze slowly moving downwards to the woman's swollen belly—it was dead there, just like her, yet her hand still rested on it. For them, it was dead; for her, it was alive.
"Juanjuan..." Whether it was intentional or unintentional, the affectionate nickname they used when they were together, Cao Dekong stared at her with his eyes covered, his hand trembling as he raised it from his lap, reached out, and penetrated her.
Yao Juan slumped her neck, and a few grating laughs rose up, her face etched with self-mockery.
She ignored Cao De, who had put on the mask of a lover, and instead looked up at Wen Dai not far away, while ignoring Chen Sizhe, who was closer to her.
“Miss Wen, I think I should also recount the whole story from my perspective.”
In Yao Juan's world, the path she walked was completely different from the one described by Cao De.
Twenty-six years ago, Yao Juan was born into a family in a poor township. Her background conformed to societal stereotypes. As the eldest sister, she had two younger sisters and a younger brother—the younger brother being the youngest.
She studied diligently, knowing that not being at the top of her class meant dropping out and getting married, so she never wanted to waste a single moment of rest. She enrolled in a teacher's college because the tuition was lower.
Those who stand at a low point see only stones kicked down by those at a high point.
How could she have foresight? All she knew was that Chinese language and literature was a jack-of-all-trades major, and she assumed finding a job wouldn't be difficult.
Pursuing graduate studies was something she wanted to consider, but her family wouldn't allow it. Even though she claimed she could apply for grants and scholarships, and that she could work part-time to help support her family, they wouldn't understand; they wouldn't understand.
After graduating with a bachelor's degree, she realized the difficulties when submitting resumes. Although she had passed the teacher qualification exam in college, finding employment was still challenging initially; big cities had no shortage of teachers, and there were plenty of graduate students from prestigious universities teaching elementary schools. She was at a disadvantage due to her lack of education, and she didn't want to return to her hometown and be constrained by them.
"I thought of the secretaries my teachers mentioned in school. I asked many companies, and I understood their implication: the so-called secretary is actually the boss's mistress. It's become difficult to find a decent job. It's really hard and bitter for ordinary people to survive in this society."
When Yao Juan applied for the secretary position at Cao De's company again, she had no hope. She went to the interview numbly, waiting for the HR's subtle hints. She didn't get one. She never thought the company's boss would come to see her in person, and she never thought she would suddenly have a job that others would envy—a monthly salary of 10,000 yuan, including room and board, five social insurances and one housing fund, and weekends off.
"I'm still very cautious, afraid that the initial sense of security is just a way to lower my guard. But after working for several months, I haven't found any signs of danger. My colleagues are easy to get along with; my boss... as he said, he really gives me the feeling of a caring older brother. But..."
The so-called "blocking" of drinks at the party happened after she had already drunk herself into exhaustion.
Even if her boss wouldn't make unwanted advances under the table, it didn't mean other people at social gatherings wouldn't. She didn't know if Cao De was turning a blind eye, but she would swallow her anger. Finding a satisfactory job in this city wasn't easy, and until she had some savings and found another job, she could only endure the humiliation. After all, living often meant enduring humiliation to survive.
On the night she crossed the line with Cao De, she endured the hands that kept reaching up to her, the wine glass that was "accidentally" knocked over by others, and the fabric of her shirt that was soaked through with wine. After drinking glass after glass, just as she was about to rationally leave, Cao De leisurely made his appearance.
I remember his voice, and at the time I felt that he was hypocritical.
“My secretary is still young and a single young woman. Look at her now. What’s the point of drinking with someone who’s so confused and delusional? Come on, let’s have a drink.”
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