Chapter 79 Guan Yang comes to pick them up...
Guan Yang came to pick them up; besides her, there was also a young couple who were checking into the guesthouse today.
Fang Minzhou sat in the passenger seat, introducing some attractions to the two people in the back. The atmosphere in the car was quite good, but Guan Yang was in a bad mood, which Fang Minzhou deliberately ignored.
Tomorrow will be his last day working at the guesthouse.
The car arrived at the guesthouse, where Fang Minzhou's grandparents greeted them. Guan Yang helped carry the luggage upstairs, and Fang Minzhou went to her room. The door to the room opposite hers was open, and she pushed it open casually. The bed inside was neatly made, and there were no signs of anyone having lived there.
“I just cleaned this room this morning. Xiao Wang used to live here, but he just left last night,” Grandma said.
So they've already left... Fang Minzhou thought calmly, closed the door, and returned to her room.
The windowsill was clean and bright; Grandma knew she was coming back and had changed into a new four-piece bedding set.
Fang Minzhou sat in the house, hesitating to call Wang Kan. She finally did, but after a few rings, no one answered. The tension before departure gripped her again, and she hung up. For a long while, the dial tone echoed in her mind.
She then messaged Wang Kan, saying that nothing was wrong, she just wanted to tell him that she had just returned to Shuangxi.
After waiting for five minutes without Wang Kan returning, Fang Minzhou guessed that he was probably busy with something. She forced herself to stop thinking about it, packed her luggage a little, and went downstairs to help her grandmother prepare lunch.
More than an hour later, Fang Minzhou's phone rang. She was chopping vegetables, washing her hands, and went out into the yard to answer it.
She stood under the eaves, the sunlight a few steps away intense, making the flowers, plants and trees in the yard shine like gold.
Despite the sweltering heat, Wang Kan's voice was quite cold: "Fang Minzhou, are you kidding me?"
Fang Min replied calmly, "You didn't say anything when you came, and you didn't say anything when you left. How was I supposed to know you were gone?"
"Aren't you the same?"
Fang Minzhou remained silent for a moment.
“So,” Wang Kan’s tone changed slightly, “you were looking for me?”
Standing quietly, her heart pounding, Fang Minzhou licked her lips. "I've thought about what you asked me before..."
"Wait a minute," Wang Kan interrupted her.
Fang Minzhou: "..."
"Let's talk when we meet."
Fang Minzhou didn't understand, but Wang Kan insisted, "Let's talk about it when we meet, otherwise I won't be able to tell if you're lying."
Fang Minzhou was neither happy nor sad, "You can lie even face to face."
Wang Kan said coolly, "It's good that you know."
Every time Fang Minzhou heard the sarcasm in Wang Kan's words, she wanted to curse him, but while she was angry, she also felt bad inside, and besides, she didn't want to argue with him at all. Instead of talking back, she told him, "I should still be in Shuangxi for the next week or two."
There was silence on Wang Kan's end. When she spoke again, her tone was softer: "I've gone back to Zhangcheng, and then I have to go on a business trip. I might come over on Friday."
Fang Minzhou was about to reply when she remembered, "There's a typhoon on Friday."
"It's okay, I'll come soon."
"……good."
After hanging up the phone, Fang Minzhou leaned against the wall, staring blankly at the brightly colored courtyard, seemingly oblivious to the summer heat, or perhaps she was simply enjoying the scorching sun.
The next day, Grandma made chicken soup for Guan Yang as a farewell gift and also gave him a large red envelope. Guan Yang refused the red envelope, his face turning red with stubbornness. Fang Minzhou also tried to persuade him, but he hesitated for a moment, as if he were really angry, and ran straight back to his room, leaving Grandpa and Grandma looking at each other in bewilderment.
Fang Minzhou took the red envelope, patted her grandmother's shoulder, and said, "It's okay, I'll go."
She knocked on the door, but no one answered. She called out, and the door was opened.
Guan Yang didn't expect Sister Min Zhou to come looking for him, and he regretted it as soon as he lost his temper. His temper was really bad, and he couldn't change it no matter what he wanted to.
He stood in the doorway, scratching his head, suddenly realizing it wasn't good to leave Minzhou standing there like that, but the room was a mess… He turned slightly to the side, extremely embarrassed, and said, “…It’s a bit messy.”
Fang Minzhou saw suitcases spread out on the floor, their contents still unpacked. Instead of going in, she handed the red envelope to Guan Yang, saying, "Please accept this from Grandpa and Grandma; it's nothing."
Guan Yang lowered his head, and the red envelope was facing him. Only then did he notice that the gilded characters on it read "A Bright Future."
He opened his mouth, his mind a jumble of thoughts.
Minzhou handed over a white box with her other hand: "This is a gift I'm giving you in advance for your college entrance exams. Study hard and enjoy your university life."
Guan Yang was shaken. He looked up and saw Sister Minzhou smiling at him. Her smile was gentle and considerate, but it also carried a politeness and courtesy that he could understand.
"Sister, last week..." he asked, "did you go to Jiangcheng to avoid him?"
Guan Yang never directly mentioned Wang Kan's name, and Fang Minzhou always had to pause and say, "No."
Guan Yang said awkwardly, "He just left the day before yesterday."
"Yes, I heard it from my grandma."
"So you're trying to avoid me?"
Fang Minzhou shook her head, this time telling the truth: "No, otherwise I wouldn't have come back yesterday, right? I went to Jiangcheng for work."
Guan Yang's expression softened slightly upon hearing this, but he soon looked somewhat dejected again.
Fang Minzhou saw all this, but said nothing. When you're young, it seems you tend to be self-centered when thinking about things. It's not necessarily selfishness or arrogance, but rather that your emotions are so strong that it's hard to break free from the constraints of your perspective.
She stretched out both hands and handed the red envelope and box to Guan Yang again, a gesture that was actually a bit funny. The gift was a recently popular camera; Guan Yang could keep it if he liked it, or sell it if he didn't—it was part of a separate red envelope from her.
Guan Yang finally accepted the gift.
Fang Minzhou smiled and said, "Come visit again next time you have time."
He responded softly, forcing a smile.
Life in the countryside moves at a leisurely pace; a day seems longer than a week.
Fang Minzhou and Jin Ying's startup project was approved, and they were granted a six-month free office period. Fang Minzhou went to Jiangcheng again and then took the opportunity to visit her parents.
It was only at this point that she realized her parents had never had much confidence in her starting her own business.
"What era are we living in now? Back then, you could start a company by just putting together some stuff and finding a couple of people, but they all went bankrupt one by one."
In his father's view, doing business requires flexibility and intelligence, "but you can't be too honest or too kind. I'm not saying this to make you a bad person or a shrewd businessman, but..." he said earnestly, "Now that you're your own boss, you have to be straightforward. You need to be considerate of others, but you can't let them think you're easy to talk to."
Fang Minzhou said she knew.
How did I know? Perhaps unconsciously, it was a principle I learned myself.
Perhaps it was the subtle competition among classmates in junior and senior high school that led her to university, where scholarships and postgraduate admissions became more direct. Later, in the workplace, she was fortunate to have met good colleagues and leaders, but she had also heard about the backstabbing and infighting in other groups.
While patiently dealing with her father's nagging, Fang Minzhou recalled how he used to teach her to recite the Three Character Classic when she was little, swaying his head and chanting: "At the beginning of life, people are inherently good..."
Later, her mother told her, "Don't listen to what your dad says. He's actually calculating everything. If you need money, we can help you out. Just do it without worry."
Fang Minzhou paused for a moment, then asked half-jokingly, "What if my dad doesn't agree? Will you give me the money then?"
Her mother glanced at her and said, "Of course I'll give it to you. Why wouldn't I?"
Fang Minzhou then smiled.
During the typhoon, Fang Minzhou met Wang Kan again in Shuangxi Town.
Seeing that the wind was getting stronger, Fang Minzhou sent a message to Wang Kan in advance, telling him not to come. He replied that he was already on his way and then appeared in the courtyard, looking travel-worn.
His grandparents, who were carrying things into the house, exclaimed in surprise when they saw him. He walked past them, glanced at her, and said casually, "I was passing by on a business trip and stopped by to see if there was anything I could help with."
All the materials needed for the market have been properly moved to the warehouse, but of course, we're busy, and once we start, we can't stop.
Shuangxi Town is surrounded by mountains. Many years ago, a landslide occurred due to heavy rain. The elderly still feel lingering fear when they talk about this incident, and since then they have never dared to slack off in their prevention work.
These past few days, every household has been busy checking and reinforcing their doors and windows. Those who have crops in their yards or fields are racing against time to harvest them. Some families living in low-lying areas have been relocated to the town's primary school.
The village committee was short-staffed, so they came to call for more people. Fang Minzhou went, leaving Wang Kan at the guesthouse. He's stronger, so he can prevent Grandpa from hurting his back again.
When living in the city, it seemed that there was nothing to worry about as long as you stayed indoors. Fang Minzhou has never participated in typhoon emergency work like this before.
When her parents spoke to her, they were worried and a little resentful. Fang Minzhou said that she was just helping to take stock of emergency supplies. She had no experience in the front-line work of patrolling the mountain ponds and reservoirs, and the uncles and aunts in the village committee would not let her do it.
Her parents sighed on the other end of the phone, telling her to be careful, treating her like a child, even though when she was little, her parents never let her go out during typhoons.
After a busy afternoon, I returned home to find the sky overcast and stormy, with the typhoon expected to arrive that evening. My grandmother told me that my grandfather and Wang Kan were still in the backyard. When I went to check, my grandfather was nowhere to be found; only Wang Kan and the other workers were inspecting the barn.
She stood on higher ground, and after a while, Wang Kan saw her.
He has really changed a lot.
Fang Minzhou recalled a day not long after the start of senior year, also during a typhoon. Before the afternoon classes were finished, the school announced an early dismissal. The sudden surprise was met with cheers from several school buildings. The freshly printed test papers were so hot that they didn't even feel hot in their hands.
On the way home, she had a small argument with Wang Kan because he insisted on giving her a ride. She rode her bicycle very fast, unwilling to ride alongside him, but no matter how fast she went, he would always immediately pull up to her when they stopped at a red light.
That evening, the sunset was magnificent, the streets were deserted, and the wind howled, extinguishing even the strongest anger. Knowing that Wang Kan was with her, she slowly felt a reluctant sense of peace.
When they arrived at her apartment building, she turned to look at Wang Kan, too embarrassed to get angry again. She was just anxious and urged him to go home quickly. Wang Kan shrugged casually and asked, "Do you know what this is called?"
Fang Minzhou wasn't in the mood to joke with him. She said, "Hurry up, it's really going to rain."
After saying that, he strode away, his school uniform billowing in the wind.
She stood there, her face flushed. He turned to look at her, bathed in the golden-purple glow of the sunset, and smiled smugly. He released one handlebar, waved, and said, "See you tomorrow!"
Fang Minzhou remembered that she wanted to yell at him to stop showing off, but she watched his figure disappear into the twilight with a mix of laughter and tears.
They keep saying it's the end of the world, then they say see you tomorrow—what are they trying to do?
She made up the bed for Wang Kan's room. It was completely dark outside, and the lights were still off.
A light rain began to fall outside the window. As Fang Minzhou looked away, she was suddenly struck by the sight of Wang Kan leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed.
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