Chapter 3
The next morning, Yan Qing received an email informing her that she had not passed the interview, but acknowledging her performance and wishing her a happy life and successful work.
This template rejection letter, which was clearly sent out in bulk, did not stir up much of a ripple in Yan Qing's mind, since the result was already expected.
After closing the email, my supervisor, Huang Qian, called me on voicemail.
"Hey girl, are you busy today? Can you run an errand for me?"
"Niu'er" was Huang Qian's nickname for her in private. Yan Qing quickly said, "I'm free, teacher. Please let me know if you need anything."
Huang Qian said, "Huang Feihong has a horse riding lesson this afternoon, but I have an appointment with the head of Tengyue Group to discuss a project today, so I'm afraid I can't get away. Could you help me...?"
"Understood, teacher. Don't worry about it, leave it to me. You can focus on your work. I'll take Huang Feihong to class."
At the equestrian training ground on the outskirts of S City, Yan Qing sat in the stands, her gaze fixed on the little girl in the riding arena. The girl was riding a sturdy foal, practicing jumping obstacles under the guidance of her instructor. Although she was only seven or eight years old, her riding posture was skillful and full of energy. Every now and then, she would turn her head and reveal a beautiful and confident smile.
After practicing for nearly an hour, the girl dismounted and ran towards Yan Qing.
"Sister!" The girl plopped down next to Yan Qing, took off her helmet, revealing her sweat-soaked, tousled hair. "It's so hot!" The girl took the bottled water Yan Qing handed her, tilted her head back, and gulped down almost half of it in an instant.
"Sister, how did I do today?" the girl asked.
Yan Qing gave a thumbs up: "Fantastic!"
Yan Qing took out a towel to wipe the girl's sweat. The girl smiled at Yan Qing, revealing two rows of small, white teeth that looked like seashells.
Suddenly, the girl stopped smiling.
"What are you doing now?!" the girl said irritably. Yan Qing turned around following her gaze and saw a little boy standing behind her.
“Huang…huang…huang…” the boy stammered.
"What do you mean 'yellow'? My sister is here today, so don't bother me!"
The boy glanced timidly at Yan Qing and opened his mouth slightly.
Yan Qing said to the boy, "Hello, little friend."
Yan Qing's kind and gentle demeanor eased the boy's tension, and the boy smiled: "Hello, sister... I... my name is... Cheng Jia..."
Huang Feihong interrupted impatiently: "His name is Cheng Jiaming."
Cheng Jiaming nodded vigorously.
"Jiaming, come sit here. I brought some strawberries, let's eat them together."
Cheng Jiaming glanced at Huang Feihong furtively, not daring to approach. Yan Qing pulled his hand, made him sit beside her, and then picked out a large strawberry from the lunchbox and handed it to him.
"Thank...thank you...sister."
After Cheng Jiaming finished eating a strawberry, he reached past Yan Qing with his tightly clenched right hand and extended it to Huang Feihong, palm open: "Here...for you..." Huang Feihong didn't even look at it, turning his head away in disgust.
Yan Qing glanced at Cheng Jiaming and saw a small badge in his palm. The badge depicted Ran Mouri from the Japanese manga "Detective Conan".
Through Yan Qing, Cheng Jiaming laboriously brought his hand a little closer to Huang Feihong: "It's... Tearful Orchid..."
Huang Feihong immediately turned around, his eyes wide open. After seeing clearly what Cheng Jiaming was holding, he snatched it away and exclaimed in surprise, "It really is a Tearful Orchid!"
Cheng Jiaming nodded heavily again: "It's for you..."
Wong Fei-hung asked, "Did you drive it out?"
Cheng Jiaming stammered. Huang Feihong glared at him and threw the badge back at him: "You bought it at a high price, didn't you! Pshaw, I don't want it!"
Cheng Jiaming stood up anxiously: "Birthday...birthday present..."
Huang Feihong loudly repeated, "I don't want it! It's so expensive, my mom will definitely give me a good scolding if she finds out!"
"But...but I...I want to be your friend!"
Huang Feihong puffed out his cheeks and ignored him. Yan Qing was about to mediate when Cheng Jiaming suddenly said, "I don't... I don't have a mother, and you don't... you don't have a father. We... we should... we should be good friends and help each other."
Yan Qing was startled; this boy even knew about Huang Feihong's family situation.
Wong Fei-hung stood up abruptly: "I don't need your help. You're so dull, what can you do to help me?"
Just then, the coach called Huang Feihong back to class. Huang Feihong glanced at Cheng Jiaming unhappily and ran away without looking back.
Cheng Jiaming clutched the Ran Mouri badge, gazing wistfully in the direction Huang Feihong had run off to. Then he turned to Yan Qing, calling out in a pitiful tone, "Sister."
Yan Qing squeezed his small hand and asked softly, "Why did you have a conflict with Huang Feihong?"
Cheng Jiaming hesitated, as if he had something difficult to say.
Yan Qing said, "No matter who made a mistake, if we apologize, shake hands and make up, we can still be good friends."
Cheng Jiaming said, "Sister... Sister... you... you should tell Huang Yan... Yan Xiang not to be angry with me."
Huang Yanxiang is Huang Feihong's real name.
Yan Qing said, "Then you must know the cause and effect, sister."
Cheng Jiaming's face flushed red.
Just then, a woman's voice calling Cheng Jiaming came from not far away.
Yan Qing looked in the direction of the sound and saw a woman wearing sunglasses walking towards them from the stands about seven or eight meters away.
Cheng Jiaming hurriedly shoved Ran Mouri's badge into Yan Qing's hand: "Help...help me give...Huang...Huang Yanxiang..."
After saying that, he ran off in a flash.
Yan Qing was about to chase after her when she suddenly saw the woman's face and stopped in her tracks.
Despite wearing sunglasses, Yan Qing quickly recognized her as the woman who had interviewed her at Binjiang Jiuli yesterday. She was wearing the same light-colored suit as yesterday, and the glittering piece on her chest was the bauhinia brooch.
I received the rejection letter in the morning, but unexpectedly ran into her and her child in the afternoon.
After the equestrian lesson, Huang Qian called a ride-hailing service for the two of them.
In the car, Yan Qing took out the Ran Mouri badge: "Cheng Jiaming asked me to give this to you."
Huang Yanxiang said, "I don't want it. He must have bought this badge. My mom said I can't accept expensive gifts."
Yan Qing asked curiously, "How much would one of these cost?"
Wong Fei-hung held up one finger.
"One hundred?" Yan Qing guessed.
Huang Yanxiang shook her head and calmly stated a number: "Ten thousand."
Yan Qing gasped in shock. She couldn't believe that this ordinary, weightless little aluminum piece in her hand was worth ten thousand yuan.
Huang Yanxiang explained, "The Tearful Orchid is a limited edition in this set, it's out of print, and it's very difficult to get it from blind boxes. I saw it on a millet-selling website, and the price for a Tearful Orchid is 10,000 yuan. Cheng Jiaming's family is rich, so he must have spent a lot of money to buy it."
Just as Yan Qing was shocked by the spending power of children these days, Huang Yanxiang said, "That's his father's money, not his own."
Yan Qing suddenly realized that Cheng Jiaming had just said that Huang Feihong had no father and he himself had no mother. So the woman from earlier was clearly not his mother.
Huang Yanxiang picked up the badge and examined it closely for a long time, her eyes revealing both affection and reluctance. In the end, she resolutely placed it back in Yan Qing's hand: "Sister, please return it to him for me."
Yan Qing nodded: "I thought it was just a small toy, I didn't expect it to be so expensive. I'll return it to him tomorrow."
Huang Qian's meeting with Tengyue Company continued into the evening. Yan Qing escorted Huang Yanxiang back to the faculty dormitory. After Huang Yanxiang finished showering, the food Yan Qing had bought from the cafeteria arrived.
Huang Yanxiang picked up a skewer of her favorite grilled squid and started eating. Suddenly remembering something, she took her smartwatch from the sofa.
"Sister, use your smartwatch to call Cheng Jiaming and tell him to take the badge!"
Yan Qing smiled: "My sister has a cell phone."
Huang Yanxiang said, "Sister, you don't know, only friends can call the phone watch, outside numbers can't call. It's to prevent scammers from tricking children."
“I see,” Yan Qing flicked Huang Yanxiang’s nose. “You’re so clever, no liar can fool you!”
Yan Qing picked up her smartwatch, found Cheng Jiaming in her friend list, and dialed his number.
The phone rang for a long time, but no one answered. Just as Yan Qing was about to hang up, the call was connected.
"Hello."
But it was the voice of an adult man.
Yan Qing paused for a moment, then said, "Hello, I'm Huang Yanxiang's sister. Is Cheng Jiaming here?"
The person on the other end said, "Jiaming went to take a shower. If you need to contact him, I can have him call you back later."
Yan Qing hesitated for two seconds before saying, "It's like this, Jiaming left something with us during his equestrian lesson today. It's quite valuable, and we wanted to ask when Jiaming will come to pick it up."
“Okay, then I…” Before he could finish speaking, a burst of noise filled the receiver, followed by Cheng Jiaming’s voice on the other end: “Huang… Yan Xiang… is… it’s me…”
"Jiaming, it's my older sister."
"Sister... Sister... You were looking for me?"
Yan Qing explained the purpose of the call tactfully, and Cheng Jiaming's voice clearly showed his frustration: "She... wants to... cut ties with me?"
Yan Qing glanced at Huang Yanxiang, who was engrossed in eating. The phone watch's receiver was loud, and the little girl had obviously heard Cheng Jiaming's words, but she pretended not to hear them and made no comment.
Yan Qing couldn't bear it, so she said, "No, no, it's just that this gift is too valuable, and she said she can't accept it."
Cheng Jiaming shushed the phone, lowering his voice to say, "Don't... don't let my dad hear..."
Yan Qing thought that the person who just answered the phone must be Cheng Jiaming's father.
Cheng Jiaming then asked, "Will she invite me to her birthday party?"
Yan Qing then looked at Huang Yanxiang, and the little girl pouted and nodded reluctantly.
Yan Qing said, "Of course, she said you are especially welcome."
The other person's emotions instantly surged: "Then... we'll meet there!"
After hanging up the phone, Huang Yanxiang pouted and said, "If I hadn't felt sorry for him, I wouldn't have invited him."
Yan Qing helped Huang Yanxiang remove her hair-covering cap, took a comb, and gently combed her long hair. While combing, she asked, "You two seem to know each other quite well."
Huang Yanxiang, munching on a slice of watermelon, said, "I met him at summer camp. He stuttered, and everyone laughed at him. I saw someone in trouble and stepped in to help, teaching those bastards a lesson. They couldn't beat me, so they said... said..."
"What did you say?" Yan Qing asked.
The girl blushed and after a long pause, she finally said, "He said Cheng Jiaming likes me!"
Yan Qing couldn't help but laugh out loud: "So that's why you deliberately distanced yourself from Jia Ming? Jia Ming is so innocent."
Huang Yanxiang grumbled in dissatisfaction, "Who told him to be so stupid? He didn't know how to talk back and had no manly spirit at all! Sister, there's no one better than a mother. A child with a mother is like a treasure, while a child without a mother is like a weed. I'm braver than Cheng Jiaming."
The little girl chattered on and on, but Yan Qing's thoughts were pulled by the tendrils of a certain memory, and she unconsciously drifted off into thought.
"Sister, sister!"
Huang Yanxiang's shout brought her back to reality.
"Sister, don't you think so? Cheng Jiaming's father is rich, but he doesn't have time to take care of him. He told me that he envies me because I have my mother with me every day."
Yan Qing thought of the man on the phone and suddenly felt that the voice sounded familiar, but she couldn't remember where she had heard it before.
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