Chapter 71
Taking advantage of the moment, Yan Qing took off Zheng Haofan's coat and stuffed it back into his hand, saying, "Thank you, Mr. Zheng, take care."
Yan Qing fled downstairs in a flash, her heart still pounding as she rushed into the building.
She wiped the rain from her face. Ever since the riverside road, she'd been thinking about that person, so she'd been distracted while chatting with Zheng Haofan. Zheng Haofan's abrupt confessions, aside from initially surprising her, hadn't stirred any further emotion. She wasn't lacking in suitors; since starting her job, she couldn't even remember how many boys had expressed interest in her. Those people didn't leave a mark on her heart, but they could accurately stir up the dust of her deliberately buried past. Although she'd tried her best to distract herself in the year since the breakup, that person still infiltrated her mind relentlessly at moments when she wasn't paying attention. Every time she heard a man say, "I like you," she would remember his voice, his face.
A thick insulated bag hung on the doorknob. Yan Qing took off the bag and unlocked the door. Her cold, trembling fingers fumbled for the light switch on the wall, and the moment the light came on, her confused heart found a moment of solace.
The insulated bag contained two compartments of frozen dumplings, each dumpling being quite large and beautifully shaped.
Yan Qing felt a warmth in her chest.
She picked up her phone and sent a WeChat message: "I received the dumplings, thank you, Sister Meiyun."
After a while, Gao Meiyun replied with several voice messages.
"I've brought you so many steamed buns, dumplings, wontons, and sausages, but why haven't you gained any weight? Is it because my cooking is so bad that you've thrown it all down the toilet?"
"What do you really like to eat? Do you even eat?"
"I really don't understand why young girls these days are so hard to please. She has low blood sugar and won't eat properly. What if she gets sick from hunger one day? I won't be able to explain it to anyone!"
Yan Qing imagined Secretary Gao rolling her eyes in disdain and couldn't help but smile, but she didn't realize the deeper meaning of the last sentence.
While I was boiling dumplings, my phone kept buzzing with notifications. Wu Yanying had sent me over a dozen photos. The photos were taken in different scenes, but they all shared similar elements: a clear blue sky, large clouds, colorful prayer flags, and Wu Yanying dressed in Tibetan attire.
Which one is suitable to post on WeChat Moments?
Yan Qing only had a moment to consider before Wu Yanying couldn't wait any longer: "Are you there? Are you there?!"
"Yes, but I'm cooking dumplings, your mom's cooking."
"I'm tired of Lao Gao's dumplings. They're always the same few flavors: pork and cabbage, beef and fennel, maybe with an egg and wood ear mushroom filling. You don't need to force yourself to eat them just to save face for her. Just throw them away secretly!"
"It's delicious, I can't bear to throw it away."
"Isn't that spicy stir-fry place near you better than the dumplings? Order some takeout!"
"Takeout can't compare to homemade dumplings; it's expensive and not hygienic."
"Just like my mom, she doesn't know how to enjoy life! By the way, do you think I'm tanned? Be honest!"
Yan Qing carefully examined the photos. After that incident, Wu Yanying took a year off from school, during which time she enrolled in a teaching program in Tibet. Once in Tibet, Wu Yanying was like a bird released from its cage, spreading her wings completely. She traveled all over Tibet, and Yan Qing was able to appreciate the breathtaking scenery of the plateau through her social media posts. The yak meat and butter tea of Tibet made Wu a little more robust, which bothered her. She always tried to Photoshop herself to look thinner, but Yan Qing thought she looked better in real life, like a strong Gesang flower bathed in sunlight. Of course, if she told Wu Yanying the truth—that she had indeed gotten a tiny bit tanned from the UV rays—Wu Yanying would definitely go crazy and call her relentlessly. So she chose to say something nice: "Every photo is so beautiful, it's so hard to choose."
Wu Yanying was clearly pleased: "Right? I'm pretty satisfied with everything, I'm just torn..."
Yan Qing came up with an idea: "Why not use a jigsaw puzzle function, combining three images into one, so that all of them can be displayed?"
Wu Yanying did not reply for a long time.
Yan Qing finished eating and washing the dishes before receiving her belated message: "Your brain is still working quite well." At the same time, a small red dot appeared on her WeChat Moments. Wu Yanying updated her Moments with a post displaying more than a dozen of her favorite photos, all of them included, with the caption: "Growing freely in a pure world."
No matter her state of mind, Yan Qing was always healed by such moments. After graduation, she devoted almost all her energy to her work. In her spare time, she would have a meal with Gu Feimeng, visit Gong Meiping on holidays, and, even more occasionally, meet with Secretary Gao every few months. Secretary Gao rarely smiled, always rushing in and out, leaving her with a few bags of homemade frozen dumplings, pickled cucumbers, and aspic. Life went on like this, neither good nor bad. The loneliness she had imagined didn't materialize; work and friends filled some of the void, but in the deepest corner of her heart, no one could ever reach.
When she first broke up with Shen Hanyang, he kept sending her messages and calling her. Because of this, she changed her phone number, which she had used for ten years. Fortunately, Secretary Gao kept her promise and didn't reveal any information about her to him.
That's good; slowly, he'll forget about her.
Perhaps it won't take that long; soon, he will forget her.
Even worse, these thoughts were just wishful thinking on her part; she had long since become someone in his memories, gone with the wind.
Another Spring Festival has arrived, and like last year, Yan Qing is spending it alone. She bought two cold dishes from the company cafeteria, along with dumplings that Secretary Gao had delivered in advance, which made her New Year's Eve dinner look less haphazard.
While curled up on the sofa watching the Spring Festival Gala, she fell asleep amidst the deafening noise of firecrackers outside.
As she drifted off to sleep, an unexpected event occurred in the real world. A fire broke out in an apartment downstairs, but the sprinkler systems throughout the building were dry. The strong winds from the high-rise caused the fire to spread rapidly, and Yan Qing woke up coughing amidst the thick smoke. Fire was all around her; she was enveloped in scalding air and couldn't even tell which way was which. Downstairs, fire truck sirens wailed in vain, but the high-pressure water cannons couldn't reach the thirtieth floor. Yan Qing quickly became disoriented from the smoke. In the instant before she fainted, she seemed to see a dark figure stepping across the raging flames towards her.
Yan Qing opened her eyes again in the ambulance. Her throat burned, and her lungs were filled with choking smoke. She couldn't stop coughing violently for a while, coughing until her chest and lower abdomen ached.
In the hospital emergency room, she met an injured firefighter. Recalling the terrifying scene in the fire, Yan Qing's first reaction was to thank the firefighter.
The firefighter said, "You're welcome. Protecting the lives of the people is our duty. But to be honest, it was really dangerous just now. Luckily, a kind person rescued you."
Yan Qing was confused by his words: "A kind person?"
The firefighter said, "Yes, I guess it was your neighbor or something. They were so brave, going into the fire to rescue people under such dangerous circumstances. They really risked their lives."
Yan Qing hurriedly asked, "Do you know his name?"
"All I know is that he was a tall, brave, and handsome guy, but I don't know his name. He saved people without leaving his name, and by the time I wanted to look for him, he was gone. Anyway, if you ever see him again, you must thank him properly; we owe him a lot!"
Who is this nameless, kind-hearted person?
A guess surfaced in Yan Qing's still hazy mind, but she quickly dismissed it. How could it be him? They hadn't been in contact for a very, very long time.
Yan Qing felt ashamed of having such unrealistic fantasies at a time like this. Even stronger than the shame was the sense of loss of falling back to reality—because in that fleeting moment before losing consciousness in the fire, she really saw his face.
It turns out that, whether in ordinary daily life or in life-or-death moments, the person she was thinking of was Shen Hanyang.
Yan Qing didn't tell anyone about the fire, but the news spread among her colleagues after she returned from the Spring Festival holiday. Everyone expressed their concern and sympathy for her. Only Fei Mingchen said rather discordantly, "I'm more concerned about whether you're spending the Spring Festival alone?"
Liang Hongyin was about to stand up for Yan Qing, and she was even about to swear when team leader Deng Yuhang poked his head in and said, "Xiao Yan, come here for a second."
"Johannesburg?" Yan Qing repeated the name of the place that the team leader had just mentioned in surprise. "You want me to go to Johannesburg?"
"Yes, the department has decided to send you. This is a rare opportunity for training. Normally, this kind of opportunity wouldn't be given to a newcomer, but you have always performed very well and worked very hard, so General Manager Zheng instructed that the spot in Group Seven be reserved for you."
"Director Zheng's instructions?" Yan Qing had a bad feeling.
Deng Yuhang, unaware of the prior information, truthfully replied, "Yes, this time it's General Manager Zheng leading the team; he has been appointed as the head of the project department over there."
When Yan Qing returned from Deng Yuhang's place, Liang Hongyin and several others surrounded her and asked her about the situation.
Liang Hongyin had strong reservations about the department's decision: "Why send Xiao Yan? Isn't this bullying?"
Fei Mingchen's cheeks were sore and swollen: "The work-related compensation over there is calculated in US dollars. Isn't it good to earn US dollars?"
Liang Hongyin glared at him: "Is this some kind of cushy job? Last time, that young man from the product department was sent to Johannesburg, and he got shot in the leg by a stray bullet in broad daylight on the street."
Fei Mingchen scoffed: "Fortune favors the bold!"
Yan Qing listened blankly, like a fish on a chopping board, weak and powerless to resist. Neither Liang Hongyin, Fei Mingchen, nor anyone else in the office knew the truth—Zheng Haofan was a hypocrite. He hadn't given up after his previous failed confession. He began sending Yan Qing inappropriate messages on WeChat, the content becoming increasingly explicit, clearly implying a desire for an open relationship. Yan Qing was both upset and scared, but she didn't know how to deal with workplace sexual harassment.
Seeing that Yan Qing wasn't in a good mood, Liang Hongyin assumed she didn't want to go, so she said, "If you don't want to go, just refuse. It's okay. Group Seven isn't the only one that can go on business trips."
Fei Mingchen said, "Of course they'd hire someone like her, a single woman, for a job in such a high-risk area! She's married with children, and has elderly parents and young children to support. They can't just abandon their families and go there to be stationed, can they? This pretty girl even spends the Lunar New Year alone, so it doesn't matter where she works!"
Fei Mingchen always had a knack for provoking Liang Hongyin. Just as Liang Hongyin was about to fire at him, Xiao Ma, the office intern, returned from outside with coffee delivery and asked with great interest, "Whose Cullinan is that downstairs?"
Fei Mingchen rolled his eyes: "You're so shallow. What's so special about a Cullinan? When has S City ever lacked luxury cars?"
Xiao Ma said, "But there aren't many Cullinans driving into our science park!"
At this moment, Liang Hongyin noticed the commotion at the door and called out, "Little friend, who are you looking for?"
"I'm looking for my aunt."
Yan Qing was very familiar with the clear, bright voice of the little boy.
Yan Qing couldn't help but look in the direction from which the sound came.
The round-headed boy also saw him and excitedly exclaimed, "Auntie!"
Almost everyone in the office exclaimed in unison, "Auntie?!"
Everyone's eyes immediately focused on Yan Qing.
Yan Qing stared intently at the boy, almost unable to believe it: "Jiaming..."
Cheng Jiaming, dressed in a little suit, ran over happily: "Auntie, I've finally found you! My uncle sent me to pick you up."
Everyone was shocked: "What's going on? Yan Qing got married?"
Cheng Jiaming took Yan Qing's hand: "Let's go, Auntie."
Yan Qing said, "But I haven't gotten off work yet."
"Your uncle has spoken to your boss, so you have the day off today!"
Yan Qingyun was still confused, but asked again, "How did you get here?"
Cheng Jiaming replied, "The driver brought me here. The car is downstairs. Hurry up, my uncle is getting impatient!"
After Yan Qing and Cheng Jiaming left, the gossip in the office intensified rapidly. No one could figure it out no matter how much they discussed it.
After a while, Deng Yuhang came in and said, "Yan Qing is really unfathomable. I just saw her holding a little boy's hand and getting into a Cullinan!"
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