01 My cousin is here
It was raining heavily. Even heavier than the day Yiping went to ask her father for money.
Zhang Chenling curled up in the bathtub, holding a cigarette in her right hand, half-closed her eyes, and stared at the old lattice steel window in the bathroom in a daze.
It was almost noon, but it was pitch black outside the window. The heavy rain roared down, making the window glass crackle.
My body felt slightly hot, beads of sweat trickled down my forehead, blurring my vision.
She hooked her thumb and wiped her eyes, then spread out her palms and looked at them over and over again: they were as thin as a stick, with thick joints, the tendons on the back of her hands were like taut bowstrings, and the nails were trimmed bare, without any aesthetic appeal - a pair of hands destined to do rough work.
A wry smile, a silent self-mockery.
He raised his hand and flicked the ash into the sink above the back of his head with skillful movements.
It was these hands that had encountered a dangerous situation twenty-four hours ago.
"Dark clouds are covering the sun. It's going to rain!" An old voice, speaking slowly and with a hint of concern, mixed in with the sound of splashing water, asked, "Do you have an umbrella?"
Zhang Chenling looked up out the window and a smile appeared on the corner of her mouth, the arc of which seemed to have been carefully calculated. This was her signature smile to customers that she had developed after more than ten years of working in the service industry.
"It's okay. The weather forecast says the rain won't start until around nine or ten in the evening. We'll all be home by then!"
His gaze fell back to the wrinkled arm beneath his eyelids - most of the muscles had atrophied and lost, and the skin was piled up into folds, almost stuck together.
She carefully smoothed out the wrinkles one by one and used an extremely soft bath towel to scrub away the dirt hidden inside. However, the skin that had not seen the sun for a long time had already lost its barrier function and was thin and fragile. A little force would create small bleeding spots, as if it had just been bitten by a mosquito.
"Does it hurt?" She saw the corner of the old man's mouth twitching out of the corner of her eye, and she quickly stopped.
"It doesn't hurt, it doesn't hurt!" The old man was eager to deny it, fearing that she would stop.
But the expression on his face conveyed the exact opposite message.
Zhang Chenling understood, took off the bath towel, and used her fingertips to gently rub his skin.
A grateful smile appeared on the old man's lips.
His shriveled body was immersed in the bathtub, covered with a large bath towel. Every cell in his body was eagerly enjoying the sweet rain after a long drought.
"Boom!" A thunder suddenly sounded outside. The woman sitting diagonally opposite Zhang Chenling trembled violently, and the water scoop in her hand shook, almost spilling all the water out of the bathtub.
"Jiang Xiaomei, what's wrong with you? Are you so scared by thunder?" Zhang Chenling couldn't help rolling her eyes.
But she looked terrified, her complexion looked as pale as if she had just been smeared with white ash, and her lips were trembling, as if she wanted to say something but stopped.
"What's going on?" Zhang Chenling looked surprised and turned to look at another teammate, Xiao Ma, who was helping the old man scrub his hair.
The two of them stared at each other.
Jiang Xiaomei raised her chin, motioning them to look at the old man's lower body, below his two hunched, bony thighs...
Zhang Chenling shook her head vigorously to get rid of the scene, lit her third cigarette, and added some hot water to the bathtub.
Water vapor and smoke filled the bathroom.
Suddenly, there was a sound of a combination lock being pressed outside.
The door opened, followed by the tinkling of palm trees, a sound as loud as the arrival of a renovation team.
Zhang Chenling immediately started to wonder - could it be that her cousin Ni Yue had moved her entire family here?
Last night in the middle of the night, this woman suddenly called me, crying and shouting that she couldn't stay in Beijing for another second and wanted to take the high-speed rail to Shanghai.
Zhang Chenling was busy and didn't want to ask any more questions. After hanging up the phone, she texted her home address and gate password...
Unexpectedly, she really came.
The wooden floor creaked, and a familiar voice mingled with it: "Cousin, I'm here! Cousin, are you home..."
Just as she was about to speak, her throat was blocked by the smoke rings she had just exhaled, and Zhang Chenling couldn't help coughing violently twice.
Ni Yue followed the sound and walked over. He pushed open the door and saw a cloud of mist in front of him. "Oh my god, where is this immortal cultivator in the mist?"
He quickly covered his mouth and nose and turned on the exhaust fan at the door.
Zhang Chenling coughed and chuckled at the same time. It was not until the smoke cleared that the two sisters could see each other clearly.
The smile on her lips slowly froze - the woman in front of her looked extremely embarrassed:
Her long, wet hair clung to her cheeks and neck, her makeup was smudged into clumps, her clothes were almost completely soaked and stuck to her body, and the sponge padding under her T-shirt had soaked up the water, leaving two prominent bumps...
"Oh, you said I was cultivating immortality, but you turned into a ghost!"
Ni Yue saw himself in the mirror above the sink and felt a little depressed, so he walked over and wiped the water off his hair in front of the mirror.
He kept on talking, trying to save face. "I knew it was raining in Shanghai today, but I didn't expect it to be so windy. I saw the taxi line was so long, so I took the subway. I didn't expect my umbrella to blow away as soon as I got out of the station. I walked all the way here in the rain. Luckily, I had several pieces of luggage to hold me down, otherwise I would have been blown away by the wind!"
Zhang Chenling realized that she was a little negligent and hurriedly apologized, saying that she didn't know she would bring so much luggage, otherwise she would definitely go down to pick her up.
Then he reached out and extinguished the unburned half of the cigarette in the sink.
Only then did Ni Yue notice the cigarette butts scattered around in the sink and the ashes everywhere. A look of contempt appeared on his face. He took out a tissue to pick up the cigarette butts and wiped the sink at the same time.
He took out another tissue to wipe his face and asked casually, "Cousin, I called you last night and you said you were busy. I thought about it for a long time, what were you busy with so late at night?"
"Well, I'm talking to a friend about something, business!"
"Huh? What business are you talking about in the middle of the night?" Ni Yue deliberately spoke in a pretentious tone.
Zhang Chenling ignored her and scooped up a puddle of water to pour over her neck and collarbone, then another puddle...
It wasn't until she heard Ni Yue sneeze loudly that she woke up. "Hurry up and take a hot shower. It's easy to catch a cold if you get caught in the rain! If you want to take a bath, I'll get up and change the water for you..."
Before he could finish his words, Ni Yue quickly took off his wet clothes and plopped into the bathtub!
Suddenly, huge waves arose, and water overflowed from all directions, flowing everywhere.
Zhang Chenling was dumbfounded. She stared at her cousin, who was seeing her naked for the first time. She wiped the water that splashed on her face and spat out of the bathtub. "...My bath water, don't you think it's dirty?"
Ni Yue disagreed, "You are my sister, how could I dislike you?"
Zhang Chenling rolled her eyes. "But how do you know I don't dislike you?"
"You are my sister, how could you dislike me?"
“…” Speechless after hearing her repetitive words, Zhang Chenling wiped her face silently again.
Ni Yue also remained silent.
She hugged her knees, propped up her thin chin, and stared at her cousin carefully:
The woman's hair was still short, chin-length, as always, its tips dripping with moisture, tucking inward, framing her rosy cheeks. Her cheekbones were prominent, giving her a mature, even unapproachable, look in her youth. But with age, her strengths became apparent: she held onto her flesh. So, even with a few faint wrinkles on her forehead and around the corners of her eyes, her face didn't look old at all, not at all like a woman in her 40s.
My gaze shifted downwards, landing on my cousin's chest. Huh? Why is it so red?
I can't help but wonder, is this from rubbing it in the shower? Or... just had a close combat with someone?
"What are you looking at?" Zhang Chenling was frightened by her straight gaze and raised her hands to cover her chest.
"What's wrong with you?!" Ni Yue said confidently.
But the next second, she deflated, her eyes and nose turned red, as if she was about to cry.
Seeing her in such a horrible state, Zhang Chenling felt pity for her and reached out to touch her wet hair. "What's wrong with you?"
Something must have happened since you came to Shanghai in such a hurry.
Ni Yue muttered in a mosquito-like voice: "I've messed up my life."
"Life doesn't break down, only jars break down!" Zhang Chenling told a cold joke and then asked, "What exactly did you mess up? Tell me more about it!"
Ni Yue pursed his lips, "Love and work... are both messed up!"
After saying that, he lowered his eyes, tilted his head, and rested his face on his knees.
She didn't want to say more.
Like animals, when hurt, people just want to find a quiet corner where they won't be disturbed and lick their wounds in silence. My cousin's house in Shanghai is the corner she found for herself.
"Oh..." Zhang Chenling frowned, realizing the seriousness of the problem.
Although heartbreak and unemployment were not a big deal in her eyes, except for life and death, they were all minor injuries.
But she knew that Ni Yue's sky had collapsed, and it had collapsed twice.
Seeing that Ni Yue was unwilling to discuss the details, she stopped asking.
After a long silence, Ni Yue raised his eyes, reached out and wiped away the tears that fell from the corners of his eyes. He tried to force a smile on his face, but it was uglier than crying. "I felt that life was worse than death, but when I saw you, I came back to life."
Zhang Chenling grabbed her hand and comforted her, "Even if the sky falls, I have my cousin here. It's okay, it's okay."
"Then can I stay with you for a few more days?" Ni Yue begged pitifully.
It's possible that I'll just stay here and not leave.
"Of course! I'm alone anyway, and there's a place to stay here. You can stay as long as you want!" Zhang Chenling agreed without hesitation.
Ni Yue always believed that he saved the Milky Way in his previous life, which is why he has such a good cousin like Zhang Chenling in this life.
Zhang Chenling often feels that although she is unlucky in some things, she is extremely lucky in some things, and her cousin Ni Yue who appeared out of nowhere is one of them.
In fact, the Ni and Zhang families have no blood relationship.
Twenty years ago, when the ponytailed Ni Yue was skipping rubber rope on a dusty playground, Zhang Chenling had already left her hometown and headed south to make her own way. In her early years in Shanghai, she worked as a factory helper, screwing screws and assembling mobile phones before switching to cleaning. After painstakingly saving a small fortune, she quit her job and started her own housekeeping company, specializing in high-end services for the middle class. Catering to the trend of the times, her business grew rapidly, becoming a leader in the industry, and she, too, became a domineering CEO.
In the eyes of her fellow villagers, Zhang Chenling is the "pride of the village," a figure no less than the female Liu Qiangdong. After her entrepreneurial success, she recruited many of her relatives and friends to work in Shanghai. Countless people sought to establish close ties with her, nearly trampling over the threshold of her home.
Ni Yue’s mother Wu Xia is one of them.
When Ni Yue was in her second year of high school, Zhang Chenling returned to her hometown to visit her relatives. Wu Xia got wind of the news and shamelessly brought her daughter to visit her relatives.
Wu Xia went on a lengthy speech, tracing back to the roots of her family, starting with the story of how the ancestors of both families worked as farmhands for the same landlord before liberation. She then recounted the connections between the two families, and when she got excited, she became so moved that tears and saliva flew...
Finally, the conversation turned to Ni Yue. Wu Xia desperately pushed her towards Zhang Chenling, tearfully saying that she was a child with dreams, and that every night she talked in her sleep about how she wanted to take the exam and go to Shanghai to live with her cousin Zhang Chenling...
Ni Yue was so embarrassed and ashamed that he kept digging the ground with his feet.
Zhang Chenling was actually happy to have picked up a cousin for free, because she only had a brother who always quarreled with her!
Later, Zhang Chenling brought her mother and brother's family to live in Shanghai and rarely returned to visit her hometown. However, she and Ni Yue always kept in touch.
Successfully climbing Zhang Chenling's ladder was undoubtedly a form of insurance for Wu Xia: if Ni Yue failed the college entrance exam, she could buy a train ticket and send her to Shanghai, where she would be right under Zhang Chenling's nose, and she wouldn't have to worry about it. That year, Wu Xia had just become pregnant with her second child.
Ni Yue, however, was very motivated and didn't need the insurance. She performed very well on the college entrance examination and was admitted to a Beijing Normal University majoring in preschool education. After graduation, she successfully stayed in Beijing and joined a large early childhood education institution, focusing on early childhood education.
She naturally became the second pride of the village.
The two cousins, one in Beijing and the other in Shanghai, live only a few hours apart on the high-speed train, but they're both busy and rarely see each other. The last time they met was last year, when Zhang Chenling told Ni Yue she was selling her long-running housekeeping company in Shanghai and would be leaving for Hainan to start a new one. Upon hearing this, Ni Yue quickly took the high-speed train from Beijing to give her a farewell party.
Later, the two sisters never saw each other again until a while ago, when Ni Yue wished Zhang Chenling a happy May Day, she learned that she had just moved back to Shanghai from Hainan.
"Why are you back again?" Ni Yue was surprised.
Zhang Chenling said casually, "If you want to come back, just come back!"
It was not convenient to ask too many questions over the phone, so Ni Yue thought about finding an opportunity to come to Shanghai and meet his cousin in the near future.
Unexpectedly, just a few days later, I hit rock bottom in my life, and it immediately became natural for me to come to Shanghai to live with my cousin - after all, she was my insurance!
"Oh, by the way, I didn't tell you before that I failed in my business venture in Hainan, so I came back."
When Zhang Chenling said this nonchalantly, the two sisters had just finished taking a bath and were sitting around the kitchen table eating hot pot.
Ni Yue was just about to pick up a piece of soft frozen tofu with his chopsticks when he heard the bad news and exclaimed, "Ah, how could this happen?!"
With a shake of his hand, the frozen tofu fell back into the pot with a "pop".
Zhang Chenling glanced at the churning pot bottom. "Of course not! Everyone stumbles sometimes... I was just too confident and took too big a step, which is why I stumbled!"
Ni Yue wanted to say a few words of comfort, but no words came out. He fiddled with his chopsticks in frustration, and after a while he tentatively asked, "Did you lose a lot?"
A lean camel is bigger than a horse, and a rotten boat still has three nails. As long as you don’t go all in rashly, you will always have the capital to make a comeback!
"The tens of millions I cashed out from selling the company were all lost!" Although Zhang Chenling remained calm, her heart trembled.
"Ah?!" Ni Yue's jaw dropped in shock.
"Hmm~ Fortunately, all I lost was my own money. I didn't borrow any leverage, and I don't owe anyone money. My savings have just been wiped out, but I'm not going bankrupt and jumping off a building!"
...My cousin is really a ruthless person!
After a moment of silence, the two sisters spoke almost at the same time:
"So what are your plans?"
"So what are you going to do?"
Ni Yue shook her head, her eyebrows knitted together. This time she came to Shanghai, she had wanted to hug her cousin's thighs and find a chance to restart her life. But now her thighs had become thinner, could she still hug them?
Zhang Chenling, however, looked very energetic and her period was on time. "I want to change the track and start over!"
"Change track?" Hearing this, Ni Yue became excited.
"That's right!" Zhang Chenling nodded and reached out to pick up a head of sweet garlic. "Actually, I've already started working on it, but it's still in the early stages of testing the waters..."
Just as she finished speaking, she suddenly remembered something, and her eyes widened like two headlights, "Hey, cousin? Do you want to start a business with me? I'm in need of a partner!"
"Partner?!" Ni Yue's body warmed up again, and his cousin took the initiative to throw a thigh to him. How could he not hug her?
He nodded like a chick pecking at rice, "Of course I'm eager to start a business with my cousin! So, what's your new business?"
Zhang Chenling bit into a piece of garlic with a "crunch" sound and said, "Give me a bath!"
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