04 Triangular Jacuzzi
The call was from Ni Yue's mother, Wu Xia.
Wu Xia, a mother, would only call her daughter Ni Yue in two situations: either she didn't understand her son Ni Ying's homework and needed Ni Yue's help with it; or she felt lonely and had no one to talk to or pass the time.
In Ni Yue's eyes, Wu Xia is a typical example of a person who is strong on the outside but weak on the inside. On the surface, she appears to be hot-tempered and loud, like a strong woman who can stand on her own. In fact, she has very little inner energy and is particularly unstable.
In the past, Wu Xia sold goods in a small shop in the county. Later, the small shop went bankrupt, so she set up a small store in the courtyard on the first floor of her house, selling daily necessities such as beer, soda and snacks. The profit was meager, barely enough to support her family.
Ni Yue grew up in a convenience store.
Wu Xia complained all day long when she was taking care of her. After raising her with great difficulty, she accidentally became pregnant with her second child. She was reluctant to have an abortion, so she gave birth to a son, Ni Ying.
But Wu Xia did not become a strong mother just because she gave birth to a son. She was also not attentive to Ni Ying.
Although she didn't have much money in her pocket, Wu Xia would go to the temple every year and burn a lot of incense money. Her purpose was to make a deal with the Buddha and bless Ni Ying to be like his sister, to motivate himself, to get into a good university, and to become a golden phoenix rooted in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
This way she can enjoy a peaceful life.
What about Ni Yue's father, Wu Xia's husband Ni Daming? He knows more about cultivating immortality and finding leisure time than Wu Xia.
When Ni Daming was young, he drove a long-distance bus. Years of traveling made him sick. Later, he stayed at home and looked after the convenience store with Wu Xia to recuperate. Unexpectedly, he developed a lot of hobbies of a rich and idle person. After raising orchids, he raised parrots, after raising parrots, he raised goldfish, after raising goldfish, he raised turtles... He also raised a cabinet full of bottles and jars of medicinal liquor.
Recently he has become addicted to wild fishing. He often carries a pot of wine and a fishing rod, and walks to a large reservoir not far from his home to fish. He gets up early and goes to bed late, sitting there all day long. He often comes home drunk at eight or nine o'clock in the evening, but he has never caught many fish.
Wu Xia felt empty inside and couldn't lie down. Sometimes she would go through her address book and chat with everyone one by one, but it was still not enough to relieve her boredom, so she would come to find Ni Yue.
The last time the mother and daughter spoke was before Ni Yue came to Shanghai.
At six o'clock that evening, Ni Yue had not yet gotten off work and was in a meeting in the conference room. Unexpectedly, Wu Xia called her. Ni Yue quickly pressed the reject button and was about to send a WeChat message to explain when the call came again. She hung up again. The mother and daughter repeated this several times before Wu Xia finally gave up.
After the meeting, Ni Yue quickly ran to the elevator to call her back, but she was crying and cursing.
She scolded Ni Daming for staying out all day drinking and prostitution under the guise of fishing, scolded Ni Ying for coming home from school and either giving her English homework that she couldn't understand or playing games on her phone and not even eating properly, and scolded Ni Yue for becoming a phoenix on a high tree and being so heartless and ignoring others...
Wu Xia has worked hard all her life and devoted her entire life to this family, but now that she is old, she is despised by everyone and she doesn't want to live anymore.
"Mom, are you in menopause? Why don't you go to the hospital?" Ni Yue really felt that she was sick.
After Wu Xia cried for half an hour, Ni Daming came home. At this time, Ni Yue was exhausted both physically and mentally. He said hello to his father and hung up the phone.
After a while, Wu Xia sent another WeChat message with several photos. When I clicked on them, I saw that they were all Ni Ying's homework...
Ni Ying is only in the second grade of primary school now. His homework has already exceeded Wu Xia's knowledge scope. She has a low level of education and does not like to use her brain, so it is common for her to get stuck when asked questions by Ni Ying.
Not knowing what was going on this time, Ni Yue took his phone and returned to his room.
"Mom, what's wrong?"
"Yue'er, where are you?" Yue'er is Ni Yue's nickname.
"Where? I, I'm in Beijing!" She felt a little guilty.
Ni Yue has not yet told her family that she left Beijing and moved to Shanghai. She doesn't want her parents to know that she is starting a business with her cousin.
I wonder how unpleasant it would sound to Wu Xia to describe the job of helping people take a bath.
"...I'm asking if you're in the company right now. Is it convenient for me to talk?"
"Oh, I'm in the office stairwell. Tell me quickly if you have anything to say. I need to go back to work overtime!"
"Mom does need your help with something. When you are free, please go to the gynecology department of Union Hospital and make an appointment for me. I haven't had my period in several months."
"Oh, I told you you're in menopause!" Ni Yue rolled his eyes. "Can't we get treatment at our county hospital? We can also take a bus to the provincial hospital!"
"How can our local hospital compare to Peking Union Medical College Hospital?! Did you know that our neighbor Aunt Duan is almost 60 and still has her period? She just told me today that she got her Chinese medicine prescriptions from Peking Union Medical College Hospital. The old specialist doesn't have online consultations, only offline clinics. Please help me make an appointment and ask... If you don't have time, I'll go there in person!"
"No, no, no... Don't come. Send me all your symptoms and the name of the specialist, and I'll ask for you!"
"My dear girl, I'll send it to you right away!"
"Nothing else, I'm hanging up!" Ni Yue wanted to get rid of Wu Xia quickly, but unexpectedly she shouted again on the other end, "Hey, don't hang up!"
"What are you trying to do?" she asked impatiently.
"Are you dating well in Beijing? I suddenly remembered that time when Ni Ying video-called you, a man was sitting next to you having dinner. What was his name? Zhou something...?"
"He's dead. There's no such person anymore!" Ni Yue interrupted her unhappily and hung up the phone.
I angrily opened Xiaohongshu, wanting to check if there was any substitute clinic for Peking Union Medical College Hospital, but I heard a loud bang outside.
I hurried out of the bedroom and saw a huge cardboard box on the floor at the door. Zhang Chenling was standing beside it, panting.
"What is so big?" Ni Yue looked surprised.
"It's your package!" Zhang Chenling wiped the sweat from her forehead. "It was stuck on the first floor and couldn't get up. The aunties on the second floor came out to make a scene! I heard them screaming and went down to help pull it up."
The old Shikumen house has no elevator, the corridor is very narrow, and it is full of neighbors' miscellaneous items. Normally, only one person can pass through. Such a large item cannot be brought to the third floor without the cooperation of two or three people.
"mine?"
Ni Yue's first reaction was confusion, but the next second he remembered that he couldn't sleep last night and bought a bathtub on Pinxixi.
Shipped from Jiangsu, I didn’t expect it to arrive so quickly.
"tub?"
Zhang Chenling was surprised and helped her unpack. "Why did you buy this? If you want to take a bath, there's a bathtub in the bathroom. I only take a bath once or twice a week at most. We can take baths at different times and not disturb each other!"
Ni Yue smiled and said, "Hey, I want to take a bath with you! We can each have a bathtub and chat while taking a bath, how nice! And this bathtub is not heavy, I can move it into the house and use it as a laundry basket when I don't need it."
Seeing the four words written on her cousin's face: "Absolutely not necessary!" Ni Yue winked and added, "Didn't you say that everyone has the freedom to take a bath? I can buy the freedom to take a bath for a few hundred yuan. Isn't it much more cost-effective than taking a bath for 399 yuan?"
Zhang Chenling was stunned. She didn't expect to be hit by her own boomerang. She could only curl the corners of her mouth to express her incomprehension, but respect and support!
After removing the packaging, I found a white hard plastic bathtub, which was taller and shorter than the ceramic one in the bathroom, and more like a big bucket.
Ni Yue stretched out his legs, plopped down in it, and said with a playful smile, "Look how comfortable my little bathtub is! I have a similar one back home. Every time I went home, I would take a bath there. Sometimes I would pick a couple of flowers my dad raised and throw them in the water!"
"I don't have any flowers at home to pick for you!" Zhang Chenling sneered, "But I have a bathing herbal remedy for the elderly. It contains mugwort leaves and ginger slices..."
Speaking of the "Shangshan Ruoshui" herbal remedy, she couldn't help but become more talkative. Previously, concerned about the health risks of online herbal remedies, she made a special trip to the pharmacy to pick up a few herbs and packaged them herself at home. She plans to create bath bags with different benefits based on the season and the needs of her customers.
Ni Yue didn't listen to his cousin's self-praise.
Her thoughts first circled around her hometown in Northeast China, and then floated to Beijing.
In a trance, the edge of the plastic bathtub in front of me began to twist and deform, spreading outward, turning into a triangular jacuzzi that could accommodate two people taking a bath at the same time.
Rose petals floated in the bathtub, and she immersed herself in it, revealing only her shoulders. She looked out through the large floor-to-ceiling window beside her. Amidst the dazzling lights, Chaoyang Park, the China Zun, and the CCTV big pants were clearly visible...
Just as she was about to close her eyes and enjoy it, suddenly, a stranger fell from the sky. Before she could see the man's face clearly, she was dragged out of the bathtub naked!
In an instant, fear, shame, anger, and powerlessness filled my chest.
She opened her mouth wide to scream for help, but it was as if she had been bewitched, and not a single word came out...
“Crack!”
It was not until he heard the sound of a cell phone shutter that Ni Yue regained consciousness and returned to the real world.
It turned out that it was just a nightmare in broad daylight.
He patted his chest, but before he could even feel relieved, he heard Zhang Chenling say with a smile, "You looked like an idiot when you were stunned just now. I'll send it to you!"
It turned out that she was secretly photographed.
Ni Yue glanced at the photo sent by his cousin. He looked like a silly big-headed doll in the bathtub. He couldn't help but sneer.
Just as I was about to click save, a message popped up on my phone.
She frowned and cursed fiercely: "Divine Gold!"
Put your worries behind you immediately.
Zhang Chenling saw her two thumbs suddenly flying around on the phone screen as if they had cramps, writing and deleting, sometimes frowning, sometimes beating her chest, sometimes breathing out of her nose, and mumbling and cursing... She had a slightly protruding mouth, and her fleshy lips were often pouting inadvertently. She was very cute originally, but once she started cursing, she was not very likable anymore!
Zhang Chenling couldn't help but wonder, "What are you doing? Sending WeChat messages?"
Without even raising his eyelids, Ni Yue replied, "I'm arguing with netizens!"
"A fight?" Zhang Chenling was extremely curious. "What happened? Tell me!"
Ni Yue looked up at her with a helpless expression, "There's someone who often quarrels with me in the online article comment section!"
Zhang Chenling was surprised, "Can they quarrel over online articles?"
"Of course not!" Ni Yue said helplessly, "Have you read the article about buying stocks?"
“I’ve bought stocks, but I’ve never read any articles about buying stocks.”
"Stock trading novels usually have two or more male protagonists, and the female protagonist wavers between them, and it's not known who she's chosen until the end of the novel. The one I'm reading now has two male protagonists. I like the first male protagonist, and she's protecting the second male protagonist. We originally had our own opinions, but then, for some reason, she started arguing with me in the comments section. And, I realized, she was only targeting me..."
"You really have a bad physique!" Zhang Chenling chuckled and asked, "What's the difference between the male lead and the second male lead?"
"The male lead is a domineering boss who likes to force love, and the male second is a sea king who is an artistic guy who likes to flirt with girls."
"I can tell you're a domineering boss!" Zhang Chenling tutted, feeling a little itchy inside. "What's the name of this book? I want to take a look at it too!"
"'Love and Night on Changle Road', the author is called Running to the Moon. We all like to call her 'Running Ball Sister'! I'll send you the link to the book now, but I think it's best if you don't read it yet."
"how?"
"This book has been serialized for over half a year and it's still not finished. I only update one chapter every two days, and he keeps taking leave and stopping updates. You won't be able to catch up if you're impatient. It's better to wait until the book is finished before reading it!"
"It's really not suitable for me!" Zhang Chenling shrugged. She hated any form of chasing updates and would even wait until the end of a popular TV series before watching it.
"But you can check out Sister Paoqiu's finished books," Ni Yue said, a look of admiration crossing his face as he mentioned his favorite author. "Sister Paoqiu is amazing! She writes about all kinds of genres: stock market stories, domineering CEO stories, rough-and-tough stories... She's published so many books, and even sold film and television rights!"
"So amazing? But with the slow pace of updating once every two days, you're definitely not a full-time author, right?"
"Who knows?" Ni Yue also looked puzzled. "Sometimes, I also wonder if she is deliberately prolonging the story to whet the readers' appetite. But, after all, she is the running ball sister! Even if she only updates once a month, I won't give up on the story!"
Zhang Chenling nodded. "There's nothing wrong with following the article, but forget about arguing with netizens. It's a complete waste of time!"
After saying that, he turned around and went to the kitchen to get some water, leaving Ni Yue alone in the bathtub in a mess.
She was indeed very messy. Just as the two sisters were chatting, another message was pushed to her phone. She clicked on it and saw a huge mess:
I find it hard to agree with your point of view that the male lead truly loves the female lead. His actions of controlling the female lead with handcuffs and tearing up her stockings clearly show a lack of basic respect for women. Forced love is like an invisible weapon, which is essentially no different from rape. If we praise such behavior and extract pleasure from it, then we are encouraging crime, condoning molestation and rape, and we will create a large number of women (men) suffering from Stockholm syndrome!
...The more I read, the more furious I became. Where on earth did this weirdo come from? She's babbling away, pointing fingers at the world and writing passionate words, even bracketing men and trying to be fair to everyone. Who does she think she is? An empress?
——The female Lao Deng is pretty good!
Ni Yue gritted his teeth and didn't want to get entangled with this female boss anymore. He thought it would be better to send her a private message, scold her and then block her.
Clicking on the female boss's profile picture and seeing her ID in Shanghai, Ni Yue suddenly had an idea. How about…challenging her to have a face-to-face fight and scare her?!
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