32 Lost
Upon landing at Capital Airport, Yang Xiao shivered as a gust of cold wind rushed from the jet bridge. She gathered her coat and headed for the check-in carousel. Before she even reached it, she received a message from Zhou Qi, asking if she'd arrived. It was the same phone number she'd never changed. When she left the city, Yang Xiao had changed her phone card. It wasn't for anything else, but simply to artificially sever her connection with him.
Unexpectedly, he still found her, and even saw her downstairs with Ruopeng and Wuwu playing. In fact, when Yang Xiao asked about the cat climbing frame, green plants, and roses, she already had the answer in her mind. Zhou Qi's motive for hiding downstairs and not meeting her was simply that he didn't want her to recall those bad memories, or that he was afraid she would dislike him showing up at her new home.
The more Yang Xiao tried to figure out his psychology, the more she felt that she had never seen Zhou Qi clearly.
As soon as they left the airport, Wang Ruopeng ran over and gave Yang Xiao a tight hug. "I missed you so much, Xiaoxiao. You have no idea how lonely I am without you at home. I depend on Wuwu every day." As soon as she finished speaking, she rubbed her newly permed bob against Yang Xiao's neck. "Looks good, doesn't it? I just got it permed this morning. I went to class afterward, and the kids were all screaming with glee when I walked in."
"It looks really good! It suits you very well. But ouch, loosen up a little, I can't breathe." Yang Xiao patted her arm that was holding her, "You've done your duty. You brought the dried meat that your uncle made for you." Yang Xiao raised her eyebrows, looking proud, "And the spicy sausages he made for me."
"It's really hard for us Xiao Ren to carry him back. We will have a big dinner tonight!"
"So I don't have to wash the dishes tonight?"
"Oh, that's not right."
As soon as Yang Xiao took out the key and turned it into the keyhole, she heard the cries of Wuwu, one after another, which made her want to rush through the wall and pick up Wuwu and give her a kiss. Sure enough, as soon as she opened the door, Wuwu rushed over and rubbed against Yang Xiao's trouser legs back and forth, and a small piece of cat hair suddenly grew on her black pants.
"Woo, did you miss me? You smell so good, woo." Without even putting down her bag or changing into her slippers, Yang Xiao stood on the mat and scooped up Wuwu, nudging her belly with the top of her head. "Wait a minute, wait a minute. Let Mommy in first, okay?" Wang Ruopeng was stuck at the door, still dragging Yang Xiao's suitcase.
"I have some spare ribs in the pot. I'll go check it out." With that, Wang Ruopeng slipped in through the gap between Yang Xiao's legs, leaving the two standing at the door, acting out a loving mother-daughter scene. After petting the cat for a while, Yang Xiao felt more refreshed. She put Wuwu aside, cleaned up, and went into the kitchen to help Ruopeng.
Their rental apartment was a former office building, but it still had a floor-to-ceiling window, allowing for excellent light. With the setting sun hanging over the upper corner of the apartment, the sunlight streaming into the house was no longer glaring, but rather bright and mellow.
The third floor is low, and the soundproofing of the low-rent housing is not very good, so any loud noise from passers-by downstairs can be heard by them. Fortunately, the transportation here is not very convenient, and the price is relatively good, so the noise is not too noisy.
Yang Xiao felt that it was very comfortable to be with Ruopeng, sitting by the window with them in their free time, eating hot meals, with Wuwu chasing after them for food at their feet, and looking up at the still-fading sunset and the approaching blues moment. Of course, it would be even more so if they didn't go to work.
After graduating, Yang Xiao joined her family's accounting firm as an auditor. Audit work is tedious and monotonous. When she first started, her daily routine consisted of making follow-up phone calls, spot-checking stacks of documents that were taller than her, and traversing Beijing to print bank statements. Good work was rewarded with endless copy-pasting, and her fingers constantly switched between Ctrl+CV. The work was mundane, repetitive, and time-consuming. Even during peak season, leaving work in the wee hours of the morning was common.
Now, after a few years in the industry, my work has become a little less mechanical, and I've become a small-time leader. But the downside is that I've become a frequent flyer again, bouncing back and forth between projects. After all, adjusting my own schedule to accommodate clients' schedules is a painful experience. I used to love math, but now I've become numb to the daily grind of numbers.
She remembered that when she was filling out the application form, she flipped through the application manual again and again, only to find that she was calculating the purchase and selling prices of insoles for Yang Quezi. Strictly speaking, this was not mathematics, but more like finance or accounting.
So I applied to the School of Accounting on a whim and also took a minor in Finance. The academic pressure throughout the four years of undergraduate study was quite high.
Especially around the end of the semester, the campus was dreading the "Finance Night" that every student feared. Without a thorough understanding of the key points, it would be impossible to finish a thick finance textbook in one night. I worked odd jobs at a toy store and reviewed my textbooks in my spare time, but I still fell short of the chance to be admitted to graduate school.
It's true that I felt unwilling, but at that time I was more relieved after the high pressure.
She would soon no longer rely on her scholarship and Zhou Qi's monthly living expenses. She would finally become an adult capable of earning money. With this in mind, she plunged headfirst into the autumn recruitment with a tinge of anticipation and excitement.
With a decent academic background and several internships under her belt, she landed offers from both interviews. That day, she wore a formal suit she'd saved up for, sat in McDonald's, and used French fries as candles to celebrate landing a job. Just as she was about to text Zhou Qi, she received a call from the hospital saying she had a drug-resistant infection and that antibiotics weren't working, so she needed to come back.
She hurriedly opened her ticket booking app and gritted her teeth, buying a ticket that almost covered her monthly living expenses. When she arrived at the hospital, Zhou Qi was still in surgery. She contacted the nurse and asked her to tell Zhou Qi to come to the ward as soon as he finished surgery.
The nurse readily agreed and told her that she would definitely help convey the message.
Zhou Dashe's attending physician saw Yang Xiaolai and took her to see him, who had been urgently transferred to the ICU. Zhou Dashe's body trembled slightly through the glass, his blood pressure plummeting, and his heart rate spiked and fluctuated. His neck looked red, like a piece of charcoal in a fire, and his arm, where he was receiving an IV drip, was mottled. The doctor explained that this was due to hypoxia and circulatory failure.
"But isn't he on a ventilator?" Yang Xiao looked at the once-smiling Zhou Dashe, now lifeless on the hospital bed. The air around him was somehow filled with the faintest hint of critical illness. "A ventilator only delivers air, not oxygen. His lungs are completely blocked," the attending physician said solemnly. "Doctor Zhou is still on the operating table, working with someone else on a VIP. I'm afraid he won't be able to come down for a while. Think about it before you make a decision."
Yang Xiao never imagined that one day, the person who gave her a second chance at life would end up dying in her writing. The doctor's urgent words and her nearly collapsed heart made it impossible for her to calm down. She leaned against the corridor and took deep breaths, but her empty throat was so blocked that she was almost suffocating.
As she listened to the sharp alarm of the electrocardiogram monitor and watched the doctors and nurses repeatedly enter and exit Zhou Daye's ward, unbuttoning his shirt, Yang Xiao burst into tears. Zhou Daye had become so thin, like a lifeless skeleton, a thin layer of skin loosely covering his bones.
She suddenly remembered a line she'd written in her essay about Zhou Daye: "My adoptive father loved to pat his belly while playing chess with others. Win or lose, he never shirked his responsibilities. But now, he's barely even got a layer of flesh covering his bones."
Yang Xiao crouched aside, holding her head. It turned out that when a person is in extreme pain, their chest feels like it's being repeatedly smashed by a heavy hammer, the pain so intense that even crying can't make a sound.
The hand holding the pen trembled uncontrollably, and her usually beautiful small calligraphy became crooked and twisted on the consent form for not invasive treatment. The lines she had drawn expanded and contracted before her eyes, gradually becoming distorted. As she put pen to paper, she felt like she was about to collapse.
Zhou Daye's heart rate gradually became steady.
Yang Xiao recalled the time when she first arrived at the Zhou family. One day when she went downstairs, she heard Zhou Daye showing off in the yard with his chess friends who came to drink tea.
"My...second child has excellent grades."
"Hey, Old Zhou, how come you are so lucky to have picked up such obedient and motivated children?"
"Yes... I'm lucky..."
"Why did you think of adopting the waiter from the Yang family? Are you and Zhou Qi living too comfortably? Do you want to create some extra burden for yourself?" The chess friend's words were a bit harsh, but Yang Xiao felt that they were the truth.
"I...see them...going to college...going places I couldn't go, and I'm so happy...so happy. Studying is so wonderful," Zhou Daye said, recalling the days when he'd herd cattle and sheep up the mountain, sitting on the emerald hillside, flipping through books. He'd read fascinating stories, and the occasional crisp bird song drifted from the sky.
Yang Xiao was about to become an adult, but Zhou Daye couldn't wait for her. She had once planned to take him to see the sea and visit the university library when she made enough money, but he said he didn't yearn for any other scenery in his life, he just wanted to see the sea, sit in the chairs in the university library, and experience what he had always longed for.
But now, he felt nothing but pain. Even when he was critically ill, he was afraid to spend more money. Yet, he had never been stingy with his love or material things towards Zhou Qi and Yang Xiao. The moment Zhou Daye's heartbeat completely flattened, Yang Xiao felt as if the world was falling apart. Clearly, the world before her was intact, even the floor tiles in the corridor were clean and shiny, reflecting the sunlight.
The nurse told her that Zhou Qi was in surgery on the fourth floor.
She stood up and wiped the cold tears from her face. Her vision went dark from the suddenness of standing up, and she had no choice but to hold on to the wall as she walked to the elevator. Reason told her that Zhou Qi's job forced him to do what he wanted, but she was filled with a sense of grievance: "Why should I bear this situation alone?" This emotion, intertwined with the loss of Uncle Zhou, intensified.
As soon as Yang Xiao exited the elevator, she saw Zhou Qi standing at the end of the corridor with his back to her, and Miao Yue, still looking bright and beautiful, sitting opposite him. Miao Yue's mouth opened and closed, and she couldn't tell what she was saying, occasionally revealing a foxy smile.
That smile hurt Yang Xiao's heart so much that she couldn't help but think wildly. At such a dark moment for her, when her world collapsed again, Zhou Qi was still flirting with the beautiful woman.
She walked over, with tears still not completely dried on her face, and her body covered in sticky and damp sweat from anxiety, and stood in front of Zhou Qi. "Uncle Zhou is gone, what are you still doing here?" She originally thought she would ask this question angrily, but in the end, only fatigue and deep powerlessness came out of her mouth.
Zhou Qi also looked tired. He had just finished surgery when the nurse told him that Zhou Daye was dying of infectious shock and that Yang Xiao was waiting for him outside the ward. With a jolt in his heart, he tore off his surgical gown and headed out. But before he even reached the elevator, Miao Yue stopped him.
Miao Yue stopped him and started by informing him of Zhou Daye's death. She said she didn't want to interrupt the deal because she had some influential friends in Beijing. If Zhou Qi would only hand over the evidence he had and then stop the investigation, she would guarantee Yang Xiao a smooth career in Beijing without harassment.
At that moment, Zhou Qi felt like a complete failure. His attempts to get the best of the tiger had resulted in him compromising and backing down time and time again. Miao Yue's quick and informed information, coupled with his father's rapidly deteriorating condition, gave him a vague feeling that his father's death might not be as simple as it seems. Yet, he was indirectly responsible for all of this.
Seeing the light gradually dimming in his eyes, Miao Yue couldn't help but laugh out loud. It was really funny.
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