55 water mist
"Have you made up your mind? Do you really want to go?" Fang Qiu leaned forward, as if he wanted to put his head into Zhou Qi's eyes to find out what he was thinking. "Take good care of yourself. Senior brother will wait for you to come back." After saying that, he patted Zhou Qi's shoulder vigorously.
"Yeah," Zhou Qi replied, his eyes fixed on the wild camellia in the shop. This time, it wasn't the cake. Fang Qiu had dug up a live wild camellia plant from somewhere and kept it in the shop. It still had leaves in winter, lushly stretching towards the corner.
"To put it nicely, it's a sensitive response mechanism. To put it bluntly, that Ji guy might be using public power to settle personal grudges. How come your name is the first on the list of people supporting Wuhan?" Fang Qiu was indignant, feeling that there was something fishy going on.
"Maybe I filled out the form too early." Zhou Qi lied.
He had just opened the volunteer list document that had been urgently forwarded to him in the group chat, and before his cursor had even settled, he saw his name, number 1. But he had never filled out a form like this before. So, the other party's recent delay was probably because they were waiting for him. What a long shot!
But it didn't matter. He was going to Wuhan anyway, all alone. If he didn't go, would he wait for his colleagues with families to go?
"When are you leaving? Those..." Fang Qiu hesitated, turned his back and pretended to sneeze, trying to find a nicer excuse for the tears in his eyes. "Give me those things in your hands. I'll keep an eye on them for you."
"I'll leave next week. It's okay, Brother." Zhou Qi knew what he meant and wanted to get evidence, to redress his injustice. "My dad's issue is just starting to show signs of progress," he reached out and casually pushed the tissue box towards Fang Qiu. "I'll be back, don't worry."
"Of course you have to come back, you little brat. This coffee shop is going to collapse because of you. Can you bear to watch your senior brother become unemployed again? Also, I don't know how to take care of this camellia. You have to come back and keep an eye on it. It's such a big one, and it costs a lot of money to transport it here." Fang Qiu sniffed, took a tissue, and wiped his tears and snot.
"good."
Zhou Qi didn't stay long, exchanging a few words with Fang Qiu before saying goodbye. As he pushed open the shop's glass door, a dead leaf landed on his shoulder. It had been left by the ancient tree at the entrance. Ancient trees are said to possess spiritual energy, so was this the tree saying goodbye to him? He picked up the leaf and slipped it into his pocket. "If that's the case, thank you very much," he said.
Tiny snowflakes danced across the white sky. A few flakes landed prominently on Yang Xiao's black down jacket, making them especially noticeable. She let out a small sigh of surprise. No matter how many times she'd seen snow in Beijing, Yang Xiao never tired of it. After all, admiring the snow was one thing; walking through it to work was another.
Seeing that this company was also gone, Yang Xiao suddenly had the idea of watching the snow.
On the day Mu Tao came to pick her up, she'd actually considered falling off the overpass. At least she'd be a mess, and no one would recognize her. Plus, she'd have the courage to drink. So, stumbling back and forth, she saw a woman selling sweet potatoes at the intersection. Her face was red from the cold, and she had a mouthful of white teeth. She asked her to buy some roasted sweet potatoes.
She stopped and stood by the stove made of iron sheets and ordered some sweet potatoes.
The old lady was very talkative, one sentence after another popping out, first asking her if she had just finished a social event, then asking if she wanted some hot water. Before Yang Xiao could even nod or shake her head, the old lady held up the broken lid of the kettle, poured half a cup of steaming hot water into it and handed it to her, "Girl, drink some water to warm yourself up first, then eat some sweet potatoes. Drinking too much of this wine is bad for your health."
The kindness of strangers always comes so directly and brings tears to one's eyes. She couldn't think of any reason not to live a good life, live to taste roasted sweet potatoes, live to see the ducks in the North Sea, live to lead Zhimiao to win this turnaround battle.
"Thank you, Auntie."
"Don't be polite, young lady." Seeing her lips trembling with cold, the old lady told her to hide behind the stove. "It's windy at this intersection, stand inside."
"There's a saying that goes, 'There's no such thing as an insurmountable obstacle.' But in my case, if I can't get past it, I'll just leave it there. All roads lead to Rome, so why do I have to climb over that high obstacle?"
"I'm selling roasted sweet potatoes here by myself, and I'm quite comfortable. I'm not afraid of you laughing at me when I say this, but my husband and daughter can't speak, so I'm the only one in the family who has a mouth. After so long, I feel like I'm going to become mute. So, I come out to sell some things, and I can even chat with people." As he spoke, he felt embarrassed and wiped his hands on his apron.
"I'm not well-educated, and I tend to be blunt. Seeing you constantly glancing toward the overpass makes my heart leap. My daughter is about your age, but she's definitely not as accomplished as you are. At school, she's always being chased after and called 'little mute,' 'little mute.' Now, she can't even speak, and she cries all the time when she gets home. As a mother, I haven't done anything, except show off in class the next day."
"Later, she refused to go to school and helped me pick some sweet potatoes at home. If the skins were too dirty, she would wash them first and then stack them by the stove. In the evening, I would push them out to sell while her father went out west to sell. We didn't make much money, but we had to support four people, including my mother."
"At that time, I felt that life would be hard no matter how we lived, so we might as well find something happy and cheerful. So I gave myself a day off every Sunday and went to the park to dance." The old lady raised her orchid finger, and the charm came out immediately.
Yang Xiao stared at her blankly, tears welling up in her eyes. Yes, life is always hard no matter how you live, so you should find some happiness.
It seemed like she had never learned how to live with herself properly. She always tried desperately to numb herself, desperately trying to get into a dead end, only by breaking through the dead end wall to reach the open space.
But the road was there, and she could have turned around.
"Thank you, Auntie." Yang Xiao couldn't say anything better than this. She bought two more sweet potatoes and waited for Mu Tao to come and try them.
A snowflake landed right on the tip of her nose, tickling her. It lingered for a brief moment before melting away. She came to her senses, sent a message to the company group chat, and started the car.
When Xiao Fei saw the group message from Mr. Yang, he ran to Zhao Mutao and said, "Hurry up and pack up, let's go."
"? What are you doing?" Zhao Mutao looked up from the pile of documents with a puzzled look on his face.
"Hey, check the group message."
"Where's my phone?" Zhao Mutao stood up, felt his trouser pocket, and looked around but couldn't find his phone. "I guess it's buried in the documents."
Xiao Fei couldn't wait for her to dawdle, so he opened the group message and pushed his phone in front of her, "Look, Mr. Yang said..." and then put his other hand behind his back, as if he had learned the leadership style.
"Ahem. Mr. Yang said, comrades, let's go to the Forbidden City to see the first snow."
"You must be kidding. Didn't Mr. Yang just go to discuss business with someone? Xiao Fei, did you want to go and see it yourself, but were afraid that Mr. Yang would scold you, so that's why you dragged me along!" The two of them are in their twenties, and they always quarrel like elementary school students.
"Look at my phone!" Xiao Fei put the phone closer to Mu Tao's eyes. "Do you see it clearly? Who loves to lie like you?"
"When did I ever lie to you?" Zhao Mutao's eyes flickered guiltily, and she tugged at her hair beside her ear uncomfortably. "I'm not going to talk to you anymore. I'm going to sort out this pile of information."
"Oh, auntie, Mr. Yang is already downstairs, let's go."
"ah?"
"Hurry up and put on your down jacket. Don't cry out in cold like yesterday."
"Who's screaming! Xiao Fei, are you sick?" Zhao Mutao picked up the half of his down jacket that had fallen to the ground. He kept talking, but his feet unconsciously followed him to the elevator.
Yang Xiao didn't turn into the underground garage, but parked by the roadside, waiting for the two funny guys to get in. Seeing Zhao Mutao running towards her with a smile, she turned up the air conditioner two degrees.
"Mr. Yang, are we really going to see the snow?" Zhao Mutao jumped into the passenger seat, quickly fastened his seat belt, and turned to look at Yang Xiao.
"You can even pretend to see snow." Yang Xiao laughed after hearing this and looked up at Xiao Fei in the back seat. "Xiao Fei, the back door on your side isn't closed tightly. Close it again."
"I didn't eat today, Xiao Fei." Zhao Mutao tilted his head towards the armrest and gave Xiao Fei a provocative look. "Why can't you close the door tightly?"
"Zhao Mutao!" Xiao Fei gritted his teeth and called Mutao's name. From the sound of his voice, it seemed as if he wanted to eat Mutao alive. "You don't even know whether I have eaten or not."
As soon as the words were spoken, all three of them fell silent. Yang Xiao's silence was filled with an indescribable awkwardness. What could be more embarrassing than having her own employees discuss a matter among themselves, and then have it all come out in front of her? With her foot on the clutch, she wished she could remove the brake as well.
Zhao Mutao's face suddenly turned red and she stared out the window motionlessly.
Xiao Fei in the back row also chose to keep his mouth shut and pretend not to talk.
Yang Xiao felt so embarrassed that her scalp was numb. She really couldn't stand the suffocating atmosphere, so she said, "Didn't we buy tickets? Let's see if we can still get a bargain?" Only then did she turn the embarrassment into a gust of wind and throw it out of the car window.
"It seems to be sold out." Zhao Mutao held up his phone, refreshing it repeatedly. "A lot of people should be going to see it today. What should I do if I can't buy a ticket?"
Xiao Fei slapped his thigh and said, "I'll ask my friend at the travel agency."
The result is the same, it’s too popular and there are no tickets.
"It's okay." Yang Xiao found a parking lot near Jingshan. "Let's go to Jingshan to see it. Do you have any other good places to go?" The boss said, and the two naturally had no objection. Besides, Jingshan was indeed a good place to overlook the Forbidden City.
When we reached Wanchun Pavilion, it was still crowded, but at least we had somewhere to go. We arrived late, and the best camera spots were already packed, with people cramming head to head, as if even winter had raised the temperature by two degrees.
So many people would come to see the first snow, some even carrying cameras and long guns to commemorate it. Yang Xiao took a deep breath. It was the smell of the crowd and the cold winter, it was hard to tell which was more.
It was like going back many years, when she, Uncle Zhou, and Zhou Qi had celebrated Chinese New Year in the city. It was just like that then, with crowds of people and occasional exclamations.
The only difference is that the air in the city is covered with an invisible mist.
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