0035 Night Rose, Night.35 The small town had a different kind of vitality during the day. When the car drove onto the bridge over the river, Ruan Mei looked out from the passenger window and saw rolling hills covered with green. The ones in the distance were blurred by the clouds exhaled by the sky, like an ink painting, with deep green and light green.
In the midday sun, the turbulent river covered with golden-green scales rolled and slapped the river bank. The houses along the river were densely packed in rows. What shocked Ruan Mei the most was that those buildings were only based on slender concrete pillars, supporting four or five layers of concrete shells on their shoulders and standing by the river, which was terrifying to look at.
"I checked my homework yesterday and saw that you guys had two floods in the past few years. The water even reached the second floor." She pointed through the windshield at the guardrail on the opposite bank of the river. "There's also a video that seems to have been shot from there. The river was rising right below us, and it even flooded the guardrail."
"Yes, those two floods were quite serious. At that time, I could only watch the news and worry, but they lived in the old city, and the disaster situation was not that serious. They also reported to me every day that they were safe." In a blink of an eye, the car crossed the bridge, and Chen Shanye turned the steering wheel and drove towards the new district.
"But there were heavy rains in Guangzhou a few days ago, and where I live... Tangxia Village was also flooded to half a person's height. This time it's my dad's turn to call every day to ask how I'm doing."
He spoke of these things with a nonchalant air: "No matter where you live, in a big city or a small town, you still have to deal with God."
There was a car pendant hanging on the rearview mirror of the car, with a big red Chinese knot decorated on it, and red tassels swaying slightly in the air.
The black wooden sign is engraved with "Safe Entry and Exit".
"Is this car your father's?" The car was clean and tidy, but the interior was a little outdated, and there was a small Maitreya Buddha on the front of the car, shaking its head.
"I bought it before and opened it for my dad."
"Hey, why don't you drive to Guangzhou? Wouldn't being a Didi driver be more stable than a designated driver?"
Chen Shanye smiled and said, "Have you forgotten the Guangzhou rule of driving four times and stopping four times? Cars from other places can't do this. And, not to mention the physical effort, if we only consider the cost, the profit of a designated driver is actually much higher."
The topic returned to the designated driver, and Ruan Mei suddenly remembered something: "Come to think of it, a year ago... that was our first night. Were you considered an unauthorized designated driver then?"
That night she was sometimes drunk and sometimes sober, and it was the designated driver called for her by the owner of KK Bar.
"I also take orders from outside the platform. Some regular customers will make appointments with me in advance. I'm very familiar with KK Longbei, so I'll go over and help if they need me."
Fortunately, I am familiar with Long Bei. If he had found another designated driver that night...
He frowned and said, "If you want to drink with friends in the future, just tell me in advance and I will come to pick you up."
"Oh - is Master Chen's one-on-one private driving fee expensive? I'm short on money lately, and I can't afford it if it's too expensive." Ruan Mei smiled with a cheeky look on her face.
"It's so expensive, I need you to be my body..." Chen Shanye held the tail end of his voice in his throat again.
But the space inside the car was so small that Ruan Mei still heard it. She looked at him with wide eyes in disbelief: "Ah! Chen Shanye, you took advantage of me!"
The buildings in the new district are relatively new. Ruan Mei looked around and, while waiting for the red light, pointed to a small, brown-red high-rise building diagonally ahead and asked, "How much does a house like that cost here?"
Chen Shanye glanced at it and said, "About three thousand. When I bought it a few years ago, it was more than a thousand, less than two thousand."
Ruan Mei almost bit her tongue. It couldn't be such a coincidence... "You bought that house here?"
"Um."
She shut her mouth and stopped talking. However, Chen Shanye spoke as he stepped on the accelerator at the green light: "In my current situation, I have to wait 60 days for the public notice to be served, then a 30-day period for evidence submission, and then a court hearing for the verdict. After the verdict, I have to wait another period for the public notice to be served... All in all, it will take more than half a year.
In the past six months, I can maintain this muddled relationship we have now..."
He spoke calmly and seriously, but the last sentence was like waves on the river bank, slapping Ruan Mei in the face.
"Our relationship is not confusing." Ruan Mei interrupted him and defended himself.
"Well, nowadays this kind of relationship is called 'friends with benefits', right?"
Chen Shanye said this with a smile.
Ruan Mei liked his smile very much. A row of neatly arranged white teeth looked so beautiful. But now, she didn't want Chen Shanye to smile.
His hands were clenched into fists and clenched tightly against his thighs, and his heart was filled with waves of suffocating pain.
As they were almost at their destination, Chen Shanye turned on his turn signal and continued to speak seriously, "Ruan Mei, I hope you can give me a chance in half a year."
*
"Yezi, is that your girlfriend?"
Chen Shanye followed the gaze of the proprietress Sister Zhu and looked at Ruan Mei who was sitting by the glass. She lowered her head and looked at her mobile phone, her expression hidden in the hair that fell to her cheek.
He retracted his gaze and replied in a muffled voice, "Not yet."
People who knew him knew that his wife had run away and thought he had been divorced a long time ago.
Sister Zhu straightened her bulging belly and put a plum into her mouth: "Do you like this girl?"
"Hmm." Chen Shanye didn't even look at the menu and ordered several dishes in a row: "Black chicken with peppers and sesame, pickled pepper kidney..." Finally, he added some stir-fried kidney beans and asked to use as little chili as possible.
"Does she like sweet food? Today we have ice jelly and cold shrimp." Sister Zhu memorized the notes quickly as her ballpoint pen flew across the notebook.
"Let's have some cold shrimp. I haven't had it in a while."
"The girl has such beautiful, radiant skin. Is she from a big city?" Sister Zhu handed the order to a waiter, took out a bag of unopened plums and tossed it to Chen Shanye: "Here, I'll help you chase girls."
Chen Shanye thanked her and looked at Sister Zhu's belly: "Sister, when is the due date?"
"Three months left."
"Oh, I might come back then and tell me if the baby is born."
The plump and wealthy woman waved her hand lazily: "Alright, go and keep her company."
"What took you so long? What delicious food did you order?"
"Just a few stir-fries. For you, the boss lady sent them." Chen Shanye placed the plums on her table.
"Oh, please thank the boss lady for me." Ruan Mei opened the package and threw one into her mouth.
The dishes were served very quickly. The county town is located on the border between Yunnan and Sichuan, and the dishes also blend the characteristics and flavors of the two places. They are not too spicy, which is very much to Ruan Mei's liking.
The two chatted while eating. When Chen Shanye was about to add the third bowl of rice, he just raised his hand when he saw a middle-aged man and woman walking out of a small private room next to him.
Chen Shanye put down his hand, but the couple still saw him. They looked at each other, chatted for a few words, and then walked towards Chen Shanye.
Ruan Mei was chewing the slightly numb and spicy red kidney beans into small pieces in her mouth. She noticed Chen Shanye straightened his back and followed his gaze to see the person coming.
The short and fat man spoke first, with a mouthful of uneven yellow teeth. Ruan Mei frowned silently in her heart, fearing that he was a relative or friend of Chen Shanye, so she did not show her emotion on her face.
"Chen Shanye? It's Shanye, right?"
"Well, Uncle San, Aunt San, long time no see." Chen Shanye stood up.
Ruan Mei didn't understand what they said in dialect and didn't pay any attention to it. However, she always felt that her third aunt standing next to her was looking her up and down.
They didn't seem to be very familiar relatives, so Chen Shanye didn't even introduce Ruan Mei to the two of them.
The three chatted for a while, and then the middle-aged man and woman said goodbye and walked back to the box.
"Is he your relative?" Ruan Mei liked eating that plate of beans, one after another without stopping.
"They are relatives of the Wu family." Chen Shanye raised his hand and called for a bowl of rice, and explained again: "They are my ex-wife's uncle and aunt."
Although the court has not yet made a ruling, Chen Shanye himself has already put an end to this relationship.
"Oh——" Ruan Mei responded to him with a long tone, and buried her head to continue chewing her little beans.
After finishing half a bowl of cool and smooth shrimp, Ruan Mei rubbed her stomach and burped, "Chen Shanye, I really can't eat anymore."
Chen Shanye didn't say much. He finished his bowl in a few gulps and took the remaining dessert from Ruan Mei and put it all into his own mouth.
Ruan Mei took out her cigarette case and saw that the guests at other tables were all puffing away. She asked, "Is smoking prohibited here?"
"There aren't so many rules in small places. Just smoke your own cigarette."
The watermelon-flavored popping beads were half lit, and Ruan Mei was about to agree to Chen Shanye's plan to go for a stroll in the nearby ancient town after dinner when a Honda drove up the path at the door and stopped right in front of the window where they were sitting.
Two people got out of the car quickly, a middle-aged man and woman. The man looked somewhat similar to the third uncle just now, and the woman had a worried look on her face. Both of them looked into the restaurant through the large glass windows, or to be more precise, at their table.
The metal chair legs made a harsh sound as they scraped against the ground. Chen Shanye stood up. Ruan Mei looked up and saw that he had a frown on his face.
Sure enough, when the couple walked quickly through the door and approached their table, Ruan Mei heard Chen Shanye calling out, "Uncle, Auntie."
————Author’s nonsense————
The boss lady has a cold, I will try my best tomorrow...
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