Chapter 39 The situation is already extremely precarious, and you are still here...
"Huh?" Xu Weisheng looked up, quickly wiped the smile off his face, turned off his phone, and placed it face down on the ground. He mumbled, "Nobody."
Jian Zhen forced a smile and continued to help him with the adjustments, asking casually, "Is there something urgent that's causing you this late?"
"It's nothing urgent." Xu Weisheng changed the subject: "I'll go find you a blanket. Do you want a thicker one or a thinner one?"
“No need.” Jian Zhen stood up, supporting herself on her thighs, and smiled at him with a bittersweet feeling in her heart. She said quietly, “I’m not afraid of the cold.”
Not afraid of the cold... Xu Weisheng couldn't understand it, but in his memory, Jian Zhen was indeed not afraid of the cold in front of him. Perhaps some people's skin receptors are naturally abnormal, which still needs further research.
"Then you're hungry—"
“I’m not hungry either.” Jian Zhen walked to the screen, bent down to pick up the remote control, turned around and asked calmly, “Do you still want to watch? If not, I’m going to sleep.”
"Of course I saw it." Xu Weisheng finally reacted a beat late. Jian Zhen was unhappy because of Jasmine's news, but he couldn't think of a way to explain it. On his way to Quzhou, he contacted someone to check Professor Lin's identity information at the University of Hong Kong. Combining Professor Lin's publicly available resume, he came up with a bold conjecture. For this reason, he went to Hong Kong many times and finally confirmed that Lin Hanjing and he had a common mother.
The heartless woman who abandoned her family and children back then was Jasmine.
She was almost sixty years old. When Xu Weisheng first saw her, she turned her face, and Xu Weisheng suddenly realized that the stunning young woman in the photo had nothing to do with the old lady in front of him. He couldn't even bring himself to hate her. All the complex emotions he had accumulated about his mother throughout his life shattered into smoke in that instant.
Jasmine admitted that she felt somewhat guilty towards him, but if she could do it all over again, she would still make the same choice because: "Back then I was only in my early thirties, still very young, and I couldn't give up my entire life just because I gave birth to you."
Xu Weisheng sat opposite her, initially as reserved as if they were strangers sharing a table, but gradually he was amused by the old lady. Putting aside her irresponsible mother identity, Jasmine was indeed a broad-minded and fun person. She advised Xu Weisheng on which of Xu Lijun's professional managers were reliable and which needed to be replaced gradually, and suggested that he spend his money on the then not-so-hot Bitcoin market.
"Why is gold valuable?" Jasmine, holding her delicate little teacup, explained to him in a matter-of-fact manner, "Because precious metals are non-renewable. You must remember, the truly valuable things in this world are all non-renewable, like what?"
Xu Weisheng, despite his advanced age, was being asked questions like a primary school student. He felt as if he had traveled back to his childhood, with his mother making up for the parent-child time he had longed for in his youth. He couldn't help but laugh and say, "Time?"
Jasmine, holding her small teacup, lifted her eyelids and gave him a deep look, then clicked her tongue and nodded, saying, "You're right."
“Gone forever.” She shook her head and sighed. Just when Xu Weisheng thought she was lost in her memories of life, she suddenly pulled out her phone again, operating it with the agility of a teenage internet user, and said enthusiastically, “Do you have Instagram? Follow me.”
Xu Weisheng hadn't expected things to turn out this way, so he awkwardly took out his phone and said, "I usually... use WeChat more."
"Got it! It's for work! But there are a lot of things I can't see on WeChat, like photos of handsome men and beautiful women... Hey Weisheng, do you prefer boys or girls?"
Xu Weisheng almost jumped out of his seat.
"Girls, I like girls." He nearly crushed the cup in his hand.
"Oh~" Jasmine nodded slightly, then suddenly launched into a surprise attack: "You must have someone you like, right?"
"Why do you say that?" Jian Zhen's name popped into Xu Weisheng's mind, and he tried to erase it, but to no avail.
“I can tell you’ve never been in a relationship just by looking at you. If you didn’t happen to have someone you like, how could you be so sure that you like boys or girls?” Jasmine winked at him.
"I... I can't explain it clearly." Xu Weisheng lowered his head. He found that it was very easy to confide in Jasmine. He had so many things stuck in his heart that he hadn't even sorted them out himself. He spoke them incoherently and illogically, but Jasmine could hit the nail on the head right away. She was truly a wise old woman.
After hearing his story, Jasmine first sighed heavily, then apologized and said, "Wei Sheng, I have to say sorry to you. I left you with Xu Lijun back then, naively thinking that since he was so rich, you wouldn't lack anything. But in fact, you lacked too many things, such as the experience of being loved, the ability to love, and the courage to love. When someone you like comes to you, your first reaction is to avoid them."
"I just feel that business partnerships are more solid and lasting..."
Jasmine nonchalantly raised a finger and shook it: "These are all self-deceiving excuses. You avoid it but can't bear to let go. This shows that you cherish relationships too much. Because you're afraid of losing them, you choose not to start. I really don't know who you are like. You're so uncool."
Xu Weisheng was dumbfounded. He was in his late twenties, and this was the first time he had truly received an education in love, listening to an elderly woman with gray hair dissect modern concepts of love in the sea breeze of Victoria Harbour.
Later, Jasmine would occasionally ask him on WeChat, "How far have we gotten?" or "Were you a little braver today?"
At first, Xu Weisheng thought she was worried about her child's marriage, but later he realized that she was just being nosy and bored—"Could you send me a picture of that girl?"
Bringing Chien Chen home this time, Hsu Wei-sheng felt he had taken an important step and, with a little bit of bragging rights in front of his mother, he proactively messaged her to ask for recommendations on pajamas brands and styles for young women.
Unexpectedly, Jasmine was overjoyed and recommended a whole bunch of sexy lingerie to him. She was also worried that he didn't have any learning experience or theoretical foundation, so she asked him if he knew how to access adult websites—how could Xu Weisheng dare to show those pictures to Jian Zhen?
He lay back in the newly adjusted seat as the movie screen lit up, and Jian Zhen also bent one leg and leaned back in her chair to concentrate on watching the movie.
Xu Weisheng kept glancing at her profile, wanting to explain several times, but he felt that Jasmine's behavior was too illogical for Jian Zhen to believe. So he kept holding back, but finally gave up and thought, "Let her focus on watching the movie first."
Jian Zhen was focused on the screen, but in reality, she didn't see a single minute. She thought that Xu Weisheng had a whole movie's worth of time to explain to her that they had agreed in Quzhou that if Xu Weisheng withdrew halfway through, she would definitely...
She couldn't bear to think about it anymore. As the movie ended, her lips began to tremble uncontrollably. She bit her upper lip, and tears rolled down her cheeks silently. In fact, Xu Weisheng was right. He was good enough to her. It was just wishful thinking on her part that she had issued such a ridiculous warning about a vague future.
She wiped away the tears on her face, a gesture that Xu Weisheng noticed. He asked softly, "Are you crying?"
"It's nothing." Jian Zhen gave a wry smile, shrugged without turning her head, and said, "I cry every time I see this part."
She turned and got off the chair, slipped on her slippers and went out before the lights in the media room were on. As she walked, she stretched and said as casually as possible, "I'm going back to sleep! Goodnight!"
Once inside the room, Jian Zhen realized she had put her slippers on backwards.
She first scoffed at her own foolishness, then turned around, pulled the covers over herself, and began to cry silently.
The next morning, Xu Weisheng returned home after buying breakfast. As soon as he closed the door, he received a message from Jian Zhen in bed: "I want to sleep in today, don't wake me."
Xu Weisheng glanced at the time, 9 o'clock... He thought that was the time to end his lazy sleep.
It seems that putting her on Pingping's storyline recently was indeed too tiring. He put down his breakfast and couldn't help but reflect on himself. Was it really the right thing to aggressively pursue a "star-making" approach because he valued someone's talent so much? Isn't late bloomer also good? Even if she doesn't become famous, as long as she's healthy and enjoys the fun that animation brings, isn't that enough?
Having figured this out, Xu Weisheng felt that 9 o'clock was still early, and the mall would open soon. Jasmine recommended a few toiletries, and he could go out and find them.
Jasmine was complaining about him yesterday, saying that the guest bathroom only had one bottle of shampoo and one bottle of shower gel – "What's the difference between this and a budget hotel?"
After sending a long list of skincare and bath products, Xu Weisheng was shocked. He had no idea that there were so many steps involved in taking a bath.
Jasmine retorted to his ignorance: "You think being a woman is easy? Being a beautiful woman is even more difficult!"
Xu Weisheng rarely wasted time shopping, but the feeling of sniffing around and choosing scents in the mall was quite nice, especially when he thought about how these scents would appear on Jian Zhen's hair and skin in the future, which made him feel a little excited.
After shopping for about two hours, he had bought most of the things Jasmine had asked him to buy. He carried the shopping bags home and called out Jian Zhen's name as he changed his shoes, but there was no response.
"You sleep too much, don't you?" He put down the shopping bag, walked to Jian Zhen's room door, knocked, and when there was no response, he tentatively said, "Miss Jian, it's time to get up!"
There was still no response. His eyelid twitched inexplicably, and he became a little nervous: "Um, I've opened the door!"
The door wasn't locked. He pressed the handle and pushed it inward, and the room was brightly lit. The bed was empty; Jian Zhen had even folded the blankets before leaving.
Xu Weisheng remained frozen in the open doorway for a few seconds before stepping inside. He found a note on the bedside table with familiar simplified calligraphy: "You have the right to give up, and so do I."
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