Chapter 34 Wrong Answer
Zhang Haiming got angry when he heard Ge Lin's questioning, "Who told you nonsense? When did I cheat?"
"Zhang Haiming, I just want you to tell me the truth. Tell me, have you ever liked me?"
"What are you doing here in the middle of the night? I'm exhausted after spending a whole day on the set, and I still have to listen to you complaining here, Ge Lin. How can I like you when you're like this?"
Ge Lin rushed out the door. She had a part-time job at a convenience store that night. At two o'clock in the morning, everyone was sitting in the convenience store. Occasionally, a cold breeze would blow in through the crack in the door, bringing in one or two customers. Ge Lin kept her head down, afraid that others would see the tears on her face that could not be wiped away.
"You can pay over there," Ge Lin began to prepare the ingredients for breakfast. She was rummaging through the counter, but she didn't hear the sound of payment. She stuck her head out and saw Zhang Haiming standing at the door looking at her.
"Want to buy anything? If not, don't stand in the store. There are surveillance cameras and it will affect my work."
"I'm sorry, Ge Lin."
Ge Lin didn't look at him and continued to busy herself with her own things, pretending not to hear Zhang Haiming's apology.
"Please go away quickly and don't disturb me at work."
"I haven't done anything to offend you."
"Don't lie to me, Zhang Haiming." Ge Lin put everything on the cash register aside, picked up the rag and started to wipe the table.
Zhang Haiming walked up to the counter and grabbed Ge Lin's shoulders, forcing her to look at him. His grip was so strong that Ge Lin couldn't move. "There's a surveillance camera here, right?" Zhang Haiming asked, and before Ge Lin could answer, he kissed her on the mouth. He was always like this, always trying to get her to stay when he decided to leave.
"Ge Lin, do you believe me or what others say? We have been together for ten years."
Of course I believed him, and this time, Zhang Haiming succeeded again.
As soon as He Xiaolan stepped into the company, Director Xiong called her over and asked her to go to the coffee shop next door to buy coffee. Seeing his mysterious look, He Xiaolan became nervous.
"You're here so early in the morning and the atmosphere is quite scary. What's wrong? What shocking secret do you want to tell me? Have you become the general manager?"
"If I get a promotion, you wouldn't know it. It would be better to raise my salary. My wife just scolded me yesterday, accusing me of cheating her and hiding some money." Director Xiong is short and heavy, with a shaky gait. He's wearing a black and white jacket, and from a distance, you might think he's a panda from the Beijing Zoo.
"Next time I meet my sister-in-law, I will tell her that I can guarantee that you definitely don't have any private money hidden. You know I'm an impatient person, so stop talking nonsense. What do you want to say to me?"
"Our boss is changing." Director Xiong covered his mouth with his hand, his voice muffled and low.
"Boss? The original controlling company transferred the shares? Isn't it normal to change shareholders these days? But this is something that doesn't exist, we don't believe in rumors or spread them, otherwise we will both be in trouble if they blame us."
"If it weren't a confirmed thing, what could I tell you? It's not about transferring the shares, it's about selling us all as a package. The company name is going to be changed. Yesterday, Yang asked me to go to his office and stop all the promotional materials that were going to be produced recently."
"Now that you mention it, I was wondering why it was so strange that some of the department's contracts were transferred to the new company a while ago. So, when the new boss comes in, they can just lay them all off."
The winter in Beijing this year is not that cold. Even with a cup of iced American coffee in her hand, she can't feel the cold wind. After hearing what Director Xiong said, He Xiaolan didn't know what to do.
A girl with a secret crush is always filled with anticipation when she sees her crush, hoping to be the lucky one favored by love. Just like now, she hopes to be the purebred chosen by the god of work, and as long as she doesn't get laid off, she can continue to be a pure cow until she dies.
However, work still needs to be done until death comes. He Xiaolan took some new employee information to Jiang Wei to verify the information of the new interns. She found that Jiang Wei did not come to work. Before she finished explaining to other people, Yang Fan asked He Xiaolan to go to the office first and asked her to help Jiang Wei with her resignation.
"You can handle this by yourself. Once you're done, send the paperwork and files over." Yang Fan handed Jiang Wei's resignation agreement to He Xiaolan, asking her to finish it quickly and send it over. When He Xiaolan came in the morning, she was browsing her social media on the subway and saw Jiang Wei's update. The location showed that she was in T3 in the capital, and the destination of the flight was New Zealand. At that time, she thought Jiang Wei was on vacation, going out for a vacation and rest.
Jiang Wei had no one to say goodbye to in Beijing. Life's journeys continued one after another, leaving no trace in anyone's life. From the moment she was born, she had been a wrapped gift, destined for anyone who needed it. This time, it was Yang Fan who sent her out.
Yang Fan had already prepared everything. His assets and his future had been packed up and sent to his wife and children abroad. After acting for a while, he could withdraw safely and go to the other side of the ocean to be a good husband and a good father.
Jiang Wei knew the purpose of Yang Fan's visit before he even opened his mouth. She had even made the appointment with the moving company herself. That night, they were like a normal couple, buying groceries at the supermarket and cooking at home. The kitchen, which had never been used before, now felt like someone lived in.
"Thank you, Mr. Yang, for your care over the past two years." Jiang Wei poured Yang Fan some wine. She had already taken out the wine cabinet and let it sit for three hours. It was Yang Fan's favorite.
Jiang Wei sometimes found it ridiculous that she couldn't actually taste the difference between different brands of red wine; they all tasted the same sour and bitter. So she spent six months memorizing the characteristics, flavors, origins, and even the fertilizers used on the grapes of each red wine, just so she could mention it at the right moment to highlight the good taste of the man next to her.
On the last night, they didn't do it, but just lay in bed. Yang Fan insisted that Jiang Wei tell him stories about her wild childhood growing up in the countryside, catching fish and shrimp in the creek in the summer, and skating on the frozen lake on homemade wooden boards in the winter. These were all things he had never experienced before.
She rashly entered a class world that did not belong to her, and in order to survive, the only person she could sell out was herself.
She was fully prepared, and Yang Fan led her into the pre-planned drinking party. She was the prey of the man at the head table, and of course, that man was also Jiang Wei's prey. Although she was only a small part of Yang Fan's plan, as long as she was willing, the man, older than his father, was still willing to continue the conversation with Yang Fan.
Jiang Wei had nothing to be unwilling about. Yang Fan was of no use to her now. She had been with a married man whose personality became unstable and whose assets shrank after he became impotent. Now this divorced man who was over 55 years old and had assets of over 100 million was more cost-effective.
That night, she'd confirmed her feelings by looking into his eyes, and the next day, they were flying together to New Zealand to further their relationship. The memories of her youth spent crammed into cramped economy class were completely gone. She was addicted to the spacious first-class cabin and the comfortable reclining seats. No longer did she have to worry about her next meal, or the self-conscious fear of being seen carrying a supermarket plastic bag as a schoolbag. Jiang Wei actually began to enjoy this feeling. The benefits she'd gained from selling herself far outweighed the shame of being talked about behind her back.
Just by sleeping with the old man, my mother can live in the villa as she wishes, and she can squander money that does not belong to her at will. Even if the people around her have brown age spots on their skin and the disgusting smell of age and decay, it can be bought with money.
Money is enough in this life. Love is neither important nor necessary.
When He Xiaolan was about to get off work, she received a call from Qin Tiantian, who said she was waiting for her at the coffee shop downstairs from her company. Of course, she was waiting for not only her but also Ge Lin. The three women met, and Qin Tiantian got straight to the point by handing Ge Lin a photo of herself and Zhang Haiming.
"When I was with him, I didn't know he had a girlfriend."
Ge Lin didn't say anything, just stared at the group photo. Zhang Haiming in the photo was smiling brightly. It seemed that they had never taken a group photo before. Zhang Haiming said that he didn't like taking photos. The few times he went to Yuyuantan, he just took photos of flowers and birds, and never took photos of themselves.
"What do you mean by showing me this photo? Are you here to declare sovereignty?"
"I just came to tell you, Zhang Haiming, that I betrayed you. It's up to you to decide whether to break up or not. I don't mean to show off at all. I've deleted it a long time ago, and we won't have any contact in the future."
He Xiaolan sat aside, feeling uncomfortable all over. She quickly said she wanted to go to the bathroom and escaped from the Shura field.
Ge Lin held back her tears and always put on an attitude of not caring, in order to occupy the last bit of high ground in this emotional battle that she had lost.
"You should leave him. You have no right to tell me what I should do."
"It's up to you. I just came here to kindly remind you that we shouldn't sit here and blame each other. Zhang Haiming should bear the consequences of his mistakes." Qin Tiantian picked up her bag and was about to leave, but was grabbed by Ge Lin. He Xiaolan came out of the bathroom in public, afraid that it would cause some shameful social news, so she hurried over to smooth things over.
"Let's just leave it at that. We all know who that man is, so don't make things difficult for yourself. Xiao Ge, it's getting late, go home quickly."
Qin Tiantian was unhappy, not because of the breakup, but because she felt humiliated in the name of love. He Xiaolan called Wang Qingwei and told him she wouldn't go home. She went to Qin Tiantian's house with him. On the living room wardrobe was a camera box – a gift Qin Tiantian had prepared for Zhang Haiming.
"Just sell it on Xianyu without opening it. It's so annoying to look at."
"Do you think Ge Lin can break up with that bastard? This girl looks nice, why is she so stubborn?"
He Xiaolan didn't know how to respond. Her life was far more dramatic than the TV shows she watched that night. She bought three bottles of baijiu and some snacks online and decided to get drunk. She wasn't good at reconciling emotional conflicts, so the easiest way was to get drunk, take a nap, and then act like nothing had happened.
Far away in the South Fifth Ring Road, Ge Lin also downed a bottle of Niulanshan in one gulp. The nausea and burning in her stomach sobered her up. She and Zhang Haiming had been together for so many years, all for the sake of a single answer, like an unsolvable math problem—you write it down and understand it, then plug it into the formula and still can't figure it out.
She treated her first relationship according to everyone's standards for love, but in the end she got the wrong answer. But if she goes back to that afternoon before coming to Beijing, she and Zhang Haiming were sitting on the school playground, shrouded in the seaside fog, and she didn't actually see Zhang Haiming's expression clearly.
"If you are going to Beijing, just take me with you. I can do everything. I can cook and I am also good at cleaning."
"You are not suitable. You should listen to your parents and go back to your hometown to find a job."
"Zhang Haiming, I can really walk with you all the way."
"Ge Lin, I..."
The whistling sea breeze and the exclamations from the stadium drowned out Zhang Haiming's words. Ge Lin didn't know what Zhang Haiming wanted to say, so she just thought of it as him saying "I like you". He had been proactive for so long, so what would be the harm in taking the initiative again?
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