06 "Didn't you say you'd never come back in this lifetime?"
After dinner, Mai Xiang helped Tao Wangji clean up the table.
She was very skillful and even took away the kitchen garbage before leaving. She had a bright smile and her eyes were full of true feelings.
The heat in the room hadn't yet dissipated, and the girl's words seemed to linger in her ears. She, like her, was homeless, having left her hometown at a young age. Thinking of this, Tao Wanjia ordered a cake through the food delivery app.
She was willing to celebrate the birthday of this girl she didn't know well, even though she hadn't celebrated her birthday since she was seven years old.
Twenty minutes later, Mai Xiang knocked on the door with this unexpected surprise.
"Sister Xiao Tao, are you asleep?"
She leaned against the doorway and said, "Thank you for buying me a cake. This brand is very expensive, right? I'll transfer the money to you and we can eat together, okay?"
"Need not."
Tao Wanjia didn't open the door. He wrapped a towel around his wet hair and refused her. "I've already washed and rinsed my face. You can eat. Happy birthday."
Her tone was very flat, and it sounded a little cold through the wooden door.
Mai Xiang heard it and thought she had disturbed her rest time. She thanked her and said goodnight. She returned to the next door with the light blue cake in her hand and ate while thinking, "Rongcheng is pretty good. The people I met are all very nice."
Tao Wangjia, who lived next door, took his computer back to the bedroom and took the time to check the situation of Bihaixishan before his hair dried.
This club was founded six years ago. The owner behind it is quite powerful. He is the head of Rongcheng's largest real estate development group. His surname is Deng. In his early thirties, he has already established a solid foundation, dabbling in various industries and covering almost every aspect of Rongcheng's life.
She took a pen and wrote everything down. After browsing the few pieces of information on the web, she searched for clues on an app on her phone. In the internet age, some things can be cleaned up, but there are always discoveries in small, unnoticed places.
These things happened too naturally. The habits that were ingrained in her bones did not need to be summoned. They would naturally flow out over the dam in her heart when the time was right. She had no control over it at all.
Tao Wanjia stayed up until the early morning before falling asleep, which completely broke the record of the past few days.
But perhaps because I went to bed late, I didn’t have any nightmares and slept until dawn.
In order to thank Tao Wanjia for the cake she made last night, Mai Xiang bought breakfast for her before going to work. Fearing that she would be unfamiliar and polite, she stuffed the breakfast into her hands and ran away in a hurry.
She hurriedly pushed open the unit door, and a thin layer of snow drifted in.
This is how it is in Rongcheng. It snows every few days in winter.
The wind blew in from the corridor, and the thin and brittle old-fashioned calendar on the entrance rustled, and the colorful dates and words on the translucent paper swirled vaguely.
Tao Wanji raised his hand and pressed it, paused for a few seconds and then tore off today's page.
November 8th
It was a good day, totally worth her showing off.
After dinner, Tao Wanjia went to the club.
She originally planned to pretend to be a guest to sneak in, but she didn't expect that the club's doors would be closed during the day, which was completely different from the hustle and bustle of the night and the lively scene of cars driving in and out.
Snowy days can easily exhaust people's patience. She was wearing thin clothes, and the coldness came up from the soles of her feet. She walked back and forth in circles for almost half an hour but no one came out, so she took a taxi and left.
Rongcheng has changed a lot. The commercial street is lined with all kinds of shops, but because it is a weekday, there are not many pedestrians strolling on the street.
On the day of visiting the grave, Tao Wanjia hadn't had time to deal with the burns on her hair. She went to a barbershop and, on the recommendation of an overly enthusiastic man, had a trim and a slight perm at the ends. Her hair was no longer frizzy, and had a more refined look than before.
She took a quick look in the mirror and was satisfied, so she took out her cell phone to pay.
The young man smiled, his nasolabial lines squeezed into two big brackets, "After the discount, it's 1599. Miss, you are welcome to come again next time."
Tao Wanjia cursed in his heart, wrote down the store name after paying the bill, and skillfully opened the market supervision suggestion platform.
I haven't been back for so many years, but I didn't expect that Rongcheng is still like this. Except for the salary, everything else has increased.
After the experience just now, I was more cautious when I went to the second store.
First, she avoided the incomprehensible store names and fancy decorations. Relying on her sixth sense, she walked into a store called Zhengdu with black letters on a white background.
As soon as the glass door opened, the girl with a ponytail at the front desk stood up and said with a smile, "Welcome, ma'am. Do you have an appointment? What style would you like?"
Tao Wanji shook his head and thought carefully about Mai Xiang's exaggerated manicure. "Just... ordinary ones will do." "Okay, then you can choose the color palette first."
She was led into the waiting area and seated. Across the table from her, a young-looking girl handed her several dazzling palettes. Tao Wanjia was dazzled by the sight, but she didn't feel comfortable interrupting her gentle and detailed explanation. She waited until she finished and pointed to a deep red palette at the very edge.
"Just give me this."
"Okay, do you need diamonds?"
"No need." Tao Wanjia thought, the more tacky it is, the better.
The girl nodded, skillfully took the alcohol wipes to disinfect her hands, and then held up the foam file to grind her nails.
Music played in the shop, the harsh friction sounds were almost inaudible, neutralized by the soothing piano music, which also drowned out the intermittent footsteps on the stairs behind them. The woman, wearing a long beige coat and carrying a gray-brown handbag, lowered her head as she walked down the stairs, searching for her car keys in the mezzanine.
The girl at the front desk saw the boss coming down and hurriedly greeted her, "Sister Huang, are you going to pick up the kids?"
"Yes, the kindergarten was dismissed early today because it was snowing."
Tao Wanjia turned around when he heard the sound, and his eyes met Huang Zheng who suddenly stopped.
This time she did not cover herself, and her facial features were fully exposed in front of her.
The two gazes met silently in the air, but it seemed as if there was a layer of tight transparent plastic between them.
Huang Zheng calmed herself down, held onto the handrail and walked down the stairs.
She walked quickly and pulled out a chair and sat opposite Tao Wanji before she could react.
He put down his bag and grabbed Tao Wanjia's hand, which had just been used to roast the base oil.
"Whatever style you choose, I'll do it."
The clerk beside him was a little surprised, and let out a small "Huh?" with his mouth slightly opened. Sensing an unusual atmosphere, he obediently stood up and left at the boss's command.
There were only the two of them left at the table. Huang Zheng raised her eyes slightly and looked at Tao Wanjia, then grabbed her hand and put it in front of her, speaking calmly.
"Didn't you say you would never come back in this lifetime?"
Their hands clasped together, the cold, warm skin between them, Huang Zheng was struck by the familiar touch. That summer, when she'd pulled her out of the river, her hands had been just as cold, devoid of any warmth, just as they were now. From childhood to adulthood, her hands had been as cold as her heart.
Tao Wanjia was silent, countless words rising to his throat, his lips moved a few times but he still didn't speak.
At such a close distance, she found herself unable to even look directly at her. Her hand was still being held by Huang Zheng, and her entire body felt like it was nailed to the chair.
She began to regret why she accidentally chose this store.
She really wanted to see her, but only from a distance in the dark. However, she admitted that she couldn't do such a meeting without any distance.
Tao Wanji bit her lip. Seeing her like this, Huang Zheng realized that she had been a little too extreme. She lowered her head, adjusted her mood, and took the nail polish on the table.
"Just this red one?"
Tao Wanji finally nodded and watched Huang Zheng skillfully unscrew the lid and push the brush covered with scarlet liquid to her fingertips, like blood exposed by scraping open the skin.
There was a long, dead silence in the air until Tao Wanjia remembered something else. She coughed lightly and said, "You just said you had to pick up the kids."
In fact, it was just a reminder, but Huang Zheng became more annoyed after hearing it.
She frowned, and suddenly stopped what she was doing. She spoke coldly, "If you want to drive me away so much, why did you come back? And you pretended to be like that and came to deliver gas to my house. Tao Wanjia, you are a—"
The conversation was interrupted by the sudden ringing of the cell phone. Huang Zheng lowered her eyes. It was the kindergarten teacher calling.
She picked up the phone with one hand and explained to the teacher next to her in a slow tone that she had something to do and would be late.
When the phone was put down again, Tao Wanji, who had been avoiding her gaze, suddenly looked at her with a puzzled and anxious expression, "How did you know that person was me? Did He Yu tell you?"
Huang Zheng's brows furrowed even more, and the mocking smile finally turned into a light hum.
Yes, what does she mean to Tao Wanjia?
A vicious neighbor who had bullied her since she was a child and kicked her away when they were dependent on each other. Even though she was called her "sister", she was not her biological daughter after all. They had no blood relationship at all. What did it matter to her whether she came back or when she came back?
Thinking of this, Huang Zheng finally regained consciousness, let go of the hand that had been unable to hold on for many years, stood up to get her bag, and after instructing the clerk, she pushed the door open and walked out without looking back.
Tao Wanjia looked at the figure getting farther and farther away outside the glass door, and the waves in his heart finally calmed down.
After so many years, she still felt only guilt in front of her.
It was almost seven o'clock when Tao Wanjia disguised himself and went to Bihaixi Mountain again.
It was already dark, and the lights on the walls outside the club were lit up golden, standing out in the dark twilight.
She stood on the side of the road outside the club, looked around, sprayed the cheap perfume she bought from the two-dollar store in her bag all over her head, smoothed her hair, and then walked into the hall with a twist of her head.
However, as soon as I entered the door, I was stopped by the security guard inside, "Hello, ma'am, please show me your membership card."
When their eyes met, she immediately reacted and said with a smile: "Hello handsome, I'm here for an interview. Can I see the manager?"
The man looked her over cautiously, choked by the strong smell of perfume all around him, and lowered his head to say something into the intercom at his collar.
Two minutes later, a slightly plump man in a vertical striped suit walked down the stairs.
The other party looked at her with a gloomy expression, "We are not short of people right now."
As expected, Tao Wanjia smiled and tried to persuade him. He walked forward and tugged at the man's sleeve. "Please don't be so kind. I heard from a friend that someone quit their previous job to recruit someone new, so I came here specifically. Please be more flexible."
Don't hit a smiling person. The manager was a little shaken by her good looks.
But remembering my boss's instructions, I still had to be cautious.
"Which store did you buy from before?"
"It's the Dahaoyuan in the south of the city. I've been working there for two years."
"How old?"
Tao Wanjia casually said a number, "Twenty-one."
"Do you have any special skills?"
"Does singing count? I can sing pretty well!"
It's still nonsense. In fact, her singing sounds like the howling of ghosts and wolves.
But none of this matters. The most important thing for an undercover agent is strong psychological quality. In this regard, Tao Wanjia is experienced and has a good grasp of it.
Seeing that the manager didn't say anything, she started to make amends, "I'm in urgent need of money recently. Can you help me out?"
After saying this, the manager looked her up and down and finally nodded.
"The VIP room could use another waiter."
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