Xue Jing nodded, his face innocent and naive.
“I know. You said that inspired by me, you were unwilling to die like this. You've lived to this age and still have a few unfulfilled wishes. One is that you still miss your father after all these years and sent more than a dozen emails to his company email address to express your feelings. Then you said that you are actually quite vengeful. Why did your former company not give you severance pay when it dissolved? You made dozens of harassing phone calls to your former boss.”
“After he finished the call, he kept yelling at first, but then you started yelling so relentlessly that you didn’t give a chance to argue back, and you woke up his wife and kids. He blocked you, and then you used my phone to call. Mine was blocked too, so you searched for anonymous dialing software online.”
"After all that fuss, it was already dawn when you suddenly slapped your forehead and remembered that your dad legally owed you child support. You yelled that you would sue him until he was bankrupt, and then you climbed back to the keyboard and started writing emails with your face."
Xue Jing spoke these words with genuine elegance, like a Spring Festival Gala host delivering a stand-up comedy routine. But when Ha Yue listened to these jokes, which were even worse than crosstalk, her face contorted in a kind of plasmolysis-like distortion.
As he spoke, Xue Jing raised his head slightly, emphasizing the climax, "Oh! Right, before you fainted you said you were from a respectable family and were not unworthy of me at all. My parents need to know about this. It won't be time tomorrow, you have to call them both."
Ha Yue was struck dumb. Her lips twitched a few times, and after a long while, she managed to force a dry, awkward yet polite smile and asked him, "Teacher Xue, please don't scare me. Didn't you stop me when I was doing these things?"
They should have stopped her. How could Xue Jing let her run wild like this? Such a terrible and shameless act.
Even trees need bark; doesn't she need to save face to live?
Xue Jing was overjoyed to see Ha Yue's dazed and silly appearance. With a smile, he squatted down and pulled her legs out from under the covers, putting slippers on her feet one by one.
When she looked up, her perfect smile was full of encouragement from a mentor. "No, how could that be?"
"We know each other inside and out now, we're inseparable, so I'll definitely listen to you in everything. If you say east, I won't dare go west."
"You couldn't find your dad's company, so I bought you a paid search membership. And all those VoIP apps cost money, so I bought you several. As for my parents, they cut off contact with me after I published my book and realized I really didn't plan to work for the company. You kindly called them to report on my situation; they must be really happy, right?"
Otherwise, where would she get his home phone number? He typed it into her phone himself, step by step.
After saying this, Xue Jing affectionately put his arm around Ha Yue's shoulder and carelessly planted a kiss on her cheek. The kiss was so forceful that it reopened his wound. He gasped for breath and pressed his hand against the wound, whispering in her ear, "What are you afraid of? I think you did a great job. Do whatever you want, don't always hold back. We'll talk about it if something happens. I can also help you find a lawyer."
He's just a lawyer, there are as many as he wants, he knows them very well.
"That's right!"
While Ha Yue was still processing the terrible things she had done, Xue Jing, with a cunning glint in his eyes, cupped her face in his hands like he was scooping up the moon's reflection in water, and smiled like a fox that had stolen some poultry.
"Now that you mention it, I suddenly remembered that you also said yesterday that you wanted to get back together with me, and that you loved me very much. Well then, I won't be polite. I love you too. We're boyfriend and girlfriend now."
A minute later, a burst of profanity erupted from Xue Jing's house.
Xue Jing scrambled out of the yard, wearing a coat and slippers that were on the wrong feet.
The workers installing the glass were so surprised that they stopped moving and stared at him with their mouths agape like groundhogs watching a spectacle.
After closing the courtyard gate, Xue Jing shivered from the cold. He turned his back and smoothed his fluffy short hair, then turned back and resumed his gentle and warm expression.
Like a retired cadre sent to the countryside, he put his hands in his sleeves, shuffled around in his slippers, nodded to the workers who were working at Zhao Chunni's house, then flashed a smile revealing eight neat teeth, trying to smooth things over, "It's okay, my girlfriend has a bad temper, she gets scolded all the time. You guys keep working. I'll still pay you."
Yuecheng, Redwood Building Materials Market, Dongyang Exhibition Hall.
Due to the lockdown for many days, a lot of dust had accumulated in the exhibition hall. As soon as it was light in the morning, Jiang Zifan drove to the company to clean it up in preparation for the order fair the next day.
Since his stepfather was paralyzed in a car accident a few years ago, he dropped out of school and took over the family's mahogany business. Over the years, his mother has taken his stepfather to seek medical treatment in various places, spending a lot of money. The entire family's expenses are supported by this business.
The market for rosewood furniture has been particularly bad in the past year, and even the few employees he hired have resigned and run away one after another. He said he was the small boss of the company, but in reality, he is doing sales, customer service, and after-sales service all by himself at this stage.
With no working capital on hand, besides the car and the shop, all the remaining money is tied up in orders.
After working all morning, Jiang Zifan had a quick lunch of roast meat rice. In the afternoon, he went to the factory to check on the workers' progress according to the order of orders, replied to messages to a few clients, and made business trips with a few timber merchants next week. Only then did he have time to sit in front of the computer and open the company email.
At first, when he saw the first few emails that started with "Dad," he thought it was some new type of mass online scam.
But after patiently reading through the emails, Jiang Zifan frowned and immediately called his mother.
In the evening, after dinner, the mother and son sat by Ha Jianguo's hospital bed. This bedroom, facing the sea, had been converted into a ward. In addition to an oxygen concentrator and an IV stand, there was a television set on the wall facing the foot of the bed. Ha Jianguo had been bedridden for a long time and had contracted pneumonia again in the past six months. Now his physical condition was worse than before. He spent most of the day in a daze and rarely woke up.
Because of the severity of the car accident, Ha Jianguo suffered high-level paraplegia and brain damage. Over the years, feeding, injections, and cleaning have all been the sole responsibility of Jiang Yimei's care. Doctors had given Ha Jianguo many death sentences. His body was barely clinging to life, and he had even lost his speech system. A single spit of phlegm at night could suffocate him. But each time, Jiang Yimei gritted her teeth and pulled him back from the brink of death.
Ha Jianguo survived the first three years, and then he survived the second.
Jiang Zifan felt sorry for his mother and suggested hiring a professional caregiver for her, which was an expense that the family could afford, but Jiang Yimei always disagreed.
She said she didn't find it hard to take care of Ha Jianguo. Although the two are not married yet, they have long regarded each other as family and partners. She doesn't want to entrust her responsibilities to others.
The television was broadcasting the day's news, and the news of various regions relaxing restrictions was gaining momentum, with public opinion speculating about domestic policies and discussing the recovery of consumption.
Jiang Zifan wiped his stepfather's body, while Jiang Yimei, wearing her reading glasses, read the emails from Suicheng.
She read it word by word. Finally, after the news broadcast ended, Jiang Yimei took off her glasses, took out an old savings book from the bedside table, and handed it to her son.
As soon as Jiang Zifan saw the number on it, he threw the passbook back into her arms with a stern face.
Jiang Zifan has always kept a buzz cut, is of medium build, and has regular facial features. From the right side, he is a handsome young man, but because of a large scar on his left ear that extends to his chin, he looks a bit sinister.
His tone was resentful and aggressive, clearly indicating his disagreement with his mother's decision.
"Mom, you're really going to give it to him? This is all the money we have left. How hard will it be for you to take care of him before the New Year? His family is so heartless. After the incident, that woman didn't answer her phone, and as his daughter, she didn't even send a single word of concern. Don't you think about what you'll do if he leaves? Aren't you going to support him in his old age? Are you going to die with him?"
Don't you think about me?
Jiang Yimei was used to her son's straightforward temperament and wasn't angry. She just held the passbook in her hand and repeatedly stroked the numbers deposited each month.
Sixteen years ago, when Ha Jianguo and he first came to Yuecheng from Suicheng to start their business, they had a very tough time.
Because Jiang Yimei was also taking care of her young son who had suffered burns and needed to be hospitalized for skin grafts, the few clients they secured in the early days were all obtained by Ha Jianguo, who traveled around seeking them out on his own. At that time, he would wear ill-fitting suits and worn-out leather shoes and walk around in the sun all day long.
I humbled myself and talked until I was hoarse. When I got back to my rented room near the hospital that night, I was so tired that I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
Later, Jiang Zifan successfully underwent a skin graft and started primary school, making their lives a little easier. Ha Jianguo and Jiang Yimei discussed that every month when their business made money, they would save a sum of money for Ha Yue and Jiang Zifan's education fund. Having lived in Yuecheng for a long time, they had learned from what they saw and heard that many families in Yuecheng would send their children abroad for further studies. Ha Jianguo also wanted to take advantage of his ability to earn money to leave some security for his children.
Although Jiang Zifan was not his child, Ha Jianguo loved him so much that he always treated him as his own son, so Jiang Yimei supported his decision without hesitation.
Those were the sweetest times for the two of them after they got together. The family of three was happy and harmonious, their business was booming, and customers came in droves. They did make a lot of money and lived a good life for ten years. Until Ha Yue was a sophomore in college, Jiang Zifan finished his college entrance examination, and Ha Jianguo proposed to Jiang Yimei that he wanted to take the savings book that he left for Ha Yue back to Suicheng to see his daughter and ex-wife.
Initially, Jiang Yimei disagreed because she was afraid of being retaliated against by her ex-husband. After fleeing to Yuecheng with Ha Jianguo, she lived in anonymity and tried her best to avoid contact with her old friends in Suicheng, fearing that her ex-husband would find her again and forcibly take their son away.
In addition, she was also very afraid that Ha Jianguo and Zhao Chunni would rekindle their relationship and that Ha Jianguo would leave her.
But Ha Jianguo believes that so many years have passed, and Jiang Yimei's ex-husband and his ex-wife have probably moved on to new lives. He has missed too much of Ha Yue's growth. He was not there during Ha Yue's adolescence, nor during her college entrance examination. If he misses her going to university as well, he is afraid his daughter will never forgive him.
He was no longer young, and he feared he wouldn't be able to reconcile with his daughter before he died.
The two argued about this for a long time. No matter how much Ha Jianguo assured her that he would not reconcile with his ex-wife and would never disturb Jiang Zifan's biological father, Jiang Yimei still begged Ha Jianguo not to leave Yuecheng and not to leave her and her son.
On the day of the flight, she locked the door of her house from the inside, trying to prevent Ha Jianguo from going to the airport, but Ha Jianguo eventually found a spare key. It was raining heavily and there was no time to take a taxi, so he drove to the airport himself.
On his way to the airport while speeding, he was involved in a multi-vehicle collision on the expressway.
Ha Jianguo ultimately did not return to Suicheng.
Jiang Yimei didn't think taking care of Ha Jianguo was hard work. The physical exhaustion didn't make her sad. What really tormented her was that every morning when she woke up in the small bed next to Ha Jianguo, she would look at Ha Jianguo's body sinking into the mattress and ask herself that question.
If she hadn't stopped Ha Jianguo from going back to see Ha Yue and Zhao Chunni, would he still be lying in a hospital bed?
He will still be a force to be reckoned with in the business world, and even in middle age, he will remain handsome and dashing.
If she hadn't been so selfish, he wouldn't have become such a useless person who can't even act on his own.
But upon further reflection, the beginning of their relationship was, in essence, an act of extreme selfishness.
So it seems that everything was predetermined from the beginning, and this couple was destined to reach this point.
Jiang Yimei has recently started practicing Buddhism. Buddhist scriptures talk about cause and effect, and she seems to have come to understand the bitter fruit she has sown.
Jiang Yimei looked at her son with gentle eyes, gazing at the unnatural, knotted skin on his left cheek, and said absentmindedly, "Zifan, do you still remember the days in Suicheng when you were little? Do you remember the burns on your face?"
“You were too young then, you probably don’t remember, but I remember it very clearly.”
“I can still hear you screaming in agony when your own father pressed your head against the boiler.”
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