Chapter Eighteen
On New Year's Eve, the living room lights cast a cold glow on the sofa and coffee table. Zuo Xutong sat in a corner of the sofa, writing a research and development plan. The sound of the keyboard clicking was particularly clear in the empty room.
Outside the window, thousands of lights illuminate the festive celebrations, but these celebrations don't belong to her. She's like a prop forgotten on the stage, with no fireworks, no dumplings, and no family to reunite with.
Zuo Xutong has lost count of how many Spring Festivals she has spent alone. She seems to have gotten used to the quiet and continues to do her own thing as usual.
Actually, when putting up the couplets that morning, Hao Ling asked Xiao Ping if she wanted to call her sister to come over for New Year's Eve dinner. Xiao Ping hardened her heart and gritted her teeth, saying, "Don't let her come. Let her experience what it's like to celebrate the New Year alone. If she doesn't want to find a partner, then she can live a lonely life!"
What she didn't know was that although her daughter was lonely, she never felt isolated; in fact, she needed this environment to conduct her research. Many people may have dreams in their lives, but only when you have nothing—no house, no car, wearing the most shabby clothes, eating a five-cent steamed bun—yet still feel a surge of inner strength, can your dream be called a dream, not just a fantasy.
In the first thirty years of her life, Zuo Xutong experienced countless failures: academic failures, romantic failures, work failures... and countless experimental failures. Whenever she was full of hope and thought that she would definitely succeed this time, reality would always give her a heavy blow. However, she did not become pessimistic or desperate, did not blame others or complain, and did not give up easily, because she knew that where a person puts their effort, they will make mistakes. Because God wanted to test you, to temper your mind through continuous failures, and to gradually improve through trial and error.
Romain Rolland said that behind every great achievement lies suffering.
If you haven't succeeded yet, it must be because you haven't endured enough suffering.
At midnight, as the New Year's bells rang, Zuo Xutong finished a 19-page research and development proposal. She wanted to revise it again, but she was too tired, so she put down her laptop, intending to rest on the sofa for a while before getting up to revise it. However, she fell asleep as soon as she lay down, and slept so soundly that she didn't even hear the door lock rattle.
Peng Kun unlocked the door and was surprised to find that his "tenant" hadn't gone home for the Chinese New Year and was sleeping on the sofa. He walked over and glanced at the laptop on the coffee table, unexpectedly finding an open document—a 19-page research and development plan to reduce MEA costs.
He picked up the notebook, sat down on the chaise lounge next to him, and slowly flipped through the documents. His expression gradually changed from curiosity to shock. She had applied for this project with him the night before last, and had completed such a detailed plan in just one day.
Peng Kun stood up excitedly, carrying his laptop and pacing back and forth in the living room, watching and sighing inwardly as he did so.
At this moment, Zuo Xutong groggily opened her eyes and saw a dark figure standing in the middle of the living room. She was so frightened that she grabbed a harmless cushion and threw it at the figure.
The cushion landed squarely on Peng Kun's back. He put down his notebook, turned around with an annoyed look, and said, "Hey, are you crazy?"
"W-how is it you? How did you get in?" Zuo Xutong was forced to switch from a dazed state of just waking up to a state of fear. For a moment, she even forgot that the other person was a homeowner. She froze for a few seconds before she came to her senses. "You used a key to open the door and come in?"
"What else could I do? Jump in through the window?" Peng Kun felt a little guilty seeing that she was quite frightened by him, and softened his tone, "I thought you had gone home. I didn't expect you to still be here. Aren't you going home for the Spring Festival?"
Zuo Xutong wanted to say, "Where do I have a home?" but she didn't want to play the victim, so she asked in return, "Why don't you go home? Why are you living in a rented room?"
"I've been staying with my mom all day and even had a few drinks with her, so I couldn't drive. It's not easy to get a taxi on New Year's Eve, so I walked seven kilometers to get here."
Why don't you stay at Auntie's?
"It's inconvenient for her there, there are too many people."
Too many people? Zuo Xutong was taken aback, but she never pried into other people's private lives, so she could only smile apologetically at him: "So you thought I wasn't home and wanted to stay here for the night? I'm so sorry, I haven't left yet. You should go back to your villa."
"I can't get a taxi on the road, how am I supposed to get back? Walk? I won't be able to walk back by dawn. Forget it, I'll just have to spend half the night here," Peng Kun said reluctantly.
"Isn't this inappropriate?"
"What's wrong with that?" Peng Kun said, taking off his coat and hanging it on the coat rack. Then he walked to the door, rummaged through the shoe cabinet, took out a pair of men's slippers, put them on, returned to the living room, plopped down on the sofa, and casually picked up the remote control to turn on the TV.
Seeing his practiced and seamless movements, like an old farmer returning to his warm bed after working in the fields, Zuo Xutong couldn't bear his arrogant and self-righteous attitude: "Who gave you permission to live here?"
"Huh?" Peng Kun raised an eyebrow, as if he had heard a joke. "Watch your words. This is my home. I live in my own home. Why do I need anyone else's permission?"
“That’s right, you are the owner of this house, but you rented it to me, so during the lease period, the right to use the house is mine. Now this is my territory!” Zuo Xutong argued.
Peng Kun didn't reply. Instead, he bent down, opened a drawer under the coffee table, took out a key, and waved it at her: "Don't forget, I didn't rent the study or the north bedroom."
Zuo Xutong suddenly realized, "So that's where I was waiting for." She was speechless for a moment, standing awkwardly in the middle of the living room, unsure whether to go forward or backward. After a while, she rushed into the bedroom, found a whiteboard marker from somewhere, bent down and drew a line on the floor, separating the study from the second bedroom.
"Since you didn't rent these two rooms, from now on, please go back to your own territory," she said matter-of-factly.
“Okay!” Peng Kun surprisingly agreed readily and stood up from the sofa.
Zuo Xutong pointed at his feet and shouted, "The living room is my territory too, don't step on it."
"Then how am I supposed to get there? Fly over?" Peng Kun glanced at her and deliberately walked slowly into the study.
Zuo Xutong thought to herself, "If you're so capable, then stay inside forever, without going to the toilet or drinking water."
After a while, Peng Kun was indeed a little thirsty, but as soon as he reached the door of the study, he saw Zuo Xutong sitting on the sofa in the living room, staring at him menacingly.
He calmly retreated, casually picked a book from the sparsely stocked bookshelf, and after flipping through only a few dozen pages, there was no sound from outside. He figured they were asleep, Peng Kun thought, pulling a speaker from the bottom shelf, connecting it to his phone via Bluetooth, and starting to play heavy metal rock music.
Zuo Xutong had just lain down in her bedroom when she was startled awake by a drum-like sound, which made her heart pound. She thought someone was setting off firecrackers.
She threw on a coat, got out of bed, opened the bedroom door, and found the noise coming from the study. Furious, she strode over and yelled at the person inside, "What's going on? Can't a person get some sleep in the middle of the night?"
"I'm playing music on my own turf, is that against the rules?"
"Could you please close the door and turn the volume down a bit?"
"No, I'm hard of hearing, and besides..." Peng Kun stood up, pretending to examine the inward-opening study door, "This door isn't over the boundary, is it?"
"Fine, you win. From now on, you can go wherever you want and do whatever you want. Is that okay?"
"Heh, if you'd said so earlier, none of this would have happened." Peng Kun walked out of the study triumphantly, then turned back to find her still standing there and asked, "What are you still standing here for? Do you want to watch me go to the toilet too?"
"Pah, have you no shame!" Zuo Xutong muttered under her breath as she turned around, but then suddenly remembered that she hadn't finished revising her proposal, so she had to go back to the living room.
She was so sleepy she could barely keep her eyes open. After staring at the document on the screen for a while, she noticed the cursor was on page 19, and her mind instantly cleared: "Who messed with my computer?"
Peng Kun stood at the study door and said casually, "When I came in, I saw that your computer was still on, and I was going to turn it off for you..."
"Then why are you looking at my document? I haven't finished revising it yet." Zuo Xutong was anxious. She didn't want to present an imperfect plan to anyone, especially someone who had the authority to approve the project.
“I think your proposal…” Peng Kun paused halfway through her sentence, her heart pounding in her throat as she anxiously awaited the rest of her sentence.
“…It’s pretty good.” He finally said the second half of the sentence.
Zuo Xutong stood up with a look of surprise and took a few steps toward him. Changing her previous arrogant attitude, she asked cautiously, "Then... do you think it's possible to let me handle the cost reduction of MEA?"
Peng Kun smiled and nodded. Seeing his gesture, she was thrilled. It meant that she would no longer have to conduct experiments secretly, and she would no longer have to spend her own money to buy experimental materials... Thinking of this, her heart warmed, and she almost knelt down and kowtowed to her benefactor.
"Mr. Peng, thank you. I won't let you down," she said sincerely.
Peng Kun stretched and asked slowly, "Can I stay at my own place now?"
Zuo Xutong nodded vigorously, her attitude completely changing: "You can stay here, you can stay here however you like. The master bedroom, the second bedroom, the living room, the study... it's all your territory. If you have any special hobbies and like to wander around the rooms, I can sleep on the balcony or in the kitchen, I guarantee you won't see me or be bothered. As long as you're comfortable, I'll do whatever you want."
"Should I tie you to a rope and hang you on the wall?"
“It’s not fashionable to hang New Year pictures anymore.” Zuo Xutong wasn’t angry at all, and even continued his humor, saying, “How can you be so cruel? You still hang me on the wall, not even letting me take up a single square meter?”
"Hahaha..." Peng Kun laughed, yawning as he said, "Go wash up and go to bed. I'm exhausted after walking seven kilometers." He then turned and went into the bathroom, closing the door behind him, leaving Zuo Xutong standing alone in the corridor, grinning foolishly.
A moment later, the bathroom door opened a crack again, and the person inside was stripped down to only his underwear. Peng Kun poked his head out and shouted, "What are you still standing there for? Getting ready to watch me take a shower?"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry... I didn't see anything!" Zuo Xutong then remembered that the bathroom door was made of semi-transparent frosted glass. She quickly nodded and bowed, apologizing repeatedly, and covered her eyes as she retreated back to the bedroom.
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