"Brother, brother!" Ji Ningzhi's joyful voice rang out.
Ji Yanjun said in a flat voice, "Ning Zhi."
"Mom, it's brother, it's brother back!" Ji Ningzhi excitedly opened the door, and Liang Wenhua stood behind her. The mother and daughter were stunned when they saw Ji Yanjun.
Ji Yanjun had lost weight, become darker-skinned, dressed in shabby clothes, and sported a stubble around his chin; he looked...
"elder brother……"
"Yanjun..."
The mother and daughter stared at Ji Yanjun in disbelief. In their memory, Ji Yanjun was handsome and clean-cut; he had never appeared so destitute and thin.
"Mom," Ji Yanjun called out with a smile, but Liang Wenhua and Ji Ningzhi blocked the narrow doorway, preventing him from entering the courtyard.
Liang Wenhua walked to the door, her eyes red, and grabbed Ji Yanjun's arm, saying, "Yanjun..." She had only managed to call out when she felt something uncomfortable in her hand. She quickly pulled Ji Yanjun's arm over to look, and a thin, long scar was clearly visible.
Liang Wenhua and Ji Ningzhi were both taken aback.
"Yanjun, what's going on?" Liang Wenhua asked.
Ji Yanjun said calmly, "It's nothing. Once, when I was moving goods with Gangzi, I accidentally got cut by a wire."
"Brother, are you moving goods?" Ji Ningzhi asked. In her memory, her brother hadn't moved goods for several years. He was the boss, and he would only do it himself for particularly important orders. Now, however, he was moving goods himself.
Liang Wenhua touched the deep scar and burst into tears.
"Mom, it's alright," Ji Yanjun comforted her.
But Liang Wenhua still cried bitterly, crying uncontrollably in front of her son, crying about the suffering her son had endured, crying about her own grievances, crying about her own poverty, in short, she cried without stopping.
Finally, Ji Yanjun and Ji Ningzhi helped her to the main room. Ji Yanjun looked at the cramped courtyard and the simple, stuffy main room. He reached out to turn on the table fan on the side table to ventilate the room.
"Brother, we don't have electricity at home," Ji Ningzhi said first.
Ji Yanjun paused, then asked, "Why is there no power?"
"I didn't pay the electricity bill, so the power company cut off my electricity," Ji Ningzhi said.
Ji Yanjun said nothing and withdrew his hand.
Liang Wenhua had calmed things down, and the family found some fans to fan themselves with. A little while later, Ji Yousheng came home from get off work.
Seeing Ji Yanjun, she was also shocked, feeling that her son had suffered a lot outside, and she felt bad.
Liang Wenhua and Ji Yousheng sat in the main room and inquired about Ji Yanjun's situation. Ji Yanjun answered them one by one, but with some reservations.
"What are you and Gangzi doing in Xiacheng?"
Ji Yanjun: "Helping others transport goods."
"How is it?" Ji Yousheng asked.
Ji Yanjun glanced at Liang Wenhua and Ji Ningzhi, then said, "Not bad."
The words "It's alright" sent a chill down Liang Wenhua and Ji Ningzhi's spines. If they still harbored any resentment or hope for such a poor life, it came from Ji Yanjun. But now, Ji Yanjun glanced at them before saying "It's alright." Considering Ji Yanjun's thinness, they concluded that he was only reporting good news and not bad.
Especially lunchtime next.
Liang Wenhua wanted to prepare something nice for Ji Yanjun, but they were penniless and could only afford coarse flour buns, porridge, and pickled vegetables.
But Ji Yanjun ate with relish, not finding anything wrong with it at all, and even asked, "Mom, did you make this pickled vegetable?"
Liang Wenhua forced back her tears and nodded.
"It's quite delicious," Ji Yanjun said.
The hope in Liang Wenhua and Ji Ningzhi's hearts was completely shattered. The good days they longed for day and night were gone forever.
The two couldn't help but cry again, this time a cry of utter despair, a cry of facing reality.
"What are you crying for? What are you crying for!" Ji Yousheng shouted. "You won't starve to death!"
Ji Yanjun remained silent.
Liang Wenhua and Ji Ningzhi stopped crying. Since Ji Yousheng took control of the "financial power," his words carried much more weight.
"Let's eat," Ji Yanjun said.
Ji Yousheng, Liang Wenhua, and Ji Ningzhi then began to eat.
After the meal, Ji Yanjun took out a hundred yuan from his pocket and asked Ji Yousheng to pay off all the debts and the electricity bills he owed. In this hot weather, how could they get by without a fan? Besides, when he came home and knocked on the door, his mother and sister didn't dare to answer, clearly afraid that he was there to collect debts.
“What will you do if you give it to us?” Ji Yousheng asked.
“I have a little bit left,” Ji Yanjun said.
“Then I’ll break the hundred-yuan note in half and give you the fifty-yuan note left,” Ji Yousheng said.
"No need, I earn money normally."
Ji Yousheng then gave up. Actually, one hundred yuan was just enough. When they first came to this small courtyard, Liang Wenhua and Ji Ningzhi couldn't accept it and secretly bought a lot of things on credit from the store, and they still hadn't paid for them. Plus, there was the money he borrowed from his coworkers...
"Sigh!" Ji Yousheng sighed, "The six thousand yuan that was lent to Su Hongmei, they're not going to pay it back." Before, Liang Wenhua had gone to make trouble, and Su Hongmei called the police, saying that Liang Wenhua was framing people without any evidence and that she wanted to arrest him. Liang Wenhua really had no evidence, so he was too scared to go to Su Hongmei's house anymore.
Zhang Fangfang, who had always treated Liang Wenhua and Ji Ningzhi like family, now ignores them completely because of the Ji family's downfall. Sometimes when she runs into them, she pretends not to see them.
“It’s all your mother’s fault for not writing an IOU or anything back then,” Ji Yousheng said.
Ji Yanjun took out a cigarette from his pocket and handed one to Ji Yousheng.
Ji Yousheng took it and asked, "How are things between you and Wen Qing?"
Ji Yanjun took a drag of his cigarette and lowered his head: "She doesn't want to anymore."
“She definitely wouldn’t want our family to live like this…”
“That’s not the point,” Ji Yanjun said. “Wen Qing was willing, not because of Second Uncle’s words, nor because of the Ji family’s money.” The implication was clear: Wen Qing had her eye on Ji Yanjun himself from the beginning.
"After that..." Ji Yousheng didn't finish speaking. Thinking of Ji Yanjun's feelings for Wen Qing, he was very worried as a father. He couldn't help but want to persuade Ji Yanjun to calm down. So he changed the subject to reality and said, "Yanjun, you're not young anymore. People your age already have children."
"I know."
“But Wen Qing is still young. In fact, she’s not even as old as your younger sister Ning Zhi,” Ji Yousheng said.
Ji Yanjun: "Hmm."
"I heard from Ning Zhi that she is a very good student and was given special consideration to take the college entrance examination this time."
Ji Yanjun: "Hmm."
“Since she’s such a good student, she’ll definitely get into a good university. Besides, Wen Qing is beautiful and has Feng Qing in her possession; her future is limitless. Before, our family would chatter away in front of her, but now we have to go through several procedures just to see her,” Ji Yousheng said.
This time, Ji Yanjun remained silent.
“Once Wenqing goes to university, putting everything else aside, just the fact that she’s so beautiful and academically excellent will make all the ambitious young men in the university eager to win her over. She could easily find someone who would be better off than if she stayed in our family. With her outstanding qualities, wouldn’t her in-laws dote on her?” Ji Yousheng said.
After Ji Yousheng finished speaking, there was a long silence between the father and son, with only the smoke rising upwards.
After a long while, Ji Yanjun spoke up: "Dad, you're right."
Ji Yousheng thought that Ji Yanjun had finally come to his senses and understood things, but then he heard Ji Yanjun say, "I'll start thinking about myself once Wen Qing is married, has children, and is doing well."
Ji Yousheng looked at him in surprise: "You..."
“I have a responsibility to her,” Ji Yanjun said with a stern face.
Ji You angrily pointed at him and said, "She hasn't even gone to university yet. It takes four years to graduate from university. If she doesn't get married while she's in university, it will take at least seven years for her to get married and have children. By then, you'll be over thirty! Do you want to stay single forever? If she never gets married, will you never get married either?"
“Yes,” Ji Yanjun replied firmly.
Ji You swayed angrily.
Ji Yanjun took a drag of his cigarette, his gaze fixed on the ground, and slowly exhaled the smoke as he said, "Dad, for the past three months, I've been dreaming about Wen Qing every day. Every time I wake up, I can't remember what I dreamed about, but I always feel like I owed her a lot in my past life, and my heart always aches. For the past three months, I've been thinking about my relationship with Wen Qing every day."
Ji Yousheng listened silently.
“A year ago, I drove to Xizhou to deliver goods. She happily saw me off, saying she would wait for me to come back and that she would get along well with my mother and Ningzhi. Later, I had an unexpected delivery, so I drove around Dongzhou. When I came back, she was no longer waiting for me at the four-way intersection. I thought she was just throwing a tantrum and that I could coax her back, because she does have a bad temper. She's a spoiled brat from her second uncle, she speaks sharply, throws things when she's unhappy, and can turn on you in a heartbeat. But she never holds grudges or does anything malicious. But this time she seems to remember, and she avoids me when she looks at me. Dad, why do you think that is?” Ji Yanjun asked, turning his head.
Ji Yousheng felt slightly guilty.
Ji Yanjun said sadly, "It was me, it was our family that hurt her, we hurt her way too much. Her second uncle saved my life, and our family remembered that kindness, but we turned that kindness into hatred, wantonly assuming that she was trying to climb the social ladder and was greedy for money, isn't that right?"
Ji Yousheng lowered his head.
“Dad, Uncle Wen Qing just came to my company. I took a liking to her the first time I saw her,” Ji Yanjun said.
Ji Yousheng was taken aback.
“At that time, I decided that I would marry no one but this girl in this lifetime,” Ji Yanjun said.
Ji Yousheng stared at Ji Yanjun in shock. His son was taciturn and rarely showed his emotions, while Wen Qing was chattering and never hid her likes or dislikes. He had always thought that Wen Qing liked his son, but he didn't know that his son had decided to marry the girl from the very first moment he saw her.
"That……"
"Later, it was confirmed that we were going to get our marriage certificate the next day, so we spent the night together." Ji Yanjun lowered his voice and said, "If it's because Wen Qing said she wouldn't join the Ji family, if it's because of this, if Wen Qing doesn't marry well, what right do I have to live a good life?" Ji Yanjun turned to look at Ji Yousheng and said, "Dad, don't forget, my life was given to me by Uncle Wen Qing. Without Uncle Wen Qing, I would be gone long ago. Now, even if I die for Wen Qing, I've gained two years of lifespan, let alone being a bachelor for life."
Ji Yanjun spoke his last words very softly, but they sent a chill down Ji Yousheng's spine, freezing his brain and making him unable to think.
Ji Yanjun stubbed out another cigarette on the wall, threw the cigarette butt on the ground, and was about to get a broom to sweep it up when he turned his head and saw Ji Ningzhi standing not far away.
Ji Ningzhi seemed to be in a daze.
"Ningzhi, go get a broom and sweep up the cigarette butts," Ji Yanjun said.
Ji Ningzhi seemed to wake up from a dream, turned around and went into the main room to get a broom.
"What are you looking for?" Liang Wenhua said. "Why are you looking like a headless fly?"
"I...I'll find a broom to sweep up the cigarette butt."
“Here it is!” Liang Wenhua shouted.
Ji Ningzhi took the broom and ran out of the main room to sweep the base of the wall. She only saw Ji Yousheng standing blankly by the wall. She asked softly, "Dad, where's brother?"
"They're gone."
"Where are we going?" Ji Ningzhi asked.
"They said they were going to make money," Ji Yousheng said.
Ji Ningzhi remained silent. She had heard everything Ji Yanjun and Ji Yousheng had said.
Ji Yanjun made his way out of the area, and when he arrived at the truck, Gangzi was already in the truck, grinning foolishly.
Ji Yanjun got into the driver's seat and asked, "Are you stupid?"
Gangzi held a half-body black and white photo and stared at it happily.
Ji Yanjun asked, "Golden Spirit?"
"No, it's my boyfriend." Gangzi laughed so hard his eyes were almost closed.
Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend?
"I just introduced him to you. My mom wants me to go to Nanzhou to meet him." Gangzi was very happy: "I think this photo is quite nice. He looks like Jin Ling."
Congratulations.
"It's not finalized yet, but it'll be pretty much done once I meet her."
Ji Yanjun smiled and asked, "Does your mother agree?"
"I agree, I totally agree."
Ji Yanjun nodded: "That makes things easier."
"Um."
Ji Yanjun started the car and headed towards Nanzhou City.
Gangzi asked, "Yanjun, where are we going? We need to get to Nanzhou first. When we get there, you can drive this truck. I'm going to see my girlfriend. When she sees me driving this brand-new truck, she'll definitely think I'm super cool and ignore how ugly I am. She'll have more patience to look at my inner beauty!"
"Okay, I got it. I'll give you the car when we get to Nanzhou."
"Okay, Yanjun, are you going to find Wen Qing?" Gangzi asked.
Ji Yanjun quickly turned the steering wheel and said, "We're not looking for them, we're going to take a look."
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