Chapter 51 Life's Journey
The sky gradually brightened, and the sun finally appeared above the tea mountain.
When Song Ting's phone rang for the first time, he had already hung up and stood up. The mountain air was chilly that morning. He returned to the bed and tucked Nan Jiu's exposed arm back into the warmth of the quilt. His eyes lingered on her face, and he leaned over to place a tender kiss on her forehead.
Before leaving, he stopped at the door, took out the spare key from his pocket and placed it on the windowsill.
The production work was carried out in a serious and intense manner. It was almost noon when Song Ting returned from the factory.
He pushed open the door to the cabin. There was no warm embrace, no familiar figure. The bed was made flat, and the clothes hanging on the wall were gone. Song Ting froze in place. The temperature in the room plummeted as she left.
She paused her world, rushing here desperately to stabilize the tea fields. But he trapped her here, trapped in the paranoia and darkness of his own aftermath. With her gentle touch and quiet companionship, she gradually unraveled the distortion in his heart.
He knew full well that, like him, she carried an unbearable burden, operating a world that could not be undone. The fact that she had set aside her time for him for so many days was a sign of deep affection, as heavy as a mountain or sea. And yet, he vainly sought to drain her radiance, simply to possess it for himself.
When she flashed her phone screen in front of him, revealing a world that urged her to return, a world completely unfamiliar to him, he had already foreseen the outcome. Every moment she stayed was purchased at the cost of another world.
He had left her an escape route, a gamble. Yet when the moment finally arrived, when the room was filled with endless silence and emptiness, the bone-chilling panic still enveloped him like a flood.
Song Ting turned and walked out the door, all the way to the top of the mountain. When his eyes passed through the glass window and saw the familiar figure sitting with Jiang Qing and the others, chatting and laughing freely, his heart, which had been almost torn apart the moment before, miraculously began to beat strongly again at this moment.
Sunlight, washed by rain, streamed gently through the conference room's glass. She was bathed in a gentle glow, her profile gilded with a faint golden hue. The light shone, illuminating her smiling features. This scene crystallized all the beautiful words in Song Ting's mind, including a feeling he had never experienced before: happiness.
He walked into the conference room and pulled out a chair at the end of the table. Although he didn't say anything to interrupt their conversation, everyone's eyes turned to him unconsciously.
Song Ting leaned back in his chair, one hand casually resting on the table. His gaze, fixed across half the room, fixed on the figure. Those eyes, usually expressionless, now possessed a chilling depth. He said nothing, not even a quirk of his lips. Yet, this silent gaze held an indescribable penetrating power, and even the atmosphere in the conference room became subtly altered with his presence.
When Nanjiu turned her head to look at him, the smile in her eyes had not faded. After her face was fully relaxed, her smile was lively and charming, exuding healing power.
Jiang Qing had never seen Boss Song look like this before. His complex and deep gaze made it hard to fathom his emotions.
It had been raining in the mountains for the past few days, and the villagers, bored and idle, gathered to gossip. He had heard rumors that Boss Song and Nan Jiu spent their days arguing in their wooden cabin. Boss Song, absorbed in the management of the tea plantation, would stay away from home for ten days or even a month. His wife had long suffered neglect, and their relationship was strained. Some even said they were in fact estranged, leaving Nan Jiu, at such a young age, feeling like a widow.
Jiang Qing didn't quite believe it at first. If Nan Jiu really had no feelings, he wouldn't have rushed over and taken on such a heavy burden as soon as Boss Song got into trouble.
However, seeing Song Ting's expression again at this moment, Jiang Qing suddenly felt that perhaps there is no smoke without fire.
He quickly spoke up to lighten the mood. "Boss Song, we were just discussing the bidding proposal for the SCM system. My sister-in-law recommended a product that not only uses intelligent algorithms to forecast inventory and sales, but also builds a platform to connect customers and distributors, enabling real-time information sharing and business collaboration. I think this direction is quite promising, and we should consider having an in-depth discussion with the other company."
Song Ting looked at Nan Jiu. Nan Jiu stood up and said to Jiang Qing and the others, "You guys discuss it. I won't interrupt your meeting."
Zhou Weining looked away from the computer and looked at her: "It's almost time for lunch, why don't you stay and eat with us?"
"No."
Nan Jiu walked to the end of the conference table, stopped beside Song Ting, and said to him, "Aunt Qin asked me to go to her house. I won't be back at noon."
Song Ting nodded. Nan Jiu turned and walked out of the meeting room.
Before he had taken a few steps, he heard footsteps behind him. Nan Jiu turned around and saw that familiar figure approaching with the force of the wind.
She looked up at him and asked, "What's wrong?"
Song Ting raised his hand, brushing his knuckles across her cheek, and tucked the strand of hair that had been tousled by the wind behind her ear. His fingertips lingered on her ear, with a subtle struggle.
The next second, she was embraced in his firm, hot embrace, his chin pressed tightly against the top of her head, his heavy and rapid breathing betraying the panic of losing and regaining.
"You knew I would be back at noon, but you left without saying goodbye. Did you do that on purpose?"
Nan Jiu laughed. She raised her arms and put them around his waist, resting her cheek against his warm chest. "Where can I go? Aren't the car keys still with you?"
Through two layers of clothes, the erratic heartbeat in his chest beat against her eardrums.
If she truly wanted to leave, a car key wouldn't have been enough to hold her back. From the beginning to the end, she had been the one who had personally handed him the keys. His leaving the cabin key was a test, and she had responded with the most thorough response. She had let him see clearly that her lingering wasn't due to a lack of ability to break free, but rather a wait for him to sober up and untie her shackles.
His arm suddenly tightened around her waist, pressing her deeply against him, as if only in this way could he be sure that this lost and regained thing was no longer a mirage.
Jiang Qing and Zhou Weining stared through the window in stunned silence. Song Ting always treated people with a touch of aloofness, usually living a quiet and self-sustaining life like the tea tree behind him, unfazed by wind or rain. Yet, now, he couldn't help but display such a possessive attitude. This stark contrast quietly shattered the village's outrageous rumors in Jiang Qing's mind. He couldn't believe that with Boss Song holding his beloved like this, he could bear to leave her a widow.
Nanjiu patted his back gently and said, "Your employees are watching us. I'll just have a meal and then go back."
Song Ting let go of her and touched her face with his bent fingers: "I'll be busy for a while, I'll go back to the cabin to wait for you."
She nodded, took two steps back, smiled, turned around and walked down the slope.
......
Nan Jiu walked to the door of Aunt Qin's house, where people were talking. Aunt Qin saw her coming and said, "I was just about to call you, come in quickly."
Only then did Nan Jiu see clearly that there were two other people in Aunt Qin's house. They were Sang Ya's parents who were working away from home.
When Sang Ya saw Nan Jiu, she ran to the back room abnormally.
Nanjiu walked through the door, her steps unhurried but with a natural composure. Her demeanor was unassuming, yet one could vaguely sense the calmness and confidence of a decision-maker.
Although Sang Ya's parents worked in the city, their jobs were often exposed to the wind and sun, and they looked a little drier than their peers. When they first met Nan Jiu, they were barely able to conceal their reserved expressions when they greeted him.
Sang Ya returned to the main hall a short while later and sat across from Nan Jiu. She kept her head down, and her eyes were red, as if she had just cried.
Nanjiu's gaze casually swept over Sang Ya, then calmly retracted. This family had just experienced a quarrel before Nanjiu arrived. Although everyone maintained a superficial harmony after she entered the house, the details had not escaped Nanjiu's attention. However, as an outsider, even if she understood, she could only pretend to be ignorant.
During the meal, Sang Ya's parents carefully smiled and rarely spoke. It was mostly Nan Jiu and Uncle Ba who chatted about tea picking.
Aunt Qin killed a chicken today and prepared a rich feast on the table. In the village, this was the highest standard of entertaining guests.
Uncle Eight had specially asked Aunt Qin to invite Nanjiu to dinner today. She had decided to organize a rush to pick tea that day, and as soon as everyone left the meeting room, many tea farmers were secretly speaking ill of her.
The tea farmers had no way of knowing that her decisiveness stemmed from her reliance on Song Ting's past wisdom and achievements. The decision to rush the harvest was based on Nan Jiu's meticulous review of past years' data.
The tea farmers only knew she was an outsider from the mountains, young and clueless, and they waited to see her mess up and be reprimanded by Boss Song. Some of her words were truly unbearable, but Lao Ba didn't stand up for her. Because of his conflict with Jiang Qing, Nan Jiu accepted Jiang Qing's suggestion, but he still felt a pang of resentment.
It was not until near dusk that they actually brought back help from Heishiwa Village, solving the tea farmers' urgent problems, and everyone's attitude towards Nanjiu began to ease a little.
Later, Lao Ba heard from Zhou Weining that everyone in their village had been summoned. Zhang Jiang borrowed a loud speaker from the village office to mobilize them, but only a few were willing to come, and those who did showed up had evil eyes.
Nanjiu made a last-minute decision on the spot: change the daily wage system to a piecework system, increasing the price per kilogram by 10%. Villagers willing to come would receive a 200 yuan travel fee. If the entire harvesting period could be strictly carried out according to standards, each person would receive a bonus upon completion.
After Zhou Weining confirmed with Nan Jiu, he took the loudspeaker from Zhang Jiang.
The local tea farmers were paid 150 yuan a day, and they were paid 200 yuan before the work even began. As word of this good news spread through loudspeakers, the previously quiet village gradually became abuzz.
Before Zhou Weining had finished speaking, Nan Jiu had already pulled two wads of cash from her briefcase and placed them neatly in front of the villagers. She immediately distributed the money to the few villagers who had pre-arranged plans to go tea picking. The others, envied, rushed forward one after another to sign up. Villagers love to follow the crowd, and seeing so many people rushing forward, those who had been hesitant could no longer sit still and rushed forward.
Nanjiu's 10% premium per kilogram wasn't particularly high, with some competitors offering as much as 30%. But she remained cautious with the villagers of Heishiwa Village and temporarily adjusted her salary strategy. She split the premium, leaving only the 10% visible as bait. The real lure was the cash they could pocket right away. With the real money in front of them, everyone felt they had gotten a bargain, rushing to work while anticipating a free bonus upon completion. Little did they realize that the bonus, originally included in their daily wages, was a crucial component in ensuring tea quality.
When Zhou Weining told this to Lao Ba, Uncle Lao Ba suddenly realized how ridiculous the tea farmers' prejudice against Nan Jiu was.
Then came a heavy rain, putting all the noisy speculation to rest. The villagers, whenever they met over the past two days, were all thankful they'd picked the tea early. No one criticized Nanjiu anymore; instead, they all complained about how Boss Song always neglected his wife.
Although Uncle Ba didn't say anything, he felt a little guilty for not protecting Nanjiu a few days ago. Taking advantage of the sunny weather today, he invited Nanjiu to his home for dinner.
After dinner, Nanjiu chatted with Uncle Eight and Aunt Qin for a while before heading back home. As he neared the door, he saw Sang Ya sitting on a small bench in front of the house, staring blankly into the sky.
Nan Jiu also looked up at the sky. A few white clouds were hanging in the air, slowly floating over his head.
She withdrew her gaze, looked at Sang Ya's sad face, pulled a small stool and sat beside her.
Although Nanjiu didn't know what Sang Ya was worried about, when a girl in the village reached this age, her family would either arrange a marriage for her early or send her to a place she didn't want to go.
Nanjiu took out his phone and typed: [Do you want to learn to dance?]
She held the phone in front of Sang Ya, who looked at her blankly.
Nanjiu continued typing: [Or work in a dance-related field.]
Sang Ya's confused expression gradually faded away, and her eyes gradually became clear.
Nanjiu took back his phone and typed again: [If you want to go outside the mountain in the future, you can contact me.]
After showing her phone to Sang Ya, she found a stone, wrote her phone number at Sang Ya's feet, stood up, touched her head, and waved goodbye to her.
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