Chapter 46 Excuse
After many twists and turns, the Changwei board of directors finally approved Meng Chu's plan.
However, the company hopes to turn it into a vertical project and jointly apply with Meng Chu's team for the province's "Frontier Technology R&D Program." This not only helps us get government funding, but also makes the R&D department look good when writing its annual report.
In fact, Meng Chu hoped that it would be a horizontal project. He had six tasks during his contract, and he needed to complete at least four of them. The indicators of horizontal projects were easier to achieve than those of vertical projects.
But, it's good to have results.
The project is quite large in scale, and there are only a few students in his team, so there is a shortage of manpower, so he needs to take the lead and work with other teachers.
This was his first time as a team leader, and when he attended the joint project meeting between the school and the enterprise, he was so nervous that sweat broke out on his back.
After the meeting, the college took the lead in entertaining corporate R&D personnel at a restaurant next to the school. The waiter opened the wine and placed it on the table.
Meng Chu's head buzzed and he began to sweat again. His cell phone vibrated at this moment. He looked down and saw a text message from Fu Guanshan: Come on, don’t drink, I’m still counting on someone to pick me up!
Meng Chu smiled. He remembered that Fu Guanshan also had an engagement tonight - Director Chen had brought his team to Yong'an Street for a field trip, and they were probably drinking in a hotel there now.
Since the family members have made such a request, he must try his best to do it.
He mustered up his courage and asked the guests if they wanted to drink, just as he remembered his elders did. When they answered in the negative, he asked the waiter to serve the corresponding drinks.
He did it in a rather unskillful way, like a child imitating adults. He thought that he would be able to automatically acquire these skills when he grew up. However, when he was almost thirty, he realized that adults were not much more mature than children and that adults were just pretending to be adults.
A leader in the company asked, "Teacher Meng, don't you want to drink?"
Meng Chu shook his head: "I still have to drive later."
"You can call a designated driver," the other person said, "Look, Teacher Lin also drove here, and he even brought a glass of wine."
Meng Chu looked at another teacher in the team and said, "Teacher Lin can drink a lot, but I can't. I fall down after drinking a sip of beer."
"Then drink less. Today is also a celebration party. It would be unreasonable not to drink some wine."
Two employees nearby echoed this, and Meng Chu's instinct to surrender began to stir again. He gritted his teeth and said, "I really can't drink. Leaders, don't worry about me, just drink to your heart's content."
The leader tried to persuade him again, but he still had an unnatural smile on his face, tightly gripping the glass of juice, and could not come up with any tactful answer. He just kept repeating that he could not drink.
Then... the meal began.
The waiter started serving the hot dishes, and the older teacher, Mr. Lin, spoke first, raising his glass to celebrate the launch of the project. Meng Chu took a sip of juice, put down the cup, and had a strange feeling.
It seems...nothing.
The banquet went on normally. He toasted with juice, and nothing like the horrible expressions and glass-throwing he had imagined happened.
Meng Chu felt relieved. He picked up his chopsticks and listened to his colleagues chatting next to him.
"Have you heard about what happened to Mr. Wang from the Academic Affairs Office?"
Meng Chu hadn't heard it and pricked up his ears.
"Last night, Mr. Wang went to a... I think it was a class reunion. Before leaving, he sent a message to his wife, saying that he would be back later. However, his wife didn't see him until midnight, and when she asked his classmates, they said they had already gone home. His wife immediately called the police, and the police searched for him all night but couldn't find him. When dawn came, guess what? He was floating in the artificial lake next to the hotel. He had drunk too much, and he fell in while walking. The water wasn't deep, but he was drunk, so he fell and didn't get up, and he drowned..."
All the colleagues sighed. "Teacher Wang is usually in good health. He even won a prize at the last staff sports meet. Who would have thought..."
"His wife was in tears at the police station, saying if only she had called more often or picked him up earlier."
"Who knew something like this would happen?"
Meng Chu also felt a chill down his spine when he heard this. He had met this teacher Wang several times. He was only about 30 years old. So young, in the blink of an eye...
Suddenly, he felt a panic. He took out his cell phone and sent a message to Fu Guanshan, asking him if the dinner was over and how much he had drunk.
After a while, the other party replied: It's over, I just drank a little.
Meng Chu was not sure what this "point" was and felt anxious. Fortunately, the company leaders were in a hurry to go back and the drinking party ended quickly. He quickly called Fu Guanshan.
No one answered.
His scalp felt tingling and he called Hai Qiu again.
"Brother said to walk around first and wait for Teacher Meng to pick him up. Alcohol? He drank a lot, but..."
His heartbeat was getting louder and louder. He checked the location of the hotel and found that it was very close to Yingyue River.
"I'll be there right away." Meng Chu said.
Almost twenty years have passed, and Yingyue River still flows slowly as it did before. In the dark night, the polluted, brownish-blue river water is only left with ripples, which is more beautiful than in the daytime.
There are sparse street lights along the river, which have not been repaired for a long time and only provide enough light to illuminate your feet.
In the dim light, Meng Chu saw the tall figure.
The man stood by the river, looking down at the gurgling water.
Meng Chu breathed a sigh of relief, feeling his heart slowly drop, then suddenly tighten.
On such a night, the noise and cheerfulness that enveloped that person suddenly quieted down, shrinking into a corner where light could not be seen, leaving only heavy memories.
Meng Chu walked forward, and when he heard his footsteps, Fu Guanshan turned around and said in surprise: "I thought you would be here in a while."
"You've drunk too much. I wanted to pick you up earlier." Meng Chu said.
"You know how much I can drink. I'm not drunk at all," Fu Guanshan said, stretching out his arm. "Look at my hand. It's very steady."
Meng Chu looked at him for a while and held his hand.
After working hard for so many years, he finally had the opportunity to record the story of that year on video. So, on the day when his wish came true, he stood by the river, and his tall figure overlapped with that of the twelve-year-old boy.
Fu Lanying was right, he never walked out of the riverside at the age of twelve.
"Do you still remember?" Fu Guanshan said, "the first time my mother saw you."
"Remember," Meng Chu said, "Auntie was very enthusiastic."
Fu Lanying asked a lot of questions, about work and life. He didn't even have to bother starting a topic, he just had to follow the pace and answer.
"When she got home, she didn't say anything," Fu Guanshan looked at the river, "but in the middle of the night, I saw the light in the living room was on. She was looking at our childhood photo album."
At this point, he lowered his voice. "She sees him in you."
If Zhong Wenqi were alive today, he would be Meng Chu's age. Maybe, also a scientist.
She repeatedly asked about the details of Meng Chu's life, as if she could piece together how the child grew up.
She said that Fu Guanshan had not yet gotten over it, so how could she have gotten over it?
"It's just that she cared about me, so she kept it in her heart."
Fu Guanshan didn't say what came next, but Meng Chu understood.
He felt sorry for her.
He promised to send his brother home safely, but he didn't do it.
He feels sorry for his brother.
He is his brother and he should protect him, but he left him there.
Over the years, this debt has snowballed.
"So..." Meng Chu said, "You have such a strong Messiah complex."
Fu Guanshan paused, turned his head and looked at him: "What? Saiyan?"
"...It's the 'savior complex'," Meng Chu said, "I think... you want to be saved by saving others."
For so many years, he helped others like a fool, including relatives and friends, even when he knew that the other party was a liar. Even if there was a one in ten thousand chance that the other party's lies were true, he would still help.
The guilt was so strong that it has not been exhausted even after all these years.
"You really don't need to be so hard on yourself," Meng Chu said, "You've done well enough."
"Yeah?"
"You even spent so much money to make a movie to find out the truth of that incident..."
Fu Guanshan looked at him for a while, lowered his eyes, pulled the corners of his mouth, and turned to the river: "Really? Is there really a truth?"
Meng Chu suddenly fell silent. After a long while, he asked, "Why do you say that?"
"You are so smart, you should know clearly that what happened back then might be just like that," Fu Guanshan said, "My brother might have drowned. There is no murderer and no truth."
There was a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "I spent so many years, so much time, looking for the murderer, just because... I hoped there was a murderer."
He even titled the play "The Disappearance" instead of "The Drowning." If it was drowning, then it is confirmed that he fell into the water and it was an accident.
There is no murderer in an accident.
But he hoped so.
"Because if he does, if he exists..." he said, "the bad guy in that incident was not me."
Meng Chu's heartbeat suddenly stopped for a moment.
"You overestimate me." said Fu Guanshan.
His efforts over the years were just for peace of mind.
The same goes for donating money and helping others.
He was convincing himself that he was a good man.
If he is given money, others will help him do this. Everyone says he is a good man, so he is a good man.
He was not the selfish brother who allowed his younger brother to run to the river and drown.
"No," Meng Chu said suddenly, "it's not like that."
He raised his head.
"How can you think like that? Good people will always doubt themselves. If you are selfish, you don't need others to prove anything to you," Meng Chu said. "Besides, there must be some truth to that incident."
"You're comforting me again."
"No," Meng Chu said, "I think there is truth. I really think so."
Fu Guanshan glanced at him suspiciously, but his eyes were so firm, without a trace of hesitation, that people had to believe him.
"I will help you look for the lost watch," Meng Chu said. "If you can't find it in one day, then look for it in two days. If you can't find it in ten years, then look for it in twenty years."
Fu Guanshan looked at him for a while, then hugged him tightly.
He placed his hand on the other's back.
Yes, he was not sure whether there was anything strange about what happened that year. However, as long as there is a mystery in it, Fu Guanshan will not give up the pursuit. This has become a kind of life belief.
Then he would accompany him to believe.
There is a truth to what happened back then, and it’s better for Guanshan, because that’s the truth.
And no matter what, he had to find out the truth.
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