Chapter 37. Anything without PEG is fine. ...
Jiang Shan's words were like a fire, thrown at the ever-growing pile of firewood in Zhu Meng's heart, the flames rising three feet high within him.
It wasn't anger, but more self-deprecation.
Zhu Meng turned his head to look at the bustling traffic outside the window, and gave a faint smile.
Ha, what is he expecting? Is he expecting Jiang Shan to take out a handkerchief to wipe away her tears and say, "Don't go, I can't live without you," or is he expecting her to lower herself and plead, "I finally have some free time, can you take me with you?"
In Jiang Shan's heart, they were just ordinary friends, and in fact, that was indeed the case.
He was afraid of being too hasty and never dared to ask Jiangshan for a formal title. Jiangshan, on the other hand, was a romantic at heart and had no interest in male-female romance.
Jiang Shan hadn't reached the point where he couldn't live without him; the one who truly couldn't live without their strange and ambiguous relationship was him.
But he was just a friend of Jiangshan, nothing more.
"Mmm." With a slight sting at the tip of her nose, Zhu Meng was afraid that she might reveal something wrong and cause Jiang Shan to misunderstand, so she only hummed this single sound from her nose.
Jiang Shan stared at Zhu Meng's stubborn and cold back of the head, pondering the grievance in his words, and was even more bewildered.
Why is Zhu Meng suddenly unhappy? Is it because of what she just said? But wasn't she very reasonable? She didn't tug at his clothes or throw a tantrum, begging him not to leave her.
Men are truly a strange kind of creature.
I admire the innocence and romance of young girls, and I also admire the composure and reliability of older sisters.
I admire the gentle, knowledgeable, and refined "white moonlight" (ideal woman), and I also admire the bright, captivating, and domineering "red rose" (ideal woman).
But how can one person possess so many personalities at the same time? Unless she is not an ordinary human being, but a person with multiple personality disorder.
A man's heart is like a needle at the bottom of the sea.
She couldn't figure it out, and she didn't want to.
Anyway, if you anger Zhu Meng, the worst outcome is that he will never come to the rented house again, put on an apron, cook for her, or do housework.
At worst, he might fire her in a fit of anger because she stepped into the company with her left foot.
Since there was no perfect male servant, she learned to cook and prepare meals herself.
If she doesn't have a stable job, she can look for another one.
There's always a way out; as long as she had a breath left, she believed she could survive.
We live in a society governed by the rule of law. Taking someone's life is illegal. No matter how rich or powerful Zhu Meng is, would he really take her life in front of everyone?
...She just wanted to pound his skin, but she hadn't even gotten there yet. Surely he wouldn't hate her that much?
Zhu Meng watched the men, women, and children outside for a while, and the inexplicable anger in his chest gradually calmed down as his thoughts emptied.
Jiang Shan did mention the topic of love.
He asked her yesterday if she knew what the "Four Loves" were.
It's probably only this kind of group that would ask others for this specific word, right?
If it were simply a matter of the girl taking the initiative, he didn't think he could accept it. After all, during the time he spent with Jiang Shan, he had been learning how to reduce his desire for control and hand over the initiative to her.
Jiang Shan wanted to transform their relationship into a four-way love relationship, and he accepted it.
As long as there is no... no...
His stomach churned again, like a super-sized version of Nezha's battle with the sea. Zhu Meng covered his mouth and nose with both hands, sweating profusely, and it took him more than ten seconds to recover.
Anything without PEG is fine.
After all, that kind of tool was simply unacceptable to him.
However, without tools, it seems... my hands...
Tsk, what nonsense is he thinking?
Jiang Shan was probably just bored in the middle of the night last night, so he just started a conversation with him.
He was like a ball of yarn, his thoughts drifting further and further away.
Well, it's already late September, almost October. Cold air is moving south, and it's getting cold. It's time to get Jiangshan a warm sweater.
After all, she's afraid of the cold.
“You…” Zhu Meng turned his head, wanting to say something to ease the atmosphere, but seeing the girl’s tightly closed eyes, he decided not to disturb her.
Sigh, Jiangshan is asleep again.
He silently took out a blanket from where the clutter was stored, gently unfolded it, and draped it over Jiang Shan's shoulders.
She's always sleepy; her body is too weak.
The journey wasn't long, but it wasn't short either. When Jiang Shan got off the bus, a gust of wind hit her, and she shrank her neck.
The chill in the north always arrives so quickly.
Autumn is almost here.
Zhu Meng got into the swing of things as soon as she entered the rented room. She put on an apron and started cooking, while the old range hood hummed loudly.
Jiang Shan watched his busy figure in the kitchen and felt a strange sense of melancholy.
Zhu Meng is a person, with the instinct to seek advantage and avoid harm.
He might cook for her and do housework for a while on a whim, but I'm afraid he'll find it hard to take care of her for the rest of his life without complaint.
...But whatever, she'll just enjoy each day as it comes.
After eating, Jiang Shan sprawled on the sofa and played on her phone for a while. She took a shower and then started scrolling through her phone again. Even though there wasn't much to see on Little Green Book, and all she could find were gossips about family matters or interpersonal relationships, she still couldn't help but click on the titles and ended up reading until 11:30.
"Jiangshan, get some rest."
Zhu Meng approached her at some point and handed her a cup of hot milk: "You have to go to work tomorrow, so you have to get up early."
Jiang Shan wasn't forgetting that she had to go back to work tomorrow; she just suddenly realized that it was probably because she had to go to work tomorrow and wouldn't be able to use her phone that she was now using it as revenge, even though her eyes hurt.
"Okay, okay." She took the milk, drank it all in one gulp, and handed the cup back to Zhu Meng.
Zhu Meng paused for a moment, then took the cup and went to wash it.
Jiang Shan was still menstruating, and it was only the first day. Although Li Li gave her painkillers, her depleted body still felt unwell.
Jiang Shan was quite energetic while using his phone, but after putting it down, drinking a glass of milk, he immediately yawned and fell asleep.
The next day, Zhu Meng offered to take her to the company, but Jiang Shan politely declined.
If someone were to discover that she arrived at the company in Zhu Meng's car, countless people in the company would gossip. Although her relationship with Zhu Meng was indeed quite strange, she didn't want to give anyone cause for gossip just yet.
It was rush hour, and there wasn't a single empty seat on the subway. Even the handrails were full, so Jiang Shan had to lean against the side panels of the seats to maintain his balance.
"Sister, sister, is it convenient for you to make a phone call?"
Jiang Shan looked at the message Jiang Hai sent and was a little puzzled.
"It's not very convenient, what's wrong?... But isn't today Thursday? How come you're looking at your phone in the morning?"
Jiang Hai sent a long message, which was a voice message. The subway station was noisy, and Jiang Shan, wearing Bluetooth headphones, couldn't hear it clearly, so he simply clicked the voice-to-text function.
"I only found out this morning that I don't have to go to class. I even made plans with my classmates to play Truth or Dare yesterday!"
"I got up really early because I wanted to go to school, but then the teacher suddenly sent a message in the class group saying that too many people in our class had the flu, so to avoid cross-infection, we were given a holiday. Hehehe, now my mom and dad are at work, and they sent me a red envelope so I can order takeout for lunch. Nobody's watching me, so I can look at my phone all day!"
Jiang Shan unconsciously said, "Eat less takeout, it's unhealthy."
Jiang Hai immediately changed the subject, yelling, "Sister, I really want to come see you, but Mom and Dad won't let me!"
Jiang Shan felt a warmth in her heart: "Xiao Hai, you're still young. You should focus on your studies first. Whether you come to see your older sister or not, I don't mind."
Jiang Hai yelled, "But Mom and Dad are going and they're not taking me with them! That's so unfair!"
Jiang Shan frowned.
"What? What do you mean they're all going?"
Jiang Hai exclaimed, "Huh?"
"Sister, don't you know? Mom and Dad said you miss home so much in S City, but you're too busy to come back, so they're packing their things and flying to S City to see you!"
Jiang Shan clutched the thin phone, his mind racing with alarm bells.
When are they coming?
Jiang Hai hummed: "I think it's about National Day? After all, they have to work during the week and are busy as spinning tops."
"...Okay, I understand."
Jiang Shan opened the group chat, which only contained his own small family of four: Jiang Hai, Chen Yuan, and Jiang Tao.
"@Chen Yuan @Jiang Tao I'm doing well in S City. Please don't come and disturb my life, thank you."
"If you insist on coming, please forgive me for not being able to receive you."
Chen Yuan and Jiang Tao were furious in less than a second, and sent a fiery voice message: "Jiang Shan, explain yourself! What do you mean by 'not receiving'? Your mom and dad came to see you in person, can't you take them for a walk around S City?"
Jiang Shan also replied with a voice message, but his tone was very flat.
"You came here on your own whim, it has nothing to do with me. Besides, you're the ones who need my help. I'm already being kind enough to see you. You expect me to take you sightseeing in S City? Dream on."
After saying that, she turned on Do Not Disturb and ignored their subsequent replies.
Anyway, she had already made things clear: they could come to S City, but that had nothing to do with her working in S City, and she didn't need to take them on a tour of S City.
This is not a discussion, it is a notification.
The deadline is right before I leave work today.
Jiang Shan knew something was wrong as soon as she saw the task assigned to her. The experiment involved a lot of algorithms, and it would take her more than ten minutes to analyze each line. She had only studied forty percent of the material during her vacation. How could she possibly get started immediately and even have to correct the errors?
Everyone agreed with Zhao Yi's assignment and got to work quickly. Jiang Shan worked from morning till night, submitting the results with his colleagues. Zhao Yi looked at other people's work expressionlessly, but frowned when she looked at her report.
"Jiangshan, stay here for a moment."
Jiang Shan had a bad feeling.
The people around them tactfully dispersed, leaving only the two of them in the office. Zhao Yi observed Jiang Shan's expression and spoke slowly.
"Jiang Shan, although I know that President Zhu and you have a good relationship, we are in the workplace, and we should focus on improving our own abilities, don't you think?"
The world doesn't like roundabout ways.
Doesn't Zhao Yi understand what she means?
It's just a sarcastic remark about her lack of ability.
"Please just say what you have to say."
Zhao Yi's words were a mix of directness and tact, much like the dividing line between the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, a blend of the two.
“Your progress is quite far behind the others in the project team. You may need to set aside some time to do some extra work... Although this is related to your almost week-long vacation, we are a team after all. If it is always your part that has problems, the other team members will also have complaints.”
Jiang Shan smiled faintly.
She said, "How could it be that a pie falls from the sky and gives me such a great vacation?"
So that's where she was waiting.
Although she had listened to Zhao Yi and kept up with the project team's progress during the holiday, she still couldn't catch up, even though she thought she had tried her best.
“Jiangshan?” Zhao Yi waved her hand in front of her eyes and sighed deeply. “I’m not targeting you, I’m just giving you a heads-up. After all, it’s teamwork. If everyone has complaints, it’s always hard to get the work moving forward.”
"Yes, I understand. I will try my best to keep up with everyone."
Seeing that Zhao Yi was slightly frowning, as if she still had something to say, Jiang Shan kindly took the initiative to speak up: "I know you're not trying to make things difficult for me, I won't tell President Zhu."
Zhao Yi was taken aback, then gave a kind smile like an industry veteran: "Good girl, go ahead." Great, her performance could be saved.
Jiang Shan strolled back to his workstation along the wall, keeping his head down and scrolling through his phone the whole way to avoid greeting others.
She scrolled through the posts on Little Green Book like a flowing stream, washing over her cerebral cortex, taking something with it but leaving no impression.
People around me were busily packing their files and bags, walking out of the office in small groups. Some were making plans to have dinner together later, while others were chatting about various gossips online. The common thread was that they were all discussing things to do after get off work.
Unfortunately, neither social matters nor getting off work are currently relevant to her.
A message suddenly popped up on the plain black profile picture frame: "How much longer until arrival?"
It is a blessing.
What do you mean by "how long until we arrive"?
Jiang Shan gripped his phone and calmed himself for two seconds. His brain, which had been heavily influenced by short videos, was a beat slow to process what he had learned.
Oh, it's time to leave work now.
Zhu Meng thought she should be heading to her rented apartment from the company by now.
But do we really have to go back now?
I haven't finished my work for today yet.
As the saying goes, "Tomorrow is tomorrow, and there are so many tomorrows," it is best to finish today's work today.
If she delays until tomorrow, the project team will have to wait another day.
She doesn't like making everyone wait for her.
They were tired, and she was tired too.
However, the only way to keep pace with them and maintain their original progress is for her to speed up and catch up herself.
This world is a dog-eat-dog world; if you fall behind, you'll be bullied.
Unfortunately, with so many intelligent people in the world, she can't stay in the lead forever.
In order not to fall behind others, she could only work overtime and desperately try to catch up with the group whenever she found herself falling behind.
She hated the pity of those in power; it was too condescending.
Jiang Shan used the mouse to open the software on the computer and replied to Zhu Meng's voice-to-text message.
"I'm not going back yet; I'm eating out tonight."
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