Chapter 65: Within One Day
A month later.
In the second half of November, the temperature plummeted, and the chill of winter was faintly felt in the autumn.
Getting up in the morning has become increasingly difficult.
Mr. Lu is wise to implement the winter time system in the company.
Working hours are postponed, lunch breaks are shortened, and the end of get off work time remains unchanged.
But in fact, sleeping an extra half hour or an hour is not enough.
Zhuo Can turned off the alarm, retracted his arms which had become cold in just a short while, and huddled back into the warm quilt, sighing.
Today is also the day I want to resign.
He struggled again and again, but he couldn't bear the fact that he had parents to support and children to raise, so he got up, dressed, and went to work.
Before meeting Mian Li, Zhuo Can had always been unlucky and even drinking cold water would get stuck in his teeth.
After bringing back the sleeping gift, he seemed to have opened a golden finger and soared to the top.
Now Zhuo Can no longer knows what kind of physique he has. Perhaps luck and bad luck are the intertwined melodies of life.
...but none of that explains why he encountered three weirdos in one day.
At first Zhuo Can didn't care too much.
He goes out every day, and including public transportation, he encounters tens of thousands of people. The normal probability is that there will be a few abnormal ones.
Last night, Mianli stayed at Tao Yingjia's house. Since he didn't have to send the kids to school, Zhuo Can decided to enjoy a good meal at the breakfast shop he frequents most.
When the little one is around, he can't indulge in eating soy milk, fried dough sticks and steamed buns.
Perhaps it is in line with his characteristics as a Western god, Mianli is not used to these flavors and prefers Western breakfast.
Zhuo Can had been eating nut blueberry milk cereal and orange chocolate sauce with condensed milk toast with him at home for several months. The taste was so greasy that it was hard to describe, and it was so bitter that he couldn't express it.
Thinking of the little guy, after just one night without him, this empty-nest old father misses him quite a bit.
Recently, the relationship between Mianli and Jiajia has been flourishing, even better than before.
They play together in daycare during the day and go to each other's homes at night. They can be described as inseparable.
She is not as clingy to me as before, Zhuo Can thought sadly.
I was worried, concerned, and resentful. In short, my mood was complicated.
Zhuo Can shook his head to get rid of his fragile parental emotions.
Today I finally got the chance to have a Chinese breakfast, so of course I had to feast on it.
He wrapped himself tightly from head to toe and bravely rode a public bicycle on a late autumn morning, braving the wind and waves.
I parked my car outside, and before I even entered the shop, I heard the proprietress greet me warmly: "Hey, young man, it's been a while! Would you like to order a meat bun, two steamed buns, and a bowl of spicy soup again?"
Zhuo Can smiled embarrassedly. Ever since he found his job and discovered this breakfast shop along the way, his menu has never changed.
He untied his scarf and held it in his hand, then took his phone out of his pocket and scanned the code to pay.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the boss sitting alone on a small bench at the door, neither working nor talking.
Not only did he look dazed, but he also looked gloomy, like a sculpture.
It's not exactly like a sculpture.
After all, the sculpture will not stare at you wherever Zhuo Can goes after he arrives.
Those eyes looked a little cloudy due to old age, and it was difficult to tell the focus.
Zhuo Can was stared at by him and got goosebumps.
The original boss had a very good temper and was always smiling. He would smile at everyone he met and say, "Hey, you're here. Do you want to change your appetite today?"
Although he is always scolded by the boss lady for being slow and procrastinating, Zhuo Can likes his personality very much.
Today, he seemed like a different person.
He paid, and the proprietress handed him the steamed buns from the steamer. Noticing his look, she whispered, "Do you also think there's something wrong with this old man?"
Zhuo Can wanted to say something but didn't know how to say it, so he could only wait for the proprietress to continue.
The proprietress shook her head. "It's been like this for the past two days. He doesn't respond even when I call him. I guess he's old and has Alzheimer's. Sigh."
She sighed heavily again: "I guess I'll be as stupid as him soon."
Zhuo Can quickly said, "No, you are in good health and look very young."
"You're such a good talker." The proprietress laughed. "Okay, young man, go eat. Thank you for listening to my chat."
Being sweet-mouthed will be rewarded.
Zhuo Canduo got a tea egg.
*
As people get older, their thinking will gradually become duller. This matter did not leave any deep doubts in Zhuo Can's mind.
First, he doesn't have to get up early to send the child to school, and second, the clock-in time is also delayed. After he has breakfast, he still has plenty of time.
I rode my bike to the subway station at a leisurely pace. Instead of squeezing into the train that just arrived as usual, I waited leisurely for the next one.
I was at the front of the line and there were still seats available.
For office workers, being able to find a seat on the subway during the morning rush hour is definitely a way to announce great news to colleagues.
The good times didn’t last long. He hadn’t even taken two stops when an older man got on the bus.
He gave up his seat and was pushed to the other end of the carriage by the crowd.
It was there that he spotted the second strange figure.
Zhuo Can has a vague but not vague understanding of his appearance and figure. He knows that he looks okay, above the passing line, and clean.
He is liked by the elders, especially the elderly, who would squint their eyes and smile at him, saying, "Good boy."
However, judging from the fact that he has been single for more than 20 years and was only turned gay by his long-lost childhood friend this year, we can tell that he is not a stunningly handsome guy, like Lu Song.
Anyway, it's far from the point where people would stare at me and chat me up on public transportation.
But the fashionable girl in front of him, dressed in luxurious brand-name clothes, had been staring at him for several minutes with her eyes fixed on him.
When Zhuo Can said "staring intently", he meant it literally.
The woman didn't even blink.
It is natural to be attracted to beautiful people, and it is also natural to feel proud to be loved by beautiful people.
This has nothing to do with gender or whether you are single or not.
However, Zhuo Can was sure that he had no profound charm that could attract her, and he only felt his tension rising exponentially.
Not to mention that he already has a boyfriend, even if he is single, the gap between him and this girl is almost like that between an ugly duckling and a white swan.
The white swan is a real swan, and the ugly duckling is just an ordinary domestic duck.
Under normal circumstances, human eyes need to blink 15 times per minute to ensure that the eyeballs are clean and moist.
No matter how beautiful the eyes are, if they don’t blink, they will have a strange emptiness, like a puppet.
Being stared at by a puppet is definitely not a pleasant experience.
I had this experience not long ago with the owner of a breakfast shop. It was the second time in just a few hours.
What's even more terrifying is that there are people all around her, but no one except herself notices the girl's strange appearance.
Is it the girl's problem or mine?
Or maybe the world has gone mad.
Every second feels like an year to Zhuo Can.
After finally reaching his stop, Zhuo Can squeezed towards the door as if he had stepped into a frying pan.
The girl didn't get out of the car, but slowly, slowly widened her already big eyes and mouthed something to him.
Zhuo...
...Can.
Fear instantly soared to a peak.
He was sure that he didn't know her at all. How did the other party know his name?
Zhuo Can almost choked on a breath stuck in his throat, and he coughed for a long time before he could breathe it out.
He was pushed off the carriage by the crowd. Turning back, he found that the place where the girl had just stood was occupied by a middle-aged man.
Until the subway started towards the next station, he still didn't find the eye-catchingly beautiful girl.
Maybe... No, it must be because I ate too much this morning and I'm hallucinating.
Zhuo Can prayed silently.
*
Zhuo Can adopted a young god, saw the real temple, and met the god of gods who created the world.
However, Zhuo Can is still a Schrödinger's atheist.
Even though the little god lived in his house, he still didn't think there were so many supernatural powers like ghosts and monsters in this world.
After arriving at the company, Zhuo Can completely put this matter behind him.
Today's task is not easy. I have to communicate with other departments as soon as I arrive.
In addition to regular work, there is also an interview later.
He is now a senior executive at the quasi-manager level. He is too busy to handle many things and needs to hire an assistant.
Thanks to Mr. Lu's favor, almost overnight, he went from being a little brother who ran errands for others to a big brother who could sign and make decisions.
Actually, there was one, but the girl was too enthusiastic about Zhuo Can, which made Mr. Lu a little unhappy, so he transferred her to another department.
The first few young people interviewed reminded Zhuo Can of himself when he had just graduated - although that was just over a year ago.
After comprehensive comparison, he had already made up his mind.
But in order to complete the formality, the last person has to be allowed in.
This one looks no different from the others just by looking at his resume.
A junior student who will graduate next year and has a good academic background needs to use the summer internship to lay the foundation for the autumn recruitment, or if things go better, stay and become a full-time employee.
But when he walked in and sat down in front of him, Zhuo Can felt that something was wrong.
The twenty-year-old boy does not look immature at all, but instead has an ancient and gorgeous elegance.
...Yes, gorgeousness and elegance are not the key points, antiquity is.
Both the accent and the posture have the style of a medieval duke of an ancient castle.
Zhuo Can is a few years older than him, but he feels that he is more like the junior who is meeting the leader.
During the next twenty minutes of self-introduction and Q&A, the other party's conversation and knowledge displayed were not like those of a big boy still locked in an ivory tower.
Zhuo Can had seen people with talents beyond their peers before, but those young and mature people were nothing compared to this one.
If I had to put it in words, it's that subtle feeling of an ancient soul living in a young body.
Zhuo Can was secretly shocked.
Zhuo Can was really exhausted from encountering strange things so frequently. Anyway, the interview results didn't need to come out today, so he planned to make a decision in two days.
That's the benefit of being a leader.
Zhuo Can took the young man's resume and was about to say some polite words, but found that the contact information was blank.
He lowered his head to look for a pen and casually handed over his resume: "Leave me your phone number."
"Cellphone?" The man sounded confused.
The interviewer also had a nice voice, like a bass in opera, with steady pronunciation and full of siren-like allure.
Not finding a pen on the desk, Zhuo Can opened the drawer and corrected his words: "Oh, my phone number, write it here so I can notify you of the interview results."
The man hesitated for a moment, then said in a playful tone, "Sorry... I don't have a cell phone."
Now Zhuo Can raised his head.
Can today's college students still live without mobile phones?
Not to mention the entertainment functions, even for basic payment, identity authentication, and contacting others, a mobile phone is indispensable, right?
He looked the man up and down, left and right, and he didn't look poor at all.
The shoes on your bare feet are worth a top-of-the-line mobile phone.
Zhuo Can opened his mouth: "...Really?"
His eyebrows were twisted into a tangled shape.
"Without a cell phone, how...how do you fit in with the world?"
Except for the elderly and children, now is the era where life will come to a standstill without a mobile phone, right?
The man shrugged dramatically: "Maybe I'm just old-fashioned."
I understand the truth.
But Zhuo Can still found it outrageous.
*
If you meet one strange person, you should be extremely vigilant. But he did this three times in a row. It's enough to call the police.
The more Zhuo Can thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong. A storm was approaching, and a heavy weight weighed on his heart, as if something big was about to happen - he couldn't explain it clearly, but he had a very ominous premonition.
Everything is not going well, you'd better go home early.
With this thought in mind, Zhuo Can rushed to the daycare class as soon as he got off work.
When Teacher Min saw him, he didn't go to call Mianli as usual. Instead, he asked curiously, "Mr. Zhuo, didn't you pick up Xiaoli an hour ago?"
Zhuo Can: “…Ah?”
An hour ago, he was still furiously writing a report in the company. How could he possibly spare a second moment to receive the sleeping gift?
His first reaction was that someone was impersonating him.
Teacher Min frowned and said, "I can't possibly recognize the wrong parent. Please don't question my professionalism."
Having said that, parents say that not picking up their children is a major incident.
Teacher Min contacted the security department and got the surveillance footage.
Zhuo Can was stunned.
In the surveillance video, the person who appeared at the door of the nursery class an hour ago, picked up Mianli and said goodbye to Teacher Min, was not me, so who was it?
They are exactly the same from head to toe, even their biological parents can't tell the difference.
Unless he has a twin brother in this world whom he has never known.
But even if there really is one, why doesn’t he come to find me or my parents but to find Mian Li?
Random thoughts here would not solve any problems, so Zhuo Can immediately called everyone one by one and asked everyone who knew Mian Li if anyone had seen the little fairy.
Lu Song is on a business trip these days.
Qi Rui is still with the client.
Xiaohui took her two cats for a physical examination.
He even asked Tao Yingjia's parents, but there was no clue at all.
Zhuo Can didn't dare to give up his expectations, but still held on to a little hope to rush Nan back home.
I searched every corner of my home and then the neighborhood, hoping that a little god would suddenly jump out and laugh at my troubled self.
"Bah—did that scare you?"
Just like when they first met.
At that time, the young god recognized the wrong person, and accidentally started a new destiny.
Zhuo Can searched for a long time.
Until the property management studied the cameras at every entrance and exit of the community.
Until the news came from the day class again, both the electronic eyes and the naked eyes of the security guards and staff were certain that the person who had come earlier was "Zhuo Can" himself.
It was not until Qi Rui and Xiao Hui rushed over from both ends of the city after hearing the news that Lu Song bought an immediate return ticket.
Until it was completely dark.
Still nothing.
Mianli never leaves without saying goodbye. Even when he was heartbroken and wanted to leave last time, he said goodbye to me seriously.
If He just wanted to go back and see God the Father, He wouldn't have gone so long without saying a word.
Moreover, Jiang Xiao's personality is not such that he would go back on his word. It is really not like the style of the noble God of Gods to suddenly change his mind and call the little guy back after he has been sent here for a month or two.
Even if it was true, how could God or God's messenger be willing to disguise themselves as a stupid mortal like him?
Zhuo Can sat in the living room, so quiet that he could hear his every breath and heartbeat.
A creepy fear crawled all over his back like vines.
Mianli...is gone.
*
An hour ago, at the entrance of the nursery class.
Zhuo Can had already walked forward several steps, but when he looked back, the child was still there.
Mianli opened her arms in his direction and waited.
Zhuo Can wondered, "What are you doing?"
Mianli frowned and said, "Give me a hug!"
Humans are so stupid.
It’s been so long, and I still can’t understand His instructions.
Zhuo Can had no choice but to go back and pick up the spoiled little ancestor.
Mianli was satisfied, she put her arms around his neck and rubbed his cheek: "Cancan you're here early today."
Zhuo Can froze for a moment because of his intimacy: "Yes, I'll pick you up and go out to play."
"Where are you going?"
"You'll find out in a moment."
Mian Li had no doubts about it.
The nursery class is not far from home. If Lu Song doesn't drive him there, Zhuo Can usually rides an electric scooter to take him there, sometimes takes the bus, and walks when the weather is good.
Today, I had the rare luxury of calling a taxi and heading to a destination Mian Li had never heard of.
After driving for a long time, they got out of the car and found the surroundings desolate and deserted.
Not even a bird.
The driver was puzzled: "Are you sure you want to get off here?"
Zhuo Can said impatiently: "Stop meddling in other people's business."
The driver curled his lips and ran away.
Zhuo Can continued to go deeper into the wilderness with Mian Li.
Mian Li put his hands behind his back, looked up at the adult who was very tall to him, and said with a serious expression: "Stop pretending."
Zhuo Can: "?"
Mianli pinched her cheeks, which were as smooth and tender as milk pudding, and pointed at his: "Even if you become Cancan, Lili will still recognize you - O'Leary!"
Zhuo Can: “…Is that so.”
He just paused, then followed suit and turned back into his original form of O'Neill.
Mianli ran over and hugged his legs like a little animal, looking very happy.
He likes to be in the present world and with Cancan the most, but this does not mean that he does not miss God the Father, Paradise and God's messengers.
Olier hesitantly raised his hand and touched His soft little curly hair.
Mian Li raised his head and asked, "Father, how are you doing lately?"
Oriel looked down at Him: "Well, sort of."
O'Learn is acting weird today.
Mian Li couldn't tell what was wrong with him, but the god's intuition was never wrong.
Mianli circled around O'Leary, three times clockwise and three times counterclockwise, and both he and the person being spun were almost dizzy.
He finally concluded, "O'Leary, are you tanned?"
O'Learn: ...
This time it’s not Oreo, it’s really Oreo.
"Okay, little one, let's go."
O'Neill raised his foot to leave, but Mianli hooked his finger around him.
The adults had no choice but to obey and hold the children's hands.
"O'Leary, where are we going?"
"You'll see when you get there, dear."
The road ahead was covered with thick fog.
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