Chapter 38. Farting
Only those who have never lacked money have the confidence to say that money is not important.
"Snap"
A crisp and loud crash interrupted their conversation. When Ruan Tang turned her head to look towards the source of the sound, Feng Xue had already chased out.
Only then did she see clearly that it was an egg that hit the glass window. Perhaps because the other party hit it too hard, the broken egg yolk and egg white slowly flowed down the glass.
Ruan Tang also ran out and saw Feng Xue walking towards him. He turned his head to look at the alley entrance and said: It must be a child playing a prank.
Just a prank?
Ruan Tang stood at the door of the store and looked at the egg on the glass again. It was like a wet tongue sticking out from a twisted smiling face, which made her feel uneasy.
Feng Xue took out cleaning tools to wipe the glass. Ruan Tang wanted to help, but he forced her to sit in the store to rest, saying that if she didn't rest well after spraining her ankle, she would get used to spraining her ankle again.
She looked at Feng Xue's busy figure and gradually felt relieved. She took out her mobile phone to update the camping photos, clicked on the 99+ comments and private messages, and then she realized something was wrong.
Since she started running the coffee shop, Ruan Tang has intended to run her own media account at the same time, from pictures and texts to short videos and medium videos. She opens the shop during the day and edits pictures and videos at night. Because the shop decoration is quite topical and she herself is pretty, she has accumulated hundreds of thousands of fans in a short period of time. So every day she just browses the 99+ private messages and comments, replies to some familiar IDs, and occasionally takes on some promotions and cross-industry cooperation.
But when I clicked on it today, it was almost all curses.
She took a deep breath and, with trembling hands, clicked on the "Xiang" group. It contained everything from the time she was beaten to the hospital by her third and first wives, to the time she was slapped by her mother, to numerous "insiders" exposing her past as a gold digger, to even a "former colleague" who popped up out of nowhere and said everything she wore and carried was fake. All of it was organized into a long, illustrated article. In her opinion, this was the kind of treatment celebrities receive from their haters.
There is also a photo in the post, which shows a graceful figure sitting astride a man's lap, with his hands around her slender waist. The woman is tilting her head back, kissing another man holding a wine glass, with her long curly hair covering most of her face. Maybe because the lighting was not very good at a party, the photo looks blurry, with the caption: Starting a business and opening a coffee shop makes the days peaceful, but behind the scenes she is "carrying a heavy burden and moving forward."
If this unfounded accusation only made her feel ridiculous, then the last photo finally broke down her last line of defense as she wished.
In the photo, a woman is pulling a tricycle selling breakfast with two middle-aged men in urban management uniforms. The woman is her mother.
Ruan Tang suddenly felt her body go weak, and then her eyes went dark.
This was Ruan Tang's first visit to Feng Xue's house.
The house is a small two-bedroom apartment with simple furnishings and only the most basic furniture, but it is very clean.
Feng Xue was busy cleaning up the guest bedroom and putting out new sheets. Ruan Tang suggested somewhat embarrassedly: Why don't I just go live at Xu Wei's house.
He looked around and said: My place is indeed a bit simple. If you see if you need anything, I will buy it for you or order it online.
"No..." Ruan Tang lowered her eyes, her voice sounding weak.
He sighed and said: We still don’t know who is behind this, but you are by my side, I can always take care of you, so you can rest assured.
"Why, are you still worried that I will commit suicide because of this?" Ruan Tang suddenly showed a bright smile, and her face seemed to burst with vitality in an instant.
It was obvious that her joke was inappropriate. He turned around and walked into the living room, opened the refrigerator, squatted in front of the freezer, and asked: "What do you want to eat for lunch? I only have frozen dumplings and wontons at home. Oh, and do you want steak?"
Ruan Tang walked behind him, looked down at his back and asked: Why don’t you ask whether what is said in those posts is true? Aren’t you curious at all?
He didn't get up. His hands paused for two seconds as he sorted the food. He took out two boxes of dumplings and said, "There are so many rumors online. If I were to verify them all, what else would I do? And I know what kind of person you are. Why would you bother with what they say online?"
Ruan Tang didn't have much of an appetite to begin with, but thinking that the other person had worked so hard to cook dumplings for her, she had to force herself to eat a few to show her appreciation.
But she didn't expect that Feng Xue was also very creative in making frozen foods. He used Lao Gan Ma to make a sour soup. She ate a big bowl of the soup and burped loudly at the end, which was full of garlic flavor.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't help it."
Feng Xue's brows relaxed, he smiled and said: This is a recognition of my cooking skills.
Ruan Tang leaned back in the chair, touched her round belly and said: Actually, when I started to do self-media, I did think that someone would use past events to discredit me, but it was too outrageous to say that I carried a fake bag to that kind of party. Although I love money, I also have a bottom line.
She rambled on and on, and suddenly remembered the WeChat message she had just received from Xu Wei, asking her to keep the evidence and to call the police if things continued to deteriorate. She also asked her to think about who might be trying to smear her, but she really couldn't lock on to a few targets at the moment.
In fact, she has always known that she is not a likable woman.
When I was in middle school, my deskmate was a bully. He was nice to her, but he liked to bully other girls, like the quiet and gentle girl sitting behind Ruan Tang. One time, the girl couldn't stand it anymore and pointed a ruler at her deskmate, asking him to stay away from her. The deskmate grabbed the ruler and threw it at the girl's head. The edge of the ruler grazed the corner of the girl's eye, and the stick fell to the ground with a tinkling sound. Blood immediately seeped from the corner of the girl's eye, and she began to cry on the table. The students around her were quiet for a few seconds, then went back to their own business. Ruan Tang pulled her deskmate to apologize to the girl, and then asked the teacher for leave to accompany her to the infirmary.
What happened next?
Later, another girl, for some unknown reason, showed Ruan Tang the small note passed between the girl and herself. On the note, the girl wrote in beautiful handwriting: She just wants to show off and show that her deskmate listens to her. Why is she pretending? It's disgusting.
In fact, some of the things in that post were not wrong. It was like a basin of super-strong makeup remover oil, which almost completely dissolved the mask that I had carefully painted on my life over the years.
Seeing her suddenly silent, Feng Xue asked her what she was thinking about. She came back to her senses, looked at him and smiled, and said: Recalling who I have offended over the years.
Logically, after that incident, her principle was to never touch a married man. Wang Hao was an exception. After all, his wife was away with their children studying abroad all year round, so hiding her identity wasn't difficult. But she was still a shareholder. Besides that, her relationships with those men had always been amicable. She'd been quite discreet at the cosmetic surgery clinic before, so it seemed she hadn't made any enemies.
Feng Xue waved his hand in front of her and said: You can't use normal logic to understand these people who are hiding on the Internet and playing shady tricks. Don't think about it for now.
Feng Xue didn't go to the store in the afternoon. He dragged Ruan Tang to watch a movie in the living room. Ruan Tang sighed helplessly: If we continue to run the store like this, it will probably go bankrupt sooner or later.
He stared intently at the movie list on TV and said: I used to feel the same way when I was working. I wished I could spend all 24 hours a day making money except for eating and sleeping. I always felt that time was running out. But now I understand. As for money, I still have decades of life to work and earn money. As for the store, if I don’t open it, the customers will just go to another store. But if I suppress my mood all the time, there will be problems. So the most important thing is myself.
Ruan Tang curled up on the sofa, hugged her knees and muttered: I think you have never been extremely poor. Only people who have never lacked money have the confidence to say that money is not important.
Feng Xue smiled helplessly and asked, "How about watching Stephen Chow's movies? I always watch them when I'm in a bad mood."
She nodded, but before she could say anything, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her stomach, and then a tornado of gas formed in her abdominal cavity, and was about to burst out.
It must be because I put too much minced garlic in the sour soup just now...
She covered her stomach and gritted her teeth, adjusting her sitting position to ensure that her buttocks were in full contact with the sofa without any gaps. Feng Xue, who was sitting on her left, suddenly turned around and asked: "Have you seen "Justice, My Foot"?
"That's it." She responded by biting her back teeth, while secretly controlling her sphincter. Fortunately, the gas was discharged from her body in an orderly manner without any sound.
But it was obvious that the gas was just an appetizer, and the protagonist followed closely behind. Ruan Tang glanced at the toilet that was so close to her, and suddenly felt that these short steps were like the distance between life and death.
Feng Xue turned his head to tell her the plot, and suddenly found that she was holding her stomach with her face flushed red, and her Adam's apple rolled up and down twice. He asked softly: Are you... having your period?
Ruan Tang's eyes suddenly lit up, and she nodded frantically as if she had grabbed a life-saving straw, and asked: Can you help me buy a tampon?
"How about ordering a delivery or running errands? I'll boil some hot water for you."
"No!" Before he could finish, she immediately rejected his proposal and said: When I came here, I saw a convenience store outside your community. It should be faster if I go there in person. Delivery will take at least half an hour and I can't wait.
Feng Xue didn't say anything else, pressed the pause button and went out. Ruan Tang rushed into the bathroom. At that moment, she suddenly felt that fame, wealth and material things were not a big deal.
After the problem was solved, Feng Xue still didn't come back after a long time.
She took out the perfume sample she carried with her from her bag and sprayed it in the bathroom, especially around the toilet. Suddenly, she thought of something, went back to the living room, knelt in front of the sofa, and leaned over to smell the place where she had just sat.
Before she could look up, she heard the sound of a door opening behind her.
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