Chapter 8
"Hey, new assistant," Xiao Xiao looked up and said to Yang Ye.
Yang Ye didn't look at him, but just asked, "Is it appropriate?"
Xiao Xiao counted on her fingers, "He can cook, has a driver's license, and is a recent college graduate. He completely meets your requirements."
"What's your major?"
"educate"
"Education?" Yang Ye repeated, and she looked at Zhou Yiheng in surprise.
"Yeah, he graduated from the same university as me."
She stared at Zhou Yiheng's face and asked, "Is he also from Z University?"
Zhou Yiheng hesitated, "Yes"
Turning around and seeing his silly expression, Xiao Xiao found it funny and went over to tease him, "What are you looking at?"
Zhou Yiheng was stunned, and when he came to his senses, he saw the impatience in Yang Ye's eyes. He tilted his head and coughed a few times, trying to ease the embarrassment.
"You're also fascinated by the boss's appearance?" Xiao Xiao joked, "I was too. I still remember the first time I saw the boss, I thought she looked too unreal. She was even prettier than the stars on TV. But after getting to know her for a long time, I got used to her face. She's just ordinary pretty, not really an advantage."
Zhou Yiheng's reaction was temporarily unable to catch up with Xiao Xiao's question. He was stunned on the spot, and after a while he nodded blankly, "Indeed"
His clear look completely amused Xiao Xiao.
Zhou Yiheng had been distracted just now and only heard the first half of Xiao Xiao's sentence. As for what she said afterwards, he didn't listen carefully. When he came back to think about it, he realized what he had just said. He hurried to explain, but his mind was still confused. "No, that's not what I meant. I meant to say, I am..."
But the more anxious he became, the more he stuttered.
Yang Ye passed by, glanced at him, and asked with a cold face: "Are you a stutterer?"
"No no no, I'm not, no stuttering"
"If you stutter, just say less." She glanced at Zhou Yiheng one last time, feeling reluctant to leave, but her rationality told her that she shouldn't harbor too many irrelevant emotions towards this sudden stranger. "Professor Li just called and said he's going to H City next week. Take him with you to meet Lao Liu, and let him drive when you get back. If he doesn't understand how to drive, forget it."
"No problem," Xiao Xiao agreed readily.
Yang Ye walked into the kitchen. The white countertop reflected the light from the light that had just been turned on above her head, making her feel a little dazed. She took the kettle that had cooled down, opened the sterilizer and took out the glass water cup inside. Why could there be two people in the world who were so similar? In the past few decades, she had experienced so much that she thought she had seen through everything. Even if something happened to her, her heart would not be too ups and downs. But why did God have to test her? After more than half a century, she met someone who looked so much like Xue Shangyang. They were so similar that even the small mole under his eye was in the same position.
Is there really such a thing as reincarnation after death? Can someone like him really have a next life?
Yang Ye raised his eyes and looked at the figure talking to Xiao Xiao in the living room. His throat seemed to be choked by something and he couldn't speak.
"I'm not a stutterer, I'm just not used to talking to strangers." Zhou Yiheng wanted to explain, but Yang Ye had already gone upstairs and closed the door.
Xiao Xiao crossed her arms and looked at him with amusement, "You're quite eloquent now."
"That was an accident just now. I'm really not a stutterer," Zhou Yiheng turned around and said to Xiao Xiao.
"Isn't it just that you saw the boss speechless? I understand that." Xiao Xiao nodded in agreement and patted his arm with experience. "It was the same when I first came here. I didn't know what I was talking about when I talked too much. You'll get used to it."
Zhou Yiheng saw that he couldn't explain it clearly, so he simply gave up. He stood there, looking at the wooden stairs leading to the second floor. Thinking of the look Yang Ye had given him before he went upstairs, he sighed helplessly, feeling depressed and even a little annoyed.
It's like this every time.
Whenever he met a girl he liked or a pretty girl, he would stutter and would stand there for ages without being able to form a complete sentence. Once the girl left, his stuttering would inexplicably stop, causing the girls he dated to think he was doing it on purpose. The girls with bad tempers would leave immediately, while those with good tempers might stick around until the end of the date, but there would be no chance of meeting him again.
He even went to a major city hospital to see a specialist for a full-body checkup, wondering if this was a sign of something serious. The psychiatrist, after looking at his medical records, urged him to relax and let go, repeatedly reassuring him that he was both physically and mentally healthy.
Everything is fine, but the peach blossoms seem to be gone.
Xiao Xiao looked at the time. It was almost time. She walked to her desk, which was piled with snacks and magazines. She took out the bus card she had just used last month, picked up the shoulder bag hanging on the back of the chair, and said to Zhou Yiheng, "Let's go. I'll take you to meet someone."
Standing in the yard, Xiao Xiao stretched out lazily and sighed comfortably, "Oh, I haven't been out for a long time."
She closed her eyes and felt the warmth of the sunlight falling on her body.
The coolness she had just felt coming out of the air-conditioned room was replaced by the summer heat after standing in the sun for less than half a minute. While the door was still open, she stood at the door, wondering if she had left anything behind, and her shoulder bag was pulled from behind.
She unzipped her bag and found her keys, phone, wallet, and bus pass inside. She closed the door and was about to leave when she saw Zhou Yiheng pushing his little red bike toward the deserted alley.
Xiao Xiao quickly called out to him, "Where are you going?"
"Aren't you going this way?" Zhou Yiheng turned around.
The sunlight hits my eyes and it stings a bit.
"This way," Xiao Xiao pointed to the front of the alley.
Zhou Yiheng was bewildered as he watched her point out a path that was completely different from what he had seen when he had just come here. Although there were fewer people there, it wasn't deserted. Furthermore, across the alley was the bus station, and a bus was just leaving.
Confused, he pointed to the road he had just come from and asked, "This way?"
"No, how can we walk when there are only weeds?" Xiao Xiao said, as if she thought of something, and then asked him, "You didn't just come from this road, did you?"
"Yes," Zhou Yiheng nodded.
Xiao Xiao was surprised. She had been here for almost five years, but she had never dared to walk the path behind the alley. The alley was deep and narrow on both sides, with grass growing almost half a person's height. When she first arrived, she did ask Yang Ye why a perfectly good path had become like this, and why no one had come to fix it. Yang Ye said she didn't know. Several families nearby had moved away 20 or 30 years ago. The land was an old house, and the village hadn't hired anyone to clean it up, so it had been left abandoned until it became what it is today.
"The navigation system said we could take this road," Zhou Yiheng said softly. If he knew there were other roads to take, he wouldn't have come here even if he had to take a longer route.
"Navigation means that as long as someone has walked here once, they will tell you there is a road here. Most of them are scams and it is impossible to believe them," Xiao Xiao said. Thinking of how he dared to come from that side, he shuddered unconsciously. "In the future, try to avoid walking on such unknown roads as much as possible."
"That..." Zhou Yiheng suddenly thought of something and called out to Xiao Xiao who was walking in front of him, "I don't even know your name yet."
Xiao Xiao stopped, patted her head, turned around, and said to Zhou Yiheng with a smile: "My name is Xiao Xiao, Xiao of Xiaoran City, Xiao of unrestrained style."
Zhou Yiheng is polite, "Sister Xiao Xiao"
Xiao Xiao felt awkward when she heard this. "I'm not much older than you. Don't call me sister. Just call me Xiao Xiao."
"Okay," he nodded, "where are we going now?"
"Z University, looking for Professor Liu from the History Department"
When he heard the name, Zhou Yiheng felt a little nervous.
Seeing that there were still a few shared bicycles left at the bus stop in front, Xiao Xiao quickly ran over, skillfully scanned the code to unlock them, and sat on the seat with one foot.
She turned around and said to Zhou Yiheng: "Follow me, let's take the small path to the subway station."
The so-called small road is a paved, but unopened, asphalt road hidden in the village, winding and twisting, barely wide enough for a car to pass. Cycling this way requires a circuitous route, and compared to the wider asphalt road across the way, it's not much closer to the subway station, but the sun is still just as scorching.
The two parked the car at the subway station entrance and locked it.
When the elevator door opened, I was enveloped by a cool and comfortable feeling, and even the unbearable heat I had just experienced when riding my bike here was swept away.
Xiao Xiao walked to the security check area and was about to take off her bag when she suddenly realized something. She backed out and went to the self-service ticket machine next to her to buy two tickets to the university town.
"Here, a welcome gift for my new colleague." She gave one of the tickets to Zhou Yiheng.
Looking at the turquoise paper ticket, Zhou Yiheng was surprised. "A meeting gift?"
"Company tradition"
After passing security check, the subway arrived quickly.
University Town had been on summer vacation since the beginning of last month, and it was a weekday afternoon, so Line 1, which was always packed, wasn't crowded. Xiao Xiao boarded the bus and found two empty seats side by side.
Sitting for more than 20 stops was indeed boring, so Xiao Xiao casually asked, "Are you from here?"
Zhou Yiheng just took out the headphones from his bag and said, "No, I came here for the college entrance examination. My hometown is in the north."
"You're quite impressive. What made you want to study education? I remember there were a lot of girls majoring in this field, but not boys. Do you want to be a teacher?"
"My parents chose it. They said this major would be more stable in the future."
"Being a teacher really doesn't require worrying about anything. You can get a job through the civil service exam or open your own training institution. Working hours are also stable," Xiao Xiao said. "When I first started college, I worked as an art teacher for a while. It was a part-time job. I was only busy during the winter and summer vacations, and the rest of the time I was only available for a few hours after school."
"Then why don't you continue to be an art teacher?"
"It went bankrupt," she smiled, her expression helpless, but she spoke lightly. "The boss of that training institution collected the money from the parents, then turned around and closed the business and ran away. He took the money and lived a carefree life. His phone was turned off and no one could find it. The parents who were deceived came and blocked us to ask for an explanation. What can I say? I was owed two months' salary. Later, those parents went to the TV station, found reporters, reported the case, and asked for help. It has been going on for several months, and it is said that the money has not been recovered yet."
After telling him about this, Xiao Xiao felt heartbroken again. After all, that was two months' salary, earned with great effort, and thousands of dollars were gone just like that.
But what's the use of being angry? It has already happened.
I saw the subway route displayed on the window of the opposite car, and it was only a few stops away.
Xiao Xiao yawned and said, "Let's take a break. There are still more than 20 stops to go."
"I play on my phone"
"Then I'll take a nap. Remember to call me when we're almost at the station."
"Okay," Zhou Yiheng responded, clicked on the supplementary exam materials that the teacher had just sent to him in the exam preparation group, and did a set of practice questions.
The signal on the subway was not good, and the videos were stuck. By the time he finished learning the content of that half lesson, he was almost at his destination.
Wake up Xiao Xiao who is dozing off next to you.
"Are we there?" Xiao Xiao opened his eyes, a little confused.
“Two more stops”
"Oh." She sat up straight, rubbed the flesh on her face, and forced herself to wake up.
The scorching hot weather outside has not changed at all. The heat waves in the face and the sun above the head make it uncomfortable even to open the eyes.
Xiao Xiao raised his hands above his head and stretched them out parallel to each other, creating a simple sunshade for himself.
On the way out of the subway station, there's a small shop that's still open. There are two fans placed in the small space behind the cash register, both aimed at the owner. Wearing shorts and flip-flops, he's half-reclining in a rocking chair, eating a popsicle while watching a football broadcast on the wall-mounted TV.
Xiao Xiao walked in, found the freezer, took out a few popsicles and two bottles of iced drinks, quickly paid, and gave the drinks to Zhou Yiheng.
The cool, bubbly drink took a sip, fighting off the rising heat. Z University was on summer vacation, and the gates were closed. She knocked on the window of the adjacent security room and said hello to the security guard who was taking a break inside.
"Uncle Wang, open the door."
Uncle Wang opened the small door and asked, "Are you looking for Professor Liu again?"
"Yes, I have to go on a business trip in the next two days, and I came to pick up Professor Liu's car."
Professor Liu is giving a lecture in Building No. 4
"Thank you," Xiao Xiao said, handing him the popsicle she had just bought through the window.
Uncle Wang happily took it and said, "You bought us something again. Don't buy it next time."
"It's so hot, you guys must be working hard."
Along the shade of the trees, dense foliage crisscrossed the green path, blocking out most of the scorching sun. The breeze blowing through the shade brought a refreshing feeling, and the rustling of leaves brought back the rare quietness of my childhood in the countryside.
Zhou Yiheng rushed over and asked, "The Professor Liu he just mentioned, is he the one from the History Department?"
"Yeah," Xiao Xiao responded, as if jokingly, "Have you taken his class before? Is it easy to get credits?"
"Not so easy," Zhou Yiheng's cheek twitched, thinking back to his junior year in Professor Liu's class, when he'd been so terrified by his name being called upon. "My boss is so familiar with Professor Liu. Did she also graduate from Z University?"
"No, boss, she didn't go to college. She and Professor Liu met at an archaeological site."
“Archaeology, isn’t it like running a grocery store?”
"One main job, one side job, there's no conflict."
He doesn't believe that "bosses also have side jobs"
"That explains one thing," Xiao Xiao pretended to be mysterious, beckoned him to lean over, and whispered, "The economy is bad, and she can't make much money just running a grocery store, so having a reliable side job is the right thing to do."
The two were talking when Liu Guoxing came out of the building after finishing his lecture. Zhou Yiheng saw the person walking towards him first, and subconsciously stood still and took half a step back, intending to use Xiao Xiao's body to block himself.
Xiao Xiao nodded familiarly to him and said in a gentle voice: "Professor Liu, thank you for your hard work in class."
"I came to borrow the car," said Liu Guoxing, and he started looking for the car keys on his body. He was used to borrowing the car once a month. If he didn't come for a certain month, he would get anxious and worry that something might go wrong.
"Yes, Professor Li has something urgent and asked the boss to come over to help."
She took out the car keys from the compartment of her bag and said, "Talk to her and ask her to buy a car too. She doesn't need that little money."
"I mentioned it a long time ago, but the boss said she doesn't know how to drive, and it would take up space if I bought it."
"She can't drive, but you can? Buy her one so it's convenient for you to go out."
Xiao Xiao took the car keys and said, "You should tell her this yourself. I don't have the courage. Last time you asked me to persuade her to move, I was scolded for several days."
Liu Guoxing smiled and didn't respond. He knew Yang Ye's temper. Although he looked easy to talk to and didn't seem to be competitive, when he got angry, it was not something that ordinary people could resist. He checked the time on his watch and said, "I'll leave the car with you after you've used it. You don't have to return it."
"Thank you, Professor Liu"
"You're welcome," Liu Guoxing waved his hand and walked towards the building next door.
The cars in the school all have designated parking spaces. Liu Guoxing's car is a Volkswagen that is very common on the road. Its silver-gray body is covered with a thin layer of dust and tree leaves.
"Zhou Yiheng" Xiao Xiao called his name, threw the car keys in her hand to him, and walked to the passenger door.
If it draws a parabola in the air, Zhou Yi will reach out and catch it.
"Why are you standing there? Go back."
He was unsure, "I drive?"
"Yes, test your driving skills."
Zhou Yiheng held the car door, feeling a little nervous. "I haven't driven on the road before."
This is a difficult problem. Xiao Xiao looked around. It was summer vacation at the university, and there was no one to be seen for a long time. "Then you should drive along this road and around the basketball court behind it."
The main road is wide and there are green belts on both sides, which is perfect for him to practice.
The return trip was quite busy, crossing two districts and with elevated roads in between. Zhou Yiheng's body tensed as he drove, his palms sweating. There were several moments when he didn't react, and Xiao Xiao had to remind him. Aside from a brief stint in a training car at the driving school, this was the first time he'd actually been able to drive on the road since getting his license.
He drives skillfully at school, but once on the road, he will still unconsciously grip the steering wheel with both hands, stretch his neck forward, and stare at the lanes.
The mobile phone navigation reminded him to turn right at the next intersection. Zhou Yi turned on the turn signal sideways, so he had to glance at the rearview mirror and wait until all the cars in the adjacent lane were gone before he dared to change lanes.
After driving anxiously for more than two hours, they finally returned to the grocery store.
Yang Ye was lazily lying on the sofa, wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses and flipping through a magazine that had just been delivered. When she heard the door open, she turned around and asked, "How is it?"
"It's okay, pretty good," Xiao Xiao said.
Returning to her seat, she relaxed for a moment, mechanically unbuckling her shoulder bag. Although it was a bit scary at first, and she almost hit a tree, after he became more comfortable with the driving and relaxed, nothing happened.
Yang Ye asked her again, "Are you sure?"
Xiao Xiao nodded, "Yeah"
Her absent-minded look aroused Yang Ye's curiosity, "What's wrong with you?"
Xiao Xiao said: "It's too hot outside"
"Here, here's the remote control. You can adjust it as you like." Yang Ye stood up and put down the magazine. "If there are no problems, please sign the employment form with him and explain the precautions to him. I'm going to buy groceries. The room will be cleaned after I come back. Auntie doesn't have time to come and clean it recently."
"I know." Xiao Xiao drank a few sips of water to cool down, and found the prepared entry form from the drawer next to him.
"Please read the above information first. If you don't understand anything, ask me. Give me your ID card. I'll make a copy for my files."
[Based on work needs, during the work period, work content and printed content obtained during the work period, business, technology, information, user data or other marked confidential documents, confidential information shall not be disclosed to personnel outside the work or any third party without consent.]
If a party with a confidentiality obligation violates the agreement and discloses confidential information to a third party, causing losses to one party, the party in breach of the confidentiality obligation will bear civil liability for compensation.
Zhou Yiheng frowned at the last few supplementary agreements, not understanding them. "What do these mean?"
"The confidentiality agreement will be involved in your future work, but don't worry, we are all doing serious work and will not let you do anything illegal."
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