Chapter 137: We will all spend time together with the uninvited guests
When Zhu Yingning answered the call from her mother and heard her asking her which day's train ticket she had bought to go home for the Chinese New Year, she slowly realized that she had been avoiding thinking about this question.
She deliberately cleared the thought of going home from her mind, deliberately delayed buying the ticket, and deliberately pretended that there was no such thing to consider. It was not until Liu Guifang called that she was forced to face the reality that she had forgotten.
She looked at Xu Sirui standing behind him. It was a subconscious move to avoid Liu Guifang's questioning, but she found that Xu Sirui looked even more nervous than she was. Recalling his various abnormalities since winter vacation, she suddenly realized what was going on.
"How's it going? Which day did you buy your ticket? Tell me so I can have your brother pick you up in town," Liu Guifang said happily on the other end of the phone. "Didn't I call you a while ago to tell you about the road construction in the village? The original sandy roads leading to town have been replaced with asphalt roads. I thought it would take two or three years to complete, but it was completed before the New Year. Now it's much more convenient for us to get to town. I'm thinking we can buy a bicycle like the other families, so we can go anywhere easily by ourselves."
Zhu Yingning listened half-heartedly, then softly agreed, "Yeah...it's time to buy one. I recently transferred some New Year's money to your card. Remember to withdraw it from the bank in town. If you don't have enough money for the bicycle, you can tell me."
"That's enough, that's enough," Liu Guifang said. "I've saved a lot this past year and saved a few thousand yuan. That's enough to buy a...anything bicycle."
Zhu Jixiang's voice added, "Second Hand, I've told you so many times, but you just can't remember."
"Yes, second-hand." Liu Guifang repeated with a smile. After she finished speaking, she realized that Zhu Yingning still hadn't told her when he would be home, so she asked again, "When will you be back?"
"I..." She glanced at Xu Sirui again, then looked away, staring at the coil of the landline phone. Her voice was low and muffled. "I was too busy some time ago and forgot to buy a ticket. Now I can't buy a train ticket back."
"What?!" Liu Guifang was stunned. "How could you forget something so important? The train tickets are sold out, but can you still buy a ride? There are cars, vans...if that doesn't work, there are motorcycles that can take people back home for the New Year. Ask around, maybe you can still get one now."
"It might be difficult to get a ride during this time..." She lied with a guilty conscience, her fingers involuntarily twisting the coil of the microphone, and her speech became more and more hesitant.
Fortunately, sound being transmitted as electricity was inherently distorted, so Liu Guifang didn't detect her guilty conscience. She simply scolded her anxiously, "Have you become stupid from studying? How can you not even handle something as simple as this? You forgot something as important as going home for the New Year! You need to think of a solution right now. If that doesn't work, ask Xu Sirui's father to find a way to get you a ticket."
Liu Guifang's image of the wealthy still rested on the notion that simply being "rich" wielded sway and could manipulate social norms, without considering the precise extent of assets inherent in "rich." Zhu Yingning sighed helplessly, knowing it would be difficult to explain these complexities to her. So, she simply said, "I'll figure it out. I'll get back to you in a few days."
"Okay, then you should find a solution as soon as possible." Liu Guifang continued to talk about some other things, from small things like how many piglets the pigs at home gave birth to this year to big things like someone in the village died of a cerebral hemorrhage, and then she hung up the phone.
Zhu Yingning put the microphone back in its place and turned around to see Xu Sirui's thoughtful expression behind him.
He sat on the sofa with a serious look in his eyes and asked her why she lied.
Zhu Yingning scratched the sofa cover beneath her: "...I don't really want to go back."
She worried about going back home and experiencing the same thing she'd experienced the previous Lunar New Year. She could work tirelessly to earn enough money to send home, but she feared being entangled by some invisible thread. She dreaded experiencing disappointment again, dreading once again learning that Liu Guifang didn't truly love her.
Of course, she didn't say the following words. She only said, "I want to stay here and spend the New Year with you, is that okay?"
Xu Sirui snorted, supported his cheek with his hand, and said that he would have to pay accommodation fees if he stayed at his house for the New Year.
"How much do you want?" she asked in a serious manner.
"Whether it's money or not is another matter, but you have to listen to my orders." He said in a domineering tone, "For example, come with me to buy New Year's goods in a few days. We are missing a lot of food at home, and we haven't bought any couplets yet."
"Oh..." The little gloom in her heart slowly dissipated, turning into wisps of smoke. She smiled, revealing her white upper teeth, "Okay."
**
A few days later, before going out to buy New Year's goods, Zhu Yingning called Liu Guifang again and told her that she had tried every possible way but still couldn't buy a ticket home.
Liu Guifang was naturally unhappy, sighing over the phone, saying that so-and-so's children, who lived far away in Hainan, had all returned home for the New Year, leaving her family alone and deserted. Zhu Yingning felt bad, but could only promise that she would return after the college entrance examination.
After finally comforting Liu Guifang, she hung up the phone, her mood sinking as the receiver rang. That was until Xu Sirui came over, brushed her forehead, and told her to stop daydreaming: "If you don't hurry up and stock up, the store will be closed in a few days."
She cheered herself up, picked up the list she had written early in the morning, changed her shoes and went out with him.
Going to the supermarket with Xu Sirui is an experience that makes your blood pressure soar, because he doesn't follow a pre-made list, but acts on impulse. If you tell him that buying something will exceed the budget, he will say that people only have 30,000 days to live in this world, and if you have to think about the budget every day, your life will be too miserable.
She couldn't do anything about him and could only convince herself that the Spring Festival only comes once a year, so spending a little more money during the Spring Festival seemed quite forgivable.
When choosing couplets, he suddenly had an idea and said he wanted to buy blank couplets and write them himself at home.
"I remember there were brushes and ink at home." This was his argument.
"But I remember the ink had clumped up the last time I opened it."
"Then heat it up in the microwave."
"?"
She mused, "It sounds quite bizarre, but...it doesn't seem impossible."
So I happily bought the couplets and took them home.
They stood at the door and excitedly discussed what words to write on the couplets. Xu Sirui said that they could write something related to making a fortune, and Zhu Yingning agreed. They opened the door while discussing with a smile, and then both of them were stunned at the door.
Xu Zhengkang sat on a chair next to the dining table.
He had rarely been home this semester, and even when he did, he deliberately avoided meeting Xu Sirui, to the point that they both had the illusion that Xu Zhengkang would never return. Suddenly seeing him sitting here was as strange and abrupt as seeing a polar bear appear in Antarctica.
Xu Zhengkang, however, showed no sign of discomfort. He scooped up the soup they had been simmering in the pot before they left, slurping it up with a hissing sound as he commented, "Is this all you're going to eat tonight? The part-time worker's gone home, so at the very least, order takeout."
Zhu Yingning was about to speak when Xu Sirui's voice drowned her out. He said coldly, "Don't worry about it."
Xu Zhengkang put down the porcelain spoon, stared at him standing at the door, and asked calmly, "What's with your attitude?"
"How dare you ask me what my attitude is?" Xu Sirui changed his shoes. Zhu Yingning saw his jawline tense as he lowered his head to change his shoes. "I thought you died out there. What's the matter? You're feeling lonely and isolated during the New Year, and you suddenly remember that you still have a family?"
He put on his slippers, pointed at the open door that hadn't been closed yet, and said to Xu Zhengkang, "It's a pity that you're not welcome in my house. Get out."
Xu Zhengkang shook his head and sneered as if he had heard something out of the blue. "Your house? Your name is on the property deed? I thought you'd improved after one semester, but you're still so reckless and brainless."
Xu Sirui's left hand, which was hanging by his side, began to tremble slightly, perhaps because of anger or excitement. She saw it from behind him and reached out to hold his fingers without thinking too much.
Very cold.
Xu Zhengkang took a tissue from the dining table, wiped the corner of his mouth nonchalantly, and said, "It's New Year's Day, and I don't want to bring bad luck to you. I came back just to let you know that we will all be together this year."
"We'll all celebrate together." What a wonderful expression. Zhu Yingning initially thought Xu Zhengkang had figured out a way to get Zhou Tianlan out of prison for the New Year. It wasn't until Xu Sirui's fingers trembled in her palm, like a block of solid ice in a freezing cold land, that she realized there was another way to interpret this sentence.
An even more disgusting interpretation.
He suddenly broke free from her grip and walked towards the kitchen.
She froze in place, her stomach cramped and she almost vomited at Xu Zhengkang's shamelessness. When she finally came to her senses and paid attention to Xu Sirui, he had already taken out a kitchen knife.
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