Chapter 174: Their Current Situation of Patricide
Zhu Yingning finally listened to Wang Shengju's words.
Friday off work——
The view outside the high-speed train window was rapidly receding. She was sitting in her seat, and next to her was an old man who was playing Douyin and video.
During the short two-day holiday, she had thought about going back to the next city to see her mother, but when she thought about having to go back for the Chinese New Year in a few months, she decided to go to Beijing to visit Zhu Zhiwei, Zhou Tianqing and others.
The drive lasted four hours in total. She slept for half of the time in a daze. She couldn't fall asleep for the remaining two hours, so she simply opened her eyes and checked her phone.
She played with her phone not much more often than she rested. Although she had WeChat, the only post she made on her Moments was from the day she registered. It was the day she received her admission letter after the 2014 college entrance examination. The picture was a completely uncomposed photo of her and the admission letter, with the caption "New life, here I come/grin.jpg". It looks so silly and tacky now, and it's so awkward.
But she kept it and didn't delete it.
Opening her circle of friends, which she rarely sees in hundreds of years, she slowly browsed through her friends' new lives.
Some people complained about their bosses, some complained about their mentors, some were busy with World War II, some were traveling, and some even got married.
She saw many old friends among the faces, some unfamiliar and some familiar.
Wu Bo currently works as a web editor—it's a long story. For a while, she dreamed of becoming an artist assistant, observing handsome men up close. To that end, she even used her family's connections to land an internship with a then-obscure 18th-tier celebrity. After the internship, her skepticism about celebrities was completely shattered. She complained to Zhu Yingning about her idol's need to control his weight, eat less carbs, and have a bad temper. More importantly, "He eats irregularly, has a bad stomach, and often stays up late. You know, anyway... he has bad breath!"
Bad breath was extremely powerful and successfully drove Wu Bo away.
She studied Chinese language and literature. After her dream of becoming an assistant was shattered, she remembered that besides loving handsome men, her hobbies also included reading novels, so she turned to an internship at a newly started online literature APP. Due to her good performance, she was promoted to a full-time employee and now she can read novels for free every day.
Of course, this is a beautified statement. According to her, the real situation is that "a hobby is like a piece of shit when it becomes a job."
Zhu Yingning scrolled through her WeChat Moments, which showed the countless author groups she managed. Key information had been censored, leaving only a bright red "99+" lingering on the page. The accompanying text read, "I'm so cautious when posting messages every day, afraid of sharing unspoken secrets with the work group..."
She smiled, gave a thumbs-up, and continued scrolling down.
Following closely are photos of Shao Yanjun's performance.
Unlike her peers who followed a conventional path, Shao Yanjun abandoned her studies after high school. Using money from her family, she opened a bar and formed her own band to perform there. She had no talent for business, and the bar was struggling to survive. Just as it was about to close, she impulsively signed up her band for a then-new band variety show, which turned out to be a hit. The languishing bar was then packed, but Shao Yanjun rarely returned to perform there; she was busy touring the country with her band.
As for Dai Yize, he is still studying abroad, and the pictures he posts on his Moments are all about exhibitions and shops full of artistic atmosphere. Zhu Yingning clicked on his homepage and found that he is now also designing clothes for foreign models.
Zou Hao majored in finance in college and is currently studying for a master's degree. The photos he posts on his WeChat Moments are all of his glamorous photos from his internship at a securities firm, but when you click on his homepage, you can see his signature which reads "Even finance dogs don't learn this."
Tan Jingjing majored in law in college. She rarely posted on WeChat Moments, and Zhu Yingning only heard about her sporadically from classmates. They said she was a test-taker, passing everything from the CET-4 and CET-6 exams during college to the bar exam and civil service exam with flying colors. When asked why she didn't work at a law firm, Tan Jingjing said her goal wasn't to be a lawyer, but to be a judge.
There is also Sun Mingyuan, who studied dentistry during college at the suggestion of his parents. He posted a picture saying that he had worn off the gums of a model while practicing, with the caption "Who wants to come to see me for a dentist/sly smile.jpg".
…
After looking through the Moments of many classmates intermittently, Zhu Yingning was a little confused as to why she hadn't seen Xu Sirui's after so long. Doesn't he post on Moments very often?
Curious, she clicked on his WeChat Moments homepage from his WeChat avatar and found that his Moments were as few as hers. From 2014 to now, there were only five or six posts in total, and they were all very unique, with only photos and no text attached.
Most of the photos are of kittens or mimosas that happened to be encountered on the roadside, as well as various literary and trivial fragments of life such as the moon and street lights. He rarely appears. Even if he does appear, the most he does is take a picture of his own shadow or fingers.
As I was flipping through the pages, a message from Xu Sirui suddenly popped up on the top of my phone. There were no words, only an abrupt question mark.
She was stunned, wondering how he could read minds and know that she was looking at his Moments. It was not until she exited and returned to the chat interface that she realized that she had accidentally taken a picture of his profile picture when she entered his Moments homepage through his profile picture.
A small line appeared on the chat interface: "I patted "Xu Sirui" on the head and said I miss you."
The feeling at that moment was indescribable. She wanted to laugh and wondered if he was stupid for coming up with such a "pat-pat" copy, but she also felt inexplicably warmed.
I was thinking of covering it up by saying, "My phone rubbed against me in my trouser pocket," but after staying on the chat screen for a long time, she finally typed back, "I was looking at your Moments and accidentally took this photo."
Xu Sirui on the other end took a long time to reply, saying simply, "Go check it again now."
She clicked on his profile picture again to enter his Moments, and was surprised to find that his Moments had suddenly been filled with a lot of new content.
"Did you drag me into some blocked group earlier, and then just hurriedly drag me out?"
“…”
"no."
“I posted content that only I could see.”
Well, she was just being mean-spirited.
She browsed through the contents slowly.
Xu Sirui used his WeChat Moments almost like a diary, perhaps to motivate himself. Every time he achieved even the smallest accomplishment, he'd post a message visible only to himself. There were records of scholarships he'd received, competitions he'd won, late nights playing games with his teammates, countless mind-numbing bugs, and empty glasses of American coffee his teammates had drunk as though they were wine... Retracing his thoughts from the present moment to the past, like stepping back in time, she could glimpse the trajectory of his university life.
She watched and liked the post until the high-speed train was about to arrive. Xu Sirui sent her a screenshot of the "99+" message on WeChat Moments and said, "...if you like it again, I'll block you."
“…”
She curled her lips, liked one post, then put her phone away and stood up to get off the car.
As early as this morning, she informed Zhu Zhiwei that she was coming and told him not to pick her up at the high-speed rail station and that she could just take a taxi. However, Zhu Zhiwei still insisted on asking for her train information. When the high-speed train arrived, she sent a message saying that she was already waiting at the exit.
Zhu Yingning followed the license plate number and found her car. She quickly opened the door and jumped into the passenger seat.
"You didn't bring a suitcase?" Zhu Zhiwei looked at her while driving.
"No, I'm only staying for two days, and the clothes in my backpack are enough."
"Have you eaten yet?"
"I had some bread."
"I ordered some crayfish and I've peeled them for you. You can just heat them up when you get home."
The back-and-forth conversation was like a warm current flowing into her tired body from the car ride. She hummed and said flatly, "Sister Weiwei, you are so good to me."
"If I don't treat you well, who else can I treat well?" she laughed.
The car merged into the traffic and headed towards home.
Arrived at Zhu Zhiwei's home forty minutes later.
Although she had stood up to Huang Yuliang a few years ago, his malicious manipulation of her store's sales had long since ruined her store's reputation. She also regretted her indecision, thinking that if she had been more decisive, she might not have ended up in this situation.
After being depressed for a while, she discovered another opportunity by chance.
As luck would have it, Zhu Zhiwei had added Huang Yuliang's WeChat in order to provide evidence to his wife that he had a child out of wedlock. They rarely chatted, but she would occasionally check her phone for entertainment and see his Moments posts. One of them read, "I bought another bag I've had my eye on for a long time through a friend."
An ordinary post on WeChat Moments ignited a tiny spark in Zhu Zhiwei's heart.
In those years, WeChat had just become popular and WeChat business was still an emerging profession.
She smelled a subtle business opportunity from this circle of friends - because the clothing she sold before was positioned as light luxury, she added a lot of middle-class independent women with spare money on QQ and WeChat. These people are at the consumption level of "can buy expensive things, but not too expensive", and WeChat business perfectly meets their consumption needs.
It just so happened that Zhu Yingning also lived on campus to attend university, and Zhu Zhiwei had no ties in Beijing, so she made a quick decision to move to Shenzhen, where she rented a house and started doing purchasing for others and micro-business.
The initial stage was definitely difficult, but it was also that difficult stage that allowed her to regain the confidence to be self-reliant.
After four years of accumulation, her income gradually stabilized. She not only had considerable savings, but also had a group of loyal customers.
Many of these clients were wealthy individuals. Through her interactions with them, Zhu Zhiwei gradually realized that, rather than trying to profit from ordinary people, it would be better for a lone individual business owner like her to focus her efforts on the wealthy and specialize in this area. At the same time, the daigou (daigou) industry was experiencing a boom. She foresaw the inevitable decline of this industry after saturation, so in late 2017, she began to explore a new direction, capitalizing on her geographical location and aiming for jade.
Just like when he decided to move from Beijing to Shenzhen, Zhu Zhiwei made a quick decision to move from Shenzhen to Yangmei, known as the Jade Capital, where he learned how to identify high-quality jadeite and Hetian jade.
The biggest drawback for any jade dealer is a customer base. Zhu Zhiwei, on the other hand, is quite the opposite—she doesn't lack customers, only knowledge. This customer base is her unique advantage, and by the second half of 2018, she had successfully developed her own jade market, with her clients being wealthy wives in first-tier cities.
Zhu Yingning's trip back to Beijing happened to coincide with Zhu Zhiwei's return to Beijing to meet clients, otherwise she might not have been able to see her.
The crayfish had indeed cooled down, so Zhu Zhiwei took the plate to heat it up, opened a bottle of red wine, and poured some for herself and Zhu Yingning.
Drinking wine and eating crayfish face to face, Zhu Zhi smiled and said that she planned to retire at the age of 35.
"How about dividing the money I've saved over the years into two parts? One part for investment, and the other part for traveling around the world?"
"I think it's really, really good!" Her eyes were shining, and the corners of her eyes drooped slightly because of her smile.
After Hu finished talking about his own things, Zhu Zhiwei remembered something and said, "By the way, Ningning, do you know about Si Rui's situation?"
"Hmm?" She swallowed the food in her mouth and asked confusedly, "What do you know about him?"
"Oh... then you probably don't know." Zhu Zhiwei shrugged and smiled, "I also heard it from his aunt. That's right - don't be surprised if I tell you this, he sued Xu Zhengkang in court."
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The author has something to say: I am having menstrual cramps... There is only one chapter today, I will update more tomorrow.
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