Chapter 29
Having arrived safely at the company building entrance, Li Ye breathed a sigh of relief and turned to Zhou Yuan, beaming, "How was your driving?"
"The car is very stable, not like a novice driver." Zhou Yuan was unbuckling his seatbelt, and Li Ye thought about it and unbuckled his seatbelt as well. The two opened the car door at the same time, and Li Ye jogged half a circle around to Zhou Yuan's side and gave him a deep hug.
"I've already driven you to work, so let's go all the way." Li Ye buried her head in her shoulder, just like Zhou Yuan had done that morning. She smelled a faint lavender scent coming from her clothes, just like the clothes she was wearing.
After a brief hug, Li Ye jogged back to the driver's seat and formally said goodbye to Zhou Yuan: "See you tonight."
Watching Zhou Yuan walk into the company gate step by step from the car, until he sent Li Ye a period to indicate that he was starting work, Li Ye then fastened his seatbelt again and drove back the way he came.
The traffic on the return journey was noticeably lighter, and Li Ye's hands on the steering wheel were not as tense as when he arrived. He got home in a shorter time, and the first thing he did was take out his phone and send Zhou Yuan a message to let him know that he had arrived home safely.
The second thing was to make a video call to Ms. Li. Li Ye greeted her family sweetly, "You had some free time today, didn't you go out with Teacher Li?"
In the video, Ms. Li rolled her eyes at Li Ye on the camera without any regard for her image: "He has to work today. I only switched shifts with someone else to help you. Normal people don't get that much rest when they're working."
At the same time, he couldn't hide his worry about his daughter who was away from home: "Why do you suddenly need to send something over? You don't have enough money. Do you want me to give you some pocket money?"
“I still have enough money, but after I left home and lived on my own, I suddenly realized—” Li Ye dragged out the last syllable, “Was I very wasteful before? Whether it was spending money to buy things or using things, I was very extravagant.”
Li Ye leaned firmly against the sofa, hugging two cushions in his arms, his phone propped up on one of the cushions at eye level. His voice sounded muffled: "This has little to do with whether I've started making money or not."
Ms. Li roughly understood what was going on, as she had been in the same situation when she first started out to make a living. "That's why I said you're still a child."
"Alright, if you really don't need the money, this will get better on its own in a few months. It's always like this at the beginning. Like accounting, the costs need to be spread out. If you pile them all up, the books definitely won't look good."
Li Ye got similar answers from surfing the internet, so he composed himself and moved on to the next step. "Among the things I sent back before, were there any that I particularly liked? I didn't see your and Teacher Li's comments."
Ms. Li immediately felt a little guilty. "The flowers you sent back were all very beautiful, such a big pile of them. Old Li was so happy. His WeChat Moments were full of these flowers and plants for the next few days. You saw them, didn't you?"
"Where are those big boxes of local specialties I sent back? Why haven't you mentioned them at all? When I asked you if you received them, you said you did, and when I asked the courier, he said he delivered them personally. I've been back for more than half a month now, surely you haven't even opened the boxes yet?"
Li Ye could obviously see Ms. Li's obvious guilty conscience. Apart from the flowers being delivered separately by express courier, the rest of the items were sent by regular express courier, so it was impossible for them all to have been damaged.
"The flower cakes aren't spoiled, are they? When I ate them, I thought they were just the way my family would like them, so I bought a whole box and sent them back home." Li Ye made a reasonable guess. "Even if we shared them with our neighbors and colleagues, we would still keep some for ourselves to taste, let alone not having eaten a single bite yet."
"I did give away a lot of these cakes, and after eating them myself, I realized I was giving away too many." Ms. Li was a little unhappy about this, but she couldn't let her daughter know too much. "You can also buy these online. I plan to tell you when the new ones arrive."
"These were some of the local specialties I bought for the New Year, and we haven't finished them yet. If you're going to give them as gifts, you should give those." Li Ye continued to question, "A small box of tea and a whole ham, and you couldn't even bear to take a picture?"
"There are also whole boxes of fresh fruit. It's normal to send them out to help others if they spoil. I won't say anything. I just want you to try them first and see if you like any of them. You can buy more later."
Li Ye now has a vague idea: most of the gifts have definitely been given away, but Ms. Li wouldn't spend so much time going back and forth with her over this kind of thing, unless the majority of the gifts were given to people Li Ye doesn't like.
Ms. Li knew that Li Ye wasn't stupid and would soon guess what was going on, so she just went ahead and said it clearly: "The things you sent back were delivered in two days, which happened to be the days when your aunt came to visit."
In the video, Li Ye's face instantly turned cold, and his voice was so low that it sounded like he was threatening Ms. Li on the other end of the phone: "You didn't send them all out, did you?"
Ms. Li was not frightened, but she couldn't help but sigh inwardly. She still wanted to finish her sentence: "No, no, it's just that most of it was given to her daughter-in-law who is pregnant again. In addition to what I said I would give to the neighbors and colleagues, there wasn't much left at home."
"How much of the ham did her family get? Did they take the whole thing?" Li Ye quickly found the vague details, especially the most valuable part.
Ms. Li knew, of course, that the most expensive item was the ham, and that was what made her feel guilty. "It's hard to cut, isn't it? My older sister raised me when I was little, and she hasn't had an easy time these past few years. She was only happy for a short while when she had a granddaughter a few years ago, and then she was worried. Now she's finally pregnant with another one."
Li Ye mentally picked up on what Ms. Li hadn't said aloud: her eldest sister was a sexist who favored sons over daughters, and now that she was pregnant again, she was trying to get benefits from various relatives, which happened to coincide with the ham that was sent over.
Out of respect for Ms. Li, Li Ye had no choice but to sigh and said, "I'll call and order another ham to send over later, but it won't taste as good as the first one. I hope it won't be sent out again. This year, we're going to eat ham mooncakes together for the Mid-Autumn Festival."
Upon receiving the signal of a general amnesty, Ms. Li suddenly relaxed. As for the complicated and difficult-to-resolve relationships at home, she could only keep agreeing to her daughter's request: "Ham mooncakes for Mid-Autumn Festival, okay, I remember."
Li Ye didn't want to keep bringing up old grievances, so he simply got back to today's business: "Let's go to my bedroom and see which clothes to send over, as well as my makeup box and jewelry box. We can just bring the boxes for those two."
Entering his bedroom, which he hadn't seen for almost two months, Li Ye felt a strange longing. During this time, he had been actively wandering around, feeling a sense of security but not much. Suddenly, he really wanted to go home.
"Wow, you've cleaned on time. There's hardly any dust on the camera." Li Ye suppressed his homesickness and changed the subject to something lighter.
Ms. Li also missed her daughter a little. "It's not like I don't have the time. Except for putting things away on the bed, I keep everything else as it is. I walk through the room with her every time I clean, and it looks very clean."
All the wardrobe doors were open. Li Ye directed Ms. Li on the other end of the phone to take out half of the summer clothes and underwear hanging inside. "This should be enough. Add two boxes, shoes, and three or four express deliveries. The delivery fees will be transferred later."
"Is this enough? What will we do in winter if we don't send more?" Ms. Li seemed to be back when Li Ye first went to university, and she said the same thing back then, with the exact same tone.
"We'll definitely be able to move into the new house before winter, and I'll definitely come back in person before then." Unfortunately, Li Ye isn't going to school this time, but settling down in the city where he's going to school, so they'll be separated from each other from now on.
Through the phone, an inexplicable sadness permeated the atmosphere. Li Ye guessed it was probably the sadness of leaving the nest that comes with growing up, something that would happen sooner or later.
After the tension subsided, Li Ye continued to instruct Ms. Li to pack the clothes and shoes. When the courier finally came to pick up the goods, Ms. Li did not ask Li Ye for the delivery fee. Li Ye estimated the approximate amount and sent her a red envelope, but she did not accept it. It was automatically returned a few days later.
"Send more things home next time." Li Ye had no other choice.
After finishing sending the package remotely, it was already close to afternoon. Li Ye went out to find a noodle shop, ordered a bowl of noodles for lunch, and then drove to his new home to check on the progress of the renovation.
Li Ye didn't understand what these jobs were, nor could she tell if anyone was cheating or cutting corners, so she had a supervisor from the beginning, but that didn't stop her from coming over to check from time to time.
The main thing to look at is whether the workers are perfunctory. Li Ye can tell the difference. Although the decoration plan is not very exquisite, the requirements for the several rooms connected to the two houses are quite high.
The current work involves waterproofing the bathroom and laying electrical wires throughout the house, both of which are very important tasks. Li Ye hopes that the renovation company and supervisor recommended by Zeng Yuan are reliable.
After checking the renovation progress, Li Ye realized it was almost time for students to get out of school. She drove with the traffic to the city center to buy a cake and then queued up to buy a whole roasted chicken.
After putting these in the back, Li Ye prepared to drive to pick up Zhou Yuan from get off work. There was plenty of time, as long as those who worked didn't work overtime. Judging from the past few days, Zhou Yuan wasn't working overtime much.
On the way, Li Ye saw a steamed bun shop and, feeling a bit hungry, couldn't resist getting off the bus to buy two large meat buns. He originally planned to save one for Zhou Yuan, but before he knew it, he had already bitten a hole in the second bun, revealing the meat filling inside.
"So I backed the car up and queued up again to buy you two steamed buns, one meat and one vegetarian. You arrived too late and missed out."
Li Ye successfully picked up Zhou Yuan, who wasn't working overtime. When she opened the car door, she was greeted by two large steamed buns. Sitting in the passenger seat, Zhou Yuan ate Li Ye's gift while listening to her experiences that afternoon. Still adjusting to his new job, Zhou Yuan gradually felt himself coming back to life.
At this moment, Zhou Yuan could also smell the complex aroma emanating from the back row. "You also bought a cake and..."
"Cake and roast chicken, to celebrate the first time I drove you to and from get off work, is that alright?" Li Ye seemed to be making excuses for himself, who was on a diet, to eat, "constantly tempting me from behind."
Zhou Yuan chuckled and squeezed the other steamed bun in his hand. "So Li couldn't resist eating both of them?"
After parking the car, Li Ye nodded firmly. "That's it."
The car was parked in the community parking lot. After getting out of the car, Li Ye carried the cake and Zhou Yuan carried the roast chicken. Their hands automatically joined together, and they followed the streetlights in the community home.
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