Chapter 56 (Combined Second Update)
◎These kinds of people usually find outsiders; who would touch their own people? ◎
Meanwhile, Wu Juan buried her head in the blankets, taking a deep breath, because she had received Sun Taihe's reply—a lonely zero. So, unwilling to give up, she sent another message: "What about Nana?"
If it can't fall into her hands, it can fall into Nana's hands, right?
Sun Taihe's reply this time was even more decisive: "Don't ask anymore, Juan'er, there's no chance for either of you."
But Wu Juan's parents disagreed and were very supportive. Wu Juan was an only child and had no secrets from her mother growing up. She openly shared her crushes on several boys during her adolescence with her mother. She grew up in a family that was arguably even healthier than Yu Jinyang's. After all, Wu's father's early life wasn't as tumultuous as Yu Renjie's; he was content with his ordinary life and devoted his heart entirely to his wife and daughter. Despite Wu Juan's low-key demeanor, her parents had already bought her an apartment in the provincial capital, intending to find her a son-in-law to live with them.
At that moment, Mr. Wu was chopping filling in the kitchen. Hearing his daughter mention this man's name every now and then, he naturally understood what was going on. Mrs. Wu was rolling out dumpling wrappers at the dining table outside the kitchen and said, "What's the big deal? If you like him, go for it. If you get rejected, it just means the other person has no taste. Our Juan'er is such a good girl, why would she worry about not finding a boyfriend? I think that Sun Taihe is not bad either. He speaks frankly and doesn't play games."
Wu Juan didn't make dumplings either; she just waited to eat. Sitting there, she firmly shook her head and said, "That won't do. Yu Jinyang is much more handsome."
Knowing her daughter was extremely superficial, Wu's mother didn't say much. She neatly stacked the dumpling wrappers and said, "The key is, do you dare to go for it? There's nothing to worry about. If you like her, just ask if we can be friends. If not, that's fine too. Perfect timing, find an excuse to ask your boss for a few days off. Your dad got a bonus, have him transfer it to you so you can go out and have fun."
"What did you say his name was, Yu Jinyang?" Mr. Wu suddenly poked his head out from behind the kitchen partition. "Is his father Yu Renjie?"
Wu Juan nodded quickly: "I think so, Dad, you know him?"
“He’s an old acquaintance.” Mr. Wu took out the chopped dumpling filling. “A few years ago, his business was so big that every bank knew him. Back then, everyone relied on him to do business for their companies. Of the four major banks in Fengtan, Yu Renjie initially had private banking accounts. Anyway, he used to be very successful, but I guess he’s not doing so well now. Back then, his son was studying abroad, and he even wanted to borrow some money from me to pay for his son’s tuition.”
"Oh? That bad?"
Mr. Wu seemed to know some of the inside story: "Yu Renjie used to be very successful. He wanted to expand his business overseas and arranged a joint loan for eight wooden toy companies. When the bank saw that he was one of the guarantors, they disbursed the loan without hesitation. Who knew that the industry would decline later, coinciding with the years his son went abroad to study, four of the eight companies went bankrupt, and two of them absconded with the money, leaving only Yu Renjie and another small factory to hold on. In fact, if he had just declared bankruptcy, the bank would have had no choice but to accept the loss."
"But Yu Renjie is a bit 'foolish'. He has about a hundred people on his assembly line, all of whom are veteran workers who have been with him for over twenty years, and many of them are deaf and mute. He said that if he went bankrupt, these people would have nowhere to go, so he stubbornly persevered and tried to raise money from all over the place. He started by selling his house to pay off his debts, but he still couldn't pay them off. The suppliers and banks sued him, and the court froze all his assets."
Mrs. Wu interjected, "What's the name of Yu Renjie's company? Fool's Paradise Toys? I think I saw they were still open when I went to the city last time."
"It just kept going like that, sporadically," Mr. Wu said, starting to make dumplings. "The profits were just enough to pay the employees' wages. The old craftsmen knew the boss was loyal, and some even said they could take a pay cut so Yu Renjie could take care of himself first. It's quite a sad story. After that joint guarantee incident, such a large wooden toy factory is now like a centipede that's dead but not quite dead. You really can't just guarantee for anyone. But it's really a cruel twist of fate. Later, Yu Renjie finally managed to pay off the debt, and his son finished his schooling on his own, but then he lost his leg."
Wu Juan sighed, "Dad, please stop talking. The more I hear, the more I love it. Isn't this exactly the kind of male protagonist in a novel who needs a little sun heroine like me to save him? We're such a perfect match."
“…You should read fewer novels, Juanjuan,” Mr. Wu said helplessly.
Pan Xiaoliang had said the same thing, but Wu Juan just took it as the incompetent reprimands these men made after being manipulated by fictional characters: "I'll watch. Mom is right, I'm going to boldly confess my feelings."
Mrs. Wu spread the dumpling wrapper in her palm and immediately gave her a firm look: "That's right! Just look, if you want to look, what's wrong with looking? We'll just look at the novel, Mom supports you."
Wu Juan felt a surge of anger rush to her head. Gritting her teeth, she picked up her phone, pulled up Yu Jinyang's WeChat, and with a do-or-die expression, quickly sent him a message. After sending it, she slammed her phone on the table, adopting a "you tell me if you love me or not" attitude.
Yu Jinyang planned to move back to Xiaohua City. A couple of nights ago, he got home a little late and woke up Tian Tong. In the middle of the night, Tian Tong pulled him around like a little train all night long.
He had no choice but to tell Tang Xiang that he would move back to Xiaohua City for a while, so he called two cleaners to come and tidy up in the morning. He had just put the sofa and coffee table back in place when Wu Juan's WeChat message came in. It was just a greeting emoji.
Wu Juan: "'Hi handsome guy'.jpg"
Wu Juan: "Can we talk?"
The handsome guy replied quickly: "Taihe told me."
Then followed by a "private Marseille" meme, Gao Dian's go-to meme.
Wu Juan immediately replied, "Okay."
Yu Jinyang couldn't help but laugh. What was all this about? The next second, he caught a glimpse of Wu Juan's profile picture and slowly stopped laughing. He hunched over, elbows propped on his knees, sitting on the sofa. His phone lay open on the coffee table, the chat window already opened, still displaying a kissing emoji.
He clicked on the previous voice message sent by Li Yingqiao: "Why didn't you say hello to me?"
"Why don't you say hello to me?"
"Why don't you say hello to me?"
"Why don't you say hello to me?"
...
The woman's voice filled the empty and dimly lit room, like a cassette tape recorder repeating the same sentence over and over again, as if emanating a damp, stagnant echo from a dark, century-old dry well.
Yu Jinyang could almost picture her vivid expression when she sent the voice message. He hadn't been able to resist asking Sun Taihe in the dance studio, "Have you ever had that kind of friend?"
He was vague in his answer, and Sun Taihe told him to be more specific.
Yu Jinyang was covered in sweat. After most people left, he practiced floor exercises for another hour. By the time he left, he was exhausted and collapsed on the ground. His T-shirt was soaked with sweat, clinging tightly to his body, revealing the contours of his back and abdominal muscles. For once, he wasn't so disciplined as to let them sag. He casually propped himself up with his arms behind him, looked at Sun Taihe, and said with a hint of weariness and indifference, "How should I put it, he's the kind of guy who only sleeps with you and doesn't date."
Sun Taihe stammered for a long time, trying to utter a single word about a goose giving birth to a gosling.
Yu Jinyang smiled helplessly, looking down. "Never mind, I didn't ask."
"Why did you suddenly think of asking this?" Sun Taihe was clearly surprised. At least he had a mouth, so he could joke around with people. Yu Jinyang didn't even have a mouth. Sometimes the brothers would joke around, but he never talked about anything less than three points.
Actually, it's nothing much. The reason he's so tight-lipped about this kind of question is simply because he had two female friends since childhood, Li Yingqiao and Zheng Miaojia, and both he and Gao Dian subconsciously protect this friendship. They both initially believed it was purely friendship, as if anything more romantic would taint it. Yu Jinyang simply lay back on the floor, still panting from exercise, and stared blankly at the ceiling, saying, "No, I'm just curious. What kind of concept is this? Just sleeping together, no feelings involved? Isn't it awkward when you see each other normally?"
Sun Taihe: "What do we usually meet? The rule is that we only meet to do business, and we don't meet in other situations. Even if we do meet, we pretend we don't know each other. So usually, we find people outside our social circle. Who would want to meet someone from their own circle? That would be too awkward."
Yu Jinyang remained silent.
Sun Taihe continued, "But there are also those who get promoted, and it's normal for feelings to develop while sleeping together."
Yu Jinyang pondered for a moment, but still didn't understand. He lay on the ground and mechanically shook his head twice: "I really don't understand."
***
Li Shuli still cooked a bowl of noodles for Li Yingqiao. For the past few years, no matter when or what time Li Yingqiao came home, Li Shuli's first thought was always that her daughter must be hungry. She grabbed a handful of noodles, put them in the pot, covered it, and then turned to her daughter, saying, "If you had told me earlier, I would have gone to the market and gotten you a fish. What's wrong with you? You're such a grown-up, couldn't you have called ahead? Now look what's happened, there aren't even any eggs at home, so you can only eat some plain noodles."
Li Shuli had no temper with her daughter. The only thing she was always annoyed about was that her daughter didn't give her time to prepare the ingredients in advance, fearing that she would come back so often and then leave in a hurry without having a good meal. Li Yingqiao hugged her tightly and smiled, saying, "I'm really not hungry, I just wanted to chat with you for a bit."
Li Shuli actually had a premonition about what her daughter wanted to talk to her about, because in the ten years she had been away from home, Qiaoqiao had never proactively mentioned a single word about work to her, including leaving or joining a new job; she always informed her with a phone call.
"Mom, I actually left my previous company a long time ago. I've started a new company now, Convey Travel. They have year-end travel discount coupons and even a luxury cruise! The new company is really great! Don't worry, I'll do my job well!"
Li Shuli wasn't worried at all. She simply said okay, work was secondary, and that she should eat well in Beijing. What worried her most was that her daughter wasn't eating properly, eating takeout and instant noodles all day long. Li Shuli couldn't offer much help in Fengtan, and she kept seeing videos and news reports about young people dying suddenly from staying up late, working themselves to death, or developing cancer from eating instant noodles regularly, which fueled her anxiety. Every time, she would forward these to Qiaoqiao, telling her absolutely not to eat instant noodles.
So when she asked her if it was work-related, she knew in her heart it probably wasn't.
These days, the mother and daughter rarely have moments like this. In the kitchen, Li Shuli lit a cigarette for herself on the stove and asked her daughter if she wanted one. Li Yingqiao didn't speak, but silently took one. Li Shuli laughed without surprise, "I knew you'd smoke."
Li Shuli started smoking when she was driving a truck, which often involved driving at night. Sometimes she would park the truck on the side of the road, get out and smoke a cigarette or two, and then Qiaoqiao would watch her curiously from inside the truck, peeking through the window and asking in her childish voice, "Mommy, what does it taste like?"
Now it was Li Shuli's turn to lean against the stove and ask her with a smile, "What does it smell like?"
Li Yingqiao didn't light it, but just took it and smelled it before putting it aside and saying, "Actually, I don't smoke much. I was just curious because you used to smoke a lot when we were driving trucks in other provinces. So when I was in high school, I asked Yu Jinyang to get a pack of cigarettes from his dad and tried smoking them. I didn't learn how to smoke them back then, and the four of us were really choked by the smoke."
Li Shuli took a breath, exhaled a puff of mist, and looked at her, saying, "What I fear most is that you'll copy everything I do."
"You're afraid I'll become a single mother, aren't you?"
“Yes, don’t have children recklessly,” Li Shuli said, lighting a cigarette between her fingers.
"Then why did you give birth to me?"
“That’s fate between us,” Li Shuli said.
“I can also have my own destiny,” Li Yingqiao retorted.
Li Shuli froze, subconsciously glancing down at her. "Don't cause trouble. I'm a counterexample in this regard. Just because I gave birth to a wonderful daughter doesn't mean I did the right thing. It only proves that I was lucky in this matter—"
Li Yingqiao suddenly interrupted, "Then, Mom, can you accept that I like Yu Jinyang?"
Li Shuli slowly realized what was going on; so that's what they were waiting for.
Li Shuli: "But then again—"
Li Yingqiao shrugged: "You see, single mothers are better, aren't they?"
Li Shuli stubbed out her cigarette, thought for a moment, and then said, "Do you want to hear the truth?"
In fact, ever since she slammed the door and left Yu Jinyang's house, her heart had never been at ease. It felt like a heavy weight was pressing down on her heart. She thought she would feel better after a good night's sleep, but who knew that the aftereffects would be even stronger today. She was even a little absent-minded at work, which usually helped her recover, and her mind was filled with the image of him leaving that night.
She took Yu Jinyang for granted in many ways. The foundation she laid in his childhood was so solid; as she herself once said, he was like a large-scale commemorative doll from a small painting—hers, and always hers. He had no temper, only unconditional obedience to her. Even after so many years, when they reunited, he still granted her this privilege—perhaps it was her illusion. It was as if no matter how unreasonable her demands, he would never refuse or get angry.
Teasing him is like teasing a cat, but she forgot the prerequisite: the cat has to agree to play with her, otherwise it would have already shown its claws and left, just like it has now.
She panicked. So she wanted to ask Li Shuli how to define this relationship. If it was defined as a romantic relationship, would it affect the mother-daughter relationship? After all, Li Shuli had never brought a man home since she was little. Even when others tried to introduce her to potential partners when she was young, she would say, "Qiaoqiao is too young," "Qiaoqiao doesn't like it," and "Qiaoqiao won't agree." So if she wanted to bring a man home in the future, shouldn't she ask for her consent first?
At this moment, Li Shuli realized that there is no perfect mother or perfect family in this world. Any way of getting along will influence the child and may even lead to some problems that she had never thought about.
"You're a pervert, Qiaoqiao."
"...Mom, you're not secretly dating a lot of people behind my back, are you...?"
“We’re just mother and daughter, you’re overstepping your bounds,” Li Shuli said.
"..."
"Mom didn't go to school, so I can't explain all those grand principles. From childhood to adulthood, I've only ever asked one thing of you: grow up happily and live a healthy life. As for whether you date ten or twenty people outside, even if you have a United Nations of relationships, that's your own ability. Just let me know when you choose someone to marry. But if you say this person is Yu Jinyang, the relationship between our two families is another matter. Mom just wants to remind you that the important thing is that he has a three- or four-year-old sister, and I heard he's taking care of her all by himself. If you date him, it's like dating a divorced man with a child." Li Shuli silently turned off the stove and said.
She had never thought of this angle before. However, according to Yu Jinyang, the ice cream cone was really clingy to him.
The following Saturday, Li Yingqiao slept through the night, a rare occurrence. However, she woke up twice in the middle of the night, dreaming that Yu Jinyang was choking her and asking why she didn't kiss him to death, leaving his mouth still breathing! It was simply unforgivable! Terrified, she quickly checked her phone. The stark contrast between the sweet, suffocating feeling in her dream and the empty chat window on her phone was like a blow to the head—their chat window was still stuck on that last kissing emoji, with no further updates.
Yu Jinyang simply ignored her.
After washing up, Li Yingqiao went to the hotel rooftop where they had arranged to meet yesterday to find Zhao Pingnan. Zheng Miaojia was already there, reading her newly published comic to Zhao Pingnan. Li Yingqiao groggily leaned closer, and the next second, she was so startled that she rubbed her eyes and exclaimed, "Wait, what is this? Zheng Miaojia! What is this?!"
A large, double-door refrigerator roared furiously at a small tank:
"Tanks, come on! Fire! Fire here! Shoot right into my heart!"
"Tanks? You're afraid? Because you know this is a bulletproof door!"
"Tank, then kiss me! Press your gun barrel hard against my chest. Only the coating here isn't bulletproof. If you dare, I'll give you a live electric shock!"
"—Refrigerator! Are you crazy?! This will short-circuit!"
"Then let all the electrical appliances in Fengcheng be buried with us!"
—A person diligently cooking rice in a rice cooker nearby trembled and cried out in anguish, “Stop hitting it! Undercooked rice is inedible! Undercooked rice is inedible!”
Li Yingqiao scrolled down and found a whole row of appliances: robot vacuums, microwave ovens, and various washing machines. She ran away in panic, exclaiming, "What the hell is all this, Zheng Miaojia!"
Zheng Miaojia said, "The Domineering CEO Falls in Love with Me: The Electric Appliance Alliance Edition".
***
In the next room, Tan Jiu was stuffing the last document into his briefcase, fastening the metal clasp, and preparing to go out to see Zhang Zongxie. He looked up at Yu Jinyang, who was waiting silently at the door, and said, "Hey, next door, you've been laughing all morning. I don't know what's wrong with you."
[Author's Note]
The next update is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, but it will definitely be a double update!
Red envelope~
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