“Li Xue, don’t rush off after work. Come with us to a business dinner.” It was almost time to clock out, and Li Xue had already packed up her things, planning to leave as soon as the clock struck. But just a few minutes before the end of the workday, Xing Hui strolled over, a look of anticipation in her eyes.
“With whom? Where are we going?” Li Xue instinctively wanted to refuse, but upon realizing she didn’t have another job lined up yet, she held back for the time being.
“You’ll find out when the time comes. What’s the matter? Are you going to refuse? Don’t you want this job anymore? Li Xue, I advise you to think this through carefully. Don’t let your head get hot and make a snap decision—you’ll be the one regretting it later.” Xing Hui didn’t spell it out, but seeing the look on her face, Li Xue’s heart was in her mouth. After a moment’s hesitation, she finally said, “I’m not going. Find someone else!”
“I’m telling you, don’t bite the hand that feeds you…” Before Xing Hui could finish her sentence, a gentle voice suddenly rang out from the side: “What’s going on? What are you two arguing about? Why don’t you tell me all about it.”
“Boss, you have no idea how tactless she is…” Listening to Xing Hui embellish the story as she reported it to the boss, Li Xue felt nothing but irony. Her hands trembled slightly, and her expression kept shifting—what was she thinking?
“Li Xue, today is just a simple dinner gathering. Besides the three of us, there are two business partners—both of whom invested in our tutoring center when it was first established. The reason I asked you to come along is that I want to promote you to Director of Instruction, but I need to discuss this with them as well. After all, the development of the tutoring center is tied to their investment…”
The boss stood beside her, speaking softly and reasoning with Li Xue, but the gist of it was that he wanted her to come along. Li Xue watched as her colleagues left one after another, while she was forced to stay behind, feeling utterly sick of it all.
“Boss, I’m sorry, but…” Li Xue hadn’t finished speaking when her phone rang. Startled, she hurriedly pressed the answer button. On the other end was Lin Yanan’s voice, tinged with concern: “Xiao Xue, I see your colleagues have all left work. Why haven’t you come out yet? Tianshuo and I are waiting for you at the entrance!”
“Mom, I’ll be right down!” She then turned to her boss: “As you can see, my mother-in-law and my daughter are here. I really can’t be away from my family right now. I’m so sorry, but I won’t be able to join you for the dinner tonight. As for the position of Head of Teaching, I’m not qualified for it, so please find someone else.”
After saying this, Li Xue didn’t bother to gauge their reactions any further. She simply grabbed her packed bag and left. Only when she saw Lin Yanan and Tianguo standing in the lobby did she feel a huge weight lift off her shoulders, and she let out a deep sigh of relief.
“Mom, why are you here?” The timing of this call couldn’t have been better. If she’d been there alone, she could have predicted exactly what kind of look Xing Hui would have given her.
“Little Tianguo bought some candied hawthorn and wanted to give it to you. I couldn’t say no to her, so we came over together.” Lin Yanan spoke casually, but while Li Xue’s attention was focused on Tianguo, she discreetly sized Li Xue up. Seeing that she was unharmed, she breathed a sigh of relief herself.
“Here, Mom. I picked out the biggest, reddest fruit just for you.” Little Tingguo ran into Li Xue’s arms with a smile, offering the candy-coated hawthorn she’d been holding for a while—it was already starting to melt.
“Thank you, sweetie.” As Li Xue breathed in her daughter’s scent, her mood settled, and a smile spread across her face. Meanwhile, Lin Yanan stood to the side, watching the mother and daughter bond.
Bringing Tianguo over had been a spur-of-the-moment decision. When her little granddaughter had been pestering her to buy a sugar-coated hawthorn for her mom, Li Xue’s face had suddenly flashed through her mind—as if it were a memory from the original host.
She watched as Li Xue knocked urgently on the front door, one knock after another, making everyone’s hearts race with anxiety. When the door finally opened, Li Xue didn’t even say hello; she ran straight to the bedroom door and locked it from the inside. No matter how much the original host called out for her to come out for dinner, Li Xue didn’t respond. It wasn’t until Qin Feng returned, found the key, and unlocked the bedroom that the original host saw Li Xue again—and she was still in a bad mood. Moreover, not long after that incident, Li Xue quit her job. So Lin Yanan surmised that something major must have happened today to make her so emotional that she ended up quitting her job.
Fearing Li Xue might be in trouble, Lin Yanan had deliberately brought her granddaughter to the tutoring class so she could help if anything did happen. But for now, everything seemed fine. None of the bad things she’d anticipated had occurred.
“Who are those people?” Just as the three of them—grandmother, granddaughter, and mother—were about to push the stroller back, they saw Xing Hui and another person coming out.
“That’s my colleague and my boss. They said they were going out for a business dinner together.” Li Xue didn’t mention that they had wanted to invite her along. Although they’d been getting along fairly well lately, Li Xue wasn’t sure how Lin Yanan would react if she heard about it.
“Oh.” They seemed presentable enough, but they didn’t leave a good impression. And given the scenes from her memories, Lin Yanan still felt she needed to keep a close eye on them.
“Honey, what do you think about me quitting my job?” Lying in bed, just before falling asleep, Li Xue suddenly brought up the topic of quitting, and this remark instantly jolted the drowsy Qin Feng awake.
“Honey, are you serious?” Qin Feng rolled over to face Li Xue.
“Mm-hmm.” Li Xue offered no explanation, just a simple reply. But Qin Feng, who knew her well, could tell from that answer that she truly had no desire to stay on.
“Are you exhausted?” Qin Feng pulled her into his arms and stroked her back.
“I’m exhausted—mentally drained. You want to do a good job, but there’s always something else getting in the way.” Reassured by Qin Feng, Li Xue began to voice her frustrations, unlike her usual habit of sugarcoating things.
“Since things aren’t going well, let’s just call it quits. But could we wait another week or so? You know our expenses have been pretty high lately, and we don’t have much spare cash. Once I get my bonus next month and pay back the money I borrowed from a colleague, we’ll be able to cover our household expenses…”
Qin Feng was naturally concerned that his wife was having a hard time at work, but that was the reality of the situation. Without careful planning, the family’s finances were truly tight. Even if he went to borrow money, he couldn’t guarantee how much he’d be able to get. These days, it’s hard to pay back loans, and it’s hard to borrow money too—everyone is struggling.
“Alright, I’ll go along with it.” Li Xue understood their financial situation and knew her husband’s concerns, so she didn’t dwell on it and agreed immediately.
As the couple discussed this, they didn’t notice Lin Yanan quietly slipping away outside. She had originally intended to find Qin Feng and ask him to take her back to their hometown to retrieve some belongings, but she hadn’t expected to overhear their conversation.