On the way back to the company on the subway, she suddenly thought of Chen Maidong. Just for a fleeting moment. Before she could think about it further, she received a friend request. She clicked on it, the profile picture was her company headquarters building. She accepted without thinking.
The new friend messaged quickly: Why did you delete my WeChat? And then another: Are you angry?
Zhuang Jie looked at the chat interface and didn’t reply.
Then they sent another message, simple and clear: Ji Tong.
Zhuang Jie thought: With Ji Tong’s shrewdness, he naturally understood why she deleted him, but she didn’t expect him to change his account and so she would add him back. Her principle of life is not to be hostile to others. She can be a friend, if she can carry on conversations, and if not, they will just remain acquaintances.
She regretted deleting Ji Tong, in the beginning. In the future, there will inevitably be times at work where they would cross paths; so it will just be nodding and moving on.
Just thinking about how to answer, the interface kept showing that the other person was typing, but instead she received a 60-second voice message. Before she finished listening to one, she received three more, one after another.
Zhuang Jie had to listen to every detail – he wanted to restore the previous relationship, still superior and subordinate at work, and still good friends in private.
Zhuang Jie had never seen such an unlucky man. He talked about a lot of family affairs in a high-sounding manner, saying that his parents had high expectations of him, and there were some things he couldn’t promise. His family would be more accepting, if she could study for two years.
That did not mean anything to her.
Zhuang Jie left the station casually, found a relatively quiet environment to reply to him: I can understand your plan, but I’m sorry. I would not have enough courage or sense of security to break things off with you, if we were together that long, secretly. If your family still didn’t approve of me after two years of advanced studies, what then? And besides, I’m not going to make changes for anyone, unless I want to. I feel like I am fine now. I thought about the possible ending from the moment I confessed to you.
Ji Tong didn’t respond back to her for a long time.
Zhuang Jie guessed that he had drunk some wine or something, otherwise, with his temperament and arrogance, he would not have said the things he had.
She smoked a cigarette and sent him another message: Let’s just keep our working relationship going from now on. Forget being private friends, it’s not very appropriate. I wish you good luck.
Ji Tong never responded back.
Zhuang Jie returned home against the head winds. Zhang Danqing was waiting for her with rich chicken soup, as a way of thanking her for taking care of her during this time.
She was very touched. It was not really good to have a bowl of chicken soup in this weather, but she drank three bowls back to back anyway. She started the bath water in the bathroom and planned to relax and take a nice bath. The bathtub was installed when she moved in two years ago. She likes to take tub baths.
Zhang Danqing had cleaned up the kitchen and sat on the carpet to practice her essay. She was surrounded by a pile of scattered writings. Her problem of being unorganized remained unchanged.
The temperature dropped drastically today. Zhuang Jie faced another day of strong cold winds, everyone was frozen stiff. She came out in a bathrobe to make a cup of cold medicine, and sneezed a few times on the way back, probably caught a cold. New chapters come out on NovelPing first.
Seeing Zhang Danqing writing something, she asked her if she wanted coffee, and Zhang Danqing took advantage of the situation and said, “Yes. Thank you, sister.”
Zhuang Jie made a cup of coffee for her, and sat on the sofa holding the cold medicine. The wind outside is getting stronger and louder, by the hour. She casually picked up a bunch of the manuscripts and stretched them out to read, commenting: “It’s very well written.”
“Not really, the artistic conception is not clear.” Zhang Danqing said.
“I think it’s okay.” Zhuang Jie is simple-minded and likes straightforward words, but she finds it laborious if they are too obscure.
Zhang Danqing put down her pen, pointed out the window and exhaled forcefully, “Sister, describe the weather at this moment.”
“Damn it, the wind is so strong.”
…
“Okay, let’s try to expand on that. How many months is the wind, where is the wind, why is it so strong?!”
“Late autumn, the wind is outside the window and it is so damn strong.”
…
“My face is chapped.” Zhuang Jie drank cold medicine and asked her to bring a mask.
“Your writing skills are not good. The things you mentioned are too superficial.” Zhang Danqing brought her a mask.
“I have no background in writing. I like Acheng’s line drawings. They are down to earth, without accents. Writing is precise and worldly with tension, and all come out with a few strokes. Good sentences and stupid sentences are used to complement each other.”
“How many cities do you think there are in China?” Zhang Danqing looked at the wind outside the window, put her chin on her arm and said, “I’m homesick, I miss the squid lung soup my mother makes for me.”
“Then go back, your home is so close.”
“Sister, have you not heard of any strange deaths?” Zhang Danqing asked her.
Zhuang Jie thought for a while, and said, “We were building a high-speed railway in our hometown town. A worker accidentally fell into a bridge pier and was then sealed with concrete.”
“What is a pier?”
“Was he not rescued?”
“It was said that people had blocked it.”
“If I don’t have a picture, I can’t imagine it.”
“Have you seen the movie “Melody”? There should be a scene where the male and female protagonists get concrete poured on them.” After Zhuang Jie finished speaking, she added: “I only heard about it, so you just probably think I’m just talking nonsense.”
The two chatted for a while, Zhang Danqing went to sleep, Zhuang Jie collected the manuscripts on the carpet, and put a blanket on her lap to listen to the wind outside the window. She thought to herself: It’s time to wear the cashmere coat. Thinking of the cashmere coat, she thought she should buy a black ankle-length one to keep out the cold.
Just as she was thinking about buying a pair of cashmere thermal pants, Liao Tao called. She said that the weather in her hometown had changed and it was very cold, and she asked how Shanghai was. Zhuang Jie said the temperature was okay, but the wind was strong.
Zhuang Jie suffers from neuralgia at the amputation stump, and the incidence rate is high when the weather changes, and the stump will give her bursts of pain. Surgery was done in the past to relieve this pain, but it did not get rid of it completely. Later, she just got used to it. Once she got used to it, she didn’t find it unbearable anymore. She once knew a patient in the hospital who suffered from phantom limb pain, which was more terrifying. It was painful, all the time.
She was in pain when she first chatted with Zhang Danqing, but it had passed. Liao Tao was still chatting on the phone, saying that she had paid for a class, and tomorrow the organization would teach them how to run an online store.
Zhuang Jie said that was very good, and when Liao Tao had mastered it, Zhuang Jie would promote it in her circle of friends and ask her internet celebrity friends to help advertise.
Liao Tao said that favors are the hardest to repay, so not to ask for help. Zhuang Jie said she knew how to ask, she had her own way so it is not like a real favor. “Friends just want to help me, I will help you, and everyone helps each other.”
Liao Tao understood that she had the bottom line in her heart, so she didn’t say anything else. She mentioned that the factory was about to begin operating, so He Zhanghua went to buy chickens, all of which were free-range chickens. They also wanted to hire someone to go to Xingshan to raise the chickens, but they weren’t sure if the town would agree to the idea.
Zhuang Jie said that it would be fine to lease a piece of land. But there was no rush, let them take it step by step, and wait until the factory was actually operating. She also said that she sent back some plasters and asked Uncle He to try them on his waist.
It was developed by the hospital itself to relieve lumbar muscle strain, maybe it would help him.
After the mother and daughter hung up the phone, Zhuang Jie received a friend request: I am David Beckham.
The head portrait was Beckham in a suit and tie.
…
Going back to the bedroom on her crutches, she sent a new request: Be Friends Again.