"There's a chance?!" Hao Yingman raised her eyebrows. "Is there a chance?"
Fang Bai shook his head slightly: "It depends on how well you talk to the other party."
Hao Yingman also thought it was true; it was very likely that the other party had said the same thing to several other companies. Composing herself, she asked, "And what about you?"
She noticed that Fang Bai had told her to talk to the other person herself.
Fang Bai took a sip of porridge. "I'll be away for a few days."
"Where are you going?" Hao Yingman guessed. "Home?"
Fang Bai nodded and said, "Mm."
After a few seconds of pause, Fang Bai added, "I still need to go to Beijing."
Hao Yingman finished the last mouthful of porridge and was about to get up and return to the sofa when she heard Fang Bai's words. She slowed her turn and asked, "What are you going to Beijing for?"
Fang Bai lowered her eyes, not letting Hao Yingman see the tender light in them, and said with a slight upturn of her lips, "Go see a child."
Actually, besides wanting to help Hao Yingman, Fang Bai had ulterior motives for returning to China.
After all, if she really didn't want to return to China, no matter how much Hao Yingman pleaded and begged her, she wouldn't come back.
However, her selfish desires were stirred up on the day Hao Yingman contacted her. Like a calm lake being hit by a stone, the ripples grew stronger and stronger, eventually causing her to change her mind, which she had held onto for nearly three years, and agree to return to China with Hao Yingman.
During those days, Fang Bai missed Ji Yuning.
It wasn't that I suddenly thought of it during those few days, but rather that I've thought of it occasionally over the years, though the longing has never been nearly as intense as it was during those few days.
It was only because Hao Yingman gave Fang Bai a stepping stone, an excuse for him to return to China.
Fang Bai wondered if she could go back to China to see Ji Yuning, to see what she looked like now, whether she was still as cold and aloof as before she left, whether she had grown taller and become even more beautiful…
That makes sense, since her character Xiao Ning is the female lead, she's naturally the most beautiful.
Fang Bai has forgotten many things, but she can't forget the hour she spent agonizing in the coffee shop after learning that her time as cannon fodder had been brought forward.
In the end, she still said goodbye to Ji Yuning.
Fang Bai cursed himself in his heart more than once for being an irresponsible parent who ran away after raising his child and even said his final goodbye via video call.
But she couldn't do anything about it, because besides being irresponsible, she was also a failed parent.
Unable to lead children out of the shadows and into the light, unable to make children happy, and then shirking responsibility.
Fang Bai planned to return to the Fang family first and ask Fang Maozhou to arrange for someone to take her to the capital without leaving a trace, so that Ji Yuning wouldn't find out.
This way, Fang Bai can secretly take a peek at Ji Yuning.
Watch secretly, without being discovered.
Then they secretly left, pretending they had never returned.
Hao Yingman didn't ask Fang Bai which child he wanted to see, since she wouldn't know who it was anyway. She just leaned on the table and said, "Should I wait for you in Nancheng? Or should I come find you after work?"
"What do you want with me?" Fang Bai asked.
Hao Yingman's eyes widened. "Didn't we agree to go on a trip together?"
Fang Bai sipped his porridge: "I thought you were joking."
"I'm very serious, okay?" Hao Yingman said, sitting back down in her chair with her arms on the table. She half-jokingly added, "That way, even if my card gets suspended, I can still ask you to take care of me."
Hao Yingman's eyes flashed with curiosity as she spoke. She clicked her tongue and said somewhat seriously, "Actually, I've always had a question I wanted to ask you."
Fang Bai's expression was serene. "What?"
Without the slightest hesitation, Hao Yingman asked, "Where did you get your money? Was it all from investments?"
“Yes, right~” Fang Bai’s eyes curved into a smile, not understanding why Hao Yingman looked so surprised.
Although Fang Bai gave all of the original owner's assets to Ji Yuning, and even left a portion of the money he had earned from previous investments to Ji Yuning, she has made enough money to live on over the years through investments.
Hao Yingman said with genuine envy, "I wish I had your brains."
Fang Bai chuckled. "Who called me a pig-brain last time?"
Hao Yingman gave her a look that said, "You're my ancestor, I wouldn't dare say that."
There was a three-second silence around them.
Fang Bai asked softly, "You won't blame me for refusing to meet with the people from FJ, will you?"
Fang Bai briefly repeated the contents of the call to Hao Yingman.
"Huh?" Hao Yingman asked in confusion. "Why should I blame you? This is nothing, okay? Without you, I might not even have made this phone call. Besides, even if I fail, you'll still be there to support me."
By the end, Hao Yingman's face was full of smiles.
Just as Fang Bai was about to speak, a vibration came from the desktop.
Hao Yingman's gaze fell on Fang Bai's phone, looking at the pop-up message box: "Someone has added you."
Fang Bai clicked on it, glanced at the message, and said, "From FJ."
Hao Yingman rested her chin on her hand, "Why can't I just leave my number? Do I have to add you on WeChat?"
"That's how big companies treat their customers," Fang Bai said casually, tapping "accept" as a friend request.
The person on the other end seemed to have been waiting for Fang Bai's approval, and the message came through very quickly.
-:[Hello.]
-: [I'm the employee you spoke with today. You can call me Xiao Zhang. Hope I didn't bother you?]
They were quite polite.
Fang Bai: [Hello, no disturbance.]
-:[That's good.]
Fang Bai thought the conversation would end there, since adding friends was only for work purposes, and they generally didn't chat much; they would only send messages when there were work-related issues.
Just as Fang Bai was about to put down his phone and continue eating, another message came from the other end.
-: [Your profile picture is cute.]
Fang Bai raised an eyebrow.
Her profile picture is a photo of Beibei, taken before she left.
Fang Bai looked at Xiao Zhang's profile picture, but because the picture was too small, he couldn't see it clearly. He could vaguely guess that it was a cat in the white background.
Fang Bai opened Xiao Zhang's page.
The first thing she saw was Xiao Zhang's WeChat ID, a very long string of numbers, which was the original number after registering WeChat.
After lingering for two seconds, Fang Bai looked at Xiao Zhang's profile picture.
She wasn't wrong; Xiao Zhang's profile picture was indeed a cat. The cat was facing away from the camera, as if it had been secretly photographed while eating.
Unlike Beibei... Xiao Zhang's cat is very fat.
Fang Bai smiled: [Thank you, yours too.]
-: [It's too fat.]
-: [Like a pig.]
To the point.
Actually, when Fang Bai zoomed in on the profile picture and realized it really was a cat, that's what he thought too.
Fang Bai couldn't help but glance at Xiao Zhang's profile picture again.
It's very impolite, but... the more I look at it, the more it resembles it.
Fang Bai couldn't help but chuckle softly.
Hearing the laughter, Hao Yingman looked up at Fang Bai's smile and subconsciously asked, "What are you laughing at?"
Fang Bai raised his eyes slightly, then his gaze fell back on his phone. "The person who added me is quite cute."
Hao Yingman became interested and reached out to Fang Bai, "Let me see."
Fang Bai handed the phone to Hao Yingman.
Hao Yingman spent about ten seconds reading through their brief conversation, then asked, slightly puzzled, "...Where do you see cuteness?"
As Hao Yingman handed the phone back to Fang Bai, she commented, "Isn't this just a casual chat with you?"
Taking the phone, Fang Bai looked at Xiao Zhang's profile picture and said softly, "The cat is cute, okay?"
A minute later, Xiao Zhang sent another message to Fang Bai.
-: [Excuse me, Miss Fang, when are you leaving Nancheng?]
-: [If time isn't an issue, we might meet.]
Fang Bai: [Tomorrow.]
After the message was sent, Xiao Zhang replied almost two minutes later.
-:[OK.]
Fang Bai finished his porridge.
She figured Xiao Zhang wouldn't ask anything more, so she got up to wash the dishes.
But Hao Yingman picked up the bowl first, saying, "If you eat my food, you have to do the work. I'll wash it."
Fang Bai didn't stand on ceremony with Hao Yingman, "Then don't break the bowl."
Hao Yingman rolled her eyes at Fang Bai.
Just then, the phone rang again.
Fang Bai looked down and saw a new message from Xiao Zhang.
-: [I also worked in the southern part of the city before, and I lived in the Huaxi District back then. I still miss it.]
-: [Do you know there's a park near Huaxi?]
Fang Bai's eyelashes fluttered.
Is this... a casual chat with her?
Fang Bai: [I'm not sure, I'm in the Central China region.]