I ran a couple of steps, and just then the person stopped and turned to throw something into the trash can. That's when I realized I'd made a mistake; it wasn't him. Sigh, how many times has this happened? This is the sixth time in the past few months that I've neurotically followed someone like this.
Xia Mengmeng caught up with me and asked, "What's wrong? Did you run into someone you know?"
"Oh, no, I thought there was money to pick up ahead, but someone else took it." I smiled.
As soon as we sat down in the restaurant, Xia Mengmeng, without even ordering, eagerly asked me about my life over the past year. I gave her a brief overview, but for her overactive gossipy nature, my simple explanation was far from sufficient.
"So Yin Tianyu hasn't come to see you in the past few months? Not even a phone call? That's unusual for him."
"No, I didn't." I took a sip of my coffee, trying to hide the dejection in my eyes. "Can you please stop bringing this up? Even though I sold him out, I still feel embarrassed that he hasn't come back to bother me."
"You deserve it. Is money really that important to you?" Xia Mengmeng was so indignant that she almost hit me. "You ungrateful woman. Unsatisfied people will be punished by heaven."
"You're confusing things. What's important to me isn't money, but making money. Maybe, perhaps, it would be best if I were forced to make a lot of money, and then be crushed by it."
"Keep being stubborn. One day you'll realize what you've missed this time. Don't make me want to cry in your arms, saying you've had a long, sleepless night."
"Fine, I won't borrow from you. I knew borrowing from you was harder than robbing a bank."
The ringing of her phone temporarily stopped Xia Mengmeng from arguing with me. She glanced at the number: "It's my husband." Then she immediately leaned her upper body against the armrest of her seat with a charming air: "Hey, HENY, where are you?" My scalp tingled, and I grabbed the menu and threw it at her.
"My husband wanted to come see you, but I didn't agree. I haven't finished questioning you yet," Xia Mengmeng said to me reluctantly after hanging up the phone about twenty minutes later.
"Do you call him 'old man' even in front of your husband?"
"Come on, she's a Canadian citizen of Chinese descent, how can she be so old-fashioned?"
"Please, if you keep making those moaning noises like you're in bed with me, I'm taking all of this year's advertising budget out of your company!" I said fiercely.
Xia Mengmeng quickly changed the subject: "Hey, think about it, you have no cops, no plates, all you think about is how to make money. Okay, even if you're lucky, at your current rate of development, by the time you actually make money, you'll be in your seventies or eighties. Who will want you then? Everyone will be surrounded by children and grandchildren, and you'll be left as a lonely old lady with a lot of money, all alone. When you die, no one will even be there to see you off, let alone ask if you're well." Xia Mengmeng spoke with great enthusiasm, as if she were watching me die stiff on the luxurious bed covered in maggots, her face full of disgust.
"It's okay, I'm already used to lying in bed every day and luring mosquitoes in a position that's meant to attract men."
Xia Mengmeng's expressive face froze, which was really funny.
"By the way, when did you leave Zhengdong?" I asked Xia Mengmeng while picking up some food.
"You're alright, you just turned around and disappeared, leaving me with a mountain of romantic entanglements to clean up. First, I went with Yin Tianyu to several places looking for you, but we couldn't find you. Finally, we went to your mother's house. Because Yin Tianyu was afraid of scaring your mother, he wouldn't let me say anything, just pretending to be on a business trip delivering some things home for you, hoping to find a loophole and get some cash from you. In the end, all I got was a good meal and drinks. As soon as I got back to Guangzhou, General Manager Lin interrogated me thoroughly, and even condescended to ask me for money several times." She tried to trick me into talking during dinner, to see if I genuinely didn't know where I'd gone. Then Miss Joyce found out, and for some reason, she started making things difficult for me under various pretexts, even withholding my attendance bonus. She claimed someone had revealed that my attendance card was being used by Huang Tou. Damn it! In a fit of anger, I quit my job. Then, by some twist of fate, I ended up applying for a job at Shengshi, and ended up marrying someone else! Hahaha.” Xia Mengmeng laughed heartlessly, and I quickly buried my head, not wanting her to see my tears.
This was the first time in so long that someone had mentioned Willson's name to my face. Surprisingly, I didn't feel a jolt of excitement at all. It was as if I were just reciting a tourist attraction from a long time ago—completely calm and unperturbed. What saddened me was that for so long, I had been showing myself my bleeding wounds late at night, flaunting my pride, courage, stubbornness, and strength. In reality, my selfishness and insatiable greed had caused such profound and real harm to the innocent people around me—something I had never anticipated.
"I'm sorry." I could no longer hide it, and tears streamed down my face.
Xia Mengmeng's loud laughter abruptly stopped in the air; every time I burst into tears in front of her, it terrified her. She patted my back forcefully as she said urgently, "No, no, I'm not blaming you. I'm so grateful to you! If it weren't for you, my husband and I don't know when we'd ever meet again. If you really feel sorry for me, go find Yin Tianyu and live a good life. Don't keep going like this, neither human nor ghost... Oh, sorry, did I pat you a little too hard?"
What nonsense! She didn't just "slapped me a little too hard," she practically paid for someone's life! I felt like my lungs were being ripped out of my chest by those slaps!
I coughed violently and shook my head, finally managing to find a sliver of fresh oxygen in my twisted lungs so I could speak again: "That's why I absolutely cannot drag Yin Tianyu into this."
I repeated what Yin Tianyu's father had said to Xia Mengmeng, who said dismissively, "Why bother with that old fox? As long as Yin Tianyu is determined, that's all that matters. Is the old man really going to stage a scene where he's severing ties with his son? Yin Tianyu is an only child. If he's going to take his clothes off like that, then he'll really be stripping down to his underwear too."
"Could you possibly keep a little distance from the lower half of a person's body when you speak?" I rolled my eyes in exasperation.
"That's how it is," Xia Mengmeng muttered reluctantly.
“I don’t think I have the ability to be an enemy of a family. I am even less willing for Yin Tianyu to be separated from his family because of me. I don’t want his marriage to be unblessed by his elders because of me.”
"You idiot, you care so much about his gains and losses, you've actually fallen for Yin Tianyu, haven't you?" Xia Mengmeng pressed on relentlessly.
"I really don't know." This question made me feel a little confused and heavy; I didn't feel ready to bear this weight.
"It's really bad luck for Yin Tianyu to run into an idiot like you." Xia Mengmeng sighed, unusually without using her usual arrogant Taiwanese accent. I silently chanted a Buddhist prayer.
Part Two, Chapter Twenty-Three
In fact, the opening was imminent, and new situations kept arising. I was even cutting back on sleep whenever possible, but my mind was incredibly sharp. This saved me time from overthinking, though. I was busy until late every night, then collapsed into bed and went straight to sleep. Time flew by. Today was the first day the flower ordering service officially launched, and I didn't sleep well all night. Before dawn, I rushed to the office and reviewed all the previous work. The smell of gunpowder made me feel a little more at ease. I glanced at my watch—twenty minutes to nine, almost time for work. I grabbed a quick breakfast near the company before pretending to have just arrived and walked back. I didn't want others to see that their leader was just as nervous as they were.
Everyone's face was tense, and they all crowded in front of the large screen in the reception hall to wait. The atmosphere in the hall was so tense that a single spit could cause a huge flood.
I sat alone in my office, practicing my calligraphy with a fountain pen very diligently.
At 9:05, the call center was completely silent.
9:32~ We received the first call, asking if we had any boxed lunches available for delivery at noon.
At 10:00, we received a second call asking if we needed an advertising invoice.
Shan Jie couldn't help but rush into my office: "Boss, no, I'm starting to feel something's wrong. This morning, as soon as I went out, I saw a black dog. It's so unlucky. This is not a good omen."
I burst out laughing: "Do you need to ask your dog's permission before you get married? Stop spouting nonsense, or I'll dock your sorghum rations. What goes around comes around, don't worry, you'll see in half an hour." With that, I ignored him and calmly continued writing. Shan Jie looked at me with a skeptical expression, shook his head, and just before my pen slipped from my hand due to sweat, he left. I secretly glanced at my watch: 10:10.
At 10:17, the phone rang again in the lobby. Shan Jie said first, "If it's someone trying to sell something again, I'll just reach over the phone and rip their tongue out."
The operator ignored him and answered the call herself. Suddenly, a red dot lit up on the electronic screen for the Tianhe District, indicating someone was alone. Everyone froze for more than half a minute before reacting, letting out a scream and huddling together. Then, the telephones in the lobby rang incessantly.
Dan Jie and his friends rushed into my room, laughing and talking noisily, making it impossible to understand a single word. I finally managed to vaguely make out what they were saying. I was amazed; how could I have known we'd find out in half an hour?
"Get out of here! You think this is all? You've only taken a few orders and you're acting like you've already wiped out Gates. Go do what you're supposed to do, especially Liu Yiming. If a customer complains too much and you don't receive the goods, you'll be coming to see me with your head."
I've never seen anyone so shameless, still laughing even after being scolded. Watching them swagger away, laughing and joking, I closed my eyes with a headache: "These idiots, how come they didn't even consider that the earliest the morning paper reaches readers is 10 o'clock?"
Things seemed to be going smoothly. The longer the order period, the cheaper the price. Ordering three months' worth of flowers at once was cheaper than buying them at the market, and they guaranteed daily delivery as fresh as milk. The logistics control was particularly impressive; in just a few months, business volume had doubled compared to our expectations. I finally breathed a sigh of relief, looked out the window, and saw a clear, azure sky—it was already autumn. In my ridiculously empty closet, there were at least three long scarves, probably my most extravagant and useless items. I love wearing long scarves in this season, using them to feel the intense, pervasive scent of autumn. Perhaps only in this season do I still have some womanly desires.
Before I could even finish lost in thought, Shan Jie strode in. "Boss, I have an idea..." Sigh, I'm increasingly convinced that the office door is a rather wasteful decoration.
“Many elderly women in Guangzhou are superstitious and will put up memorial tablets or Guanyin statues at home. We can try to attract this group of customers and offer a special package for gladioli and chrysanthemums.”