Chapter 105

Chapter 105

Now, there was no Qin Song here anymore. There was only Wang Hai.

But as you know, Qin Song and Wang Hai were the same person. He had simply changed his name.

So in the rest of the story, I’ll still call him “Qin Song.” That way, it’ll be easier for you to follow.

Qin Song lived with his wife and child in a residential complex in Mingdu. It was far from the city center, remote and quiet – the sort of place suited for retirement.

His wife now, however, was no longer He Qian. Her name was Li Juan.

If He Qian’s looks could be described as utterly ordinary, then Li Juan was somewhat plain.

She had a large, smooth forehead, and an old-fashioned pair of black-framed glasses sat on the bridge of her flat nose. She did not have much hair, which she tied into a thin ponytail at the back of her head.

Qin Song was no longer a company owner. He worked as a security guard at a hotel.

That day, as the shift was changing, the girl at the front desk called out to him again.

“Brother Hai, wanna go 857 after work?”

Qin Song knew that 857 meant going to a nightclub to dance. Young people these days all liked saying it that way.

He didn’t like places like that, so he waved her off. “I have to go home and look after my kid.”

The girl pouted. “Fine. I’ll ask someone else later!”

Qin Song didn’t know the girl’s full name, but everyone called her Huahua, so he did too.

She was the type who treated everyone like an old friend. She hadn’t been working there long before she had gotten along with every employee in the hotel, Qin Song included.

Qin Song was quiet and reserved, and never chatted with anyone for no reason. Every day, he kept his uniform neat, clocked in and out with his employee badge exactly as required, strictly followed the shift handover procedure, and never left his post without permission.

Huahua was different. As long as there was anyone other than her at the front desk, she could always find a way to leave her post.

Still, even when she left, she would not run out of the hotel. She simply wandered around inside, chatting with people.

She was on very familiar terms with everyone. One of the cleaning aunties had even brought her several jars of homemade chili sauce and tried to introduce her son as a potential boyfriend.

Huahua happily accepted the cleaning auntie’s chili sauce and politely declined the application to become her daughter-in-law.

Whenever she had nothing to do, Huahua would wander around with an iPad in her arms. She often came to chat with Qin Song too.

At first, Qin Song did not want to bother with her.

Ever since the incident with Huang Yuanrui, he had become a different person.

He was extremely resistant to talking to young, pretty women again. He was afraid of even the slightest hint of ambiguity arising between him and any woman outside his marriage. And he had never smoked another cigarette since.

He knew this was a kind of psychological illness. The formal term seemed to be something like traumatic stress response, but he did not want to look into it, nor did he dare to.

He had never once seen a therapist. It was a classic case of avoiding treatment out of fear.

But Huahua kept pestering him gently and persistently. Over time, Qin Song began to occasionally exchange a few words with her. Later, the two of them talked more and more.

Huahua loved talking about all sorts of things. She talked to the old doorman about growing flowers and rolling bead bracelets in the hand, to the cleaning aunties about family gossip, to male coworkers her age about soccer stars and the Switch, and to female coworkers her age about makeup, outfits, celebrity gossip…

Qin Song did not see her as a woman in that sense. He did not sense in her the ambiguous quality he resisted, and because of that, he was more able to open up to her.

Huahua had once secretly told Qin Song that she had not actually come here to work in the first place.

Puzzled, Qin Song asked, “Then what did you come here for?”

While eating a chocolate stick, Huahua said, “My mom and our hotel’s owner are good friends. I just came here to find something to do.”

Qin Song said, “Sounds like your family is pretty well-off. Why not do something else? Why be a front desk clerk here?”

Huahua said, “It’s a long story.”

Qin Song said, “Then make it short.”

Huahua smiled mysteriously. She said, “Actually, I’m a webnovel author. My pen name is Huahua Xiao Saozi.”

Qin Song frowned. “What an awful name.”