Chapter 2

Chapter 2

All evening, Qian Yu talked my ear off, saying I’d been blinded by a pretty face, saying someone like Lu Boya used his looks to fleece people and had brainwashing tactics on par with a pig-butchering scam.

“If he’s with me, it can only be for money?” I asked.

“What else would it be for?” Qian Yu scoffed.

“Is there any chance it could be for love?” I asked, with complete sincerity.

Qian Yu silently downed two glasses of red wine, ignored me, then got up to go clink glasses with other people.

The private room was hazy with cigarette smoke. I held my wineglass too, taking small sips.

Once a project started, every side had to be smoothed over and taken care of. Drinking-table culture was unavoidable.

I didn’t like drinking, but for occasions like this, you had to drag someone in as cannon fodder. As my partner, Qian Yu had never turned down work so perfectly suited to his professional skill set.

When the meal was over, a few old acquaintances exchanged looks, then smiled at me. “President Xu, shall we move on to the next round?”

“Like the good stuff at the next round would ever be her turn?” Qian Yu said with a grin. “You’re pitching to the wrong person. Look over here. Look at me. I’ve been waiting for the next round all night!”

“Singing, foot massages, having some fun. In this day and age, as long as you’ve got money, any venue can take good care of any gender. How about it, President Xu? Come relax with us?”

I set down my glass and smiled openly. “Someone at home keeps me in line, so I really won’t go. Qian Yu will go with you. Drinking, singing, foot massages-whatever it is, just remember one thing: do me a favor and put it all on my tab. Don’t even think about saving me money!”

With a bit of joking around, I sent the whole group off in high spirits. Before they left, I lowered my voice and said to Qian Yu, “Have fun, but the real business…”

“Don’t worry.” Qian Yu smiled. “When have I ever messed up anything important?”

We hadn’t treated them for nothing. The equipment, instruments, and materials needed for the project all depended on these partners. Not a single item could go wrong. One mistake, one day’s delay, and the losses wouldn’t be anything a dinner like this could compare to.

I smiled as I saw them leave with their arms slung over each other’s shoulders, then let out a soft breath and rubbed my face.

Toasting back and forth, chasing profit, vulgar and worldly-becoming a slick, greasy person of business.

Did I hate myself like this?

…Apparently not.

It was strange. I knew full well that I was a total commoner, a tacky contractor, and from the bottom of my heart I admired Lu Boya’s purity and elegance. Yet somehow, I didn’t hate myself.

I paid the taxes I owed. I did the good deeds I should do. Beyond that, making money wasn’t anything to be ashamed of!

Say what you would, when it came to optimism, I had to hand it to myself.

Something cool touched my face. I looked up. Sunan’s rainy season was like that-it started whenever it wanted.

Braving the light rain, I walked toward the parking spot while searching on my phone for a designated driver.

The signal was poor and the page wouldn’t load. On top of that, because it was rush hour, the parking spot was in a remote corner. As I kept walking, I somehow went from the hotel to… a bar just one alley away.

With my head lowered, looking at my phone, I walked straight into a human wall.

“I’m sorry!” As I apologized, I instinctively reached out to steady the other person, then froze. “Yi Lin?”

Yi Lin, already drunk enough to sway all over the place, narrowed her eyes at me. “Xu Li!”

Those two words sounded like they had been forced out from between her clenched molars.

I looked at her complexion and clicked my tongue. “How much did you drink? You’re wasted.”

Her face was flushed, and her eyes were threaded with red. She could barely stand, wobbling crookedly, her high heels clacking against the ground. As she swayed from side to side, the sound rang out crisply.

“None of your business!” Yi Lin shoved me away with no small amount of force, and her whole body tipped backward.

“Careful!” I grabbed her arm and pulled her back, saying helplessly, “It’s not a holiday tomorrow. Aren’t you afraid drinking like this will affect your work?”

“Affect… what else can it affect!” Yi Lin was both furious and heartbroken, glaring at me. “They’re already going to withdraw the investment… I spent two months preparing in Hong Kong… then came all the way here… the design drawings… I revised them. Eighteen… eighteen versions! Eighteen versions! The bid is about to start, about to start! And now he wants to withdraw the investment? …What did I do all this for? I-what gives him the right? What gives him the right!”

Take my advice: never try to chat with a drunk. They’re too wasted to think straight, and you’ll be too confused to understand.

Completely lost, I held on to Yi Lin and asked, “What investment withdrawal? Who wants to withdraw?”

“Lu Boya!” Yi Lin shouted, then swung her bag hard, smashing it toward the wall. “Bastard!”

“No, no, no-”

To save that innocent Louis Vuitton, I had no choice but to go from holding her back to wrapping an arm around her.

With one arm around a beautiful woman and one hand clutching a designer bag, I sighed. “From secret crush to bastard-love and hate really are only one thought apart.”

Then I turned serious and looked at the furious, trembling Yi Lin. “So, you and Lu Boya are business partners?”

My guess was that it was probably similar to my relationship with Qian Yu.

We each had our own piece of the pie, but we also had some investments in each other’s work. Our interests were tied together, making it a win-win partnership.

Yi Lin didn’t answer me. Her shoulders hunched tight, her head lowered, and her long curls fell messily over half her face.

A moment later, she began to sob softly.

Me: “!”

Greasy old me feared nothing more than tears.

Unconditional surrender. Unconditional defeat. Yes, yes, yes, you’re right, you’re absolutely right.

I slung her bag across my shoulder, wrapped one arm around her, and used the other to wipe at her face in a panic. “Even if the sky falls, you figure out a way to deal with it. What good is drinking yourself stupid? Crying is even more useless!”

“Don’t touch me!” Yi Lin said, her voice thick with tears, shaking her head back and forth.

She was already this drunk, and now she was shaking her head around too. Congratulations, she’d successfully turned the contents of her skull into a cocktail.

She got even drunker.

“All right, all right,” I softened my voice and wiped away her tears. “Stop crying. A beautiful woman like you sobbing in the middle of the street-people are going to think I’m bullying you. Don’t cry, don’t-”

I suddenly let out a “huh” and pinched something between two fingers. “What’s this?”

Yi Lin looked at it through her tears, then stamped her foot in fury. “My false eyelash!”

That stomp caused a whole new disaster.

Snap.

The tall, thin heel of her shoe broke.

Half of Yi Lin’s body collapsed sideways.

“Ah!” she cried out sharply.

I hadn’t expected that either. Caught off guard, I failed to react in time.

Yi Lin landed hard on the ground. She stopped crying. She’d been stunned stupid by the fall.

I came back to my senses and hurriedly pulled her up. “Are you okay?”

Yi Lin stared blankly. As I helped her to her feet, her brows suddenly pinched together. “It hurts!”

“Where? Where does it hurt?” I held her steady and looked her over. “Your butt?”

“No,” Yi Lin said, her face twisted in pain. “My foot! My foot hurts.”

That night, Yi Lin lost her business partner, her false eyelash, the heel of her high heel, and her physical health.

She’d sprained her ankle.

Her ankle swelled into a bun right before my eyes.

I looked around. “There’s a hospital about a kilometer past that road. I’ll help you over.”

Maybe because the pain was so bad, she’d sobered up a little. Yi Lin pulled her arm back and bit her lip. “I’ll call an ambulance myself.”

“You sprained your ankle. You didn’t break a bone. It’s so close, there’s no need to call an ambulance.”

I tried to reason with her earnestly. “Really, trust me. Sprains aren’t rare on construction sites. Yours isn’t that serious. Medical resources should be saved for people who actually need them.”

Yi Lin wiped the tear tracks from her face herself and ignored me, limping forward.

“I’ll help you.” I followed her.

“No need!” She shoved me.

“Don’t try to tough it out…”

“Get lost!”

“Your foot really can’t-”

“Don’t touch me!”

“Can you act normal for one second?” I finally lost my patience and shouted at her.

Under her slightly stunned gaze, I snapped, “This is a public street, not your own private little kingdom where a stubborn mule like you can take root, sprout, and bloom from the top of your head. You’re drunk out of your mind and you sprained your ankle. It’s my bad luck I ran into you. If you can get to the hospital by yourself, I’ll write the word ‘respect’ for you in big, bold letters. But if something happens to you, whose responsibility is it?”

“Whosever it is, it won’t be yours!” the stubborn mule shot back, still unconvinced.

I was so angry I laughed. “If I’d walked away the moment I saw you, then sure, it wouldn’t be my responsibility. But now we’ve been tangled up together for more than ten minutes. Maybe you can explain it away, but I sure as hell won’t be able to clear my name.”

“Then what do you want?” The stubborn mule’s eyes started reddening again.

“I know you want to cry, but hold it in for now!” I grabbed her and glared. “Once I get you to the hospital and hand you over to a doctor, with the security cameras confirming you’re there in one piece, whether you live or die has nothing to do with me. After that, do whatever you want. I won’t bother caring.”

The stubborn mule was angry and in pain, in pain and angry. She wasn’t as strong as me and couldn’t outargue me, so in the end, she could only let me support her in frustration, reluctantly inching forward.

Her injured foot couldn’t take any weight at all, and her uninjured foot was still trapped in a seven-centimeter heel.

After we crossed the road, she angrily kicked off both shoes.

Walking barefoot, tiny stones cut several wounds into the soles of her feet.

I saw it clearly, and I felt helpless as hell.

When the hospital building finally came into view in the distance, I glanced at the fine sweat on Yi Lin’s forehead and the knot between her brows that wouldn’t loosen no matter what.

Forget it. Just forget it.

I asked her, “Does it hurt?”

“No.” Yi Lin’s voice was trembling.

“It probably hurts a lot,” I said. “When I was a teenager, I went to construction sites to carry bricks. And I mean actually carry bricks. Back then, I didn’t know how to do anything else, and I wasn’t that strong. I got by on sheer willpower. If the adults carried ten bricks, I carried ten too… I was trying to act tough, and I ended up paying for it. A brick smashed the top of my foot. It hurt like hell, but I still walked to the clinic one step at a time.”

“Was your sprain… as bad as mine?” Yi Lin asked dully.

“It wasn’t a sprain.” I laughed. “Me? I had three bones in my foot smashed broken.”

Yi Lin abruptly stopped and looked at me.

I was still smiling at her. “No one helped me. Everyone was busy making money. I felt wronged too. I even asked myself, couldn’t someone help me up? Couldn’t someone give me a hand? Was there not a single good person around? But good people still have families to feed. They still have to survive. They still have to… have the means before they can help others. I think right now, I do have the means. In every way. I can be a really, really good person.”

“What do you mea-ah!” Yi Lin cried out.

I scooped her up in one swift motion, easy as anything. “Let me say this first: don’t squirm. I’m strong, but I’m not a weightlifter. A fifty-kilogram sandbag, I can carry maybe eight hundred meters tops. You must be a hundred kilos, right?”

“What nonsense are you talking about!” Yi Lin panicked.

“A hundred kilos is fine too,” I said with a laugh as I walked. “Girls are pretty when they’re skinny, and pretty when they’re chubby. As long as you’re healthy, you look good.”

Yi Lin’s foot hurt too much for her to struggle, so she could only say anxiously, “Don’t carry me like this… I’m… I’m not used to it!”

“Then you’d better get used to it,” I said, catching my breath. “You don’t get many chances to be a sandbag.”

I was strong and used to rough physical work, but carrying a grown woman over a long distance was still no easy task.

After a little over two hundred meters, I could feel a fine layer of sweat breaking out on my forehead.

Yi Lin stopped talking and just looked at me.

Seeing my breathing grow heavier and heavier, she hesitated for a long while before wrapping her arms around my neck.

That made things a little easier. I held my breath and strode into the hospital.

After setting Yi Lin down in a wheelchair, I rubbed my arms and, while drawing in a breath, said to the nurse, “She twisted her ankle, so she’ll need an X-ray. She also fell, so her lower limbs should probably all be checked. Her heel and the sole of her foot are scraped and need to be disinfected and bandaged. As for anything else…”

I looked at the silent Yi Lin. “If you’re uncomfortable anywhere else, make sure you tell the doctor clearly later. Best to get everything checked, so you can feel at ease. Oh, right.”

I turned back to the nurse. “She’s been drinking. If there are any exams she can’t do or medications she can’t take, please let the doctor know and keep an eye on that.”

After giving the instructions, I took out my phone, opened the camera, and aimed it at Yi Lin. “All right, let’s start.”

“What?” Yi Lin hesitated.

“Say that you arrived at the hospital in one piece and that your life isn’t in danger,” I paused, then grinned. “Even if it is later, it has nothing to do with me. Come on, I’ll record a video as evidence in case you try to scam me afterward. I’m a perfectly respectable person who drives a Land Rover. I can’t end up back where I was before hauling bricks overnight just because I helped you and carried you. Hurry up and say it!”

“Xu Li!” Yi Lin’s face flushed again, this time from anger.

Lu Boya said my most lethal skill was making people mad without even trying, but personally, I felt that if I really wanted to piss someone off, I could probably make them die of rage.

I burst out laughing without the slightest attempt to hide it. “I’m kidding!”

Yi Lin took two rough breaths. To my surprise, she didn’t snap back. She only stared at me.

I put my phone away and shook out my aching arms. “What a night… I’m not staying with you. Hire a caregiver yourself.”

“I know,” Yi Lin answered softly.

I smiled breezily. “I’m leaving, then!”

“Wait!” Yi Lin called after me. The look in her eyes was extremely complicated, but her voice had softened. “Thank you.”

“Mm!” I smiled.

After leaving the hospital, I found a convenience store, bought a pair of slippers, called a delivery runner, and left Yi Lin’s number.

I had no intention of hiding my chance encounter with Yi Lin from Lu Boya.

Since I was going to tell him, I had to lay it all out, thoroughly and clearly.

That was the kind of person I was. Fortunately, Lu Boya was the same.

And so, I got the complete cause, process, and outcome-in simple terms, in order to avoid suspicion and draw a clear line between himself and Yi Lin, Lu Boya had ruthlessly put an end to the collaboration that was already halfway underway.

Professor Lu was someone who did mathematical research. When it came to words, he was harshly economical: the fewer, the better.

[Lu Boya]: I won’t use the name of collaboration to respond ambiguously.

[Lu Boya]: End the collaboration. Both sides are even.

[Lili Yuanshang]: Actually, I trust you to keep things straight. Work is work, feelings are feelings.

[Lu Boya]: It is precisely because you trust me that I don’t want to let you down.

Emmm… My face was getting a little hot!

Hugging my phone, I rolled over under the covers. After giggling happily to myself for a while, I finally replied, delighted: “We’re all adults. We should make decisions based on our careers and not be hopelessly romance-brained. We need to broaden our horizons, Professor!”

[Lu Boya]: I am narrow-minded and short-sighted. People of the opposite sex who are not my girlfriend may be cordial colleagues, old acquaintances, or classmates, but they will never be friends, much less special friends with intertwined interests-this is a basic logical definition, requiring no proof or elaboration. I have sole interpretive authority over this matter and accept no objections.

[Lu Boya]: (I’m going to confess.jpg) (launching hearts.jpg) (love you love you.jpg)

Pfft!

I curled up like a shrimp, hugged my blanket, and laughed for ages.

Lu Boya was using more and more stickers, and he was getting more and more OOC, but somehow, that was exactly the kind of thing he would do.

I really, really liked him.