CH 9

The sidewalk outside the hospital was very narrow, and Tang Yi walked extremely slowly, following the road from the sidewalk up to the driveway, then woodenly crossing the driveway in front of a line of speeding cars, all the way to a bridge of unknown name.

The flowing water under the bridge was very quiet, illuminated by colourful neon lights, quite a bit of a sight of prosperity and extravagance.

He raised his hands and rubbed his temples, and took two more slow breaths.

He couldn’t say where his body hurt; maybe it didn’t hurt, it was just uncomfortable. Everywhere was uncomfortable, his pores were permeated with displeasure and suffocation.

He walked back and forth on the bridge twice, then suddenly jumped up and kicked the guardrail hard. When a painful numbness spread from his ankle and calf, Tang Yi closed his eyes and cursed, “Fuck!”

The first time he saw Gu Yanting was on a bridge, and now he had broken up with him on a bridge, what a fucking coincidence. Tang Yi leaned against the railing for a long time before letting out a deep sigh.

He had been using all his free time to earn money since primary school. There were more than a few well-meaning neighbours, but they were ordinary people living on a tight budget. So he took advantage of the time off from school to work in the vanilla bean factory in the next village.

Children could only do the work of cutting beans. The fresh bean pods were soaked in salt water in a row of large tanks more than a human high. After they were soaked enough, the boss would fish them out and distribute them to the people waiting for work in a small shed. Each person was assigned a small table with a blade placed on it. Tang Yi and others took the large exposed tips of the beans and sliced them with the blade.

The price for slicing with a single blade was not the same as for slicing with a double blade. And the job was all about quantity, with wages settled by the pound.

Most of the people doing this job were old ladies from the village. They worked quickly, and it didn’t take long for their gloved hands to get up and down the sack. Tang Yi was in a hurry, afraid that he would be thrown out by the boss if he was slow, so he also sped up his movements and his white tender fingers would often accidentally press against the blade and leave a piece of flesh in a bloody mess.

The beans had salt grains on them, and the big tanks in which they were soaked would not be cleaned even once in many days. Tang Yi was nauseous from the musty and putrid smell of the beans in that shed, and his ten fingers were cut by the blade, but he had to endure it desperately for what seemed like a reasonable wage.

He had to…

Tang Yi, who was not yet ten years old at the time, thought that this was a compromise.

Yet nine times out of ten, things in life were not as good as they should have been. He had been working hard to get rid of the fate of being enslaved, repeatedly thinking of various ways to make money.

When he was young, he cut beans, peeled garlic cloves and glued chef’s hats. When he was older, he worked as a labourer moving bricks and sand. Later, when he started high school, he started to tutor others under the introduction of the teacher, and at the same time sell some learning materials by himself.

When he went to university, he had no way to earn for the time being. He went to the market to sell some small items, setting up a stall on the Yuelao Bridge in T City.

Then, in his freshman year, in the salty sea breeze he looked up and saw the smiling Gu Yanting.

Gu Yanting was walking slowly along the Yuelao Bridge with some of his classmates. It was not an exaggeration to say that the Yuelao Bridge that day was crowded. But Gu Yanting showed up with such an eye-catching look, his eyebrows so meaningful and profound, and he was really so handsome that he stood out from the crowd.

Tang Yi narrowed his eyes and thought: this man has a really nice smile. Then, his gaze gently fell on Gu Yanting’s worn shoes and his washed-out shirt.

A few years later the two of them met in an alumni group, and Tang Yi never said that he had actually had his heart set on this man since his freshman year.

He liked Gu Yanting, not because the latter was so outstanding, but because in the heart of the stall boy, the white shirt, washed to the point of wrinkling, was just the height he strove to climb to, and the man wearing the white shirt was just what he wanted.

Although nowadays, it seemed that the fate of that eye contact was a bit sinful; it took several years of hard work but in the end, both of them were so exhausted that they couldn’t even break up in peace.

The night breeze filled with the slight fishy smell of the water slowly swirled around. Tang Yi was stunned for a while longer before all his senses began to slowly return. He rubbed his face; remembering that he was still staying in Zhou Hao’s suite tonight, that he didn’t have the keys with him and that he had left his ID card and wallet at the hotel, he couldn’t help but sigh.

It was already midnight and there were not many taxis running on the road. There were motorcycles scurrying around, but for some reason, they took one look at him from afar and slipped away.

Tang Yi pinched his brow and looked around, thinking that it would be better to find an internet cafe or something to stay up all night than to go back and disturb other people’s sleep. When he looked up, he saw a black car parked across the road.

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The man in the driver’s seat had his head propped on his hand, and when he saw Tang Yi looking over, he waved.

It turned out to be Zhou Hao.

Tang Yi froze on this side of the bridge for a while before hurriedly finding a zebra crossing and walking over.

Zhou Hao waited in the car for a long time; when Tang Yi came over in a daze, he smiled and greeted him, “What a coincidence.”

What a coincidence to meet here in the middle of the night, quite a coincidence, damn it.

Tang Yi’s heart was shocked in every possible way. He looked at the road he walked from the hospital; it was quite a long section and he also took two turns. The point was, this direction seemed to be the opposite of the one to the hotel.

“It’s quite a coincidence,” Tang Yi coughed a little, met Zhou Hao’s smirking eyes and finally couldn’t help but ask, “Or… you didn’t leave?”

Zhou Hao raised his eyebrows and after a moment said with a smile, “No, I’ve been waiting for you.”

Been waiting? Why have you been waiting? How long have you been waiting?

Tang Yi didn’t dare to ask a single question. He knew he had just gotten a little emotional and had been wandering around outside for a long time. It would be okay if Zhou Hao just happened to meet him and waited for a while, but if he didn’t leave since he was in the hospital, it would be several hours.

Tang Yi didn’t believe that a boss would be considerate to his subordinate to such an extent.

Even with the addition of Zhou Weiwei’s affection, he didn’t dare to believe it. After all, even Zhou Weiwei’s mother had never seen Zhou Hao’s care.

But to say that Zhou Hao had some thoughts about him… Tang Yi dared not believe it even more. They only met for the second time today. What’s more, Zhou Hao was a man with a child.

Tang Yi sat on the passenger side and hesitated for a moment, but still expressed his thanks politely, “Thank you, Mr. Zhou.” After a moment, he added, “I’ve caused you a lot of trouble.”

Zhou Hao kept the pose of his arm propped up on the car window and only gave a low chuckle when he heard Tang Yi’s thanks. He didn’t say anything either.

He didn’t know what to say either.

He had guessed a bit about what had happened to Tang Yi at the hospital. Although he was too far away to hear the conversation between him and the man, the two big men, emotional to this extent, especially with Tang Yi looking like he had lost his soul after the incident… There must have been quite deep feelings, not ordinary deep.

Although Zhou Hao was inexperienced in this area, it didn’t mean that he didn’t understand anything.

When he realised that it was possible that Tang Yi liked men, he felt vaguely excited. When he looked at the other party again, he felt he needed to control himself a bit better not to do anything shocking.

For example, like pulling Tang Yi over and hugging him.

For example, like kissing, or better yet, like abducting someone from Zhou Weiwei’s little bed to his own big bed…

Tang Yi was still wearing his glasses, his face a little pale from the fever that had just subsided during the day, and he was leaning back in the seat like a sickly beauty.

Zhou Hao’s eyes skimmed over Tang Yi’s handsome, slightly furrowed brows, and when his gaze landed on the pair of phoenix eyes that seemed to be astringent, he felt his heart fluttering a few times restlessly.

He fiercely pressed down the corners of his mouth that tried to curl up and said quietly, “You’re welcome, I have nothing to anyway.”

It was a bit of a rarity that Zhou Hao had nothing to do.

Tang Yi smiled and didn’t say anything, and then the next morning, he learned that Zhou Hao had caught an early flight and left.

“Mr. Zhou asked me to tell Manager Tang that he’ll trouble him to take care of the child today.” Zhou Hao’s accompanying secretary stood respectfully at the door of the suite and said to Tang Yi. “He’s going to Shanghai. The return flight is in the afternoon, just in time for the party tonight if there are no delays.”

Tang Yi was still in his pyjamas and was about to shout at Zhou Weiwei to get up. When he heard this, he froze for a moment and suddenly said, “Such a tight schedule? Mr. Zhou is working too hard.”

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“Not really, he was originally going to be on last night’s flight,” said the secretary, “Mr. Zhou asked me to change the ticket on short notice.”

“What time was… last night?”

“At 22:50.”

That was exactly the time he was convulsing on the road.

Zhou Hao would have made it in time, wouldn’t he? But then he had to wait for him? All that time spent sitting there until after one in the morning?

Tang Yi stood still and frowned, and after a moment of silence, said in a calm tone, “I understand, thank you, Secretary Zhao.”

The secretary came over a bit late, just before the end of breakfast, which was a disguised way to remind Tang Yi to go and eat.

Tang Yi dug Zhou Weiwei out of his blanket and casually put on some clothes on him before carrying him to the restaurant.

There were surprisingly quite a few people in the restaurant. Tang Yi took a look around and saw that most of them were people from his own company.

There were five branches in ER, and T City was the smallest one. Although the business scope of each branch was different, as long as everyone got together, there would always be people who wanted to distinguish between high and low.

Some of the representatives from the branch offices, when they saw their colleagues from smaller places, looked at them down their noses. When Tang Yi went to such a meeting for the first time, someone even asked in surprise, “Hey, T City? Which province is it?”

Tang Yi didn’t care and didn’t want to make enemies for nothing, so he dismissed the person as a fart and passed by without even paying attention. Soon after that, someone remembered that there was a big marketing manager in T City.

Today he came in late and had a child with him, and immediately there were whispers. Tang Yi was a little startled and instantly understood that most of them had never seen Zhou Weiwei.

Zhou Weiwei was still not quite awake and was being held by Tang Yi, nuzzling his neck and calling out “Dad” in a daze. Tang Yi corrected him twice to no avail, so he put him in a visible position and quickly went to fetch the food.

Soon some unfamiliar colleague came over, “Manager Tang, long time no see!”

Tang Yi raised the plate in his hand, signalling that it was inconvenient to shake hands, “Hello.”

“Is that your child?” The visitor was here to gossip, asking with a smile, “You can’t really say it, Manager Tang is so young to be married and have a child!”

Tang Yi’s gaze moved slightly. Seeing a few people gathering and looking over here every now and then, he suddenly understood, shook his head and said, “I’m not married yet.”

“Ah… not yet!” The visitor froze for a moment. Seeing that Tang Yi had already turned away, his gaze flickered for a moment and then he turned around and walked back to the gang.

Tang Yi was a bit worried that the child stayed by himself. From a distance, he saw Zhou Weiwei’s little head knocking on the table, and he couldn’t help but feel a little funny. He hurriedly picked out some things that the child could digest and brought them over.

Zhou Weiwei was not awake, was miserable and didn’t want to eat.

Tang Yi patiently coaxed him, and just after coaxing him to eat a bite of bread, he saw a man sit down opposite him, from the bunch of guys just now.

“Hey, you’re a good boy, what’s your name?” The man smiled and reached out to touch Zhou Weiwei’s head. Zhou Weiwei leaned back and avoided it.

Tang Yi was a bit annoyed by these people who spied on others at every turn and then gossiped. The other party’s insistence especially made him frown.

“Little friend, why is it just your dad here, where’s your mom?”

Tang Yi had just said that he wasn’t married, and this person came to ask Zhou Weiwei about his mother in a mocking tone. Zhou Weiwei was already upset about his mother not wanting him; Tang Yi’s face darkened as he was about to get angry.

Before he could say anything, he felt Zhou Weiwei burrow into his arms and suddenly say in a milky voice, “Susu, I have a grandfather who lived a long life!”

“Huh?” The other party was taken aback for a moment, wondering if the child hadn’t understood his question, so he asked smoothly, “Really?”

“Yes!” Zhou Weiwei tilted his head, blinked and said, “Do you know why?”

“Uh… why?”

“Because Grandpa always minds his own business!” Zhou Weiwei’s wake-up anger had finally found its preferred outlet. The tiger-headed child, surprisingly, already had the shadow of Zhou Hao’s cold and stern persona in him.

He pursed his little mouth, frowned and wrinkled his nose as he shouted at the person across the table, “Bah!”