CH 33

Zhou Hao changed the lunch place to a porridge shop. Tang Yi had a hangover after the previous night and had not eaten breakfast when he woke up, so he just wanted a porridge to nourish his stomach.

Zhou Hao went to the ordering area and ordered two side dishes, and when he came back, he saw that the porridge had already been served. Tang Yi took the spoon and sipped it little by little, like a greedy cat craving for the hot fish.

Zhou Hao couldn’t help smiling and sat down on the opposite side of the table, “I didn’t expect you to like porridge.”

Tang Yi didn’t even raise his eyes. He focused on searching for the red dates in the porridge. He waited for a mouthful to go down before squinting in satisfaction and smiling, “I also didn’t expect that Mr. Zhou would come to the porridge shop for lunch.”

“What’s about it…” Zhou Hao knew Tang Yi was referring to the environment and took another look around.

The porridge shop was on Jiangning Road and had a large storefront, but two and more people together could only eat in the hall(1). In fact, most ordinary restaurants operated like this. Their private rooms had a limit on the number of people, too. When the cooking was good, the people who came to eat here would also mingle, politicians and businessmen, thugs and gangsters, all of them becoming ordinary diners once they entered the shop and few of them asking for something special.

Zhou Hao had invited Tang Yi to dinner before, but they always went to famous private or magnificent star-rated restaurants. Even if there were more grounded ones, they were usually opened by Zhou Hao’s friends or acquaintances. When they arrived, they didn’t have to wait for a seat and would just go directly to a specific private room to eat.

Tang Yi’s habits accumulated for many years were difficult to change. He never wanted to owe anything to anyone, keeping a clear account in his heart. Whenever Zhou Hao invited him or gave him something, Tang Yi would always do everything possible to invite or give him back. He had travelled all over the country over the years and had seen a lot, and the places he chose were extremely similar to the places Zhou Hao often visited. This surprised Zhou Hao and gave him a vague sense of like-mindedness and complacency.

However, he soon discovered that in fact, Tang Yi had little tolerance for venues like this one.

The only reason he would come and eat with you there calmly would be because he was embarrassed not to turn up for the appointment. Coming to a porridge shop like this was okay once in a while, but the slightly sticky floor under the feet and the table in water stains were still hard to ignore.

The content of the conversation between the two of them was still business. Tang Yi was a little full after eating the porridge. He poked the fish in the bowl with his chopsticks and said thoughtfully: “This time, the pre-sales research and risk assessment of the Huayuan project were done by the parent company. I wonder if Yan Ke has re-checked it. I don’t know what the problem with this kid is recently.”

Zhou Hao glanced up at him, “What kind of problem?” 

“It’s hard to say, but such mistakes really shouldn’t be made. I’m very disappointed.” Tang Yi sighed, “I read his CV when he joined the company. Like mine, both parents dead. Although he was raised by his uncle’s family, I’m afraid he suffered a lot. Therefore, I subconsciously favoured him. It’s true that he’s done well in the last few years, but when I think about it, I think he’s lacking something…”

“It’s you who are too good, don’t put so much pressure on yourself.” Zhou Hao reached out helplessly and squeezed Tang Yi’s hand, smiled and said, “Are you free this weekend? Let’s go out and relax. You see, what boss is always holding his hand on the pulse like you? You are sitting in this position to command people. If people work well, use them, if they don’t work well, change them.”

He paused and suggested directly, “Weiwei hasn’t seen you for a long time. How about going to the amusement park?”

Tang Yi rarely refused anything involving Weiwei and he didn’t mind that Zhou Hao occasionally used Zhou Weiwei as a cover to ask him out, so he naturally agreed. Before leaving, he also confirmed whether the little guy had gotten any taller recently.

After the meal, Zhou Hao had other things to do, so Tang Yi went back to the company alone. After he reached the office building, a white car that had been following him slowly drove away.

Holding the steering wheel, Fat Sod glanced at the livid-faced Gu Yanting next to him.

Gu Yanting contacted Fat Sod as soon as he returned to T City and sincerely admitted his mistakes. The two of them had been separated for years and were happy to be reunited. After scolding Gu Yanting for a while, Fat Sod excitedly invited him to eat.

Today, both of them were free. They were going to the mutton restaurant on Jiangning Road to have mutton soup. Who knew that when they were almost there, Gu Yanting would suddenly have a fit, tapping on the window and asking Fat Sod to stop at the door of a porridge shop. After they stopped but Gu Yanting didn’t get out of the car, Fat Sod turned his head and looked around, only to find Tang Yi and another dignified man eating and drinking with a smile on their faces.

Tang Yi has helped Fat Sod several times in the past two years. Not long after Gu Yanting left, Fat Sod’s girlfriend who he was about to propose ran away with her ex. Before leaving she rewarded him with nine big words: “Old and ugly, with little money and many problems”. Fat Sod was so angry that his liver hurt. He was depressed for three days and was fired due to a mistake at work. At this low point of his life, Tang Yi fell from the sky and introduced him to the job of an assistant manager.

Later, he met his current wife through this job. After the flash marriage, she gave birth to a baby girl. The family loved each other wholeheartedly. Tang Yi rarely contacted Fat Sod but gave him a lot of imported diapers and baby formula. Since then, Fat Sod completely defected, classifying Gu Yanting and his ex-girlfriend as ”those not cherishing the people in front of them”.

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If it were in the past, seeing Tang Yi and another man having dinner so intimately, Fat Sod would have been outraged and would have fought for Gu Yanting. But now, as the general who defected, not only did he not say anything, he also happily tsk’ed at Gu Yanting.

“Hey, it’s Brother Tang! Who is that man? Very handsome! Hey, this demeanour… really incomparable to other people…”

Gu Yanting: “……”

When Tang Yi and the man came out and the latter went to pick up the car, Fat Sod followed Tang Yi according to Gu Yanting’s instructions, while twisting his head and making a lot of noise.

“Hey, the guy drives a Jaguar, ouch, fortunately, Brother Tang didn’t get in his car, or we wouldn’t be able to catch up on Benben… Hey Boss, do you think they are both wearing couple clothes? Why do I see them match?”

All suits are originally of a similar shape, and Tang Yi’s clothes and Zhou Hao’s were not of the same brand or colour scheme. Gu Yanting knew that Fat Sod was deliberately stabbing him. After a long silence, his patience that had been cultivated for two years finally was broken. He couldn’t help but reply, “Shut up!”

Fat Sod obediently shut up and didn’t speak again until Tang Yi entered the office building, but the expression on his face was still mostly gloating.

At this moment, the car stopped at the intersection. While waiting for the green light, Gu Yanting took a breath, pinched the bridge of his nose with his right hand for a while, and then tilted his head. Seeing that he was about to open his mouth, Fat Sod turned his head and pretended to look at the scenery outside the window.

Gu Yanting: “……”

“Okay, I’m already so annoyed you need to stop poking me in the lungs,” Gu Yanting sighed, raised his hand and pressed the back of it to his forehead, asking, “So, how has Tang Yi been these past two years?”

Fat Sod really didn’t know, but looking at how Tang Yi was getting richer and richer every year, it should be good. He thought for a while and replied honestly, “It should be very good. Since you broke up, Brother Tang is simply sailing along in his career day by day.”

Gu Yanting gave a bitter laugh. He was also doing well nowadays, and in reality probably made more money than Tang Yi. It was just that the thrill of his career success, which he had longed for day and night, was far less than the loss he felt after the two of them broke up.

After all, Fat Sod was still his brother, and seeing Gu Yanting like this, he couldn’t bear to throw another stone, so he slightly straightened up and spoke at the same time as he started driving with the green light, “Boss, did you come back to look for Brother Tang?”

Gu Yanting closed his eyes and replied after a long time, “No. ”

“Then that’s it. Since we are brothers, there are no taboos between us. Don’t resent me for what I say.” Fat Sod sighed, “When you two broke up, we were all shocked. Brother Tang was really treating you like a lord at the time, not to mention everything else. Whenever we brothers had a party, he would pick you up and sometimes even send us along. Brother Tang also cooked when we went to your house, would have fun with us for a few minutes and never talked much. Not saying anything, as soon as I got married I got the experience, there are few wives who can do these things!”

Gu Yanting raised his eyes, silent.

Fat Sod didn’t say anything, and the conversation made a beeline straight to the point, “But as soon as Lin Rui came back you two broke up. Not to mention others, even I think the problem must be with Lin Rui! In fact, I really wonder what’s so great about Lin Rui that you’re so devoted to him? Didn’t you know that Brother Tang had a problem with him? If you really didn’t know, forget it. But if you knew, what were you doing, always clinging to Lin Rui? Didn’t you ask for it? If you really want him, you should be more serious, ah! Break up and go after him, ah!”

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Fat Sod grunted and with a sudden jolt turned his head to look at Gu Yanting, “You didn’t really chase him in the past two years, did you?”

Gu Yanting’s face was pale as he was stabbed by Fat Sod repeatedly, but he didn’t get angry and shook his head.

“That’s it, go ahead and try.” The car turned back to Jiangning Road, and Fat Sod parked it at the door of the mutton restaurant, saying to Gu Yanting solemnly, “Brother Tang said that you broke up, then you broke up. Now, if there is a new object, it’s the way it should be. If you get involved, you are a third party. If you’re not sure of your own feelings and you mess people up, and then when Lin Rui comes back and you’ll kneel down in front of him stupidly again, then you’ll be scum.”

Fat Sod glanced at him coldly, “I refuse to be friends with scum. ”

After Fat Sod finished speaking, he went to eat the mutton soup refreshed and energised. Gu Yanting was silent all the time. It was only when Fat Sod settled the bill that he realised he had eaten all the scallions he was going to pick out and hadn’t even taken a sip of the soup.

When he hadn’t broken up with Tang Yi yet, Tang Yi would deliberately pick out the coriander and scallions for him. In the past two years, Gu Yanting lived alone, and it had long become a habit to pick these things out by himself. Who knew that a distraction upon his return to the old place would involve a lot more emotions.

When Gu Yanting waited for Fat Sod to come back and call him, he said absent-mindedly, “I never thought about chasing Lin Rui, nor did I think about being with him. It was never a consideration from the beginning to the end.”

Fat Sod was taken aback for a moment, then looked at him and said, “You still got the key point wrong. The key point is not whether you want to or not, but whether we think you will or not. Lin Rui is a high mountain flower. You said you didn’t want to pick it, but what we see is that you have been trying hard, but you haven’t picked it yet.”

Gu Yanting originally asked his brother to come out to drink and relax, but ended up getting a load of sarcasm. So the afternoon event was temporarily scrapped, and he told Fat Sod that he wanted to go home for a bit of peace and quiet.

Fat Sod was also thinking about his wife and child. The child was almost one year old. His daughter was a late talker. She just learned to say “mom” a while ago. His wife was overjoyed, and Fat Sod was jealous. These days, he had to go back and catch the little one whenever he could to teach her to call him “dad”.

—

The process of teaching to say “dad” on Fat Sod’s side didn’t go well while Tang Yi got an extra dog son for no reason.

Shen Fan still didn’t listen to him and sent him a dog all the way back. The little guy just turned three months old, and after the vaccination, he enjoyed the taste of air express. Tang Yi almost roared when he received the call, yelling at Shen Fan: I can’t even feed myself and you want me to get a dog!

Shen Fan had become more and more black-hearted and slippery in the past two years, and his original uprightness had been completely abandoned. He smiled and comforted Tang Yi, saying: It’s okay, if you can’t feed yourself, I’ll feed you! It’s just a dog! I’m telling you, this dog is very smart, the smartest dog in the world, you know? Moreover, if you have a child, he can even help you coax the child. Wait for me to show you a few videos, ah. After watching them, I promise you that you’ll love him to death.

Tang Yi smiled angrily and said: where will I get the child! Who will give birth to it? You, ah!

Shen Fan said quietly: If he can’t watch the kid, he can watch you!

He specifically told Tang Yi about the separation anxiety disorder of pets. Tang Yi looked hard but had a soft heart. He particularly couldn’t bear to see things that were lonely and helpless. This time the puppy had already got on the plane and Tang Yi was so angry that his lungs hurt, but he had to accept the dog. After hearing this, he thought of another thing — if the dog had separation anxiety disorder, he would probably have to go home every day to serve the puppy. Well, okay, Shen Fan used a dog to keep him on a leash.

Tang Yi took a few breaths slowly, then said in a low voice, “You’re good.”

Shen Fan hummed twice and didn’t say anything. In the end, Tang Yi was helpless and drove to the airport to pick the puppy up. After the flight landed, the place where the live animals were picked up was not open for another two hours. Tang Yi almost gasped when he received this supposedly carefully selected famous dog.

He was a typical person who judged everyone by appearance and this black and white dog came to him with a donkey face(2). The air carrier box was very clean, obviously the little guy didn’t poop or pee. Tang Yi came to pick up the dog soon after receiving the call. Nothing was bought, even the dog food and dog bowl. Fortunately, the seller gave him a small bag of milk biscuits and a plastic bowl so it looked like he would be able to make do.

Tang Yi drove his dog son all the way home, and for the first time, he was talking while driving.

“Shen Fan, this no-good guy, sent you over here, isn’t that a disservice? Why are you so ugly, agh! I’m telling you I don’t have much time to play with you. What toys do you like?”

The dog son lay in the cage and looked at him with shining eyes. When he arrived at the door of Tang Yi’s apartment, he suddenly turned his head and gave a weak bark into the darkness, “Woof~~”