CH 53

When Chen Yuncheng woke up the next morning, he saw that Ning Junyan hadn’t woken up yet. He rarely saw Ning Junyan sleeping in. Ning Junyan had probably drunk too much last night.

He went out to buy breakfast for Ning Junyan and came back. He sat alone at the dining table for a while, thinking that he didn’t know how to face Ning Junyan later, so he packed up early and went out.

It also happened to be a coincidence that when Chen Yuncheng went out, the couple who looked after the shop called him that day, expressing their agreement to his rent conditions and willingness to rent the shop.

It took Chen Yuncheng a whole morning to handle the subleasing of the shop, as he only had to contact the landlord of the shop and sign the sublease contract since he only sublease it.

After working until noon, Chen Yuncheng finally recovered the one year rent he had paid in advance.

After he received the money, he planned to transfer it to Ning Junyan to pay off his debt first, together with the money for the returned goods. He sent a message to Ning Junyan asking for his account information, but Ning Junyan didn’t say anything and quickly sent it to him.

Chen Yuncheng stood by the roadside, taking one last look at the small kiosk he had lived in and run for two years and was about to turn around to leave when he saw the little girl who had stolen something at the intersection looking at him not far away.

“Come here,” Chen Yuncheng bent down and waved to the little girl.

The little girl looked at him warily but walked over obediently.

“Is your kiosk closed?” Before Chen Yuncheng could speak, the little girl asked him first.

Chen Yuncheng said, “Yes, there will be no more bread for you in the future.”

The expression on the little girl’s face was a bit indifferent, and when she heard Chen Yuncheng’s words, she just let out a faint “oh”.

Chen Yuncheng asked her, “What’s your name?”

The little girl didn’t answer.

Chen Yuncheng asked patiently again, “Do you have a family? Who told you to come out and steal things?”

Hearing this, the little girl immediately took two steps back.

Chen Yuncheng said, “Don’t be nervous, I just want to ask, is the person who let you out to steal something, your family?”

The little girl still didn’t answer him.

Chen Yuncheng had no choice but took out a hundred dollars from his pocket and handed it to her.

The little girl looked at it for a long time and did not take it.

Chen Yuncheng put the money in her hand, and whispered to her, “You take it secretly and use it secretly, buy something for yourself when you are hungry, don’t tell others, you understand?”

The little girl looked down at the money in her hand.

Chen Yuncheng added, “I know you are afraid to tell me because you are scared, but if those people force you out to steal things, you can go and tell the police.” After he finished speaking, he raised his finger to the intersection, “Look at the man in the hat and yellow vest, he’s a policeman.”

The little girl followed him and turned to look over.

Chen Yuncheng was referring to a traffic policeman who was directing traffic at the intersection.

“Don’t be afraid, when the police catch the bad guys, no one can hurt you,” Chen Yuncheng patted her head like he was stroking himself when he was a child.

The little girl turned and left with the money.

Chen Yuncheng looked at her thin back, sighed after a long time, took out his mobile phone and called Guan Anlin.

Guan Anlin had recently found a job in a car repair shop. When Chen Yuncheng called him, he was busy and asked Chen Yuncheng to have lunch together.

Chen Yuncheng went to the car repair shop where Guan Anlin worked, and asked a young worker at the door who was polishing the car where Guan Anlin was. The young worker reached out and pointed to a black car inside.

A man was working underneath the car, with only one pair of legs sticking out from underneath.

Chen Yuncheng walked over and kicked the leg protruding from under the car, and soon saw Guan Anlin slipping out from the bottom of the car, holding a wrench soaked in engine oil in his hand.

Guan Anlin was wearing an orange work uniform of a car repair shop, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. He glanced at Chen Yuncheng and said, “Two minutes.” Then he got in again.

Chen Yuncheng ended up waiting for nearly fifteen minutes before Guan Anlin took off his uniform jacket and put on his own black cotton-padded jacket with orange work pants, and went to have lunch nearby with Chen Yuncheng.

Guan Anlin’s hair had grown a bit compared to when he was just released from prison, but it was still short, and his cyan scalp could be seen.

Chen Yuncheng looked at his hair and suddenly remembered that he had been thinking about cutting his hair for a long time. He thought that if he had a short haircut like Guan Anlin’s, Ning Junyan wouldn’t be able to grab his hair and forcefully kiss him like he did last night.

Guan Anlin handed him the bowl and chopsticks, and asked him, “Why are you in a daze?”

Chen Yuncheng shook his head, “How’s your work?”

“Just like that,” Guan Anlin said, “Otherwise, I will deliver the takeout. I won’t starve to death. “

Chen Yuncheng asked, “How about Chinese New Year? What are your plans?”

Guan Anlin stared at the table in a daze. He had ordered three dishes, but since it was the best time for business at noon, none of the dishes had been served, and he said, “I have ten days off, I want to go home.”

Unlike Chen Yuncheng, Guan Anlin has a family. He had parents in his hometown in the countryside and a younger sister in high school.

“I have a friend who has opened a shop in the new trade market in the north of the city, wholesaling cigarettes, alcohol and drinks, he asked me to help him manage the shop. Are you interested in doing it with me when you come back after the New Year?” Chen Yuncheng asked.

Guan Anlin looked at him, “Look after the shop?”

Chen Yuncheng said, “There might be deliveries to customers as well, the specific work arrangement can be discussed.”

Guan Anlin didn’t answer.

Chen Yuncheng said, “There’s no rush, the shop over there is not yet renovated anyway, you can go back and think about it slowly during the Chinese New Year.”

The dishes they ordered finally came, and the two of them sat on the roadside, at a small square table, with two dishes and a bowl of soup on it.

Guan Anlin asked the boss to serve the rice directly.

He held the bowl of rice and asked Chen Yuncheng, “I told you to come and live with me earlier, but you didn’t intend to come?”

Chen Yuncheng gave a vague “En”, “I’m fine with my friend’s place now.”

“What does your friend do?” Guan Anlin asked.

Chen Yuncheng answered him, “A doctor.”

Guan Anlin said, “Are doctors that rich now? Received a lot of red envelopes, eh?”

Chen Yuncheng looked up at him, “His family already has money, so don’t be hostile to him.”

Guan Anlin snorted disdainfully, “How do you know that kind of doctor whose family is already rich? I haven’t heard you mention it before.”

Chen Yuncheng hesitated and said, “He’s just like Zhou Yan.”

Guan Anlin didn’t understand, and asked strangely, “What just like Zhou Yan mean?”

Chen Yuncheng said, “How I know Zhou Yan is how I know him.”

Guan Anlin froze. He heard Chen Yuncheng briefly talk about his childhood experience, but he didn’t expect that besides Zhou Yan, there would be other people who had experienced the same thing as Chen Yuncheng. He subconsciously asked, “Trafficked?”

Chen Yuncheng nodded.

Guan Anlin didn’t say anything more and scooped a spoonful of chicken rice and sprouts into a bowl, mixed it with chopsticks and lowered his head to take a big bite of rice, before saying again after a while, not quite willingly, “So it’s still not the same as us people.”

“What’s the difference?” Chen Yuncheng asked him.

Guan Anlin said, “He’s different in your heart, just like Zhou Yan. He’s always more important to you.”

Chen Yuncheng didn’t answer his words.

After they finished eating and drinking half a bowl of soup, Chen Yuncheng felt a little hot, so he unbuttoned a few buttons on his neckline.

Guan Anlin put down the bowl and stared at his neck in a daze.

Chen Yuncheng didn’t notice it at first until Guan Anlin first asked him, “You got a girlfriend?”

“What?” Chen Yuncheng was puzzled.

Guan Anlin pointed to his neck.

Chen Yuncheng raised his hand and touched his neck, but he still didn’t understand what Guan Anlin meant.

Guan Anlin said impatiently, “If you didn’t have a woman biting on your neck, did a mosquito bite on it? There can still be mosquitoes these days?1“

Chen Yuncheng suddenly remembered Ning Junyan’s deep kiss on his neck last night and blushed. He was at a loss and wanted to pull up his collar to cover it, but felt that it was too unnatural.

Guan Anlin said, “Why are you blushing? If you have a girlfriend, you have a girlfriend. You are about that age too.”

“It’s not like that,” Chen Yuncheng denied without thinking.

Guan Anlin asked him, “Then what is it? You’re going to go to a prostitute?”

Chen Yuncheng had no way to explain to him, so he could only say, “No.”

Guan Anlin didn’t press on. He picked up the bowl and took a sip of the soup, disliking that it was a bit bland, put the bowl down and said, “I was going to introduce my sister to you.”

Chen Yuncheng said, “Are you crazy? How old is your sister!”

Guan Anlin seemed a little depressed, to be in a somewhat depressed mood, “Yes, it would be nice if my sister was older.”

After lunch, Guan Anlin rushed to pay the bill.

When they parted, Guan Anlin asked Chen Yuncheng, “What are your plans for the New Year?” He knew that Chen Yuncheng had no family.

Chen Yuncheng said, “We’ll see.”

Guan Anlin asked him, “Do you want to go back to my hometown with me?”

“What for?”

“Meet my sister.”

“Get the f/ck out of here,” Chen Yuncheng cursed, “No, go back by yourself.”

Guan Anlin was not angry, and waved his hand at him, “I’ll contact you before I leave.”

Chen Yuncheng replied, “Okay, work hard.”

The two separated at the intersection, and Guan Anlin, dressed in a strange outfit, slowly walked towards the car repair shop.

Chen Yuncheng stood by the side of the road for a while and decided to get a haircut.

He found a small barber shop on the side of the road, where a wash, cut and blow-dry only cost fifteen yuan, and said to the barber, “Cut it short.”

The barber asked him, “How short?”

Chen Yuncheng recalled Guan Anlin’s short inches where he could see his scalp and said, “Just a little shorter, a length that fingers can’t hold.”

The barber glanced at him in the mirror and asked curiously, “Are you afraid that someone will pull your hair out in a fight?”

Chen Yuncheng said silently in his heart: I’m afraid of being pulled by the hair and forcibly kissed. But he looked in the mirror, smiled and nodded to the barber, “Yes.”

It was only after three o’clock in the afternoon when he finished the haircut. Chen Yuncheng wandered outside for almost a day and had nowhere else to go, so he took the subway back.

When he entered, he saw that the living room was empty, so he took a lighter step and walked to the door of Ning Junyan’s room. When he saw that the door was ajar, he stretched out his hand and opened a crack to peek inside, and saw that the bed was still neatly made, but the sheets seemed to have been changed.

“Looking for me?”

Chen Yuncheng was about to turn around when a voice suddenly came from behind him, and he was so frightened that he pressed his whole body against the wall, his heart beating violently, and then he saw Ning Junyan behind him.

Ning Junyan was wearing a white sweater and light brown casual trousers, holding a cup of coffee in his hand, looking quiet and relaxed. He put the coffee to his lips, took a sip, and kept staring at Chen Yuncheng.

Chen Yuncheng said, “What are you doing?”

Ning Junyan’s eyes fell on the top of his head, “Did you cut your hair?”

When Chen Yuncheng heard this, he raised his hand and touched it. Under the prickly short hair was a soft scalp. He said “En”, “Didn’t you say it should be cut?”

Ning Junyan said indifferently, “Well, that’s sexy.”

Chen Yuncheng’s hand that was touching his hair froze.

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Ning Junyan: My wife is sexy all the time