When I went out, Song Bai Lao was talking to someone in the study.
He drank too much in the past two days, and when he woke up, he said he had a headache and a cold and nausea. Anyway, he was not feeling well, so he simply stopped going to the company and started working from home. Even whoever wanted to meet, they would directly recruit them to the mountain, and they would also use video calls for meetings.
In the past two days, people in the family came and went, and from time to time, I could hear scolding and scolding from the study. Everyone, without exception, went in with a look of apprehension, and when they came out, they bowed their heads.
“I’ve given you many opportunities. My patience is limited by Zhang Shi Kuan. Since you can’t meet my requirements, I can only go to someone else. You can stop using the company tomorrow. Go out.”
Walking by, I listened to Song Bailao’s words. Just as I was about to leave, the door opened in front of me, and a haggard, sloppy middle-aged man came out. Holding a stack of papers in his arms, he walked hurriedly, looking rather embarrassed.
Although it was only a quick encounter, I remember him. Before Xia Sheng was trained by Song Bai Lao, Li Xun also said that others were good, but the project had not progressed, and there was some pity for the other party in his words.
It seemed that Song Bai Lao had exhausted his patience after all, and was too lazy to give him another chance.
I glanced at the closed door, and there was a faint sound of Li Xun’s voice inside.
“Don’t be angry, there is always another way…”
Afraid that I would touch Song Bai Lao’s bad head again, I quickly and silently passed the study and scurried downstairs, like a big rat with agile movements.
Today, Ning Shi rarely took the initiative to contact me, and said that she wanted to make a video call with Youyou.
I don’t know why she is so kind all of a sudden, but as long as I can see Youyou, even a photo or a video, I’m very happy, and I don’t want to care about her original intention.
People are in good spirits on happy occasions. I ate half a bowl of rice at noon, and I managed to stay up until the afternoon. I almost went to the place designated by Ning Shi non-stop.
This time, instead of making an appointment at a cafe, she met in a tea room for afternoon tea. The separate tatami room, when looking out, we can see the landscape of the courtyard with dry landscape, which is quieter and more suitable for talking.
“How have you been recently?” Ning Shi wore a long white dress, covered with a layer of gauze like ink and wash, and her hair was loose.
She picked some tea powder into a bowl and added a little hot water to make a paste. Then add boiling water, pick up the tea whisk at hand and beat and whisk quickly until the surface of the tea soup forms dense white foam.
“Very good.”
I don’t know anything about the tea ceremony. She made the tea and handed it to me, and I took it carefully, not knowing whether to suck the foam on top or drink the soup below.
“How did Song Bai Lao treat you?” She painted the gourd as she did, and went to pick the tea powder again, making a second bowl of tea.
“Well, it’s pretty good.” The tea is just at the temperature of the entrance, a bit bitter, with a long aftertaste, which can be considered a unique taste.
She quickly finished the second bowl of tea, but instead of drinking it directly like I did, she held it in the palm of her hand and looked at it for a while, then lifted it up and smelled it, and finally it was the entrance.
She is so slow, which makes me really impatient, but she has the initiative and the right to speak. I don’t have any right to speak except waiting quietly.
“Luo Qinghe’s campaign advertisements are all over the place recently, and it’s really well-funded. I heard from Yun Sheng that the competition for seats in this term is very fierce, and even the Ruan family has joined the campaign team.”
“The Ruan family ?” Some impressions, but not too deep, the overall unfamiliar than familiar.
Ning Shi drank tea and gave me a look. It wasn’t too harsh, but it gave me the illusion of a flying knife slashing coldly across my face.
“Xia Sheng’s competitor, another high mountain in the energy world – the Ruan family of the ‘Yanhua Century’. You have been married to Song Bai Lao for so long, do you not even know who his opponent is?”
After she said this, I realized that It seems that I really knows very little about Song Bai Lao.
Mainly, I am often in a state where I will be handed a divorce agreement by him anytime, anywhere. If I don’t do anything, his imagination is bursting, and I seduce him and I want to be his son’s mother. If I show any signs of being overly concerned, he will definitely think that I am planning something behind his back, and my intentions are wrong.
“I heard him mention it before, but I forgot.” I coughed lightly and lowered my head in shame.
“Although Yanhua Century is side by side with Xia Sheng, the Ruan family is not as lucky as Xia Qiao, and the children and grandchildren are very unsatisfactory. It is said that the children of the Ruan family are getting worse and worse. The only Alpha met a female star last year, and within a few months If Feiqing didn’t marry, it made the Ruan family’s house uneasy, and he was so angry that his father was almost hospitalized.”
I’m not really interested in gossip from other families, Ning Shi said, I just go in one ear and go out the other. Staring at the thick green liquid on the table, when the foam in the tea soup was about to disappear, Ning Shi finally stopped in a conscious sense of boredom and ended the conversation of the Ruan family.
“Okay, I know you’re thinking about your child, and you don’t have the heart to listen to me.” She took out her phone from her bag and tapped the screen with her fingertips, “Take it.”
When passing the mobile phone, even breathing is careful. If a truck suddenly crashes into the outside, I am afraid that I will protect the mobile phone in my arms first, and regard it as more important than my own life.
The phone showed that it was connected, rang a few times, and the other end was connected. The picture rotates and freezes on a young and delicate face.
I suddenly thanked Ning Shi for letting me get used to it gradually with a little bit of photos, videos, and phone calls, so that it wouldn’t be too exciting all of a sudden. If she had let me have a video call with my child in the first place, I would have had a rapid heartbeat and difficulty breathing, and it would have been too late to calm the violent beating in my chest.
“You, how are you?”
I made a lot of presuppositions, and on the way, I thought about what to say in the first sentence, and also thought about many strange problems such as “how to show his father’s dignity and affinity”.
But when I came to the front and saw him appear alive on the other end of the phone, my mind suddenly became barren, words, thoughts, joys and sorrows all disappeared. My lips twitched spontaneously, and the words that came out were bland and dry.
“I’m fine.” He seemed to be no stranger to me, and brought his face close, taking up half of the camera, “Are you dad?”
“Um, yes, I’m dad. You are… Youyou Is it?”
What kind of nonsense am I asking?
I’m an adult, but I don’t even have a child to cope with it.
“Yeah, I’m Youyou.” He said and changed his posture. The camera shot only on his chest for a few seconds, but soon returned to his face. This time he was farther away from the camera, so that I could see his whole face.
“What are you doing?” he asked me curiously, as if trying to get out of the screen and come directly to me.
“I’m drinking tea with grandma.” I showed him the tea bowl in front of me, and took a picture of the surroundings.
When the camera was brought to Ning Shi, she was drinking tea with a tea bowl, Youyou saw her and called her loudly: “Grandma!”
Ning Shi made a move, then raised his head and gave him a smile: “Youyou is really good.”
After that, Youyou sang two nursery rhymes for me, and recited a few ancient poems for me. Half an hour later, he said he had to do his homework and said goodbye to me.
“Can’t… can’t we chat for a while?” The phone was getting hot, but I was still reluctant to hang up. Even if you don’t speak, just put the phone next to him and let me look at him.
Youyou pursed her lips and seemed to be troubled. At this moment, Ning Shi suddenly leaned over and took the phone from my hand.
I subconsciously wanted to grab it back, and as soon as I stood up, I heard her say to the phone, “Go do your homework.” Then she put away the phone neatly.
I sat back down again in despair. Those complicated emotions of excitement, joy, and rebirth were like a blade of grass whose roots were cut off when the phone was hung up.
Ning Shi added some boiling water to the rest of the tea soup, took two sips of it and said, “You are chatting so vigorously now, have you ever thought about how to pick him up and live with him?”
I really thought about it. The difficulty in this matter is how to explain Youyou’s existence to Song Bai Lao. If he rejects the idea of having children with me, and doesn’t even want to recognize Youyou, then I will…
“Can I get a divorce then?” I asked Ning Shi.
She stood there holding the bowl, looking at me like she was looking at a frog that could blossom or a dancing stone, full of wonder and incomprehension.
“You have no love for Song Bai Lao… No, you really have no attachment to Alpha.”
She worked hard all her life, struggling in the upper circles, exhausted all her means, just wanted to fight for the title of “Mrs. Alpha”. In her opinion, I, who easily got this title, should not be talking about stealing the fun, but I should be clinging to Song Bai Lao. It’s unbelievable to even file for divorce now.
“Everyone’s pursuit is different. I regard it as a treasure, but you abandon it, and vice versa.” She also put away her phone, and I had nothing to talk to her about, so I got up and prepared to leave.
“That’s fine.”
The frightened deer in the yard suddenly made a “click” sound.
I looked at her inexplicably: “What?”
She propped her chin and said, “Why did you regret it back then?”
Her words seemed to be clueless, but I immediately understood what she was talking about.
Those painful memories, the not-so-good pasts, are all things I try to avoid. It used to be because of guilt, now because of fear.
After finding out that I was pregnant, Ning Shi secretly sent me to a private clinic for elective induction of labor.
At first, I didn’t want the child in my womb. After all, he was not a product of “love”, and no one expected his birth, so I signed the consent form for the operation. But soon, something happened that made me change my mind. I began to want to give birth to the child, to raise him, to become a “mother”… different from Ning Shi.
However, Ning Shi didn’t allow me to have such absurd thoughts. She was furious at my renegade, angrily scolded me as a shameless, and humiliated her.
She asked the nurse to hold my hands and feet and ordered the doctor to push the anaesthetic into my body. During this period, no matter how much I cried and begged her, she always stood on the sidelines and remained unmoved. The effect of the medicine took effect quickly, and it seemed like a few seconds after I lost consciousness, but when I woke up again, there was a scar on my lower abdomen.
Seven years ago, we were accomplices and accomplices.
I always thought I killed him, Ning Shi and I killed that child together.
When I knew that he was still alive, I was filled with joy, every inch of which was illuminated by the sun.
“Because you can see it from the back window of the ward…there is a kindergarten there.” I smiled at Ning Shi and left the tea room.
On the way home, I bought a few cups of tiramisu at a bakery as a “souvenir” for Song Mo back home.
Because it happened to hit the evening rush hour, the car was a little blocked along the way, and I stopped and drove up the mountain, which made my stomach feel uncomfortable.
As soon as I entered the door, I smelled the aroma of food, but it was just in time for dinner. Ning Shi’s cup of bitter tea made me lose my appetite, so I gave the cake box to Aunt Jiu, I sat down and filled a bowl of soup, asking the servants not to bring me rice.
Song Bai Lao seemed to be very busy today. He was using his mobile phone to answer emails at the dinner table. When he saw something was wrong, he directly called the person who wrote the email and scolded him.
Because of having my tiramisu for dessert, Song Mo unconsciously showed a smile on his face while eating: “Mom, the teacher accompanied me to watch “Kiki Paradise” today!”
“Kiki Paradise” was recently I always wanted to find time to accompany him to watch the cartoon that was released, but in the end I had to ask his tutor to take the lead.
“Does it look good?”
“Yeah!” He nodded vigorously, then looked at me with a look of anticipation, “I want to go to the amusement park.”
I made a mistake. Today’s soup is a little greasy, and the nausea did not subside after drinking it, but instead It became more and more intense…
“Okay, when will I take you…” I slammed my mouth and retched a few times.
Song Bai Lao, who was sitting opposite, interrupted the conversation abruptly, took out his phone and frowned at me.
“What are you doing?”
Besides vomiting, what else can I do like this? I was too lazy to pay attention to him and tried to suppress the nausea, but it was not very successful.
After a rapid stomach churning, I finally couldn’t hold it in any longer. I rushed to the toilet with my mouth covered, and the chair slid across the floor and make a great movement.
And two seconds later, almost the same voice followed.