CH 19

Alex received a call from his manager at night, telling him that K company had sent him a notice that they had given him the opportunity to work in Sheng Yuan’s project.

The manager was full of grumbles on the call, asking him when he had gone to the auditions, why he did not know about it, and suspected that Alex was trying to get rid of him.

It took some effort from Alex to explain to him that it was not the case. He said that he had become acquainted with editor Guo last time, so the editor did not call him to go to the auditions and directly selected him.

The manager nagged a lot, talked about how difficult it was help models that were not famous like him find projects to work on, saying that none of them were considerate to him. The call ended after an eternity, and it even made Alex have a headache for a long time after it ended.

Throwing away his phone, he rubbed his temples and sighed.

Guo Zhi did not lie. She said that she would give him Sheng Yuan’s project’s job, and she really did. But… she also told him to not send her messages anymore on WeChat. Did she mean that we should not talk anymore in private?

Alex deeply felt that he was useless. It was originally a matter were both things could be dealt with properly, but it had ended like that. He felt even more depressed.

He was in a daze for a while and then took out his cellphone and sent Guo Zhi a message: [Sister Guo, have you returned to your house?]

Guo Zhi did not respond to him.

Da Wei returned after taking a shower, took off his shoes, and climbed to the upper bunk. After a moment, Alex felt that something was wrong.

Normally when Da Wei was in the room, the small cubicle would rarely become so quiet. Today, there was a strange silence.

“Da Wei?” He called once and did not receive a reply. He got up, grabbed the upper bunk’s bed rail, and stretched up his neck: “Da Wei?”

Da Wei was currently in a daze while using his arm as a pillow and only replied with an “mm”. His mood was definitely not right. Alex pushed him: “What’s wrong?”

Da Wei looked over at him. His gaze was complicated.

He sat up and extended his hand to find a cigarette beside his pillow but did not find one. The cigarettes were on the table, so Alex leaned over to take one and handed it to him.

Da Wei lit up the cigarette, blew out some smoke before saying irritatingly: “Alex, I… I am planning to leave…”

“To where?” Alex leaned on the bed rail while looking at him. He had a hunch about it.

Sure enough, Da Wei depressingly smoked two puffs and said: “Leave the capital and stop working in this industry.”

“I won’t be able to become successful.” He said. His eyes were red.

Da Wei could not be successful, and everybody knew it. Models depended on their youth to make a living. He was close to 27, had worked in the capital for many years, but was still living in an underground room.

It was just that no one would say that out loudly.

Whenever Da Wei drank and became drunk, he would grab onto people and tell them about his dream. He was taller than other people since he was small. Being a model and becoming an actor were the dreams he had since his teenage years.

Unfortunately, the road to his dreams was rough, and he could not keep walking on it. Time also did not spare anyone. In the blink of an eye, his youth and dreams passed.

“Then… where will you go?” Alex asked.

“To Shun city, back to my hometown.” Da Wei depressingly said, “My mom has already asked her contacts. A relative from our family works in hydropower engineering. He has his own company, and she told me to work there.”

Giving up his dreams, saying goodbye to the capital, and starting the life of 9 to 5 ever after.

Admitting that he was common.

Admitting that he had failed.

This type of acknowledgement that could not be ignored was even more repressing than not being able to grab onto his dreams despite it being right in front of his eyes in the capital.

However, Da Wei could only admit it. He was already 27. When men reached that age, chasing their dreams was already not the most important thing. Forming a family and getting a job was more important. Da Wei also felt that he already did not have the strength to keep on chasing his dreams.

I’m tired, really tired, very tired.

The capital, haaah. It is a place that gives people hope, but at the same time, it is also a place that mercilessly uses the cold reality to taunt people with dreams. In this big city that has almost twenty million people living in it, how any are actually able to fulfill their dreams?

I won’t struggle anymore and just keep my feet on the ground.

Alex sniffed, and his eyes also became red.

Da Wei slapped his palm on his head: “What are you crying for? I haven’t even cried, so why are you crying!” As he said so, his eyes also turned red, and the words that he said carried a nasal sound.

Alex sniffed again, wiped his eyes, and retracted to his bunk.

Da Wei bit the cigarette in his mouth and climbed down. He saw that Alex laid while facing the wall and that his shoulders were trembling. He lifted his foot and kicked him: “Don’t cry! Go, go, go, let’s go out and drink!”

He dragged Alex out of his bed.

“No one is allowed to return until everybody becomes drunk!”

They really did as he said, and only returned after they were drunk.

Alex practically had to carry him back. Fortunately, Alex persisted on doing exercise and his muscles were firm. Carrying a man that was almost the same size as him was possible.

Every time Da Wei became drunk, he would force other people to listen to his dreams. Strangely, this time he did not do it and slept soundly like he was dead.

Alex was able to carry him back to their underground room, but he did not have a way to drag him to the upper bunk. Because of that, he laid him on the lower bunk and climbed to the upper bunk.

Before sleeping, he took out his phone to look.

Guo Zhi did not give him any reply.

He sighed, looked at the screen in the darkness, and texted word by word. He laid down, checked many times, saw that there was no reply, closed his eyes, and slowly fell asleep.

Guo Zhi showered, put on pyjamas, and grabbed her phone to look. Alex had sent her many messages.

[Sister Guo, have you returned to your house?]

[Sister Guo, are you still angry?]

[Sister Guo, don’t be angry, I was wrong.]

[Sister Guo, can I still find you in the future?]

[Sister Guo, good evening.]

She had already told him to stop sending her messages in WeChat. Guo Zhi stared at them, did not reply, and deleted the conversation.

She threw the phone on the bedside table and turned off the lights to lay down. For a moment, she could not sleep. Her mind was still full of things related to work.

While thinking, she recalled her idea of starting a business. Because Qing Xia had been promoted, she had temporarily repressed the idea and did not mention it. But once the idea was born, it was like grass growing in the wilderness, unable to be stopped.

Guo Zhi thought about a lot, whether it was possible or not, the start-up capital, the people that could be hired, and the clients that could be taken away… the resources that were on her and Qing Xia’s hands were good enough, no matter how she thought about it.

It was just that how would they deal with the administration? She and Qing Xia were both the powerful type and may end up crashing everything to the ground.

She would have to ask Lin Bo to get experience; he had experience.

Lin Bo used to work in a manager company. Later, he opened his own small company. Even though it was small, it was his. The company struggled in the capital that was full of fierce competition and slowly stood on its ground.

These two years, it could clearly be seen that it had stepped up on a higher level economically.

Otherwise, why else would she admire him? She felt that the road he was walking on was the road that she would walk on in the coming future. Them two were very similar.

She thought a lot about it, but for those matters, only estimates and predictions could be done when actions had still not been taken. When nothing had started yet, nothing could be said with confidence.

No problem, starting a business always carries risks. If there were no risks, everyone would rush to open their business. Why would anyone go to work under other people?

Guo Zhi turned her body and did not feel impatient. She was only 28 years old. She decided to give herself two more years of time.

At the latest at 30 years old, I will definitely have my own territory!

The capital was a city that was full of luxury. However, its most tempting aspect was that it was full of endless hope.

This city was the best platform to make their dreams real.

Guo Zhi’s ambition was thriving. Whenever she thought about the future, she would become full of energy.

After being excited for a long time, she slowly fell asleep.

She received Her Majesty’s Mom call on Thursday afternoon: “What are your plans for this weekend?”

Guo Zhi replied without thinking: “Going home.”

Last week, and the week before that, she had not returned home because of Alex. She badly wanted to go home this week. She ate outside every week and was very bored of the food. She wanted to eat homemade food!

However, Her Majesty Mom mercilessly rejected her: “Don’t come back. Your Auntie Zhao called me. She said that the guy you met last time liked you a lot and wanted to keep going. He may ask you out on a date this weekend. Stay there obediently and wait for him to call you.”

F***!

Guo Zhi: “Heh…”

“…” Her Majesty Mom rebuked, “Why are you laughing gloomily like that?”

“This is not a gloomy laugh. It’s a cold laugh. Mom…” Guo Zhi coldly laughed, “We met last, last week, how long has that been? It will already be two weeks once this weekend comes. Like me? Taking two weeks to ask me for a date?”

“…That person may be busy.”

“Mom, do you feel confident of what you’ve said?” Guo Zhi was merciless.

After going to blind dates so many times, Guo Zhi and her mom understood perfectly in their hearts. It was ninety-nine percent probable that the man did not like Guo Zhi that time, or maybe he wanted to have a plan B and that was why he did not give a clear answer all this time. In this period of around one and a half week, it was enough for him to go to two, three, four, and five blind dates. After finishing the rounds of blind dates, he probably felt that the people that came after Guo Zhi were not as good as her, so he returned to find Guo Zhi.

The other side of the phone was silent for a long time for once, then the universe exploded: “So what? So, you don’t even allow other people to have the right to choose? It is better than having him choose you from the start, but still think that maybe a better one could have been met if he went to more blind dates! I’m telling you, be obedient! Don’t make this difficult for others! Do you know how old you are? If you really get to know him and still feel that he is not the one, then I won’t force you! But you haven’t even gone on dates, do you want to be an old single woman for the rest of your life!”

Facing the majestic power of Her Majesty Mom that was coming from the other side, Guo Zhi surrendered.

She weakly said: “Okay… okay… don’t nag anymore…my co-workers will hear! Isn’t it fine if I go? I know, I know! I won’t make things difficult for the other party… I will be serious and fight to marry myself off as fast as possible… okay, okay, I won’t even be able to eat my lunch, I’ll hang up, okay? What time is it already? Hurry and eat mom, don’t shorten your life because of me… no, how did I curse you? I was just saying… I’m begging you… I’m really hanging up!”

Thriving ambition? Under Her Majesty Mom’s pressure, Guo Zhi’s resistance crumbled.