CH 14

Dozen of tables in the lobby of Fuxiang House were already vacant, but there were still five or six tables of guests still drinking.

Chen Yuncheng came down from the second floor, stood on the side of the road, turned around, and looked at Zhou Yan who was going down the stairs.

Zhou Yan’s steps were heavy. He didn’t stop until he walked all the way to Chen Yuncheng. He placed his hands in the pockets of his cotton coat, and called out, “Cheng ge.”

There were no pedestrians on the side of the road at this time. A taxi was parked not far ahead, and the driver was probably waiting for the guests.

Chen Yuncheng asked Zhou Yan, “I thought you are not working with Zhang Wenyong anymore?”

Zhou Yan lowered his head and said nothing.

Chen Yuncheng’s tone was a little irritable, “Speak.”

Zhou Yan still lowered his head and said softly, “I want to make money for my son’s operation.”

Chen Yuncheng looked at him and asked, “Did Zhang Wenyong give you money? What did he ask you to do for him?”

Zhou Yan was silent for a while, then raised his head and said, “Cheng ge, don’t ask, just pretend you don’t know, okay?”

“What exactly is it?” Chen Yuncheng repeated in a serious tone.

Zhou Yan slowly shook his head.

Chen Yuncheng said, “You have been with Zhang Wenyong for a long time. Don’t you know what kind of person he is? Is his money so easy to get?”

Zhou Yan raised his hand and rubbed his face hard, “I know, but what can I do? That’s my son, I can’t watch him die!” He paused briefly, and his tone become slightly agitated, “I even discussed with Jiajia  to either not treat him and wait for another one later, but no, I can’t do it.”

As he said that, he crouched down on the side of the road, and covered his face with his hands as if to hide his intense emotions.

Chen Yuncheng looked down at him: “Try to borrow it from someone else.”

Zhou Yan looked up and looked at him, “Cheng ge, you lent me all your 30,000 yuan. Who else can I borrow it from? They know if they lent their money to people like us, I can’t afford to pay it back.”

Chen Yuncheng stood quietly for a while, “So Zhang Wenyong gave you money and asked you to help him?”

Zhou Yan pursed his lips, “Cheng ge, if I don’t tell you, just pretend you don’t know. I know that the policeman surnamed Long often comes to disturb you. I don’t want to make things difficult for you in the future.”

“Paper can’t wrap the fire1,” Chen Yuncheng bent down and put a hand on Zhou Yan’s shoulder, “Something will happen one day.”

Zhou Yan said, “Then I might as well treat my son’s illness first.”

When Chen Yuncheng was about to speak again, out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed that two tall figures were walking in their direction along the side of the road.

He looked up subconsciously, and by the light of the street lamp, he could clearly see the faces of the two people. It was the two X-ethnic people that Long Zhanyu asked him to help pay attention to.

Zhou Yan also noticed it, he stood up from the ground and looked at the two people as well.

At this time, there happened to be a table of eight or nine guests who came down from the first floor after dinner. These middle-aged men were all drunk, and they were making loud noises while going down the stairs.

Chen Yuncheng pretended to be distracted, and while holding Zhou Yan’s arm and pushing it away two steps, he looked at the group of middle-aged people.

Obviously, these people still hadn’t finished, and they were still talking to each other in groups by the side of the road. Some were calling for a chauffeur, and some were calling for taxis on the side of the road.

The two X-ethnic people approached and stopped between Chen Yuncheng and Zhou Yan with this group of middle-aged people.

One of them shouted in broken Chinese, “Is he upstairs?”

Chen Yuncheng saw Zhou Yan nod at the other man.

Neither of the two X-ethnic people noticed Chen Yuncheng, including the tall young man who had seen him in the bar didn’t seem to recognize Chen Yuncheng. After getting Zhou Yan’s answer, the two walked toward the stairs.

In the noisy voices beside him, Zhou Yan said to Chen Yuncheng, “Cheng ge, I have to go back.”

Chen Yuncheng didn’t ask about the two X-ethnic people, but just said, “Are you going back to Zhang Wenyong?”

Zhou Yan nodded, “It’s getting late, you go back first, and I’ll get you a taxi.” After he said that, he raised his hand to beckon to a taxi that passed by on the road.

Chen Yuncheng pressed his arm, “No need, I can go back myself.”

Zhou Yan was silent for a while, and then said, “Guan Anlin is out, he won’t trouble you, right?”

Chen Yuncheng shook his head, “Don’t worry about me, I hope you will think about your matter again.”

Zhou Yan didn’t answer, and said, “Then I’ll go up first.” After he said that, he turned and walked towards the stairs leading to the second floor.

Chen Yuncheng watched him leave until his back disappeared, then turned around and walked along the roadside alone, towards the bus stop in front.

The bus had very few passengers by this time, so Chen Yuncheng got on and easily found a seat. He sat down with some mixed emotions and took his mobile phone out of his jacket pocket.

Chen Yuncheng subconsciously found Long Zhanyu’s mobile phone number, but he didn’t press the dial button for a long time. Finally, he backed out and found an account on WeChat that he hadn’t contacted in a long time.

This person actually had dinner with him at Fuxiang House just now, but apart from the greeting when they met, the two never talked again.

Chen Yuncheng sent him a WeChat message: “Can you help me get Guan Anlin’s phone number?”

The other party never replied.

It was not until Chen Yuncheng returned to his small kiosk and took a simple bath and lay on the bed that the other party replied with a mobile phone number, followed by another message: “Cheng ge, don’t say it me who told you.”

Chen Yuncheng was a bit amused and replied to him, “No problem, thanks.” After that, he saved the mobile phone number.

When he looked at the time, it was already past eleven o’clock in the evening, and Chen Yuncheng dialed Guan Anlin’s mobile number.

The phone rang several times before Guan Anlin picked it up, and said “hello” indifferently.

Chen Yuncheng said, “This is Chen Yuncheng.”

The phone was hung up immediately.

Chen Yuncheng listened to the busy tone on the receiver, took the phone away, glanced at their brief chat, and then made up a text message to send: “Anlin, let’s meet up sometime to talk, just the two of us.”

Guan Anlin never replied to him, and Chen Yuncheng was not surprised. He threw away his phone and pulled up the quilt, covering most of his face with only his eyes exposed. He sighed secretly and closed his eyes to sleep.

Chen Yuncheng dragged his feet and did not call Long Zhanyu, he wanted to make another trip to the hospital to visit Zhou Yan’s son.

Chen Yuncheng still brought a carton of milk and tried to scrape together another thousand yuan in cash. He knew that this amount of money would not be of much use to Zhou Yan, but he really had no money left.

When he left the kiosk in the afternoon, Chen Yuncheng closed the shutter door and stood at the door of the store. He looked at his small store and suddenly thought that if the whole store was sold out, he wondered if he could get 30,000 to 40,000 yuan for it.

He didn’t know what to do, and he walked toward the subway station with the milk in his hand.

Zhou Yan worked outside during the day, and in the pediatric ward of the hospital, Zhou Yan’s girlfriend Gu Yaojia was still accompanying the child.

When Chen Yuncheng arrived, the child was being given an infusion, the needle was inserted through his scalp. The little one was lying on the hospital bed and looked very pitiful.

Gu Yaojia looked thin, with no makeup on her face, and little blood on her cheeks and lips.

Chen Yuncheng sat beside the hospital bed, looked at the child on the bed, and asked Gu Yaojia, “Do you know what work Zhou Yan is doing now?”

Gu Yaojia stood leaning against the bed and said, “He said he was selling cars.”

Chen Yuncheng asked, “Is the brokerage fee for selling used cars very high now?”

Gu Yaojia shook her head, “I don’t know either. But his boss seems to be quite nice and is willing to lend him money.”

Chen Yuncheng looked at Gu Yaojia’s expression and guessed that she didn’t know anything. When she sat for a while and was about to leave, she gave Gu Yaojia one thousand yuan.

Gu Yaojia was stunned for a while and said, “Cheng ge, I can’t ask for your money. Zhou Yan said you lent him all your savings.”

Chen Yuncheng shoved it into her hand, “Take it first, I’ll talk to Zhou Yan about it. We grew up together as brothers, when he needs help, there’s no way I’ll leave him alone.”

Gu Yaojia shrugged it off a few more times but finally accepted Chen Yuncheng’s money.

Chen Yuncheng came out of the ward and felt his phone vibrate. As he walked towards the elevator, he took out his phone to take a look, and saw that it was Ning Junyan who sent a WeChat message: “I’m back, let’s have dinner together tonight.”

He didn’t even ask Chen Yuncheng if he was free, as if it was a not-so-polite order.

But Chen Yuncheng still laughed when he saw it, and replied, “Okay.”

The author has something to say:

Why do you like someone but not want to sleep with them? Don’t you have a little sister who you are very affectionate with and like very much, do you want to sleep with her?!

What I said yesterday was mainly because I didn’t want to have too many cults or np2 in the comments section, Because I don’t write that way and I don’t have that tendency, and it’s easy to quarrel in the comment area.

And then there’s the comment about too many supporting characters. If I don’t want to see the comments on a certain role, I will ignore them