Chapter 26

Qi Yang knew that Mu Yicong’s mouth was always full of nonsense, but hearing him be so shameless still made him laugh in spite of himself.

“You’re both as bad as each other,” he said, deliberately contemptuous. “Same difference.”

Mu Yicong seemed to be busy. Qi Yang heard a knock at the door, and someone came in to discuss something with him.

After patiently waiting a while, Mu Yicong spoke into the phone again in a flat tone. “I’ll come find you tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow I…” Qi Yang wanted to say he had the day off tomorrow, but before he could finish, the call was hung up.

Fuck.

He pulled the phone away from his ear and glared at the screen, feeling annoyed.

Go ahead, come to Che Li and find no one.

Liu Dameng waited for Qi Yang to get off work so they could go to his place to see Qi Xing. On the way, he was still complaining, feeling disgusted just thinking about that bastard Ren Wei.

“How did you talk to him when you stepped out for the call?” he asked Qi Yang.

“Didn’t say much.” Qi Yang didn’t have that many feelings toward Ren Wei, focusing on the road ahead as he drove. “We don’t click. I told them to send someone else from their company to negotiate.”

“That’s satisfying.” Liu Dameng slumped comfortably into the passenger seat. But less than two seconds later, he slapped his thigh. “We should’ve just never taken their company’s order in the first place!”

Qi Yang glanced at him and gave an indifferent smile.

“Some big deal, huh, Boss Meng?” he teased Liu Dameng. “It was a freebie order, and you really want me to just turn it down?”

“Get out of here.” Liu Dameng was just venting, and he laughed along.

Liu Dameng knew better than anyone what Qi Yang’s situation was, how he had struggled through these ten years, and how badly his family needed money.

He truly considered Qi Yang his brother. Thinking about how Qi Yang had been spoiled like a young master back then, and now even someone like Ren Wei could call him up and order him around, made him feel terrible.

“Hey, before you answered the call, you were about to ask me something,” Liu Dameng said, his anger subsiding as he remembered the interrupted question. “What about me and my wife?”

How did you know you loved your wife? What kind of feeling was it?

Qi Yang ran the question through his mind, and at the same time thought of Mu Yicong’s words, “It’s nothing special,” and the call that had just been cut off.

In the end, he swallowed his words back down and said lightly, “I forgot.”

When the car reached the entrance of Qi Yang’s community, Liu Dameng told Qi Yang to pull over, then got out with a cigarette dangling from his lips.

Qi Yang didn’t follow. He knew Liu Dameng was going to the small supermarket.

Before long, Liu Dameng came back to the car carrying a carton of milk, along with bags of fruit and snacks.

“Why did you buy so much?” Qi Yang helped him put the things in the back seat and noticed there was also an entire carton of cigarettes in the shopping bag.

“Cut the crap.” Liu Dameng wasn’t in the mood for empty talk. He bent over and moved the stationery in the back seat to avoid crushing anything.

“It’s for auntie and Xing’er. I’m going to my wife’s family for Spring Festival this year, so I won’t be coming to see them.”

Qi Yang patted him on the shoulder and drove into the community.

Zou Meizhu was probably feeling a bit awkward because yesterday Qi Yang had given her the cold shoulder for not making Qi Xing’s meal in time.

Today, as soon as Qi Yang and Liu Dameng entered the house, they smelled the aroma of hot soup coming from the kitchen. Zou Meizhu, wearing an apron, was chopping ribs with a thumping sound.

“Auntie!” Liu Dameng called out.

“Oh!” Zou Meizhu looked back, holding the cleaver, and came out to greet them with surprise. “Dameng’s here! It’s been so long since you came to play. And you brought so many things again… hurry, change your shoes. Auntie’s cooking hot pot.”

Liu Dameng greeted Zou Meizhu, while Qi Yang, as usual, went to wash his hands first, then went to the corner to check on Qi Xing.

“Xing’er, you’re getting more and more beautiful. Did you miss your uncle?” Liu Dameng came over to tease Qi Xing, holding the stationery he’d brought for her.

Qi Yang kicked him. Zou Meizhu laughed and scolded him, “This kid, always trying to get the upper hand.”

Qi Xing didn’t speak or greet anyone, but she recognized the bag Liu Dameng was carrying and reached out to take it directly.

“Say thank you to brother,” Qi Yang stopped her.

Qi Xing lowered her head, blinking, her gaze wandering back and forth, but still only looking at the stationery.

After Qi Yang stopped her twice, she twisted her body and pressed against the corner of the wall.

“Hey, that’s enough.”

Liu Dameng cheerfully handed over the bag and ruffled Qi Xing’s head.

“The kid doesn’t like to talk, but I know our Xing’er remembers Brother Dameng in her heart.”

Qi Xing took the bag and turned to go back to the bedroom. Qi Yang stood in the living room watching her for a moment, then rolled up his sleeves and went to the kitchen to help.

With an extra person in the house, the atmosphere during the meal was much more relaxed, like any ordinary, normal family.

Zou Meizhu chatted and laughed with Liu Dameng. When she heard that Liu Dameng was planning to have a child, she first clapped her hands and said how wonderful, then urged Liu Dameng to make sure he went for prenatal checkups and not to repeat Auntie’s past mistakes.

Liu Dameng didn’t know how to respond to that, and Qi Yang couldn’t be bothered to deal with her. He picked up a piece of lamb with his chopsticks and put it in Qi Xing’s bowl, watching her eat.

“All you kids around the same age, those who should have settled down have done so. How wonderful.”

As Zou Meizhu spoke, her gaze dimmed and she glanced at Qi Yang’s face repeatedly.

“Dameng, you should also talk to Yangyang sometimes. He’s so old now, always drifting without roots… If I, as his mother, die in a few years, I won’t be able to rest easy.”

This speech was Zou Meizhu’s signature routine. Every time Liu Dameng came to Qi Yang’s house in recent years, she had to give it.

Just like how she would sigh to Qi Xing every now and then about how her own life was so hard.

“Look at what you’re saying,” Liu Dameng said, having become skilled at handling this. He raised his glass to toast Zou Meizhu. “I think you haven’t changed at all since I was in school. You still look like a movie star.”

This pleased Zou Meizhu immensely. She grinned from ear to ear and kept urging Liu Dameng to eat more.

Distracting Zou Meizhu to help Qi Yang out was what a true brother would do.

After the meal, when Qi Yang was taking Liu Dameng home, Liu Dameng smacked his lips and couldn’t help but start advising Qi Yang. “It’s about time you found someone serious, Yangzi.”

“Taking care of the family all by yourself like this is no way to live.”

“I’m not saying you have to find someone perfect. As long as she doesn’t mind Xing’er, can help you share the burden, and you can live together, that’s enough.”

Qi Yang flicked open his cigarette pack, put a cigarette in his mouth, then handed it to Liu Dameng. He retorted, “If you had a daughter in the future, would you be willing to let her marry into this kind of family?”

Liu Dameng opened his mouth, but said nothing.

He lowered his head to light his cigarette and muttered a low “Fuck.” “If I were a woman, I’d marry you.”

Qi Yang’s steering wheel swerved, and he nearly hit a roadside tree.

“Oh shit!” Liu Dameng was so startled he farted. “I didn’t say I wanted to die with you in a double suicide!”

“Get lost.” Qi Yang was amused despite himself. He rolled down the window to let out the fart smell. “Stop grossing me out.”

Liu Dameng held his stomach and laughed for a long time.

Qi Yang drove all the way to Liu Dameng’s building. They shared a cigarette in the car, and then Liu Dameng regained his serious expression.

“Qi Xing’s condition still needs treatment. Didn’t she go to rehabilitation classes before?” he said to Qi Yang. “I’ll also ask around for you later to see if there are any good hospitals.”

“She’s still going,” Qi Yang patted him. “Go home. Thanks for today.”

“Don’t say useless things.” Liu Dameng opened the door and got out. He watched Qi Yang drive off onto the main road before jogging back home to his wife.

When Qi Yang got home, Zou Meizhu had already gone out to play cards again.

The dining table was a mess. The dishes and chopsticks hadn’t been cleared, and the leftover hot pot had congealed into a red soup, with grease everywhere.

He opened the locked master bedroom door. Qi Xing was sitting obediently at the small table, working on a handcraft journal that Qi Yang couldn’t understand.

After cleaning up the room, Qi Yang took a shower and collapsed tiredly onto the sofa, picking up his phone to scroll.

Scrolling back and forth, he ended up on the chat window with Mu Yicong.

What exactly does this guy mean?

Qi Yang couldn’t figure it out. He only felt more and more aggrieved the more he thought about it.

This indescribable feeling of frustration was broken the next morning by a phone call from Mu Yicong.

At that moment, Qi Yang was combing Qi Xing’s hair. Before the new year, Qi Xing had one last rehabilitation class. Although it didn’t start until two in the afternoon, taking Qi Xing out was always a big undertaking, and the distance was far, so they had to start preparing around ten.

“Class, class. After so many years, there’s still no effect.”

Zou Meizhu, following Qi Yang’s instructions, was preparing clothes for Qi Xing to change into, muttering to herself as she stood before the wardrobe.

“A hundred or two per class. Before, it was three or four classes a week, now it’s three or four a month. We’ve spent so much money, and besides eating and using the bathroom, there’s no improvement in anything else.”

“It’s just a scam, isn’t it?”

“Debt collector ghost…”

Qi Yang frowned, picked a hair tie with a little rabbit decoration to tie Qi Xing’s hair, and quietly stopped Zou Meizhu. “That’s enough, Mom.”

Qi Xing acted as if she wasn’t the one being scolded, quietly lowering her eyelashes to play with her sticker art, then picking at her own nails.

Zou Meizhu threw Qi Xing’s jacket onto the bed and went to the kitchen to cook.

Hearing a phone ringing in Qi Yang’s bedroom from the living room, she raised her voice and called out, “Is that a phone call, Yangyang?”

Qi Yang finished combing Qi Xing’s hair, booped her nose, then turned and went back to the bedroom to get his phone.

Seeing Mu Yicong’s missed call on the screen, he pursed his lips and tossed the phone back onto the bed.

He went to pack a bit more of the things Qi Xing needed for class, then with a stiff face, he went back to the bedroom and dialed Mu Yicong back.

“I’m not working today.” As soon as the call connected, before Mu Yicong could speak, he said directly, “Little Liu is on duty. Go find him directly.”

“I know.” Mu Yicong seemed to have calculated that Qi Yang would call him back, and he was calm and unhurried.

“Yeah,” Qi Yang responded. “I’m hanging up.”

“I’m outside the neighborhood,” Mu Yicong said.

Qi Yang was stunned for a moment, then put the phone back to his ear. “What?”

“Your neighborhood,” Mu Yicong said in an extremely natural tone. “Didn’t I say I’d come find you today?”

Who told you to come to my home?

Qi Yang truly couldn’t understand what this guy really meant.

Didn’t he already say it was “nothing special”? What the hell?

“I’m busy,” he refused stiffly, restraining the urge to look out the window.

“Don’t want to see me?” Mu Yicong asked.

“Don’t you understand human speech?” Qi Yang was annoyed by his attitude. “I have things to do later.”

“Mm, no rush.” Mu Yicong completely ignored what he said and made his own arrangements. “At the same tree. You’ll see me when you come out.”