MNL Chapter 99

Chapter 99: Fragments – Wait for me at the station entrance.

Chapter 99: Fragments – Wait for me at the station entrance.

On the fifth day of the first lunar month, Chen Yalin took Yan Mo to Xu Jing’s house to pay a New Year’s visit. Xu Jing was concentrating on writing something in his room, completely unaware of the movements outside, until a soft,Glutinous voice suddenly came from behind, “Brother Xu Jing.”

Xu Jing was startled, his hand moving faster than his brain. He immediately grabbed the book next to him and covered the contents. Only when he turned around and saw it was Yan Mo did he breathe a sigh of relief.

Yan Mo was wearing a pink princess dress, her hair slightly curled, and she tilted her head, smiling sweetly, “Happy New Year, Brother.”

Xu Jing nodded and said, “Happy New Year.”

Yan Mo asked curiously, “Brother, are you writing your winter vacation homework?”

Thinking that the child wouldn’t understand, Xu Jing perfunctorily hummed in agreement.

Hearing this, Yan Mo blinked her eyes, and said innocently, “Does high school winter homework require you to write love letters?”

“…” Xu Jing’s mouth twitched, and he said, “You even know about love letters?”

“Of course, Brother, I won’t lie to you, I receive these every day.”

In terms of appearance, Yan Mo completely inherited Chen Yalin’s advantages. Her features were small and delicate, and the slender, upward-tilted shape of her eyes set off her especially lively and bright eyes. Plus, her skin was fair and tender, and her eyelashes were thick. Everyone who saw her would praise her as beautiful.

And the older she got, the more beautiful she became.

Xu Jing looked away and said lightly, “Don’t talk to boys at school.”

Yan Mo walked to the desk, propped her chin up and asked, “Why?”

Xu Jing didn’t know how to explain this to a child. After thinking about it, he said succinctly, “Because boys are all sick, stay away from them.”

Yan Mo nodded thoughtfully, and then asked, “What about the good-looking ones?”

“All sick.”

“Ah, but Brother, you’re also a boy, are you sick too?” Yan Mo said with a serious face.

Xu Jing thought for a while, but couldn’t come up with a better answer. In the end, he used a common adult cliché, saying, “Why do kids have so many questions? Just stay away.”

“Okay.” Yan Mo nodded very obediently, then asked, “By the way, will that brother come again next time?”

Xu Jing raised his eyebrows and said, “You like him a lot?”

Children from single-parent families are sensitive, and with Chen Yalin’s careful guidance, Yan Mo has had a high EQ since she was a child. At this time, she also knew to add preconditions, replying, “I like him, that brother is very good-looking, he’s the best-looking person I’ve ever seen besides you.”

Xu Jing was amused by Yan Mo’s flawless answer, and the corners of his mouth curved up.

“So, is that brother also sick?”

“He’s not.”

“Why?”

“…”

Xu Jing suddenly regretted starting this topic. He should have known that children have a strong desire for knowledge. Once you mention something beyond their knowledge, they won’t just extrapolate; they’ll extrapolate to ten thousand, like a walking “Ten Thousand Whys.”

“Why? Why exactly?” Yan Mo blinked her eyes, her face filled with a desire for the answer.

Xu Jing felt that if he didn’t answer now, Yan Mo would ask every time she came in the future, and might even refuse to leave today. So, he said seriously, “Because he’s too good-looking.”

“Eh?” Yan Mo was stunned for two seconds, her brain began to operate rapidly, and after a few seconds she came to a conclusion, “So only people who look as good as that brother aren’t sick, right?”

Xu Jing learned his lesson and didn’t deny it, simply humming in agreement.

“I understand!” Yan Mo stood up straight and said seriously, “I will always remember it!”

Xu Jing: “…”

He seemed to have led astray a delicate flower of the motherland.

Yan Mo was very good at handling interpersonal relationships at a young age. When eating, she made Xu Huaiyang and Qin Xin overjoyed. Xu Huaiyang looked at him frequently, his eyes filled with the words: I knew I should have had a daughter.

Yan Mo swallowed the food in her mouth and said, “Just now, Brother Xu Jing told me something.”

Xu Jing coughed lightly upon hearing this, and gave her a shut-up eye hint, but the child didn’t look at him at all.

Qin Xin asked, “What is it? Tell us.”

Xu Jing was ready to leave the dining table, but Yan Mo said at this time, “Brother said I’m very good-looking.”

Everyone at the table laughed.

Only then did Yan Mo look at Xu Jing, her watery eyes filled with three parts innocence and seven parts cunning.

Afterward, Xu Jing told Shen Yan about this, and Shen Yan laughed so hard on the other end of the phone that ripples appeared at the corners of his eyes.

Xu Jing said speechlessly, “Is it that funny?”

Shen Yan said with a gloating expression, “Brother, do you think I’m good-looking?”

Xu Jing: “…Get lost.”

On the seventh day of the first lunar month, Xu Huaiyang and Qin Xin went out for their two-person world. Xu Jing slept until the afternoon. When he woke up, he originally wanted to order takeout, but he remembered the cooking tricks someone taught him on New Year’s Eve. Thinking that he had mastered the essence of cooking, Xu Jing confidently entered the kitchen. As a result, half an hour later, he walked out with a gray face.

Before, when he saw Shen Yan in the kitchen, he was so organized and at ease, cooking with one hand and answering the phone with the other, and he could also come out from time to time to check his English homework. Xu Jing thought at the time that cooking was so easy, just a piece of cake with hands. But now that it was his turn, he wished he could use both his hands and feet. As a result, not only did he fail, but he almost blew up the kitchen.

Looking at the egg fried rice in front of him, which was darker than coal and could be accepted as evidence in a lawsuit in the jurisdictional court, Xu Jing pressed his tongue against his cheek and laughed angrily.

Immediately afterward, he took out his phone, took a picture, and sent it to someone.

[Boy]: Come to my house for dinner, I’ll cook myself.

[SY]: Wait.

[Boy]: ?

[SY]: I’ll buy an accidental death insurance first.

[Boy]: [smile.jpg][smile.jpg]

Later, Xu Jing looked at his phone again and found that the photo had just been sent. Then he received two voice messages from Shen Yan.

“I suggest eating this dish as the last procedure before the death penalty.”

“That way, they will discover that there are things more terrible than death.”

Xu Jing coldly typed a word: Get lost.

Just as he was preparing to destroy the evidence of this bowl of egg fried rice, the doorbell suddenly rang. Xu Jing was stunned, could it be…

Xu Jing put the egg fried rice on the coffee table and ran to open the door in three steps.

“How come you—”

Before the words “came” could be said, he saw a familiar face that he didn’t want to see at the moment.

Yan Zhe took off his baseball cap, struck a pose he didn’t know where he learned from, propped himself against the wall with one hand, whistled, and said in a deep voice, “Brother Jing, long time no see.”

Xu Jing: “…”

Fortunately, he didn’t eat anything just now, otherwise he would have started throwing up.

His attitude took a 180-degree turn, and Xu Jing turned around expressionlessly, leaving a sentence, “Close the door.”

“Damn! Brother Jing, how long has it been since we last met? And you’re giving me this attitude?” Yan Zhe muttered while closing the door.

“Do you want me to welcome you in with a sedan chair?”

“It’s not impossible, hehehe…”

“Go to hell.”

Yan Zhe threw his bag on his shoulder and rubbed his palms, saying, “It’s still warm here. You don’t know how cold Linhe City is. The snow is like being in the Arctic.”

Xu Jing sat on the sofa and said lightly, “So you ran away?”

“No, do you remember that LOL club I told you about last time? They agreed to my application, and I’m here for an interview.”

Xu Jing asked, “Reliable?”

“Reliable! This time is definitely reliable.”

Xu Jing snorted coldly, not mentioning that this guy found a club last time, but was scammed into a pyramid scheme and almost couldn’t get out.

“Brother Jing, do you have anything to eat? I’ve been on the train all day, and I haven’t eaten yet. I’m starving.”

Xu Jing raised his chin towards the coffee table, “Eat it.”

Yan Zhe’s eyes widened, pointing to the dark mess and asking, “What is this?”

Xu Jing said seriously, “Egg fried rice.”

“???”

Yan Zhe walked forward, picked up the bowl, studied it carefully for a few minutes, fell into thought, and asked a soul-searching question, “Will I die directly if I eat it?”

Xu Jing said expressionlessly, “I don’t know, do you want to try?”

“Did you make it?”

“Yeah.”

Yan Zhe gave a thumbs up and praised, “This thing is good. I’ll take it back and shove it into that idiot’s mouth, I’ve been looking forward to it for a long time.”

It’s not fatal, but it can cause vomiting and diarrhea, which is simply the best weapon to deal with annoying people in a society ruled by law.

Xu Jing couldn’t listen anymore, stood up and said, “Let’s go.”

Yan Zhe put down the wok ash and asked, “Where to?”

“To eat.”

“Wuwuwu, Brother Jing, you’re so kind. I knew you still care about me.”

“If you disgust me again, I’ll kick you out.”

Yan Zhe naturally didn’t want to, and followed him happily. Later, the two chose a buffet restaurant. As soon as Yan Zhe arrived at the store, he was like a glutton, going back and forth a dozen times, almost emptying the food in the buffet area. As a result, everyone who passed by couldn’t help but look back at their table.

Xu Jing was so embarrassed that he almost had a seizure, and couldn’t help but scold, “Are you a hungry ghost reincarnated?”

Yan Zhe was engrossed in eating and didn’t hear what Xu Jing said at all, only replying twice, “Huh? Huh?”

The more he looked at it, the more he felt that something was wrong. Xu Jing felt that Yan Zhe might not have just missed eating today, but that he had been starving for more than ten days.

Seeing that Yan Zhe had eaten enough, Xu Jing frowned and asked, “What happened?”

“Nothing, didn’t I just say that I was too hungry after not eating for a day?” Yan Zhe leaned back in his chair to rest, touching his neck while answering, his expression a little unnatural.

Xu Jing didn’t directly expose him, but said, “Okay, you go pay the bill later.”

Yan Zhe: “…”

Scratching his ears and cheeks again, touching his nose and crossing his legs, people will have a lot of small movements when they are lying.

Xu Jing said impatiently, “Pay or tell the truth, choose yourself.”

Yan Zhe was obviously a little restless, sighed, and said in a low voice, “Brother Jing, if I say it, can you not laugh at me?”

As soon as Xu Jing heard this, he knew that this person must have done something more outrageous than joining a pyramid scheme, so he said without giving him face, “No.”

“Actually, I met a girl on the internet some time ago. Her family sells tea leaves, and she said that she couldn’t sell all the tea leaves at home before the New Year, and then… then I transferred some money to her.”

“How much?”

Yan Zhe was silent for two seconds, and said, “Five thousand.”

The air suddenly fell into a strange silence. Xu Jing looked at Yan Zhe for several seconds and said sincerely, “Are you stupid?”

“Alas, actually, I felt something was wrong after transferring the money. I originally wanted to get it back, but as soon as I sent a message, I found that she had already deleted me.”

Xu Jing sneered, “If she didn’t delete you, would she be waiting for you to call the police and arrest her? It seems that you didn’t have enough fun last time you joined a pyramid scheme, are you feeling good now?”

Yan Zhe coughed twice and couldn’t help but explain, “But she’s really beautiful, she’s just like my dream lover.”

The corners of Xu Jing’s mouth twitched. Having a friend like Yan Zhe always made him feel like his IQ was being rubbed on the ground.

“Everything from beginning to end is fake, only the fact that you were cheated out of five thousand is real.”

Xu Jing never beat around the bush. If the words he spoke could turn into sharp swords in the air, Yan Zhe felt that he had already been stabbed full of holes. He slowly lowered his head and sighed again.

Xu Jing asked, “What about playing the game?”

Yan Zhe raised his head and said seriously, “This is real, they provide food and accommodation and pay, and a friend introduced it, there won’t be any problems.”

So it’s not that he didn’t want to pay the bill, but that he was really short on cash.

Xu Jing didn’t continue to ask. After eating, the club happened to send a message notifying him of the interview.

Yan Zhe hurriedly took a taxi, waving his hand and saying, “Brother Jing, I’m leaving first, I’ll contact you later.”

After getting in the car, his phone suddenly rang. Yan Zhe opened it and looked at it, stunned.

He saw that Xu Jing didn’t say anything, but directly transferred a sum of money to him. The money was not too much or too little, exactly five thousand.

Yan Zhe wiped his eyes, sniffed, and replied to the message.

[God Zhe]: Thanks, Brother Jing, I’ll pay you back in a month.

Although he knew that Xu Jing wouldn’t say anything even if he didn’t pay back, but not paying back and the other party not needing him to pay back were two different things.

After a while, Xu Jing sent back a get-lost emoticon.

Yan Zhe clenched his phone tightly and smiled silently.

He knew that his brain was indeed not very good, otherwise he wouldn’t be scammed every now and then, but only in the matter of choosing friends, he was lucky.

It may have been the effect of that five thousand yuan, but Yan Zhe inexplicably gained confidence after arriving at the club. He performed exceptionally well during the interview. After two matches, his operations were smooth and flowing, and the boss clapped and cheered on the spot, deciding to take him.

In less than half a month, Yan Zhe paid back the money to Xu Jing and sent the competition status along with it. Xu Jing accepted the money and replied with two words: Awesome.

The New Year ushered in its end in the sporadic sound of firecrackers. After revising it hundreds of times, Xu Jing finally wrote the love letter as he wished. He carefully put it into a gold-stamped, textured envelope, and with that beautiful, printed-like handwriting, it really looked like something.

Xu Huaiyang had been on a business trip in the middle of the year to discuss projects. As school approached, Xu Huaiyang’s father’s leg disease recurred. Suddenly, Qin Xin could only stay to take care of him.

On February 18th, Xu Jing returned to Linhe City alone.

Dragging his suitcase, Xu Jing received a call from Qin Xin as soon as he walked out of the station.

“Mom, I’m here.”

“Then I’m relieved.” Qin Xin’s guilty voice came from the other end of the phone, “Xiao Jing, because of your grandfather’s matter this year, I didn’t have time to celebrate your birthday properly. Mom will definitely make it up to you next year.”

Compared to Qin Xin’s past efforts to prepare a birthday banquet for him, he hoped that Xu Huaiyang could come home, and the birthday would still be meaningful if the three of them had a simple meal. Of course, it would be even better if Shen Yan could be added.

But saying this would only disappoint Qin Xin’s heart, so Xu Jing only replied, “Okay.”

This year, the snow in Linhe City fell intermittently, as if it could never fall enough. The dim yellow lights at the station entrance illuminated a clear and cold face. Xu Jing sat on his suitcase, the corners of his eyes and the tip of his nose were reddened by the wind, and his hair was a little messy.

People passing by walked in a hurry, leaving footprints of varying depths, which eventually became blurred and chaotic in the cold air.

Xu Jing stopped waiting and got up to call a taxi on the side of the street.

After arriving at the apartment, Xu Jing knocked on the door of 601 for the first time. He originally wanted to question him, but he was turned away.

Shen Yan was not home.

Later, he made several more calls, but no one answered.

The suitcase was ruthlessly placed next to the shoe cabinet after being dragged back to the room. Xu Jing stared at the phone screen for a while, which showed two messages Shen Yan sent him in the early morning,

—Wait for me at the station entrance.

—Good night.

Liar, not only did he forget that today was his birthday, but he also forgot to pick him up.

Xu Jing lowered his eyes and indifferently packed his luggage. At some point, the wind and snow outside became heavier and heavier, banging against the windows. Xu Jing sat on the sofa after boiling hot water, and suddenly felt extremely uneasy. He couldn’t think of where Shen Yan would go now.

The boiling water made a gurgling sound. Xu Jing went to the kitchen to get a cup to pour water, but his hand slipped. With a “bang,” the glass fell to the ground and shattered into pieces in an instant, with shards everywhere. Xu Jing cursed, and just as he was about to squat down to pick them up, the phone on the table suddenly rang.

Xu Jing couldn’t remember the content of the phone call, only that the blood in his body seemed to freeze at that moment. When he rushed out the door, his mind was still blank, so much so that his legs and feet were weak and he almost fell down the stairs.