SWG Chapter 49

Chapter 49

The passage of time has no sound or touch, but when gazes meet, when breaths tremble slightly, the heart always beats wildly, ticking away the seconds.

One beat, two beats, three beats…

The heart is steadfastly and faithfully performing its timing function, the increasingly hurried noise urging the two people facing each other to speak, to speak quickly.

Ruan Shengyi suddenly felt like she was going to throw up.

Her heart was beating too fast, and it wouldn’t slow down, as if a rope was tied around it, suspended in the air, thump-thump-thump…

Finally, Xiao Wenyu seemed to sense this agitation as well, and smiled, gently curving her lips as she said, “She didn’t tell me everything I wanted to know, but she did talk about some things from her younger days…”

“So the former Ruan boss was a street punk with short hair and a stick…”

In the past that Chen Yuexin told her, Ruan Shengyi in her early twenties would chew on a lollipop, pretending it was a cigarette, holding a wooden stick while sitting in the alley behind Le Xin, catching and hitting anyone who met certain criteria.

She didn’t know where she saw an early 2000s TV show. In early spring, when the weather was still chilly, she insisted on wearing a leather jacket, her unruly short hair stubbornly sticking up, a perfectly good young woman dressing herself up like a non-mainstream delinquent.

That was 2018, not 1998.

In Chen Yuexin’s heartbroken account, Xiao Wenyu gradually sketched out a lively and spirited young woman who was even colder and more isolated than the current one, comparing her to the Ruan Shengyi of today…

A rather strange change.

But also… a little bit fun.

Laughter replaced the hidden words, flowing from between her lips, causing the face of the person whose eyes were already red to flush even more. But she had finally managed to hold the other person, and for a moment, she was reluctant to retreat, unsure of how to advance, unable to free up her hands to wipe away her tears or cover her face, only able to mumble softly.

“What’s wrong?” Xiao Wenyu smiled and raised her hand, wiping away the tears that were still streaming from the corner of her eye. “Why can’t you stop crying?”

“I…” Ruan Shengyi hesitated, unsure of what to say.

But the other person wasn’t impatient, gently pressing her fingertip against the side of her lips, “I’m not in a hurry, take your time to think.”

Ruan Shengyi sighed, “…I can’t figure it out.”

It wasn’t that she couldn’t figure it out, but that she couldn’t articulate it. Every time the words reached her lips, a sense of reason always blocked them, no matter how much she tried to convince herself.

Her head hurt.

Xiao Wenyu lowered her voice, “Then don’t think about it.”

“We…” Ruan Shengyi took a step forward, nearly biting her tongue after saying half a sentence. She met the other’s eyes, lost her strength to struggle, and mumbled, “We…”

“Are you silly? Only know how to repeat these two words?”

Ruan Shengyi: “…What else did Chen Yuexin tell you?”

“Is it acceptable in your bartending world to directly call your mentor by their name?”

“…That’s not important.”

Xiao Wenyu shrugged and suddenly laughed.

Ruan Shengyi was so nervous from her laughter.

Could that person have really said something like she was no good?

At this moment, the Ruan boss completely abandoned the calculations she had been making in her heart for the past few days: “Or, I could wholeheartedly help Xiao Wenyu, even if it means giving myself up.”

Love, after all, so easily addles one’s brain.

The Ruan boss shouted in her heart: Say it, stop laughing and just say it!!!

Finally, Xiao Wenyu straightened her expression and said, “Actually, I didn’t intend to figure out any specific information tonight. Chen said that it was a difficult past for you to talk about, I just wanted to see if you would be so casual and impulsive. But…”

She laughed again.

Ruan Shengyi’s face turned red and then white. She released her arms from around her waist, “I’m going to find that person, I’m going to complain to my sister.”

The so-called sister was Chen Yuexin’s wife. Ruan Shengyi had helped deliver cheesy love letters in the past, so the two of them knew each other.

“Hey.” Xiao Wenyu hurriedly grabbed her, shuffling in her slippers to follow her two steps. “Don’t go, I’m just teasing you.”

“It’s just some small reminders, it doesn’t matter.”

The Ruan boss gritted her teeth, “It matters.”

She was someone who could independently shake a Ramos Gin Fizz without panting, how could she be stamped with such a label? Damn it, Chen Yuexin!!

“I said it doesn’t, then it doesn’t.” Xiao Wenyu pulled her back, not daring to let Xiao Wenyu use too much force. She had no choice but to follow her back, listening to the other person’s gentle voice, “We have time, I can wait for you to think it over slowly. This is also good, it can allow us both to calm down.”

Calm down, why calm down?

Only when you want to withdraw should you calm down, right?

Shouldn’t you passionately unleash your brain, why instead control your reason and calm down?

Ruan Shengyi trembled her lips, her voice slightly trembling, “You, don’t you want to be with me…”

Was it just because you pitied me that you…

Xiao Wenyu looked back at her in surprise, suddenly rolling her eyes at her, tapping her forehead, “What’s wrong with you? Why do you like to negate yourself so much?”

“Then you say…”

Ruan Shengyi stubbornly grabbed her arm, sniffled, stubbornly refusing to let her go, determined to hear Xiao Wenyu say something tonight.

Xiao Wenyu walked over, closed the door, then leaned against it with her back, looking up at this person, with a hint of annoyance, “Ruan boss, you’re so unreasonable.”

Ruan Shengyi: “…?”

“You don’t say anything, but you want to get so much out of me, isn’t that a little inappropriate?”

Ruan Shengyi panicked, about to open her mouth, but she saw the other person’s slightly smiling gaze and calmed down.

She wasn’t really angry.

The Ruan boss hummed, “I promise you, this matter will definitely not be delayed beyond this month, let me think about how to tell you. Then we…”

The Xiao boss resignedly sighed, reciting, “Yes, I don’t want to just be your neighbor. But I also have my own pride, I don’t want you to be too yielding to accommodate me, and I can’t lower my head to accommodate you too much. That would wrong both of us, it’s an unhealthy relationship. So…”

Xiao Wenyu looked at her, paused, and softly said, “You need to think quickly, I’m a little…”

I’m almost out of patience.

The cooked rice can be warmed up and served, Ruan Shengyi picked up the apron before her, asking, “Do you want to drink something tonight?”

Xiao Wenyu was slightly stunned, “I just cooked a bag of frozen dumplings, and two fried eggs for each of us, it shouldn’t need to be so grand, right?”

“Okay, it’s settled then.” Someone seemed to not have worked enough at the bar, taking out tools from the cabinet, “Tonight, I’ll make a slightly cool carbonated drink.”

This was completely disregarding her opinion!

Xiao Wenyu simply sat back on the sofa, picked up her book and continued reading. The childish person actually held the tools and followed her over, making it in front of her.

One minute, five minutes, ten minutes…

When Xiao Wenyu realized that she had flipped through more than twenty pages, the sound of ice colliding in the shaker was still diligently ringing.

She looked up in surprise, “Not done yet?”

The other person was focused on shaking the shaker, and hummed vaguely when she heard this, “Soon.”

“Soon” took almost five more pages of the book.

Xiao Wenyu looked at the person who had been shaking for more than ten minutes and was still not flushed or out of breath. She solemnly pushed the drink over for her to drink, and then went to the kitchen with steady steps to heat up the dumplings and fry the eggs…

The foamy drink in front of her, and this series of forcedly strong actions made her suddenly realize something.

She covered her face with the book and burst out laughing.

The composed person staggered, almost falling to the ground.

*

Soon it was time for the two of them to go out and play as they had agreed.

Ruan Shengyi was a little regretful, she had been waiting, actually waiting for a snow, but this year there was no snow, it was even late October, and the temperature was still above freezing.

The weather this year was too abnormal.

In previous years, the first snow should have arrived in mid-October, how could it be so warm this year and there was no trace of snow at all.

Ruan Shengyi moved the luggage and simply sat on the edge of the trunk, flipping through her phone.

What Xiao Wenyu saw when she came out carrying her things was such a scene. Relying on the advantage of her long arms and legs, the woman sat very freely on the floor of the trunk, one leg curled up, the other leg lightly touching the ground, her body half-hidden and half-exposed, including that originally cold profile and a little bit of blue hair that was not restrained behind her ears.

So free, so beautiful.

Xiao Wenyu touched the small gift prepared in her bag and sighed silently.

She had to pick a good time to give this small gift.

Ruan Shengyi saw the other person coming downstairs out of the corner of her eye, and walked over to take the small bag. “All packed?”

“It’s just going out for a week, there’s no need to bring too much.”

Ruan Shengyi lowered her head when she heard this, glanced at it, and breathed a sigh of relief, “It’s good that you brought the camera, I was afraid you wouldn’t bring this either.”

“How could I? Such a rare opportunity, if I have a professional one, I can’t always take pictures with my phone, right?”

Ruan Shengyi’s meaning wasn’t this, but now she hummed and defaulted that her meaning was this, raising her hand to gently put the bag down. “You’ve explained everything, right? Can we go now?”

Xiao Wenyu chuckled, “You’re a little impatient.”

“In so many years, I’ve been to many places in the east, but I haven’t really looked west to the great desert. Do you want to go back to your hometown along the way to take a look?”

The Ruan boss started the car, slightly lowering her eyes, “It’s not that convenient, we’re going to the edge of the desert this time, not into the desert. Going to my house would take another day of driving, your body wouldn’t be able to take it.”

Xiao Wenyu folded her arms, “Alright, let’s go then.”

It didn’t matter where they could go the farthest, it didn’t matter where they could only go the nearest. It was rare for adults to steal this quiet week from life, it could only be said that it was good that they were both working for themselves, and that the two peak traffic stages had already passed.

The weather was getting colder and colder, and fewer and fewer people were willing to go out. In the current situation where business was becoming more and more flat, it was indeed a good time to go out and play.

Xiao Wenyu smiled, gently gathering her slightly curved lower abdomen.

What’s more, there was also one who was in the best period to go out and play.

It was just that the people still in the store would be a little upset.

Xie Yu wiped the bar counter with indignation, suddenly throwing the cloth in her hand away, and cursing, “That dead woman went out to play, that’s fine!! Why do you have to send hundreds of photos every day!!!”

“Is she finally having the chance to take pictures? Hasn’t she seen enough yellow sand?”

“Ahhh, I’m so angry, I’m not doing it anymore, I’m going on strike!!”

Li Wan, who was holding a cup and sipping from a straw, shrank her shoulders, “She this…”

Ye Min smiled helplessly, “The pain of a working person, but we will also have holidays during the New Year, don’t pay attention to her.”

Li Wan glared, “Can we still have holidays during the New Year? Our business will be particularly good during the New Year! Teacher Xiao said that she will double my basic salary and commission when the New Year comes.”

The sound of throwing the cloth became louder.

The remaining two people immediately laughed.