Chapter 38
Lin Yuewei wandered around downstairs like a headless fly for a while before finally running to look for her mother.
She knocked on the door.
Her mother’s hearty voice came from inside. “I’m asleep! Don’t come looking for me!”
“...”
Hah. Her mother, that matchmaker who refused to give up, was putting on a whole dead-as-a-doornail act as soon as she got home.
Lin Yuewei kept pounding on the door and, regardless of whatever strange stunt her mother was pulling, called out right at the doorway, “Are there any new toothbrushes at home? Your darling little Gu Yanqiu doesn’t have one. How is she supposed to brush her teeth tonight?”
“There aren’t any spares in your room?”
“My electric toothbrush only has a spare head.” Lin Yuewei mischievously scraped her fingers against the door, producing an ear-piercing sound that made Lin Mother inside crawl with discomfort. “Stop scratching! What a bad habit!”
Lin Yuewei giggled. “Hurry up, Mom, get me a new one.”
She pressed her ear to the door and heard footsteps moving back and forth inside. She straightened at once. The door in front of her was pulled open, and Lin Mother poked her head out furtively, looking behind Lin Yuewei.
“Where’s the Gu family girl?”
“Taking a shower.”
“How do you know she’s taking a shower?” Lin Mother’s eyes lit up instantly.
“She asked me for a toothbrush before showering.” Lin Yuewei simplified things and lied with skill, holding out her hand. “The toothbrush?”
Lin Mother handed over a brand-new toothbrush.
“Don’t keep bullying her,” Lin Mother reminded her.
“Me? Bullying her?” Lin Yuewei felt more wronged than Dou E ever did. With Gu Yanqiu’s temperament, who would dare bully her? She could freeze people to death without even trying; bully her, indeed.
Lin Mother raised a brow. “You, of course. So overbearing.”
“Fine, fine. You’re completely biased toward outsiders now, so I’m not arguing with you.” Lin Yuewei tossed the new toothbrush in her hand once and caught it, then headed upstairs.
Lin Mother shut the door and sat back down on the bed, then suddenly stiffened.
Wait a minute. Why had she gone upstairs after handing someone a toothbrush?
By the time Lin Yuewei got upstairs, she glanced back with lingering fear. She’d been careless just now and hadn’t been on guard; she should have headed toward the guest room first instead of going straight upstairs. Fortunately, her mother hadn’t noticed, or she would have seized on it and gone on and on and on. Wasn’t it possible that in her last life she’d been mute, and in this one she was making up for it by talking ten times as much?
Lin Yuewei sat on the bed and waited for Gu Yanqiu to finish bathing, flipping the toothbrush up and down in her hand. As she thought back on her mother’s attitude, she found it a little strange. It wasn’t as if her mother had never introduced her to potential dates before, but most of those attempts had stayed at the level of talk. If Lin Yuewei strongly expressed that she didn’t like someone, her mother would also tactfully shut up and then move on to the next one. Rather than really wanting Lin Yuewei to find a partner and date, it was more like she was passing time or teasing her.
This time was weird. It actually seemed like she’d gotten serious and pulled out every trick in the book.
Could it be because Lin Yuewei and Gu Yanqiu had gotten their marriage certificate, so Gu Yanqiu was different in her eyes? Or maybe because her father had been on business trips a little too often lately, she’d gotten even more bored at home and started treating this as a career?
Lin Yuewei clicked her tongue and reached for her phone to call her father.
Strangely, no one answered until the call automatically hung up. Lin Yuewei pulled the phone down to confirm the number, then dialed again. After two rings, Lin Father picked up.
“Weiwei, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I heard from Mom that you’re on another business trip?”
“Yes, work’s been too busy lately. Several projects piled up at once.” Lin Father asked, “Did you need something?”
“No. I’m fine; Mom’s the one who has something.”
“What happened to her?” Lin Father’s tone changed immediately.
“Nothing, either. Can you not be this nervous every time? Spare a thought for your biological daughter’s feelings.” Lin Yuewei laughed. Her father and mother had been together for so many years, and their relationship was still as good as ever; at the slightest sign of trouble, his voice would shoot up with worry.
One reason Lin Yuewei had always disliked dating was this, too. She felt there probably wasn’t a man or woman in the world better than her father. Comparing everyone to him, she’d ended up single all the way.
“Then tell me, if nothing happened, why are you calling? I’m about to die of anxiety here.”
Lin Yuewei glanced toward the bathroom. The sound of the shower hadn’t stopped. Still wary, she lowered her voice. “Gu Yanqiu; my cheap wife, the one that doesn’t count, is at our house right now. Mom invited her over for lunch.”
“Wasn’t it lunch? Why is she still there at night?” Lin Father asked, baffled.
“She ate lunch, then ate dinner, and after dinner she stayed the night.” Lin Yuewei roughly recounted her mother’s antics to Lin Father. Lin Father leaned against the wall laughing until he could barely breathe. “That really does sound like something your mother would do.”
“And you’re laughing? If you don’t come home soon, I’m going to be driven to hang myself by Mom.”
“What are you saying? Don’t say such unlucky things.”
“We already have so much money at home; there’s no need to work ourselves this hard anymore, and I can make money now.” Lin Yuewei got to the real reason for her call. “Come home more when you have time and keep Mom company. Money is never finished.”
“Mm, I know. I’ll be back in a couple of days.”
“Then go to bed early. I won’t bother you anymore.”
“You too. Good night, good daughter.”
“Good night.”
After Lin Yuewei hung up, three to five minutes later, Gu Yanqiu came out with water still dripping from her hair and asked, “Miss Lin, do you have a towel for drying hair?”
“Yes. I’ll get one for you.” Lin Yuewei casually glanced at her chest, but her eyes slipped, by accident, over the faintly exposed whiteness. Gu Yanqiu was still wearing the low-cut slip dress she’d been given. At that moment, as she bent down slightly, that area became even more eye-catching.
Lin Yuewei hurriedly averted her gaze and, half-turning her body, handed the towel over to Gu Yanqiu. As if afraid something might happen, she rushed to send her off with, “Uh, it’s pretty late. You should go downstairs and sleep. You still have work tomorrow.”
Gu Yanqiu, who had been shoved a towel and then “sent out” like this: “...”
Gu Yanqiu tilted her head, a trace of puzzlement lifting at the corner of her brow. She wrapped the towel around her hair and wiped it as she went downstairs, her steps light. Lin Yuewei couldn’t hear her footsteps outside anymore, and an irritated feeling rose in her again. She scratched at her hair, grabbed a set of pajamas at random, and slipped into the bathroom, tipping her head back so hot water poured from head to toe.
At midnight, Lin Yuewei, tossing and turning in bed, received a text from Gu Yanqiu: Good night.
Lin Yuewei stared at it for several minutes and still didn’t dare reply. She shut her eyes tightly.
The night passed peacefully.
In summer, daylight came early. Her room faced the sun, and Gu Yanqiu opened her eyes in the pale morning light, reaching up to untie the rope connecting her wrist to the bedhead. She stretched her limbs, then after washing up, opened the door.
Lin Mother was sleeping soundly in her dream. Her ear twitched; she seemed to hear the front door make a sound. Thinking she must have heard wrong, she rolled over and went back to sleep.
By the time they both woke up, Gu Yanqiu was already nowhere to be seen.
When Lin Mother got up in the morning and didn’t see Gu Yanqiu, she thought Gu Yanqiu and Lin Yuewei must have secretly slept together in the middle of the night. She was secretly delighted for a while, and when Lin Yuewei kept sleeping in and not getting up, she didn’t even let the maid go call her, letting her sleep instead, afraid of disturbing her.
At 8:30 a.m., seeing that if she still didn’t get up she’d be late for work, Lin Mother personally went upstairs to knock on the door.
Lin Yuewei, with messy hair and bleary eyes, complained to her, “What are you doing? You won’t even let me sleep. Do you even know your precious daughter hasn’t had one good night’s sleep in four months? This is the first time I’ve slept at home in all this time.”
“Sleep all you want. I’m not looking for you; I’m looking for the Gu family girl.”
“Gu Yanqiu?” Lin Yuewei leaned against the door, opening her eyes a little wider. “Wasn’t she sleeping downstairs? Why are you coming to me?”
“She’s not there.”
“Maybe she went for a walk in the garden. People like her old cadres probably have that habit.” Lin Yuewei yawned. “Mom, do you need anything else? If not, I’m going back to sleep.”
“Wait. She couldn’t have left without saying goodbye. Did she send you a message?”
“No.”
Lin Mother wore a stern face.
“I said no means no. What am I to her, that she’d message me all the time?”
“Check your phone.”
Lin Yuewei swayed drowsily by the bedside, picked up her phone, unlocked the screen, and blinked at her blurry vision. “I told you there wasn’t—”
She suddenly widened her eyes.
There really was one.
[I went home to change clothes before work. Thank you, and please thank Auntie for her hospitality for me.]
Lin Mother knew something was up as soon as she saw her freeze there. “Was there a message?”
Lin Yuewei showed her mother the phone.
Lin Mother immediately beamed. “I knew it. She’s not the sort of person who’s rude. But why would she send a message to you and not to me?”
Lin Mother looked at Lin Yuewei with an expression full of implications.
Lin Yuewei got a chill from the way she was being looked at. “How would I know?”
“How can you not know? Then explain why.”
“Maybe she was afraid you sleep lightly when you’re old, and a message would wake you up.” Lin Yuewei didn’t want to argue with her mother; she found a random excuse to brush her off and practically coaxed and shoved her mother out of her room.
Lin Yuewei breathed a sigh of relief, looked at the line on the phone, and bit her lip as she thought dazedly: Right, why didn’t she send a message to her mother, who seemed closer to her, and instead sent one to me?
Could it be that...
Lin Yuewei once again scolded herself for being narcissistic. Thinking it through in reverse, if Gu Yanqiu had messaged her mother and not her, then wouldn’t she be imagining that Gu Yanqiu was deliberately trying to hide something?
It was just a message. Either her or her mother; either way, it made sense. What was there to think about?
She might as well sleep a few more times and prepare for the battlefield ahead.
Lin Yuewei lay back under the covers, but after her mother had interrupted her sleep, she couldn’t fall back asleep no matter what. She got up from the bed and called Shao Yasi to chat.
The other was from out of town and had also gone home, but she was a little better off than Lin Yuewei; she’d already eaten breakfast and was out shopping with her mother at the supermarket. Shao Yasi said that she’d been recognized by passersby outside today and so on.
Lin Yuewei chatted with her casually for a few sentences, then hung up and went downstairs.
Lin Yuewei had never been the sort to stay home quietly anyway. Hearing Shao Yasi talk, her hands started itching; taking the risk of being recognized, she was going out for a stroll today too. While drinking her porridge, she sent Jiang Congbi a WeChat message.
[Want to go out and have some fun? [wink]]
Jiang Congbi replied with a “sleepy” emoji and immediately sent a voice message: “My dear Miss Lin, have you forgotten what day it is? It’s Monday. A wage slave like me has to go to work. Yesterday I called you out and you didn’t come out; today I don’t have time.”
Lin Yuewei replied with a smile, “You’re that serious about work? I thought you could just skip whenever you wanted.”
“Of course. Going through the motions still matters. Even if I were sitting in the office playing games all day, I’d still have to cry out with a rotten voice, ‘I absolutely will not be late or leave early.’”
“Your awareness is impressive.” Lin Yuewei said, “Who else isn’t at work right now and could come out to play anytime? Recommend someone for me.”
Jiang Congbi thought for a moment and gave her a few names, all of which Lin Yuewei rejected.
Jiang Congbi spread her hands. “Then there’s nothing I can do. Everyone else has been hauled into the company, just like me.”
Lin Yuewei said, “Fine. Then I’ll go out on my own.”
Jiang Congbi reminded her, “Be careful. Don’t get photographed in any bad pictures.”
“What... counts as a bad picture?” Lin Yuewei always felt there was some deeper meaning in her words.
“Oh, I was just saying it casually, telling you to pay attention. You’re a celebrity now; people might recognize you at any time.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“I’ll go verify it later.”
“As long as you’re happy. I’m not talking to you anymore; my assistant just reminded me I need to go to a meeting. Message me on WeChat if you need anything; I’ll reply when I’m free.” The newly minted wage slave Jiang Congbi hung up first just like that.
Lin Yuewei replayed her last few words and couldn’t help laughing. Jiang Congbi had been carefree for over twenty years; now that she’d started working, she really did sound like she meant it. She blew on the porridge in her spoon and felt a natural wave of satisfaction. Everyone had grown up.
Suddenly, Lin Yuewei thought of the white hairs on her mother’s head and looked up to ask, “Mom, have you been unhappy lately?”
Lin Mother: “What are you talking about?”
Lin Yuewei raised her voice. “I asked if you’ve been unhappy lately!”
“No, I’m in the house every day tending flowers and plants; when I’m bored I can even help set you up with a match. What’s there to be unhappy about? Oh, right.” Her sentence was delivered quickly, almost as if she were stacking words one on top of another, but the final “oh, right” was emphasized, as if the earlier part had all been paving the way for it. “I’ve picked out a new house for you. When your father gets back, you can come with us to sign the papers.”
“Sign what papers?”
“You’re the owner. If you don’t sign, who will?”
“Why are you buying me a house again for no reason?” Over the years, the Lin family had gradually put quite a few assets in Lin Yuewei’s name, including property; even the previous marital home, the detached three-story villa Gu Yanqiu was now living in, was registered under Lin Yuewei’s name. Lin Yuewei said, “I don’t want it.”
Lin Mother said, “Hey, you brat. Other people’s kids beg their parents to buy them a house, and you’re refusing.”
Lin Yuewei said, “Other people’s families are other people’s families. I’m me. I already told you I won’t take either of your money in the future. Keep it for your own retirement, be good.”
“Would I need that much for retirement?” Lin Mother said. “You have to take this house whether you want it or not.”
“How are you being so shameless?”
Lin Mother glared at her. “I am being shameless. What about it?”
Lin Yuewei spread her hands like a rogue. “Then I’ll be shameless too. I just don’t want it. What are you going to do about that?”
“You—” Lin Mother’s eyes suddenly turned red. She pulled a tissue from the table and pressed it to the corner of her eye, turning her back.
Lin Yuewei was so scared she dropped her spoon.
Why was she crying just because she didn’t want a house?
“Mom.”
“Don’t call me Mom.” Lin Mother dodged the hand Lin Yuewei reached out to touch her.
“Mom...” Lin Yuewei was at a loss. “At least tell me what you’re crying about.”
“You’re unfilial.”
With such a huge label of “unfilial” slapped on her, Lin Yuewei was dazed by the blow. “How am I being unfilial? Just because I don’t want you to buy me a house?”
Lin Mother: “Ah.”
Lin Yuewei: “...”
Lin Mother: “What difference does it make if there’s one more house under your name or one less? We already bought you so many before, and I didn’t see you refusing those. Anyway, it’s just sitting there preserving its value. Whether it’s under your name or mine and your dad’s name, a mother just wants to leave a little more for her child. Did I do something wrong?”
Lin Yuewei: “...”
Thinking it over carefully, that did seem reasonable.
Lin Yuewei still tried to struggle a little. “Then write it under your name instead. Just like mine.”
Lin Mother looked at her with red-rimmed eyes; tears fell in a patter, but she didn’t say anything.
Lin Yuewei’s defenses collapsed like a mountain. She gave in at once. “Fine, fine. Buy it, buy it. Put it under my name, then.”
Lin Mother broke into tears and laughter. “You little brat.”
She stretched out lazily, picked up the water jug, and went out to the garden; there was no trace left of the tears that had just been streaming down her face.
Lin Yuewei: “...”
***
Gu Yanqiu submitted a layoff recommendation to the HR department for the second time, asking that several parasites in her department be removed. The first time it had been rejected, but this time, unexpectedly, it passed.
It was said that one of the higher-ups had approved it. This higher-up, acting entirely on their own, had eliminated all obstacles and given Gu Yanqiu back a bright, clean department.
The day Lin Zhi saw those few parasites in the department leave with their bedding rolled up, furious but unable to say anything, he was utterly stunned. Supposedly, all of them had backgrounds; even Lin Zhi, whose position ought to have been above theirs, had to lower himself a bit in front of them and avoided ordering them around unless absolutely necessary.
And they were just gone???
As they left, the few of them shot a hateful glare in the direction of Gu Yanqiu’s office. Gu Yanqiu naturally couldn’t see it, but Lin Zhi smiled back at them. Of course, they didn’t return the favor, and Lin Zhi didn’t care. They were leaving anyway.
Lin Zhi was full of questions. At the end of the workday, he asked Gu Yanqiu, “Little Gu, are those people resigning, or were they transferred to another department?”
The program was over; Gu Yanqiu had picked up her fountain pen again. She said lightly, “They were fired.”
“Then they resigned?” Lin Zhi said excitedly.
“Do you not understand what ‘fired’ means?” Gu Yanqiu asked back.
“I do, I do. I just can’t believe it.” Lin Zhi looked at her hopefully for a while, as if wanting to get some specific details on how she’d done it. One second, two seconds, three seconds.
Gu Yanqiu lifted her head.
Lin Zhi made a posture of attentive listening.
Gu Yanqiu said, “Do you want to stay and work overtime? Since a few people have left, there isn’t much work among the rest, but there is still some. Why don’t you take it over?”
“I’m going home. Goodbye, Little Gu.” Lin Zhi fled immediately, moving so fast it looked like he had wheels under his feet, afraid Gu Yanqiu would catch him by the tail and dump all the work on him.
Gu Yanqiu smiled softly.
After a while, Lin Zhi came back again. “Little Gu, I thought about it. Those people really didn’t have much work. Why don’t you give it to me? I’m still young; I can handle overtime.”
The company’s overtime pay was very generous; besides, Lin Zhi figured that as a newcomer in the workplace, he ought to show himself as capable and diligent in front of his boss if he wanted better chances at promotion.
“No need. I was teasing you.” Gu Yanqiu waved a hand. “Go on.”
“Really no need?”
“Really no need.” Gu Yanqiu pinched a ballpoint pen out of the pen holder and made a show of throwing it; only then did Lin Zhi truly run for it.
Just after she “chased” Lin Zhi away, Gu Yanqiu’s phone rang. The caller ID showed: Wu XX.
“President Wu.” Gu Yanqiu answered the call.
This President Wu was one of the highest-ranking people Tianrui had sent the last time Gu Yanqiu went with them to negotiate a deal. The deal later fell through, and Gu Yanqiu suspected the other party had already found another buyer. President Wu gave Gu Yanqiu the job of investigating it. Over time, Gu Yanqiu and President Wu had developed a bit of a connection.
Later, when Gu Huai told Gu Yanqiu about the fighting inside the company, she learned that this President Wu was actually Little President Wu, one of the leading figures in the faction advocating for a public listing. Gu Huai’s intention was for her to infiltrate the Little Wu and Big Wu faction and draw the tiger into the cage.
This layoff had the support of that President Wu from above.
After Gu Yanqiu finished the call, she packed up her things and left the office.
***
“Buying a house for Weiwei?” Two days later, after returning from her business trip, Lin Father rested briefly. After dinner, during the commercial break while watching the evening news in the living room, Lin Mother brought up the suggestion.
“Yes. I looked at a neighborhood recently; it has pretty good appreciation potential, so I thought I’d buy it for her.”
“Didn’t we just buy one when she got married a while ago?”
“Isn’t the Gu family girl living in that one?” Lin Mother leaned against Lin Father’s arm. “You know what their real relationship is; they don’t even live together. I think this neighborhood is more suitable.”
“Where is it?” Lin Father lifted his eyelids and smiled gently.
Lin Mother took out a brochure she had prepared long ago. “This neighborhood.”
Lin Father looked through it carefully, his brows slowly knitting together. “This place? The appreciation potential may not be as high as this area.” He pointed to another plot on the map.
“Then should we buy there?”
“I’ll have to look into it later. Real estate prices are so high now; a house is no small sum, and we still have to consider the company’s cash flow.”
Lin Mother made a look of annoyance. “I already told Yuewei. I was going to take her to handle the home-buying procedures in a couple of days. If we don’t buy it now... sigh, I talked too fast. If only I hadn’t told her.”
Lin Father: “You told her?”
Lin Mother nodded.
Lin Father pinched the bridge of his nose and took a light breath. “Then I’ll go check it out for her these next two days. A promise can’t be taken back.”
For that instant, Lin Mother’s gaze toward him became very gentle, yet very sad. But that emotion lingered only briefly in her eyes before vanishing all at once. Worried, she said, “Won’t this tire you out too much? The company is already so busy, and you still have to worry about these little things.”
Lin Father held her hand and smiled. “It won’t. Don’t you know who your husband is?”
He said it with a bit of pride, the tiny tail of smugness almost visible, just like the young man he’d been over twenty years ago.
A trace of reluctance flashed through Lin Mother’s eyes, then quickly turned into resolve.
“Then watch the news and go to bed early today.”
“Okay.”
The evening news was the businessman’s weather forecast; Lin Father watched it religiously every day. By the time it ended, it was only 7:30 p.m., but today he hadn’t even waited for the broadcast to finish before slumping asleep on the sofa. Lin Mother draped a blanket over him and stood quietly beside him, gazing at him with countless complicated emotions flickering in her eyes.