(2/2)
Shan Yu didn’t speak, still leaning against the desk with his arms crossed. The coffee cup in his hand covered the lower half of his face, and the rising steam obscured the look in his eyes.
After saying this, Chen Jian felt he had no strength left to speak.
“Chen Jian,” Shan Yu lowered his eyes to look at the coffee in his cup, “you’re a bit beyond my expectations.”
“So there are times when your calculations are off,” Chen Jian said.
Shan Yu smiled and looked up at him. “Thank you.”
Chen Jian fell silent again.
“Just leave the blanket,” Shan Yu said. “Where are you taking it?”
“Don’t you want to throw it away?” Chen Jian asked.
“…I got a hundred thousand for free,” Shan Yu said, “but I’m not so ostentatious as to throw away a blanket just because it was on the floor for one night. A wash will do.”
“I thought you’d find it dirty,” Chen Jian said. “This carpet hasn’t been changed either; Qian Yu used it before.”
“Did he shit on the carpet?” Shan Yu asked.
“Hey!” Chen Jian exclaimed. “I slept on it for a night.”
Shan Yu laughed and took a sip of coffee.
“Then I’ll… take it to be washed,” Chen Jian said.
“Mhm,” Shan Yu nodded.
Chen Jian bent down, picked up the pillow as well, and walked out of the office holding them.
The moment the office door closed, Shan Yu put down his coffee cup and let out a soft breath.
He walked to the window and looked down. There was no one in the courtyard, only Mushroom chasing fallen leaves. When the wind blew, it would chase after the leaves; when the wind stopped, it would stick its butt in the air and wait…
Yue Lang and the others’ car wasn’t there. Those two were truly energetic. They had played so late yesterday and were out again early this morning, saying they wanted to go up the mountain to see the icefall.
Was there an icefall on the mountain?
Shan Yu really didn’t know. He wasn’t even sure if there was a waterfall, let alone whether it would freeze.
His deepest understanding of this mountain forest went as far as the rock halfway up the mountain, and the location of Chen Jian’s godmother.
And Chen Jian.
A phone chimed somewhere.
He circled the office twice but couldn’t find where it was. Luckily, the phone chimed again, and he finally found it on the shelf next to the sink.
It was a message from Chen Jian, which surprised him a little.
The boss was back from his business trip and sitting in the office overseeing the inn, and the manager was finally thinking about reporting his work?
He leaned against the wall and opened the message.
[Chen Yuluoyan]: I’ve never had the time or opportunity to like anyone, so I don’t really know what the right way to act is. Sometimes I get a bit awkward because I don’t know what’s considered normal.
[Chen Yuluoyan]: I didn’t know how to say it to you in person just now, so I’m making up for it now.
Shan Yu stared at these two messages for a long time.
How had Chen Jian grown up? Sometimes he felt he could imagine it, and other times he felt he couldn’t quite picture it.
Chen Jian had few friends, no life of his own. After his mother passed away, it seemed he hadn’t been able to form any truly intimate relationships with anyone, whether it was his father, Xiao Dou’er’s family, or even Tang Rui and Chen Xiaohu…
Let alone liking someone or not. He had neither the time nor the opportunity.
However… Shan Yu sighed softly. Although he could sense a lot from these two sentences, Chen Jian’s Chinese grades in school probably weren’t very good. The two sentences sounded like they were written by a foreigner.
He sent a reply to Chen Jian.
[Fa Dan Ke Chen]: Just be yourself. Do whatever you want to do, and say whatever you want to say.
Chen Jian’s reply came almost instantly, and in a series, but the subsequent messages had nothing to do with the reply.
[Chen Yuluoyan]: Okay.
[Chen Yuluoyan]: ?
[Chen Yuluoyan]: !!?
[Chen Yuluoyan]: WTF! What’s with your profile picture????
Shan Yu tapped on his own profile picture to take a look. What was wrong with it?
His previous profile picture was a random photo of a kitten he had encountered in a small grocery store.
Now, he had changed it to the best-looking one from Chen Jian’s crime scene photos.
It was genuinely good-looking, taken before he had messed up Chen Jian’s hair.
[Fa Dan Ke Chen]: ?
[Chen Yuluoyan]: When did you take that!
[Fa Dan Ke Chen]: Last night.
[Chen Yuluoyan]: …………………………………………………………….
[Chen Yuluoyan]: You’re awesome.
After a few seconds, he sent a GIF of a husky clapping.
[Chen Yuluoyan]: Impressive.
“Have you confirmed the quantities with them?” Chen Erhu came over and asked. “Lao Si and I are getting ready to go.”
Chen Erhu didn’t look at the phone, but Chen Jian was still startled and quickly exited the chat interface.
“Confirmed,” Chen Jian said. “Are you going now? Or after lunch?”
The purchase list had been sent over early in the morning. The part Dayin was responsible for needed to be prepared within three days.
“Let’s go now,” Chen Erhu’s eyes were still swollen, probably from crying yesterday, and he likely hadn’t slept enough, but his state of single-minded determination gave him plenty of energy. “We can just grab a bite there. There’s so much to buy. After we’re done, I’ll head to the fire safety training in the afternoon.”
“Alright,” Chen Jian glanced at Lao Si. Lao Si, being brainless, had clearly slept better than Chen Erhu. “Don’t just make do. You have a meal allowance.”
“Mhm,” Chen Erhu responded.
Chen Jian watched the two of them drive away, wandered around the courtyard for a bit, and then went out the gate.
The small path outside was covered in fallen leaves, very beautiful. San Bing and Lao Wu were cleaning up, but not sweeping everything away. They were just clearing the rotten leaves by the roadside and sweeping the newly fallen ones to the sides.
“Looks good, right?” San Bing propped himself up with the broom, hands on his hips, very proud.
“It looks good, a golden path,” Chen Jian said. “Pan Pan’s idea, right?”
“Why does it have to be her idea?” San Bing was a little unconvinced.
“Because we don’t have this kind of aesthetic sense,” Lao Wu said from the side.
“Damn it, don’t demoralize yourself to boost someone else’s ego!” San Bing glanced at him, but after a pause, he still nodded. “It was Pan Pan’s idea.”
Chen Jian smiled.
“We have more reservations today than usual,” San Bing said. “Make the path look nice, a bit of snow on the mountain, and the tourists will start coming.”
“Mhm,” Chen Jian looked towards the distant mountain peak.
Sunlight filtered through the shifting clouds, casting patches of light and shadow over the entire mountain forest. With another snowfall, the top would turn silvery-white, and it would be beautiful at sunrise.
“Yo, what happened to Brother Li?” San Bing looked behind Chen Jian, his expression a mixture of shock and a barely suppressed smile.
Chen Jian turned around and saw Da Li riding a motorcycle around the corner with a grim face. On such a cold day, Da Li was actually wet.
But not completely wet. It looked like a basin of water had been thrown at him.
It strongly resembled the usual tactic employed by the aunties in town during arguments.
Never mind San Bing, even Chen Jian couldn’t help but want to laugh. Overcome with curiosity, he asked, “What happened, Brother Li?”
“Damn it, I was just looking for you,” Da Li stopped his motorcycle beside him.
“What, did our manager do it?” San Bing’s interest was immediately piqued.
“I just went to the barbecue area…” Da Li glanced at San Bing. If it weren’t for the fact that as an ordinary person he was somewhat intimidated by the Pigsty Gang, he probably would have wanted to smack San Bing.
“What were you doing there alone?” Chen Jian pressed him.
“Not alone, I was with…” Da Li realized halfway through that he had misspoken, but the words were already out, so he vaguely finished his sentence, “…with them. We were just checking how to set up the venue…”
“Oh,” Chen Jian replied with a small smile.
“That bunch of barbecue bosses,” Da Li frowned, “they actually drove us away!”
“Why?” Chen Jian was taken aback. “Didn’t you say the venue was settled?”
“Someone disagreed,” Da Li said in a muffled voice.
“Who disagreed!” Lao Wu roared.
Da Li probably hadn’t fully recovered from the water-throwing battle and was so startled by Lao Wu’s shout that he almost lost his grip on the motorcycle. He looked at Lao Wu, “What are you yelling for!”
“Who disagreed?” San Bing asked again in a gentler tone.
“There were seven or eight families. I can’t list them all at once. That Old Lu’s wife started it,” Da Li said.
“Didn’t you guys settle it with the village council before?” Chen Jian asked.
“They’re saying now that the village can only manage the people surnamed Chen, they can’t control those with other surnames,” Da Li said, very annoyed.
Chen Jian glanced at San Bing, then at Lao Wu.
Chen Jian.
Chen Jiali.
Chen Ziyang.
The three villagers surnamed Chen couldn’t help but exchange a look.
“You’re all surnamed Chen, right?” Da Li also noticed the key point at this moment.
“Mhm,” San Bing nodded.
Except for Liu Yiting (Lao Si), the entire Pigsty Gang was the Chen family army.
“So I was thinking,” Da Li looked at Chen Jian, “could you guys go and communicate with them?”
“Why didn’t you ask us to go with you from the start?” San Bing asked.
Da Li gave an awkward smile. “We thought it wasn’t a big deal, just checking the venue.”
“You should have talked to those bosses before even discussing the venue,” Chen Jian was very annoyed. “This is a village. Many things aren’t handled this way.”
“If we can’t secure the venue, we can’t hold this bonfire festival. If we force it, there will definitely be trouble,” Da Li said.
“Then let’s not hold it,” Lao Wu said.
“It’s already been promoted for a while,” Da Li frowned. “Right now, it all depends on whether you guys can help… Your Boss Shan…”
Da Li lowered his voice. “Does he have any… crooked methods?”
“I’ll start performing rituals in a moment,” Shan Yu said, leaning back in his chair and slowly spinning it, half a turn to the right, half a turn to the left.
“They were already discussing this for a while. They had started promoting it even before they came to us,” Chen Jian stood in front of the desk, very displeased. “Now they haven’t sorted out a damn thing and want us to handle it. In their dreams!”
“If there were extra farts to give, we could give them some,” Shan Yu said.
Chen Jian looked at him, speechless for a moment, then leaned on the desk and laughed.
“What should we do?” Shan Yu looked at him.
“You’re asking me?” Chen Jian also looked at him.
“You are surnamed Chen, after all,” Shan Yu said.
“But the ones not cooperating are the families not surnamed Chen,” Chen Jian said.
“Are you familiar with those bosses?” Shan Yu asked.
“So-so,” Chen Jian said. “I’ve worked part-time for a few of them.”
“You can tell people apart and figure out the relationships, right?” Shan Yu asked again.
“Mhm,” Chen Jian nodded.
“Let’s go.” Shan Yu stood up, grabbing Chen Jian’s jacket from the sofa. “Let’s go see what’s going on.”
“Should we call their people?” Chen Jian asked.
“Are you silly?” Shan Yu said. “If we negotiate this successfully, are we supposed to share the credit with them?”
“What if we can’t negotiate it?” Chen Jian asked.
“If no one can negotiate it, then whoever did the promoting loses face,” Shan Yu said as he walked out of the office. “They definitely didn’t include us in the initial promotion anyway.”
“Actually…” Chen Jian frowned, “we should just let this whole thing fall through, get our money back…”
“Now you’re not thinking about business?” Shan Yu turned his head and smiled at him. “Manager.”
Chen Jian didn’t speak.
He wanted to, but Shan Yu’s smile dazed him a little.
In that one second, he forgot what he wanted to say.
Damn it.
“Where’s my car?” Shan Yu stood in the courtyard, looking at the empty parking space.
“That’s our Dayin’s car,” Chen Jian said.
“Where’s your Dayin’s car?” Shan Yu asked.
“Chen Erhu and Lao Si drove it away,” Chen Jian said. “For procurement. Chen Erhu has training at two-thirty in the afternoon, so they won’t be back until evening.”
“Starting a business is tough. We only have one car for hauling goods, picking up people, running errands…” Shan Yu said as he slowly walked past two guest cars and stopped at another empty spot. He then took out his phone. “Good thing there’s a backup car.”
“They left early in the morning, right?” Chen Jian said.
“Let me ask first,” Shan Yu dialed Yue Lang’s number. The call connected instantly.
Chen Jian could even hear Yue Lang’s voice: “He—llo—”
“You’ve been poisoned,” Shan Yu moved the phone away from his ear. “Where’s your car parked?”
“At the rafting start point—didn’t see the icefall—” Yue Lang was still shouting, “This rafting is quite…”
“Do you have a spare key?” Shan Yu interrupted him.
“In my wife’s backpack,” Yue Lang finally stopped shouting. “You need the car?”
“Mhm,” Shan Yu replied.
“Just open the door and get it yourself,” Yue Lang said. “Her bag is just thrown on the floor by the bed.”
Shan Yu hung up and held out his hand to Chen Jian. “Let me use the room card.”
“We’re just going into their room, a married couple’s room?” Chen Jian took out the room card, suddenly feeling like a thief.
“That’s our room,” Shan Yu took the card and started walking back.
Chen Jian followed him.
“You can wait for me downstairs,” Shan Yu said.
“It’s better… with two people,” Chen Jian said.
Shan Yu was a bit speechless and glanced at him. “Why don’t you turn on your video recorder again?”
Chen Jian laughed and said nothing.
“Fine,” Shan Yu thought for a moment. “After all, they are officially checked-in guests who have paid.”
After just one day, Yue Lang and Yao Yi’s room looked like it had been ransacked. The contents of their suitcases were almost all outside. Chen Jian even felt sorry for them, wondering how they would pack everything up when they left…
Fortunately, the backpack was right where Yue Lang had said. Shan Yu reached in and fished out the car key from the already empty bag.
“Let’s go.” Shan Yu tossed the key in the air, snapped his fingers, and caught it.
According to Shan Yu’s plan, they would first ride the motorcycle to the rafting start point, get Yao Yi’s car, and then turn back to the barbecue area.
As for why they needed to drive a car, the reason was simple.
“Because the one who went over on a motorcycle to negotiate already failed,” Shan Yu said.
Chen Jian started the motorcycle and glanced at Shan Yu, who was getting on. “Are you wearing enough clothes?”
“More than enough,” Shan Yu tugged at the scarf around his neck. “I even have this on tight.”
“Mhm.” Chen Jian zipped up his own jacket to the top.
“Isn’t your neck cold?” Shan Yu swung a leg over the back seat, and his left arm came around to wrap around his waist.
“I’m—not used to it,” although Chen Jian was mentally prepared, the embrace made his core tighten and his voice go high. He cleared his throat. “I lost three while working part-time before. You have to take it off to work, and once you take it off, you lose it, so I stopped using them.”
“Oh,” Shan Yu responded.
Chen Jian twisted the throttle, and the motorcycle moved forward.
The road to the rafting start point was newly paved. Although narrow, the condition was very good. Chen Jian was grateful for this road. Otherwise, with half of his attention currently on his waist, he might not have reacted in time to a bump.
Once tourists arrived, most would come to experience the ice stream rafting. Although there were probably few frozen spots now, the parking lot was still filled with many cars.
Yao Yi’s car was parked right next to the rafting shuttle bus boarding point. It was clear those two were too lazy to walk an extra step.
They got into the car, and as soon as the doors closed, the wind and its sound disappeared instantly. Chen Jian leaned back and exhaled.
“Cold, right?” Shan Yu started the car and turned on the heat.
“I’ll warm up in a bit,” Chen Jian said. “I didn’t wear a helmet. It would have been much better with a helmet.”
“Doesn’t a helmet mess up your hairstyle?” Shan Yu glanced at him with a smile.
“I can just run my hands through it a couple of times, my hair is stiff,” Chen Jian ran his hands through his hair twice, then suddenly remembered Shan Yu’s profile picture and couldn’t help but glance at him. “Your profile picture…”
“Do you have an opinion on it?” Shan Yu said while picking up a pass from the center console to examine it. “Take this. If it comes to it, let’s see if we can bluff someone with it.”
“What is it?” Chen Jian asked.
Shan Yu showed him the pass and put it in his own pocket.
On it was written something like “Provincial Tourism and Culture Work Conference, Attendee Pass.”
“It’s Yao Yi’s, right?” Chen Jian was stunned. “Who are you going to bluff with this? Isn’t there a photo on the other side?”
“Who’s going to let them see the other side?” Shan Yu said. “Keep it handy, just in case.”
“They’ll beat you up if they find out,” Chen Jian said.
“Let them try, they’ll lose an arm and a leg,” Shan Yu said.
According to Da Li, the one who started the trouble at the barbecue area was Old Lu’s wife, which meant the real instigator was Old Lu.
Old Lu wasn’t usually aggressive, but in a small town where most villagers were surnamed Chen and tended to stick together, you couldn’t do business without being a bit fierce.
Shan Yu parked the car in front of Old Lu’s shop.
There were several people in the shop at the moment. As Chen Jian got out of the car, someone lifted the door curtain to peek out, then let it drop.
When Chen Jian reached the entrance, Old Lu came out.
“Uncle Lu,” Chen Jian greeted him.
“Why did they send you again,” Old Lu said with a straight face. “Let me tell you, it’s no use no matter who comes.”
“Our boss is here,” Chen Jian glanced at the car behind him.
For some reason, as he said this, he had the illusion that he was saying, “Our big boss is here.”
What a pity. Because the manager couldn’t drive, the boss would have to get out of the driver’s seat with a crippled arm, which wouldn’t seem very imposing.
“Your boss?” Old Lu looked at the car. “Is it that Boss Shan?”
“Yes,” Chen Jian nodded.
The very same Boss Shan who had taken in the entire Pigsty Gang and used high-tech means to send Chen Dahu to prison—the one who previously had a crippled leg and now had a crippled arm.
Old Lu’s expression finally changed. “What is he here for?”
“To talk,” Chen Jian said.
And if talking doesn’t work, to bluff.
