Ch124.2 – Dinner Party

Both the hosts and guests enjoyed themselves this dinner. In the end, Zhou Laichun said, “Zhou Sheng, send Xiao Pei and the rest back to their hotel first? I’ll chat with your uncle a little more. Drive my car, you didn’t drink.” As he spoke, he threw his car keys to Zhou Sheng. Zhou Sheng and Yu Hao got their driving licenses in the first semester of their third year, but they hardly drove usually.

Zhou Sheng and Xiao Pei left and walked along the road. Zhou Laichun’s chauffeur knew what to do and was already nowhere to be found, the car was parked by the roadside.

The lamps flickered on. Zhou Sheng looked around the surroundings, Xiao Pei said, “Ying City’s developing really well.”

Zhou Sheng thought about it, then asked, “Are you going to be a PE teacher then?”

“I actually want to be a reporter.” Xiao Pei answered, “But I’m no good at socialising with others, so I have to give up on that.”

“Is it?” Zhou Sheng smiled, “My lover’s working as a reporter.”

“Ah?” Xiao Pei felt a little embarrassed at once, but quickly reacted.

Zhou Sheng said, “What did they tell you?’

“Uh……” Xiao Pei felt a little angry, but fortunately Zhou Sheng made things clear so she nodded, “Your father opposes you two, right?”

“Un.” After Zhou Sheng confirmed it, there was nothing to be concerned about this anymore.

Xiao Pei said, “I wish you two all the best. Where’s your lover?”

“Beijing.” Zhou Sheng said.

Xiao Pei said, “A long-distance relationship is quite tough ba? You must persevere.”

“It’s okay.” Zhou Sheng said, “It’s not tough.”

Xiao Pei said, “I heard from your father that you’re leading a team by yourself to expand the business. It must have been tiring lately. You just finished a meeting today too, go back earlier to take a rest ba.”

Zhou Sheng laughed, “Do you know how to wield rods?”

Xiao Pei, “Rods?”

Zhou Sheng said, “I know how to wield rods, like this, this……” As he spoke, he swung a non-existent jingubang around a few times, “And this……fuck it all, I’ll smash Yun Lai Chun into pieces with this rod!”

“Hahahaha——!” Xiao Pei stood by the roadside and started laughing loudly.

After a while, Xiao Pei thought about it and said, “Teach me after you succeed, fuck auditing. I’ll smash the CSRC into pieces with a rod.”

Zhou Sheng shuddered and thought, at the very least I’m just tearing my own family’s company down, but you want to destroy the CSRC? Then he said to Xiao Pei, “Chivalrous Swordswoman, you are brave. I’ll send you back to the hotel.”

Zhou Sheng drove Xiao Pei back to her hotel. They talked a little more, and in the end Zhou Sheng rolled the window down, “Xiao Pei!”

Xiao Pei turned around and smiled at Zhou Sheng. Zhou Sheng waved, “Persevere in your ideals!”

Xiao Pei smiled helplessly, it was a very sweet smile, “Jiayou to you too.”

Yu Hao, “There are quite a few shared bikes, it wouldn’t be too bad to get the leaders to sober up one by one……”

They still didn’t forget to diss each other at this kind of time, Yu Hao was really speechless. Lin Ze started flagging taxis and stuffed each one of them into one. Yu Hao said, “Boss has such a high alcohol tolerance……”

“Xiao Ye’s better than me.” Lin Ze’s eyes narrowed, “A few of our neighbouring departments would drink whenever they come, but he could almost hold off all of our drinks for us. And see, he still looks like nothing had happened to him.”

Yu Hao thought about it and realised he was right. Whenever the reporter and editing department offered a drink, Situ Ye would down them all and practically decimate them all. What was even more kickass was that his face was only a little red now even after drinking so much. This Lady Boss was absolutely incredible; he had slightly curly hair, his eyes were as clear as a limpid lake, he had such amazing photography skills and this high of an alcohol tolerance too. Where on earth did Lin Ze find such an excellent boyfriend? But after thinking about it carefully, these two are quite well matched.

“You flatter me.” Situ Ye said, “I just have a little bit of an advantage because of my hometown’s habits.”

“I feel like you’re Russian?” Yu Hao realised that Situ Ye did look a little like a mixed-blood.

“In what way does your Lady Boss resemble a hairy fellow?! Uyghur! A Chinese ethnic group!” Situ Ye didn’t know if he should cry or laugh, then his thoughts were diverted, “Did you not want to sing today?”

That little bit of reluctance in Yu Hao’s heart was seen through by Situ Ye. He was slightly unwilling, but he answered, “It’s okay, as long as it would make the leaders happy, it’s nothing much.”

This was Yu Hao’s first time singing specifically for people other than Zhou Sheng since the first day they met. It’s not like it was a matter of principle though. Singing a song, trying to please the leaders, he just treated it as helping Lin Ze. He still liked this team very much.

“He gave us back our public number.” Lin Ze answered, “You’ve worked hard.”

“Really?!” Yu Hao said.

Lin Ze, “He said so while smoking, you weren’t paying attention. Now you can have a good night sleep ba?”

Situ Ye said, “So, you didn’t put on a monkey act for nothing.”

Yu Hao was really thankful to the Heavens. He was still quite lucky after following Lin Ze; they could always overcome any dangers they faced. Situ Ye said, “He probably just wanted to knock us down a little and show off his might, to let Ah Ze know that he still has authority.”

“Will Jin Laoshi be able to get up tomorrow?” Lin Ze didn’t answer that and looked back, signalling that they shouldn’t discuss that in front of Jin Weicheng.

Jin Weicheng had drunk quite a bit but definitely not as much as Situ Ye. Situ Ye tossed Yu Hao a cunning look, meaning ‘power level 5 weakling’. Yu Hao realised that this Lady Boss of his was really too interesting and easily bore grudges since he remembered the words ‘raised by the rich’ for so long. Today, Situ Ye accepted all the drinks that were for Lin Ze and Yu Hao, but he just refused to help Jin Weicheng block his drinks, resulting in Jin Weicheng’s extreme discomfort from drinking so much.

“I can.” Jin Weicheng was thoroughly exhausted, “I’ll be fine after I sleep.”

“I’ll sing a song too to entertain everyone too.” Situ Ye said, “I can’t let our Xiao Yu sing in vain, listen up —— one, two, three, up! Huba, huba! Huba! Huba!”

Lin Ze, who sat in the passenger seat, seemed to have known what Situ Ye wanted to sing, so he immediately started singing along with him in a lilting voice.

“Daban City’s stone roads are hard and even na, watermelons are big and sweet, girls from there have long braids——”

Yu Hao, “Hahahahaha!”

“Those eyes are really pretty ——” Situ Ye and Lin Ze started jumping on the car.

“If you’re going to marry someone, don’t marry someone else, you must marry me. Bring your dowry, sing your song, come in the carriage to me——”

Yu Hao started singing aloud in the car as well, and the Didi driver sang with them too. They were just like a bunch of lunatics.

The car arrived at the bottom of Yu Hao’s apartment.

“I’ll send you up?” Lin Ze said.

After Yu Hao finished singing, his urge to puke grew even stronger. He said weakly, “I’ll be fine on my own. Jin Laoshi, I’ll call you tomorrow.”

Jin Weicheng was already asleep.

After Yu Hao got home, he felt like his cold had gotten a little worse. He wanted to vomit, but he couldn’t. He opened up his laptop since he wanted to finish writing his review and send it to Lin Ze. After doing that, he wouldn’t need to take his laptop with him when he goes out for an interview tomorrow. That way, it wouldn’t be easily stolen either.

He forced himself to tolerate the discomfort from his cold and typed in a few sentences, but he really couldn’t hold on any longer and set an alarm for 6am. He’d wake up in the morning to finish his review. If he slept now, he’d still have 6 hours of sleep, and he’ll just pack up tomorrow morning ba.

Yu Hao felt like dying. He hadn’t fallen this gravely ill in several years. He took his medication again and slept muddle headed for a while. The fever medication couldn’t suppress it, and he started burning up again in the middle of the night.

At 2am, Yu Hao saw a video call from Zhou Sheng. He groped around for his phone and accepted it.

He had no energy left to turn on the light, but Zhou Sheng’s side was very bright.

“Wife?” Zhou Sheng said, “You haven’t slept? You don’t need to go to work tomorrow ba?”

“I’m dying.” Yu Hao said with a fever, “I don’t think I can make it.”

Zhou Sheng, “……”

“I’m so tired.” Yu Hao lay in bed, and after repressing his emotions for so long, he finally collapsed, “I feel so useless.”

Zhou Sheng, “Baby, how much did you drink? Didn’t someone help you? Turn on the light, let me take a look? What’s going on? Turn on the light!”

“I feel so terrible.” Yu Hao said, “I’m so hungry, but I can’t eat anything.”

Zhou Sheng said, “I’ll get Kaikai to go see you now.”

“I don’t want to see him.” Yu Hao said, “Don’t……I look too terrible. I still need to go out for interviews with Laoshi tomorrow, it’ll be an eleven-hour ride on a hard seat. I’m running out of money, transfer me some ba, 1000 is enough……” Yu Hao suddenly flipped over and finally vomited.

Zhou Sheng didn’t say anything for a long time and just breathed deeply, “Turn on the light ah! What’s the matter with you! There’s a card in one of your bag’s pockets……didn’t you see it? Spend the money in it!”

“I’ll sleep for a bit.” Yu hao closed his eyes, “I’ll talk to you again in the morning. I’m getting up in the morning to write a review. A Notice of Criticism for the entire company. I can’t hold on anymore, I can’t. The time we spent together was so great, I feel like the me then really didn’t know how……to be content. I just knew how to torment you, I’m sorry……my phone’s about to run out of battery……”

Yu Hao felt much better right after vomiting and didn’t want to clean it up.

His phone ran out of battery and automatically shut down.

Zhou Sheng hadn’t changed his clothes yet, and his hair was a complete mess as he stood in the living room of their rented house. He sent Yu Hao another WeChat message, no reply. He texted Lin Ze, but he didn’t reply either. Situ Ye replied and answered:【He didn’t drink much, but he has a bit of a cold. He still seemed quite okay when he got out of the car just now.】

Zhou Sheng:【Did he take cephalosporin?】

Situ Ye:【He didn’t, don’t worry, I saw the medication he bought before dinner.】

Zhou Sheng had almost been frightened to death. He quickly thanked him. Situ Ye:【He’s under quite a lot of pressure at work, but he’ll get better. Doesn’t he usually talk to you about it? I see you two video chat each other quite often.】

Zhou Sheng:【He didn’t, alright I got it.】

Situ Ye replied:【Never mind, give me half an hour. I’ll go over right now.】

Zhou Sheng sat on the sofa and waited. At 3.30am, Yu Hao’s roommate opened the door. Situ Ye started a video call, turned on the lights, and let Zhou Sheng see Yu Hao.

The room was a mess; books and papers brought back from the newspaper office were strewn all over the floor. Yu Hao had vomited quite a bit next to the bed. He hadn’t even taken his clothes off as he lay curled up at the edge of the bed. The heating was on; it was so hot that he didn’t cover himself with a blanket, and he was so skinny he looked like a stray cat that had just been picked up from the streets. Situ Ye cleaned up the vomit on the floor, washed the mop, and touched Yu Hao’s forehead. He said to Zhou Sheng, “He doesn’t have a fever, and he’s sleeping, do you want me to wake him up?”

“Don’t, let him sleep.” Zhou Sheng answered, “Thank you, thank you so much.”

—