Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 36 The Outlaw
Cried?

Cried!

Chen Xuebing and Xin Mengzhen looked at each other, getting the answer from each other's eyes, and quickly chased after them.

"Qingyue!"

Xin Mengzhen ran very fast and caught up with Yang Qingyue in just a few dozen meters, then grabbed her.

Chen Xuebing could certainly be faster, but he didn't dare to pull!
Yang Qingyue is emotionally agitated. What if she hugs me in front of Xin Mengzhen or says something like she likes me?
But when Chen Xuebing got closer, he found that the situation was different from what he had imagined. Yang Qingyue was already wiping away her tears with tissues that Xin Mengzhen had found in her bag.

“Smm…”

Yang Qingyue wiped her nose, her fair face streaked with tears, her eyes and nose red, and a large tear clinging to the corner of her cheek, showing just how heartbroken she had been in that fleeting moment of sadness.

"Let's go." Yang Qingyue smiled, her sadness hidden like her youth, replaced by the maturity and understanding of adulthood.

Home isn't far away. If she doesn't pack up early, how can she go home with red eyes and make her parents worry?

Chen Xuebing couldn't bear to watch. His throat was a little dry, and he coughed. He wanted to explain something, but he knew that anything he said at this critical moment would be wrong. What the other person wanted was not an explanation. It was just a small matter, and explaining it clearly wouldn't necessarily help to ease the grief.

He recalled a girlfriend from his past life yelling at him during their breakup, "Do I want an apology? I want an attitude, an attitude!"

He can't give it to us right now. Everyone's here. Let's talk about it after the meeting, okay?

"Qingyue, don't be angry, it's all my fault..."

At this moment, Xin Mengzhen was helpless against Yang Qingyue's silence. She turned her head to look at Chen Xuebing who was following behind her, gave him a look, and then tilted her chin towards Yang Qingyue.

Xin Mengzhen's body language was as concise as her everyday speech, so Chen Xuebing understood what she meant by this gesture:
You go first.

Chen Xuebing frowned and shrugged.

How do I access it?

Xin Mengzhen tilted her head again.

I don't care, just hurry up and get on it.

Chen Xuebing let out a long sigh, somewhat speechless.

You're the one who told me to go.

Chen Xuebing rushed to Yang Qingyue's side and grabbed her wrist.

With hands as hard as iron, Yang Qingyue was immediately pulled to a stop. She struggled twice but couldn't break free, and she became anxious.

What are you doing?!

The sobbing started again after a long pause for the last word.

"Stop crying!" Chen Xuebing simply grabbed Yang Qingyue's hand and pulled her close. "So what if I didn't tell you what I was doing in Shenzhen? Next time, I'll definitely tell you first, okay? I'll bring you back some good food too! ...I won't bring any for Xin Mengzhen!"

Chen Xuebing killed two birds with one stone: he coaxed Yang Qingyue while provoking Xin Mengzhen, all the while keeping an eye on Xin Mengzhen's attitude.

This girl is pretty steady!

Xin Mengzhen nodded while pulling Yang Qingyue's other hand, nodding in agreement, completely ignoring the provocation she was causing.

"Who wants something delicious!" Yang Qingyue struggled again, but her grip wasn't very strong.

"Okay, okay, I'll tell you everything next time, alright? There are lots of fun things to do in Shenzhen. Something happened there today, and I was in a bad mood, so I didn't tell you. I'll tell you slowly tomorrow, okay?"

As Chen Xuebing spoke, he gently rubbed his thumb against Yang Qingyue's hand.

Yang Qingyue fell silent.

As she listened to Chen Xuebing's gentle voice and felt the warmth from his palms and the friction of his fingertips, her heart began to warm again.

"What...what's wrong with you?"

Both her hands were being held, so she couldn't wipe away the tears that had just welled up in her eyes, and her voice was muffled.

Before his rebirth, the internet was full of people categorizing themselves as "i people" or "e people," and Chen Xuebing didn't understand what he was, but Yang Qingyue should be an ENFP.

Commonly known as the Happy Puppy.

Optimistic, positive, and easy to please, completely different from Chen Xuebing.

And Xin Mengzhen too.

"Well, it's nothing really. I just got the channels working, but when I opened my online store, it seems like I was being targeted. I was just about to contact Xin..."

Chen Xuebing was planning to bring things up so he could go to Xin Mengzhen's house later and complete the registration procedures.

Things can't be delayed.

“Chen Xuebing!” Xin Mengzhen interrupted him.

"what?"

"You...were you going to an internet cafe?"

Chen Xuebing frowned. He knew Xin Mengzhen didn't want Yang Qingyue to misunderstand anything, but wasn't he explaining it to her right now?

He had always thought that Xin Mengzhen was like him, a rational type when it came to things. This afternoon, he had talked to Xin Mengzhen in detail about the urgency of opening the store. Xin Mengzhen also expressed great interest in opening the store, talked to him about the future, and made a bet with him. But at this moment, Xin Mengzhen still chose to take care of Yang Qingyue's feelings without thinking.

He was a little disappointed.

If it weren't for the fact that those guys didn't have online banking, and tomorrow is Monday, even if I took them to set up online banking, there would likely be long queues at the bank, and it might take another two days, so I would have found someone else.

"I couldn't get it working at an internet cafe either..."

"Go quickly," Xin Mengzhen interrupted again.

After saying that, Xin Mengzhen actually walked up to Chen Xuebing, pried his hand off Yang Qingyue's, then took a tissue and wiped away the tears on Yang Qingyue's face, saying in a steady voice:
"Qingyue, he still has things to do. Let's go back quickly so as not to delay him."

"Um..." Yang Qingyue sobbed slightly, "Okay... then... we'll talk about it again tomorrow at school."

Yang Qingyue was speaking to Chen Xuebing.

Then, Xin Mengzhen pulled Yang Qingyue away quickly.

Chen Xuebing was left standing there, bewildered.

work?

How are we supposed to get anything done?

……

Xin Mengzhen saw Yang Qingyue onto the elevator.

Get some rest, see you tomorrow.

"Mengzhen... I'm sorry about today. I didn't mean to lose my temper. It's just that Chen Xuebing... he's so awful!"

Yang Qingyue retorted angrily, but her affection for Chen Xuebing was obvious, leaving Xin Mengzhen slightly stunned. She didn't reply until the elevator doors opened.
"Yeah, that's awful."

Xin Mengzhen remained extremely calm, showing no emotion whatsoever regarding the topic of "Chen Xuebing," but the moment the elevator doors closed, she quickly ran out.

She ran like the wind to the open space downstairs from her apartment building, looking around. She figured that with Chen Xuebing's intelligence, he would definitely sneak over and wait for her downstairs.

But Chen Xuebing didn't seem to be that clever; the downstairs area was empty.

Did the security guard at the gate stop him?
Xin Mengzhen ran to the entrance of the community again and found that the lights in the security room were off. She hadn't encountered a single person along the way.

He was really angry.

Realizing this, Xin Mengzhen hesitated for a moment before taking out her phone from her bag, intending to call Chen Xuebing.

Just then, my phone lit up, showing a call from "Dad".

Xin Mengzhen answered the phone and slowly walked home.

"dad."

"Come on, are you home yet?"

"We're at the door. When are you coming back?"

"Soon, very soon... I have some good news for you. Dad recently signed a big contract. What do you want? I'll bring it back for you!"

Xin Mengzhen gazed enviously at the brightly lit windows of Yang Qingyue's house not far away. "It's always so 'soon.' I don't want anything. Uncle Yang is so busy every day, yet he still comes home every night to make milk and a late-night snack for Qingyue. Your daughter is a senior in high school! Don't you care at all? Where's Mom?"

The voice on the other end was somewhat rambling: "Your Uncle Yang is in charge of technology, unlike your father. Your mother... she went out with a group of Wenzhou aunties, looking at houses everywhere... and she also has to take care of Xiaofan. Your father and mother are working hard to earn money for you and your brother, otherwise..."

"Alright, drink less! Don't only remember you have a daughter to talk to when you're drunk. I'm a 'runaway,' what money are you going to make for me? Maybe one day when you're not around, I'll secretly find someone to marry and run away!"

"Hey, hey, listen to me..."

The moment the word "obedient" was uttered, she immediately hung up the phone.

Xin Mengzhen vented into the phone, "Go away, go away, hmph!"

I became even more upset.

"Zouzai" is not her nickname; she is the daughter of a Chaoshan man.

Chaoshan people believe that having a daughter is like "sending her away," because when a daughter grows up, she will get married and become someone else's family, just like a child leaving home, hence the term "walking away."

But she hated the title, as it made her feel very alienated.

From childhood to adulthood, she was a daughter and an older sister. Her parents and relatives all told her to be sensible and obedient. Only with her grandfather could she enjoy the love of a junior, regardless of gender.

In this family, only Grandpa is the wisest; he knows that having a son or a daughter is the same.

She was obedient enough and learned to be sensible at a young age, studying and protecting herself on her own. But she didn't want to be obedient at all. She was a girl, and what she wanted was tolerance, unlimited tolerance and pampering.

In Guangzhou, her mother was never home, but she always took her younger brother with her. When they came to Chongqing, her father was willing to take her with him, but he was often not around either. Once he went out, he would disappear without a trace.

Other girls are afraid of bringing boys home and being discovered by their families, but when she brought Chen Xuebing home, she secretly hoped that they would be discovered, so that her father would be scared and stay at home to watch over her.

Xin Mengzhen was preoccupied with countless thoughts, and walked slowly. The road was not long, and in the blink of an eye, she had arrived downstairs.

She looked back and saw that the surroundings were empty. The moon in the sky was a reddish, damp halo the size of a copper coin, like a teardrop on a piece of Duoyunxuan stationery, old and blurry.

This is the moon as seen through Eileen Chang's eyes.

—When a girl thinks of Eileen Chang's quotes, it's because she's starting to feel emo about some of her misfortunes.

There was a fitness group swing in the open space in front of the building. She went over, wiped it with a piece of paper, and then sat on it, crossing her legs and swinging back and forth.

uninteresting.

In the afternoon, she still found life interesting.

She opened her phone and searched for the person in her contacts with whom she had chatted about many interesting topics; that person's name was next to "Dad".

Flick the buttons with your finger to select items that jump back and forth between "Dad" and "Chen Xuebing".

During the jump, she waited quietly for Chen Xuebing to appear.

He shouldn't be angry.

He should come.

After jumping many times, she frowned and suddenly felt that "Chen Xuebing" was just as annoying as "Dad".

Does she have to be sensible in front of Chen Xuebing?
She originally thought that this was unnecessary, that at least... he would be a little more tolerant of her, so she gave him that zombie milk tea as a kind of test.

He seemed quite uncomfortable after drinking, but he didn't get angry with her. Instead, he talked to her about entrepreneurship, finance, and the internet. He patiently explained things he didn't understand but was interested in. At that moment, she believed that this sliver of understanding existed.

But now, in the silence around her, she felt as if that tolerance had been taken away, leaving her feeling somewhat empty.

That's true. Yang Qingyue is more considerate of her friend Chen Xuebing than she is. After just a few words from Chen Xuebing, Yang Qingyue stopped blaming her, while her own behavior seemed to have consistently failed to take Chen Xuebing's feelings into account.

Her fingers stopped.

The option landed on Chen Xuebing's name. She gritted her teeth and dialed the number.

It was almost 11 o'clock before she knew it, and Chen Xuebing was definitely not coming. But as a friend, she should be more sensible and apologize to Chen Xuebing.

"beep."

"beep."

"Dudu."

The other party hung up on me.

She felt a pang of sadness; she had finally mustered the courage to apologize, and now this person was acting like this!
Tears welled up in her eyes without her realizing it, and with her vision blurring, she pressed the call button again!
"beep."

"Dudu."

It's down again.

A tear fell onto the phone, but it wasn't a tear of love; 99% of the tear was filled with grievances.

Call again, if you don't answer, block me!
Just as she pressed the call button again, laughter suddenly came from directly in front of her:
"Phone calls aren't expensive. My Shenzhen SIM card only costs 50 cents a minute. Why do you have to make a phone call?"

Xin Mengzhen looked up, rubbing her eyes in disbelief. Chen Xuebing grinned mischievously, holding his phone to his ear.

"If you call again, I'll really take the hit."

Xin Mengzhen quickly raised her hand and shyly covered her eyes with her sleeve.

"How did you come!"

Chen Xuebing put his hands on his hips and didn't explain. He just gave a thumbs up and laughed, "Bodhi Patriarch had to pat Sun Wukong's head three times to tell him to meet at midnight. You're really something else, not even giving a secret signal! Your dad called you and you were swinging on the swing here. If you hadn't called me, I would have thought you were waiting for your dad to come back. I hid for half the day and didn't dare to come out."

Xin Mengzhen burst into laughter through her tears: "My dad called? You've been here for a while?"

Chen Xuebing pointed to the sky: "I've been here with you for half an hour to enjoy the moonlit scenery. The moon and flowers are so beautiful, I couldn't bear to disturb you."

"You! Ah!" Xin Mengzhen stood up to scold Chen Xuebing, but almost fell to the ground.

My legs were numb from swinging for so long.

Chen Xuebing immediately ran over, took Xin Mengzhen's arm, and put his arm around her as they slowly walked towards the lobby.

During their second intimate encounter, Xin Meng's heart was beating much faster than the first time. She was nervous, but couldn't quite put her finger on it. Dopamine, hormones, and even adrenaline were all at play.

"I'm fine! You, you, let go... You were following me! What did you overhear!"

Chen Xuebing's laughter was close to my ear: "I heard you call me 'Dad,' and then say things like 'Zou Zai, Zou Zai,' and I also heard a 'Zou Zai' sitting in the moonlight secretly cursing me."

Xin Mengzhen got angry: "I didn't insult you! And do you even know what 'zou zai' means? You're not allowed to call me 'zou zai'!"

Chen Xuebing smiled and nodded, then casually replied, "I know, it means the same thing as calling someone 'yao'er' here."

Xin Mengzhen's expression hardened: "That's not true!"

"Who cares if it is or not, but there's a guy who seems to need a hug right now. Want to borrow my shoulder for a minute? Free."

"... "

"do not want!"

……

……

"Ding."

The elevator door opens.

The two stood at the elevator entrance. The bright yellow light inside the elevator shone on the wall, but only one person's shadow appeared.

No one got on the elevator, and the doors slowly closed.

"Aren't we going up?" Chen Xuebing asked.

Xin Mengzhen buried her head in Chen Xuebing's arms and took a deep breath, her voice soft and deep, as if she were drunk.

"Wait for the next trip."

Chen Xuebing smiled.

There's no next trip, it won't start unless you press it, right?

Fine, let them hug me for as long as they want.

(End of this chapter)