Chapter 36#

Chapter 36: Extra €€ Eleven

It was another night with an IV needle in his hand. Pei Hao lay on the hospital bed, drowsy. Not long after he dozed off, his phone rang.

He answered the phone groggily: “Hello?”

“Pei Hao!” Dan Ge’s deafening voice rang from the other end of the phone. “Damn it, can you reply to my WeChat?!”

Pei Hao covered his ear uncomfortably, held the phone two palms away from him, and asked: “When did you send a WeChat message?”

“Pretend, keep pretending!” Dan Ge was furious. He started sending messages to Pei Hao two days ago but never received a reply. When he called, the phone was out of service, making him suspect that something had happened to Pei Hao. But thinking about Pei Hao’s nature, he probably forgot to reply. It was clearly Pei Hao who asked him to do something, so why was it so tiring for him to find the person in the end?

It was too hard for him!

“Wait, let me check.” Pei Hao exited the call interface and opened WeChat.

Oh, he was logged into the “Urchin” account, and it had been several days.

No wonder.

Pei Hao rubbed his still somewhat chaotic brain and replied slowly: “I forgot to log in.”

“…” Dan Ge was speechless. Even his 70-year-old grandma knew to log on to WeChat every day to forward health articles. Now this young man in his early twenties actually said he forgot to log in. The most annoying thing was that he couldn’t refute it. Like punching cotton, Dan Ge felt his temper was being worn down by Pei Hao.

“What’s up?” Pei Hao asked on the other end.

Dan Ge shook his head. Forget it, it wasn’t the first day he knew Pei Hao wasn’t a normal person.

Besides, Pei Hao had lost his partner and his parents now.

What was there to argue with him about?

Dan Ge calmed his emotions and tried to say in a calm tone: “Didn’t you ask me to help you contact a buyer? I found one. Their appraiser needs to inspect the goods first. Shall we set a time?”

When Pei Hao didn’t lack money before, he bought a lot of luxury goods. Recently, after coming out to make a living on his own, he realized that no matter how exquisite or expensive the items were, they couldn’t be eaten as food at home. So he wanted to find someone to sell them to, using part of the money for investment and saving the other part in the bank for emergencies.

“Is it reliable?” Pei Hao asked.

“Don’t worry, they run several legitimate second-hand stores and know their stuff. Moreover, their purchase price is the highest I know in the circle,” Dan Ge was very confident. “If you’re not satisfied with the price they offer, you won’t be satisfied with anyone else’s.”

“Let’s schedule it for this Friday.” Pei Hao breathed a sigh of relief. He had contacted some buyers himself, but the prices for quick cash were as low as selling cabbage. Those with suitable prices took too long to cash out and had cumbersome procedures. Dan Ge was in this industry, so he definitely had more insider information than him.

“Okay, I’ll send you the address.”

After hanging up the phone, Pei Hao logged out of the Urchin account and logged into his main account.

Fortunately, apart from Dan Ge, only Chen Xu had looked for him, talking about some inconsequential matters.

Pei Hao felt that Chen Xu was a bit strange recently, always asking him questions with obvious answers. Initially, he valued Chen Xu’s clean and efficient style of doing things. Why did he love to make trouble out of nothing recently?

Just as he was thinking, the old doctor making rounds today walked over. The doctor looked to be in his fifties, wearing thick glasses, and had a slightly thin figure. After passing by Pei Hao, he turned back and looked closely.

Isn’t this the young man who pulled out the needle and left a few days ago?

Young people nowadays just like to make trouble. Whatever you repeatedly tell them to do, they just won’t do it and insist on going against you.

The old doctor frowned, pointed at the IV drip, and said with a slightly blaming tone: “If you had finished the drip last time before leaving, you wouldn’t have to come here to suffer today.”

Pei Hao turned his head and recognized that this was the doctor who prescribed medicine for him last time. The old doctor was still nagging over there. Because his speech was mixed with dialects from other places, Pei Hao didn’t fully understand. He could only nod silently to show he understood.

Suddenly, he remembered that the only people who used to nag him like this were Song Wanqin and Mo Xi. He didn’t know how he got to this point today; the people who loved him most had left him.

There was a sense of déjà vu of being betrayed by everyone.

Everything was too illusory.

After securing the big order from President Wang, Fu Bing took the initiative to give Pei Hao a week off. She felt Pei Hao should take a break. Some people might think he was lucky to win this project, but she knew how hard Pei Hao worked. Others worked “996” (9 am to 9 pm, 6 days a week), but he was “007” (0 to 0, 7 days a week), on standby 24 hours a day, and not sloppy at all with the necessary investigations. Pei Hao was hospitalized twice in a week for acute gastroenteritis. If anything else happened, she wouldn’t be able to explain to Pei Yixin in the future.

Rarely having a few days off, Pei Hao didn’t go anywhere and just recuperated at home. There was a 13-hour time difference between him and Mo Xi, so Pei Hao also adjusted his time difference, sleeping during the day and holding his phone at night waiting for Mo Xi to come online to chat with him.

Mo Xi also noticed something strange. This student Urchin was a bit “clingy” recently, always sending him WeChat messages at 3 or 4 am China time. What he said wasn’t important, radiating the message “I’m bored” and “Chat with me quickly.”

Urchin: Are you there?

Mo Xi: Why aren’t you asleep so late?

Urchin: Miss you.

Mo Xi was slightly stunned looking at these two words, his ears heating up. He felt like he was being teased by a kid for no reason again. Although Da Bai occasionally made such jokes with him, it felt different. When Da Bai said it, they both knew it was a joke and no one would take it seriously. But Urchin always liked to talk nonsense seriously, making you hesitate between believing a little and doubting a little.

However, Urchin said he had someone he had liked for many years, so Mo Xi just listened and didn’t really take these words to heart.

Mo Xi: Don’t talk nonsense, be serious.

Urchin: Recently on sick leave at home, bored to death.

Mo Xi: Sick and not resting well, still staying up late?

Urchin: Want to see more of City X at 4 am.

Mo Xi: …As long as you’re happy.

Urchin: Have you ever eaten at that grilled fish place in the night market in the south? They have many delicious dishes now. You must try it when you come back (drool.jpg).

Mo Xi: Really?

Urchin: Pictures or it didn’t happen.

…

Time always passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, it was the end of October. Trump was busy governing via Twitter, China and the US were busy fighting a trade war, and the gears of history creaked and never stopped. Many times we think we can stay out of it, and then many years later we discover that many major events actually started on an ordinary day. With an inadvertent turn, the fates of millions of people have changed, and neither you nor I can be spared.

As an ordinary international student, Mo Xi initially thought that the international news in the newspapers had nothing to do with him. But when Trump promulgated a certain policy targeting immigrants, he found that the number of companies around willing to hire international students was visibly decreasing, and there was wailing among international students. Mo Xi could only work harder on his studies and internship just to maintain his current living conditions.

He continued to chat with Urchin intermittently. The more they talked, the more he felt a wonderful sense of compatibility between them. For many things, before he even opened his mouth, Urchin knew what he was thinking.

It was as if they had known each other well for a long time.

For example, today, he was scolded by a manager at the internship company. He went home dejectedly, feeling depressed.

Not long after dinner, Urchin sent a WeChat message: Play a game?

Mo Xi: No.

Pei Hao held the phone on the other side. Seeing Mo Xi only replied with one word, he knew he was feeling low today. Mo Xi was soft-hearted. Generally, when rejecting others, he would add a sentence or two of explanation like “Too tired today” or “Have to do homework later,” or at least add an emoji.

A simple and crude “No” like today’s meant nine times out of ten that he was in a bad mood.

This hadn’t changed in seven years.

Urchin: What’s wrong? Encountered something unhappy today?

Mo Xi: A little.

Urchin: Tell me about it (pat head.jpg).

Mo Xi pouted. Actually, he didn’t like passing negative energy to others. But every time he encountered Urchin, he unconsciously poured it all out because Urchin never found him annoying and tried hard to help him solve problems.

He suspected whether Urchin was really just a university student as he claimed. He felt that in some aspects, Urchin was more mature than him. Especially when giving him advice, it was very much like that person’s style€€hitting the nail on the head, rational and efficient.

Da Bai said this was called transference. Because he liked Pei Hao too much before, he saw his shadow in everyone now.

Mo Xi picked up the phone, organized his language, and sent it to Urchin: Simply put, in the company where I intern, there is a full-time employee who always likes to dump his work on me. If it’s done well, he takes the credit; if it’s done poorly, he makes things difficult for me in front of the manager. But the key is that his work is not part of my duties. I was just kind enough to help him.

Urchin: Don’t be a coward, just fight back.

Mo Xi: Huh?

Urchin: 1. Next time he asks for help, refuse directly. Don’t be soft-hearted. 2. Make sure your manager knows this is not your job. In the workplace, don’t think about secretly doing good deeds to promote friendship among colleagues. It doesn’t exist. Some people just target your soft-heartedness and bully you.

Mo Xi: Actually, I also have selfish motives. I hope to have good relationships with colleagues and stay in the company longer. It’s so hard for international students to find jobs now.

Urchin: So he targeted your weakness.

Mo Xi: Sigh, because I really lack money, I dare not lose my job ==

Urchin: If you lack money, I’ll lend you some. The more you care about something, the easier it is to be bound by it, and finally, you even lose your original intention.

Mo Xi: Hmm, that’s true… Why do I feel like you know the workplace very well?

Urchin: My dad runs a company. I learned a little from watching and listening.

Mo Xi: Excellent, my friend. I’ll treat you to a meal when I return to China. Thank you for always enlightening me.

Pei Hao’s hand shook violently when he saw Mo Xi wanted to treat him to a meal, and the phone almost fell to the ground. He didn’t know whether to be happy or sad. Of course, he wanted to see Mo Xi, wishing he could hug him hard, push him onto the bed, kiss him a thousand times, and rub him ten thousand times. But if Mo Xi knew he was Urchin, there was a high probability that he would block him directly and never see him again. Then he would lose even this last identity as a netizen who could stay by Mo Xi’s side.

Sometimes he thought, if Mo Xi refused to forgive him, then he would stay by Mo Xi’s side as Urchin for the rest of his life. Chat with him, rejoice with him when he was happy, share his worries when he was unhappy, help him when he was in trouble, and always be his backing until he no longer needed him.

Making a clean break was too cruel; he couldn’t accept it even after being broken up for two years.

Pei Hao hesitated for a while, typed some words on the phone, and then deleted them. Mo Xi saw that Urchin was “typing…” for a long time. After a long while, the other side replied with three words:

Talk about it later.