Chapter Twenty Five: There’s no time to explain, let me get in the car!
Ji XiaoYu was a little unhappy hearing Fang DaXing’s tone, so he yawned and muttered, “Team Leader, isn’t there anyone else? Why did you wait for me to get to work? I don’t work until two o’clock, it’s not even one-thirty yet…….”
He had just had a full meal, so he was a little sleepy now.
Fang DaXing saw the reluctance on his face and he was about to scold him some. When he looked up and realized that Cheng YuTang had come, he immediately swallowed the dirty words back down inside and gave him a courteous salute, “Cheng Zong, hello!”
“Hello.” Cheng YuTang nodded. He turned to Han QingShi and said, “I’ll send you off here, goodbye.”
“Goodbye, remember to think about the reunion!” Han QingShi went over to an expensive, luxury car, then zoomed away.
Why is this nasty man so rich? The heavens are really unfair! Ji XiaoYu shot an evil eye toward the backside of the car.
Cheng YuTang whispered to Fang DaXing, “Team Leader Fang, excuse me, but I have a few words to say separately to Ji XiaoYu, the oil spill……”
Fang DaXing caught on and immediately said, “No problem, Cheng Zong, you take your time talking, I’ll go wash the floor!”
The last interloper to get in the way was now gone too. In the huge Area A, there were only two people left.
When Ji XiaoYu started to shift his gaze, he suddenly found Cheng YuTang looking at himself. His eyes held an inexplicable depth to them. He couldn’t keep his heart from going *ba-thump* and his eyes almost jerked away.
Cheng YuTang appeared casual as he asked, “How are you doing with your driving lessons?”
Ji XiaoYu blinked and then puffed out his chest. He answered proudly, “Very good. The coach often praises me for learning quickly. I’ve already passed Subject 2 now, and if it all goes well, I’ll be finished with the exam in a month!”
“Good. What did you think about the meal just now?”
“It was okay.”
If there had been no surname Han person there, he would have enjoyed it more.
Cheng YuTang’s lips curved up a bit and he said teasingly, “You may have eaten too much vinegar. Otherwise it would have tasted a little better.”
Ji XiaoYu said in doubt, “No way, I don’t like the taste, it’s too sour. So I just used a little bit and didn’t eat much of it.”
Cheng YuTang: “……”
This “vinegar” is not that “vinegar”, don’t you know that? This kid ate too much, his brain is stuffed full of sashimi, so he can’t learn anything!
He had seen it clearly just now when he had been talking to Han QingShi and had intentionally snubbed Ji XiaoYu. This little thing had been pouting the whole time and his hostility towards Han QingShi had been written directly on his forehead. If not jealousy, what was it?
Cheng YuTang could see this hint hadn’t worked. So he simply started another topic, saying eloquently, “I went on a business trip on the 22nd last month. I came back to rest for two days at the end of the month and then went to Country A to attend a large conference. I only came back the day before yesterday.”
The information was superficially completely true, but the underlying meaning was not – at least not what he was telling Ji XiaoYu.
It was both a setback and a disappointment when he got kicked that other night, so he had taken a two day break at home to calm down. His first business trip on the 22nd didn’t require the president’s presence, but he went there personally for the sake of distracting himself. The second trip was to divert his attention and cool down his heated state, so that he could forcibly pull his runaway momentum back on track.
When he came back a week later, he had felt that he was pretty much adjusted. He had built a wall in his heart and isolated those untimely feelings. But when he saw Ji XiaoYu from a distance in the parking lot, there was a little unusual fluctuation in his heart at that time, so he had got into his car and turned away with a blind eye. He went on the second business trip soon after and he was even more unrestrained and dashing there. In a foreign country with a 12-hour jet lag from China, he concentrated on his work. Every day, he faced countless men and women of all different races and he barely thought of this guy. He thought that he had completely suppressed it all.
However, just now in the restaurant, when he saw Ji XiaoYu up close again and saw him looking around with those discerning eyes, gaze containing both joy and expectation, innocence and cunning, he heard a bang in his heart. The sound of something collapsing.
And then when the three people had lunch together, Ji XiaoYu’s attitude toward Han QingShi further confirmed this fact.
As the saying goes, nothing forcibly done was going to produce desired results (t/n: a strongly twisted melon is not sweet), but the little guy clearly had some feelings for him too. It was just that he was ignorant and didn’t realize it. So why should he work so hard to suppress himself? Anyway, he had to find a way to take hold of this melon, and feast on him in pleasure again!
Ji XiaoYu had no idea what the president was thinking about, he could only react to the sudden change in topic, Hey, weren’t we just talking about the meal, why did you all of a sudden say you were traveling on business?
He was very puzzled at first and then suddenly his heart thumped. The “drinking disorder” incident happened on October 19th. And according to Cheng YuTang’s statement, he was basically out of Ning City from the 22nd until the day before yesterday, so no wonder he didn’t see him much.
Turns out that Cheng Zong wasn’t angry and deliberately avoiding me, it’s just that he wasn’t in the area…….
The turbulence that had filled Ji XiaoYu’s heart for so many days suddenly disappeared and he sighed in relief without realizing it. “So it was like that. I wondered why I couldn’t get in touch with you all this time.”
Cheng YuTang had waited a long time for this conclusion. Yet, there was a bit of panic in his mind. He furrowed his brow and said, “Is that it? Don’t you have anything else to say to me?”
Say, what to say? Ji XiaoYu was bewildered and, a moment later, slapped his thigh. “Right, there is!”
Cheng YuTang’s heart started racing and suddenly he was like a young teenage boy, nervous and full of expectation, as he asked, “What?”
Ji XiaoYu pulled out a prepared stack of banknotes from his pants pocket and shoved it into his hand. He smiled and said, “Ay, paying back your money! You can count it, a total of 6900 yuan, no more, no less.”
Cheng YuTang: “……”
Fuck your counting! His hand was itching now, wanting to smack a certain someone!
Ji XiaoYu continued, “Cheng Zong, if there’s nothing else, I’m going to go rest. I’m on the night shift today.”
Cheng YuTang took the stack of money still warm from his body temperature. He waved his hand with a wry smile, “Go on, go.”
Never mind, just take it slow, sorry but this little thing can’t escape from the palm of my hand!
(Originally posted at tailor31415.wordpress.com, please read there)
……
At about 1am, Ji XiaoYu returned to the dormitory after his shift and found that his room had been turned completely upside down. Even the mattress had been thrown to the ground. He was immediately stunned speechless.
This was the second time since Su MiaoEr came. The last time, he was in the night shift and the thief came in through the window and turned everything upside down. After the incident, Ji XiaoYu had found Su MiaoEr to privately question her, but the cat spirit had denied that she did it. She had also sneered at him again, making him angry.
The thief’s target could only be Ji XiaoYu’s little white egg. No other property was taken, so he couldn’t even call the police. Even if he filed a police report, how could human police capture a spiritual beast with special abilities? So he could only endure his anger and accept that he was unlucky.
Fortunately, the little white egg has been accompanying him all this time. Otherwise, if something unexpected had happened, he would certainly cry.
He cleaned up the room and, after taking a shower, lay in bed. Ji XiaoYu chatted with the little white egg about what had happened that day, as was his routine. “My child, Daddy had a free meal at noon today, worth at least four hundred yuan. Heh heh, I earned it!
“Who treated me, you ask? It’s the big-tempered, small-minded president of our company. It turned out he hasn’t been at the company for the time and he just got back two days ago. So he wasn’t deliberately hiding from Daddy. I used to think he was annoying. But today I just found out that he’s okay. There was another guy I hate more than him today. He’s the kind of guy who dazzles your eyes conspicuously when you look at him. That guy better not show up in front of me in the future, otherwise, hmph!
“My child, today Daddy returned the money he borrowed from the president. It was a big amount. It was really painful to hand over. But rest assured, Daddy will work hard, make lots of money, and buy you the best milk powder and diapers!
“Okay, it’s time to sleep, *mua*~”
After venting his preoccupations, Ji XiaoYu suddenly felt as if his heart lightened. He was also more energetic when learning to drive and working every day. The days were busy and full.
At the beginning of December, Ji XiaoYu completed all his exams smoothly and beautifully. After a few days, he got the first certificate in his life that he actually earned on his own.
When he was this happy, he wanted to find someone to share with, but who could he look for?
The first person Ji XiaoYu thought of was Cheng YuTang. After all, Cheng Zong had asked him to learn to drive. So now that the results were out, he should report them.
Unfortunately, around noon, he saw that Cheng YuTang and several senior executives leaving HongSheng by car. He could guess that they were going out to do something, so he could only temporarily suppress his happy mood.
He was on the midday shift today, from 8am to 4pm. After finishing the shift at 4pm, he left HongSheng to go out and run around, planning to return for dinner around 6pm.
Halfway down the road, he walked through a market. There were a lot of people on the street who had propped up stalls to sell all kinds of snacks and fruit. The crowd was hustling and bustling.
Ji XiaoYu was a little hungry and the scent in the air made him drool a little, while his eyes couldn’t help but linger over there.
Then, someone suddenly stepped on his foot and Ji XiaoYu looked back. It was a little chubby kid wearing a camouflage-pattern jacket with chubby cheeks. He only reached up to Ji XiaoYu’s thighs and looked like he was about six or seven years old.
The little chubby kid had stepped on him and didn’t even apologize. Instead, he spat out his tongue, twisted his hips, and sneered. Then he ran off, showing his posture was actually very flexible. He drilled through the crowd, through one of the arches on the right, and then he ran into the distance.
What family’s bear child is so arrogant, what a brat! Ji XiaoYu thought that if he had a son who was as naughty as the little chubby kid in the future, he would grab him and give him a spanking.
No, how can his son be a bear child? He would be the number one, most invincible, cute baby in the world!
As he was thinking that, Ji XiaoYu saw through the crowd that a man wearing a jacket and a cap had stopped the little chubby kid, holding a toy gun in his hand and shaking it in front of the kid. He said something and the little chubby kid nodded in reply. The man put the toy gun into the arms of the little chubby kid, then picked him up and took a few steps over into an aged white van parked on the side of the road.
Due to the obstruction of the landscaped area, Ji XiaoYu couldn’t see the license plate number of the van. Then the van went down a small road on the side of the market and zoomed away.
Ji XiaoYu had traveled that road a few times when learning to drive. The surveillance cameras were sparse and the few there seemed to have broken down, so they were just for show.
With his instincts, he suddenly felt something was a bit wrong. Why did this situation look like the scene from a legal drama he watched on TV the other day?
“Xiao Bao, where’d you go? You better come back quickly!
“Xiao Bao, Mama is going to spank you if you don’t come out!”
A young woman ran out of the market, scolding while looking around.
Ji XiaoYu immediately went up and asked, “DaJie, is your family’s Xiao Bao a little 6- or 7-year-old chubby kid wearing a green camo cotton-padded jacket?”
The young woman said, “Mhm, you saw him?”
“I saw him, but it seemed he was just taken away by traffickers.”
“What did you say?! Oh heavens, my Xiao Bao!” the young woman screamed, nearly fainting.
“DaJie, hurry and call the police. I’ll chase after the traffickers!”
Ji XiaoYu resisted comforting the woman and instead went to chase the van.
After running hundreds meters, the intersection ahead just happened to have a red light and the van was the first car lining up. Ji XiaoYu immediately rushed forward to stop the car, slapping the front of the car and saying, “Release the little chub!”
He saw at a glance that the little chubby kid was being held down by the man with the cap in the middle of the front seat, with a hand covering his mouth. There were three thick men in the back seat and a glance revealed that they were no small things.
As soon as the driver saw him, his expression changed. He even turned a blind eye to a pedestrian that was in crosswalk, stepping on the throttle to race through the red light the moment he stepped on it. If Ji XiaoYu hadn’t reacted quickly enough, if he didn’t flash to the side right away, he probably would have been hit and sent flying.
Outrageous, daring to threaten the head of this little master, you must be impatient to die! Ji XiaoYu was furious now and he released all the limiters on his speed. He followed after the van, which was 120 yards ahead; one car, one man entered into a car chase battle on the road.
“Whoa, that car is speeding!” someone immediately exclaimed on the roadside, “Wow, that guy is also speeding!”
“Hey, that’s not right. How can a guy run so fast? Are my eyes acting up?”
Ji XiaoYu heard the questioning of the pedestrians and, in his heart, couldn’t help but recall how Grandfather Monkey once said that if a spiritual beast revealed their identity in human society, they would be captured as a living research subject. Although a spiritual beast’s one-on-one combat power was much stronger than a human being’s, they weren’t invulnerable or omnipotent. Plus human beings had countless, powerful inventions. Once one came into contact with the human beings, it would be hard to escape.
Compelled by that, Ji XiaoYu could only slow down, watching the van getting farther and farther away from himself. It would soon disappear at the end of the road.
This wouldn’t work. He had to find another way to chase them.
As Ji XiaoYu was looking around for a taxi, a black sedan came up from behind him and stopped next to him. Then the rear window lowered and a familiar clear, smooth voice asked, “Why haven’t you gone back to your dorm? Why are you wandering around here?”
Ji XiaoYu’s eyes suddenly lit up, “Cheng Zong, you came at just the right time!”
Cheng YuTang’s heart almost burst when he saw Ji XiaoYu was overjoyed to see himself. He couldn’t resist smiling as he said, “Why, were you looking for me?”
Ji XiaoYu urged, “There’s no time to explain, let me get in the car!”
It was rare to see this kid looking like a monkey in a hurry. Cheng YuTang happily opened the door to let him in.
Before Ji XiaoYu’s butt even hit the seat, he leaned forward and shouted at Wang Qiang in the driver’s seat, “Wang DaGe, chase the white van in front with the plate 914, fast!”
Cheng YuTang: “……”
Wang Qiang: “……”
The author has something to say:
Xiao Ji: There’s no time to explain, let me get on!
The president laying down on a bed: Come on!
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Footnotes:
1. bear child (熊孩子): naughty child/little devil child
2. Xiao bao (小宝): little treasure, a pet name for a child
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maybe CYT is actually a cat spirit, because he sure is one smitten kitten