Chapter 219: Chapter 219: No More Evasion
They quietly left the house, and Feng Yiping took her to a teahouse by the river that had been converted from an old house. 'If there's anything you want to say, just say it.'
'What do you think about Jingping?'
'I want to let her work at the company for a while first, mainly to allay the concerns of her family. Then, I still want her to continue her studies.'
A girl who quietly abandons her assigned job and runs away, even if she takes a job offer back, people around her will probably still gossip, but as long as Huang Jingping stays at the county vocational school for two months, these rumours will naturally fall apart.
'Well, you handled this very well. What I'm asking is, what do you think of your relationship with Jingping?' Huang Jingshu sat upright, staring straight into his eyes.
'For now, that's it. I go to school, and she stays in the county for two months. Then, I want to find a place for her in a vocational college in the city, whether it's accounting, languages, or computers. Next year, after I go to university, I'll find a college for her too.'
'It's not about these arrangements of yours. I'm asking what kind of person you actually see her as, and how far you actually want to develop the relationship with her?'
Up until now, Feng Yiping had always avoided answering this question head-on, whether it was in front of Huang Jingping, other people, or even himself.
The reason was simple. Although he had not yet gone to find Zhang Yan, he had always had her in his heart. She was his wife of decades, through thick and thin, and there was no way he could give her up.
On the other hand, when he had the opportunity to once again face Huang Jingping, the girl he had secretly loved in junior high school, he had more or less revealed some fondness. Coupled with his achievements after being reborn and some unintentional or undeniable actions, Huang Jingping had unconsciously become attached to him.
He had wishedfully thought that after graduating from junior high school, after a period of cold treatment, these things would become nothing more than memories, but she underestimated the courage that a girl would show in order to love.
It is also true that in the history of mankind, countless women have risked their lives for love, but the only man who has given up everything for love seems to be Edward VIII of the United Kingdom. Oh, there is one more, King Zhou of the Western Zhou Dynasty, but he was an extreme idiot who ended up getting himself and Bao Si into trouble.
Feng Yiping had also wondered whether his fondness for Huang Jingping was just like Ye Gong's fondness for the mythical dragon. But after Huang Jingping ran away from home this time, he realised that at first it might have been like Ye Gong's fondness for the mythical dragon, but now he really did like her.
If there had been no Zhang Yan, he would have answered without hesitation, 'I like her, and I will marry her and start a family with her in the future.' But now, of course, he couldn't say that, which was why he had never dared to face Huang Jingping's parents.
After a long pause, Feng Yiping said, 'I do like her, but in the past, for various reasons, I didn't care enough about her. In the future, I won't! Regarding my relationship with her, we will maintain the current state, and we won't do anything that is inconsistent with our age and status.' I'm sure Huang Jingshu understood what he meant.
'What about the future?'
'We are still young, and we should wait until after I graduate from university before talking about other things, don't you think?'
Huang Jingshu thought it was reasonable. Including herself, they were not yet marriageable. Could Feng Yiping promise to marry her now? That would be too frivolous.
'Okay, I understand what you mean, and I agree with your arrangements. I hope you can keep your word.'
'I have one more request,' Feng Yiping still voiced his concerns, 'I hope that for now, this matter is best not escalated to the level of the two families, and let us develop it on our own.'
Huang Chengzhong had experienced this before, and might just take the opportunity to approach Feng Zhenchang and Mei Qiuping and settle the matter in advance.
Huang Jingshu thought for a moment, 'Well, I understand your concerns, and I will tell my family about your opinion.' She was currently seeing a boyfriend, and if her boyfriend's family approached her parents right now and said they wanted to settle the matter, she would definitely refuse a hundred and twenty percent.
Before going upstairs, Huang Jingshu said to him in the car, 'I'm going back to school tomorrow afternoon. I hope you'll keep your word.'
Feng Yiping nodded. Huang Jingshu got out of the car and came back to ask again, "You know what I'm talking about, right?'
'Yes, we won't do anything that's not appropriate for our age and status." Feng Yiping repeated what he had said.
Please, Huang Jingping is already 19 years old, and I'm 18. There are some things that I would have done a long time ago if I really wanted to!
They were only expected to be gone for about an hour. When they returned, the house was quiet. He thought that the two of them were still sleeping. But who knew that as soon as they entered the study, they saw Huang Jingping sitting there, her eyes shining as she looked at him, 'What did my sister tell you?'
'Nothing, I just told her that I will take care of you in the future!'
'Really?' Huang Jingping's eyes were full of joy and doubt. She was of course happy that Feng Yiping had said such kind words to her for the first time, but she also wondered if her cousin had really said nothing, and if so, why had he made a special trip out here?
'It's okay, silly,' Feng Yiping said, rubbing her head. "I'm sorry that I didn't pay enough attention to you in the past, and let you shoulder so much on your own. It won't happen again, I promise!" He then lowered his head and gave Huang Jingping's forehead a kiss.
'Mmm!' Huang Jingping seemed a little shy and buried her face in Feng Yiping's stomach.
'And, in the future, no matter what happens, you must always discuss it with me first, okay?' He held Huang Jingping's face in his hands and said to her seriously.
'Okay,' Huang Jingping blushed, "but can I discuss something with you now?'
'Go ahead," Feng Yiping gave her a little nudge on the nose.
'I want to stay here for a few more days and go to work at the technical secondary school again. Is that okay?' She took Feng Yiping's hand and cooed.
'That's fine. How about next weekend? I'll take you both back next weekend.'
'Yes!' Huang Jingping cheered a little.
Zhang Qiuling happened to walk past the door and, seeing this, pretended to cover her eyes with her hands. 'Oh, I didn't see anything, really. I didn't see anything.'
She made such a fuss that Huang Jingping was even more ashamed and didn't dare raise her head.
In the following days, there was less rainfall, and it didn't keep falling like before. However, the water level in the river didn't drop, but rose instead. You could see it from home: the murky river became wider and wider, and there were a lot of floating objects in it.
The TV news and newspapers were full of reports about this major flood. Not only the Yangtze River basin, but also the Songhua River basin, Pearl River basin and Minjiang River basin had major floods.
The situation in the city was relatively good. Although the low-lying areas were constantly flooded, the leadership teams at all levels had extensive experience in flood prevention, and apart from the collapse of the aluminium factory workshop last time, there had been no major accidents in the city.
However, to be on the safe side, the bottom shelves of the three stores in slightly lower locations had been emptied, and several layers of bricks had been placed under the freezers.
The situation in the province seemed to be getting more serious. Every night, my parents would call to tell him that there were more and more sandbags being placed on the river embankment and more and more military trucks on the street. One night, Feng Zhenzhang even lamented to Feng Yiping over the phone, 'Several buildings were blown up along the river today. They were such nice buildings, and they just blew up.'
Feng Yiping remembered that it seemed to be the case that some suicidal companies had built their buildings inside the breakwater.
Zhou Xinyu, who had been living in Shanghai for a long time, had also never seen such a scene. He called and said, 'Yiping, should we suspend our work for a while?'
'No, don't worry. Just do what you need to do. Nothing will happen. Trust me!'