Chapter 44: The Sour Smell Of Romance
After returning from the Liu Family, Fan Ren and Liu Jun sat in the car, both reeking of alcohol.
“Second Brother, you didn’t mention your dad could drink like that.”
“You didn’t ask.”
Fan Ren reached out to rub his dizzy head. He had originally wanted to discuss the meeting with Ye Hongzhi, but now it seemed better to talk tomorrow.
“Come to my office tomorrow to discuss how to handle things on Deli’s side. Drop me off at the industrial park entrance up ahead. I’ll walk the rest of the way alone.”
Su Yu Rou glanced at the rearview mirror, shook her head, and smiled. “That won’t do. I’m afraid you’ll fall while walking in this state.”
She then gave Liu Jun a reproachful look and said indistinctly, “It’s all your fault.”
Liu Jun grinned and glanced at Su Yu Rou’s cuff. Her originally bare wrist now had a crystal-clear emerald green bracelet on it at some point.
“Nice!”
Hearing this, Su Yu Rou’s face flushed slightly, but she wasn’t too embarrassed. She gently shook her arm, revealing more of her cuff.
This was the bracelet that Liu Jianhua had solemnly given her before they left.
It was the relic of Liu Jun’s birth mother.
It was clear that her identity had now been officially acknowledged.
Fan Ren sat in the back seat, watching the affectionate display between the two in front, and muttered, “Looks like this gift money is unavoidable.”
“Of course. Your wife and I work for you. If the gift money is too little, don’t blame us for watering down the wedding wine.”
“Annoying, what nonsense. General Manager Fan isn’t that kind of person. Thank you, General Manager Fan. Take it slow, General Manager Fan, and remember to put some water by your side before sleeping.”
The car stopped in front of Xinghai. Su Yu Rou gave Liu Jun a coquettish glare, then sweetly instructed Fan Ren to be safe.
Fan Ren looked at Liu Jun in the front seat, who had been turned into an idiot by infatuation, shook his head helplessly, said goodbye, and got out of the car.
The car carried the loving couple inside slowly away. Fan Ren didn’t immediately go upstairs to his office but sat down right there at the main entrance.
He took out a cigarette from his pocket, lit one for himself, took a deep drag, and gazed at the road under the dim yellow streetlights, lost in thought for a long time.
He had indeed drunk too much.
Faces of people he had met over the years flashed through his mind one by one. Fan Ren’s lips sometimes curved into a smile, sometimes twisted in bitterness.
In his youth, for a bite to eat, he would fight with those several years older than him at the orphanage. His small, skinny body was no match, and several times he woke up in the middle of the night from pain when turning over.
Later in junior high at Hope Middle School, it was all kids from similar backgrounds.
How pitiful could a bunch of children unloved by their fathers or mothers be?
Fan Ren still remembered the little boy who picked bottles with him. After eating a few meat buns from a stranger, the boy disappeared from his life forever.
He didn’t know if the little boy had grown up, but he vaguely guessed it probably wasn’t going well.
Just like A’dai, with that stubborn bad habit—listening only to whoever was kind to him.
Random memories flashed in his mind, including being taken care of by teachers in middle school due to good grades and a pitiful background.
There were times in university when dorm buddies helped him openly and covertly.
And over three years, the girl who occasionally ate with him, chatted, and strolled under the phoenix trees.
Fan Ren instinctively locked these images deep in his mind.
Then a face with a bit of mature charm appeared before his eyes. The woman’s captivating phoenix eyes were always the first thing people noticed.
But the brief warmth that had just risen was shattered by her morning offer to trade her body for the patent.
Fan Ren frowned, shook his head, trying to drive out the image of Jin Qiaoying being extremely humiliated that morning.
When he opened his eyes again, that face seemed even more real.
“Sister Jin!”
Fan Ren’s startled shout echoed in the quiet night.
Jin Qiaoying’s once confident pale face now showed no trace of it. She was still wearing her morning clothes, with a wheeled suitcase behind her.
She didn’t speak, sat down beside Fan Ren on the ground, and took the cigarette from his mouth with her slender fingers, putting it between her red lips without disdain.
“Seven years. Since I took over the San Xin Group China Region seven years ago, market growth and revenue have been the fastest and highest in San Xin globally.”
Fan Ren put away his startled expression and turned to look at Jin Qiaoying murmuring to herself. The faint fragrance left by her slender hand on his nose tip made him slightly dazed.
“Over the seven years, all of San Xin’s investments and cooperations in China were personally secured by me one by one, and I tirelessly handled the follow-up issues myself.”
Fan Ren believed this. Without her, as a foreign multinational, San Xin could hardly get along so harmoniously with Xinghai.
“The purpose of all this wasn’t to show off my iron lady image and gain some status at headquarters.”
Fan Ren’s whole body suddenly trembled. The heaviness on his shoulder made him afraid to move.
Jin Qiaoying tilted her head onto Fan Ren’s shoulder, as if suddenly feeling some reliance, instinctively pressing her body closer.
“I just want to move Mother’s ashes into the family cemetery to be buried with Father, not left alone outside.”
“I just want Mother to be with Father down there, not so lonely. Why is that so hard?”
Jin Qiaoying’s tears began flowing uncontrollably, but she didn’t wipe them, letting them stream down and soak Fan Ren’s shoulder.
The air fell silent.
Fan Ren was also suddenly enlightened.
The word “mother” was especially sacred to him.
At this moment, he finally understood why Jin Qiaoying had absurdly offered herself to him that morning.
After her father passed away, Jin Qiaoying’s birth mother was driven out of the Jin Family by Jin Ze’s mother and soon passed away alone.
Her ashes were only kept in a temple.
She was too young then and couldn’t handle these matters, so everything was managed by Jin Ze’s birth mother.
Even now, as the matriarch of the Jin Family, to move her mother’s ashes back for burial with her father, she still needed approval from Jin Ze’s mother.
A cold winter wind blew, and the chill from his tear-soaked shoulder made Fan Ren shiver.
Looking at Jin Qiaoying on his shoulder, with her beautiful black long hair, wearing only thin clothes.
Yet she didn’t seem cold at all.
Perhaps she no longer cared about such physical sensations.
“Sister Jin, it’s cold here. Come up with me.”
As he spoke, he reached to support Jin Qiaoying’s shoulder to stand, but found she could barely get up.
Fan Ren didn’t care about anything else, quickly bent down to scoop her up horizontally, kicked the suitcase forward with his foot, and ran into the building.
After going upstairs and arriving in the office, Fan Ren placed Jin Qiaoying on his folding bed.
Only after relaxing did he realize her body had no warmth at all.
“Sister Jin, lie down for a bit. I’ll make you some hot tea to warm up.”
As he spoke, Fan Ren walked to the tea table and turned on the kettle.
Thinking for a moment, he also grabbed some instant coffee he rarely drank and poured two sachets into a cup.
Turning to look at the folding bed, perhaps as her body began to warm up and recover from hypothermia, Jin Qiaoying finally started shivering.
Fan Ren brewed the coffee and brought the cup to the bedside.
“Sister Jin, drink some to ward off the cold.”
Jin Qiaoying’s face was deathly pale from the cold, her eyes instinctively showing longing for the steaming coffee.
Since he had already carried her, Fan Ren didn’t think about any gender differences, supported her shoulder with one hand, and helped her sit up.
Jin Qiaoying’s body was still trembling. Fan Ren quickly brought the cup to her moist lips.
Her red lips parted slightly, coffee flowed into her mouth, but Jin Qiaoying’s brows furrowed slightly.
“Instant?”
“Huh?”
Seeing Fan Ren’s mouth agape in confusion, Jin Qiaoying smiled for the first time that day.
“It’s hard on you too.”
She no longer fussed and slowly drank the coffee.
