Chapter 4

       On the way back, the heater in Ning Junyan’s car was still fully on.

       The two of them didn’t speak much, and Chen Yuncheng had been giving Ning Junyan directions. After spending more than forty minutes, Ning Junyan parked his car at the roadside of Chen Yuncheng’s small kiosk.

       Chen Yuncheng had no intention of inviting Ning Junyan to sit in his place, so he just said, “Thank you.”

       Ning Junyan glanced at the tightly closed rolling shutter by the roadside, reached out and picked up the mobile phone in the car, and asked, “Phone number?”

       Chen Yuncheng couldn’t help but glance at his cell phone and gave his mobile number. He then saw Ning Junyan calling him.

       The phone rang twice and hung up.

       Chen Yuncheng opened the car door and got out of the car. He stood in front of the car door, and said to Ning Junyan, “I’ll invite you to dinner next time when you have time.”

       Ning Junyan did not speak.

       Chen Yuncheng then said, “Be careful on the road.” This meant to send off the guest. After he said that, he raised his hand and closed the car door, took a half step back, and waved at Ning Junyan who was in the car.

       Ning Junyan drove away.

       Chen Yuncheng always had a feeling of being in a trance. He stood on the side of the road for a while, then squatted down and opened the door with the key, and got into his old kiosk that didn’t even have a signboard.

       The weather was getting colder day by day.

       Before going to bed, Chen Yuncheng boiled a pot of hot water and sat on the edge of the bed to heat his feet. He lazily fell on his back on the soft bed and reached for the phone that was thrown on the bed. He found that the screen still had the alert of the missed call from Ning Junyan.

       He opened the caller ID, saved Ning Junyan’s number and name in the address book, and then put away the phone. He raised his hand and rubbed his face, sighed, and closed his eyes.

       Ning Junyan later spent more than half an hour driving from Chen Yuncheng to his home.

       When he opened the door, the room was pitch black. He reached out and turned on the light in the entrance hall, and only then did a pale yellow light illuminates the smaller half of the room.

       This house was more than 130 square meters, which was actually a bit big for him to live alone. The decoration style of the whole house was very concise, the tones are also cold, and it seemed deserted all the time.

       Ning Junyan put his coat on the armrest of the sofa and walked inside wearing slippers.

       Although it was winter, he still opened the refrigerator and took out a bottle of mineral water, unscrewed the lid and drank a small half of the bottle, and then put the remaining half back.

       After he took a shower, Ning Junyan sat topless on the edge of the bed in the well-heated bedroom, reaching for the phone on the bed.

       The WeChat group that he joined because of work was flashing messages all the time, but most of the time had nothing to do with work.

       He copied Chen Yuncheng’s phone number, clicked on WeChat to find the other party, and saw that Chen Yuncheng’s WeChat name was Strange City¹mòshēng de chéng..

       Ning Junyan’s WeChat name was only a simple “Ning”, and he added Chen Yuncheng WeChat. He then put the phone on the bedside table and reached out to turn off the lamp to sleep.

       While Chen Yuncheng sat at the counter to wait for the kiosk to open the next, he opened WeChat on his mobile phone, only to find that Ning Junyan had added him as a friend. After he clicked agree, he saw Ning Junyan appear in his friend column but did not take the initiative to contact him. And Ning Junyan never looked for him again, as if he was just going through a procedure.

       A few days later, Zhou Yan appeared on his own initiative.

       His overall mental state was much better than last time. He was wearing a white shirt and a tie inside the black down jacket.

       As soon as Chen Yuncheng saw him, he asked, “Have you found a new job?”

       Zhou Yan nodded. He walked into the store, leaned against the counter, and asked Chen Yuncheng to bring him a pack of cigarettes.

       Chen Yuncheng brought him a pack of ten yuan²$1.49 cigarettes, put them on the glass counter, and said, “It’s on me, but you should smoke less in the future.”

       However, Zhou Yan raised his hand and pulled out his down jacket. He took out his wallet from the inner pocket, and took out twenty yuan³$2.98 and put it on the cigarette box, “How dare I let you treat me, today I’m here to invite you to dinner.”

       Chen Yuncheng lowered his eyes, looked at the twenty yuan, and said, “Really?”

       “I’m currently working as a salesman at a shop that sells used cars.”

       The restaurant where Zhou Yan invited Chen Yuncheng to eat was a nearby chain store that did very good business. At dinner every day, the store was almost full, and the tables and chairs were placed outside, occupying the originally wide street.

       The two of them were sitting on the side of the street. The wind was too cold in the winter. The boss covered both sides with transparent plastic sheets. With the constant tumbling heat from the bottom of the pot, the open-air environment was barely warm.

       Chen Yuncheng put his chopsticks on the bowl, looked at the bamboo sticks inserted into the hotpot, leaned back in the chair, and asked Zhou Yan, “Is there enough money for the child’s treatment?”

       Zhou Yan shook his head, “But there is always hope.” He looked rather relaxed.

       Chen Yuncheng felt a little strange, “It’s so profitable to sell used cars now?”

       Zhou Yan heard the question in his tone, reached out and grabbed a handful of cooked beef, and handed it to Chen Yuncheng, “The market is not bad now,” he said, “It’s true, Cheng ge.”

       Chen Yuncheng took the beef and saw that Zhou Yan took out a work permit from his shirt pocket. It was a second-hand car sales permit.

       Zhou Yan stuffed the work permit back.

       Chen Yuncheng asked him, “You are not working with Zhang Wenyong, did you?”

       Zhou Yan asked strangely, “Why?”

       Chen Yuncheng shook his head. He didn’t know what Zhang Wenyong was doing recently, but that day Long Zhanyu specially came to ask him about Zhang Wenyong, which made him feel vaguely uneasy.

       The reason why this shop’s business was so good was that the food really tasted very good. Chen Yuncheng used chopsticks to put all the beef on the bamboo stick into the dipping plate, and then slowly picked it up and ate it.

       The bottom of the pot in front of him was churning, and the red oil rolled over the pale red soup base, and a white mist with a spicy taste emerged.

       Through the white mist, Chen Yuncheng said to Zhou Yan, “I met Ning Junyan.”

       Zhou Yan was obviously stunned and asked, “Who?”

       “Ning Junyan,” Chen Yuncheng repeated, he felt that Zhou Yan might not remember this person.

       However, Zhou Yan put down his chopsticks, and the whole person looked dazed, “Is it really Ning Junyan?”

       Chen Yuncheng nodded.

       Zhou Yan didn’t speak, as if he was instantly lost in memory.

       And following this gap, Chen Yuncheng also subconsciously remembered the first time he saw Ning Junyan. At that time, Ning Junyan was actually ten years old. Although the clothes he was wearing were a little dirty, he could see that he looked good. He squatted quietly in the corner with a pale and dull expression on his face.

       Chen Yuncheng was eight years old at the time, and e had not washed his hair for nearly half a month. He saw that his foster mother was finishing cooking and his foster father was not in the house, so he approached cautiously and called him, “Hello?”

       Ning Junyan did not speak.

       Chen Yuncheng reached out and pushed Ning Junyan’s shoulder.

       Ning Junyan still didn’t respond, didn’t even look at him.

       Chen Yuncheng retracted his hand in disappointment, thinking that he was a fool.

       “What is he doing now?” Zhou Yan suddenly spoke and interrupted Chen Yuncheng’s thoughts.

       Chen Yuncheng leaned to the other side and said, “A doctor.”

       Zhou Yan smiled when he heard the words, “I didn’t expect it.” He spoke to himself, and couldn’t help but add, “Actually, it’s normal, his family seems to be very rich, right? And we’re not from the same world in the first place.”

       Chen Yuncheng did not speak.

       Zhou Yan paused for a while and said, “Actually, I think he is quite scary.”

       Chen Yuncheng raised his eyes and looked at him.

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