When Boss Sun called to ask Chen Yuncheng to go to the trade market to look at the shops, Ning Junyan happened to be resting at home, and he insisted on driving Chen Yuncheng there.
Chen Yuncheng told him there was no need for him to do that. He didn’t really want Ning Junyan to go with him, because Ning Junyan’s presence and his car were too conspicuous. Boss Sun found him something to do because he saw that his current situation was difficult. It was not suitable for him to drive a car worth hundreds of thousands to meet others. But Chen Yuncheng was unable to say this reason.
Ning Junyan asked him, “Why not?”
Chen Yuncheng said, “It’s rare for you to have a day off, so take a good rest at home.”
Ning Junyan shook his head, but still insisted, “I’ll take you there.”
Chen Yuncheng felt that he couldn’t refuse anymore, so he said, “Then you can park outside later and wait for me in the car.”
Ning Junyan frowned and realized something. He put down the half-eaten porridge in his hand, “You don’t like me?”
Chen Yuncheng quickly said, “It’s not that I dislike you, I’m just a part-time worker. I’m afraid that you will cause misunderstandings with me.”
Ning Junyan asked him, “What is the misunderstanding?”
Chen Yuncheng said, “I misunderstand that I am not sincere.”
Ning Junyan looked at him silently for a while, and said, “The car doesn’t need to go in, but I want to go in.”
Chen Yuncheng nodded, “Okay.”
The trade market in the north of the city was newly renovated. Chen Yuncheng had only heard of it before and had never been here.
There was a large parking lot outside the market, and there were not many cars parked at this time. Because it was a wholesale business market, cars could drive inside, but Chen Yuncheng asked Ning Junyan to park the car in the parking lot.
The two of them walked in and saw that the market was almost a two-story townhouse, with shops on both floors. Not much time passed from completion to the opening of the market, and most of the shops had not yet opened for business. Some were closed, some were under renovation, and only a few had opened for business.
Boss Sun had already arrived first, standing outside the shop waiting for Chen Yuncheng.
Chen Yuncheng greeted him when he saw him, briefly introduced Ning Junyan who was with him, saying that he was a friend who drive him here and then listened to Boss Sun’s introduction of the shop.
Boss Sun’s full name was Sun Shiliang. He was in his forties, not very tall, a typical middle-aged man with a large pot belly.
Ning Junyan just took a look at him, then let Chen Yuncheng talk with him, and stood a little further away.
Boss Sun’s new shop was quite big and was still being renovated, but the signboard had already been put up.
He told Chen Yuncheng that he was rushing to renovate as soon as possible and wanted to start the business the year before, but now it looked a bit difficult and might have to be postponed until after the year.
Chen Yuncheng said, “The year before is the best time for business, I guess.”
The tobacco and alcohol business before the Chinese New Year was naturally the best. Sun Shiliang glanced around, “You see, most of the people around here couldn’t open their businesses a few years ago, and the deserted places can’t drive business. Forget it, don’t worry too much. Besides, there are still two weeks to go before Chinese New Year’s Eve, and these renovators will stop working soon, so we won’t be able to find anyone again until after Chinese New Year is over. It’s the same with you hiring people, it’s a bad time of year, and everyone’s back home for New Year. You’re getting ready to go back for New Year too, right?”
When Chen Yuncheng heard him say that, he suddenly realised that it was already almost the Chinese New Year. He said, “I won’t go back, so I’ll stay here.”
Sun Shiliang asked strangely, “Aren’t you the only child in the family? Hurry back and bear a son to carry on the family name!”
Chen Yuncheng didn’t expect his casual perfunctory remarks to be remembered so well by the other party, so he couldn’t help but smiled and said, “It’s okay, they’ll just come over to spend the New Year with me.”
Sun Shiliang didn’t think about it carefully, and nodded, “Anyway, let bygones be bygones, other than that, we still have to arrange for someone to guard the goods.”
Chen Yuncheng asked, “Is there a place to live in the shop?”
Sun Shiliang said, “Yes”, he took Chen Yuncheng to walk inside and saw that besides the two open shops outside, there was a small store room inside with some shelves already set up, and then there was an empty room inside with a small bathroom on one side of the room.
“You can live there if you want, or you can hire someone to guard it,” Sun Shiliang pointed out to him, “Didn’t you live in the kiosk before? If you don’t have a place to live, you don’t need to rent an apartment.”
Chen Yuncheng subconsciously turned his head and looked outside. From this angle, Ning Junyan was no longer visible. He said, “Let me think about it.”
Sun Shiliang patted him on the shoulder and said, “It won’t be as comfortable as being the boss of your own in the future.”
Chen Yuncheng turned around, smiled and said: “Being comfortable is one thing, but business has been bad over there, and it will only get worse when the supermarket opens nearby in the future, so it’s no point for me to just try to be comfortable and at ease.”
There were also a lot of renovation tools piled up inside, and the floor was so messy that it was difficult to set foot on it, so the two retreated out again.
Sun Shiliang saw Ning Junyan standing outside from a distance, and asked Chen Yuncheng in a low voice, “What does your friend do?”
Chen Yuncheng found that many people around him were interested in Ning Junyan’s identity, so he joked, “What do you think?”
Sun Shiliang sized up Ning Junyan from head to toe, “He looks like a celebrity by his appearance, and he looks like some big boss by his temperament.”
Chen Yuncheng couldn’t help but smiled slightly, and said to Sun Shiliang, “Aren’t you the one who looks like a big boss?”
Sun Shiliang shook his hand holding the cigarette, “I’m just a local rich man.”
Chen Yuncheng laughed softly, “He’s a doctor.”
Ning Junyan wore a long coat today. He was tall and broad-shouldered, and he looked very good in a long coat. His clothes were open and his hands were in his pockets, as he stood upright against the light. Like Sun Shiliang said, he looked like an idol star coming out of a TV drama.
When Sun Shiliang heard that Ning Junyan was a doctor, he immediately became interested and asked, “Which hospital is he from?
Chen Yuncheng talked about the tertiary hospital where he worked.
Sun Shiliang said, “It’s a big hospital. Is your friend free? Let me treat you to dinner tonight.”
“You are too kind,” Chen Yuncheng said.
Sun Shiliang said, “You know how difficult it is to see a doctor nowadays, who doesn’t want to meet doctors from big hospitals, you have to give me a good introduction.”
Chen Yuncheng looked at Ning Junyan and suddenly hesitated. He didn’t know if Ning Junyan would dislike this kind of socializing, but it was hard for him to refuse Boss Sun’s request, so he could only say, “I’ll ask him if he has any arrangements for the evening and then give you an answer.”
Sun Shiliang replied, “Yes!”
At noon, Sun Shiliang had other arrangements, so he parted from them at the trade market.
Chen Yuncheng got into the car, and when Ning Junyan started the car, he asked him, “Do you have something for the evening?”
“Huh?” Ning Junyan turned his head slightly.
Chen Yuncheng said, “Boss Sun just now wanted to invite you to dinner tonight.”
“Invite me?” Ning Junyan felt a little strange, “Why me?”
Chen Yuncheng said, “He’s quite fond of making friends, he heard that you work at the hospital and wants to get to know you.”
Ning Junyan heard the words and replied, “Okay.”
Chen Yuncheng looked at him in surprise, “Is it okay?”
Ning Junyan said “En”, “Isn’t he your boss?”
Chen Yuncheng didn’t expect him to agree so readily. It took him a while to react, and he called Sun Shiliang back and asked to have dinner together in the evening.
Sun Shiliang was outspoken and straightforward, so he immediately agreed on the time and place.
Chen Yuncheng and Ning Junyan went over in the evening, and when they entered the restaurant’s private room, they saw that Sun Shiliang had brought two friends over. Sun Shiliang introduced the two as a government official and a university teacher and said that he was a businessman with little education, so he had found two friends to drink and chat with.
Chen Yuncheng took off his coat and handed it to the waiter. He sat down and said, “Sun ge, he will be on duty tomorrow, so he doesn’t dare to drink.”
As soon as the words left Chen Yuncheng’s mouth, Ning Junyan who was sitting next to him said, “I’m not on duty, you remember wrongly.”
Chen Yuncheng raised his foot and kicked Ning Junyan, which happened to hit Ning Junyan’s calf, and said with a smile on his face, “That’s my mistake, but he’s still driving, so why don’t I drink for him?”
Sun Shiliang said, “It’s okay even if he’s driving, I’ll call a chauffeur for Dr. Ning and make sure you get back safe and sound.”
Ning Junyan said, “Thank you, Boss Sun.”
Chen Yuncheng couldn’t help but wanted to kick Ning Junyan again, but this time Ning Junyan held onto his thigh and squeezed it a little harder making his whole body trembled along with it.
In this kind of situation, with the other party being Sun Shiliang, who liked to socialise and entertain, Chen Yuncheng knew that it would be hard to end the night without drinking enough.
He glanced at Ning Junyan with some concern.
Ning Junyan approached his ear and whispered, “It’s okay.” Then when Sun Shiliang called everyone to have a drink first, he stood up politely holding the wine glass.
Chen Yuncheng had always felt that Ning Junyan was somewhat unapproachable in the past. Whether it was when he was a child or after the two reunited, the Ning Junyan in his impression seldom interacted with others in a polite and courteous way as he was now, socialising with people.
Ning Junyan was actually two years older than him, but he had hit his head when he was a child and Chen Yuncheng had been taking care of him, so he always felt that Ning Junyan was younger than him and needed to be taken care of by himself. However, today, Chen Yuncheng felt that he was being taken care of by him.
There was no need for Ning Junyan to come to this meal. The only reason why he accepted the invitation without hesitation was that Sun Shiliang was Chen Yuncheng’s boss, and he had come for Chen Yuncheng.
The university teacher sitting across from him chatted with Ning Junyan. Chen Yuncheng was confused when he heard them talking about doctoral dissertations and medical journals, so he ate food silently. Many times he couldn’t help turning his head to look at Ning Junyan.
Sun Shiliang sat on a chair with a smile and smoked. He also couldn’t understand, but it didn’t prevent him from listening to their chat with relish.
Chen Yuncheng kind of understood this kind of mentality. When you felt that you were shallow and ignorant, but the other party was knowledgeable and powerful, it created a mentality of admiration.
At this moment, he could feel Ning Junyan’s excellence and the fact that such an excellent Ning Junyan would fall in love with him, which made him throb uncontrollably from the bottom of his heart.
The author has something to say:
If I don’t update, I will post a leave of absence on Weibo
Notes:
If you want to read ahead, you can buy unlimited advanced chapters head to my Kofi page ₍⑅ᐢ..ᐢ₎
Support the author by buying the author’s other works and/or giving some jades here~
(note that there are several guides to manoeuvre in gongzicp or you can just google translate the page. Payment can be made with the Apple pay method)
We have a discord server for those who want to receive an update ping and various announcements~
Join here ^^
Check out bean’s novel here!
and her original novel about a sly cute dragon here~
Check out the other hoeni’s work here~
Check out the angst novel I co-tl with my friend here~
And please buy me some kofi if you like the translation~
Also leave some ratings if you like this series here~
