After breakfast, Fu Mingchuan was preparing to head to the office when a guest arrived at the house.
Fu Ying, who was watching cartoons, looked up and saw the girl bowing deeply to Fu Mingchuan with a grateful expression.
"Uncle Fu, thank you for lending me 200,000. My mother's life was saved because of it. I'll earn money and repay you after I graduate. I, Xia Jinyun, always keep my word."
Fu Mingchuan smiled contentedly, "I'm glad the surgery was successful. I need to visit your mother some other day. How is your mother recovering?"
"My mother is recovering very well. She keeps talking about Uncle Fu and wants to thank you in person."
Fu Mingchuan nodded, "That's good. I'll visit her another day."
Xia Jinyun was very tactful. Seeing that Fu Mingchuan was about to leave, she did not stay any longer.
No sooner had Xia Jinyun left than an exhausted-looking Fu Yan came downstairs.
While yawning, he asked, "Who was here just now?"
Fu Ying: "The young lady from yesterday."
"Damn, why didn't you call me?"
"You were playing a game."
"Playing a game isn't as important as a beautiful woman."
Fu Ying frowned, "Brother, don't you have a girlfriend?"
"That's not a girlfriend."
Fu Ying puzzled, "Then what is it?"
"A treasure."
"Isn't a treasure a girlfriend?"
Fu Yan shamelessly said, "A treasure is a treasure, a girlfriend is a girlfriend, they're not the same."
"..." Fu Ying was dumbfounded, "Brother, you're really fickle, a playboy, right?"
...
In the afternoon, after Fu Ying finished her homework, she sneaked out.
She waited for the bus route seven across from the school, dropped in a one-yuan coin, and found a seat.
At last, she got off the bus at Xinghe District.
Fu Ying was right outside Xinghe District but didn't dare to walk in.
She felt she must be crazy to have taken the bus here hoping for an accidental encounter with him.
But, at this time, he should probably be at the fire station, right?
Fu Ying didn't know what she was expecting. She even imagined that perhaps in the next second, he would walk out from the district. She had even prepared what to say if they feigned an accidental meeting.
She stood at the entrance to the district, indecisive.
The longer she waited, the more anxious she became. Just when she felt it was impossible to bump into Shen Liguang, she suddenly saw him walking out of the side entrance of the district.
Taken by panic, Fu Ying forgot all the words she had thought of; her mind went blank, her heart squeezed tight, and she was at a loss.
It was over.
She had never thought that coming prepared would still leave her out of her depth and off-balance.
Everything was different from what she had imagined.
She was about to turn around and flee when she realized there was another girl next to Shen Liguang.
It was that girl, Xia Jinyun.
From a distance, Fu Ying couldn't hear what they were saying, but they seemed to be laughing and talking, looking very well-suited.
For some reason, she felt a suffocating sensation in her chest, causing her pain.
She turned around and walked toward the bus station.
.
"Thank you so much for last time. I don't know why I was so foolish as to try to end my life."
Shen Liguang shook his head, "It's just my duty."
Xia Jinyun smiled, "Yes, but I still want to say thank you. It's getting late, I need to go to my part-time job."
"Okay."
Fu Ying couldn't help but look back and saw that they, too, were walking towards the bus station.
She spotted a milk tea shop nearby, made her way through the crowd, and entered.
"Miss, what would you like?"
As soon as she entered, the staff greeted her warmly.
Fu Ying was absent-minded and randomly picked a picture: "This one."
"Alright, please wait a moment."
Fu Ying took a deep breath, her heart ached so much she almost suffocated, her breaths labored.
"Kid, your milk tea is ready, fifteen yuan."
The clerk's voice pulled Fu Ying back to reality, and she felt her clothing pocket, realizing she didn't bring her phone.
She only had ten yuan on her.
Holding the milk tea, she stood there awkwardly with ten yuan in hand, her cheeks flushing red.
The clerk looked at the embarrassed little girl and asked gently, "Did you not bring enough money?"
Fu Ying nodded, fumbling through her pockets.
Beside her, a man stepped up and paid with a quick scan from his phone.
"It's paid."
The clerk nodded with a smile: "Okay, we welcome you to visit again."
Fu Ying hung her head low and silently followed behind Shen Liguang as they left the milk tea shop.
The two stood at the bus stop.
"Why are you here?"
Fu Ying replied, "I came to see a classmate."
Shen Liguang nodded: "The buses are about to stop running, head home early."
"Mhm."
"I'm going to the fire station later, so I won't be able to take you."
Fu Ying felt a blockage in her chest: "Mhm, I'll take the bus home."
Shen Liguang glanced at the time and nodded: "Then take care on your own."
Afterward, he boarded the number 17 bus.
Watching Shen Liguang hurriedly leave, Fu Ying blinked, and after a moment, she lifted her head to look in the direction he had gone.
Knowing that the bus was already far away.
But she just wanted to look.
When she got home, Fu Ying shut herself in her room.
For the first time, she posted a melodramatic sentence on her QQ Space: A one-sided fervor.
After posting, she buried herself in her blankets and unwittingly fell asleep.
At dinner time, Nanny Wu woke her up.
Lacking her usual spark, the girl dejectedly went downstairs.
Fu Yan, holding his phone, couldn't help but laugh at the melodrama Fu Ying had posted: "Fu Ying, what's with the melodrama on your QQ Space? It's so emo."
Fu Ying then realized that she had posted the sentence on her main account.
Head lowered and not in the mood to argue with Fu Yan, she was downhearted: "Just posting whatever."
"You're awfully reflective for your age."
Fu Mingchuan disapproved: "It's normal for a sixteen-year-old girl to have things on her mind."
Fu Mingchuan was fairly open-minded; after all, his daughter was sixteen years old, a young girl, and it was normal for a girl to have things on her mind.
But as her father, he didn't know how to offer guidance when his daughter had troubles,
"Yingying, is there anything you can talk to Dad about?" Fu Mingchuan gently probed.
"I don't have anything on my mind; I just posted randomly. Have you seen my QQ Space? I used to post melodramatic sentences often, didn't I?"
Fu Yan casually flipped through and found it to be true.
The little girl indeed had many thoughts, posting a lot of melodramatic love quotes.
Like some love guru.
Fu Yan laughed, really wondering what she knew about love at her age.
Wasn't this nonsense?
Fu Mingchuan asked from the side, "Yingying, Dad doesn't use QQ. Can you post on WeChat in the future? I want to understand you better. After all, you're a girl, and there are some things I don't know how to ask directly."
Fu Ying nodded: "Okay."
Fu Yan curled his lip and put down his phone: "What's there to see? It's all soul-soothing platitudes found on the internet."
Fu Mingchuan replied: "That's still better than those crude jokes you post. It'd be best for you to delete them today, don't lead your sister astray."
Fu Yan reluctantly and half-heartedly agreed: "Yeah, got it."