Chapter 21: Dumb and Grumpy
Late at night, strange mumbling sounds mixed with waves of hard-to-bear pain. The sleeping person turned over restlessly and slowly opened her eyes.
During the negative buff period, her condition was still very different from normal.
Even so, she was already much more comfortable than some other people. Cheng Fei did not dare ask for anything better.
………………………
“Hiss!”
Under the dim yellow streetlight, a man let out a low groan. Holding his swollen cheek, he got into the car, opened a bottle of water, and closed his eyes tightly.
Ding.
A pleasant notification sound rang out. The message he had sent earlier, “You’re really ruthless”, finally got a reply.
“Why would you say that? I remember someone once said he wanted to eat something personally made by his ‘sister-in-law.’ Besides, spicy food should match your taste perfectly.”
Ye Dong clenched his fist and gritted his teeth.
At first, he thought he could handle it. But after eating the spicy hot pot, his lips became swollen, and his cheeks also started acting up.
He did not dare meet anyone the entire afternoon, afraid people would joke that he looked like a hamster. He only dared go out this late at night, sneaking home like a thief.
“This is way too spicy!”
“That only proves the spicy taste has a strong aftereffect. Also, your tolerance for spicy food is nowhere near as good as you bragged.”
“You!”
“I’m going to sleep. Good night.”
Ye Dong stared helplessly at his phone, grinding his teeth in anger.
He started the car and drove away from the building. Even after getting onto the road, he still held the bottle of water, taking a sip from time to time to cool down his gums, which felt burned and swollen.
Sadly, it could only suppress the pain for a short time. It was nowhere near the effect of actual medicine.
When the pain became unbearable, Ye Dong realized the hospital was too far away.
After searching around on the map, he finally found a nearby pharmacy. Passing through an intersection, he only glanced quickly before eagerly turning the steering wheel right.
Half the car had just crossed the intersection when his heart suddenly tightened. He instinctively looked left and saw two blinding headlights rushing straight toward him...
A few minutes earlier, outside the school gate, two people were arguing endlessly.
The man blocked the woman’s way, insisting on talking things out, while the woman clearly wanted to leave quickly.
“Teacher Bai, people should have a conscience! Teachers shape the souls of students, so you should care even more about conscience!”
Since it involved “the soul,” Bai Xi, who believed she had lived her life with a clear conscience, could not simply ignore him. She stopped, looked at the stubborn parent in front of her, and adjusted her glasses.
“I want to repeat this again. As long as basic learning needs are met, children should have more free time. Even machines break if they work too much. Endless studying does not only harm the body, it also destroys children’s interest in learning!”
“Hah, stop pretending you care. You teachers just don’t want to teach properly in class, so you save material for private tutoring lessons!”
Hearing this, the parent looked full of disdain and began speaking more and more wildly. Bai Xi completely lost the desire to argue with him. She turned her head away and ignored him entirely.
“Do you office workers even understand how hard parents work? A teacher as greedy as you means this school is hopeless. Irresponsible teachers like you ruin the whole group! Tomorrow I’ll transfer my child to another school, and I’ll report you to the district, the city, and the education department!”
“My conscience is clear. Do whatever you want. If you want to report me, go ahead.”
After saying that, Bai Xi got into her car, turned on some music, and ignored the middle-aged man barking outside like a mad dog.
The car drove away, and the man disappeared from sight, but Bai Xi was no saint. Her anger did not disappear so quickly.
Gradually, she felt a wave of anger rise into her chest and rush straight to her head. She felt like this unreasonable parent was going to blow the top of her head off from anger.
She saw how students were already under huge pressure, with barely any time to rest, so she intentionally gave less homework to let these overworked children have some breathing room. This was not the first parent who failed to understand her and came to make trouble, and she knew it would not be the last.
But parents who only wanted their children buried in endless piles of practice questions, completely destroying every bit of the children’s interests, forcing them to study only for the sake of studying. She truly felt sad for those children.
If harsh pressure alone could guarantee success in learning, there would not have been so many scholars failing the imperial exams in ancient times.
Without realizing it, her foot pressed harder on the gas pedal. The scenery outside the window sped backward rapidly. Bai Xi strangely felt her mood calm down a little as the car moved faster.
So even she, who normally drove carefully, started speeding.
Until, at one intersection, the accident finally happened.
Bai Xi’s “right face” slammed tightly against Ye Dong’s “left face.”
Near a police car not far away, two pairs of eyes looked over.
“Hah, I just started the night shift and already ran into this.”
“If it’s fate, there’s no escaping it, Captain An.”
“Sigh...”
With a soft sigh, the man called Captain An turned on his body camera and walked across the crosswalk toward the accident scene.
More than ten minutes later, under the flashing red and blue police lights, the two people, each looking at the other with dislike, finished listening to the decision about responsibility and punishment.
Ye Dong failed to follow the rule of giving way while turning, so he took most of the blame. But Bai Xi was also driving seventy kilometers per hour in an area with a speed limit of fifty, so she was speeding as well. In the end, she also received penalty points and a fine.
Today, either their bodies or their moods were already terrible. Even knowing they were partly at fault, both still felt a fire burning inside. They each kept a proud and stubborn attitude.
The traffic police officer was a huge man with strong muscles, looking almost like a bodybuilder. His blue shirt looked ready to burst open. After writing everything down and not hearing the usual complaints, he raised his bright sharp eyes and looked at the two of them.
“No complaints? Still not satisfied? If you have objections, you can file an appeal later.”
After speaking, he handed each of them a copy of the report, while both insurance agents walked over.
After everything was handled, Ye Dong could no longer endure the pain in his teeth. He left behind his phone number and hurried away.
As for Bai Xi, she was not only angry, but while sitting in the car, she even felt her vision becoming uneven and shaky.
Something was wrong.
It was her glasses.
After parking by the roadside, Bai Xi checked carefully and discovered a crack in one of the lenses.
This night was clearly destined to be anything but peaceful.
…………………………………
Back to Cheng Fei.
Maybe it was because her body was already weak during this period, together with the exhaustion from a busy day, but Cheng Fei felt unbelievably tired. Her eyelids were as heavy as lead. She only looked around briefly and checked the time before falling asleep in a daze. Even if something strange happened, she had no energy left to notice it.
So after having a nice sleep, when she got up and suddenly felt a strange coolness below, Cheng Fei lowered her head to check, and instantly froze in shock.
Thinking carefully about it…
Last night, she seemed to have fallen asleep in the car. So there was no need to think too hard about what happened after that. Gao Ming must have carried her back after she fell asleep…
At this point, simply cleaning things was impossible. Taking a shower was the only option.
Holding her clothes, she crouched under the shower, rubbing the stained red bedsheet and underwear clean…
The water from the showerhead poured down onto her body, making her shiver. Why was it still not warm after so long? Wait, no. The temperature was already set to fifty degrees.
Looking up at the showerhead, she suddenly understood one thing, why women always used such hot water while bathing.
Compared to before, the showerhead now seemed to only reach her neck. She had become a whole head shorter.
Looking at the fog-covered mirror, Cheng Fei could not help feeling sad.
After moving slowly downstairs, she saw that Gao Ming had prepared breakfast again, just like yesterday, though the dishes were different this time.
Rice porridge, pickled vegetables, and several big steaming buns.
Gao Ming was eating when he heard movement. The moment he saw Cheng Fei, he suddenly paused, his expression becoming strange.
Cheng Fei also froze for a moment. His expression looked odd. What was that supposed to mean?
She lowered her head and looked at herself. It was just overalls. Was this outfit really that strange? Or did this man simply like innocent-looking girls?
Carefully taking a step forward, Cheng Fei noticed Gao Ming immediately return to normal. He quickly finished the rest of his buns and pushed a cup filled with “black water” toward her.
Thin white steam rose from the cup, carrying a faint sweet smell.
“What’s this?”
Gao Ming pushed over a small box as well.
“Brown sugar water. It’s not poison.”
Oh.
But she felt perfectly fine. She did not even have period pain, so drinking this seemed a little unnecessary.
Still, after thinking about it again, she remembered hearing that brown sugar could help replenish iron. Right now, her body was losing a large amount of iron anyway. Even if the effect was limited, drinking some was still better than nothing.
“Thanks.”
Gao Ming did not respond. He kept eating breakfast with his head lowered. Normally, he was a very calm and open person, but today he acted as if he had done something guilty, not daring to meet Cheng Fei’s eyes directly.
His strange behavior made Cheng Fei suspicious. Before leaving, she even deliberately checked herself again in the bathroom, but there really seemed to be nothing wrong.
Did he really do something to her yesterday?
Tch. Her mind was overthinking again. No matter how desperate a man was, he would not force himself on someone during this kind of time.
Besides… her current identity was right there in front of him.
“The appointment time for the wedding photos has arrived.”
On the road, the silent Gao Ming suddenly spoke.
“Oh? When are we going?”
Cheng Fei casually asked without looking up, still focused on checking the accounting records on her phone.
It was not that she had fully accepted everything calmly. The time simply had not come yet, so she could not act carelessly.
“Probably within the next two days.”
This finally made Cheng Fei raise her head.
Although things with her ex-girlfriend never reached the point of discussing marriage, during her years working in sales, she had once followed a client all the way to a suburban outdoor wedding photo shoot just to win business. She carried clothes, served drinks, and ran around like a nanny. After exhausting herself, she finally secured the client and was lucky enough to witness the full process of wedding photography firsthand.
In Cheng Fei’s opinion, this kind of artistic photo shoot was extremely troublesome.
Posing, changing outfits, constantly searching for good scenery and camera angles, even one full day was considered short. If the weather was bad, the people involved were difficult, or unexpected problems appeared, it could easily take three to five days.
Even if the schedule was shorter and everything was handed to Miao Lei… that shy girl still seemed a bit unreliable.
No, she needed to find another helper.
Cheng Fei lowered her head again and continued searching for people on the same recruitment website as before.
But… there were too few girls available, and the time was too tight. In the end, she had no choice but to settle for what she could get.
“The proportions are handled pretty well.”
Cheng Fei took a sip of lemonade, tasted it carefully, and gave her opinion.
Hearing this, the young man sitting across from her grinned happily, carrying a bit of the same spirit she herself had in the past.
Still, after two years since graduation and several part-time jobs, his abilities were actually quite decent.