Chapter Thirty-One

  Lu Xi Fang quietly lit a few candles for Su An Ran before he vaguely asked Wen Jing Fan, who continued eating with an expressionless face: "Ready to go back and catch people?"

  "The plane at night." Wen Jingfan put down his chopsticks and picked up a disposable paper cup to take a sip of red tea. Through the swirling white mist, he gazed at Lu Xifang: "There's still half a month before New Year's, aren't you going back this year either?"

  Lu Xifang hummed lightly and replied nonchalantly, "Why should I go back?" For people like them who have stable jobs but are single and don't have a partner, going back home for the new year is equivalent to accepting endless blind dates.

  Lu Xifang is in the entertainment industry, so his family worries that he might get too close to some female stars and lose himself. Once he returns home, if he stays for more than two days, on the third day he will be immediately occupied with "major life events".

  "What about you? This old man is stubborn and difficult to talk to. If An Ran doesn't take his fancy, there will be trouble between you two."

  Wen Jingfan was drinking water, his face shrouded in a white mist, and his expression couldn't be seen clearly. Until Lu Xifang thought he wouldn't answer, he slowly said: "You're right, so I still need some time. Before being with her, I must first clear the obstacles at Old Master's place."

  Lu Xi Fang smiled and didn't continue the conversation.

  And An Ran on this side...

  An Ran saw the voice message sent over and pressed it while drinking coffee.

  "Wait for me."

  In a state of shock and bewilderment, An Ran hadn't swallowed the warm coffee in time, causing her to cough nonstop.

  It wasn't until the coughing finally subsided that she covered her scorching face and stared blankly at her phone - was it just an illusion earlier?

  Thinking so, she pressed the key and listened again.

  Still his voice, clear and cold, concise and meaningful.

  So...... how long did he actually chat with her on Lu Xi Fang's WeChat!!!!!

  As she thought, her fingertips touched the screen and scrolled up to view the records. She looked for a long time but couldn't find any clues, but her eyes fell on the last sentence she sent... She regretted it so much that her intestines turned green!

  It's all over now... The relationship between the two people has hit rock bottom again.

  She still remembers how he looked when he said that sentence, without a hint of warmth around him, standing a few steps away, just staring at her from afar.

  The tone is as cold and clear as it is today, without any warmth. When speaking, it's also completely calm... with a somewhat stiff appearance.

  She couldn't quite understand him and couldn't see through him either.

  But she actually knew a bit about it, he often spoke in this way, with this tone. But even so, she couldn't understand his meaning at all.

  Was it just a casual question or was she probing her? But if you knew her intentions, why didn't you ask more directly...

  She has no choice but to go all out now.

  There is probably a kind of feeling in this world that makes people feel particularly awkward - unrequited love.

  Because they are friends, because neither of them wants to lose each other, and because they are anxious about not understanding each other's intentions, they have always been cautious, carefully considering every sentence with even a slight ambiguity for half a day, fearing that one careless move will lead to complete failure.

  As she sat there thinking, she felt a slight pain in her temples. Before she knew it, she had finished the entire cup of coffee. She pinched the handle of the cup, her eyes falling on the voice message he sent... but deep down, anticipation rose up.

  Is it really within reach?

  After a long time, Lu Xi Fang's WeChat still didn't have any new messages coming in. She then focused her mind and continued to work on the task at hand. After finishing this period of work, she could still rush back to S city before New Year's Eve to spend the holiday with her mother.

  She should go home now.

  At 10 o'clock in the evening, she had just finished patrolling the hotel and returned to the office. After sitting down for a short while, she received a call from the front desk.

  "Manager, there is a VIP guest who has booked a room and is on his way from the airport. Let's prepare a comfortable business suite."

  He casually flipped through a few pages of the hotel's promotional brochure and replied: "There is a room on the 12th floor, I'll come down right away."

  She hung up the phone, glanced at the time, pinched her slightly sore brow, and turned to go downstairs.

  The VIP guest arrived quickly, and soon after An Ran went downstairs, a fleet of five cars lined up in front of the hotel. A person quickly got out of the passenger seat of the car surrounded in the middle and went to open the rear door.

  Su Anran walked calmly from the main station, and when she reached the gate, the man in the back seat had also gotten out of the car, wearing a black suit. Because his back was facing her, she didn't see the guest's appearance clearly.

  Judging from his figure, the guest's age is roughly middle-aged, slightly plump but fortunately tall, and this slight plumpness does not affect his overall temperament.

  She was indulging in her own speculation, and when she saw the license plate number on the car, the gentle smile on her face suddenly froze, and even her gaze turned cold.

  At the same time, the man who had been facing away from her finally turned around. His gaze first fell on the hotel, and he muttered something to the person beside him before walking towards this direction.

  She stood there, unable to move forward or backward, frozen in place as he walked towards her step by step. It wasn't until the team leader gave her a gentle push on the arm that she snapped back to reality, took a deep breath, and went to meet him.

  "Hello, I am Simon, the lobby manager of Shengyuan Hotel, nice to serve you."

  The man who was walking stopped for a moment, lowered his head and looked at her for a long time before saying, "Lift up your head."

  Suppressing the disgust in her heart, she lifted her head and smiled at the man: "May I ask if you're here to check-in? Please come this way."

  As she spoke, she didn't give the man a chance to refuse and walked straight forward.

  The leader and waiter behind her saw that An Ran was acting strangely, exchanged a glance with each other, and followed him.

  Checked in smoothly, followed An Ran with the person upstairs, silently entered the elevator.

  The leader noticed the different atmosphere between the guests and Su Anran, so he came forward to ease the tension, introducing the hotel's facilities.

  When they reached the 12th floor, An Ran led him out and stopped at the door of the room. After swiping the card, he stood upright with his head bowed: "This is your guest room, have a pleasant stay."

  As she spoke, she inserted the room card in her hand into the card slot at the door. After a slight "beep" from the room, all the lights came on, illuminating the entire room as bright as daylight.

  Standing calmly in the shadow of the doorway, her face was as pale as paper. She pursed her lips and nodded slightly: "I won't disturb your rest, if there's anything you need, feel free to find us anytime."

  "Alright." The man who had been silent the whole time finally spoke up, his tone laced with a hint of helplessness: "You don't want to see me, and you really can't recognize me?"

  Su Anran suddenly froze in place as she turned around, facing the shift leader and several waitresses, who were clearly visible with subtle expressions on their faces.

  She took a deep breath and turned around with a faint smile: "I'm on duty now, if there's anything, please talk to me after I get off work."

  As soon as she finished speaking, Rong Guo's face suddenly sank. She clasped her hands together and placed them on her abdomen, bowing slightly. Just as she was about to retreat, the butler beside Rong's father spoke up to stop her: "Can you spare Manager Rong ten minutes to take a look at the room with us?"

  Su An was sitting properly on the sofa, and opposite her sat Su's father. The steward of the Su family had excused himself to get some fresh air and had already left.

  Looking straight at this person she hadn't seen in five years, her first words were: "You're interrupting my work."

  Su Zhe's lips moved slightly, but he didn't say anything. He poured tea for the two of them and slowly spoke up: "I came to A City for business, so I thought I'd drop by to see you. How's work going?"

  She lowered her eyes calmly and remained silent.

  "How's your mother doing? I heard she hasn't been feeling well lately..."

  Su Anran's eyelids twitched, and her clasped hands trembled involuntarily. She finally looked up at her: "You don't know that my mom had a lingering illness back then, and these years have been a repeat of ups and downs. You can ask me about this, but don't disturb her."

  The heart wound is hard to heal, whether it's with his mother or her, they can't go through another bloody storm again.

  "After some thought, she said: 'Your family member has been inquiring about my mother's situation all along. Please help me tell her not to worry so much. We... won't pose any threat to her.'"

  "You misunderstood, she was worried about your situation and thought of inquiring some news to tell me..."

  "It's her you're living with now." An Ran interrupted him, seeing that his face looked a bit unsightly, and only then did she tone down her voice to say: "Ever since this woman intervened, ever since your divorce from my mom, ever since you gave up custody of me, I thought you'd already anticipated that we wouldn't have a peaceful day like today again."

  He got up calmly and left, walked to the door and grasped the doorknob, hesitated for a moment, but only for a moment, then closed the door and left without any lingering attachment.

  Many things that happened that year are actually not very clear anymore, her deliberate forgetting, and her mother's deliberate avoidance, only now vaguely able to feel the emotions of that time, how desperate, how dark.

  She walked through the corridor of the hotel, the light was not very bright, and her whole heart seemed to be soaked in the cold of winter, a little bit eroded by the chill, eroding, eroding.

  Just as I was getting into it, my phone rang again.

  She frowned as she looked at it, it was her mother's phone call. At the same time, her brow twitched, a bad premonition, suddenly spread out.

  She picked up, but it wasn't her mother's voice.

  "Hello, are you Miss An's daughter?"

  With a sudden jolt in her heart, she forced herself to calm down: "I am."

  "It's like this, I'm a nurse at L City First People's Hospital. Ms. An fainted due to high blood pressure and fell, resulting in a minor concussion. If you're a family member, please come over to settle the hospital bill..."

  Suddenly felt a "buzz" in his head, his mind went blank, and the nurse's words kept replaying in his mind.

  She stumbled and almost didn't stand firm.

  It wasn't until the gentle voice on the other end of the phone repeatedly confirmed whether she was listening that she came back to her senses: "I know, I'll be right there."

  After hanging up the phone, she raised her hand to cover her head, forcing herself to calm down, comforting herself that everything was fine, while quickly thinking of a solution.

  Her mother was injured, and taking care of her is not a one or two-day thing, she must ask for leave to leave. Secondly, it will take at least tomorrow for her to arrive from City A, and before that, she must find someone to take care of her first.

  As she thought about it, she flipped through her address book and when she saw Wen Jingfan's name, she hesitated for a moment, almost subconsciously wanting to rely on him.

  He is in S city, he is very close to L city...

  Her hands trembled as she dialed the phone, the cold mechanical busy tone echoing back.

  She was burning with anxiety in this long wait.

  No one answers, no one answers, no one answers...

  She hung up the phone with a trembling hand, rushed back to the office, and calmed down to continue flipping through the directory. When she saw her neighbor's phone number stored in the phone book, she finally let out a sigh of relief and quickly dialed it.

  The more anxious you are, the more chaotic it becomes.

  Shanxi/Jiangsu/Wenxue/Yuanchuang/Dujia/Shoufa

  No forwarding allowed

  The author has something to say: The next chapter will appear soon ~ It won't be cliché because of this unconnected phone call, the two people were already about to get together anyway ~

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  Ji Yin Ke threw a grenade Throw time: 2014-10-30 18:10:56

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  She diagrammed. Threw a landmine Throw time: 2014-10-29 22:38:26

  threw a grenade Time of throw: 2014-10-29 22:03:18

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  It's all spent, bye-bye~

  Third day of toothache TAT.