Chapter Sixteen: The Sound of Weeping

  Although Su Tong didn't want to draw any attention, the moment she and Zhang Min almost simultaneously walked into the office side by side, they still successfully attracted the notice of many people. The gazes were filled with curiosity and inquiry, and without guessing, it was clear that these two men and women, who had a relationship that was once ambiguous and even cold to the point of being almost icy for so long, suddenly appeared in the office together again, and seemed to be getting along very harmoniously. Even if everyone knew they were going out together to complete work tasks, it was still enough to ignite some gossip sparks in people's hearts.

  Su Tong walked back to her seat without saying a word, walking quickly and not even greeting Zhang Min who was originally walking with her. She plopped down in her chair and immediately opened her computer, starting to write her article. She didn't plan on giving anyone any opportunity to come over and chat with her. Even Wang Li, sitting across from her, kept making eyes at her, trying to get her attention, but Su Tong pretended not to see her.

  Until she finished writing a draft, stopped to move around and relieve her sore neck, stretched her waist, sat in the chair and moved her limbs slightly, Wang Li finally caught the opportunity, sat in the chair, turned around the table for half a circle, slid to Su Tong's side, nudged Su Tong with her elbow, and asked: "What's going on?"

  "What's going on?" Su Tong knew in her heart what Wang Li wanted to ask, but this question was bound to annoy herself, so she had already lost her temper as soon as she opened her mouth.

  Wang Li glared at her: "Don't try to fool me, who else could it be? Just you and Zhang Min! What's going on?"

  "Nothing's going on, are you satisfied with this answer? Hurry back, if you're really idle and have nothing to do, I can actually help you find a lot of things to do." Wang Li's question was indeed guessed correctly by Su Tong, which made her feel quite annoyed. Wang Li was simply a curious baby who loved gossip, and once she had a question mark on her mind, it was absolutely impossible for her to let it go until she got to the bottom of it.

  It turned out that she had a pretty good understanding of Wang Li, and Wang Li did not choose to retreat because of her avoidance and rejection, but instead continued to ask: "Look at what you said, who would believe it! Just now when you came in, didn't you turn your head back? Zhang Min was behind you, and he was beaming with joy! If there's no situation, how could he be like that?"

  "Come, take a look at my face, take a closer look." Su Tong sighed and turned around with a helpless expression, facing Wang Li directly, pointing to his own face, "Do I have a radiant complexion?"

  Wang Li stifled a smile and pretended to look around: "That's not true."

  "That's it! I don't have any news, nor do I have a lively expression, so there's no use in asking me. Whoever has the lively expression, go ask them, won't you?" Su Tong rubbed his temples.

  "That's good, I'm relieved to hear you say that!" Wang Li patted her chest with a slightly exaggerated gesture, sneaking a glance at Zhang Min sitting in the distance. She whispered to Su Tong, "I never liked that guy anyway. A grown man who lacks charisma, responsibility, and courage will resort to petty tricks and show-offs. It's really annoying to watch, especially after seeing your family's neighbor 'Jade Tree by the Wind'. People are afraid of comparisons, you know? I used to think Zhang Min was barely passable, but now that 'Jade Tree by the Wind' is nearby for comparison, he's fallen below passing grade!"

  "My goodness, you're really something! People with names and surnames are called Tang Ao, yesterday it was 'colorful and delicious', today it's 'jade tree in the wind', where did so many nicknames come from?!" Su Tong poked Wang Li's forehead with his hand.

  Wang Li dodged with a smile: "Hey, you still remember the name quite well, not bad, a good start is half of success!"

  After finishing speaking, she hastily stood up and pulled the chair to run back to her own side, or else Su Tong's hand holding the empty paper tube would have swung onto her head.

  "You're such a big mouth! I'm so fed up with having you as a friend!" Su Tong couldn't help but laugh and cry as he watched Wang Li run away, feeling like he had made a mistake in choosing friends.

  Wang Li didn't care what she said, and after making sure she was out of Su Tong's "attack range", she unwillingly leaned over half the table: "I'll ask you a question, which is more common these days, Lei Feng or people who sweep their own doorstep?"

  Su Tong didn't suspect anything else, and thought it was Wang Li who needed to write an article about this topic today. So he thought seriously for a moment and said: "Although it's not very positive to say so, but honestly speaking, I think although there are many good people, in most cases, the situation is more like 'sweeping the snow in front of one's own door'."

  "Oh——!" Wang Li dragged out the sound, responding with a bit of exaggeration. Then she put on a sly smile, "So you think so too? Then tell me, why would an ordinary person who has never met before be so concerned about and take such good care of a female neighbor who has nothing to do with them?"

  "Maybe he has a problem with his brain." Su Teng retorted to Wang Li, taking advantage of Wang Li's unexpected response, and quickly grabbed the manuscript she had just printed out and went to Old Dong's office for review. At the same time, she felt a little sorry for Tang Ao in her heart, who had kindly helped her treat her ankle injury yesterday, and it was really not right to say such things about him. Su Teng also felt guilty, but if she hadn't responded with something that would take Wang Li aback, who knows how long Wang Li would have continued to pester her about this topic.

  To be honest, Su Tong had to admit that her impression of Tang Ao was indeed very good. Even though she knew that just a few encounters were not enough to fully understand someone, she still couldn't help but feel that this man gave her a sense of stability and trust. And as Wang Li said, who wouldn't like beautiful things? It's the same with people.

  Arriving at Old Dong's office, Su Tong handed him the printed manuscript. Old Dong asked a few questions about the situation of visiting and comforting in the morning, then put on his glasses and carefully read Su Tong's manuscript. Old Dong had a strange habit: although he also used computers to write manuscripts, he didn't like reading them on the computer screen. No matter who submitted the manuscript to him, it had to be printed out and handed over for review. He said this made every word sink in, leaving a deep impression, and was also more convenient for making annotations and revisions by hand.

  Actually, the most important point is that Lao Dong doesn't want to say it out loud, which is that his age is really not considered young anymore. In terms of using office software, he's obviously not as proficient as younger people, so in order not to show weakness in front of his juniors and reveal his inadequacies, Lao Dong came up with this "follow tradition" slogan and insists on having everyone print out their drafts before submitting them to him.

  After shaking off Wang Li's gossip attack, Lao Dong was not an easy person to deal with either. Of course, his focus was different from Wang Li's. He wasn't interested in how Su Tong and Zhang Min interacted. What he cared about most was whether Su Tong had found the best entry point to report on each of the three families based on their different characteristics during the visit. And whether they had maximized the promotion of their newspaper, establishing a positive image for it. After reading the draft, Lao Dong was relatively satisfied with Su Tong's focus, so he just gave some symbolic feedback and then spent a lot of time explaining the work priorities for the next day, which still revolved around how to take advantage of this opportunity to establish a good image for their newspaper and make it stand out among many media outlets. Lao Dong took this matter very seriously, so his tone was enthusiastic and eloquent, leaving Su Tong feeling overwhelmed.

  Finally, Old Dong finished handing over the work and it was almost time to get off work. Su Tong had been busy all day, with a head and face full of dust, and when she got home, she didn't even bother to cook or eat. She first took a hot shower, then lay on the sofa, stretching her tired limbs. Since her parents went back to their hometown to take care of her grandparents, Su Tong lived alone and her meals became very simple. When she was hungry, she would just casually stir up something simple, or simply open a package of crackers or bread with a cup of yogurt to get by. In situations like this where she felt tired all over, she didn't want to waste energy cooking, and just wanted to lounge around.

  Su Tong lay on the sofa, with the TV on but no intention of watching it. Her eyes were fixed on the water bubble mark on her palm, which had been there for a whole day and was now dry and shriveled. She thought back to the strange dream she had the night before and let her mind wander for a while, until her consciousness slowly became hazy again. Before she knew it, she had dozed off once more. This sleep wasn't very sound, as the family drama on TV was making a racket, with the wife and kids crying out loud. Su Tong was half asleep and half awake, unable to open her eyes fully, yet unable to fall into a deep sleep either. In her daze, she thought she heard some faint rustling sounds coming from within her own house. If they weren't on such a high floor, she would have almost instinctively thought it was mice scurrying around.

  Su Tong struggled to open her eyes, but her eyelids felt like they weighed a thousand pounds and she couldn't open them no matter how hard she tried. Finally, after much effort, she managed to crack them open just a slit, and caught a glimpse of a faint black shadow floating by before it disappeared into the kitchen door. She wanted to get up and see what was going on, but her body felt like it was still fast asleep and wouldn't listen to her commands. Before long, she fell back asleep again, until the sound of her phone ringing loudly woke her up completely after an unknown amount of time had passed.

  He picked up the phone and saw that it was Zhang Min. Su Tong frowned, but still pressed the answer button.

  "Hello? Su Tong, is that you? I'm Zhang Min." Zhang Min's eager voice came from the other end of the phone.

  Su Tong subconsciously rolled his eyes, secretly let out a yawn, and then replied in an almost flat tone without any ups and downs: "Oh, it's you. What's up with calling me?"

  "It's like this, I just called Lao Dong and said that the two of us should go to the newspaper office tomorrow morning first, and then head out for visits. But that would be a waste of time, because we have four places to visit tomorrow, and after checking, I found that two of them are quite far away. If we want to save time, it's better to set off directly. Lao Dong agreed with me too, so I'm passing on the message to you as well, in case you didn't know what was going on and ended up running around to the newspaper office. Why does your voice sound different from this afternoon? Are you catching a cold or just waking up?"

  Su Tong didn't want to answer the question behind him at all. If it were someone else, this could be understood as a courtesy concern, but since Zhang Min said it, Su Tong couldn't take it lightly. So she turned a deaf ear to Zhang Min's concern and politely said: "Okay, I know, thank you for telling me."

  "Why are you thanking me? With our relationship, do I need to thank you for this kind of thing?" Zhang Min said, as if afraid that Su Tong would misunderstand, and quickly explained, "My meaning is that we two are jointly responsible for this interview work, so I inform you it's a matter of course. By the way, since tomorrow we plan to save time and set off directly, I'll come to your house in the morning to pick you up, and then we can go together."

  "No need, it's too much trouble..."

  Before Su Tong could refuse, Zhang Min interrupted her: "No trouble, it's all for work! So let's just say that tomorrow morning you'll wait for me at home, and we won't miss each other!"

  He hung up the phone directly after finishing speaking, without giving Su Tong any chance to respond.

  Su Tong looked at her phone with some annoyance, threw it aside, and turned to the TV, where a health lecture program was being broadcast. A man dressed in traditional Chinese clothing, who appeared to be a medical expert, was talking about health topics, while the host nodded along beside him. The audience consisted of many elderly people with gray hair.

  Su Tong found this boring and picked up a water cup from the small tea table next to her, planning to go to the kitchen to get some water. As she stood up, the faint memory of that black shadow from earlier floated back into her mind. Although she couldn't distinguish whether it was just a dream or something real, the sudden recollection still sent shivers down her spine.

  She looked at the dark kitchen door and hesitated for a moment before taking a step forward.

  It's better to take a look inside, maybe there's nothing and it'll be more reassuring. Su Teng thought so, took a deep breath, rushed into the kitchen, and quickly turned on the light switch on the wall. The originally dark kitchen suddenly became very bright, everything in the kitchen was neat and tidy, not a single thing out of place.

  Su Tong let out a sigh of relief, so Fang Cai must have been dreaming after all.

  She walked to the water jug, poured a glass of water, stood by the window drinking and gazing outside in a daze, thinking in her heart whether tomorrow was really waiting for Zhang Min to pick her up or take the initiative to set off early and inform Zhang Min at short notice, letting him be caught off guard and having no chance to come looking for herself.

  After drinking water, she decided to make something for herself to eat. Turning her head, she saw that the bowl and chopsticks from the day before were still soaking in the sink without being washed, and couldn't help but laugh out loud. She thought to herself, fortunately, she lived alone, if her mother had seen that she hadn't even bothered to wash the bowl and chopsticks for a whole day, she would have been scolded for several days.

  Turning on the faucet to wash dishes, as she washed, Su Tong heard again the sound of a baby cooing and whimpering. At first, she thought it was from next door, but the more she listened, the clearer the sound became, seeming to come from somewhere in her own house.