Three Years and Three Years

Chapter 46: Trouble

Zhou Mushi’s face was already not looking good. He forcibly rubbed a piece of tablecloth while listening to Linda continue speaking.

She added some red wine for herself and took a sip. “So, this collaboration is my chance. I intentionally spread the news about this business deal that several companies are competing for, but I have already made up my mind to work with Yucheng. It can be considered as me forcing a favor onto him.
After the age of thirty, it’s no longer a time to wait for opportunities to come to you. Creating opportunities for yourself and seizing them is the right way to go.”

Zhou Mushi picked up his knife and fork and cut his steak in front of him. “Are you confident about this?”

Linda shrugged. “To be honest, not much, but what’s the point in going after something that’s easily reachable? If you can see it and grab it with just one hand, what’s the fun in that?”

“But you said he has a lover?”

“They broke up. From what I know, Jin Yang didn’t want the young one to suffer with him, so they broke up. Tsk, youth is a capital, but the young ones are still young and their minds are not clear. There’s nothing to worry about.”

He speared his fork into a piece of sliced beef, which was charred on the outside and still raw in the middle, with a reddish color. He didn’t have much of an appetite and put the steak back.

“We have worked with Director Jin before and had the opportunity to interact. If I may be so bold, are you not afraid that now that he’s successful, he will go back to reconcile with his former partner?”

Linda was taken aback for a moment, then burst out laughing. “The term ‘standing by each other through thick and thin’ is not just a casual remark. When Jin Yang was doing well, the other party came to join in the fun. When he’s not doing well, they’ll leave. If they have the face to come back now, that’s just shameless, isn’t it? Sorry, I got a bit carried away with what I was saying. If we analyze this rationally, a person who leaves their boyfriend when he’s in his most difficult time is not worth turning back for. Besides, when Jin Yang’s company was inexplicably calculated against, who knows if that little lover didn’t provoke some wealthy man?”

…..

The rain in March is particularly piercing on a night like this, during the season of cold and dampness. Large raindrops fall heavily, hitting the canopies of nearby shops and sticking to the shoulders of young people.

Although Linda’s words were one-sided and biased with subjective consciousness, Zhou Mushi still extracted some important information from them.

He was wearing a thin coat, walking unsteadily along the canopies of the storefront.

His thoughts were like a bunch of broken beads, scattered all over, each one so light and small, yet weighing a ton.

He walked forward step by step, crossing this street without the shelter of the canopies.

But it didn’t matter. Zhou Mushi felt that he was better off being a bit cold now. Being cold could help clear his overheating brain that was about to explode.

His body was already chilled through, rain dripping along his hair. The hem of his suit jacket continued to drip water, and the watermarks on his cheeks were indistinguishable.

He shivered, ignoring that his shoes and socks were already soaked through. When he returned to the hotel, he only took off his wet clothes. His skin was so cold that Zhou Mushi didn’t have the energy to take a hot bath at this moment.

The rain outside was getting heavier and heavier. Wrapped in a blanket, he sat on the cushioned windowsill, which had a thin layer of padding. In this rainy night alone, his heart was colder than the rain outside. When he looked up again, tears had already clouded his vision. No matter how well someone pretended, there would always be a day when their emotions collapsed.

Jin Yang’s every expression was like a scene from a movie, constantly flashing back in his mind, all in fragments that couldn’t be pieced together into a complete picture.

Stunned for over an hour, the seemingly stiff person finally moved. He picked up his phone and made a call.

“Hello, when did you meet Jin Yang?”

The person who answered the phone was currently studying the hand grinder for the newly purchased coffee. When he heard his son’s words that seemed to have no head or tail, he became a little angry.

“You little brat, you don’t even call me dad, why are you asking about this out of the blue?”

“You answer me first.”

Zhou Qingwen put his precious coffee beans into the machine and said, “It was the Green Home project that we cooperated with Yucheng Group before. What’s the matter?”

“It’s nothing, you go ahead and do your own thing. I know now, I’ll hang up first.”

Zhou Qingwen didn’t have a chance to say anything else before the call was abruptly ended.

Zhou Mushi dialed another number and as soon as it was connected, he asked, “Do you remember a company called Yuanyang Technology Limited that existed five years ago?”

On the other end, it was already late at night for Zhou Muxian. He had just taken off his glasses and gotten into bed, trying to relieve the fatigue of the day.

“What company? Did we have any business dealings with them? If you need information, I can have my secretary find it for you tomorrow.”

“We didn’t have any dealings with them, brother. Think carefully, Yuanyang Technology. Do you really not remember?”

The other party’s overly serious and even cold tone was like a needle piercing into Zhou Muxian’s mind. His hand that was about to cover himself with the blanket trembled, and his whole body stiffened up.

“No, Xiaoshi, let me tell you, that thing was for your own good. Mom instructed me to do it before she passed away, and I was just fulfilling her last wish. She really had your best interests in mind. She thought that once you were out of money, you would definitely come back, and we didn’t want you to suffer outside. When did you find out about this?”

“Just now,” he said.

Zhou Muxian: “…You, you…”

“Yeah, I was just tricking you,” he said.

Zhou Muxian: “…”

“Thank you, brother. Thank you for going to great lengths to help me retrieve this huge family asset that makes everyone jealous.”

Zhou Muxian: “Xiaoshi…”

The beautiful woman who walked in from outside saw that her husband’s expression had changed and he was staring at his phone. She approached with concern and asked, “What happened?”

Zhou Muxian stiffly turned his neck and said, “Xiaoshi knows about what happened in the past.”

The woman widened her eyes in shock and said, “It’s been five years, and you kept it hidden so well. How did he find out?”

“Who knows?” Zhou Muxian replied. “He suddenly threw a smoke bomb1 at me!”

“It’s okay, it’s okay. It’s been so long, and Xiaoshi was still young back then, right? It’s unlikely to resurface now, isn’t it?”

Zhou Muxian buried his head under the covers and let out a heavy sigh. “Who knows?”

Before he could figure out what was going on, Zhou Muxian’s phone rang again. Mrs. Zhou picked up the phone that her husband had put aside and glanced at the screen. With an unsightly expression, she handed it over and said, “It’s from Xiaoshi.”

Zhou Muxian quickly answered the phone and said, “Xiaoshi, listen to me.”

“Brother, you listen to me first. After I came back to the country this time, Dad forced me to have a boyfriend. It’s such a small world. Can you help me apologize to our mom for the trouble she went through?” Xiaoshi said.”

End of Chapter 46

1 “smoke bomb” in this context is a figurative expression for a sudden and unexpected event or revelation that causes confusion or chaos. ↵