Chapter 16

No one knew why Chen Man was so fixed on wanting to buy that piece of land. Originally assuming that her own role had changed, and so she could persuade Chen Man and make her give up on this plan, the facts were clear; Jiang Xichu was still too naive. No matter what, Chen Man wasn’t planning on changing her own ideas; Jiang Xichu, infuriated beyond measure by her, in the end could only compromise. Never mind, never mind; it was just a piece of land, wasn’t it; as long as she was happy, even if she planned to go to Africa to buy land, there wasn’t a problem.

The matter of the land temporarily came to an end; it wasn’t that Jiang Xichu’s stance towards her in her own mind was that magnanimous, but that she already couldn’t draw out an inclination to pay attention to this tiny matter of land. Because the day of the accident…was arriving quickly.

Jiang Xichu’s thoughts had been consistently steady; she hadn’t forgotten any words that the young man wearing the white shirt had said at that time. If she interfered in someone else’s fate, then the one who fell into bad luck would be, in fact, her; and, she already couldn’t be in an accident again; she had to live well; only this way could Chen Man continue living. But as the time drew closer, Jiang Xichu’s mind grew more anxious. Her mental state, which had originally already improved, was returned to its original state in an instant; during the day, she was still more or less normal, but at night, she just wasn’t well; Chen Man slept together with her nightly, and almost every night she would be woken once or twice. And, every time, when she woke up, Jiang Xichu would either tightly grasp the quilt and cry, or her entire person would twist around her body, the words in her mouth unintelligible.

Chen Man really wanted to know what it was, exactly, that Jiang Xichu was scared of, but every time, when shee asked her this question, Jiang Xichu would turn into a bottle gourd with its mouth stoppered up, and no matter what she asked, she would never open her mouth.

A girlfriend depending on herself was a good thing; however, what Chen Man wanted was for Jiang Xichu to depend on herself healthily, not for her to be so obviously mentally strained as she was right now. Jiang Xichu also didn’t want to worry Chen Man about her again, so, she only vaguely replied, “It’s nothing, I’m really fine; wait another two days, and I’ll be well.”

Chen Man didn’t believe her words; Jiang Xichu herself wasn’t a doctor, after all, so how could she know in what time she’d recover?; and, waiting another two days—what sort of important day was two days later?

Chen Man didn’t understand, and Jiang Xichu couldn’t tell her; she only nestled in Chen Man’s embrace, saying with exasperating slowness, “Anyway, before Friday, I won’t go to work at all.”

Today was only Tuesday; asking for three days off in one go, this was something that had never happened before. Chen Man lowered her head, looking at her with faint concern, and said, “Do you really not need to go see a doctor? How about, I won’t go to the office either, and I’ll stay with you, how’s that?”

Hearing what was said, Jiang Xichu shook her head; she wanted to say that Chen Man and her weren’t the same; the general manager suddenly taking leave for that long, the office would be in chaos; but, thinking of a certain matter, Jiang Xichu’s shaking of her head paused, and shortly after, she even nodded, and said, “Alright! How about, starting from now, don’t go to the office; in fact, not just the office, don’t go anywhere at all, just stay here and accompany me.”

Chen Man was silent: “...”

I was just being polite, and you took it literally?

“But I still have a lot of work I left at the office that I didn’t bring back.”

Jiang Xichu raised her head from her chest, expression appearing very solemn, and she said, “Work can be done any time, but every minute, every second of these few days, I want you to stay with me at home.”

Chen Man gazed at Jiang Xichu, stunned. After a great while, she opened her mouth, muttering, “Xichu…”

Jiang Xichu looked at her suspiciously.

Chen Man’s face was a bit red. “You’re so domineering, ah.”

Jiang Xichu was silent: “...”

The reason for Jiang Xichu being this anxious was because right now she still had a sort of feeling that all of the things she was experiencing weren’t real; in her subconscious, as long as that day of the accident hadn’t passed, she always felt that the danger by her side hadn’t paassed; it wasn’t clear what day that she would return to that desperate day of before. So, she was waiting, and she wanted to wait until that day passed. But waiting for that day, she didn’t want to do anything at all, and also didn’t want to see anyone outside of Chen Man.

This might have been a bit selfish of her, but there was no solution; she was just this sort of selfish person; for Chen Man, forget about five peoples’ lives, even the five hundred lives that would die that day, she aboslutely wouldn’t move a hand to interfere.

Her mind, harbouring within it this sort of selfish notion, Jiang Xichu felt herself to be very resolute and very unwavering. But in reality, she was being tormented by the sensations of guilt, and she strove hard to not think about those people, but she couldn’t avoid feeling uncomfortable. Jiang Xichu also felt that she herself was terribly hypocritical, but she simply couldn’t control it, so what was the solution?

Just like humanity eating meat; a lot of people ate meat happily, but if they were to see a chicken or pig be slaughtered, they wouldn’t be able to tolerate it. Although this example wasn’t suitable, it was in fact a similar principle; people lived one lifetime, and, having choices, they also had to give things up; enjoying acquiring joy, naturally they had to undertake the anguish of parting with something. All the matters, Jiang Xichu restrained within her heart, and didn’t tell anyone; even Chen Man had no way to understand her actions and state of mind; however, although she had no way to understand, Chen Man in fact thought, to the greatest extent, of her own abilities, and came to help her. But her method of helping was to put a sleeping pill into Jiang Xichu’s lemonade.

…

When she put it in, she was trembling with fear, fearing that Jiang Xichu would suddenly scuttle up from behind her, and then shout loudly, “Ah ha! I caught you”.

Jiang Xichu didn’t like anything that would bring a weight to her mind, and didn’t even like to drink coffee; if she knew that Chen Man had given her a sleeping pill to help her sleep, she would definitely angrily berate her. But lately, Jiang Xichu had really been too tired, and didn’t even sense that she herself had already drunk three consecutive cups of lemonade. She even felt that she herself had improved a good deal; although her mental state was even more anxious, she was unexpectedly easily able to fall asleep!

…

As usual, she watched Jiang Xichu drink her lemonade entirely, and put down the cup; Jiang Xichu turned over, and then laid down in the quilt, and spontaneously shifted to Chen Man’s side, and then tightly embraced Chen Man’s waist. Chen Man’s heart was warmed by this everyday series of actions of hers, and she moved close and kissed the corner of Jiang Xichu’s mouth, and, seeing that she had already closed her eyes, didn’t continue to disturb her. Only after looking for a long while did she let out a sigh, and embraced her, perfectly fitted together, and then closed her eyes.

The second morning, when Chen Man opened her eyes, Jiang Xichu was still sleeping deeply. Jiang Xichu hadn’t taken sleeping pills before, so the effect of the medication was very good; one small pill could make her sleep all the way past eight in the morning; it was only seven right now, and Chen Man got off the bed, and hadn’t even washed up when she heard her own phone vibrating.

It was Secretary Li.

“Manager Chen, the people from Huanyu gave me a call this morning, said the numbers on the offer that we gave them had some problem; Xiao Yang and I, the two of us, looked over it a good number of times, there’s no way there’s a problem. We definitely think that Shengan’s offer is lower than ours, and they want to directly block us; what do you think we should do?; should we continue to follow up…”

The more she listened, the more Chen Man’s brows furrowed, and she tilted her head to glance at the soundly sleeping Jiang Xichu, and pressed her lips together, replying, “I’ll go to the office immediately; you give the people involved in this project a phone call now and have then quickly come to the office; we’ll have a temporary meeting and discuss it.”

Secretary Li blinked. “That’s not necessary, is it? Coming during usual working hours would be fine, this matter isn’t that pressing…” Before the sound completed, she was rudely interrupted.

“But I’m anxious, ah! Jiang Xichu won’t let me go to the office; if I wait until she wakes up and I still haven’t gone, she definitely will be furious!”

Secretary Li was silent: “...”

In any case you’re a general manager, couldn’t you have a bit of dignity?

Without stopping to rest to get to the office, although she’d said she wanted to quickly complete the meeting, in reality, when the meeting completed, it was already eight-thirty; the general manager had disappeared for two days, and suddenly appeared today; the pile of people in the office had waited to come look for the general manager to give a report on work, dragging it on and on, and another hour passed. Sitting in her own office, Chen Man set down the just-signed document, and suddenly felt her chest stop up. She cast a glance at the weather outside; the splendid sun cast light from high, absolutely not appearing as if it were about to rain. So why was it that she felt herself unable to breathe easily?

No longer thinking about those trivial matters, Chen Man hurriedly tidied the things on her desk, making certain that the things she needed to take along she all had, and stood up; before she’d even crossed to the back of the desk, the office door was suddenly opened by someone, the other party having forgotten to knock, and even had a face full of terror. “Manager, downstairs, there was an incident downstairs!”

—Manager! Downstairs, there was an incident downstairs, Jiang Xichu, she…

The two identical voices echoed in her mind, tearing her heart and splitting her lungs with a sudden attack of anguish; the documents in Chen Man’s hand fell, scattering on the floor, and her face was as yellow as gold paper as she stumbled back a couple steps, and after a dazed and startled moment, her face slowly began to express despair and a mood of not daring to believe, and she urgently drew in a breath, and then suddenly rushed out, frightening Secretary Yang.

Secretary Yang was dazed for a good while, and only then thought she should chase after, and as she chased, she called, “Slow down, Manager! Don’t go, the police and the doctors are all there, there’s no need for us to save people, ah!”

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