The Infatuated Cannon Fodder Has Completely Moved On - Chapter 10.2

Luo Xiao was stunned. “I did not know.” She was most concerned about the division of the Jin family’s assets and had no time to focus on what Jin Yuzhen herself was doing. It seemed Jin Yuzhen had been messing around with collections. If she could get on a CCTV program, would she still have to worry about not making a comeback in the Jin family?

The Jin family grandmother had been reluctant to relinquish power because none of the juniors could hold their own. This time, Jin Yuzhen would likely gain a lot of points. Luo Xiao felt a bit relieved; luckily, she had not had a falling out with Jin Yuzhen.

At night, Jin Yuzhen lay in bed and began to flip through her chat history. What happened today was so bizarre, but it had actually made her thinking much clearer.

It did not take long to go through her chat history with Cen Shu. She had to say, her temper was incredibly good in front of Cen Shu. She could endure even the coldest words. Even if Cen Shu did not reply to a message for three days, she did not complain.

It was ridiculous. Before today, she thought everything was peaceful. Who knew everyone had their own hidden agendas, like a pack of wolves surrounding her?

The funniest thing was that some people were using her while calling her vicious. Am I vicious? I have not even killed anyone.

The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. If it were not for the fact that it was autumn and getting cold, she really wanted to grab a knife and go to their door immediately. Realizing she was losing control of her emotions, she immediately threw off the quilt and sat in meditation on the bed. Her own body was the most important; she could not let anger ruin it.

Half an hour later, her anger had subsided, and she opened her eyes. At that moment, Cen Shu sent a message. It was a few photos taken on Sansi Mountain. “I saw a milk tea shop on the mountain today and I resisted buying any. Do you want to send me the first cup of milk tea of the autumn?”

After reading the message, Jin Yuzhen’s face darkened, and the anger that had just subsided surged once more.

She tried to direct her breath to her dantian, reminding herself of a mantra: Win with harmony; die with a temper.

Half a minute passed.

Everyone has to die eventually.

She typed a reply: “I want to offer the first stick of incense for you on the Tomb Sweeping Festival.”

As Jin Yuzhen was about to turn and leave, the car window rolled down. Nie Feiyin handed out a bag she had brought with her, her eyes moist and bright. “Sister, your clothes. Thank you.”

The sky was late. High-rise buildings obscured the moon, and the stars were barely visible. As everything dimmed, her features were not distinct, but Jin Yuzhen faced her.

Jin Yuzhen had a keen sense of smell; the moment she took the bag, she caught the scent belonging to the other person. Even though the clothes had been professionally laundered, she could still detect it.

In truth, Jin Yuzhen was not used to people saying thank you to her. In her memory, she had never been sincerely thanked by anyone.

When she was a child in Yangon, she stood at the decaying city pier and watched Zhu Huai leave for a distant place. Grandmother said Zhu Huai had reached the age for school and could not stay with them.

Jin Yuzhen knew her grandmother needed companionship, so she did not cry or cause a scene; she accepted every arrangement. Her only way of expressing her inner feelings was to refuse to learn the local language. She mixed Chinese and English for several years, but eventually, she underestimated the power of time. Her daily phrases shifted from “okay” to the local dialect.

Once, during the Nirvana Festival, they encountered monks begging for food barefoot, and Grandmother took her to the Buddhist temple. The weather was clear that day. From a distance across the lake, she saw the golden light of the tall pagoda. Her heart remained unmoved; she quickly looked away to observe the nearby coconut trees.

Grandmother suddenly stroked her hair.

She had an extraordinary amount of hair since she was a child. It hung long over her back, almost covering her entire spine, looking smooth and bright. A little girl next door loved her hair and asked how she washed it. Jin Yuzhen lied and said she soaked it in coconut milk. The girl tried it that night. When she showed up the next day, her hair was as oily as a barcode sticking to her scalp, and she would not stop crying.

Grandmother loved her hair and often combed it into buns. However, having left in a hurry that day, Jin Yuzhen’s hair was loose.

Grandmother touched the top of her head and said, “Zhenzhen, has grandmother delayed your life?”

Zhu Huai had sent photos of an academy that looked like a castle, with walls that appeared to be covered in cream. Jin Yuzhen made a photo album and clumsily wrote on the first page: Zhu Huai’s Study Abroad.

“No, I… like Yangon very much.” Jin Yuzhen spoke against her heart by the lake, beneath the Buddhist pagoda. Then, she added a heartfelt sentence: “I want to accompany Grandmother more.”

Grandmother’s eyes grew moist as she smiled.

When Jin Yuzhen returned to Taozhou for high school, Grandmother was very busy. Every day, fellow jade enthusiasts would visit. They would brew tea, burn incense, and laugh together. Jin Yuzhen felt lonely. In Yangon, she accompanied Grandmother and Grandmother accompanied her; they even went to the mines together. In her eyes, her grandmother was her closest relative and her best friend. All her knowledge came from her grandmother.

Back in Taozhou, Grandmother had her own jade friends.

Feeling lonely, Jin Yuzhen picked up an old cat. The cat was lying in the grass at the time, clearly aged. Jin Yuzhen brought it home and raised it well. On weekends, she and the old cat would lie on the bench in the pavilion, watching the carp swim aimlessly in the water.

In less than six months, the old cat died. She begged her grandmother to find a feng shui master to calculate a good spot for the cat, and they buried it in a propitious place. The cat disappeared as if it had never been there; even the cat hair on the sofa was cleaned away by the staff.

Later, she saw Cen Shu standing up for a colleague on a filming set. She saw her fearless ambition and reckless loyalty, and she helped her along this path for five years.

No one thought to thank her.

She asked herself and realized she did not do things to seek gratitude. But she had indeed felt lost. In short, she had lived her life in a muddle until now, when she met a Miss Nie at an unremarkable banquet and was thanked for days just for doing her part.

It was miraculous.

Thinking of this, she showed a slight smile and said, “There is no need… to thank me.”

Nie Feiyin saw her smile, and her eyes widened further. Her face took on a bit of a dazed, blurred expression.

Lu Wenqi leaned over to urge her: “Are you standing there catching a breeze? Go back quickly. Remember to join the crew next week, okay?”

Jin Yuzhen fastened the small button of her trench coat with one hand and said readily, “No problem.”

Lu Wenqi, assuming she had moved Jin Yuzhen with her sincerity, straightened her back proudly.

The Mini Cooper drove out. Nie Feiyin looked back at Jin Yuzhen getting into her car before she slowly turned around and sat properly.

Lu Wenqi saw her movements, which were exactly as expected. “Our Zhenzhen is a very good person, right?”

Nie Feiyin, of course, agreed ten thousand percent. However, before she could reply, Lu Wenqi immediately added, “So you two should get along well.”

Nie Feiyin was speechless. Before they could get along well, could someone please push her contact information first?

Was her hint not obvious enough?

After thinking for a moment, she said, “Sister and I just met. I could not let her pay for the meal.”

Lu Wenqi was fed up with her. “Must you divide things so clearly? Fine, you are making me feel embarrassed too. How about this? I will transfer the money for your share to her WeChat together with mine.”

Nie Feiyin said, “How about I transfer it myself? It would be more sincere.”

Lu Wenqi suddenly understood. “That is right. She drove you home last night; you should thank her.” She finally realized the matter of pushing the WeChat contact.

Nie Feiyin clicked on the name card sent over. The WeChat name was a Chinese name plus an English name. It was probably set very straightforwardly for the sake of simplicity, as there were too many customers from the collection shop and the auction company.

After clicking the friend request, Nie Feiyin waited solemnly. At the same time, she recalled what her first message had been five years ago when she added Jin Yuzhen’s WeChat in that small county in the southwest.

After the work in the southwest ended, Jin Yuzhen returned to Taozhou. Nie Feiyin was still a sophomore at the time and needed to return to Peking University for classes, so they parted ways. She did not dare to contact her actively. Every day, she would type a line of words in the chat box and then delete it. After day after day of this struggle, Jin Yuzhen deactivated that account and resigned from the Finance Channel.

No one knew what happened in between.

On the second day of the summer vacation, she rushed to Taozhou without stopping, only to hear the news that Jin Yuzhen was pursuing Cen Shu. That day, Cen Shu’s brand promotion image was displayed on the large screen of the mall, which cost 500,000 per day. Not long after, Cen Shu starred in a television drama.

At the end of that year, Nie Feiyin also entered the entertainment industry. The circle was not that big; everyone knew each other after one round, but there were not many occasions to meet. It took her a long time to be able to attend the same events as Cen Shu and understand what kind of person she was.

Later, Xue Cheng told her that Jin Yuzhen had an auction company and had opened a collection shop, and that most of the connections she had accumulated were used for Cen Shu. Whenever Nie Feiyin saw Cen Shu being intimate with others, she was deeply puzzled and felt helpless.

Xue Cheng said that perhaps Jin Yuzhen never thought of seeking a reward. When you truly like someone, even the act of giving makes you happy. Nie Feiyin tried to persuade herself, but it had no effect. She wanted to do something but was afraid of doing the wrong thing.

Lu Wenqi saw her daydreaming and gave her a nudge. “Did it pass through?”

Nie Feiyin snapped back to reality. At the moment she opened her phone, a message happened to pop up. Her hand trembled, and she gave a soft “mm.”

Lu Wenqi said, “Thank goodness.”

Nie Feiyin remained silent and clicked on Jin Yuzhen’s Moments. Everything was visible. There were about ten posts in total, all related to collections. Nie Feiyin did not know whether she should be relieved. At least there was no Cen Shu. But there was also nothing of her own life.

She remembered what Jin Yuzhen had said at the dinner table earlier. It was true; Jin Yuzhen did not like taking photos.

Nie Feiyin grew nervous. What should she say?

When Lu Wenqi leaned over to look, her hand shook even more. She had a thoughtful look on her face, but not a single word was typed in the chat box.

“Do you have social anxiety?” Lu Wenqi asked in surprise.

Nie Feiyin said, “Occasionally.”

“Is that so?” Lu Wenqi was skeptical. When she first met Nie Feiyin, the girl was very natural, generous, and polite. At most, she was quiet and spoke little; she did not look like she had social anxiety.

Did the meaning of “occasionally” imply that social anxiety depended on the person?

Even after arriving at the hotel, Nie Feiyin still had not sent a single word. However, the system sent a notification:

“Intimacy: +11” “Balance: 11”

“I sometimes feel like you want to be buried with her. Why is it so hard to send a message?”

The system said loyally, “I can do it. Let me.”