Chapter Fifty-Six — Questions and Answers

With Lu Xuyang's recommendation, Lu Xugao smoothly entered Gale Logistics. The hardship of this job far exceeded his expectations. He had thought that logistics and express delivery were essentially the same, and after working as a shipping clerk at Kaisun for some time, he should be adept at this type of work.

Every day, he was so exhausted that he lost all sense and feeling, except for fatigue, and could distinctly taste the intense bitterness churning in his mouth.

He endured it willingly.

She quietly lent him her support.

After months of performance and remarkable adaptability, Lu Xugao became self-reliant.

A few days ago, he took out a loan of over a hundred thousand, borrowed fifty thousand from his parents, and withdrew thirty thousand from his work-study savings account. He joined Gale Logistics as a franchisee.

Together with Tang Dai, they rearranged the warehouse hand in hand.

That night, Lu Xugao drove with Yan Lu, intending to surprise Yishu at her home. Unexpectedly, she had already moved. The carefully prepared surprise fell through. The next morning, on the way to Textile City to pick up goods, he happened to see her getting off the bus. Yan Lu’s excitement spurred her eager steps, and she rushed to reunite with Yishu after a long separation.

Currently, Lu Xugao only has two or three regular companies at hand. After expenses, very little remains; compared to his time at Kaisun, his income has decreased by thirty percent.

Yan Lu often lies awake through the night. This unknown path—how will they continue? She is utterly lost.

Lu Xugao, on the contrary, had done systematic planning before resolutely joining Gale Logistics. In the first six months, at most the first year, he aimed not to make a loss—even if there was no profit, at least to advance steadily toward his ideal goal. Next year, once things improved, he would recruit more logistics staff and expand his orders. In five years, if all proceeded as planned, a bright tomorrow would dawn.

Once everything settled and entered a steady rhythm, Yan Lu excitedly went to Textile City to meet Yishu. She wanted to tell her everything that had happened, big or small, word for word, without omitting a single detail. If, in this world, there was only one person she could share with, it would undoubtedly be Su Yishu.

After Yan Lu finished her lengthy tale, Yishu felt lost in the clouds. In just a few months, their circumstances had changed so drastically—it was almost unbelievable.

Yan Lu placed a morsel of food in Yishu’s bowl. “Don’t just ask questions, hurry up and eat!”

Yishu picked up her chopsticks and forced herself to take a small bite.

Lu Xugao sat quietly, saying nothing. With two girls present, as a man, it was wise for him to keep his mouth shut.

“You’ve asked me so much, but I haven’t asked anything yet.” Yan Lu suddenly realized.

Yishu tugged at the corner of her mouth. What must come, she could never avoid.

“What’s there to ask?” She feigned ignorance.

“Why, it’s about your romantic entanglements with Xu Shixi,” Yan Lu saw through everything.

Yishu couldn’t help but smile. Romantic entanglements—it should be between Xu Shixi and Tang Dai, shouldn’t it? These past two days felt as long as two years. The day she met her at Xunyuan, she should have been on guard. It seemed that blind confidence without any basis or experience brought disastrous consequences.

But thinking calmly, Shixi’s actions were reasonable. No matter how deep their love once was, or how harsh their parting, after all, they had known each other. If he truly treated her with cold indifference, then she would have truly misjudged him.

“Go on,” Yan Lu gazed at her meaningfully. “Don’t pretend nothing’s wrong. You know, your acting skills are terrible.”

At this point, there was no hiding it. Yishu gave herself a childish encouragement. “I had some unpleasantness with him.”

“Unpleasantness? I think you two had a quarrel!” Yan Lu’s carefully crafted persona crumbled, revealing her true self. “The moment I saw you today, I knew something must have happened.”

“Xiao Lu—” Lu Xugao intervened, shooting her a look and lowering his voice, “Don’t ask anymore.”

Yan Lu’s curiosity blazed; she would never let go so easily, especially since Yishu was her best friend. When it came to a crisis in love, how could she stand by?

“Never mind!” she retorted, shooting him a glance.

Yishu rarely shared her troubles, but they were always easy to guess. Work-related woes she preferred not to discuss; whether Yan Lu pursued answers depended on her mood.

Suddenly, the number of diners dwindled, and the cafeteria became empty and cold. The doors stood wide open, letting the autumn wind and drizzle sweep inside, joining the night to make it even chillier.

Yishu pulled her thin cardigan tighter around herself. Seeing the morning’s weather warning, she had decisively returned home to fetch a jacket, just in case.

Her constitution was never as robust as other young people. Usually, she managed, but during seasonal changes, the alternating warmth and chill brought on colds, fever, runny nose—a team of ailments descending at once.

Falling ill earlier in the year gave Guo Yamei the chance to return to the shop. Working with someone she disliked was a double torment; the other was the job itself.

“I didn’t quarrel with him.” It wasn’t really a quarrel, was it? If anything, it was the most civilized, harmonious quarrel ever. More like a cold war.

“That’s not true! Your disappointment is written all over your face. Do you think I’m blind and senile?”

Lu Xugao nearly spat out his food when Yan Lu said “blind and senile.”

“What are you laughing at? I’m being serious!” Yan Lu frowned and punched him. “Watch out, or I’ll deal with you when we get home.”

“No, no!” Lu Xugao begged for mercy. In fact, he hoped Yan Lu would treat him less politely. A little scolding and fighting could only deepen their feelings.

“Is he… hiding something…?” Yan Lu let her imagination run wild.

“No!” Yishu shouted.

The few people around cast curious glances, sharp as knives probing the unresolved direction, slicing open the hidden truth.

“No—” Yishu repeated softly.

“I don’t believe you!” Yan Lu was determined to get to the bottom of it. “If it’s not this, it can’t be anything else. You’ve been upset about work before, but that disappointment is nothing like this.”

Yan Lu was truly a character. If she had used her skills fully during her time at Kaisun, even Liu Hanzhang might have followed her lead. Perhaps in a year or two, she would have the position of customer service manager in her pocket.

Yishu realized there was no point in hiding, so she decided to reveal everything, rather than let Yan Lu conjure up a wild and unrealistic story.

“Yes, it’s his ex—his university girlfriend. She parachuted into his company a while ago. Until two days ago, I didn’t know she’d been living right below him all along.”

“How outrageous!” Yan Lu jumped up, her chopsticks fell to the floor, Lu Xugao bent to pick them up and fetched a clean pair.

“That woman is shameless! They broke up, and she still wants to rekindle things? Are all the men in the world dead?” Yan Lu’s every word was a blade, each one stabbing at Tang Dai. In truth, she had her reservations about Xu Shixi, but out of consideration for Yishu, who was pitiful enough already, she refrained from rubbing salt into her wounds. “What did he say?”

Yishu wasn’t sure if Yan Lu meant “he” or “she.”

“I mean, what was Xu Shixi’s reaction?”

“He asked me to trust him.”

“So do you trust him?”

“I…” Yishu paused. She did trust him, always had, unconditionally. But, after all, she was a woman; jealousy is a flaw found in more than ninety-nine percent of women. There is no cure. She could trust him, but could never trust her. Tang Dai—a woman with a danger index of a hundred percent, like a black spider weaving a web, stretching out her eight legs, waiting for prey to approach, then swallowing it whole.

“In my opinion, Shixi isn’t that kind of person,” Lu Xugao tried to lighten the serious mood.

“What do you know?” Yan Lu was still upset by Yishu’s story. In her mind, there were more bad men than good, and more good women than bad. This shift she owed to Lu Xugao’s appearance. Back in her third year of middle school, she witnessed a couple’s loving relationship firsthand. Because their romance was early, they never dared hold hands in public; at school, they always walked one behind the other. Though they lacked wings, their hearts were in perfect harmony. At fourteen or fifteen, their understanding of love was no less wise than adults’. Yet, there are no secrets that don’t leak; when the teacher discovered them, the boy betrayed the girl to save himself, accusing her of pursuing him. Since the boy was a top student in the grade, always in the top five, and the girl ranked in the bottom twenty, the teacher, judging by grades, ordered the girl to leave school.

Thus, what seemed like a pure early love became an unsolved case between them.

Yan Lu was deeply affected. In high school, whenever boys confessed to her, she rejected them harshly.

She had thought she would be alone forever, but fate arranged for Lu Xugao to appear. He was like an icebreaker, forcefully smashing the frozen road ahead.