Chapter Thirteen

  The long-absent sun broke through the clouds, casting its radiance over the earth.

  Since the beginning of winter, City C has not seen a single sun, and citizens have been living stubbornly in extremely poor visibility conditions under thick gray fog for over a month. Today, they finally saw the light again, and everyone was radiant and delighted.

  Every landscape in the city is coated with a layer of golden light, even the tiny dust particles in the air. And being able to identify the dust particles in the air with the naked eye also eloquently explains that the dust content in City C is indeed leading the international advanced level.

  Citizens who have nothing to do due to unemployment are pouring out of their homes, the square is packed with a sea of people, and those who cannot squeeze in have to flow into the streets, causing all sorts of social problems.

  It's surprising to see so many idle people outdoors during the non-statutory holiday period, which shows that this year's economic situation is indeed very severe.

  I met Qin Mo four days ago, and we've seen each other four times. Every time, his vehicle was always there, and most of the time was spent on that vehicle, it's really unbelievable.

  I sent a text message to Zhou Yueyue, explaining the idea. Zhou Yueyue immediately replied: "It's not about spending time in the car or on the bed, what's there to think about? It's a problem." I thought about it and felt that she was right too.

  A familiar foreign song was playing in the car, I've heard it many times before, unfortunately, I never figured out whether it's Spanish or Italian, anyway, they're all bird languages.

  Qin Mo drove with a focused expression, and I caught sight of his fingers. These were indeed the fingers of an architect, vastly different from those of a construction worker. Despite their titles differing by only one word.

  His hands are too suitable for being a spokesperson for a jewelry store, they're extremely beautiful. I couldn't help but take another look, and when I lifted my head, our eyes met, he said: "What are you looking at?"

  The direction of the steering wheel is obvious and hypocritical, I said: "Your hand..."

  He turned his head and looked ahead, saying: "Oh, you mean this wedding ring?"

  I didn't see him wearing a ring at all, and I was confused, saying "Huh?"

  He said, "It was my wife who personally selected it." After finishing speaking, he raised his right hand to take a glance and suddenly remembered, saying: "Ah, I left it at home. So you're not looking at my ring, what are you looking at?"

  I stared at him in surprise.

  Zhou Yue once told me that Qin Mo is their architectural industry's top-notch diamond king.

  This news is really too inaccurate, they have actually quietly gotten married. If this were in our country, no matter how strict the confidentiality defense line is, it would be broken through and exposed by paparazzi. It can be seen that American paparazzi are really not paparazzi, and my great country has finally taken the lead in the entertainment industry over capitalist countries, surpassing Britain and catching up with America.

  This left me stunned for a moment, and suddenly I thought of a very serious question. "Isn't your wife Zheng Mingming? What's going on? Are you really married?"

  The sunlight shone through the car window, Qin Mo gazed straight ahead at the road conditions and said lightly: "Oh, I'm bored to death, just teasing you."

  I was stunned for half a day: "Huh? You're not married? At your age, you should be getting married, why aren't you?" Only after asking did I realize that the question was impolite, and I was really suited to being a gossip columnist. I hurriedly made amends by saying: "I'm just casually asking, just casually asking."

  Qin Mo paused for a moment: "I promised someone before, to wait until she turned thirty. But when that day came and went, I could get married, but had grown accustomed to being single."

  His profile looks a bit melancholy in the sunlight, now he's still single, it can only be said that the person dumped him, it's really pitiful, the atmosphere suddenly becomes sentimental, I don't dare say anything more.

  At this moment, a soprano's coloratura singing segment was inserted, and Qin Mo handed over a bottle of mineral water.

  I took it in a daze, unscrewed and took a sip.

  He smiled and said: "Song Song, that water I handed you wasn't for you to drink, but rather I wanted to ask you to help me open it..."

  I looked at the bottle in my hand and thought for a moment before saying: "Oh, I didn't really want to drink it anyway, I was just bored and drinking for fun."

  I was quite proud of myself for coming up with that line, but before I could even savor the pride, he took the plastic bottle out of my hand. I stared in amazement as he drank from it, stared in amazement as he put the bottle back in my hand, and stared in amazement as he said with great elegance: "It's okay, I don't mind." And then I stared in amazement, feeling that this scene was somehow familiar.

  I leaned into the seat and thought about where I had encountered a similar situation. After thinking for half a day, the conclusion was that I had watched too many Korean dramas in the past few days. Watching too many Korean dramas is like this, it's easy to have mental problems.

  We listened to two Mandarin songs, two Cantonese songs and two bird language songs. The car drove smoothly through XX Road, YY Road and ZZ Road, arriving at a vegetable market.

  "Are we there?"

  Qin Mo said: "Traffic jam."

  A huge billboard hung above the entrance of a vegetable market reads: "The whole nation manufactures fake pork, using action to write a new chapter in harmonious society!"

  I saw it with Qin Mo.

  Qin Mo asked me: "What does that slogan mean?"

  When I first saw such a reactionary slogan, I didn't know what it meant. But thinking that the market management office, as an official organization, couldn't possibly be so reactionary, this slogan must have a very positive meaning behind it. After thinking for half a day and clearing my mind: "You see, this is saying that we should put counterfeiting on the agenda, a call to action for all citizens and all industries to counterfeit. You fake, I fake, everyone fakes, no one loses out, conflicts decrease, the world of pork becomes stable, and we can contribute our own strength to creating a harmonious society."

  The car in front of us moved forward about ten meters, and we also moved forward ten meters. Qin Mo said: "Oh, a word 'resist' has fallen off between the whole people and manufacturing, it turns out that the whole people resist manufacturing fake pork, writing a new chapter of harmonious society with action."

  I was stunned for a while, then burst out laughing twice, and remained silent for a long time. I had a feeling of being fooled, but didn't know whether it was by society, the vegetable market management office, or Qin Mo. The perpetrator couldn't be determined, making this fooling very tragic.

  The car drove onto the city's highway, and Qin Mo concluded: "The Chinese language is still very profound and subtle."

  I murmured in agreement.

  "He said: 'Forget about it and you'll be learning Chinese.' He paused for a moment and then asked: 'What have you been reading lately?'"

  I've actually been studying ancient Chinese forbidden books lately, I'm currently reading "Han Palace Spring Color" and "Qin Se's Boudoir Beauty", in simple terms, they're ancient erotic novels. My face is quite thin, this matter absolutely cannot be known to him, thinking: "Reading Lolita".

  At that moment, a pedestrian suddenly appeared in front of us as we were turning a corner. He was so quiet that we all jumped in fright. Qin Mo quickly turned the steering wheel and the car rushed towards the guardrail on the side. In an instant, my mind went blank. The thought process in my mind just before that was: It's over! The car is definitely going to be damaged! We'll have to spend a lot of money to fix it! Is this situation covered by insurance or will the owner have to pay out of pocket? What if the owner has to pay, won't the passengers be held jointly responsible?!

  I scared myself and fainted uselessly.

  I thought I had fainted for a long time, but actually it hadn't been more than three minutes. I made this judgment because when I got up and looked through the R8's window, I could still see that pedestrian who crossed the road in my line of sight getting farther and farther away.

  I turned back to face Qin's pale complexion. I thought, his expression is so ugly, could it be that this car isn't insured, and he has to bear the entire cost of repairs?

  He stretched out his hand and touched my forehead. I let out a cry of pain. He said: "Is there anywhere else that doesn't feel comfortable besides here?"

  I shook my head and touched it, feeling a bump on my forehead like a broken blister.

  He let out a breath and leaned back in his seat, saying, "We didn't have to crash into the guardrail."

  "Huh?"

  He looked at me and said: "I was braking when you suddenly rushed over and hugged me."

  "Huh?"

  He said: "And desperately pressed me into your arms, the brakes were forced to stop and hit the guardrail."

  "Huh?"

  "He said: 'Then you fainted.'"

  I think it's all over now, according to him I'm the one who caused the trouble, legally I'll be held as the first responsible person, definitely have to take main responsibility for this car accident, but I definitely can't afford to take this responsibility. Currently I only have two options, one is to refuse to take responsibility, the other is to escape immediately. I'm struggling psychologically, suddenly thought of that pedestrian who wanted Qin Mo to brake urgently, thinking maybe I can shift the blame, hurriedly said: "What about that person who crossed the road? If it wasn't for him I wouldn't have come to crash into you, and you also couldn't have driven straight out to crash is that right?"

  He leaned against the car window and said, "You know that student cadre, he cried and said that he had just become the president of their college student union for a short time. In order to become the president of the student union, he treated all his classmates who have civil election rights to dinner, but these classmates were too capable of eating, and they ate up all his living expenses for a year. So I let him go."

  "This is indeed a case of 'the people are more terrifying than the tigers', and university students are even more terrifying than that."

  Qin Mo sighed: "I said what's always on your mind all day long." After sighing, he stared at me without blinking: "Why did you want to protect me just now?"

  I understood what he meant by this sentence, and I was stunned.

  I really didn't think that the actions I took before the car accident were to protect Qin Mo, hearing him say so, I immediately got a fright.

  As a member of the Communist Party, I think my party spirit is still very good, but I didn't expect that there would be such a selfless act, this behavior is really too selfless to save others.

  But if the cause and process of this car accident are really as Qin Mo said, it may become the most unfortunate car accident in China. It's like when Qin Mo wanted to commit hara-kiri, I tried to save him by grabbing his knife, but accidentally helped him with one stroke, stabbing him to death. What a wonderful thing!

  I said: "Are we still going to look at houses?"

  He said, "What are you looking at? Go to the hospital first." Through the car window, a white cloud can be seen floating in the distance. But why does that white cloud look like a stick? After taking a closer look, it was discovered that it was white smoke and dust emitted from the chimney of a chemical plant in the distance, rising straight up into the sky. These smoke and dust rose straight up into the sky, just like pirates in the Gulf of Aden chasing after ships with abandon. And Qin Mo's face appeared even more classical against such a backdrop, and he himself had an aura that was too powerful, making people feel a little dizzy.