Chapter 17: CH 17

“What isn’t she interested in?!” Pei Yan raised his voice a bit.

“I’m saying that she isn’t interested in men…” Yang Shao felt that Pei Yan’s reaction was a bit strange, but seeing that there wasn’t anything else abnormal, he shrugged it off. Scratching his head, he continued, “I originally wanted to chase after Embroiderer Hua, but didn’t expect her to already have a ‘special’ relationship with her female friend.”

The two remained silent the whole ride after that. When Pei Yan had driven Yang Shao to his front door, he simply raised his chin and siad, “Get off.”

“Thank you, Brother Pei.” Yang Shao was curious about something so when he got out of the car, he rushed to the driver’s side and poked his head into the window and asked, “By the way, Brother Pei, I heard that you didn’t divest in the Chen Family’s project?”

“The one I’m doing business with is Mr Chen, so it doesn’t really matter if I dislike the two brothers that are part of his family.” Pei Yan slapped Yang Shao’s arms away from leaning on his car door. “So who are you trying to help by asking me this so suddenly?”

“Chen Sen’s cousin and I were classmates back in the day…”

“Why didn’t you just say so. Isn’t she your ex-girlfriend?” Pei Yan tapped the steering wheel with his left and right index fingers, “You’re not young anymore, so it’s probably time for you to stop just thinking about eating, drinking, and having fun all day long and perhaps start to learn how to manage the company with me.”

“Bro, you’re my blood-related bro.” Yang Shao knew that Pei Yan was a little dissatisfied with how he went about this, so he wanted to say a few nice words to ease the atmosphere between them, but unexpectedly, Pei Yan just rolled up the car windows and drove off.

“How can any woman stand that weird personality of his?” Yang Shao rubbed his nose while remembering Pei Yan’s temper tantrum over the years. He couldn’t help but shake his head.

Inside his car, Pei Yan took off his tie and turned on his music player.

When he heard the patter of rain on his car window, Pei Yan slowed down the car. When he was going through a certain intersection, he coincidentally saw a familiar figure on the side of the road which made him slow down even more.

“It rains so randomly these days and we couldn’t even get a ride.” Tan Yuan and Hua Jin were hiding under a bus stop sign, “Hua Hua, just sleep over at my house tonight, since it’s closer to here.”

Hua Jin was looking at the queue time on the taxi app and sighed, “Alright…”

“Pretty lady, do you need me to take you home?” A car then slowly stopped in front of Hua Jin, careful not to cause the water on the ground to splatter. After the window rolled open, Hua Jin remained silent when he saw who was in the driver’s seat.

‘It’s Pei Yan again. This indecent man.’

“Why are you just standing there? Get in the car.” Seeing Hua Jin’s skirt drenched in the rain, Pei Yan’s face was full of disgust. “It’s already raining so heavily, so don’t tell me you still plan on waiting there?”

Seeing that the rain was getting even heavier, Hua Jin reluctantly opened the rear passenger door, shopping bags in hand, and pulled Tan Yuan into the car. “Mr Pei, thank you.”

Pei Yan glanced at his rearview mirror and couldn’t help but focus on Hua Jin holding Tan Yuan’s hand, “There are tissues on the side so just help yourselves.”

“Okay.” Hua Jin bent down to find the tissue. She took some out to help Tan Yuan wipe the rain off her cheeks. When she looked ahead, she found that Pei Yan was staring at her. She thought that he was curious about Tan Yuan’s identity, so she introduced her, “This is my close friend, Tan Yuan.”

“Hello.” She wasn’t sure if it was because she didn’t have much contact with rich people, but Tan Yuan felt that this handsome man that drove such a luxurious car was looking at her strangely.

Pei Yan gave her a slight nod and then asked Hua Jin, “Where are you guys going?”

Hua Jin told him Tan Yuan’s address, “Please take my friend home first.”

“You guys don’t live together?” Pei Yan found a towel from the front compartment and threw it to Hua Jin before he started the car.

“Since she still lives with her parents, it isn’t convenient for me to live there.” The towel hit Hua Jin square in the face. She pulled down the towel and said, “Can’t you be a little more gentle? You’ve smeared my makeup!”

“Since it’s already dark, nobody can even see what your makeup looks like.” Pei Yan replied dryly. “And I’m sorry if I’m not as gentle as a girl.”

When Hua Jin heard his tone, she felt that something wasn’t quite right, but since she was getting a free ride, she decided not to retort. 

She put the towel over both of their knees as she started to dry her wet skirt. Hua Jin then gave Tan Yuan a large bag full of snacks and said, “Take this. I’ve learned that nothing is impossible if you have a pack of snacks. If one isn’t enough, then try two!” 

“You’re quite the schemer, aren’t you?! Are you just trying to make me gain weight?!” Tan Yuan knew that Hua Jin had sensed her bad mood, so she intentionally bought her the snacks she liked.

“You even saw through this?!” Hua Jin acted shocked, “I never expected you to be so smart!”

“Damn you!” Tan Yuan took a big mouthful of snacks and finally had a genuine smile on her face. “Hua Hua, thank you.”

“What’s this all about? Aren’t we close friends?” Hua Jin reached out and tidied the hair on her head. Hua Jin thought that since the two of them were currently inside another person’s car, it was inappropriate to talk about more private stuff, so she could only reach out and give her a hug. “Tomorrow, you can stay at home and rest. I’ll take care of the store.”

Tan Yuan didn’t refuse. She looked down at the brand of snacks in the bag and laughed, “I knew it! You’d definitely buy this brand too!”

Hua Jin helped her secure the shopping bag, “Things that are produced by bigger brands are safer than smaller ones, so what’s wrong about choosing to buy them?”

“Nothing really, but their snacks are more expensive than others.”

Hua Jin clicked her tongue, “That problem is with our wallets.”

Tan Yuan: “…”

Pei Yan parked the car right outside the entrance of the gated community, where Hua Jin saw Uncle Tan waiting there holding another umbrella.

Seeing that Uncle Tan was anxiously waiting for her, Hua Jin nudged Tan Yuan awake, “Uncle Tan’s already there to pick you up.” It was understandable for a father to worry about a daughter that was caught in heavy rain and had to go through a narrow alleyway to get home, so he brought an extra umbrella with him and waited by the door. It could be said that this kind of father-daughter relationship was very common in many families.

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Tan Yuan thanked Pei Yan before pushing open the door and getting out of the car, where she ran to Tan Qing’s umbrella just a few steps away. Pei Yan also noticed the shopping bag with her. When the father-daughter tandem entered the gate, he turned and asked Hua Jin, “So where’s your place?”

Hua Jin told him her address and along the way, Pei Yan said, “So it seems you really like Yuan Pan Food Company’s products?”

“Yup.” Hua Jin’s head remained lowered as she played on her mobile phone. Pei Yan could only see her smooth forehead through the rearview mirror. He laughed saying, “Do you embroiderers also have a thing with food brands?”

“Nope. It’s just a quirky hobby of mine.” Hua Jin continued to tinker on her phone to post the photos of the food Tan Yuan took on her social media, “I can’t represent other embroiderers.”

“Then I think you should find another quirky hobby.” Pei Yan then unbuttoned two more buttons on his dress shirt as he wasn’t one who liked to conform to the norm of wearing the entire formal attire of the shirt, suit and tie. In fact, he disliked feeling constrained. “The quality of Yuan Pan’s snacks are just average, but their prices are high just because of the brand. Even if you like being quirky, don’t make your life harder by buying expensive stuff.”

“Hua Jin stared at the back of his head for a moment before replying, “Is it that bad?”

“It’d be better if you bought an extra bag of fruit than waste money in buying their products.” Pei Yan continued while sneering, “Currently, Yuan Pan’s management is in chaos right now, and with the meteoric rise of the Internet celebrities launching their own food brands, their production scale has gradually been shrinking. It’s only a matter of time before they fall off.

Hua Jin’s mouth moved as if she wanted to say something, but she hesitated to do so. She waited for a while before replying, “I see.”

When Pei Yan arrived at Hua Jin’s place, he looked at the dark alleyway that didn’t even have a single street lamp and frowned, “You’re a girl that lives alone in this kind of place?”

“The rent here is cheap and it’s close to the subway station. I even asked a friend to help me get the unit.” Hua Jin folded the towel on her lap, “Mr Pei, you’ve probably never had to rent a house before, so you don’t know much about the current market condition. Communities that are considered to be in a good location and have good surroundings are super pricey, even the basements costs thousands per month to rent!”

“Aren’t handmade embroideries expensive? You still can’t afford it?” Pei Yan stopped the ignition and got out of the car with an umbrella. He then sullenly opened the passenger side door and said, “Let’s go then. I’ll escort you in.”

“There’s no need for that…”

“Why not? It’s dark here so if there was a criminal incident, I’m afraid the police may suspect me as the culprit.” Pei Yan opened the umbrella and directly stated, “Who’ll reimburse me if my reputation is tarnished?”

So Hua Jin got out of the car and sheltered under Pei Yan’s umbrella.

“Although handmade embroidery isn’t cheap, it takes a lot of time to make a single piece. Moreover, not a lot of people are willing to spend their money on things that aren’t food or drink.” Hua Jin lowered her head to try to see the puddles on the ground. “Be careful though, there’s a pothole somewhere around here, so don’t-”

But before she could finish speaking, Pei Yan had already fallen in it so his trousers were muddied. 

“Mr Pei, why don’t you just lend your umbrella and I just go by myself?” Hua Jin pointed to the end of the alley, “It’s only a few more dozen steps to where I live.”

Pei Yan ignored her and continued to walk forward, “If your business was that difficult, have you ever thought about changing jobs?”

“Before I started learning Shu Embroidery, I also worked in a lot of places, including a stint in a dyeing factory* for a month or two.” Hua Jin was smiling while she was reminiscing, but since it was totally dark, no one saw it.

*Note: Fabric dyeing is a labor-intensive work if done by hand so Hua Jin was implying that embroidery was actually more pleasant to do. Not to mention the fact that caustic chemicals are involved during the process, which are stinky and hazardous to workers’ health.

The two slowly tottered through the alley slowly. With Pei Yan obviously unused to walking at that pace and way, it seemed that he was the one being helped across. 

After they finally arrived by the stairs, Hua Jin used the flashlight on her phone to see the muddy appearance of Pei Yan’s trousers and leather shoes and she couldn’t help laughing.

“Finding this funny?” Pei Yan fumed.

“It really is.” Hua Jin nodded honestly, causing Pei Yan to become even more aggrieved.

“Is that you, Xiaohua?” Old lady Chen who lived on the second floor stuck out half her head out the window, having heard the ruckus downstairs. “Have you used up the medicinal wine I gave you last time? It’s been raining for two days now and I’m sure your legs are hurting again. Need another bottle?”

“Grandma Chen, I still have half a bottle, but thank you for offering.” Hua Jin raised her voice to thank Mrs Chen. The latter stared at Pei Yan for a few moments before going back in a lot more quickly than when she poked her head out.

Pei Yan quickly glanced at Hua Jin’s legs and excused himself, “I’ll be leaving now.”

“Thank you.” Hua Jin replied before her silhouette was seemingly swallowed up by the dim walkway. 

When Pei Yan arrived at his car, he was notified that he received a red envelope from Hua Jin. The note on it said it was for the gas fee.

He didn’t hesitate to open the red envelope and collect the money.

[Pei]: Give up! You won’t be able to attract my attention with just your paltry sum that isn’t even enough to buy five buckets of rice. 

Hua Jin couldn’t help but laugh out loud when she saw Pei Yan’s reply.

[Fan Hua]: Hah! Men! Your stubbornness has successfully attracted me! 

When Pei Yan saw her reply, three deep frown lines appeared on his forehead.

‘Just which gender does this flowery peacock go for anyways?!’

——————-

The Author has something to say: [Pei Yan]: Hah! Women!

[Hua Jin]: Hah! Men!

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