Chapter 14: Chapter 9 (part 1)

Too bad for Fu Zheng, but a drunk can't be reasoned with. No matter how angry he was, Ning Wan would never know.

When dinner was over, Shao Lili dragged and pulled and finally succeeded in standing up with Ning Wan draped over her shoulders. It was too bad that the plan had to suddenly be changed, for just as she was about to send her friend home, her boss called...

"There's a problem with a case and we're going to be holding an emergency conference call. I must get back to the office immediately." Embarrassed, Shao Lili looked to Fu Zheng. "Would it be possible for you to send Ning Wan home? She lives pretty close by. I'll give you the address."

……

In the end, Fu Zheng paid for the meal, and then had to shoulder the great burden passed down from generation to generation - having no choice but to send a drunk hot potato home.

Luckily for him, Ning Wan seemed to have exhausted herself earlier. She seemed unsteady on her feet. Though she was still not quite sober, her inner demon seemed to have settled down somewhat.

She was soon able to walk on her own, no longer needing Fu Zheng's help. But as he walked forward, he found that she wasn't keeping up. Turning back, he found her staring at a mailbox in a daze.

"Ning Wan, we're going home."

It was a pity. His words went in one ear and out the other.

But he did have to admit... drunk Ning Wan was adorable. She was much less aggressive. Instead, she simply raised her head and regarded him slowly with her beautiful eyes. She looked absent and confused, and it all combined to give him the feeling that if he turned his back for a moment she would immediately be kidnapped and sold...

Having no choice, Fu Zheng took a deep breath, reached out his hand to grab her sleeve, and tugged her forward. However, the crowd was dense at the crossroads, and after having almost lost Ning Wan a few times, he finally resorted to holding her hand.

Fortunately for him, Ning Wan stayed quiet the whole way. Obediently, she let him lead her to her apartment building.

Fu Zheng escorted her to her door, asked her for the key, and opened the door for her. "There, you're home now. I'm leaving."

Ning Wan seemed to be in a daze. Who knew if she was listening? But she entered the apartment and attempted to close the door. Seeing her return home safely, Fu Zheng felt as though his duty was done. He was just leaving when he heard a clatter coming from behind him.

He could have left, but his conscience won. He turned back and walked in to see Ning Wan sitting on the shaggy door rug, a blank look on her face. She hadn't even closed the door after he had left, and had probably accidentally tripped over the shoes lined up by the door. Now she was sitting on the ground, a frown on her face and murmuring in pain, with her bag fallen on the ground and its contents strewn all over...

Fu Zheng regretted having looked back unnecessarily. Now that he had seen it, he couldn't ignore it. He had to walk in, lift Ning Wan from the ground, and place her on the sofa. Then he turned and went to the door to gather up her scattered belongings.

When he had put them all back into the bag, he put it away and looked about to inform her he was leaving, only to find out that she was gone...

"Ning Wan?"

Fu Zheng turned on the sitting room lamp and looked around in a circle, but she was nowhere to be found. Rubbing his temples, he felt a headache coming on. Then he heard a thin sob coming from underneath the dining room table.

He lifted up the tablecloth to find Ning Wan below.

Fu Zheng was speechless. Frowning, he said, "What are you doing down there? Hurry and get out."

Ning Wan shook her head. She continued crying quietly...

Fu Zheng was aware that some people got out of control when they were drunk, and that there were happy drunks and sad drunks. Apparently Ning Wan was a sad drunk.

However, he didn't particularly care for drunk people and didn't have much patience to begin with. He let the tablecloth fall and prepared to leave. But just as he reached the door, he hesitated and turned back once more, his face dark. Then he squatted down, lifted the tablecloth again, and extended a hand to Ning Wan. "Alright, come on out. You should go to bed."

Though he had condescended to lend a hand, drunk Ning Wan wasn't taking the bait. She stared at Fu Zheng for a minute, then suddenly burst out, "Why does life suuuuuckkk?!"

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“……”

Fu Zheng groaned. He couldn't deal with this. Apparently after having quarreled with the newscaster and searched for her own tail, Ning Wan was now heading off in a different direction.

Where Fu Zheng was frustrated, Ning Wan was as if possessed. "My life sucks! It sucks! It really, really sucks!"This is better translated as "why is fate so cruel?", but that seemed a bit too poetic for a blackout drunk to say.

"My mom called me today and asked for money. She said she wanted to buy a bag."

Before Fu Zheng could say anything in return, her monologue pattered on, "It's lies, lies, all lies. Mom lived frugally all her life. She won't even spend money on the bus. She walks home in the heavy rain, just so she can buy me eggs with the bus fare. She would never ask me for money for a bag!"

She didn't seem to require Fu Zheng's participation. "But then what would she need money for? That bastard must have gone back again, beating and robbing, taking it out on her when he loses at the tables... What did I do to deserve such a father?! Why can't I do it, just stand up to him, get rid of him... why does life suck so much?!"

Fu Zheng didn't want to hear about Ning Wan's private affairs. To his way of thinking, getting too close to other people only brought trouble. Just look at what was happening right now. He looked at Ning Wan, huddled under the table, and felt like he had no form of escape.

She was sobbing in a low tone, holding on to a table leg. Her tears rolled down as if a great injustice had been done unto her, and her misery was like that of an abandoned puppy.

"Don't cry." In his entire life, Fu Zheng had only ever made others cry. He had never before comforted someone who was crying, and he felt exceedingly uncomfortable doing so. "Is there anything you want? I'll buy it for you."

Generally speaking, in the face of such great emotion, any comforting words said by someone else were useless. Fu Zheng fully expected to be ignored. But before his mouth closed, Ning Wan's tears evaporated. With a face like pear flowers after a rain, in a clear pronunciation and mellow tone, she requested--

"You said you'll buy anything. Then, I want to eat sugar-fried chestnuts, candied berries, fresh moon cakes with meat in them, Yunnan flower cakes, cheese and egg crepes, chocolate layer cake, durian cake, scallions, squid, chicken chops, spicy dumplings, Shandong multi-grain pancakes..." She said all this in one breath, and finally tacked on, "And the pancakes should have two eggs!"

“……”

Fu Zheng felt that his sympathy just now had all been in vain. He had actually believed her nonsense for a moment there. If just a little food could cause such a turnaround, it was obvious she had only been acting out a script after drinking too much.

He got up, intending to ignore her, but Ning Wan grabbed onto his trousers. Looking him in the eye, she asked, "Do you need me to repeat that?" Then, righteously, the little drunk added, "You just said you would buy me anything. I recorded you on my phone. You have to keep your promise."

"..." Fu Zheng used up the patience of 120,000 men and tried to calm down. "I said I would buy something for you, not everything. I'll buy you one thing. You choose."

Ning Wan had completely stopped crying. Her eyes widened and she angrily accused, "You didn't say I could only have one thing!"

"The event organizer generally has the final say," Fu Zheng said coldly. "Ning Wan, you are a law student. Grow up. Since I'm the one who's paying, I can buy whatever I want."

"..." She stared at him for awhile, then finally gave in. "I want matcha ice cream."

Fu Zheng frowned. "You didn't even mention ice cream in that long string."

As soon as he said that, Ning Wan's eyes began to water again. Tears dribbled down. "My life sucks so much, I just wanna eat matcha ice cream," she said miserably, "My life really sucks..."

“……”

Fu Zheng was helpless. Drunk people were just unreasonable. There was no talking logic with them. He could only put on a stiff upper lip, call for an errand service, and tip them generously to buy him some matcha-flavoured ice cream.