Snowlyme

Home/ The Selfish Gene/ Chapter 6

I didn’t have too much communication with Ji Chenfeng during the night snack. Except for serving dishes, he sat quietly in his seat most of the time. After finishing at the next table, he would take the initiative to pick up the dishes, clean them up, and then sit back in a daze.

“Is that kid really not a model in your aunt’s company?” Maybe seeing that I was absent-minded, Zheng Jieyuan also paid attention to Ji Chenfeng.

“Didn’t you see the cochlear implant on his ear?” Taking a puff of the e-cigarette and exhaling it slowly, I said with a twitch of my mouth, “How can he be a model if he can’t hear? Ask the photographer to communicate with him in sign language?”

Nibbling on a garlic flavored bone with relish, Zheng Jieyuan smiled and said, “Isn’t picture technology very advanced now? Take out his hearing aid. Last time I saw a small internet celebrity with the same issue, the photo didn’t look bad at all, and he also has many fans.”

The riverside is windy, and the smoke from the e-cigarette is blown away by the harsh wind as soon as it is spit out from the mouth.

I squinted my eyes, noncommittal.

Zheng Jieyuan always thinks of the workplace very simply, and believes that everyone should be tolerant and friendly, and finishes their work every day with a smile.

As long as he sat in Xu Xi’s office for one afternoon, and looked at her face while she answered and hung up the phone, and listened more to the words she used to scold the other party, he would never say such childish words again.

“Why do you think he is deaf? Has he always been like this since childhood or something happened when he grew up? I think he was born with a strange tone of voice. I knew an Internet celebrity before, he was born with hearing problems. He only had the money to install a cochlear implant only when he was a few years old, and his speech is worse than this guy, he can’t straighten his tongue either.”

Perhaps it was due to the fact that he drank a lot of wine in one night. Zheng Jieyuan talked a lot. If I ignored him on weekdays, he would shut up, but today there is no sign of stopping.

“But he is really beautiful. This is probably because God closed a door for him, but left a window open.”

If he knew the business clients in the company as diligently as he knew the internet celebrities, his father wouldn’t be groaning and moaning all day long.

“I didn’t ask, maybe he’s deaf since he was a child.” I said.

The baby boy that Mrs. Sang gave birth to was healthy from the beginning to the end, otherwise Yan Shanhua would not be able to smoothly switch Ji Chenfeng and me.

As for the reason why Ji Chenfeng is deaf, we have to talk about the incident when he was three years old.

When he was three years old, he fell ill. There was nothing seriously wrong with him, it would have been cured by seeing a doctor and prescribing some medicine, but Yan Shanhua was greedy for a momentary convenience, so she didn’t send him to the hospital, but just gave him the medicine at home.

While eating, Ji Chenfeng began to show signs of drug-induced deafness, hearing loss, dizziness, and slow reaction, Yan Shanhua didn’t pay attention to any of this. It wasn’t until three months later that she found that Ji Chenfeng could hardly hear the daily conversations, and then she realized something was wrong and took him to the doctor for treatment.

It’s a pity that it was too late.

Ji Chenfeng’s hearing damage is serious, and it is good to be able to even keep the remaining residual hearing, and it is impossible to recover. At this point, the young master had to put on the hearing aid and became a disabled person.

He will be deaf for his whole life, not to blame the heavens, not to blame the earth, one can only blame the heart of the people. Yan Shanhua still had to raise him even if she replaced him.

With a refreshing breeze passing by, Zheng Jieyuan and I stopped talking at the same time.

The opening for serving food was right next to me, Ji Chenfeng put down the plate in his hand, turned around and was about to leave without saying a word.

I grabbed his wrist to stop him from leaving.

“We don’t seem to have ordered this dish.”

When the last dish came to the table, he clearly said that our dishes had already been served. Besides, it was Zheng Jieyuan who ordered the food. This kid hates pumpkins the most, and doesn’t even celebrate Halloween, so how can he order pumpkin pies?

My hand was empty, and before I could react, I heard Ji Chenfeng spit out a few words concisely: “It was sent.”

Who sent it and why, all of the words are omitted.

“The boss is quite good at doing business, probably he seldom receives such a big order?” Zheng Jieyuan automatically completed Ji Chenfeng’s words, and pushed the plate of pumpkin pie farther away from him, “Eat it, I’m already full, I can’t eat anymore, which one of you wants to eat more, don’t waste it.”

The fingertips seemed to still retain the warm touch of the skin. Staring at the empty palm, I rubbed my fingers and looked up to search for Ji Chenfeng.

Probably planning to close the stall, Ji Chenfeng bent down to pick up a case of beer from the ground, his forearm with his sleeves rolled up, his muscles showing obvious lines due to his strength. I didn’t realize that he was so strong when he was wearing a white coat before.

Adjusting his position with his knees, he walked steadily towards a van with the back cover open on the side of the road. The short, fat middle-aged man, holding a box of seasonings, followed behind with some difficulty.

It’s really like two ants.

Busy, hardworking, and so insignificant. Neither life nor death mattered in this world.

Once Sang Zhengbai learns the truth, Ji Chenfeng and I will completely switch our positions. I will have to wipe the greasy tables and chairs, carry heavy objects to the van, and return to that small and dark residence with Yan Shanhua, it would be better to just kill me.

Unlike Ji Chenfeng, who was born thinking that he was an ant, who would not question or resist, I am used to being a giant on the top of a mountain, and I can no longer go back.

Therefore, maintaining the status quo is the best choice. Everyone will stay in their respective positions, no one will be uncomfortable, no one will be unfortunate, and everyone is happy.

“Let’s go!”

After having enough food and wine, Zheng Jieyuan waved his hand, ordering everyone to get up, go home, and continue with the next round.

I took out the car keys and tossed them to him: “You go to the car and wait, I will come after paying the bill.”

“OK.”

Zheng Jieyuan, with a cigarette in his mouth, laughed and led everyone away.

Stuffing the e-cigarette into my trouser pocket, I turned and walked in the direction of Yan Shanhua.

She stood under a huge umbrella, wearing a dirty apron, and in front of her was a used pot and stove. As I approached, her expression became more and more disturbed.

“Xiao Nian…”

I stood opposite her across the stove.

“How much?”

“Xiao Nian… you, why did you come?”

Although it was just me and her, she kept her voice very low.

“How much?” I scanned out the QR code on the stove, and asked again, with a slower and deeper tone.

She flinched as if she was afraid, pulled out the bill in a panic, and gave me the exact amount.

“You didn’t tell him anything, did you?” I asked without looking up as I entered the numbers.

Even if she doesn’t say it clearly, she can easily guess who is the “he” I am talking about.

“No, I didn’t say anything!” She hastily denied.

Soon after, an electronic female voice confirmed the receipt of the payment. I had nothing to say to her, so I turned around and planned to leave.

“Xiao Nian, what are you going to do?” Yan Shanhua timidly stopped me from behind, “Chenfeng doesn’t know anything, you…don’t hurt him.”

Don’t hurt him…

I stopped, put my hands in my trouser pockets, and laughed unconsciously because it was so funny.

She is the least qualified to say this sentence, right? If it weren’t for her, things wouldn’t be like this.

I hope that my child can get a good life, but I have no way to treat the child who was exchanged by her cruelly. Wanting to make up for everything through false maternal love is nothing more than wishful thinking.

Isn’t it still a robber who donates all the stolen money to the poor?

As long as the evil is not carried out to the end, evil can become good. How can there be such a thing in the world? Since you choose to be a villain and put your own interests first, from the moment you made that decision, morality and kindness are superfluous.

Nondescript goodness is more disgusting than pure evil.

“Don’t worry, I won’t do anything.” Turning around, I smiled at the worried woman and said, “I’m just a little curious about him. It feels like…we can be good friends.”

This level of appeasement is already my limit. Yan Shanhua seemed to have something to say, but I couldn’t bear to listen any longer. When she opened her mouth, I turned around again and strode away expressionlessly.

“Boss, come again next time!”

The sweaty middle-aged man just came back at this time, and when he passed by me, he nodded at me with a silly smile.

Really dirty.

Glancing indifferently, I ignored him and quickened my pace to leave.

On the side of the road, under the street lights, Ji Chenfeng was standing behind the van, bending over to organize the messy boxes in the van.

Although things like cochlear implants can make people who have lost their hearing hear the sound again, they cannot make them distinguish the direction and distance of the sound.

In other words…

“Doctor Ji.” I stood behind him and called him in a normal voice.

Ji Chenfeng turned around suddenly, maybe he didn’t expect that I would be so close to him, so he backed up subconsciously, and as a result, he lost his balance and fell back into the car.

In other words… Even if I have walked behind him, he may not feel my presence. If I make a sudden noise, there is a high probability that he will be frightened by me.

I admit, I did it intentionally. Compared with the cold expression, his panicked look is more interesting.

“Be careful!” I was full of expectations for admiring his embarrassment, but on the surface I still pretended to want to rescue him.

His fingers with a little coolness ran across the back of his hand, and Ji Chenfeng grabbed my wrist in a panic. He failed to get up, but instead pulled me down with an astonishing force.

When I came back to my senses, my ears were filled with noisy and regular drum beats, the pungent smell of engine oil filled my nostrils, and Ji Chenfeng’s body as hard as a rock was underneath me.

Pots and utensils are piled up in the car all year round, and the trunk is full of greasy oil. As soon as I looked down, I felt disgusted by the sticky and slippery feel. I hurriedly changed my position and supported Ji Chenfeng’s chest instead, only then did I realize that the noisy drumbeat turned out to be his heartbeat.

I don’t know if he didn’t realize that he fell somewhere, because there was no movement for a long time. In the dim light, the upper half of his face was hidden in the shadows, while the lower half of his face was dyed a warm orange red by the street lamps, making it hard to distinguish his expression.

“Doctor Ji, are you okay?”

The heartbeat under the palm was heavy and chaotic, it seemed that he had just been frightened.

“You get up first.”

It took him a long time to speak, his voice sounded very hoarse.

When I fell, my legs were intertwined with his, and now my hand is propped up on his chest, making the posture a bit awkward.

“Sorry, I’m pressing on you.” I agreed, moved my body, and accidentally pushed my knee up.

Ji Chenfeng let out a muffled snort and grabbed my arm violently.

The place where I accidentally pushed was quite hard, I paused slightly, and looked down.

Not my e-cigarette.

The air was terribly quiet, Ji Chenfeng’s Adam’s apple trembled, and he struggled to utter the word “I” for a long time without saying anything else.

Ha, look what I found? Staring at Ji Chenfeng’s eyes hidden in the darkness, after being surprised for a while, disgust swept through my whole body.

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