Home/ The Selfish Gene/ Chapter 71
Jian Xing’s Kangkang Pet Hospital has a total of two floors and a small attic: the first floor is for outpatients, observation, and water treatment areas; the second floor is for surgery, hospitalization, and imaging areas. Usually, the flow of people is mainly concentrated on the first floor, while the second floor is relatively quiet.
Going down from the attic, I saw Ji Chenfeng sitting alone in front of the long bar in the lobby on the second floor, with his laptop open and filling in something. Approaching from behind, I looked at it and saw that it was an inpatient medical record.
“I’m hungry.” My chin rested on his shoulder, and I clung to him like a sloth.
Perhaps he was too focused and didn’t hear anyone approaching. Ji Chenfeng suddenly turned his head and his whole body tensed up. It was only when he saw it was me did he relax his muscles again.
I let go of him slightly: “Ah, did it scare you?”
Although cochlear implants can help people regain their hearing, there are still flaws in the recognition of sound sources, making it difficult to properly grasp the distance and direction of sounds. Ji Chenfeng is so accommodating to me that I always forget about his physical disability. Obviously I should engrave this common sense in my heart and pay attention to it all the time.
“Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid…” I reached out and patted his heart gently, saying, “I will remember to speak up first next time.”
Ji Chenfeng held my hand and said in a helpless tone: “Someone will come up at any time, so you should restrain yourself. There are steamed buns and beancurd jelly in the pantry. After washing up, you can heat it up to eat.”
I kissed him hard on the cheek and said: “I know.” After speaking, I straightened up and walked towards the bathroom.
The pantry also serves as a kitchen. In addition to conventional appliances such as coffee machine, refrigerator, and microwave, it is also equipped with kitchen appliances such as induction cooker and range hood.
Steamed buns and beancurd jelly are placed on the cooking table, very conspicuous. In summer, it doesn’t matter whether it’s heated or not. I bit the steamed bun and directly put the beancurd jelly on the bar table outside.
Sitting opposite Ji Chenfeng, I didn’t forget to watch him at work while eating. My eyes were glued to him, and I couldn’t get enough of him.
“Does it taste better if you watch me while eating?” Ji Chenfeng raised his eyelids and glanced at me.
It’s okay if he doesn’t look at me, but when he looks at me, I feel…it would be a pity not to do something to tease him.
I thought about it and then took action. Throwing off my slippers, I reached out my leg and hooked his calf under the bar, rubbing him ambiguously, but on the surface everything still looked normal.
“Dr. Ji’s beauty is enough to turn mediocre food into a Michelin feast.” I said.
He paused while typing on the keyboard, and it took a long time before Ji Chenfeng spoke: “Sang Nian, I can’t work like this.”
Then don’t work and concentrate on accompanying me.
However, after thinking about it, since we just reconciled yesterday, I couldn’t immediately reveal my true nature and get carried away, so I obediently put my feet back.
“Oh.” I silently buried my head in eating and didn’t disturb him again.
After a few minutes, the mobile phone in front suddenly lit up, and the screen was frozen on the sms chat page. Ji Chenfeng didn’t save the other party’s name, so what was displayed at the top was a string of phone numbers, and the avatar was also gray.
The length of the message on the left is obviously several times longer than that on the right. Scanning through the conversation quickly, my mood gradually changed from confusion to anger.
“Zhou Jiyu still contacts you?” I raised my head and asked Ji Chenfeng, my eyes about to burst into flames.
The latest text message was received this morning. Zhou Jiyu said that he was going back abroad with his boyfriend and might not come back again, and he asked Ji Chenfeng to take care of himself more. The one above this one is a series of links, showing the time of message from February this year. Counting the days, it seemed to be Lunar New Year’s Eve. When I clicked on the link, the page jumped to the news about “The young boss of the Zhengyi Group marries the only daughter of the Gu family.”
Moving up, Zhou Jiyu asked Ji Chenfeng when it would be convenient for him to visit Yan Shanhua and also asked about the time and location of their dinner appointment.
Without exception, Ji Chenfeng’s replies were very brief, polite, and unfamiliar.
“All the contact between me and him is here.” Ji Chenfeng pointed to the mobile phone, “I didn’t think twice about keeping contact with him without telling you before. I will tell you whatever I do in the future.”
All the fires were extinguished by his simple words, and my mood miraculously returned to calm in an instant.
It is simply more effective than taking any medicine.
“That’s good…” I muttered, clicking on the phone number, then scrolled to the bottom and added it to the blacklist. After exiting, I swiped left and neatly deleted all the chat history between the two of them.
After cleaning it up, I pushed the phone back to Ji Chenfeng, and he put it away without even looking at it.
“If he hadn’t gone abroad, you two should still be together now, right?” In the past, I would always have a headache whenever my current girlfriend asked about my ex-girlfriends. From the bottom of my heart, I felt that there was nothing to worry about this kind of thing, but in the end, it turned out that I cared more than I thought.
Rather than eating the steamed buns in my hand, I carefully observed Ji Chenfeng’s expression.
“No.” He refocused his attention on the computer, and while speaking, his hands continued to type on the keyboard.
I was surprised by his decisive answer: “Why?”
“As I told you before, in Fly City, it is difficult to keep someone. He was my…” Ji Chenfeng thought for a moment and said, “My best friend since we were young. Apart from not being related by blood, we were just like brothers. I once thought that we would be like this for the rest of our lives. But when I was seventeen, he told me that he liked me.”
I thought he was just coaxing me by denying it, but he actually gave me a good reason.
“In order to ‘keep’ him, I accepted his confession. His university was not in Hong City, and we stayed apart for two years, only seeing each other during the winter and summer vacations. Every time he came back, I could feel that he was getting farther and farther away from me. He began to hate his birth, hate the poverty in Fly City, and yearn for the outside world.”
Ji Chenfeng slowly stopped typing and said, “So, our breakup had nothing to do with whether he went abroad or not. I wanted to stay, but he wanted to leave, and it was inevitable that we would part ways one day. And… he must be very tired, always wearing a mask to get along with me all the time.”
I was even more surprised: “You know?”
Zhou Jiyu once said that he ran away because he was afraid that Ji Chenfeng would discover his true face. At that time, I laughed at him for being a coward, but it turned out that Ji Chenfeng knew that he was wearing a “mask” from beginning to end.
Recalling it, didn’t Ji Chenfeng say last night that my disguise was very poor?
I reacted belatedly and murmured: “You knew everything, you just didn’t want to expose us…”
It’s ridiculous that Zhou Jiyu still swears that Ji Chenfeng has a hero complex. It turned out that all those years of studying psychology have gone into the dog’s belly. What’s even more ridiculous is that I actually became “we” with him, which is so disgusting.
“I don’t know everything.” Ji Chenfeng smiled, “If I really knew everything, how could I be fooled by you?”
Tsk, didn’t you promise not to settle old scores?
As soon as I heard the topic turning in a very dangerous direction, I dropped the bun in my hand and walked around to his side, wrapping it around his shoulder from the side and gently swaying it back and forth while hugging him.
“I’m different from that idiot Zhou Jiyu. You can be wherever you want and do whatever you want. If you don’t want to leave Fly City, I will always be here with you. You don’t have to worry about me yearning for the outside world. I’ve seen the colorful world outside, it’s so boring, I still feel the most comfortable by your side.”
“Don’t you feel aggrieved? Although I lived in Fly City before and the environment was terrible, it still looked like a home. Now we can only live in the attic, without even a decent piece of furniture… It makes you suffer.” He held my hand and kissed my palm.
That day, Xu Xi found out that I lived in Fly City and said in front of Ji Chenfeng how I had never suffered these kinds of hardships.
Ji Chenfeng didn’t say anything at the time, but he took those words to heart.
Moist breath sprayed on my palms, making me feel itchy and numb. I couldn’t help but curl my fingers and say, “I don’t feel wronged, let alone suffer. My home is wherever you are.”
Ji Chenfeng’s breath froze, and he looked at me with emotions surging in his eyes like a lake ruffled by the smoky summer wind, with little bits of eager sun.
Now may be the best time to take out the ring.
“You……”
Releasing his arm, I was about to ask him to wait and go to the attic to get the ring when suddenly there were footsteps coming from downstairs.
Damn it.
A strong displeasure of being disturbed arose in my heart. I don’t care about living in the attic, I don’t even care about not having a decent piece of furniture, but can I have a private space without being disturbed?
“Ji Chenfeng, someone has sent a banner downstairs.” Jian Xing stood halfway up the stairs and waved to us, “Come down quickly!”
I just thought Jian Xing called me to let me witness Ji Chenfeng’s glorious moment. I was still wondering whether to take photos as a souvenir. As a result, when I arrived on the first floor, I saw a middle-aged man standing in the center with a solemn expression, holding a roll in his hand like an imperial edict.
“This is the person you are looking for.” Jian Xing pointed at me.
Before I could react, the middle-aged man took a big step forward and lowered the banner with a swoop.
“Rescued my mother regardless of your own safety.” Jian Xing read aloud from the side.
The middle-aged man excitedly grabbed my hand along with the banner, and said in Mandarin with a full accent: “Thank you so much, thank you so much for carrying my mother from home that day. I hope you don’t mind that I’m only thanking you just now. Firstly, it’s because my mother has been receiving treatment in another hospital and her condition stabilized only yesterday; Secondly, I just found out from Lao Li that you are here.”
He handed the banner to me and said thank you several times.
I took the banner with both hands in a daze, looked down at the eight huge gold characters, and was a bit shocked.
“Can we take a photo?” Ji Chenfeng took out his mobile phone and suggested while walking across from us.
He must have known about it a long time ago, otherwise how could he not be surprised at all…
The middle-aged man grabbed the other end of the banner, lifted it up to his chest, and readily agreed: “Come on, come on, take two more pictures.”
Staring stiffly at Ji Chenfeng’s camera, I didn’t know how to react. It’s not like I have never received any awards when I was a student. At that time, there were even more people watching than now, but I was still calm and composed despite the envious or jealous eyes of the audience. It was completely different from the feeling of being at a loss and even a little ashamed at this moment.
“Sang Nian, smile.” Ji Chenfeng put down his phone for a moment and reminded me.
I had completely given up thinking and could only listen to the command. Upon hearing the words, I immediately raised the corners of my lips, showing a bright toothy fake smile.
“Three, two, one…that’s it.” Ji Chenfeng looked at his phone with satisfaction and came over to show us his shooting results.
The middle-aged man took a look and gave Ji Chenfeng a thumbs up.
“Awesome!”
I glanced at it and couldn’t help but take a second look.
So silly.
While commenting secretly in my heart, I also gave Ji Chenfeng a thumbs up.
“Perfect.” I said.
Next
Leave a Reply