Tenant’s Secret Love

Chapter 74: Go to work at Jumei

It gradually got quieter outside the window at nightfall, and there were almost no more customers in the teahouse.

The staff announced on the stereo that the store would close in a quarter of an hour to Eason Chan's “Premonition”, and after repeating it twice, the lights in the hall were also turned off in a row, except for the lights where Renee and I were sitting, which were still all on.

We didn't reach a consensus that night, but we had to leave. I got up and said to Renee, “We should go.”

Renee nodded and got up with me, but she looked a little down. I couldn't tell if she was worried about her future at Jomoo or if she was upset because I didn't want to go back to Suzhou to join Jomoo.

I booked a hotel nearby with Renee, and as soon as she got the room key, it was time for us to say goodbye.

I said to Renee, “If you're not leaving tomorrow, you're welcome to stay at our place.”

“I'm not leaving, not for the next two days.”

“Do you really need to stay that long?”

“Xuzhou isn't your home, I can stay as long as I like.”

I was a little speechless and a little surprised, because Renee rarely spoke emotionally, but this sentence was clearly emotional.

After a while I said, “Okay, let's meet tomorrow.”

Renee nodded, then carrying her suitcase, she walked towards the elevator under the guidance of the attendant.

...

On the way home, I immediately called Harlan, I had to talk to him anyway.

The phone was connected in a moment, and before I could say anything, Harlan laughed and said, “I just got my phone out to call you, but you called me first... Did Renee go to see you?”

“Why did you tell her about this? Aren't you adding to her psychological burden?”

“Wow, not only do you do good deeds anonymously, you also care about other people's emotions. Comrade Lei Feng (a soldier famous for his willingness to sacrifice himself) didn't do as much as you Lucas did!”

“Don't be ridiculous...”

Before Harlan could respond, Natalie snatched the phone away from him and asked, “Lucas, have you found a job yet?”

“Not yet,” I snapped back. I knew that Natalie had urged Harlan to tell Renee about it.

“So, has Renee invited you back to Suzhou to work at her Jumei shopping center?”

“I already told you.”

“What did you say?”

“Do you think I need to go back to Suzhou?”

Natalie laughed and said, “Lucas, you're on a roaming and long-distance plan. Take it easy on the phone calls. From what I know about you, I'm not sure you can handle the next stage of phone charges!”

I couldn't help but admire Natalie's way of thinking. After a while, I said, ”Damn it, you tell me, what's going on here?”

“What I mean is, you're in such a mess, and Renee came to you personally to offer you a job, so don't be stubborn, okay? Hurry back to Suzhou and get on with your life.”

“You woman, you don't know anything, don't talk to me, give the phone to Harlan.”

Harlan took the phone and then said to me, “Natalie means what I mean.”

“Natalie doesn't know what's going on, and you don't know what's going on either? If I go back to Suzhou and work for Jumei, won't I be even more sorry for

I was speechless...

Harlan continued, “Think about it for yourself. You have brothers in Suzhou to help each other along the way. In Xuzhou, as I know your ‘Stubborn-Father’, he definitely won't help you with your work.”

Once again, I was speechless, because Harlan was right. My ‘Stubborn-Father’ really didn't want to get involved in my work. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been so distracted by work for more than a week!

“Lucas, it's getting late, let's stop here, think about this more on your own... Oh yeah, I'll recharge your phone with 100 RMB later, you can't let your phone run out of credit, we need to keep in touch.”

“Can you two stop being so mean? !”

Harlan didn't respond to my words and hung up the phone directly. My embarrassment was multiplied after Harlan and Natalie's nasty exchange. Indeed, if I hadn't borrowed 1,000 yuan from Daphne, the blind date, today, I really wouldn't have even had the money to recharge my phone.

After crossing another set of traffic lights and walking one more block, I was almost home. At this time, the text message alert on my phone suddenly sounded. I picked it up and looked at it. It turned out to be a text message alert for a successful recharge of 100 yuan. I was at a loss for words. The couple Harlan and Natalie are really talented!

...

When I got home, opened the door, and saw that my father and mother were both sitting on the sofa in the living room, I closed the door, threw the car keys to my “Stubborn-Father”, and asked, “You're still not asleep?”

My mother looked at me and asked with a smile, “Lucas, is the girl who came to our house looking for you today your girlfriend?”

I was not at all surprised by my mother's question, and I said immediately, ‘She is not my girlfriend!”

My ’Stubborn-Father' took over the conversation with a serious expression, ”If she is not your girlfriend, how come she came from Suzhou to Xuzhou to find you? Did you do something to make her upset?”

I felt a wave of powerlessness rising up in me, and I didn't know how to explain it to them. I habitually touched the tip of my nose.

My mother immediately said to my father, “See, that's the gesture. Every time you don't tell the truth, you make that gesture.”

My ‘stubborn father’ nodded in agreement with my mother. I really had no idea what to say, so I said, ‘I really can't explain this to you. I think she'll come to our house for lunch tomorrow. If you don't believe me, just ask her what our relationship is.’ After saying that, I hurriedly walked to my room, afraid that they would continue to pursue the matter endlessly.

But just as I had made a cup of tea and sat on the bed, my mother pushed open my room door again. It looked like she wasn't going to let me off the hook and was going to continue probing.

My mother pulled a chair up opposite me and said to me with great earnestness, “Lucas, I've heard it all from your father. She's the girl you lived with in Suzhou. I even knitted her a scarf.”

I didn't deny it and nodded.

“So be honest with me. What is your relationship? You're living together and you still say it's nothing. Do you take your mother for a fool?”

“Mom, it's not that I'm not admitting it, it's just that it's really not a big deal. You don't know that it's trendy to share an apartment in the city? We did live together for a while, but we didn't sleep in the same room! If you insist on saying there's a relationship, then it's just a casual friendship.”

“If it's just a casual friendship, why did she come all the way to Xuzhou to see you?” My mom looked at me with a look that said, ”Go on, keep up the pretense.”

I couldn't help but laugh, so I simply lay down on the bed, pulled the covers up, and looked away...

My mother was clearly talking to herself, but it sounded more like she was talking to me. She said, “That girl is really pretty, no wonder you don't want to go out with Daphne. But why would such a pretty girl fall for you? And she even came to Xuzhou to find you. This is really strange!”

I felt helpless at this exclamation, and I wanted to ask her: Am I really her son? Am I really that bad? But I didn't dare to speak to her, for fear that she would continue to ask endlessly. So I pulled the quilt up to the top, covering my face as well, and refused to listen, look, or speak...