Chapter 73: You like pretending so much
1512 Words
I pinched my face hard, and the pain immediately came. I was sure I wasn't dreaming, and I froze for a long time before asking Renee, “Why are you here?”
Renee smiled and said, ‘Of course I'm here to find you.”
“But...but why are you here to find me? And how did you find me?”
Compared to my shock, Renee said to me very calmly, ’You play the game first, and we'll talk later.”
“What are you doing?” I asked subconsciously.
“Watching you play,”
As soon as Renee finished speaking, the child over there had already helped me insert a game token into the game console.
I calmed down a bit and then fought fiercely with the child again, but I could not win no matter what. In the end, I threw a basket of game tokens at the child and dragged an unwilling Renee away from the game room.
...
It was getting late, and the wind whistled past us with the cold of late autumn. Renee was dressed a little thinly, and she subconsciously tucked in the tweed jacket with the houndstooth pattern that she had worn many times before.
I couldn't hold back any longer and asked, “Why do I feel that this is so outrageous? Hurry up and tell me why you came to see me.”
Renee looked at me with a look that was not as indifferent as before. She took a letter out of her pocket and handed it to me, saying, “This is from you, isn't it? You already knew that I was the general manager of Jomoo!”
I took the letter but didn't open it, just staring at Renee in a daze, my emotions fluctuating. After a long, long silence, I lit a cigarette and asked Renee, “How did you find out?”
“Harlan, your friend Harlan told me. He said that you resigned from Baoli Department Store because of this matter and then left Suzhou.”
“He shouldn't have told you this. This was my own choice, and then I quietly left Suzhou, a city that made me feel tired.”
Renee looked at me without saying a word. In fact, even if she didn't say anything, I already knew her attitude. She was grateful to me, otherwise she wouldn't have travelled thousands of miles from Suzhou to Xuzhou to see me.
I didn't want this to become a burden for Renee, and I didn't need her to thank me, so I smiled and asked with the aim of distracting her attention, “I'm curious how you knew I was at the game arcade. You're really very resourceful, this is Xuzhou!”
Renee threw off the burden of expression, smiled slightly, and said, “Harlan told me your home address, so I went to your house to find you. Your father was home, and he even cooked dinner for me. In the end, your mother came back, and when I asked her where you were, she said, 'When you're in a bad mood, you go to the game arcade. You'll probably be there. And sure enough, I found you at the game arcade.”
“You went to all this trouble, why didn't you call me in advance?”
“You like to pretend so much, if I called you in advance and told you to get ready, how would I be able to see your pitiful appearance?”
I was speechless for a while after being choked by Renee, and for a long time I looked at my 'Stubborn-Father's' Santana and said, “Am I pitiful? With a car to drive, cigarettes to smoke, and games to play, life is carefree and heavenly!”
Renee shook her head helplessly and said to me, “Let's not stand here talking, I'm a little cold.”
I immediately took off my jacket and put it on Renee, and then pointed across the street and said, ”There's a tea restaurant across the street, let's go sit inside.”
Renee nodded and then walked with me across the street to avoid the traffic.
...
In the teahouse, Renee and I sat facing each other. I was drinking green tea, and Renee was having black tea. The steam from the cups filled the air in front of us. I looked at Renee through the steam. She was still so beautiful, so beautiful that it seemed she shouldn't belong in this mortal world.
Renee held her teacup in her hands and gently rotated it. She seemed to want to say something, but for a moment she didn't know how to start.
Finally, I broke the silence, but I only asked in a casual manner, “Where are you staying tonight?”
“Hotel,” she replied carelessly, not even looking at me.
“Oh, when are you going back to Suzhou?”
Renee finally looked up at me and asked, ‘Do you think it's presumptuous of me to come to Xuzhou to find you?”
“You misunderstood what I meant. I was afraid you were busy at work, that's why I asked,’ I hurriedly explained.
Renee shook her head and said, ”No matter how busy I am at work, I have to come to Xuzhou to find you... I'm very grateful that you helped me without expecting anything in return.”
“You don't need to be so polite, I would do the same for anyone else,” I said with a smile.
Renee nodded in silence, but I realized that I had never gotten along with Renee like this before, which made me feel a little uncomfortable.
After a long time, Renee looked at me and asked, ”So what are you going to do from now on?”
“I'm back in Xuzhou, so I'll definitely stay here in the future. It's actually quite nice here, at least I can be with my family.”
Renee looked at me, wanting to say something but unable to!
“How about you, have you settled down now?”
“For the time being, but this is just the beginning, there may be similar incidents in the future,” Renee replied with a bit of a downcast mood.
I sighed softly in my heart, and of course I knew that Darren would not give up control of Zhuomei so easily, and there would definitely be other bad moves against Renee in the future. I felt more sympathy for Renee, after all, it was her own uncle who had plotted against her, but there was nothing I could do, and I could only help her once.
“I heard from Harlan that you lost a job that you had worked hard to get. Do you regret paying such a high price?”
I shook my head and said, “In fact, I really struggled for a long time. After all, human nature is selfish, but once I made up my mind, I would not regret it.”
Renee took a sip of hot tea and finally asked me with what seemed to be a firm resolve, ”Lucas, would you be willing to return to Suzhou and join our Jumei Shopping Center?”
“Is this a way of making amends? Or do you think I need amends from you?”
“If you wanted to make amends, you wouldn't have told me all this in such a way. I just hope you'll join Jumei. Firstly, you're currently unemployed. Secondly, you're already in the planning industry. Thirdly, working at Jumei is a good choice.”
I laughed and asked, “If Harlan hadn't told you all this, would you have invited me to join Jumei? After all, you're only doing this because you feel bad, but there's really no need!”
“I admit that I feel bad about it, but have you ever wondered why Harlan told me all this? He doesn't want you to lose your job because of this incident either, and hopes that you can continue to stay in Suzhou, after all, that's a place where you've worked hard.”
I shook my head and said, “What you said is not accurate. Suzhou is not a place where I have worked hard, and all the memories of Suzhou are grey, because I was depressed and dispirited there...”
Renee didn't say anything else. She was obviously not good at lobbying, and I really didn't want to go back to Suzhou because I couldn't find the meaning of going back.
Joining Jumei was even less likely, because it would make my choice full of a sense of interest, as if I did it just to join Jumei, which would make me feel even more guilty towards Mark. In any case, I didn't want to live with such guilt.
I was willing to take Xuzhou, the city where my life began, as a haven in life, and live and work here happily from now on.
- Writer
