The driver's voice brought back Xu Nanxing's thoughts, and she apologized to the driver,
"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you calling me. Just park in front."
She was very close to her destination. She paid to get off the car and walked. She saw the signboard of Chaoshan Seafood Casserole in the distance and followed the smoke of fireworks hitting her face.
Although it was late at night, the small shop was still crowded with diners, bustling and lively. It was an ordinary restaurant, not one of those extravagant occasions. The dress and skirt she was wearing were a little too conspicuous. Xu Nanxing zipped up her coat and entered the door.
The proprietress obviously still had an impression of her. Seeing her standing tall and graceful in front of the counter, she greeted her with a hearty smile,
"Beauty, I haven't been here for a long time. Are you still the same?"
Xu Nanxing responded to her with a smile,
"same as usual."
After saying that, he stood aside to avoid the comings and goings of the kitchen.
It would take a while for the meal to be ready. Xu Nanxing took out his phone and looked at it. There was a new message on the lock screen.
Click in and take a look. It's from Lin Qingying.
Lin Qingying: [Nan Xing, Sister Lili said you went home? What’s wrong with you? 】
Xu Nanxing knew that she was just concerned, so he thought for a few seconds and replied.
After a few seconds, another message came over there.
Lin Qingying: [Are you... okay? 】
Xu Nanxing sighed. Even the people around her felt that something must have happened when she was taken away by Gu Huaizhi, let alone others.
Too lazy to explain, he hastily replied that it was okay and ended the conversation.
Looking around, the small shop was busy with people coming and going, and the proprietress was so busy that her feet never touched the floor.
After waiting for a while, the landlady finally squeezed out of the back kitchen, sweating profusely.
"Sorry for keeping you waiting for so long, your meal."
Someone in the kitchen behind her called out to the boss lady again. She looked at another box of things in her hand with embarrassment and shouted to the kitchen,
"The guest is waiting across the street. I'll go over and see him off. I'll be right back."
At this time, someone else came to order food. The proprietress greeted them, and she was so anxious that she called the people in the kitchen to come out and help.
Xu Nanxing thought that he would have to cross the street to take a taxi anyway, so he said to her,
"If you don't mind, please help me take him there. I happen to be going to take a taxi from the other side."
The landlady hesitated for a moment, then glanced at the long queue at the cashier, and said apologetically,
"Sorry to trouble you, the guest's car is across the road, and the license plate number is Beijing A..."
Xu Nanxing smiled and said it was okay, then picked up the lunch box and walked out the door.
Looking in the distance, there was indeed a black car parked opposite with double flashes. She walked around to the side of the road fence, walked along the sidewalk, and walked towards the car.
After checking the license plate number, she turned to the side of the cab and knocked on the window.
The car window was lowered and Xu Nanxing was stunned for a moment.
The person in the car obviously didn't expect it to be her, and was obviously stunned for a moment, but then his expression remained normal.
"Miss Xu, what a coincidence."
Xu Nanxing nodded without answering him. He handed him what he was holding and nodded at the Chaoshan seafood casserole across the road.
"I also went to buy something, so I happened to help bring it over on the way."
Xu Zhinian understood and took it.
He wanted to say something, but the words rolled around his mouth and he swallowed them back. His boss's affairs were not something he could discuss at will, so he simply kept silent.
His expression changed and he kept secretive, but in Xu Nanxing's eyes, he had a different meaning.
Indeed, those things that happened in the past are indeed embarrassing to talk about. It's no wonder that Xu Zhinian looks at him like that.
Without staying any longer, she said goodbye.
Xu Zhinian watched her walk to the back of the car and waved for a taxi, thinking whether to give her a ride or not.
The thoughts of his boss have become more and more unpredictable in the past year. He clearly avoids the name Xu Nanxing, but at tonight's banquet, he stepped in to help.
But judging from Xu Nanxing's appearance just now, it is estimated that the two of them broke up on bad terms tonight.
There was rumble of thunder in the distance, and the radio in the car broadcast a real-time report that there would be thunderstorms tonight. Xu Zhinian glanced at the back of the car. Xu Nanxing was still standing alone on the side of the road. He shifted into reverse and backed up the car in front of her.
"Miss Xu, it's going to rain. I'll take you back."
"No."
Xu Nanxing smiled and waved his hand, "I'll take a taxi back. You should go back quickly. The porridge will not taste good after a while when it gets cold."
"If we could get a taxi, we wouldn't have to say these words, right?"
Xu Zhinian unlocked the door and motioned Xu Nanxing to get in the car.
Scattered raindrops were already falling from the sky. Xu Nanxing was not a hypocritical person, so he opened the door and got in the car without saying anything more.
"Thanks."
After thanking her politely, she turned her head towards the window and ignored Xu Zhinian's probing eyes.
Nanhua Road is very close to Xu Nanxing's home, and it takes less than twenty minutes to drive there.
After getting out of the driveway and saying goodbye, Xu Nanxing stood on the roadside and watched Xu Zhinian's car drive away before running quickly towards home.
After walking in panting, her sister Xu Silan came out of the room in a wheelchair after hearing the sound. Seeing that she was in a mess, she said angrily,
"Go take a shower quickly and change your wet clothes. Don't catch a cold."
Xu Nanxing put the porridge in his hand on the dining table, then went to the kitchen to get a bowl and spoon. He first filled a bowl for his sister, then took a change of clothes and entered the bathroom.
The steaming heat also took away the fatigue.
While scrubbing his hands habitually, Gu Huaizhi's face still flashed across his mind involuntarily. If it hadn't been for a single thought, they might not have ended up like this today.
At least he won't be hated so much.
Thousands of thoughts, gradually drifting back to the year when we first met.
That year she had just been admitted to Jingzhou University and finally returned to Jingzhou from Xiacheng.
The word "finally" was used because she did not grow up in Jingzhou.
His father, Xu Jianguo, is a native of Jingzhou. He is a sports car driver and travels between Jingzhou and Xiacheng all year round. An accident occurred while driving a sports car, and her mother Chen Xue'e was rescued.
Single men and women who have the grace to save their lives have different feelings when they come and go.
After a year apart, the two couldn't bear to miss each other. Chen Xue'e simply quit her job and left home to come to Jingzhou to live with Xu Jianguo. Although the wedding was not held, the formal procedures were registered with the Civil Affairs Bureau.
Within a year, they had their sister Xu Silan, Xu Jianguo continued to drive sports cars, and Chen Xue'e applied for a job as a teacher in a private school. Although the family of three was not rich, they lived a happy life.
The accident happened in the summer of the year she was born.
The cargo terminal gave Xu Jianguo a job, and he decided to go to Xiacheng. At that time, Chen Xue'e was pregnant with Xu Nanxing, and she was already very old. Xu Jianguo originally thought of pushing the job away. But when I thought about the considerable freight charges mentioned by the cargo terminal, I gritted my teeth and agreed.
Xu Songlan was on summer vacation, and she asked Xu Jianguo to say that she wanted to visit her grandmother's house in Xiacheng. Xu Jianguo thought that he would be back as soon as the goods were delivered, which would only take two or three days, so he simply took her there with him.
Originally, Chen Xue'e wanted to go with her, but she was afraid that Xu Nanxing in her belly would activate at any time, so she stayed at home alone.
It just so happened that as soon as the father and daughter arrived in Xiacheng, they received a call from their neighbor. Chen Xue'e had a stomachache and was sent to the hospital.
Xu Jianguo was so anxious that he asked his neighbors to help take care of Chen Xue'e first, then unloaded the goods in the car and rushed to Jingzhou. After driving for two days in a row, he didn't even take a nap, and he was worried about Chen Xue'e. Although he knew that it was not safe to drive at night, Xu Jianguo still drove the car very fast, eager to return to Jingzhou immediately.
I originally wanted to welcome the new life in my family, but I didn't expect that things in this world are so unpredictable.
Xu Nanxing didn't know how the accident happened, but when she grew up, she learned from her grandmother that her father Xu Jianguo's car collided with another car on the highway that night, and a serious accident occurred.
The father died on the spot, and the sister was seriously injured and sent to the hospital. After rescue, she was told that her legs needed to be amputated.
That night, Xu Nanxing was born.
No one would have thought that the first time a family of four would get together would be in a hospital. No one could have imagined that the new life of this family would be accompanied by the death of a life.
Xu Nanxing never understood why other people could grow up next to their mothers, but she could only live with her grandma at her uncle's house.
Only every winter and summer vacation would I follow my grandmother back to Jingzhou to visit my mother and sister.
She didn't understand when she was a child, thinking that her mother was working too hard to take care of her disabled sister and could no longer take care of her when she was young. Only when she grew up did she see some clues in her mother's cold expression, that she was an unpopular child.
It wasn't until she was admitted to college and returned to Jingzhou that she realized through the increasingly frequent interactions and daily conversations that her mother had deliberately turned all the tragedies in the family into resentment against her.
If she hadn't suddenly started in advance, my father would not have rushed to catch the night train back to Jingzhou, and the accident would not have happened, and my father's life and sister's legs would not have been lost.
Only then did Xu Nanxing understand why she was named Nanxing.
Nanxing, also known as Aracenia, has a bitter taste and is poisonous when eaten.
Her longing for love and low self-esteem about her family background made her feel lonely, but she never resented her mother and sister. Instead, she cherished this precious family relationship.
During the years when she lived with her grandmother, although her uncle's family treated her as their own child, they were never biased. They knew that learning piano was an expensive professional subject, but they did not reject her. Grandma was even more frugal and spent most of her retirement salary on her studies until she was admitted to Beijing University and received a scholarship.
Despite this, during those years in Xiacheng, she still lived cautiously and cautiously, fearing that she would cause discord between her uncle and aunt.
Fortunately, my aunt was a hard-spoken person with a soft heart. She sometimes said unpleasant things, but she never treated her harshly.
However, she still misses her home in Jingzhou.
So even though her mother was very cold towards her, she still chose Jingzhou when she applied for the college entrance examination. She even felt that being able to go home after school every week to see her mother and sister, and sit together as a family to have a home-cooked meal, was the best life she had imagined.
Gradually, her mother was no longer so indifferent to her, and would occasionally ask her how her life was at school and whether she needed money.
Blood and family ties cannot be given up after all.
Xu Nanxing carefully guarded this hard-won family relationship, but never thought that even this was a luxury.
