Sweet slice-of-life love story: Wife, Let's love again
Chapter 225 - 221: The Other Shore

Chapter 225: Chapter 221: The Other Shore

Life was harmonious and content, better than any wellness regimen.

Early in the morning, the couple got out of bed sprightly and washed up. He Fang sizzled eggs while Qin Guanglin pulled the sheets and duvet covers off the bed, bundled them up, and tossed them into the washing machine on the balcony, adding detergent and starting the rumbling cycle.

"My mom has complained several times that we haven’t visited her in a while. Can you tell by looking at my hair?" Qin Guanglin looked at his reflection and tilted his head to inspect his wound.

Qin’s mom had brought it up a few times. Since Qin Guanglin’s injury hadn’t fully healed yet, he didn’t want her to worry unnecessarily, so he only showed his face briefly at home after working late, always staying just a short while before leaving, using his busy work as an excuse to decline taking He Fang with him for dinner.

Being there late at night briefly wasn’t a big deal, but staying for dinner would definitely blow his cover.

"You only come back home around eight or nine at night, so we would have to choose a Sunday."

"Alright, let’s see how this Sunday goes. If not, I’ll just go to the barbershop and have them add a piece to my hair; it’s growing too slowly... Ouch."

Unable to resist touching his wound, Qin Guanglin involuntarily gasped for air and, feeling helpless, left the bathroom to wrap his arms gently around He Fang’s waist from behind in the kitchen.

"I don’t want to drink milk anymore."

"What would you like to drink?"

"Hmm..." Qin Guanglin looked up, pondering, "How about buying a juicer?"

"If you want it, just get it."

"Alright, I’ll check it online later."

Pleased, Qin Guanglin pinched his conscience, then turned and squatted in a corner of the living room, scrutinizing the blooming flowers.

The six flower stems were arranged umbrella-like, with petals invert lance-shaped at the tip, and the fiery red perianth curled backwards, the entire flower resembling a blazing firework.

"This flower looks pretty, but it looks somewhat familiar. What did you say it was called again?" he asked He Fang while fetching his phone from the bedroom to take a photo.

"Lycoris radiata."

He Fang came out with a plate of food and slapped Qin Guanglin’s protruding behind as he was taking photos, telling him to "hurry up and eat."

"Oh... Is this how lycoris looks?" Sitting back on the sofa, Qin Guanglin opened the browser on his phone. "Which ’shi’ is it?"

"It also has another name."

"What is it?"

"Red spider lily, also known as lycoris radiata."

He Fang turned her head to look at the vividly blooming flowers. Despite their fiery red allure, they didn’t have the enchanting quality she saw the last time.

Like fire, like blood, this wasn’t the same flower as before.

For some reason, she always felt something peculiar about this flower, had looked up a lot of information, and even took the time to visit the outskirts of Luo City to see the spot where the lycoris batch was initially dug up, confirming it was blooming normally before she could breathe a sigh of relief.

The peculiarity was with the previous flower; the current one was completely normal.

"Red... spider lily?" Qin Guanglin paused while typing, looked up at He Fang, then at the flower again, "Isn’t this the one from the legend..."

"Legends are legends, flowers are flowers; doesn’t it look nice?"

"It’s kind of creepy."

"That’s just your mind playing tricks." He Fang took a bite of her fried egg, chewing thoughtfully with a mysterious smile on her face. "It’s just an ordinary flower."

Qin Guanglin swiped a few times on his phone screen and then suggested, "The flower doesn’t see the leaves and the leaves don’t see the flower; the symbolism isn’t good either, should we throw it away?"

"Would you dare?!"

"...Fine, let’s keep it then."

"You call yourself non-superstitious, yet you want to throw away a mere flower." He Fang rolled her eyes at him. "There’s a whole bunch of them in the countryside; are you planning on digging those up too?"

"You’re being argumentative. What do the suburbs have to do with me? It’s not like I’m keeping them at home."

"So you want to keep arguing with me?"

"No more arguing, no more. Let’s keep it; it looks nice." Qin Guanglin weakly bit into his fried egg.

Maybe it was just a novelist’s perverse pleasure... to keep such odd things.

He Fang wrinkled her nose at him and just smiled without saying anything more.

She had also thought about throwing it away, but the moment she saw the flower’s meaning, she decided to keep it forever.

Endless longing, hopeless love, a letter from heaven.

For others, these might symbolize the worst, but for her, it represented a beam of light in her life—

First came extreme longing and despair, then would come the letter from heaven.

She felt as though she was already in heaven.

...

Great talents are common, but great patrons are rare.

The patron exists, and yet the great talent might not even know which corner to hide in.

This is reality.

Finding a capable, trustworthy partner is as difficult as encountering a sincere love.

Chen Rui knew this very well.

With the almost highest benefits in the industry, they had raised a bunch of ingrates, and the company suffered a major blow instantly.

One month — while working day and night to rush projects, they were also recruiting staff, which left him completely drained, his already-thin frame looking even leaner.

"Working overtime every day until late, your girlfriend doesn’t mind?"

At the end of the month, having finished summarizing the work, Chen Rui and Qin Guanglin were finally able to leave work before 8 PM for once. They waited for the elevator, joking around as Chen Rui asked.

"No, women, why should they meddle so much? I just need to speak up and she’ll behave..." Qin Guanglin was boasting when he suddenly paused.

It seemed like something Xiao Yu would say, and they could see right through it each time.

"Oh～ I see." Chen Rui patted his shoulder with a knowing look and stepped into the elevator first.

"Work is just like that." Qin Guanglin followed him into the elevator and shrugged, "What would you know? You don’t even have a girlfriend."

"I don’t have one now, but that doesn’t mean I never had one."

"Sounds like there’s a story."

"More like an ’accident,’ really." Chen Rui laughed nonchalantly, "Still, anime is more appealing."

"I’ll never understand you otakus."

The two continued their conversation and went downstairs to get into Chen Rui’s car. It started up and turned towards South Fly Road.

With calming music playing, Qin Guanglin leaned back in the seat and looked out the window at the passing streets, his desire to buy a car growing stronger.

During the day, Chen Rui had withdrawn a bag of cash to distribute this month’s bonuses and commissions to his coworkers. Normally, the previous month’s salaries would be transferred mid-month, but it seemed he wanted to motivate the team by handing out this month’s pay in cash early, likely due to the hard work everyone had put in.

But he hadn’t given any to Qin Guanglin.

Qin Guanglin wasn’t in a hurry, acting as if it were no big deal. After all, they couldn’t have simply forgotten him, and the more this happened, the more he felt his paycheck this time was not ordinary.

"Remember what I asked you initially?" Chen Rui spoke while driving.

"What?"

"What plans and thoughts you have about your future work—at the time, you said you were new and didn’t understand much, what about now?"

"Well," Qin Guanglin thought for a bit and then smiled, "My idea is to make money; my plan is to make a lot of it."

As long as there was money to be made, what does it matter what he was drawing?

Compared to Teacher He, his artistic interests had to take a backseat.

"..."

Chen Rui gripped the steering wheel and was silent for a moment before nodding, "That’s ambitious."

He paused, then chuckled lightly, "You will make a lot of money."

"Oh?"

"You have the knack for making money."

"Everyone has skills, but opportunities are needed too. How does that saying go again? Having the Dragon Slaying Skill but no dragons to slay, that would be a waste, right?" Qin Guanglin reclined in his seat.

"Opportunity is earned with skill. Could Sun Wen replace you in your position? Would he manage?"

"That’s true."

"How is he doing now?" Chen Rui asked.

"Busier than us, lives right in the office now... which is barely an office, really."

Chen Rui shook his head and sighed, "Why bother."

"It’s in the past." Qin Guanglin didn’t want to dwell on this matter and changed the topic as he observed the car’s interior, "How much did you pay for this car?"

"Thinking of buying one?"

"I’ve been planning on it."

"I bought the whole package for around two hundred thousand, should be a bit lower by now."

"That’s too expensive, can’t afford it."

"You’ll be able to afford it soon." Chen Rui parked the car at the intersection of South Fly Road, reached into the back seat and pulled out a bag, smiling, "Didn’t give it to you during the day, didn’t want others to be jealous, though it was only us who did overtime... here."

"That’s a lot." Qin Guanglin opened it to take a look—five stacks of cash, each stack apparently ten thousand.

Fifty thousand, much more than he had anticipated.

"As you deserve." Chen Rui waved indifferently, "Take it home and show your girlfriend, so she doesn’t think you’re being exploited by me all the time."

The money handed out today could have been used to hire more people, but after experiencing what happened with Sun Wen, Chen Rui preferred to distribute it among the remaining staff.

Better to share the money with his own people than hire new staff; retaining them was crucial, and hiring could wait.

"Overtime pay and all that is included, it’ll decrease when we’re less busy, don’t complain then about the money being less." Chen Rui joked.

"The company will grow. When will the boss make it big, so I can join the six-figure club?"

"It will happen."

Chen Rui sighed. He had initially planned to expand the company around the New Year, but now it had to be pushed back.

"Alright, I’ll wait for it."

"It’s us."