Sweet slice-of-life love story: Wife, Let's love again
Chapter 235 - 231: Isn’t it Tragic?

Chapter 235: Chapter 231: Isn’t it Tragic?

Buying a house is a major life event.

Such a big decision, and Qin Guanglin turned his head to discuss it with He Fang.

With such seriousness, it seemed like he could buy it right away—He Fang rebuked him over the phone, left him with a "we’ll talk about it later," not wanting to bother with these trivial matters.

Not to mention being broke now, even with money, there were still addresses to choose, types of units, floors...a whole lot of details to figure out, it was too early to talk about this now.

After chatting until midnight and hanging up the video call, Qin Guanglin lay in bed tossing and turning, unable to sleep.

Having lived together for a long time, he indeed felt a bit uncomfortable sleeping alone.

These days would continue for another ten or so days... it would be tough.

The moonlight waned, and the stars gradually faded.

In the darkness, he groped his way to sit up, turned on the light, threw on a shirt, sat at his desk, and took out the proposal that Chen Rui had given him during the day to carefully contemplate.

Focusing on work was never a mistake, whether it was for making money or Chen Rui’s kindness, both were worth putting extra thought into.

Halfway through the thick stack of materials, Qin Guanglin yawned, looked at the time—it was already past three in the morning—put down his pen and paper, turned off the light, and went back to bed, hugging his blanket and slowly drifting off to sleep.

The next day, after a busy morning at the company, when work was almost done by the afternoon, Chen Rui took everyone out for a meal, Qin Guanglin had already told Qin’s Mom to prepare his dinner, he quickly called Qin’s Mom and canceled dinner, leaving her to eat alone.

They arrived at the restaurant and settled down, Chen Rui looking at the menu casually asked, "Does anyone have any dietary restrictions?"

"No, none at all."

"Order whatever, just don’t eat what you don’t like."

"Yes, yes."

"Let’s each pick two dishes. We don’t get together often, so let’s fill our stomachs today," said Chen Rui with a smile, marking the menu a couple of times, then passed it to Qin Guanglin beside him.

"Just these two... here."

The menu was passed around, and Qin Guanglin’s gaze fell on the teacup in front of him, slightly lost in thought.

He used to have dietary restrictions too.

But after living with He Fang for a long time and eating the dishes He Fang cooked, his preferences hadn’t changed, but he slowly began to accept those dishes he once disliked.

"What are you thinking about?" Chen Rui poured himself a cup of tea, took a couple of sips, and noticed Qin Guanglin was distracted.

"Nothing."

Qin Guanglin shook his head.

Unknowingly, life had changed so much, the visible and invisible, all subtly transforming.

Fortunately, they were pleasant changes.

Soon, the dishes arrived one after another. Chen Rui had brought two bottles of expensive Mao-tai, not urging anyone, those who wanted to drink alcohol did, and those who preferred juice drank that instead; he stood up and said a few words of toast, without lingering, everyone raised their glasses and drank.

The end-of-year dinner was meant to eat well and drink well, happiness being the priority, without too much pretense. The highlight for everyone was getting Chen Rui drunk, taking turns toasting him.

Dinner concluded.

Besides Qin Guanglin and two other colleagues who did not drink at all, the rest were slightly tipsy, their faces flushed with drunkenness as they flattered Chen Rui.

No matter how busy or tiring work was, the money in your pocket was the most tangible.

Especially for those old employees who had been with Chen Rui since the beginning of the company, watching the company progressively reach today, the grand vision Chen Rui once outlined was gradually becoming a reality, they were happy but also a bit nostalgic.

Thankfully, they had persevered.

No one knew that the current outcome had been triggered by a tiny butterfly—even He Fang himself hadn’t realized it. If the usual path had been followed, after Sun Wen had left, Chen Rui would have been disheartened, and the company’s business would have plummeted. This would have led to a significant cut in salaries and, eventually, everyone would have lost interest in their work. Those who wanted to leave would leave, and those who liked to idle would idle.

The company barely lasted a year before dissolving.

But now.

Starting from the message Sun Wen sent to Qin Guanglin, "Lin, are you looking for a job now?", everything had changed.

Fate was like a huge net, a gentle pull could set the whole thing into motion.

...

When He Fang was with him, there was a big difference between having holidays and not. But when Qin Guanglin was alone, it hardly mattered whether it was a holiday or not.

Every day, he either stayed holed up in his studio or went to He Fang’s place to work on that public account on his computer. Not sure if he lacked the talent for writing articles, after Sun Wen had spoken, Qin Guanglin had started an account and had since posted more than a dozen pieces on sketching insights, yet the views had never exceeded double digits.

Qin Guanglin figured maybe he’d used up all his luck for the year, but he didn’t get discouraged. With nothing else to do, he simply drew some simple big-head cartoons, based on the facial features of him and He Fang. A few poses and a couple of lines of dialogue later, a four-panel comic was completed and uploaded to that public account.

It didn’t matter if anyone saw it; it was for himself, a memory—when he had accumulated enough, he could ’casually’ let He Fang discover them, as a little surprise.

Qin’s Mom entered the studio and watched his drawing for a while. "Hey, this is quite interesting."

She pointed a finger, "Add me too!"

...

Qin Guanglin scratched his head, looked back at Qin’s Mom, and silently drew a big-headed cute character on the other side, "How about this?"

"That’s great, that’s great!" Qin’s Mom laughed heartily, not all bad in her artistry after all. She took a closer look, then turned and walked out of the studio, "Hurry up and finish what you’re doing, and come with me to buy New Year’s goods."

"Okay."

Qin Guanglin replied and looked at his drawing board, lost in thought.

Maybe... he could add his in-laws too?

After they got married, he could even add children; there would be no end to how many he could draw—but he would have to discuss it with He Fang before casually posting people online.

Keeping this in mind, he didn’t linger in the studio any longer. He got dressed, putting on the scarf He Fang had chosen for him and a hat, and fully bundled up, followed Qin’s Mom out to shop for New Year’s goods.

With the Spring Festival approaching day by day, Little Fatty roamed around burning fireworks. When he accidentally got his entire body splattered while trying to light a pile, he was severely punished and stripped of his fireworks privileges, left only to run around the streets with a squeaky chicken.

"Ga—ah—!"

The torturous noise made Qin Guanglin frown, "Little Fatty, come here."

"What’s up, Brother Lin?"

Little Fatty’s chubby face was red with cold, and he panted white breaths as he moved closer, still squeezing the poor chicken in his hand.

"Does this chicken sound distressed?"

"Ga—ah!—Sounds pretty good to me."

Qin Guanglin crouched down and spoke mysteriously, "I know a kid who also used to squeeze it all the time, but do you know what happened?"

"What happened?" The look on Little Fatty’s face showed a foreboding feeling.

"Well, one night, the chicken suddenly came to life, crawled into his quilt, and pecked at his bits, yikes—it looked painful." Qin Guanglin patted Little Fatty’s shoulder, looking at him sympathetically and shaking his head.

"You better cover yourself up well tonight, don’t let it crawl inside."

...

Little Fatty felt a chilly sensation in a certain area, his eyes widened as he looked at the squeaky chicken in his hand, instinctively wanting to squeeze it but somehow, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

Too frightening.