Sweet slice-of-life love story: Wife, Let's love again
Chapter 243 - 239: Unbearably Vulgar

Chapter 243: Chapter 239: Unbearably Vulgar

After working for a week following the Spring Festival, Qin Guanglin took He Fang to the hospital for a check-up on Sunday.

They waited in line all morning and then waited for results in the afternoon. When the final results came out, Qin Guanglin finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Everything was normal.

The same went for the psychiatric department.

"Maybe we should see a professional psychologist..."

"I advise you to be normal. We haven’t gone far, so why don’t you go back and get checked yourself?"

"I’ve always been very normal," Qin Guanglin touched his nose and felt he had been a bit too nervous; he dismissed the idea straightforwardly.

"I told you were just wasting money. Now do you believe it? Insisting on getting this and that checked... Ow, drawing blood really hurt, and it still hurts now."

"Isn’t that an exaggeration?"

"They took out so much of my blood—I need to replenish. Take me out to eat."

"Alright, we’ll eat out, watch a movie, go shopping, and have a milk tea."

With the heavy stone lifted from his heart, Qin Guanglin finally relaxed and drove He Fang towards Shengtian Square.

The days rolled by, just as they had before.

He Fang, who had taken another week off at home, also started to work, marking the official end of the Spring Festival and winter break.

Having weathered the coldest days, January ushered in a period of thaw; everything came back to life. The temperature climbed day by day, the snow slowly melted, and the world blossomed into prosperity.

One month later.

After dropping He Fang off at school and driving solo to work, Qin Guanglin arrived at the company only to see an unexpected person.

Yu Le.

Not having seen him for half a year, his appearance had not changed much—just shorter hair and still wearing his thick black-framed glasses. He sat at his old seat, head down, sorting out documents.

Qin Guanglin paused for a brief moment, his gaze shifting sideways. He didn’t see any other familiar faces that had left with Yu Le; it was just him. Chen Rui’s seat was still empty, not yet at work. After pondering a bit, Qin Guanglin took his seat and began to prepare for his work.

Since he had come back, it must have been with Chen Rui’s consent. Even though Qin Guanglin didn’t know the reason, it wasn’t really his concern.

"Brother Lin..."

Yu Le hesitated after seeing Qin Guanglin, approaching with a slightly awkward expression to say hello.

"You’re back?"

"Yeah, I’m back."

"Do well," Qin Guanglin nodded and didn’t say much else.

If he were in their shoes, someone who left in that manner wouldn’t have had a chance to return. But the company wasn’t his, and he was just another employee here; no need to dwell on it.

As long as the money was earned, even if Chen Rui took everyone back, it was none of his business.

After greeting Qin Guanglin and seeing his indifferent attitude, Yu Le relaxed a little and felt somewhat ashamed. He didn’t further disturb Qin Guanglin at work and turned around to get back to his tasks.

"Wait..." Qin Guanglin suddenly spoke up. "That... How’s Sun Wen doing?"

Contacts between adults can sometimes be very indifferent. Unless working together, it’s common for friends not to contact each other for months on end, and some only see each other at the beginning and end of each year—even with chat apps, greetings are only exchanged occasionally, often less frequently than with strangers.

Qin Guanglin hadn’t seen Sun Wen since the holidays and had put it out of his mind. Now seeing Yu Le return, it dawned on him that perhaps something had happened to Sun Wen.

"Brother Wen..." Yu Le hesitated, looked around, and then whispered, "It seems like he got screwed over... I’m not very clear on the details, the studio just disbanded..."

Everyone was happy when the money was flowing in, but as the performance declined day by day, the atmosphere grew oppressive. Then out of nowhere, Sun Wen announced the dissolution.

Yu Le was bewildered, not understanding the inside story, and could only relay rumors he heard in the studio to Qin Guanglin.

After chatting briefly, Yu Le returned to his spot, and Qin Guanglin busily resumed his work. After lunch, Chen Rui called him into the office.

"Surprised to see Yu Le?"

"A little," Qin Guanglin spoke truthfully. "I didn’t expect you’d let him come back."

The return itself wasn’t a big deal, but from the perspective of other colleagues, it seemed somewhat unfair.

Everyone had worked hard for months because of issues caused by those who abruptly left. Now that the situation had finally stabilized, they were allowed back in?

Even if nothing was said openly, there was bound to be some grumbling behind closed doors.

"Yeah... I thought so," Chen Rui sighed. "Do you know why?"

"Could it be..."

Qin Guanglin’s heart stirred, and he speculated, "That incident where Sun Wen’s studio got sabotaged, did you have Yu Le...?"

"..."

Chen Rui silently gestured with his hands, "Don’t be so conspiracy-minded. I did want to mess with him, but I’ve been too busy stabilizing the company and haven’t had the chance to act yet. He collapsed on his own—you think I had time to think about anything else these past few months?"

"True that," Qin Guanglin thought about it and it really was the case; he had been so busy that he barely had time to steady his own affairs, let alone go out of his way to mess with others.

Eliminating this possibility, he genuinely couldn’t guess why Yu Le came back and simply asked directly, "Then why was it?"

"Last year, on October 7th, the day before Sun Wen left, Yu Le came to see me." Chen Rui paused, then continued, "He didn’t mention anything specific, just insisted on getting the address near my home and then ran over in the pouring rain to treat me to a meal—that day’s downpour was severe, many roads were flooded. The water near my place was knee-deep. At the time, I was puzzled about what this kid’s problem was, wading through the water, all drenched, rushing over—"

Qin Guanglin recalled the situation that day and indeed it was a torrential downpour. He had been worried that the heavy rain would continue to the next day and make it impossible to go to work, but it stopped that evening. Though it didn’t rain heavily the next day, the previous day’s flood caused traffic to remain disrupted, and as a result, he was late.

It was also that night when Sun Wen called to tell him about his decision to leave.

"—He waited for me at the Pizza Hut nearby, kept apologizing profusely, his eyes red and nearly crying. I had a bad feeling right away, then he told me about Sun Wen’s plan to take them all and leave... Damn, by the time he told me, it was too late, work was the next day, and it was still pouring rain. Telling me this news was as good as not telling me at all. I couldn’t do anything but stay up all night, waiting for the next day to see who would remain."

"Later, I just sat in the office, watching you all... no, watching them come in one by one for work. In the end, only six of us, including myself, remained. My heart was as cold as ice. You remember being late, right? You had me thinking you’d left with that kid Sun Wen. When you showed up at the company with an umbrella, that feeling—"

Chen Rui patted Qin Guanglin’s shoulder and let out a deep sigh, "I’m getting off track. Back to that day, Yu Le said he wanted to stay at the company, wanted to continue learning to draw from you. He knew what Sun Wen did was wrong, but he couldn’t refuse Sun Wen’s request to leave... Anyway, he spoke for quite a while, and I wasn’t really in the mood to listen. That’s pretty much it."

"So... you brought him back because of that day?" Qin Guanglin asked.

"Partially, yes."

"And the other part?"

"Based on his passion for comics," Chen Rui smiled, "I could tell, he’s the same type as me."

"Not me?" Qin Guanglin didn’t understand his definition of ’the same type,’ just feeling like this guy’s middle-schooler soul seemed ready to flare up again, "What do you mean by ’the same type’?"

"Of course, not you. Comics are great to some people, something they’re willing to stake everything on, like me; others see it as just a job, as long as it makes money—that’s you."

"Uh... true, you’re impressive, keep at it. I’ll just make sure I earn the money—I’m just an ordinary guy, you go ahead and try hard."

"Haha, ordinary it is, but our goal is the same, we both want to create popular works... All this to say, I want you to teach Yu Le more. Even though he’s made some past mistakes, he’s not the same as Sun Wen. I think he deserves a chance to make amends."

"Since you’ve said that, of course, I can’t refuse... How about a little raise for the training fee?"

"..."

...

After picking He Fang up from work and returning home, Qin Guanglin sat on the couch, watching He Fang chop vegetables in the kitchen while munching on an apple himself.

"I have a package downstairs, almost forgot about it. Help me get it, will you?"

"Oh."

"My phone is on the table, check it for the pick-up code."

Qin Guanglin pocketed her phone and hurried down to retrieve the package, then rushed back up, "You bought a novel again?"

The package was squarely shaped, immediately recognizable as a book without even opening it.

"Do I need to buy them? I sell these," He Fang turned back to glance at him, saying with a smile.

"What?"

Qin Guanglin was momentarily taken aback, then excitedly tore open the parcel, "You released another novel... The second volume, wow, you’re really making it big as an author now. How much are you going to earn from this?"

"Is money all you can think about? Can’t you think of anything else?"

"Uh..."

Unable to come up with anything else, Qin Guanglin simply flipped open the book and started reading.

"This novel is just about two childhood sweethearts, right?"

"Yeah, it’s the story of two childhood sweethearts... back then, many people thought I couldn’t write a long story, saying love is such a simple thing, how much can there be to write about—haha, and look how much I’ve written now."

Proud, He Fang shook her head and took another glance at Qin Guanglin.

He was one of those who had said the same thing at the beginning.

Love isn’t always dramatic and fiery; it’s mostly just the quiet passing of days, and little trivial matters can silently fill book after book, three books, four books.

"Impressive," Qin Guanglin praised absentmindedly, "Don’t forget to sign it for me after dinner, this book’s a gift to me now."

"You’re not planning to sell it once I become famous, are you? I feel like you’re getting more and more obsessed with money."

"How could that be, that’s nonsense. When have I been obsessed with money?" Qin Guanglin retorted.

Even though he liked making money, money wasn’t his ultimate goal but merely a tool. Selling the book would be missing the point.

He wasn’t mundane; he too had something he was willing to stake everything on, just that it wasn’t comics, and definitely not money.