6
Su Qiong ran home. He leaned against the door, panting for breath.
That person…
Su Qiong shook his head, sighing with an unclear meaning, then walked to the window to look outside.
From his position, he could see that street from just now.
That black car had not left yet. The car’s owner was still standing in his original position. Su Qiong was not sure what he was doing, but he felt that he was looking in his direction, so he rushed to close the blinds.
His pants were ruined and he did not have another pair, so he could only sew them back up. Su Qiong pulled open a drawer that was on the verge of falling apart, searched around for a bit, and found a little box of sewing needles, but he was out of thread.
Su Qiong, after all, had to sew things up quite often. For example, he had sewn up his socks several times.
Su Qiong laughed at himself. Tomorrow, he would go and borrow some thread from his neighbor.
Days spent in poverty were like this, and quite lonely as well.
Su Qiong did not dare waste the warmth he got from running around just now, so he quickly took off his pants and outerwear and burrowed into his blanket, wrapping himself up tightly before drifting to sleep.
7
The next day, Su Qiong wore his torn-up pants and went to the neighboring unit to borrow some thread.
Auntie Li from next door had gotten divorced last year and brought her son, who was in elementary school, with her. Their lives were also difficult, but compared to Su Qiong, they were definitely much better off.
Su Qiong returned home and took off his pants, draping the cotton-padded quilt around his shoulder as he earnestly sewed up the tears in his pants.
Just as he had sewn them up about halfway, there was a knock on the door.
Su Qiong thought that Aunite Li had come back to grab the thread, so he hurriedly gathered up the remaining thread, wrapped himself up in the quilt, then jogged to the door and opened it a sliver, revealing a face behind it.
“Hello.” A deep, magnetic voice sounded near the crown of Su Qiong’s head. Su Qiong was startled, then lifted his head up to look.
The one standing behind the door was actually the man who had, in a moment of inattentiveness, hit him with his car yesterday.
“I’m sorry, I know it’s presumptuous of me to show up at your door like this.” The man placed his hand on the door frame and showed Su Qiong an apologetic smile, “Could I come in? It’ll only be a minute.”
Each of his movements carried an air of richness and value; he was a person of a completely different world from Su Qiong.
In other words, they were antonymous.
Su Qiong was dumbfounded. The man took his silence for tacit consent and stepped into the room.
“Wait…” Su Qiong took two steps back, his face suddenly flushing, “I didn’t let you come in.”
“My name is Lin Fu.” The man pulled out his name card and said with sincerity, “I am very sorry about what happened yesterday. If you feel pain anywhere, you can contact me at any time.”
Su Qiong hesitatingly took the name card, then emphasized: “I’m really okay…”
Lin Fu sighed, then motioned to the thick envelope in his hand: “I’ll leave this with you, then. Even though you don’t want compensation, I did hit you. I feel very sorry.”
“I don’t want money.” Su Qiong waved his hands fiercely.
Money was useless in his possession. Once it exceeded a certain threshold, money would leave in various, exotic ways: stolen, robbed, blown away in the wind, burnt away in a freak fire, fraudulently withdrawn from his banking card, lost in the collapse of the banking system…money would always find a way to flee.
Seeing that Su Qiong did not take it, Lin Fu looked around for a place to put the envelope. His hand hovered in the air for a moment. As it turns out, he could not find a place for the envelope.
Because Su Qiong was really living with only the bare walls around him.
He could not put it on the floor…
There’s no fucking table…
How about the chair?
Lin Fu struggled for a bit then saw the chair sitting in the corner and walked over to it.
“Ai, don’t sit.” Su Qiong thought he was going over to sit down and rushed to stop him.
Lin Fu’s brow twitched: “…”
Su Qiong also realized that he was being impolite and hurried to explain: “The chair only has three legs. If you don’t hold it up properly, it’ll topple over. Why don’t you sit on the bed?”
“…” Lin Fu was speechless. He turned his gaze and saw the half-sewn pants laying on the bed.
The pants…
Lin Fu slowly turned back and looked at Su Qiong carefully.
The entirety of Su Qiong’s thin frame was covered by the blanket, only revealing a pair of slender, bare legs. Evidently, he was not wearing pants.
Lin Fu: “…”
Other than the beggars by the side of the road, Lin Fu had never encountered anyone this broke in his life.
…
…Did I ruin his only pair of pants?
Eldest Master Lin, born with a silver spoon in his mouth and lacking almost all contact with the poor growing up, felt faint due to the sudden burst of guilt within his heart. Clutching his forehead, he sat on the bed.
The bedframe let out a faltering noise of protest.
Su Qiong quickly said: “The bed isn’t too sturdy, please sit a bit lighter. If it collapses, I’ll have to sleep on the floor…”
“…” Lin Fu’s body went stiff. He stared at Su Qiong with profound grief.
Su Qiong looked back at him, his gaze completely clear.
8
Lin Fu sighed heavily, then pulled out his phone and called his assistant: “Xiao Zhang, purchase some pants and bring them to where I just parked immediately.”
Xiao Zhang: “Understood, Director Lin.”
Tsk tsk tsk, Director Lin was having some fun.
“Not for me.” Lin Fu turned to face Su Qiong, “What size do you wear?”
Su Qiong shook his head innocently: “I don’t know.”
Lin Fu: “…How tall are you?”
Su Qiong replied nervously: “One meter seventy.”
Lin Fu spoke into the phone: “Did you hear? Go look, buy a few pairs.”
Xiao Zhang: “Understood, Director Lin.”
Tsk tsk tsk, Director Lin’s out here tearing someone’s pants to shreds.
…
Lin Fu hung up the phone.
“You bought me pants, so you can take the money back.” Su Qiong pointed to the envelope on the bed.
Lin Fu helplessly picked up the envelope. He pondered for a moment, then said lightly: “Do you have a job?”
“I do ah.” Su Qiong lowered his eyes embarrassedly, “They’re all odd jobs. I hand out flyers, wash dishes, work at construction sites.”
Lin Fu’s gaze lingered on Su Qiong’s face.
A palm-sized, clear face; as pretty and fair as a flower petal.
Lin Fu retracted his gaze, then said: “You could consider working for my company. Have you attended university?”
“I haven’t…” Su Qiong hurriedly waved his hands, “I won’t. If I work there too long, your company will go bankrupt.”
Lin Fu felt his temples hurt when he heard this: “How’s that possible.”
Su Qiong pursed his lips, then said firmly: “In any case, I won’t go.”
“…” On this day, Lin Fu was met with an unprecedented rejection.