Please Be More Serious Chapter 13

Chapter 13
Chapter 13: Making a girl cry...   Zhengqing drove Yin Ting home. It was the second time he had taken her home. It had been that day when Qin Yufei wanted Yin Ting to help out with Gu Yingjie. Zhengqing and Yingjie had been in a meeting, but while the formal meeting was done, Zhengqing and Yingjie still had much to discuss so they had stayed in the conference room to chat. Yin Ting passed by, and invited them out to dinner. That sort of behaviour was her style, which was, being tightly hugged by the god of thoughtlessness. Nothing makes any sense but behaving as if it did. Thinking of that day, Zhenqing remembered that Yufei told him, when she said she hoped that he didn’t misunderstand that Yin Ting liked him. He had thought that Yin Ting was interested in Yingjie, but now Yufei was in love with Yingjie. Zhengqing thought of it more, and decided to carefully probe, and asked Yin Ting, ‘What do you think of Gu Yingjie?’ ‘He is very nice,’ she replied on unabashedly, ‘in my mind he’s like a prince on a white horse.’ ‘…’ Zhengqing did not speak. It seemed like the situation is really bad. (Zuben: Your situational awareness is bad) Did Yin Ting really like Gu Yingjie? But Yingjie’s heart belonged to someone else now. If Yin Ting knew, would she be sad? Would it get awkward between her and Yufei? Zhengqing remained silent in his thoughts, Yin Ting continued, ‘I wanted to meet up with Gu Yingjie, but wasn’t able to. He is still a gentleman. Yufei tried to help me, but their tempers flared, it was very confusing and awkward. I was also very embarrassed.’ This fool, he thought. Others are getting happy in their love, you’re being vigorously embarrassed. Zhengqing felt like he was driven beyond the limits of forebearance. His head heated up and he found himself blurting out, ‘Yufei told me she was in love with Gu Yingjie.’ ‘What?’ Yin Ting shouted, her eyes wide in surprise. Zhengqing suddenly regretted his rashness. But words said could not be returned, and now must be absorbed into the car, or maybe a car accident would erase things? ‘Yufie and Yingjie in love?’ Yin Ting asked again, her pitch was high and her tone was surprised. ‘Hmm,’ Zhengqing replied quietly, his eyes fixed to the road. He drove seriously. He really was bad at a chatting. ‘They are actually dating?’ She repeated, he could not decide whether she was talking to him or herself. ‘Haha! Great!’ she said suddenly Zhengqing did a double-take. He was confused. ‘Who won?’ Her tone was sweet, but Zhengqing imagined that Yin Ting would have an aggrieved expression on her face. He sighed and turned to her, but it really was not as he imagined. Her eyes were round with excited curiosity. He’d never noticed she had such beautiful eyes, ah. (Zuben: cue violins!) He quickly stopped himself, now was not the time to be admiring her looks. ‘What?’ he asked foolishly. He had forgotten her question. ‘Who chased who? How did they get caught? Who overtook whom?’ she thought he did not understand the slang she was using. (Zuben: I do not understand the slang you are using.) ‘I don’t know,’ he replied, relaxing. He did not know, luckily. ‘You really don’t know?’ (Zuben: How is he expected to know? Is he Yufei’s bosom buddy?) ‘No,’ Zhengqing usually minded his own business. He hadn’t asked Yufei, it was Yufei spilled the beans, therefore he did no

t know the details of their coming together. ‘Take means pursue, everyone knows that.’ She said. He almost lost control of the car. Where they talking at cross purposes here? This thoughtless god could you let go of Miss Yin Ting, a little looser would be good. So they could have a smooth conversation between them, ok? Zhengqing took a deep breath and called upon his patience, ‘I mean I did not know who ‘took’ who,’ ‘…I’m guessing it would have been Yufei,’ ‘…’ Zhengqing gave her a look then turned back to the road. Shouldn’t her expression be anger? Instead it was happy smiles. In the corner of his eye, he could see Yin Ting take out her mobile, and dial. ‘What is it?’ he did not really want to gossip, but eventually did not hold back. ‘I wanted to talk to Yufei but it’s the weekend so they must be out. I don’t want to bother them.’ She really didn’t look angry, ah. But he asked, ‘Are you okay?’ ‘Why do you ask?’ she asked puzzled. She was very well, wasn’t she? ‘I meant; don’t you like Yingjie?’ ‘I did in the past, but he did not like me, so I gave up.’ Zhengqing was silent. He did not know how to reply to that. More and more, he was sure that he was not suitable to talk to people about emotional issues. It was better to talk about work and business, less pitfalls. ‘Do you know why a car can turn?’ she asked. Zhengqing was distracted, he thought she said he should turn around, so he subconsciously turned when they came to a cross road, then realised he was asking one of her riddles with weird positive answers. He looked at Yin Ting out of the corner of his eyes, she had that innocent look on her face, she looked surprised that he turned, He sighed and humoured her, ‘Why?’ Yin Ting decided to tell him that he was going the long way, she replied, ‘Because you can change directions when you end up in a dead end,’ She was trying to say that Yingjie did not like her, therefore she wasn’t planning on tying herself down with him. She was happy to find the next big tree. So shallow, do you want to use a dead end to adjust the atmosphere. Zhengqing wanted to sigh, ‘Which one do you like; Zoe or May?’ She asked. This time, Zhengqing heaved a great big sigh. ‘Why?’ ‘Your conversations are not linked, you jump from one topic to the other with not connection what so ever.’ ‘I do,’ She protested, ‘I said Gu Yingjie did not like me so I moved on. You have two choices, I am curious which path you intend to take. There was a connection, it is in the same topic.’ Zhengqing was unable to refute. (Zuben: I can refute!) After a while, she asked again, ‘Which path do you intend to take?’ Zhengqing did not want to talk about this with her, but he thought if he did not answer, she would think he did not want to marry but play around. ‘Why do you want to know?’ he asked. Regardless of her answer, he meant to avoid the question. ‘I thought that if we talked about it I could help you make a choice. After all you’re too proper and serious, your experience with this kind of situation will be limited. I am different I have quite a lot of experience.’ ‘Carrying torches for men who don’t like you is experience?’ as they words came out of his mouth he regretted it. This wasn’t his way, But she did not care, ‘My multiple failures are experience. Each defeat is meaningful. Therefore those experiences play a positive role now.’ She replied. She really had a unique spirit, making persistent and energetic positive effort. ‘I am a realist, I don’t want too much positivity.’ This logic was not right, ah, but she won’t notice. She really didn’t, ‘Don’t look down on the lovelorn. If you change the point of view, I am not lovelorn. You are the same as me, the difference is I keep walking ahead and you remain static. In reality, we are “no-love” allies, it is rather cordial.’ ‘…’ she keeps walking her ahead, while he remains still? No-love allies? It really made no sense yet somewhat reasonable. Zhengqing pursed his lips. He was unable to refute. (Zuben: I can refute for you if you want) He decided to change topic. ‘What are you planning on asking Yufei?’ ‘What are you asking?’ ‘Did she know you liked Gu Yingjie?’ ‘Yeah, but she also knows that I have moved on.’ ‘Oh.’ ‘She’s so great, it’s nice that she is in love.’ ‘Why?’ Zhengqing really did not understand women, shouldn’t her heart be sour? (Zuben: Why should her heart be sour?) ‘He is a good man, and he is finally in Yufei’s arms. I also feel proud and elated. May can’t laugh at me anymore.’ Zhengqing was confused; Yufei was in love with Yingjie and Yin Ting feels proud and elated? (Zuben: Too many ‘Y’ names) Wasn’t she the one who was after Yingjie, or as she says now she wasn’t after him anymore. Why can’t Jiaqi laugh at her? There was never any logic in her conversation. He decided not to ask again. He feared that the more he asked, the more he would realise that Yin Ting lived in a world of her own. He heard her phone receive a text, and the click of her replying. He drove silently, while wondering what she was thinking. Soon, they arrived in Yin Ting’s neighbourhood. He parked carefully near her house. She looked out the window when they came to a stop, she smiled at him and wanted to say goodbye but Zhengqing suddenly asked, ‘Xiaoting, are you ever sad?’ She hadn’t been sad in the car, returning home she was not sad, being lovelorn she was not sad, it seemed…nothing made her sad. She really must eat a few “I am happy everyday” pills every day. ‘Yes ah,’ She answered, ‘I was sad when my mother died.’ Zhengqing was surprised for a moment, ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. He did not intend to poke a wound. Yin Ting shook her head, ‘My mother knew she was going to die, she called me to chuang side. I cried hard, I had been crying. She said, “My silly child, some things happen. Crying isn’t going to stop it. You just have to face it. Mom is just going somewhere else. It is a good opportunity to learn to be independent and brave. You can do it, Mother will be happy”’ she paused for a bit, the continued, ‘I didn’t understand at the time, but as I grew up, I slowly began to understand. I want my mother to be happy,’ She looked at Zhengqing, he saw her eyes were red and tears hung on the rims. He suddenly really regretted asking her. ‘Mom just changed where she is living. It is just inconvenient to meet and she can't tell me stories anymore. When I was a child, she told me stories every night. She must be really sad. I should not be sad right?’ Zhengqing wanted to agree, but Yin Ting sucked in breath and said, ‘I’m going. Thank you for driving me home,’ Zhengqing did not know what to say to her, as she opened the door and stepped out. ‘Goodbye,’ she said. ‘Goodbye,’ he returned. The she was gone. Zhengqing sighed. He remained in a daze. Did she just cry? He really regretted his words. Why did he bring up this topic? And she cried, making him feel terrible. Suddenly there was a dark shadow rapping at the window, he jumped. It was Yin Ting, ‘I will email you later,’ she said happily, then seemingly full of energy she ran off. Zhengqing stared after her, what was the purpose of this email? He did not understand this girl. He waited for a while, just in case, she jumped out of nowhere again to give him more details, but she didn’t. He could not decide if he was disappointed or relieved. Suddenly popping out was strangely scary, it was nothing to look forward to. Zhengqing drove home. His large house suddenly felt empty. He wondered if he should buy more furniture, as he crashed into his sofa. He took out his phone to see if he had any mail, but there was nothing.

 

He threw the phone aside. He should take the time to buy new furniture. Oh damn, he forgot to get groceries!

Chapter end