My Terrible Life in Those Years

After taking photos outside, Hong Panpan very enthusiastically pulled us into the ward, dragged me along, and had Xiao Mali stand on either side of the bed to take two more photos before she was satisfied.

Finally, Lao Liu shamelessly asked her to take a picture of him and the nurse separately.

She smiled and agreed to do so.

She and I exchanged phone numbers and email addresses.

Old Liu had originally wanted the nurse to leave her phone number as well: "Lu Yao, can I have your phone number? I can send you the photos later."

Ma Li's eyes hardened, and she pointed directly at Hong Panpan: "No phone number. This young lady can send it to my email. No need to trouble you!"

"Then can you leave me your QQ number?"

"No!"

"Then could you leave your office phone number?"

"If you say another word, I'll give you a shot!" the nurse snapped.

Old Liu shamelessly pressed on, asking, "Which part of the body should I needle?"

The nurse's face darkened: "Your throat! I'll make you hoarse!"

Old Liu finally calmed down, and Hong Panpan watched the two of them bickering with amusement.

Old Liu and I were done at the hospital. We paid the fees and the hospital deposit, and the stern-faced worker took care of us, so we didn't need to do anything else. We left with Panpan.

"Xiao Jiang, you don't look like you've been working for very long. How did you handle this so decisively?"

"The most important thing is to treat the migrant worker. If we don't act decisively, I'm afraid something terrible will happen. There was a pool of blood on the ground! He was lying there unable to move."

At this point, Old Liu interjected, dissatisfied: "Miss Hong asked about how long you've been working, why did you only answer the latter part? I answered for him. He's only been working for a week!"

Hong Panpan was startled and looked me up and down, left and right, front and back.

"Don't look at me like that, it's creepy!"

Hong Panpan exclaimed in surprise, "I can't believe you've only been working here for a week! You handle things so well, so experienced! Your company is called Brilliant GG, right?"

I nodded in surprise. She knew this too?

"The stadium project is so huge, and your company's name is everywhere. I didn't really remember it before, but your handling of this matter has made me think about it more. As expected of a big company, it produces talented people. An employee who has only been here for a few days has managed to handle something that could have been very complicated and troublesome so smoothly."

Old Liu, ever the chatterbox, chimed in again: "Isn't my brother amazing? He's not just a new employee, he's still only a temporary worker. To put it bluntly, he's just a migrant worker."

Hong Panpan was dumbfounded: "What???"

This guy, he just blurts out whatever comes to mind.

"Your company is really bold to send a temporary worker to handle this kind of thing? What were your managers thinking?"

"What? His direct supervisor wouldn't have thought of doing things this way." Old Liu was dissatisfied. This guy, he's not good at anything else, but he's a bit resentful seeing me get scolded by Wu Bo. He was just looking for someone to talk to and vent his anger on.

He was about to continue, but I grabbed him and said, "Stop talking nonsense, as long as it's resolved, that's all that matters."

After all, it's an internal company matter. Even if Lao Liu is indignant on my behalf, we can't argue about it in front of outsiders.

They can just drink and rant at night.

Hong Panpan's eyes lit up, and she squeezed the unidentified object in her hand: "Jiang Liangzai, so you're saying you made this decision yourself, how are you going to deal with it?"

I finally couldn't stop Lao Liu's loose tongue: "He felt the matter might be too serious, so he immediately went to a higher-level leader in the company and got the final approval!"

Hong Panpan exclaimed in surprise, then laughed.

Seeing her teeth, so white and straight, and her voice so pleasant, and most importantly, her Mandarin was so standard.

I made a preliminary judgment: this girl must be a highly educated intellectual.

But when we got outside the gate, she asked us, "Do you want me to take you home? Where do you live?"

She had a car key in her hand and was pressing the ignition key for a car parked on the side of the road!

Lao Liu and I were both a little stunned. We looked at the car logo, but we couldn't understand it; it was in foreign language.

"Oh, no need, we live very close by, it's only a ten-minute walk."

Old Liu was quite dissatisfied with my offer to drive the beautiful woman home after I directly rejected her offer.

Hong Panpan glanced at me calmly: "Okay, I'll send you the photos in the next day or two. Do you want them printed out? Or should we just send them as files?"

I thought for a moment: "If it's convenient, could you just print one sheet for us? We don't have a computer to store it right now. Could you also send us a copy to your email?"

Hong Panpan smiled and nodded in agreement. She got into the car, started the engine, and waved goodbye to us before leaving.

Old Liu looked on with lingering interest in the direction the car had disappeared. After we finished our business, we walked back in a relaxed mood, and he put his arm around my shoulder as we walked, just like before.

Many foreigners on the street turned their heads to look, feeling that the two best buddies were expressing their feelings very obviously.

"Hey Lao Jiang, you know this girl, oh no, this young lady, she's actually a rich and beautiful woman! Give me her phone number later."

"Why would I give it to you? Don't you already have those cute girls in uniforms? How come you're still so shameless? You like every single one you fancy?"

"Hey, Lao Jiang, something's off with you. Why the sour tone? Are you worried I'll steal your thunder and the girl? Let me tell you the truth: the reason I'm interested in all of these is because I don't even know which one of these girls will end up being mine!"

"Hmm, what you said makes a lot of sense! It matches your shameless nature perfectly!"

We both laughed.

It feels like going back to school.

"Hey, Lao Jiang, I need to seriously discuss something with you."

I was slightly taken aback; it was rare for him to speak to me with such a serious attitude.

"Stop pretending to be profound and show your true colors!" I elbowed him in the waist.

He cried out in pain and said:

"This time, I plan to go back and talk to my superiors and ask them to transfer me back to Huacheng. Although Pengcheng is not far from here, only a few hours away, it's not very convenient."

We can only meet up on weekends, and the travel expenses are quite high.

Look, my college classmate, out of the eight of us in our dorm, only the two of us know we're here. How can I leave you here all alone?"

I glared at him suspiciously, completely failing to detect even a ten percent sincerity in his words.

"Stop talking nonsense. You were doing very well over there, and you're now a deputy manager. Besides, the underground rail project is in the pre-development stage. You have plenty of opportunities to contribute there. What's gotten into you that you came back?"

"You wouldn't believe it, in Shenzhen, eight out of ten salespeople on the street are managers, and the other one is a vice president!"

"And what's the last one?"

"And another one, who's also the CEO, vice president, manager, and driver..."

We laughed again.

"Speak up, tell me your true thoughts!" I know this guy too well.

"Sigh, you saw right through me. To be honest, wherever you go these past few years, one beautiful woman after another appears. So, if I want to end my bachelor life, I can only rely on you, with your abundant luck in love, to bring me some good fortune!"

Everything else is fine, but this? No way.

"Go back to Shenzhen!"