Man and work forever

Plenty of residents looked down on her, of course. They thought she was cheapening herself, turning her back on the comfortable life of a wealthy housewife to lower herself with such a dead-end job. Her monthly pay wasn't even enough to cover the property management fees.

But the woman couldn't care less. Status, what status? Go back three generations, and who would have dared call themselves rich back then? If you hadn't been dragged off to a cowshed to suffer, it only meant you'd run fast enough.

Cheng Yue wholeheartedly agreed and gave her a thumbs-up in firm approval.

Her exact words had been, "How many years have we had it easy? And already people have forgotten how they used to scrape a living out of the fields."

Without workers, farmers, and ordinary people keeping society running, those so-called rich people wouldn't have even a single grain of rice to eat.

So jobs shouldn't be ranked as high or low, and people certainly shouldn't be ranked as superior or inferior. Everyone was just trying to stay alive.

"No, no, you've got it hard enough standing here all day. It's only a few steps for me. Don't worry about it. Go on, get back to work."

She dodged his hand, pulled a big peach out of her pocket, and firmly pressed it into his hands. "A fruit grower came by the main gate today. I tried one, and they're pretty sweet. This is a little something from me, so no refusing."

She really was a force to be reckoned with. She strode briskly away, leaving Cheng Yue holding a pink peach and watching her retreating figure, unsure whether to laugh or cry.

As the saying went, a good wife spared her husband trouble. No wonder her family had made a fortune. They deserved every bit of the wealth that came pouring in.

In her younger days, she had been quite the sensation. A Capital City native from a fairly well-off family, she had nevertheless fallen for a "country bumpkin" who had studied his way out of a mountain village. (That wasn't meant as an insult!)

Back then, all her friends and relatives had waited to see her make a fool of herself. But she had stood firm against her parents' pressure, left them an IOU for the bride price, and resolutely married her boyfriend with no house, car, or wedding.

Fortunately, the man she loved hadn't let her lose that gamble.

Just three years later, she had returned to her parents' home in triumph, bringing ten times the amount written on that "IOU."

Cheng Yue thought some people were utterly baffling, too. Her husband, the president of a listed company, didn't mind. Her children, who had gotten into prestigious universities, had no objections either. What right did anyone else have to point fingers?

Honestly, they were just too well-fed and had too much time on their hands.

Send the whole lot off to the borderlands to pick cotton and dig potatoes, and they wouldn't have so much crap to say.

The peach really was sweet, and the courage Cheng Yue had just mustered vanished completely as he ate it.

With a young man's strong teeth, he made short work of the peach. Just as he threw away the pit and prepared to leave, a familiar black sedan slowly approached.

Cars weren't allowed inside the residential complex. Cheng Yue stared blankly as the car stopped beside a flower bed. After a few seconds of silence, he drew a deep breath and walked steadily toward it.

Tap, tap.

Cheng Yue lowered his long lashes and adopted a strictly professional tone. "Hello, parking isn't allowed here..."

The window rolled down, revealing a face that was unfamiliar yet somehow recognizable.

The hand he had used to knock on the glass froze in midair. Cheng Yue stared blankly for a moment, then suddenly opened his mouth wide.

"It's you!?"

"It's you?"

Lin Shuyang pointed at him in surprise. "You little bad-luck magnet!"

Cheng Yue: "..."

Cheng Yue lowered his hand and smiled politely. "I never got the chance to thank you for what happened last time. Oh, and I owe you an apology, too."

He had been so distracted that day that he hadn't checked the license plate and had mistaken the man for his ride-hailing driver, making an enormous blunder.

Luckily, he had gotten into the wrong car. Otherwise, he really wouldn't have been able to handle what happened afterward on his own.

Lin Shuyang waved a hand with perfect composure. "No need. I was just there to watch the show."

Cheng Yue's smile flattened. "..."

That might be true, but you don't have to be quite so frank about it.

Lin Shuyang didn't think he had said anything wrong. Born into wealth with a silver spoon in his mouth, he was easygoing and blunt by nature.

"So you work here."

He had wondered about that. Pretty much every household that could afford a home in this complex owned a car, sometimes more than one. Why would anyone book a ride in the middle of the night?

Cheng Yue murmured an acknowledgment. Seeing him casually switch off the engine and get out, he asked tentatively, "Isn't this Ji... Mr. Ji's car?"

Lin Shuyang looked surprised. "You know Huaijin?"

For some reason, Cheng Yue felt a little guilty. He averted his gaze and stammered, "Yes. We've met a few times before."

Lin Shuyang's eyes immediately lit up. He grabbed Cheng Yue's arm. "Then have you ever seen him bring anyone home? A man or a woman, either is fine. Have you?"

Even now, he still hadn't tracked down the person who had spent a night rubbing up against Ji Huaijin. So many days had passed that perhaps it had already become more than a single night.

Unable to get an answer, he often sighed away at home, which had earned him several beatings from his older brother, who said he was too gloomy and was ruining the family's luck.

Now, looking at Cheng Yue in his security uniform, he felt as though he had found the key to solving the mystery.

Cheng Yue pulled free of his grip uncomfortably. Although he didn't understand what Lin Shuyang meant, as far as he remembered, Ji Huaijin had always come and gone alone.

"No, I haven't."

Lin Shuyang was deeply disappointed. The light in his eyes went out at once, and he muttered to himself, "Was it really just a one-night fling?"

Cheng Yue heard him clearly but didn't understand. "What?"

"Oh, nothing."

Since he couldn't get any useful information out of him, Lin Shuyang stopped wasting time. "I'll head upstairs. I still have to fetch some things for His Lordship."

Perhaps all his "old grudges and new grievances" had piled up together, because he couldn't resist venting to an outsider. "That good buddy of mine probably won't ever find a wife. It's bad enough normally, but he can't let go of his damn work even when he's in the hospital. Who would want to marry a workaholic like that?"

Cheng Yue's pupils abruptly contracted.

Lin Shuyang was still grumbling. "If you ask me, he might as well marry his work and make it permanent. Man and work forever. Sounds pretty good, hahaha, man and work..."

"Wait!"

Cheng Yue hurried after him, a trace of barely concealed urgency and anxiety in his voice. "He's in the hospital?"

Lin Shuyang nodded, his eyes clear and innocent, utterly unaware of how alarming his words were. "Yeah. He was coughing up blood and still worrying about the meeting he hadn't finished."

Honestly, he genuinely admired him. There weren't many people who could have blood at the corners of their mouths and still insist on getting all their work arrangements sorted out.

Ji Huaijin, that absolute madman, was one of them.

Cheng Yue couldn't hear anything else now. All that remained in his mind was "coughing up blood."

To most people, coughing up blood meant a very serious illness. He didn't dare imagine the circumstances in which it had struck.

Had anyone been with him? Besides, after coming to work today, he hadn't heard any of his coworkers mention an ambulance coming last night.

Drawing on what little he knew, Cheng Yue tried to find an explanation among those illnesses that could put his mind even slightly at ease.

But the harder he tried not to think of anything serious, the more clearly those frightening medical terms surfaced in his mind, one after another.

By the time he came back to himself, Lin Shuyang had long since disappeared.

Cheng Yue's heart gave a violent jolt. He looked around, then abruptly remembered that the man must have gone upstairs.

He let out a heavy breath, his eyes fixed on the building entrance and his palm pressed to his chest, as though trying to hold something down.