Mrs.Yue extended her hands toward Yue Tingfeng and said, “Even if it were to be a sign of gratitude it would be more appropriate for me to go instead of you. You’ll just get in the way boy!”
Upon hearing his mother’s reply, Yue Tingfeng stood up and straightened up his clothes. “Isn’t there an old saying about repaying one’s mother’s debts is the son’s responsibility? You and I are both mother and son, so just let me handle this mom. Let’s get going,” said Yue Tingfeng confidently to his mother.
There was nothing Mrs. Yue could say but to stand in awe, speechless at her son’s newfound confidence.
Her mind races off to think back at how disheveled and depressed her son looked when he entered the house earlier, and now he was leaving with so much optimism and confidence.
Mrs.Yue could not help but shake her head and chuckle at her son’s transformation. “This little boy of mine…” Mrs. Yue thought out loud.
Aunt Wu was eavesdropping at the entire exchange from the side. She asked, “Ma’am, I thought you had always hated Miss Yan. What happened?”
Hearing Aunt Wu’s question, Mrs. Yue raised her eyebrows a little, and with a swift motion, she grabbed the jewelry from Aunt Wu’s hand that was meant to be put away and simply answered with a slightly raised chin. “Don’t get the wrong idea, I still dislike her.”
…
At that very moment, Yue Tingfeng felt like a completely new man. The overwhelming weight that had been bothering him for the past couple of days had finally been lifted. With his newfound mental clarity, he was ready to take on anything.
He knew he missed Yan Qingsi, but if he were to meet her that day—with all of his self-doubts and uncertainty weighing him down—it would only be meant to satisfy his selfish, one-sided, sexual needs and nothing else.
With that conclusion in mind, he knew he would not want any of that. No. He was certain of how he felt about her now. So yes, he would never want that at all.
He used to fantasize about having a sex binge with her, and that she would have ascended to a pleasure nirvana to the point of blacking out only to wake up the next day. However, now that he had the chance to do so, he found himself drowning in doubt.
Yue Tingfeng could not decide on where his hesitation and self-doubt were from. He had been doing plenty of thinking and self-reflection on his very own self-doubt and uncertainty. However, the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to suppress and bury it deep within his subconscious mind. His conflicting self-reflection stems from the underlying fear of the unknown and the probable emotional pain that could have been brought to light.
However, the more he chose to ignore his feelings, the more he missed her. He felt awful, thus prompting his insomnia, and his lust to see her. An endless unforgiving cycle of torture for him.
In spite of all of that, his mother had given him a lifeline, showed him the light at the end of his very dark and narrow tunnel.
Yue Tingfeng truly felt that his mother had truly made up for her previous attempts in sabotaging him.
With that clarity in mind, he called Jiang Lai. “Get a gift for me.”
“What kind of gift would that be, sir?” Jiang Lai asked.
“A god damn gift! Stop asking the obvious now would you,” Tingfeng snapped back at him.
Jiang Lai could not help but probe further. “But sir, this gift of yours, is for someone else. What would that person like then?”
“Fine, I’ll do it myself. You can’t even do a simple task. Just go and be with Wu Fang then,” Yue Tingfeng said in disappointment before hanging up the call. Leaving Jiang Lai alone in confusion.
After the uneventful phone call he had, Yue Tingfeng went straight to the mall to shop for some gifts. The shopping had taken half a day for Tingfeng to get the right gift for her. After that, he went straight to the movie studio Yan Qingsi worked at only to find her absent. He was told that Qingsi had left to Jing city for some scenes.
Reading the increasingly tense situation, Leng Ran noticed the fuming Tingfeng and he carefully asked, “Mr. Yue, didn’t you know? Did… Miss. Qingsi not tell you?”
Yue Tingfeng was already boiling with anger at this point. He simply thought to himself that this young man here was looking for trouble. Could he not mention that girl’s name at all?
Yue Tingfeng simply replied, “Of course she told me. I am an investor in this movie. Am I not allowed to check on progress?”
“Of course you can,” Leng Ran answered nervously.
Qingsi’s absence made Yue Tingfeng increasingly annoyed as he was no longer interested in staying a second longer than he should. The optimism and excitement he had from home instantly dissipated upon arriving at the set.
Seeing that Tingfeng was making his move to leave the scene, Leng Ran casually said, “Safe travels… alright.”
The very moment Yue Tingfeng entered his car, he immediately frowned in frustration from the sight of the wrapped gift. He tossed it to his backseat while sighing heavily.
After doing so, he took out his phone and proceeded to call Jiang Lai. The very first thing he said was, “I will be going to Jing city for a business trip.”
Hearing that, Jiang Lai flipped through the planned schedule and simply stated. “Boss, you have a few upcoming trips scheduled here. One in M country and another one in Ocean City 1 but none in Jing City. Even in the most recent records doesn’t show that you have business there.”
Feeling extremely annoyed at the idiocy made by this man, he felt like giving him a big tight slap across his face.
“Can’t you just godd*mn add it in then? Must I spell it out for you?” Yue Tingfeng snapped back.
“But… Your schedule… doesn’t show…” Jiang Lai said nervously.
“I don’t care, godd*mn add it in for me…” Yue Ting Feng replied frustratingly.
The author wrote 天海市 (tian hai shi; lit. Sky Ocean City) here, but subsequent chapters name this city as 海市 (hai shi; lit. Ocean City). In light of the frequency with which ‘hai shi’ occurs, we will go with ‘hai shi’ / Ocean City and assume that ‘tian hai shi’ was an unintended error.