Depressed wife runs with the ball

Over dinner, Zhou Xingzhi flipped through her notebook. It was thick and small, filled with drawings of many things: street scenes, supermarket shelves, food in the refrigerator, daily outfits, coffee making, sitting and drinking tea, autumn leaves, Legos, and even the back of Aunt Tian as she taught her how to cook.

He read with great interest, as if he were reading a soothing comic book. But why was he not in this book?

At night, the Taoist temple on Laojun Mountain was ablaze with lights, a splendid spectacle. She was taking photos. "Will it be cold down there? It looks like it'll be covered in frost," she muttered, looking at the love locks adorning the temple steps.

"Will you get up to watch the sunrise tomorrow?" He flipped through his notebook, and it seemed that there was no sunrise scenery.

"Let's draw a night scene. The sunrise is too early, let's watch the sunset." After taking the photo, Chu Yue responded to the photo in the camera.

"I can travel whenever I have a day off." Zhou Xingzhi flipped through her diary, thinking that traveling would enrich her diary. A family with their child and dog showed up at the restaurant, and Chu Yue took photos of the dog.

The meal was sporadic and uncomfortable. After dinner, the two of them wandered around, looking at the projection on Laojun Mountain.

The next day, the two of them descended the mountain and hiked back up again, spending more than six hours. Sitting on the summit eating instant noodles, Chu Yue said, "I've come to a feast on earth, eating instant noodles on Laojun Mountain. A glimpse of the splendor of the world, plus a sausage for 8 yuan." Zhou Xingzhi also ordered her a grilled sausage.

While praying at the Taoist temple, they bowed all the way. Only at the Queen Mother of the West, Chu Yue tried to pull him away, but he insisted, praying for both marriage and children. While praying at the Laojun Temple, Zhou Xingzhi filmed her back with his phone. The two of them wrote prayer cards and hung them together on the stone railing outside.

When they returned to the hotel, Chu Yue was so exhausted she fell asleep on the sofa. Zhou Xingzhi thought about how the two of them had supported each other and played around while climbing the mountain. This trip was much more worthwhile than his previous customized itineraries. He thought that when the child was born, they could do it again and fulfill their wish.

Didn't see the sunset either.

After descending Laojun Mountain and flying back to Qiancheng, it was already the sixth day of the Lunar New Year. By the time he returned to his large apartment, it was already dark. He was still cooking while Chu Yue packed her suitcase.

On the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, they took a day off. As dinner neared, Zhou Xingzhi drove her back to his parents' house for dinner. He explained that he was too tired to cook. Chu Yue's cooking wasn't good, so she agreed to go back with him. After dinner, Mrs. Zhou took her to admire her collection of paintings, while Zhou Kecheng and Zhou Xingzhi discussed the group's post-New Year work plans in the study.

Zhou Kecheng's only real headache at work was Zhou Jihuai. If he continued to let him go, he was afraid he would make a mistake sooner or later. But at this point, talking about controlling him wouldn't help.

Zhou Kecheng's attitude made it difficult for Zhou Xingzhi to take any action. If he hurt his brother's relationship, he would be laughed at by others.

"Your sister-in-law is the same. She doesn't care about him at all. If I had known this would happen, I wouldn't have allowed the two of them to get married." Zhou Kecheng put down his teacup and felt a headache.

Zhou Xingzhi had always avoided his sister-in-law, Mo Xiaoxiao. Although the media company was running well under her management and seemed fine, he always felt that her motives were more than just that.

"It may not be a bad thing. Maybe having a child will help my brother to calm down." The two have been married for several years, but they have never mentioned the matter of having children.

Zhou Kecheng thought so too, but he mentioned it several times, and Zhou Jihuai never expressed his opinion. "I'm afraid your brother has gone to Macau again."

What Zhou Xingzhi wanted to do was to get rid of the spies that Zhou Jihuai had planted in the group first. Given his temper, it was only a matter of time before something would cause trouble.

"When do you and Xiaoyue plan to get married?" Zhou Kecheng agreed with his way of solving the problem, and said no more. He wanted to bring up something that would make him happy.

"We can only put it on the agenda after all these things are resolved." He also wants to get married.

Chu Yue looked at those paintings worth millions and once again witnessed the disparity between the rich and the poor, and her envy was beyond words. "Mrs. Zhou loves painting so much, she must be someone who really loves beauty," she said quietly, looking at Pang Jun's paintings on the wall.

"Haha, why call me Mrs. Zhou? Just call me Auntie. Yeah, I used to study art, but I wasn't very good at it. Then I married your uncle and stayed at home to take care of my husband and children." Li Li looked at the child and thought, wasn't this exactly the life she'd wanted to live when she was young? She envied her for owning these famous paintings, and she envied her for her youth, beauty, talent, and endless possibilities.

"What a pity." Chu Yue always felt that painting was not necessarily a matter of talent, and more practice would do the trick.

"It's not a pity. Your uncle is very good to me." Li Li felt that people should not be too greedy.

Chu Yue has been taught to be self-reliant since she was a child, so it is difficult for her to understand the life philosophy of relying on others. Or maybe it is because she is naturally indifferent and cannot devote herself wholeheartedly to others.

Seeing that it was almost time, Zhou Xingzhi went to Li Li and asked her to go home.

Thinking about starting work tomorrow, Chu Yue felt an infinite attachment to the holiday.

"Yueyue, can we move to a new house after the New Year?" Zhou Xingzhi broke the silence in the car and pulled her back from the scenery outside the car window.

"Moving to a new house?" Chu Yue was puzzled. Wouldn't Cuiyuan or his large flat be fine? Where should he move to? Besides, moving would be very troublesome, right?

"We'll move into our new home after the new year when we're not busy." The new house hasn't been fully renovated yet, so he still has to go over and arrange some details.

"I don't want to. Moving is very troublesome." What she was thinking was that there was no news about Ji Yan this year, and Su Ying didn't mention it either.

"You can go and take a look first. If you think it's troublesome, you don't have to move yet."

"Ah."

Ji Yan hadn't had a good year. The firm's performance had declined significantly; while it was profitable, it was still a far cry from what it had been. His father was in detention, and he couldn't see him. His mother was used to living like a government official's wife, and all this had left him feeling a bit dazed.

After the New Year, the firm was likely to face a wave of resignations. He had little confidence in continuing, but he still had orders from Xinghui. Zhou Xingzhi wasn't likely to let him go so easily.

It wasn't that he didn't want to contact Chu Yue, it was that he didn't have the face to do so. He had no idea his father couldn't be contacted, it was his mother who was worried and told him about it. At first he thought he was busy at work, but when Zhou Xingzhi showed up and told him, he learned that his father was under investigation.

Zhou Xingzhi offered him the following conditions: first, accept the acquisition, receive some money, and take a position at Xinghui. Second, give up Chu Yue, and he would help tell him about Ji Guobang.

The reason this junior sister stayed in this small firm was because she thought he, her senior brother, could protect her from the client's harassment. If he told her that he had given up on her because of his father, then the positive image of him in her mind would instantly collapse.

He didn't want to, nor did he have the courage to discuss it with her, so he set up this trap with Uncle Cao. Now, he had saved Qucho and learned about his father's news. But he didn't dare to contact this junior sister who had always trusted him.

Su Ying didn't know what he was thinking, but she felt that he had been to the bar much earlier this year. Last year, he had been there much more often as well.

"Why are you always coming here during Chinese New Year instead of spending time with your girlfriend?" Su Ying was wiping her wine glasses at the bar. After a moment's thought, she lowered her head and said to him, "Yueyue asked me about you recently and said she hadn't heard from you at all."

"I'm annoyed lately."

He went to the bar mainly because he used the little money he earned from the firm to cover the bar's losses. Last year, he didn't make a penny and even lost several people.

"After you resigned from Yueyue, was there a day when you weren't annoyed? Wasn't your girlfriend jealous? Didn't she make trouble?" Su Ying turned around, put the cup away, and picked up another cup.

Ji Yan just poured himself a lot of wine. His girlfriend, huh. Lately, she's been pushing him to marry her. With him like this, let alone getting married, he's even stingy with money for his girlfriend.

"What will you do if the bar goes bankrupt?" Ji Yan drank the wine in his glass and said to his ex-girlfriend dejectedly.

Su Ying stopped what she was doing. How could she know?