Wandering in the vast darkness

032 Accompany you a little bit on the way

Around 8 o'clock, Yu Wenhao picked up a passenger who was going to the vicinity of Meng Zhen's house. Yu Wenhao had called Meng Zhen in advance.

After dropping the guests off at their destination, Yu Wenhao drove to the entrance of Meng Zhen's residential area. From afar, he saw Meng Zhen standing there with her arms crossed over her chest, holding a non-woven bag.

When Meng Zhen saw Yu Wenhao's car arrive, she waved to him. As soon as his car stopped, Meng Zhen opened the passenger door and got in.

"Brother, did you not eat properly again?" Meng Zhen's first words upon entering were these.

Yu smiled and said, "I was so busy during the rush hour that I didn't have time to eat."

"Eat quickly, eat quickly, I just heated it up in the microwave."

As Meng Zhen spoke, she handed the non-woven bag in her hand to Yu Wenhao. Inside was a sealed lunchbox, which Meng Zhen had just been holding to her chest to keep the braised beef inside from getting cold.

Just as Yu Wenhao was about to answer the call, an order came in through the app. Meng Zhen, quick-witted, saw it and hurriedly called out:

"Hurry, grab it!"

Yu Wenhao quickly grabbed the order; the customer was over 800 meters away. Meng Zhen said:

"Let's go, I'll go with you there, and then I'll walk back. I want to talk to you; it's been so long since we last saw each other."

"Is there some good news?" Yu asked, and Meng Zhen chuckled.

Yu Wenhao started the car. Meng Zhen placed the lunchbox on her lap, opened it, and Yu Wenhao sniffed and called out:

"It smells so good!"

"Smells delicious, doesn't it? It'll make your mouth water."

As Meng Zhen spoke, she took out a pair of chopsticks from the non-woven bag, picked up a slice of beef, and handed it over. Yu Wenhao opened her mouth.

"Is it delicious?" Meng Zhen asked, and Yu Wenhao nodded repeatedly.

Meng Zhen fed Yu Wenhao three slices in a row. Yu Wenhao said that he had had enough and told her to put the lid on so that the passengers wouldn't be tempted.

Meng Zhen understood; Yu Wenhao was worried that the smell of food in the car might offend the guests.

She closed the lunchbox, put it back in the non-woven bag, opened the locker in front of her, put the bag inside, and as she closed the locker, she patted the plastic door and said to Yu Wenhao:

Don't forget.

"How could that be? I'd be thinking about it all night."

Meng Zhen chuckled and rolled down the car window a little to let the smell dissipate.

Yu Wenhao rolled down his car window a little and asked, "So, what's the good news?"

Meng Zhen said with a grin, "I got promoted."

"That's great!" Yu Wenhao exclaimed. "Did your salary increase too?"

Meng Zhen nodded.

"What about your boyfriend? Do you have a boyfriend?"

"No, but there's a new boy who's interested in me. He's always following me around like a simp, and he's thinking of having a relationship with me."

"Mmm-hmm." Yu Wenhao nodded. "Drag him out of there!"

Meng Zhen asked, "Why?"

"Let's see if he can withstand the test, if he's truly devoted, you idiot," Yu Wenhao scolded. "Don't you even know about playing hard to get?"

Meng Zhen chuckled, "Okay, I'll listen to my brother, I'll drag him down."

"If you have the chance, bring him out so I can meet him," Yu Wenhao said.

"What do you want to do?" Meng Zhen asked.

"That means you have connections on your mother's side. Try to scare him a little," Yu Wenhao said. "I'll threaten him and say, 'If you dare to bully my sister, I promise to skin you alive, pull out your tendons, and make you suffer unbearable pain.'"

Meng Zhen laughed and said, "Okay, I'll tell him to take good care of his brother."

"Brother, have you found a match for Qianqian?" Mengzhen asked.

Meng Zhen now calls Yu Wenhao "brother," and she's also good friends with Cao Fang. During her time off, she often goes to Yu Wenhao's house to tutor Qianqian and play with her. Yu Wenhao is never home when she goes; in fact, she sees him the least.

When she was with Cao Fangqian, Meng Zhen would never mention the word "illness." She would only ask about her well-being on WeChat or like she does now.

Yu Wenhao sighed: "It's not that easy."

"No rush, brother, we're not in a hurry, okay? We'll definitely wait until then," Meng Zhen said. "I think Qianqian is much better this year than last year; her appetite is better too."

Yu nodded and said, "Okay, no rush, there's no use rushing."

When the car arrived at its destination, there was no one in sight. Meng Zhen pointed to a woman in her forties standing by the roadside a dozen meters ahead, talking on the phone, and said, "Drive over there, it must be her."

Sure enough, when Yu Wenhao drove over, the woman tilted her head to look at the license plate and waved to Yu Wenhao.

Yu asked and parked the car. Mengzhen said to her, "Brother, I'm leaving now."

Yu greeted her and told her, "Be careful on the road, and don't look at your phone when you cross the street."

Meng Zhen chuckled and said, "Okay, brother."

Meng Zhen got out of the car, without closing the door, and nodded to the woman. The woman, still on her phone, crawled in, shivering slightly, and said:

"Why is it so cold?"

Then he explained to the person on the other end of the phone, "Oh, I didn't mean you, I meant the car."

Yu Wenhao quickly rolled up the car window and said to her, "It'll be warm soon."

The woman waved her hand forward, signaling him to leave.

Yu Wenhao gripped the steering wheel, straining to listen to the woman's phone call. He immediately knew what this customer did for a living; he could hear her earnestly persuading the other person. The other person seemed to want to cancel an insurance policy. This woman was definitely an insurance broker; she kept talking to the other person, her tone almost pleading.

"Why don't you wait a little longer for the critical illness insurance? Anyway, the amount of critical illness insurance isn't that big, so even if you get a refund, it won't be much money. There's also a two-month grace period. You can wait until the grace period is over before we talk about it, okay? Yes, that's what I mean. These things are unpredictable. Sorry, I'm not cursing you, I'm just saying that accidents can happen at any time, who knows, right?"

"Yes, yes, I understand, I understand. I understand your current difficulties. I know you wouldn't have asked if you weren't having difficulties. I understand, I understand. That's just how things are. It's hard for everyone."

After hanging up the phone, she sighed heavily and then stared blankly out the window.

After a while, she suddenly asked, "Handsome, how's business these days?"

"It's not easy to do," Yu Wenhao said. "They say there will be a surge in pent-up demand after the pandemic, but I haven't felt it."

"Revenge spending my ass, it's all coming back to haunt us. The whole 'the situation looks great' thing is just a lie in the news. Sometimes when I watch TV, I want to slap the announcers."

The woman spoke angrily, her Mandarin mixed with Hangzhou dialect:

"It's unbelievable! How can business be this bad? I've worked hard for a month, running around everywhere, and haven't made a single sale. But today alone, three people want to cancel their insurance policies!"

"Are you in the insurance business?" Yu asked.

"Yes, in our words, it's selling the future to customers. But what a joke! Everyone's struggling to make ends meet, who has the mind to care about the future? What I fear most now is getting calls from customers. My heart trembles when the phone rings; nine times out of ten, it's about cancelling the policy. And it's like a whirlwind—if you cancel, I cancel, everyone cancels! Sigh!"

"See? I'm going to a client's house now to persuade them not to cancel their order. I've spent the whole afternoon talking to them, and I finally convinced the client. Now I have to persuade his wife. I'm practically becoming a matchmaker! Isn't that amazing?"

The woman, who had just been complaining about being cold, opened the window, and a gust of cold wind rushed in, causing her to sniffle.