Chapter 393: Your Sister?

Chapter 393: Your Sister?

It was the first time Wu Chen had spoken to his family since his new life began. Since escaping the thousand-year loop, he had never once called home himself. There had been no need.

He had been trapped on July 7, 2020, for 365,000 days. A full thousand years.

But.

He had only been reliving the same day, over and over. It wasn’t as though he couldn’t go home.

Over those thousand years, Wu Chen had gone home more times than he could count. Especially in the first few “years,” when he had endured pain and torment beyond anything an ordinary person could imagine, he had gone home constantly, to keep his family company, or simply to seek theirs.

Later, once he had come to terms with things, he began finding things to do. He studied every subject he could, ran investigation after investigation, and his visits home settled into a steady rhythm. Every so often, he would go back and look around.

So his parents and his younger sister weren’t strangers to him at all.

Nor could he honestly say he missed them much. From where he stood, he saw them all the time.

The same went for the neighbors.

Whenever he went home, he ran into them.

Wu Chen could tell you exactly how many customers walked into the family noodle shop between morning and night on July 7, the height, build, and face of every one of them, and the precise moment each one came through the door, down to the second.

He could even tell you which foot each of them led with as they crossed the threshold, what they said afterward, how many words they spoke, and so on.

He knew it all far too well.

Of course.

As things stood now, his parents had no memory of any of those July 7 visits. All of it had been reset. And on the very last July 7 he lived through, he hadn’t gone home at all. He had stayed in downtown Donghai and gone to a bar that night…

Still, their last memory of him wasn’t far back.

July 2.

A “thousand years” ago, Wu Chen had graduated in mid-June and come home. He’d stayed half a month, helping out at the shop and sending out résumés online. Then he had left home to start going to interviews…

He had left on July 2.

In other words, as far as his parents and sister were concerned, they had gone only a little over twenty days without seeing him.

“Son, you busy?” his mother, Zhang Xiujuan, asked over the phone.

“No. I’m having lunch with a friend,” Wu Chen said.

“What are you eating?”

“Steak.”

“Western food?”

“Yeah. Western food.”

“Is that stuff even any good… Oh, right, Xiaochen, have you found a job yet?”

“I have. That’s why… well, it’s lunchtime, so I came out to eat.”

“Lunch break, then?”

“Right.”

“What kind of company? How’s the pay?”

“I’m working as someone’s assistant. The pay’s pretty good.”

“An assistant? Didn’t you study computers? How’d you end up an assistant? Carrying your boss’s bag around?”

“Mm… something like that.”

“What’s your boss like? Easy to get along with? I hear assistants have it rough. They’re not giving you a hard time, are they?”

“No. My boss is really nice.”

It was just small talk, his mother catching up on how her son was doing. And naturally, Wu Chen couldn’t tell her the truth. There were plenty of things he never had to explain to anyone else, but if his mother sensed something was off and started asking, he would have to explain.

So nothing could seem off.

He wasn’t actually lying, either. On paper, his job really was Li Ruobing’s assistant.

“Mom, where’s Dad?” he asked.

“In the kitchen, frying noodles for customers.”

“Busy at the shop today?”

“Not bad… Xiaochen, when are you coming home? Do you get weekends off?”

“I do, and I can take leave too. End of the month, probably. I’ll come home then…”

“Hey! Don’t you take leave! You’ve only just started. Don’t give your boss a bad impression.”

“It’s fine…”

“Don’t you ‘it’s fine’ me. You’ve only just started out in the world…” Zhang Xiujuan went on nagging for a while. Work hard. Talk less, do more.

Wu Chen didn’t argue. He just listened.

“Oh… more customers. All right, all right, I won’t keep you. I’ve got to get back to work…” Zhang Xiujuan said abruptly.

“Okay, Mom…”

“Oh, right! I almost forgot, I got so caught up asking about you… Has Jiaojiao called you?”

“Her? No. Why?” Wu Chen paused.

Jiaojiao was his younger sister, Wu Jiao.

“She’s gone into the city with a classmate. She’s been helping out at the shop all summer break, hasn’t she? Even told me I ought to pay her wages. I gave her a thousand yuan this morning…” Zhang Xiujuan sounded half exasperated, half amused.

Wu Chen could already picture his sister wheedling money out of their mother.

“Really? When did she leave?” he asked.

“A little after eight this morning. Said she wanted to buy clothes, and that she’d come see you too. She’s staying at your place tonight instead of coming home. She said she’d call you. That girl… she hasn’t called?”

“No,” Wu Chen said. After a pause, he added, “Tell you what, I’ll call her in a bit. Don’t worry, Mom. She’s a big girl now. She won’t get lost…”

“All right. I just wanted to let you know. I’ve got to go. Eat your lunch.”

“Okay, Mom.”

An Menglan had gone on cutting her steak the whole time, listening. She knew it was his mother; he had called her “Mom.” She had heard him say he was “working as someone’s assistant,” too.

She had no idea what his mother had said on the other end, but she knew Wu Chen hadn’t told her the truth.

When he hung up, An Menglan set down her knife and fork and picked up her glass of red wine.

“Mr. Wu, it seems you’re keeping a few things from your mother,” she said with a smile.

“Some changes might need a little more time before they’re ready to hear about them.” Wu Chen smiled too and raised his glass.

Clink.

They each took a sip.

Lunch went on.

An Menglan said nothing more about Wu Chen and his family. She knew where the boundaries lay. She wasn’t anyone to him in that sense. It wasn’t her place to get involved.

Ten-odd minutes later.

Ring, ring…

Wu Chen’s phone again.

He picked it up and glanced at it. Li Ruobing.

“Hey, Ruobing,” he answered.

“Darling, did you sleep well last night?” Li Ruobing asked straight off, teasing.

“Very well.” Wu Chen smiled. He knew exactly what she meant.

She didn’t ask anything more about it. It was only a joke. Three days earlier, in that presidential suite, she had already seen An Menglan’s panic written all over her face.

She had been sure then that something was going on between Wu Chen and An Menglan.

There was no need to ask now.

Li Ruobing meant to gain the upper hand over An Menglan, so she was in no hurry to do anything. The wager ran for a month, after all. As she saw it, the longer things went on between the two of them, the better it was for her.

“I’m almost done at the office. Want to have lunch?” she asked.

“I’m already eating,” Wu Chen said with a smile.

“With An Menglan?”

“Yes. Want to come join us?”

“I’ll pass. I wouldn’t want to intrude on your date with your new lover…” There was a touch of mock irritation in her teasing.

“I might bring someone by your office this afternoon.” Wu Chen laughed.

“Hm?” She paused. “Who?”

“My sister. She’s come to Donghai and she’s out shopping with a classmate. Once I’m done here, I was going to go find her…” Wu Chen said.

There were things he meant to keep from his parents for now, but there was no need to hide everything from his sister.

If his parents learned everything that had happened and everything that had changed, they might be delighted, but they might just as easily be worried. Even frightened. They might suspect their son had done something illegal. How else could he have gotten so rich so fast?

Elders always thought that way.

His sister was different.

“Your sister?” Li Ruobing repeated, then went quiet, as if thinking something over.

“Yeah, my sister. You know about her,” Wu Chen said.

“Then… how about this? What’s her number? Give me her phone number…” she said, sounding as if she had made up her mind about something.

“What are you up to?” Wu Chen asked, one eyebrow lifting.

“I’ll go find her. I can take her to lunch while I’m at it… We’ll have to meet sooner or later, so what difference does a little earlier make? You just enjoy your lunch with your new lover. Leave your sister to me…” There was a smile in her voice.

Wu Chen knew exactly what she was thinking, but he didn’t call her on it.

“All right. Take down her number…” He recited the digits, then added, “Ruobing, try to keep… a bit of a low profile. Don’t scare her. She’s only seventeen…”

“Relax. She’s your sister. Why would I?” Li Ruobing said in an affectedly reassuring tone, laughing.