Chapter 18

In the dead of night, Fang Shimian saw Xu Long lift his head to talk to him again. He nodded and shook his head numbly, then buried his head to bite into a pineapple bun. As he ate, Fang Shimian suddenly felt nauseous and rushed to the bathroom to vomit violently.

He vomited until there was nothing left, his head throbbing as if someone was slicing through his nerves with a knife. His hands trembled uncontrollably, and his vision turned white, the whole world spinning like a vortex.

Xu Long and the store clerk were beside him, the clerk’s face turning pale with fright. He quickly called the boss, saying a customer had an incident in the store.

It seemed like an eternity, or perhaps just a moment, before sounds returned to his ears. Xu Long was anxiously supporting him, shouting, and Fang Shimian finally pulled himself out of that chaotic state.

The explosion sounds, the deformed car door, the stone stained with his blood, the pale face of that person, and the weakly rising and falling chest, the sirens of police cars and ambulances…

Just a stranger who died after a car accident, despite rescue efforts.

As Fang Shimian’s emotions detached, those memories seemed to be shrouded in fog, becoming inexplicably blurry, like an unreal dream. All the details were obscured, as if they had fallen into the window of a bedroom on a rainy day.

“It’s okay, I’m fine, just suddenly felt a bit nauseous, and vomiting helped,” Fang Shimian said, pausing for a few seconds, pressing the flush button, and taking the handkerchief Xu Long handed him to wipe his mouth. Seeing the hesitant looks from Xu Long and the clerk, he found an excuse.

“I get carsick, and I was on the bus for too long today. Maybe I caught a bit of a cold, so I felt like vomiting. It’s normal, no need to worry.”

Xu Long felt that being with Fang Shimian was a constant scare. He calmed himself, “Your face just now was as white as a tile, scared the soul out of me. You weren’t in an accident too, were you? Did the hospital check you?”

Fang Shimian nodded, reassuring him, “I had an X-ray, I’m fine, really, no need to worry.”

“You really are something,” Xu Long waved his hand, losing his appetite for pizza, and took Fang Shimian to wash his face and head outside.

As they left, they heard the clerk on the phone again, crying tears of joy, “Boss, no need to come, yes, you’re saved, it’s just carsickness, they’ve left, mm-hmm, you don’t have to pay.”

“…”

Xu Long wasn’t full, so he went to the community downstairs to have a bowl of wontons.

The shop was small, with most tables and chairs set outside. The prices were cheap, and many people in the community loved to eat there, making it busy even at night.

Fang Shimian had completely lost his appetite, his sluggish brain only now processing that he had experienced a horrific car accident scene.

He opened a video app, and perhaps it had overheard his conversation with Xu Long, the first video that popped up was about the car accident on the Yan Mountain highway.

Fang Shimian quickly paused it, long-pressed, and clicked “Not Interested,” and the app immediately played the next video, displaying a small message.

[Reduced recommendations for this type of video.]

Fang Shimian, however, stared blankly at a newly refreshed health science video.

Xu Long finished eating in two bites, swept the napkins on the table into the trash, stood up, and scanned to pay, “Let’s go, go home early and sleep, we have work again tomorrow.”

Fang Shimian quickly put away his phone and nodded.

After parking the motorcycle, Xu Long glanced around and asked Fang Shimian, “Where’s your little green one?”

“It fell earlier, I rode it to the electric scooter shop for a check. They said there’s a small issue with the steering and display, the parts will arrive tomorrow, and it’ll be fixed.”

Xu Long’s voice instinctively grew louder, “The scooter fell too? You’re handling all this yourself, did you eat their rice or steal their vegetables, such a kind-hearted kid.”

“He… gave me money, a lot,” Fang Shimian didn’t know how to explain, only feeling his head starting to ache again.

Xu Long recalled Fang Shimian’s past, which he was always reluctant to reveal, guessing it might be a wealthy person who had helped Fang Shimian when he was young. So, the words he didn’t say turned into a short sigh.

Forget it, it’s all small stuff.

After all, doing a good deed is a good thing, even though in this desire-driven society, Xu Long didn’t advocate it, he still forced himself to praise, “At least you did a good deed, cheer up, tomorrow noon, no cafeteria, I’ll treat you to lunch.”

Fang Shimian hung his head without a word.

Xu Long knew Fang Shimian believed in those supernatural things, so he pulled out the ultimate weapon, “Saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda.” Seeing Fang Shimian’s eyes suddenly light up, he continued, “Isn’t it always said that good people get good rewards? You’ll definitely have good fortune in the future, trust me.”

Only then did Fang Shimian nod, his headache seemingly gone, looking at Xu Long very seriously, “You’re right.”

Back in his rented room, Fang Shimian was still pondering Xu Long’s words.

Saving a life, but he didn’t save them, could there still be merit? Fang Shimian lay on the bed, staring at the window in his bedroom, thinking about many things, those images constantly appearing, jumping around without logic, sometimes flowers he saw in childhood, sometimes the future he imagined, then the charred stone wall and the dark liquid flowing out of the driver’s seat.

Finally, the firelight that dyed that silent place red.

The alarm clock rang, and everything sank back down, memories like photos covered in thick dust, covering all the excitement and sharpness until the moment life dissipates.

In mid-November, Fang Shimian and Xu Long took a day off, switching to the night shift.

Xu Long had his legs propped up on the console, which Fang Shimian moved when he returned from the bathroom. Xu Long was scrolling through his phone, surprised, “Jiangzhou Group declared bankruptcy.”

“Yunjin is part of Jiangzhou, right?” Fang Shimian was eating crispy noodles, “If the company goes bankrupt, do we have to find new jobs?”

Xu Long looked at him like he was an idiot, “What does a real estate company’s bankruptcy have to do with our property management company? Qihe isn’t a subsidiary of Jiangzhou. If Yunjin explodes, then it concerns us.”

Fang Shimian nodded, half-understanding, “If it explodes, we’ll be fired.”

“No,” Xu Long played with his phone, not even lifting his eyelids, “We’ll end up in the station.”

“Oh, then I won’t let Yunjin explode,” Fang Shimian said, eating his crispy noodles, “But what if it explodes on a day we’re not on duty?”

“Ma Liang and the others will end up in the station,” Xu Long frowned, “Jiangzhou probably got caught for tax evasion or something, how did they catch so many people, damn marketing accounts, not even writing clearly.”

Xu Long pondered for a while, “There might be some impact, if Jiangzhou gets acquired, the real estate inspection might change people and rules, but it should be fine, just checking surveillance as a formality, at most deduct some money.”

Yunjin’s surveillance room gets checked by the real estate company every month, but they usually only retrieve videos from the order and customer service posts. Without major mistakes, they won’t deduct points.

As for the surveillance room videos, the property company’s higher-ups can view them 24/7 through software, but they rarely check. If caught off-duty, they’ll report and deduct money.

Last time, Xu Long got deducted two hundred for being caught like this, playing on his phone wasn’t strictly controlled.

The surveillance room deductions are usually checked by the property company’s quality department, randomly selecting a time period to check, whoever gets caught is unlucky.

A few days later, news of a high-ranking government official in Haishi being imprisoned caused quite a stir online, due to the large amount of embezzlement and bribery, and the person was caught at the airport, sparking a wave of public opinion.

In the comments, someone linked it to Jiangzhou’s recent bankruptcy liquidation and the major Yan Mountain car accident, but was quickly ridiculed, saying their imagination was too wild, connecting everything.

Xu Long treated these as gossip to tell Fang Shimian, who didn’t make any connections, just found it strange. Wasn’t Huo Zhongshan the core figure in Hengshi?

How come after his death, not a single piece of news leaked out, with so much happening these days, the Huo family managed to stay completely hidden.

During the half-month night shift, sometimes when Fang Shimian was well-rested, he would visit Zhao Shun and Zhao You.

He no longer drew drafts to sell, occasionally drawing something interesting and just leaving it in the surveillance room’s draft box.

Zhu Ze seemed to have become busier during this time, once arranging to have a meal with Fang Shimian but had to postpone due to something coming up. Fang Shimian understood and politely inquired about Zhu Ze’s health.

After hanging up, he happily went to Xu Long’s room to cook instant noodles.

During this time, Zhu Ze also asked if Fang Shimian wanted to live with him, which made Fang Shimian gasp in shock through the screen, taking a long time to organize his words to politely decline.

Zhu Ze didn’t seem too happy about it.

When December came and they switched to the day shift, Fang Shimian looked up that cats usually have a gestation period of just over two months, so the white cat was likely to give birth around this time. He asked Ma Liang to help feed it if he saw it at night.

During the day shift, Fang Shimian would also ask Xu Long to keep an eye out while he wandered around the community looking for the cat.

“Hengshi actually acquired Jiangzhou,” Xu Long clicked his tongue twice, “Amazing, they really are in the medical sector, rich and powerful.”

Fang Shimian was being fed jelly by the sisters from the customer service department, and upon hearing this, he looked at Xu Long, “So will the real estate inspections be done by Hengshi people in the future?”

Xu Long wasn’t too sure about this, hesitating, “Who knows, these small department changes are usually minor, probably still the same people, just a different name.”

When Fang Shimian was on the day shift, more people started coming to the surveillance room.

The brothers and sisters from the customer service and order departments took extra care of him, often bringing him snacks and teasing him to call them.

But Fang Shimian’s most famous incident was during last month’s day shift when a drunk resident dropped their phone and wallet in a taxi.

They came down to check the surveillance for the license plate, but were made to feel embarrassed by the extremely gentle Fang Shimian, taking a long time to check the surveillance, and finally requested to add him on WeChat, boldly asking if Fang Shimian had a partner.

When Fang Shimian was stammering and embarrassed, Xu Long suddenly appeared, scaring the person pale, realizing their sweet two-person world always had a third person present.

Xu Long was complained about by the resident for sleeping during work hours that day, getting two hundred deducted.

Amid Xu Long’s angry curses, the news of a handsome guy in Yunjin No. 1’s surveillance room spread quickly. The property company managed many communities, and upon hearing this, even managers from other areas wanted to borrow Fang Shimian as an image post.

But all of these were suppressed by Xu Long, who refused them all. The image post sounded nice, but it involved standing all day and serving people, not a good place to be.

Since then, any official video activities requiring a face from Yunjin No. 1’s property, Fang Shimian couldn’t escape. Sometimes he was even pulled by the order department to shoot promotional videos, everyone agreeing that Xiao Fang in an order uniform was quite striking.

Fang Shimian repeatedly refused to no avail, eventually retreating under his colleagues’ enthusiastic onslaught, reluctantly joining those activities he was quite resistant to.

The only consolation was that Yunjin’s property video account was poorly managed, the company unwilling to buy traffic, with most followers being company insiders and bots that only liked, the comment section almost empty, and the view count low, greatly reducing Fang Shimian’s embarrassment and discomfort.

Xu Long still filtered out many unnecessary shoots for Fang Shimian, and if they insisted on having him, Xu Long would directly call the manager to demand extra pay for Fang Shimian, allowing him to spend most of his time in the surveillance room playing.

One day, after using the bathroom, Fang Shimian didn’t return directly to the surveillance room, instead wandering around the community looking for the cat, only to be urgently taken to the property center manager’s office by the order post brother.

In the office, Manager Yang was having tea with someone, and upon seeing Fang Shimian brought in, he quickly led him into the office, introducing him to the others having tea, “This is Fang Shimian, young but very diligent in his work, everyone here likes him.”

The office also had a rarely seen district manager, who, upon hearing Manager Yang’s introduction, discreetly glanced at Fang Shimian and echoed a few words, smiling broadly.

Everyone stood up in unison.

Among those friendly yet unfamiliar faces, Fang Shimian saw an unexpected person.

Ming Ke.