Come Sit At My House - Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Luo Qingmeng got into the car while cursing. She slammed the car door shut, repeatedly calling Qiu Shuxue uncivilized. “Drive! People are cursing you now.”

She felt like she had become a spectacle, the kind of person who gets pointed at and cursed. She criticized Qiu Shuxue, “You’re so embarrassing. Can you not do this next time? Be more mature.”

Qiu Shuxue started the car. She said, “Okay,” then added, “Then just get in my car earlier when you get out.” This made it sound like it was all Luo Qingmeng’s fault.

“So it’s my fault?” Luo Qingmeng asked, annoyed.

Qiu Shuxue said, “It’s my fault.”

She then said seriously, “Really, I really think it’s my fault.”

But it didn’t sound like it. Luo Qingmeng felt that she was clearly smiling, and a very happy one at that.

Luo Qingmeng sat in the back, opened her phone’s navigation. She was mainly worried that Qiu Shuxue would take her on a detour and make her late for work.

She said under her breath, “I hate you kids so much.”

“By the way, do you like mature people?” Qiu Shuxue asked. “Li An is a bit old, in his late thirties. It’s actually hard for someone with his background to find a partner at our company.”

“…”

Luo Qingmeng’s heart ached. She knew Qiu Shuxue was doing this on purpose, coaxing her into the car just to humiliate her. “What does his age have to do with me? I hate old men.”

Qiu Shuxue laughed. “That’s what I thought. You’re more suited for younger people. But why did you fall for Li An? Do you just not like him now? Will you still like older men in the future?”

Luo Qingmeng didn’t realize this was a trap. She was so desperate to leave Li An and put distance between them that she didn’t realize she was falling into a self-justifying trap. She repeatedly explained that she didn’t like older men.

All her explanations were met with nothing but a laugh from Qiu Shuxue.

It was a bit mocking, as if she was silently saying, “You’re just talking tough now. When you meet the right person, you’ll still fall for them. You’re a love-obsessed person.”

Qiu Shuxue turned the steering wheel, took a big turn, and stopped at a red light. Qiu Shuxue said, “You gave a lot to him. The company thinks you’re clinging to him and that he’s your ideal type. Of course, many people at our company envy him, thinking you’re the dream wife for most men—obedient, a good cook, and you never argue with your husband.”

Luo Qingmeng said, “I don’t like men anymore. They’re disgusting.” Pah, dream wife. She meant a dream maid who also has kids. Men like him should all just die. Disgusting, disgusting!

“I get it,” Qiu Shuxue said.

“What do you get? You don’t get anything.”

Qiu Shuxue dropped her off. Luo Qingmeng got out of the car and didn’t even want to talk to her. Qiu Shuxue said, “I’ll pick you up tonight.”

Luo Qingmeng froze. She looked at Qiu Shuxue, not understanding.

“Why would you pick me up?”

“To save 6.4 yuan, sister.”

But Luo Qingmeng didn’t have time to reply because Chen Xin arrived. She waved at Luo Qingmeng from a distance, “Good morning, Sister Qingmeng.”

Luo Qingmeng didn’t want Chen Xin to know about her relationship with Qiu Shuxue. She lowered her head and walked inside. Qiu Shuxue didn’t linger and drove away from the mall entrance.

Chen Xin didn’t get to greet Qiu Shuxue. She jogged to catch up with Luo Qingmeng and asked, “Sister Meng, how does it feel to have three days off in a row?”

Luo Qingmeng didn’t feel very comfortable. Maybe it was because she had been a homebody. Chen Xin continued, “Did you and your husband go out and have fun? Did you eat anything good?”

“…” Luo Qingmeng wanted to bring this up even less. She’d rather talk about Qiu Shuxue for a while. Li An was already dead to her.

“I went to the supermarket.”

“Oh, that’s too boring. Men, ugh…”

She had spent over thirty thousand yuan.

“He used to come a few times when he was your boyfriend. Why doesn’t he come now?” Chen Xin kept asking, very gossipy.

Luo Qingmeng entered the mall, ready to take the escalator. She felt a bit stuffy after getting out of the car, her chest felt tight.

Chen Xin followed her and asked a few more questions about how her marriage was going. Luo Qingmeng really wanted to say, he’s dead to me now.

This thought gave Luo Qingmeng an idea.

After she got the money, she would say that Li An was dead, that he died in a horrible car accident, and that she was now a widow who had given up on love.

Thinking about this made her feel good.

She licked her lips and went to the second floor. She went straight to the store.

Luo Qingmeng asked, “Did the manager say which books are on sale?”

“No, it looks like you’ll have to pick them out. Go ahead and pick them. I feel like the books you pick sell much better than the ones the boss finds. The boss isn’t as meticulous as you. He’s a hands-off manager.”

Chen Xin praised her. She thought Luo Qingmeng was amazing. She had strong sales skills and knew about books. She knew about every book in the store. No matter what a customer was looking for, she knew what book it was and whether they had it.

Luo Qingmeng was happy to hear this. She hummed to herself but didn’t respond directly. It would be trouble if the boss heard.

The key was in Chen Xin’s hand. Chen Xin was a talker. As she unlocked the door, she said, “Sister Qingmeng, you could open your own bookstore.”

Luo Qingmeng had this dream, but she didn’t have the money.

Chen Xin said, “Just rent a storefront first. What are you doing? Open a study room. The rent is about five thousand a month. When students preparing for exams come, you can offer them a package deal. When you have money, you can start stocking books and open a bookstore.”

This made Luo Qingmeng a little excited. “Where did you hear all this?”

“I’m a junior in college, and I’ve started thinking about the graduate school entrance exam. The school library is packed with people, and there’s no space in the dorms to study. Everyone goes out to find a study room. It’s three hundred a month, and getting a membership card and other things makes it more expensive. If you’re targeting college students, you don’t need to decorate it too well. Just get some tables and make the environment quiet. You can also make your prices cheaper and find a place with low rent. You’ll definitely make money. You should ask your husband to invest a little. It would definitely be easier than working here.”

This was the first time Luo Qingmeng had heard about this.

Chen Xin complained about how competitive everything was now and how crowded the library was. Luo Qingmeng listened, hummed, and took it all to heart.

It was just the rent she couldn’t afford. Five thousand a month?

Thinking about it, a rent of 5000 in this city didn’t seem that high.

The door opened. Luo Qingmeng felt a bit of a smell inside, so she turned on the ventilation fan, then went to open the curtains. She found that the reading room hadn’t been cleaned properly, and there were a few apple cores in the corners.

Luo Qingmeng frowned and went to get the broom. “Didn’t we say no food in the bookstore? And to put all food on the table outside? Why is it such a mess? Flies will be so annoying.”

Their bookstore was quite large. To keep the books clean, they would put a large table at the entrance. On each day, there would be a staff member on duty to monitor the customers.

“It was Xiao Tang yesterday… maybe she didn’t look carefully.”

Luo Qingmeng didn’t really like Xiao Tang. She wasn’t serious about her work and would always say, “Why should I work my butt off for the boss when I’m so young?” It was fine for her to be a slacker, but she always used it as an excuse to make a mess of things and leave others to clean it up, which was very annoying.

Luo Qingmeng said, “Even a slacker shouldn’t be that lazy. Have some decency.”

Chen Xin didn’t say anything. She was on the same shift as Xiao Tang yesterday, and she had also slacked off. She went to get an apron, bringing one for Luo Qingmeng as well. She was stunned when she saw Luo Qingmeng trying to tie the apron. She didn’t move. She asked, confused, “What’s wrong, Sister Qingmeng?”

Luo Qingmeng was fuming. It was all Qiu Shuxue’s fault. Now, even looking at an apron felt strange. “It’s nothing.”

“Are you mad at Xiao Tang?” Chen Xin asked. “Why don’t you talk to her? She’s only well-behaved when she’s on the same shift as you.”

Luo Qingmeng hummed in agreement.

She was too lazy to deal with Xiao Tang. She wouldn’t get a raise for it anyway. She wasn’t stupid. It was enough that Xiao Tang was well-behaved when she was on the same shift.

An older woman was on duty today. She stood at the door, helping to arrange books and reminding customers to put down their food. The woman was very diligent and helped to take on some of the workload. Nothing went wrong that day. The manager came in around noon. She was a young woman, about 35 years old, not very tall, and a great talker. Luo Qingmeng really admired her. They were a chain of bookstores with branches all over the country, mostly in large malls. The manager walked around a few times, checking the store inside and out. Chen Xin wanted to tell her about Xiao Tang, but the manager was talking to Luo Qingmeng the whole time, so she couldn’t get a word in.

Luo Qingmeng was a little upset because the manager was asking about her marriage, congratulating her on her new marriage, and giving her two boxes of fruit. She kept asking why she didn’t have a wedding banquet, whether she was officially married, why she didn’t post anything on social media, and how she felt about living together.

It wasn’t really the season for fruit, but the manager said one box was strawberries and the other was pineapples, both of which she liked. Luo Qingmeng bit her lip, and with a twitch in her mouth, she smiled and said to the manager, “Thank you. We’ll be very happy.”

Hehe, after I finish the fruit, I’ll say Li An died from poisoning.

As the manager left, she shook her phone. “If there’s anything, just message me, or you can talk to Qingmeng.” The manager smiled at Luo Qingmeng. “Qingmeng, with you here, I’m much more at ease about this store.”

Luo Qingmeng smiled back.

She knew in her heart that what the manager said was useless. Her salary was still four thousand a month. What was the point of doing the manager’s job for that little money? She didn’t want to help manage the store. The moment her shift was over, she would leave.

After the boss left, she sighed. She would always sigh like this, to let everyone know that she was just an employee, too, and not to bother her. She was being forced to do this. She didn’t want to help the boss run the store. She wasn’t the manager.

It was noon, and Luo Qingmeng could take a break. She went to the break room to get her lunch. This was a bookstore, so they weren’t allowed to use any heating appliances. She had to go to the chain coffee shop that was connected to the bookstore to heat it up. She and Chen Xin went together.

She was a little thirsty while eating. She was going to buy a bottle of mineral water, but she remembered what Qiu Shuxue said about saving money.

She could spend an extra 3.2 yuan today.

Luo Qingmeng opened her food app to look for deals. She saw that there were several drinks she could get for three yuan. In the end, she ordered a cup of lemon water for 2.5 yuan.

She even saved an extra 0.7 yuan.

Luo Qingmeng lowered her head and smiled.

Chen Xin glanced at her, eating her little bun. “What are you smiling about?”

Luo Qingmeng said, “The food I made today is especially delicious.”

Chen Xin smiled. “Then, sister, you have to let me try it sometime.”

She didn’t have much time in the morning, so she made a simple meal. She used her new machine to steam purple sweet potatoes and regular sweet potatoes, made a simple tomato and egg on rice, and also stir-fried some boiled fish balls that she had bought online a long time ago. You couldn’t tell much about her cooking skills from her lunch.

Luo Qingmeng was very happy. She was about to go and get her lemon water when she received a message from Chen Xin.

Chen Xin: Sister, your dearest ordered you a yogurt drink. Hurry and cancel your coupon!

Luo Qingmeng didn’t quite understand the message: What is it?

Chen Xin sent her a picture. Luo Qingmeng saw a note on it: Please make it with less sugar for my dearest. She’s already very sweet.

The person who ordered the yogurt drink for her definitely wasn’t Li An. She came down the escalator. They couldn’t bring food and drinks into the store, so Chen Xin helped her get it to the break room. The break room only had chairs and one long, narrow table.

The yogurt drink was on the table, with a fine layer of condensation on the outside. Chen Xin teased her, “Marriage is pretty good. You have a husband who cares about you.”

Luo Qingmeng wanted to say he wasn’t her husband, but she couldn’t explain why she was called “dearest.” The yogurt drink on the table was a real eyesore.

Zhang Fenlan, who was outside, also saw it and smiled, “Your husband sent it. Drink it up! All the young people outside are drinking it. One cup costs dozens of yuan. It would be a waste not to drink it.”

Maybe it was the last sentence that motivated her. She put in the straw and took a sip. It tasted pretty good. It was the hawthorn flavor that Qiu Shuxue had ordered.

At noon, she had a one-and-a-half-hour break. She went to the small break room in the back to lie down for a bit. She scrolled through videos first, then took a sip of the yogurt drink. The additional information on that friend request on her phone changed again.

Qiu Shuxue: So hungry at noon.

Yeah, right.

Luo Qingmeng wasn’t stupid. Li An had told her that the food at their company was great. They had chefs with professional licenses, dozens of dishes every day, and you could get whatever you wanted. They also had a meal subsidy every month. Li An had even taken pictures for her, asking if she could make those dishes.

Luo Qingmeng didn’t look at it anymore and took a nap.

When she woke up, there was still a little bit of the yogurt drink left. It had melted now. She took a sip, and it was sickeningly sweet. It didn’t taste very good.

She went back to work at 2 p.m. There weren’t many people in the store in the afternoon. Few people were out at this time. She sat down and picked up a book next to her to read.

Recently, a lot of marketing accounts had been pushing this book. The author wrote about real cases of corruption. The content was truly shocking. She couldn’t imagine how people with high education could do such things. They were so knowledgeable, but in the end, it turned them into animals. She read it seriously, thinking about the marketing copy she would write for this book tomorrow.

After reading three chapters, customers started to trickle in. She perked up and went to the cash register. As her shift was about to end, she started to get distracted. Would Qiu Shuxue come to pick her up? Could she save another 3.2 yuan? Was it worth swallowing her pride for 3.2 yuan?

Luo Qingmeng was thinking as she took the book from the customer’s hand. She used the barcode scanner to scan the price, but it didn’t show up. She lowered her head and said, “Wait a moment. I need to check where the code for this physical exam report is. Please wait… physical exam report? You took the wrong thing. Let’s try another one.”

She looked up and saw that there was nothing wrong with the book, and the customer hadn’t given her the wrong item. The person in front of her was Qiu Shuxue. Qiu Shuxue had deliberately given her a physical exam report.

Qiu Shuxue said, “I went to get a checkup yesterday, and the results are out today… Do you want to take a look?” She looked at her, her eyes hinting: we agreed on this that night.

Luo Qingmeng looked up. Other customers in the store were still browsing. A customer at the door was putting down their milk tea. Chen Xin looked at her curiously. She tried to stuff the physical exam report back to Qiu Shuxue, but Qiu Shuxue wouldn’t take it, insisting that she look at it.

Luo Qingmeng was afraid that others would see. What would she say? She thought about it and stuffed it under the cash register, asking in a low voice, “What do you want? I’m at work.”

Qiu Shuxue was also holding a book, the same one she was reading today. She said, “Nothing. I just wanted to show you.”

A customer came to check out, and Qiu Shuxue stepped aside to let her handle the sale. She stood to the side, leaning her arm on the cash register. The customer handed the book to Luo Qingmeng. Luo Qingmeng glanced at Qiu Shuxue, glaring at her, clearly telling her to get lost.

Qiu Shuxue, however, spoke in a slow, drawn-out tone, “Boss, I’m very clean. It says so on the report. Just take a look.”

Luo Qingmeng was about to bite her tongue off.

“I’m not the boss.”

Qiu Shuxue looked at her and said, “Then what are you?”

The physical exam report had not been stuffed in properly and was now on the floor. Luo Qingmeng stepped on it, not thinking too much about her reply.

She raised her voice and replied, “I’m a widow now!”

And then… everyone in the store froze.