Chapter 217: Accompany me tonight

Huang Yaming and Tan Yao hung out together. As the 4s store called and conveyed that the car could already be collected, this being a day earlier than had previously been expected, the two of them were currently in the midst of a fan-oriented event with a female artiste in Xihu City.

They got familiar with some internal operations of the industry and got to know some people, flirting with some chicks along the way as well.

Therefore, nearing evening that day, it was Xu Tingsheng himself who went to collect the car, after which he drove it on the public roads rather cautiously to familiarise himself with it.

He had driven for a couple of years in his previous life before, but never had he had the chance to drive a car such as this.

The difference in the acceleration capabilities, the weight of the steering wheel, even the height of the seat and its corresponding field of vision as well as the degree of tilting during the rounding of bends were all things that he had to slowly get familiarised with and used to.

Xu Tingsheng’s handphone rang. He parked the car by the roadside and answered it.

Li Wan’er said, “Hello, is this Mister Xu? This is Li Wan. Your suits are already finished. Could you...give me your address? I’ll send them over to you right now.”

Xu Tingsheng felt rather astonished, “You’re done so quickly? It’s a day ahead of schedule.”

Li Wan’er explained rather nervously, “That’s not it. You can rest assured, Mister Xu, that I didn’t sacrifice quality for speed. I worked very seriously, not sleeping for three days before managing to complete them ahead of schedule. You can examine them when we meet. If there’s anything that you’re dissatisfied with, I can change it for you.”

Xu Tingsheng smiled, “This isn’t what I meant! I was just surprised. Still, I’m currently out right now, and I’m also not too familiar with the roads in Shenghai. Because of that, I wonder if you can wait till tomorrow to pass me the suits?”

Li Wan’er was silent for a while before she finally still spoke, “Why don’t I come to look for you? It’s also fine if you’re outside. Just tell me an approximate location and I’ll go look for you there.”

Li Wan’er having said so, Xu Tingsheng basically understood what was going on. The reason she had gone all out to complete the suits one day ahead of time, also being in such a rush to deliver them to him, was actually likely that she urgently needed this sum of money, this need being a really pressing one. She had to receive the remaining payment from him immediately.

“What could have made her this tight on money?”

Xu Tingsheng felt puzzled, but did not ask her about it.

If someone does not intend to help another person, it is best not to ask them about their troubles and their suffering. That holds no significance at all aside from satisfying one’s own curiosity and need for gossip. It might even add on to the other party’s pain.

“That’s fine. I’ll have to trouble you to come over then.”

As a transaction would have to be made, for convenience’s sake, Xu Tingsheng drove straight over to a bank on Jiang Ning Road before telling the address to Li Wan’er.

He parked his car by the park that was opposite the bank, opening the windows and smoking a cigarette as he waited for her to arrive.

More than half an hour passed, yet Li Wan’er had still yet to arrive.

A while later, a rather rickety van pulled over by the roadside nearby. Xu Tingsheng thought that it should be Li Wan’er. He looked out of the window for a while, but no one got off from that van.

Then, Li Wan’er called his number.

“I’m already nearby, but I can’t see your car,” Li Wan’er said.

Only now did Xu Tingsheng remember that he had changed his car as he hurriedly asked, “Are you inside a van? That one whose license plate reads...”

“Yes,” Li Wan’er answered.

“I’m just a little in front of you. That black Mercedes-Benz SUV parked horizontally over there, you see it?” Xu Tingsheng asked.

After a momentary pause, Li Wan’er’s voice resounded over the phone, “I see it. I’ll be right over,” Immediately after that, she hung up.

Xu Tingsheng watched the van start moving from around 20 metres behind him. It neared, decelerating, gradually drawing nearer.

It was already near enough.

It should really be stopping?

Why wasn’t it stopping?

Oh, what the hell...

Xu Tingsheng could only watch on helplessly just like that as the head of the van slowly neared his left front wheel. More accurately, it slowly drove over into a collision...the collision happened.

Then, the van accelerated, continuing on its forward trajectory.

“Hey, stop, stop!”

“Hey, I’m hit!”

“Hey, Li Wan’er, what’s with you?”

“...”

After yelling for a while but to no avail, before the van could really ‘go too hard at it’, as the G500 was still able to take it, Xu Tingsheng pulled the handbrake and quickly leapt off his car, running over beside the van.

Due to the heat, the window for the driver’s seat was left open.

“Hey, Li Wan’er!” Xu Tingsheng yelled.

“Huh?”

Li Wan’er’s expression was dazed, her eyes incomparably swollen.

“Stop the van!”

“Oh, stop the van.”

Li Wan’er tilted her head and adjusted her foot...then, the horsepower of the van actually increased yet further, with even the G500 being pushed a few inches away as a result.

A helpless Xu Tingsheng could only squeeze his upper body through the window of the van before desperately searching below. Thus, his head unavoidably touched Li Wan’er’s thigh.

“You?” Li Wan’er actually still had the leisure to blush as she protested in a low voice.

“What’re you doing? Foot, off!” Xu Tingsheng frantically roared.

Then, he reached right out and caught Li Wan’er’s leg, moving her foot off the accelerator. Next, he found the handbrake and pulled it.

Xu Tingsheng extricated himself from the van with some difficulty.

Li Wan’er looked around, rubbed her face and pinched herself before her mind finally cleared.

“Sis, you ruined the suits, right?” An infuriated Xu Tingsheng asked.

“I didn’t,” Li Wan’er said earnestly.

“Then, why were you trying to murder me? To silence me?” Xu Tingsheng asked furiously.

“I wasn’t,” Li Wan’er said blankly.

“You weren’t? If you weren’t, why were you slamming your van into me so happily? Not stopping however much I called, stepping on the gas the more I asked you to stop?”

Xu Tingsheng opened the door and pulled Li Wan’er off the van, pointing at the spot where its head was in contact with the wheel of the G500 car as well as the resulting ruts on the ground.

He said in an ill-humoured tone, “You were pushing against my car for at least three minutes, you know? My car’s even shifted, you see?”

Li Wan’er looked at Xu Tingsheng with those big, innocent eyes, saying awkwardly, “I, I...sorry, I was too tired. I seem to have fallen asleep just now. Also, also, I’ve never driven this van before. I don’t really know how to control it.”

She pointed at the van beside her after having said this.

At the current moment, Li Wan’er’s hair was dishevelled and her face pale without the slightest bit of colour in her dry lips, her eyes incomparably swollen...it appeared that like she had said, she had indeed been sleeplessly rushing the three suits for all the past three days and nights. The current her was already in an extremely frail condition.

Xu Tingsheng could only sigh helplessly. He eased his emotions, deciding not to find fault with her any longer. She was already pitiful enough. He was even feeling a little regretful as well as apologetic at his earlier attitude towards her.

“It’s fortunate that she didn’t get into an accident on the road. Otherwise, a life could’ve been harmed,” Xu Tingsheng murmured softly, musing to himself.

Xu Tingsheng was not scolding her any longer.

Yet, all of a sudden, Li Wan’er crouched down on the ground, holding her face as she began weeping softly. Her tears soon seeped through the gaps between her fingers, dampening the dishevelled hair on her face.

The accusatory looks from the passing cars that were directed at Xu Tingsheng were all filled with the ‘you bastard’ vibe.

Thinking that he had scared her to the point of crying, Xu Tingsheng helplessly approached her, “Fine, I was a bit fierce just now. It’s mainly because I didn’t know of your situation. I went a little overboard there, sorry.”

Li Wan’er shook her head, sobbing, “It’s not that. It isn’t because of you. How much will I have to compensate you?”

She raised her head, pointing towards the point where the two cars met.

Xu Tingsheng instantly understood why she had begun crying all of a sudden. The way she saw it, the money that she worked so hard to earn might have gone poof just like that. She definitely knew that it was a branded car her van had collided with. Thus, the compensation fee probably wouldn’t be low...yet, she was in urgent need of this sum of money...

This feeling of having worked hard after a spate of bad luck yet seeing her hopes extinguished again thereafter left her teetering on the brink of collapse, feeling unable to go on.

Realising this, Xu Tingsheng said gently, “Relax, you won’t have to pay compensation for this. I’ll pay you the full sum of money as agreed.”

“Huh? This...isn’t okay! This is your boss’s car, right?” Li Wan’er shook her head forcefully with tears in her eyes, “If you don’t ask me for compensation, your boss will ask you to pay instead.”

Xu Tingsheng now remembered that when the two of them had been in negotiations, he had told Li Wan’er that he wasn’t anyone important, just some mere employee. Also, he had been driving Fang Yuqing’s decrepit Volkswagen at the time. Therefore, Li Wan’er currently believed that he had driven his boss’s car out, with it then having been hit by her.

Xu Tingsheng thought about it, “Relax, it’s just a scrape at the wheel. I’ll spread a bit of wax over it. Even if it’s eventually discovered after a few days, my boss will just think that he hit it himself.”

“But...”

Li Wan’er was still worrying about it, so he he directly interjected, “Stop it with the ‘buts’! You didn’t forget the suits, right?”

“I brought them.”

Li Wan’er nodded before retrieving three bags from atop the van. The full three sets were all placed neatly within.

Xu Tingsheng flipped randomly through them. Not finding anything wrong, he directly pulled Li Wan’er right across the road and transferred the remaining 120000 yuan into her bank account before returning her identity card to her.

“Well, we’re done now. We’re even,” Xu Tingsheng said as he exited the bank.

“Yeah,” Li Wan’er nodded.

The two successively crossed the road. Xu Tingsheng drove his car a ways out before stopping and lighting up a cigarette. From his car window, he watched Li Wan’er open the door of the van, get on and start the engine. Then, ‘Bang’! The back of the van smashed into the pavement.

Xu Tingsheng thought about it for a moment before throwing the cigarette away and getting off his car. He went over beside the van, calling Li Wan’er down from it.

“Mister Xu, what is it? Is there something wrong with the suits?” Li Wan’er asked.

Xu Tingsheng ignored her, directly getting onto the van and driving it some dozen metres away. Having found a parking lot, he parked the van properly.

Then, he walked back over to Li Wan’er and told her outright, “You’re not fit to drive in this condition. Your van’s there, you can drive it away tomorrow. I’ll be sending you back today.”

Xu Tingsheng opened the front passenger seat door of the G500 for her.

Li Wan’er was still hesitating.

“Get on the car, Li Wan’er! What the heck are you afraid of? This Uncle’s got no interest in old women like you,” Xu Tingsheng had nearly been driven bonkers by this timid, brainless woman, yet it just happened that she appeared just so pitiful.

“Oh, okay. Thank you then.”

Biting her lip, Li Wan’er finally got on the car.

After she had pointed out the route to where she currently resided, the two fell silent for a time.

Xu Tingsheng thought that this silence would persist to the end.

Li Wan’er suddenly asked, “I heard you call my name just now. How did you know that I’m really called Li Wan’er? Did you know me from somewhere before? Or someone you know knew me?”

She was clearly asking this cautiously, afraid that Xu Tingsheng had intentionally approached her or was doing so on behalf of his boss.

Xu Tingsheng had really never seen such a stupid person before as he commented exasperatedly, “You...I can’t be bothered to scold you. Your identity card’s been with me for two, nearly three days now. Now, how do you think I know that your name is Li Wan’er?”

“...Sorry.”

The silence persisted. Li Wan’er would glance at Xu Tingsheng from time to time, wanting to say something yet ultimately still not voicing it out.

“If there’s something you want to say, say it,” Xu Tingsheng said.

Li Wan’er hesitated for a moment before she clenched her teeth and asked, “Will you have to return the car to your boss later?”

“Nope.”

“Do you have anything on tonight?”

“Nothing. What’s up?”

“I, I’d like a favour from you.”

“Say it.”

“Can you accompany me tonight?”

Hence asked Li Wan’er.