Chapter 397: Fast Forward to the Battle of Red Cliffs

The living room was brightly lit, on the soft sofa.

Xu Qianqian wore a sloth-like dazed expression and let out a long "ah~."

?

Is this still Chinese?

"Mm, exactly what you're thinking." Jiang Nian nodded, held up one finger, and said, "Give the old man a little hope."

Hearing this, Xu Qianqian was first stunned, then her pupils shook.

Her face flushed red little by little, then she took a deep breath. With a scream, she kicked hard toward Jiang Nian's direction from the sofa.

"You you you!!! Pervert!"

Jiang Nian nimbly dodged her twisted jade foot and couldn't help sighing.

"Sigh, the old man's joy plan is done for."

Hearing the words "old man's joy," Xu Qianqian nearly lost her composure, thinking to herself that Jiang Nian the big pervert was truly filthy beyond bounds.

"Just shut up!"

"Fine, but I have one last thing I want to say." Jiang Nian started acting coy again. "I don't know if I should say it."

"Speak." Xu Qianqian crossed her arms and looked at him.

Jiang Nian was about to speak when he noticed the curve pressed into the girl's shirt by her chest. He couldn't help losing focus for a moment and swallowed hard.

"Pervert!" A throw pillow flew toward him.

Xu Qianqian hugged another light-colored throw pillow to her chest, struck a defensive pose, and looked at him with a disgusted gaze.

"Is there anything in your head besides filthy garbage?"

Jiang Nian sat back down on the sofa, striking a thinking pose.

"Maybe.....

7

From the very beginning, filthy talk, main roads and side roads, buses, private cars, tricycles — all had appeared in this big living room.

But in reality, what they were discussing was a very heavy, sorrowful topic.

Namely, that Old Xu would one day lose interest in this world. In some year, he would simply abandon Xu Qianqian.

Perhaps leaving behind a letter, written on it:

【Qianqian, your mother has been living alone over there for more than ten years. She's still waiting for me. I have to go on being her husband.】

If that really happened, wouldn't Xu Qianqian blow up?

Jiang Nian knew it very well, and Xu Qianqian knew it very well too. Old Xu would, one day, walk toward that great mountain where her mother was buried.

So all that filthy talk of his was just to dilute the heavy atmosphere, to let Xu Qianqian temporarily detach from it.

A person only lives thirty thousand days in total. Jiang Nian wanted to give Xu Qianqian a little more hope for life, rather than let her tough it out alone.

In the living room, Jiang Nian was silent for a few seconds, then looked up and said:

"Xu Qianqian."

"Mm?"

"Things that haven't happened, there's no need to overthink." Jiang Nian chose his words carefully. "It's up to

people to act. There will always be a way."

Xu Qianqian didn't know whether she'd taken in his words, she just nodded lightly.

"Mm."

"How about considering the old man's joy?"

"Mm." Xu Qianqian was off in a daydream, her gaze unfocused as she nodded, then immediately caught herself. "If you keep talking nonsense, I'll give you two punches!"

"Fine then, I'm a bit sleepy." Seeing the topic stall, Jiang Nian took the initiative to get up. "I should head back, you get some sleep early too."

"Mm."

As he passed the sofa, he casually touched Xu Qianqian's other jade foot.

"Hey, why is your foot swollen again?"

"Ah!! You perv!" Xu Qianqian irritably kicked him and snapped angrily, "Get lost, stop bothering me here."

"How is that biting the hand that feeds you?" Jiang Nian said. "Oh right, tomorrow I'll find someone to fill in that bumpy road at the alley entrance."

Hearing this, Xu Qianqian didn't take his words to heart either. She just figured he was embarrassed and talking off the cuff.

Who has nothing better to do than actually fix a road?

Bang — the door shut.

The lights in the living room swayed, leaving only Xu Qianqian alone.

She slowly climbed up from the sofa, stood in the living room and shook her head. Still not quite awake, she patted her own face.

"It'll pass eventually."

After saying that, her gaze grew firm again. Taking a deep breath, she headed to the bedroom to get clothes and wash up.

Jiang Nian got home and washed up first.

With his hair blow-dried, he sat at his desk, cleared all the chaos from his mind, and first wrote a chemistry test paper.

In the blink of an eye, it was midnight.

He checked the answers, looked at the eighty-something-point chemistry test paper and let out a long breath, leaning back into his chair.

Creak, sigh.

When the mind is a mess, thinking about things is a waste of time. Doing a test paper to calm down — sure enough, his head was much clearer.

Jiang Nian knew very well that simply reasoning with Old Xu, or using logical words, or emotional talk to counsel him,

was basically hopeless.

Because, standpoint.

Put plainly, the head decides where the seat sits.

Everything a person says and does starts from their own standpoint. So-called "putting yourself in their shoes" or "judging others by yourself" are merely tools.

Let me give an example.

Jiang Nian wants to sleep with Xu Qianqian, so of course he hopes Old Xu lives a hundred years.

He might put himself in Old Xu's shoes and say a few kind words from his angle. But he would absolutely not let Old Xu head toward "relief."

That is his standpoint—no matter how lofty the words he says, in the end it all comes down to one point: satisfying his personal interest.

Case cracked—that's why there are so many mediation shows!

He could even imagine how ridiculous his own face would look when that moment really came.

Old Xu: "My mind is set on leaving."

Jiang Nian: "Then let me ask you, then let me ask you."

He began using the tool of contradiction to sort through this matter. First, the contradiction between Old Xu and Xu Qianqian. To sum it up: want to die, don't die.

If you treat this contradiction as a whole, the solution must be persuasion—then hitting a wall... falling into a deadlock.

Opening your mouth without knowing the situation will only end like Song Jiang's three attacks on Zhu Family Village—a total loss.

First, Xu Qianqian is about to take the college entrance exam. Old Xu certainly won't stir up trouble, but the thought of dying might be reaching a critical threshold.

So, intervention is needed.

Ordinary kids give up on themselves to get their parents' attention. Xu Qianqian couldn't do that—she's always been strong and independent.

But Jiang Nian felt he could let Old Xu help with small things. Back and forth, give Old Xu the feeling that his daughter needs him.

Once the college entrance exam is over, Xu Qianqian goes off to college.

At this stage, contact between college students and their parents is very weak. Both sides are in a period of adapting to a new environment and meeting new friends.

But... what if Xu Qianqian isn't doing well?

For example, being isolated by the girls in her dorm. Losing the class cadre election. Breaking up with her boyfriend (Jiang Dog).

Whether real or fake, Old Xu couldn't just sit by and do nothing.

If he's gone through a phase of being needed, he'll instinctively start giving his daughter advice—and then that little plan of his has to be postponed.

Further down the road, Xu Qianqian graduates.

"Dad, sob sob sob, I'm carrying Jiang Nian's baby, and he doesn't want me. I lost my job too, and I can't even get a cab to the hospital."

One sentence, enough to break Old Xu's defense.

"Dad, after I finish my month of confinement I want to go back to work. I don't want anything to do with the Jiang family, but there's no one to look after the baby."

"Dad, (the third generation of the Xu family) can't bear to part with you."

Under the desk lamp.

Jiang Nian unconsciously scribbled on paper, drawing out the contradictions that could be found on the surface, and the ways to resolve them.

"Sending the child"—too crude.

This version is the optimized plan. Later, as Old Xu's mindset changes, corresponding adjustments will need to be made.

Jiang Nian tossed his pen aside and leaned back in his chair, looking at the thought-map.

"Mm, I'll find Xu Shao to discuss it another day."

"Great plan, I'm practically a genius. Just have to practice sprinting these next two years, so I don't get stabbed by the old man."

"Can't go home either, easy to get stabbed by the old couple."

After Jiang Nian finished muttering to himself in the chair, the grin on his face suddenly froze—he couldn't smile at all. "Shit—

?? Isn't the price way too high?"

But by that time, as the biological father, he'd conveniently be able to use Xu Qianqian's face wash out in the open.

Cut the oil, cleanse better.

Suddenly, his phone on the desk buzzed with a vibration.

Chen Yunyun: "Asleep?"

Jiang Nian scrolled up and found that Chen Yunyun had sent several messages at eleven, but he'd been busy doing a test paper at the time.

"She's asleep, I'm not."

Once the message was sent, Chen Yunyun couldn't hold it in and replied instantly.

"?????"

"Who is she?"

"Good question, she's my fiancée." Jiang Nian typed back, and took a photo of the little bear propped at the foot of his bed.

Smiling Bear: "...... Your mom."

A few seconds later, Chen Yunyun sent another string of dots.

"(awkward) You don't sound like you're faking it."

Jiang Nian replied with a smug dragon meme, and during the gap scrolled up through the messages—seeing several pictures of test papers.

【11:03 Chen Yunyun: "This set of math problems is all standard college entrance exam difficulty, and the big questions are classic too."】

【11:03 Chen Yunyun: "Want me to throw in a set for you too?

"Or not?"】

Jiang Nian's eyes welled up a little at that.

A test paper at standard college entrance exam difficulty—really?

He tapped into the pictures to look closely, and found the big questions really were all sorts of trig functions, solid geometry, classic derivatives, and conic sections.

Slurp slurp—the test paper really is pretty good.

After reading it, he replied to Chen Yunyun.

"Give it to me, I'm a student."

After a while, Chen Yunyun sent a sweating little yellow bean emoji.

"Okay."

Jiang Nian grinned — getting something for free felt great.

"Thanks, Yunyun."

"(Dragon image)"

After a while, Wang Yuhe, for the first time ever, sent him a message.

"I have one too! (Test paper image)"

"Damn, you're still up?" Jiang Nian typed back, asking in confusion, "How did you know I was talking about the test paper?"

Wang Yuhe: "I'm on Yunyun's bed."

Hmm?

Jiang Nian glanced at the time and confirmed it was already midnight. At this hour, the girls' dorm was usually already asleep.

"What are you two doing?"

Wang Yuhe: "Sleeping. (Sunglasses)"

"The bed is so small, how can you two fit?"

"Hugging while sleeping."

Seeing this, Jiang Nian furiously hammered out question marks.

"???"

Why did it feel like he'd been force-fed something? He could still tell classmates and same-sex apart. Damn, his girl-detector seemed to suddenly go off.

Not sure, let me look again.

Chen Yunyun: "(Smile) That scatterbrain Chai Muying accidentally soaked her own blanket while soaking her feet."

"If we don't share a blanket with the scatterbrain, she'll freeze to death in the dorm tonight."

Jiang Nian saw this and suddenly understood.

"I'm still curious how you two actually fit. Where's Tutu?"

Chen Yunyun: "?"

"Take a pic of your sleeping pose, I'm a little curious." After replying, Jiang Nian casually sent a ten-yuan red packet in the three-person group chat.

【Wang Yuhe claimed your red packet. Chen Yunyun claimed your red packet. Red packet fully claimed. Wang Yuhe is the luckiest.】

Chen Yunyun: "(Facepalm) You really want me to send it?"

"I don't believe you can fit."

Wang Yuhe: "(Image) Hmph! Ignorance."

Jiang Nian saved the image right away, then enlarged it with a grin. The corners of his mouth shot straight up, and his heart felt sweet.

Good good good, fast-forward to the Battle of Red Cliffs.

After a while, Chen Yunyun messaged him again, bringing up the test paper.

"I'll give it to you at noon tomorrow. Want me to mark the order for you?"

Jiang Nian replied, "If you have time."

"Okay. (Little tangled)"

Jiang Nian sent back a sticker, then fell asleep peacefully on the lily-blossom headboard — tonight's dream material was locked in.

The next day.

Jiang Nian washed up and went out as usual. When he reached the alley, at the spot where Xu Qianqian had twisted her ankle last night, he took a photo with his phone.

He planned to find someone at noon to pour asphalt and fill the pothole.

He wasn't short on money and wanted to hire someone to repave the whole road. He walked that crappy path every day, and all the bumps and holes were really annoying.

But on second thought, so many people went in and out of the alley. A full repave would just be spending money and getting cursed at — better to just fill that one stretch.

He also wondered if Xu Qianqian's foot had healed.