EWH 41

Later, the two of them went out to buy lychees. By the time they finished, it was almost time for Yang Moshou to head back to work.

While sending him back to his department, Xu Wanhe sat in the car thinking, Fuck, am I gonna have to pick him up and drop him off every day, buy him snacks too, like sending a kid to kindergarten?

Meanwhile, Yang Moshou was thinking,
He should buy a little backpack.
Later, he could give it to Xu Wanhe, and every morning before work, make him stuff it full. That way, when he got to work, it would not look too obvious, and he could sneak it under his desk and eat in secret.

The two of them looked at each other. One feeling irritated, the other full of dreams.

Right before getting out of the car, Xu Wanhe grabbed Yang Moshou’s arm.

“Hey, what kind of wishes do you have?”

Yang Moshou closed the door again.

“Why did you not ask earlier? I have to clock in now.”

Xu Wanhe’s face darkened.

“I can fucking ask whenever I feel like it.
Mind your own business.”

Then, a little unwillingly, he added,

“I just thought of it now. It is not like asking you a few questions will take that long.”

Yang Moshou thought for a moment.
“My only wish growing up was that my family would open a little convenience store.”

He suddenly looked a little sad.

“But my mom and dad never made it happen. I ended up getting into medical school. Guess it will never happen in this lifetime.”

Xu Wanhe glanced at the driver and felt a bit embarrassed.

“That’s fucking pathetic.”

Yang Moshou shot him a look.

“You’re the one who asked. I tell you, and now you’re judging me? You’re impossible.”

Xu Wanhe clenched his fists, resisting the urge to smack him right there.

He had a confession to make tonight, after all.

At the very least, he had to keep a decent impression until then.

Xu Wanhe swallowed his temper. “Who’s judging you? I think that’s a great wish.”

Then he pointed at the driver and smacked him.

“I meant him. Grown-ass man with no dreams.”

The driver rubbed his head and quickly laughed along.

“Xu-ge is right, totally right.”

Yang Moshou obviously understood what was going on but didn’t say anything. With a strange little smile, he left Xu Wanhe a few lychees and headed off to clock in.

After finally running to the guard post and clocking in, Yang Moshou turned back, wanting to say something to Xu Wanhe. But the car was already gone.

No clue what he rushed off to do.

He entered the outpatient building, climbed the stairs, and hurried toward his department. Just as he was about to arrive, someone behind him called out his name.

He picked up his pace, pretending he had not heard.

He hated it the most when he was carrying food and someone tried to stop him.

It was awkward to refuse, but it was also painful to give it away.

Xiao Hu caught up to him and clapped a hand onto his shoulder.

“Xiao Yang, I was calling you. Why did you ignore me?”

Yang Moshou turned his face slightly.

“I was just about to turn around. What is it?”

Xiao Hu caught his breath.

“Here is the thing, I really need your help.
I swear, I have no one else to turn to.”

Yang Moshou held the bag of lychees, looking conflicted. “You want some?”

“No,” Xiao Hu waved it off. “Xiao Yang, I’m desperate. I’m supposed to be on night duty today, but my girlfriend’s been threatening to break up these past few days. She’s packing her stuff and moving out of our rental right now. Already bought a ticket and everything. I wanted to ask for leave and go to her, but our supervisor refused. Said we can’t have just one doctor on duty at night. I asked around, but no one’s free. So I figured I’d ask you…”

Xiao Hu and Yang Moshou didn’t have much of a connection beyond being part of the same cohort of new hires at the hospital. They’d interned together for a while, and both ended up staying on, but their specializations were different, and they ended up in different departments.

Yang Moshou thought about it. He didn’t have anything going on tonight, and Xiao Hu really did look desperate, so he agreed.

“Alright, fine…”

Xiao Hu grabbed his hand gratefully. “Xiao Yang… thank you so much… seriously… I’ll treat you to a big meal later…”

“Sure, but… we’re not even in the same department. Will your supervisor be okay with it?”

“No problem. I’ll just tell them I found someone to cover for me. Besides, it’s not like you’ll be the only doctor on duty. There are others too.”

Yang Moshou walked a few steps into the office and stashed the lychees under his desk.

“Alright, just make sure you clear it with them. I’ve got nothing going on anyway.”

—

Xu Wanhe had a hell of a busy afternoon.

He suddenly got the idea to give Yang Moshou a gift during his confession. And since he had heard him say he wished for a little convenience store, he decided to gift him a supermarket instead.

The restaurant and fireworks were already being handled by others. As for the supermarket, Xu Wanhe mentioned it to a few of his top guys. After all, he had a lot of people under him, and plenty of them were running side businesses. Maybe one of them already had a small supermarket, and he could just buy it off them. Then he could hand the keys to Yang Moshou directly.

It was a perfect plan.

While his men were out scouting and making calls, Xu Wanhe drove home to pick out what to wear for dinner.

He brought ten of his boys with him. Once there, he tried on outfit after outfit while they all crowded around giving their opinions.

The closet door creaked open, and Xu Wanhe stepped out in a full red outfit.
Immediately, everyone outside started shouting over each other.

“Damn, Xu-ge looks too good… I swear he’s better-looking than Xu Wenqiang from the movies…”

“Xu-ge, I think the pink one from earlier was better. Makes you look fairer… This one looks kinda hot…”

“Xu-ge, why not throw on a gold chain too?
Feels like just the clothes are not enough on their own…”

“You bumpkin, what the fuck, you think this is still the era where you wear a turtleneck and hang the gold chain over it? Why don’t you tell him to get gold teeth too? You think Xu-ge’s some tasteless old thug? Do you even know he reads fashion magazines every day to study outfits? If you don’t know shit, shut the fuck up.”

“Fuck you. Like you know anything.
Strutting around in a suit with no shirt, and you still dare to talk about fashion…”

“Hey, fuck your mother, you showing off in front of Xu-ge now?”

Xu Wanhe was adjusting accessories in front of the mirror when he heard the commotion behind him. His brow furrowed sharply.

“Shut the fuck up. You looking for a beating?”

That instantly silenced the two guys who were about to grab each other by the collars.

Xu Wanhe fastened a gold watch onto his wrist.

“Alright, enough fucking around.
This will do.”

Then he asked the trusted guy next to him,
“How’s the supermarket thing going?”

That guy had been on the phone the whole time, and hearing Xu Wanhe’s question, he quickly hung up.

“Xu-ge, we found a few options. One of Wei En’s boys runs a supermarket. It is a pretty big one, two floors. I already told him you want to take it over.”

Xu Wanhe straightened his clothes in front of the mirror.

“Let that kid keep running it. I will just fund it. Consider it like hiring him.”

“Got it,” the guy said, grinning flatteringly. “We are all your people anyway, Xu-ge. No need to be so polite about money.”

Xu Wanhe lifted his eyes and gave him a sharp look.

“Also, change the name. Rename it ‘Xiao Maibu’ And make sure you clean the place up properly. Once it is ready, just hand me the keys.”

The guy answered quickly, about to start making calls again, but then suddenly thought of something.

“Right, Xu-ge, is ‘Xiao Maibu’ really the name you wanna go with?”

Xu Wanhe thought for a second, then gave him the name to use and told him to get it done fast.

With everything finally in place, Xu Wanhe suddenly remembered he had not even told Yang Moshou about dinner tonight.

He reached for the phone and dialed his number. It connected quickly.

On the other end, Yang Moshou sounded like he was eating something, his voice muffled.

“Hello?”

“Xiao Yang, you free tonight?”

“I have to work night shift.”

Xu Wanhe froze for a second, a heavy wave of hopelessness crashing over him.