“Alright. Don’t worry. Once your dad reaches home, I’ll call you or text you immediately. It’s still so early in the morning. Don’t you want to go back to sleep?” Ding Jiayi knew that Qiao Zijin was not in the habit of waking up early. She had been woken up at six and had been busy for another hour and a half. Now, Qiao Zijin should probably be more tired than ever. “Why don’t you go take a quick nap? No matter what, there’s no need to be worried today, much less for another hour or two.”

  “No.” Qiao Zijin grabbed onto her hair, her expression worse than the previous day’s. It was early in the morning and she had not even had her breakfast and yet, she had already forked out three thousand six hundred yuan for nothing. Qiao Zijin knew that she would never be able to fall asleep after facing such a huge blow even if she were to lie back down on the bed. Perhaps, she might even get even more upset while thinking about the matter.

  Since that was the case, she might as well get up and do something.

  If she could settle the matter with the Zhai family and Qiao Nan earlier, she could comfort herself that she had not spent three thousand six hundred yuan in vain, at the very least.

  “Alright. Wake up if you want to. Remember to take your breakfast. If you don’t take care of your body, you won’t be able to get this settled. Even the doctor can’t be sure of when Qiao Nan will give birth. Don’t take it too hard on yourself. Nothing is more important than your own health. We’re spending money now so that we’ll earn more in the future.” Ding Jiayi could imagine just how expensive things were in the capital. She knew that inflation was crazy in the capital.

  Every time she heard the shopkeepers tell her that the prices of vegetables went up again, Ding Jiayi felt the pinch. In the past, people from the countryside were always looked down on. But now, vegetables from the countryside were even more expensive than meat! That was why people in the countryside were even richer than city-dwellers nowadays. What was wrong with the world? It was strange that city-dwellers were worse off than countryside people.

  \r \r \r

  “Okay. I’m hanging up now.” After wasting such a huge sum of money, Qiao Zijin was eager to save as much as she could, even the couple of cents from speaking on the phone. Besides, she was in the capital now. Calling her mom meant making a long-distance call. It was way too expensive!

  Qiao Zijin, who had faced enough setbacks for the day, washed up at the quickest speed possible. Looking at her luggage, she hesitated. What would she do if she failed? With no other choice, Qiao Zijin decided not to check out and to extend her stay by another three days. If she succeeded, she would simply come and check out afterward.

  Thinking through the matter, Qiao Zijin felt that it was best for her to get in contact with Qiao Nan as soon as possible. On the other end, Ding Jiayi lost even the mood to watch the television. She paced around the house mindlessly, looking at the door from time to time before glancing at the clock on the wall, thinking about where Qiao Dongliang would be at that time. It had been an hour. Even if he had not taken a taxi and had taken a public bus back, he should be back home by that time. Should she head down to the bus station to pick Old Qiao up instead?

  Thinking about how Qiao Dongliang had wasted his efforts three times in a row and had not made it to the capital, Ding Jiayi felt guilty. She had been the root cause of all that.

  Wanting to make up for that, Ding Jiayi rushed to the bus stop to wait for Qiao Dongliang.

  Three busses had passed by but Ding Jiayi had still not seen Qiao Dongliang alighting from the bus. When Ding Jiayi finally came to her senses and checked her cell phone, she realized that it was already nine o’clock!

  It was already more than an hour past the departure time of half past seven. No matter how slow Qiao Dongliang was, he should be home by now. There was no reason for him to still be out and about. Ding Jiayi frowned. Had she made a mistake somewhere? Or had Old Qiao taken a taxi home instead of a public bus? Was Old Qiao already home and they had missed each other?

  With that thought, Ding Jiayi rushed home and opened the door, only to find that the house was empty apart from her. “Old Qiao? Old Qiao, are you back?” She walked into Qiao Dongliang’s room to find that it was just as neat and tidy as when Qiao Dongliang had left that morning. As for the luggage that Qiao Dongliang had packed and brought along, it was not there either.

  That all went to show that Qiao Dongliang had not returned.

  Ding Jiayi was in a frenzy and whipped out her phone. Instead of calling Qiao Zijin, she made a call directly to Qiao Dongliang. “Old Qiao, hurry and pick up your phone. Did you get into an accident on your way back and were sent to the hospital? Hurry and pick up your phone!”

  Since Qiao Dongliang had no bus ticket and could not board the bus or go to the capital, he would have no choice but to return home. Besides, Old Qiao had no clue about all those things she had done. So, why hadn’t he returned? Unless he met with an accident along the way and could not make it home. If that was the case…

  Ding Jiayi started to worry. She could find a solution to anything else. But what if something had truly happened to Qiao Dongliang? What would she do then? If she had known that that would happen, she would never have hidden Old Qiao’s bus ticket. She would have just allowed him to go to the capital. Nothing would have happened in that case.

  As long as Qiao Nan agreed, Old Qiao’s disagreement would mean nothing.

  The phone rang about ten times and Ding Jiayi was just about to give up when Qiao Dongliang picked up. Qiao Dongliang’s voice sounded rather hoarse, as though he had just woken up. In fact, it was true that Qiao Dongliang had just woken up. He had been awoken by his cell phone’s ringtone. “Hello?”

  “Old Qiao, it’s me. Where are you? Are you alright?”

  “…” Qiao Dongliang yawned and looked at the scenery outside. Rubbing his eyes, he answered, “Where else could I be? Don’t you already know that I’m going to visit Nan Nan in the capital today? It’s a long journey there, so I’m obviously still on the bus.”

  Glancing at the empty seats behind him, Qiao Dongliang thought that this world was pretty strange too. Just like the driver had said, there were people living in poverty and people with loads of money to spare in the world.

  This bus had departed ten minutes later than scheduled and Qiao Dongliang had been so anxious about it, afraid that Ding Jiayi would suddenly appear to drag him off the bus, not allowing him to go to the capital.

  The ticket seller had even told him that this bus ride had been a popular one and had been entirely sold out. Strangely enough, not a single person had shown up even until the last minute even though the last eighteen tickets had been sold. Eighteen tickets meant thousands of yuan! Because of that huge sum of money, they had tried to wait for the buyers.