CHAPTER 76: CHAPTER 75: RUNNING AWAY FROM HOME (1)

While Zhao Meimei was diligently studying, Shi Yang also started taking on some freelance software work with a few friends at school. Initially, he worked as a helper for others, assisting with tasks while quietly learning and gaining experience.

Shi Yang gradually became busier and busier. Previously, he was full of creativity and drive but lacked knowledge and experience. Now, as his knowledge slowly grew and his experience became richer, he started to feel like every man his age, with a deep-seated ambition for success.

Shi Yang began trying to market himself, contact clients, and take on freelance software projects. Starting with scattered small tasks, he slowly moved on to handling complete orders. Through this long process, he became deeply engrossed in this dedicated work state.

Shi Yang called home less and less, and his conversations grew shorter and shorter.

Originally, Zhao Meimei would call him without fail every night, but gradually, being able to reach him twice a week was considered fortunate.

Every time she got through, just as she was enthusiastically talking, Shi Yang on the other end was already busy with something unknown.

Zhao Meimei put up a poster of a male star who somewhat resembled her Brother Yangyang on the wall facing her study desk. When she got tired of studying, she’d look up and stare at it for a while.

Occasionally, when she missed him so much and felt various irritations, she persistently kept holding the phone trying to call her Brother Yangyang. As long as she could get through and hear his voice, she felt exceptionally close.

At that time, she was still young, not understanding that when you feel very attached to someone, it brings a mental strain and burden upon both parties.

Zhao Meimei started counting days on her fingers, eagerly waiting from the start of summer break after first year until the end of the first semester of the second year. When she learned Shi Yang wouldn’t be coming home for the New Year, Zhao Meimei got angry.

She yelled into the phone at Shi Yang, "Brother, why aren’t you coming home for the New Year!!!"

Shi Yang had just pulled two all-nighters rushing work, utterly exhausted, relying solely on willpower to keep going when he heard Zhao Meimei complaining over the phone.

Shi Yang couldn’t control the frustration rising in his heart, roughly responding over the phone, "Didn’t I say it already! I’m busy with work!"

Zhao Meimei: "What kind of job is it that keeps you busy from morning till night, do you know what time it is now? It’s already eight o’clock. I called you in the morning, and you said you were working. Now it’s so late, and you’re still working?"

Shi Yang couldn’t hold it in, and shouted at Zhao Meimei: "What kind of work do you think it is? You think everyone’s as free as you are! The job I took on this time has clients pressing really hard. I’m working from morning till night, still unable to finish everything. You ask what kind of work it is!!"

Zhao Meimei retorted stubbornly, giving a cold snort, "And what, the job doesn’t allow anyone to take a break, does it!"

Shi Yang: "Take a break? If I can’t deliver the work within the required time, I won’t get a single penny, and all these days of hard work will be for nothing!"

Zhao Meimei: "Then you’re not coming to see me?"

Shi Yang: "What are you, a computer that I can complete work just by looking at you every day? I’m nearly dying from busyness, my dear!"

For a moment, Zhao Meimei was speechless, and her heart was painfully pierced by Brother Yangyang’s words.

She paused, the jumble of thoughts in her mind suddenly connecting incoherently, sparking a realization. Zhao Meimei asked warily, "Brother, are you secretly finding a girlfriend behind my back?"

Isn’t it said that many things in the world come together through coincidences, as the saying goes, truth is stranger than fiction?

Shi Yang’s phone suddenly disconnected after Zhao Meimei asked this question, without either realizing it.

Holding the phone, Shi Yang nearly burst out laughing after hearing those words, feeling his frustration diminish slightly. A vision of Zhao Meimei grumbling like a little complaining wife flashed through his tired mind, and his anger subsided completely. He soothingly said, "When would I have time to find you a girlfriend, dear? Your brother, when I open or close my eyes, is surrounded only by a bunch of rough fellows. Oh my dear, stop worrying, wait till I wrap up this job, get paid, and come home to take you out for fun!"

Just after Shi Yang tried wholeheartedly to calm her down, he noticed the phone fell eerily quiet, with no sound of Zhao Meimei’s breathing.

He paused for a moment, then realized, annoyed, that his phone had run out of battery.

He casually dug out a charger to plug in, thinking he’d let it charge for two minutes and then call Zhao Meimei back. Meanwhile, in those two minutes, as he thought about correcting a mistake from before, the workaholic mode accidentally kicked in again.

Lost in concentration, Shi Yang continued working, pulling another all-nighter until he finally completed all tasks, saved and backed them up meticulously, before finally slumping onto his bed without even removing his clothes, falling into a deep sleep.

Just as Zhao Meimei finished her question, she heard the dial tone of the disconnected call.

The beep signaling ended call struck harshly at her chest, Zhao Meimei blinked her narrowed eyes, expressionless, grasping the phone tightly in both hands till her fingers turned pale from the pressure.

Her mind buzzed with a single thought: Brother Yangyang really found her a girlfriend.

Zhao Meimei slumped onto the sofa, suddenly panicking, realizing she couldn’t accept this reality. She stared fiercely at the phone, her chest pained by a sudden surge, her face twisted uncomfortably.

She had always thought Brother Yangyang belonged to her, only to her, how could he suddenly belong to someone else?

If Brother Yangyang truly found her a girlfriend, she’d surely be left out.

Brother Yangyang would be playing games on the couch with his girlfriend, taking her to hot pot restaurants, riding bicycles together.

Zhao Meimei suddenly felt uncomfortable, suffocated with an urge to scratch at the wall.

Brother Yangyang belonged to her, only her, no one else should take away his attention and affection, those were hers!

For the first time in her life, Zhao Meimei felt jealous, of a person she hadn’t even met, someone who could very likely become her future sister-in-law.

She slammed the phone back down, abruptly stood up from the sofa, having made up her mind. She would go to the provincial capital to find her Brother Yangyang, determined not to let him be taken by a girlfriend.