After waiting for a while, he didn't see Sheng Min reply, probably he had already gone to the dressing room. Li Xuan took the cup and returned to the meeting room.
Since the formal preparation for "Against the Tracks", his energy has basically shifted to the semi-monthly summary meeting of "A Corner". After all, the general direction of "A Corner" has been determined, Chu Tianheng and Qi Boyuan are watching, and there is nothing to worry about. There are only regular meetings and occasional listening. Li Xuan did not raise his head during the whole meeting. After Chu Tianheng finished speaking, he pressed the laptop screen: "Basically, there is no problem."
"Then let's talk about the non-basic parts." Chu Tianheng put down the laser pen.
"I should have mentioned that the NPC random visit function can be enabled this time."
“I’ve considered it, but it’s a bit too late. I’ll put it in the next update.”
Li Xuan hummed and said nothing more: "Let's adjourn the meeting."
"I was looking for you." He was holding his laptop and preparing to go back to the office. Before he walked out of the door, he ran into Qi Boyuan. He went to coordinate the game promotion in the afternoon and did not attend the regular meeting. He just came back and had not put down his bag yet.
"how?"
Li Xuan stopped and waited for the two employees to leave before Qi Boyuan asked him, "Did the server of Yi Yu have problems again yesterday?"
"What's the problem?" Li Xuan's expression remained unchanged.
"You're just pretending here." Qi Boyuan lowered his voice, "I have too much to do and don't have time to ask you, why are you coming more and more frequently, every week you come even more punctually than the 8 o'clock show..." As he spoke, he frowned and said with some disgust, "There are wolves in front and tigers behind."
Li Xuan raised his eyes and looked in the direction he was looking. Zhao Jizhe was looking at them from the other end of the corridor. He was holding what should be the latest materials. He looked away and said calmly, "Which one bit you?"
"What if you really bite me?" Qi Boyuan pushed his glasses impatiently, "Just keep resisting until you die of stubbornness."
"Why are you dead or alive in broad daylight?" Chu Tianheng had just explained the work to the art team. When he saw that the atmosphere was not right again, he hurried over and said, "Don't be like black-eyed chickens. If you have something to say, talk it over nicely. What did you just say?"
"They say our boss is so capable that he doesn't care about anything." Qi Boyuan gritted his teeth and said, "I am just worrying about nothing."
"What are you talking about? Why are you worrying about nothing?" They all knew the source of Qi Boyuan's recent unrest. Li Xuan remained silent. Chu Tianheng's persuasion was not right, and it was not right to persuade this or that. "Alright, alright, let's go eat first."
"I don't want to eat. You guys go ahead." Li Xuan finally said, "I have something to do tomorrow afternoon. If you need my approval, bring it over in the morning."
"I won't go either." Qi Boyuan said in a muffled voice.
"You two are afraid of paying, right?" Chu Tianheng deliberately frowned, "I'll treat you, okay? You two call me senior, listen to me this time, if you don't want to eat, just watch me eat."
After much persuasion, they all went in the end.
They didn't walk too far, as they had to come back to work overtime, so they just found a Yunnan restaurant downstairs. It took less than half an hour from ordering to paying the bill. Li Xuan was going to pay the bill, but Chu Tianheng insisted on paying.
"If I had known it was you, senior, who was buying it, I would have ordered two more dishes."
"You're saving money for Li Xuan but not for me." Chu Tianheng said to him. Qi Boyuan didn't respond and said, "It's not too late for you to order now. You can take it upstairs for a midnight snack."
He lifted the curtain and went out. It was only twenty steps from the box to the front desk, and Chu Tianheng didn't come back for ten minutes.
"Where did you go?" Qi Boyuan picked out the pineapple from the pineapple rice and ate it. "You can't run away from the bill? I don't think so."
Li Xuan took the phone and was about to dial when Chu Tianheng came in.
"I thought you had run away, senior." Qi Boyuan said, and felt that something was wrong with his expression, "What are you doing?"
"Nothing." Chu Tianheng scratched his head. "When I was checking out, I heard a woman outside asking where Yuanyi was. It sounded strange, so I overheard a few more words."
"Woman?" Li Xuan paused while lighting his cigarette. "What woman?"
"About 40 or 50 years old, quite tall, and very thin..."
Before Chu Tianheng finished speaking, Li Xuan suddenly stood up and walked to the French window.
"Yes, it's her, the auntie next to the pool, it was her just now..." Chu Tianheng hesitated, "Li Xuan, do you know her?"
Shu Xin was asking a young girl passing by, and the girl pointed her in a direction, and she walked in that direction.
"Yeah." Li Xuan took a puff of cigarette and said calmly, "I know him."
"she... ... "
Li Xuan finished his two puffs, extinguished his cigarette, and said, "You go upstairs first."
"Then you..." Qi Boyuan was a little hesitant, and didn't want to ask the woman's identity rashly.
"It's okay." Li Xuan shook his head. Qi Boyuan called him from behind but he didn't respond. He lowered his eyes, sent a message, picked up his coat and walked towards Shu Xin.
The weather was already a bit cold, but Shu Xin was only wearing a long summer dress. Her wrists were empty, her bracelet was missing, and she was carrying a thermos bucket. She was still in a trance as always. Li Xuan put his hands in his pockets and followed her carelessly for ten meters without noticing her until he coughed. She turned around in surprise and saw Li Xuan's eyes light up: "Son."
After not seeing her for a few months, Shu Xin seemed to have gained some weight. I didn't know if it was because of the cold or what, but her face looked a little yellow.
She rushed over in a hurry, her eyes reddened before she spoke: "Mom hasn't seen you for several months..."
A cold hand grasped Li Xuan's arm. Li Xuan looked at her blue arm and handed her the windbreaker in his hand coldly: "Put it on first."
"Mom, you're not cold. You've been in poor health since you were a child. How could you catch a cold..."
"Put it on. Do you think I'm being polite to you?"
Shu Xin was actually a little afraid of him, so she had to take it. She didn't know what to do with the thermos in her hand. When she was at a loss, Li Xuan reached out and took it. Seeing Shu Xin put on her clothes, she said, "Don't stay here, go somewhere else first."
They found a nearby coffee shop. There was only one table of customers on the second floor. When Shu Xin was not ill, she could not tell anything wrong with her appearance. When the waiter brought her latte, she thanked him politely.
But as soon as the waiter left, he immediately turned to Li Xuan with a new face that looked like he was about to cry.
It was a loving mother's behavior, but Li Xuan was not moved at all. He just asked, "What are you doing here?" Li Mingge was so nervous about her that it was impossible for her to let Shu Xin leave the house by herself. "Who told you I was here?"
"You haven't been home for a long time. You're still so young and it's hard for you to stay away from home. You're angry with your dad, so you can't not go home."
"Out of anger?" Li Xuan raised his eyebrows. "Who told you?"
Shu Xin said hatefully: "Who told me? No one told me... Your dad didn't tell me anything, and he lied to me that you were writing a paper at school... If I hadn't heard Zhou Qi talking to him today, he would have kept me in the dark..."
Li Xuan absentmindedly thought that if Li Mingge knew who leaked the news, he, as a secretary, would be in trouble. He propped his head on one hand and listened in boredom. Shu Xin scolded Li Mingge in a long and chaotic manner, and asked him anxiously: "Why are you here when you are not at school or home? I asked carefully, there is no laboratory here. You are not here to do experiments. Don't try to deceive your mother."
"Why would I lie to you? There's no need for me to do that." Li Xuan shook his head calmly, his expression normal, "Of course I'm not here to do an experiment."
"If you don't do experiments... then what about your thesis? Have you heard the result of your admission to graduate school? It's still at N University. Let your department head take you... My junior fellow student is average in academics, but he's a kind person. It's okay for him to take you... In fact, it would be better for you to go abroad, but mom is always worried about your health..."
She was immersed in her own fantasy, and Li Xuan didn't care. Without a computer, he used his mobile phone's notepad to write the plan. When Shu Xin finally said she was tired, she put down her phone and said calmly, "I won't study for a master's degree, and I won't study physics anymore."
A needle flew out of nowhere and pierced through all the illusions. Shu Xin stared at him with wide eyes. She was stunned for a long while, trembling all over. She stood up excitedly, like a trapped animal: "What crazy things are you talking about? You want to be a physicist, you told your mother since you were a child that you want to inherit my career... Too tired, right? You must be too tired."
She trembled as she reached for the thermos bucket next to her: "Mom brought you some soup..."
She was shaking all the time and her fingers were out of control. She finally opened the lid, but with a snap, the soup spilled all over the floor. Shu Xin seemed unable to hold on any longer. She squatted down, covered her face and broke down in tears.
"You want to be a physicist." She kept repeating while crying, "Your father comforted me, and you comforted me too. You didn't forgive your mother, right? I didn't mean it. If I had known it would hurt you, I wouldn't have insisted on going to the base... I wish I could exchange myself for you. I have already given up my career. I am willing to take care of you at home every day to make up for it. Why can't you forgive me? You are so talented, and you are born to be a good seedling for physics. I have no field to explore, and my unfinished career..."
The noise was so loud that it alarmed the waiter downstairs, who hurried up to check. The stairs made a thudding sound, and Li Xuan raised his eyes to stop the other person from approaching.
"I don't like physics, I don't want to be a scientist, and I have no interest in making any contribution to scientific research. I am an ordinary person, not as great as you."
Shu Xin almost fainted after hearing these words. She lost all her composure. "What nonsense are you talking about? You promised mom that you have talent..."
"It was never me who promised you." He grabbed Shu Xin's arm and pulled her up from the ground, stepping on the soup that exuded a sweet and fishy smell. "I don't like the soup you make, Aunt Shu..." Li Xuan lowered his eyes and looked at her, his eyelashes blocking the pity. "I don't believe you are so crazy. Whether you really don't understand or don't want to understand, I don't care. I have spent enough time on you. Li Mingge coaxed you, and I can't do these tricks."
He paused slightly, his thin lips moved slightly, and the words that had been suppressed for a long time came out without any warning: "I am not your son."
Like a pale puppet whose spring has run out, Shu Xin trembled and suddenly stopped. She lowered her head, and the vertebrae on the back of her neck bulged: "Son..." She called him in a very sticky voice, "Why are you still like when you were little? When you get angry, you say you don't want to be my and dad's child anymore and want to run away from home. You are so old. You can't act like a child anymore..."
Her tone and demeanor were simply weird, but Li Xuan didn't care at all: "Not very old. Was he sixteen when he died? I don't remember your son's birthday, you should know that."
He grabbed Shu Xin's shoulders and forced her to look up: "Since you love him so much and have devoted so much effort to him, can't you really tell the difference? Your son is a sickly child, how am I similar?" He refused to give in and pressed on, "You just wished that it was me who died and he who survived. There's nothing I can do, I'm the tough one, please accept my condolences."
"You're talking nonsense!" After a few words, Shu Xin's whole body seemed to be soaked in water. She roared like an explosion, and her color completely lost. She struggled to break free from Li Xuan, her eyes dodging, and she just refused to look at him, "It's not like that, it's not like that, you are too tired, too tired to talk nonsense..."
As she spoke, she kept backing away, and one of her feet missed the ground, and was caught by Li Xuan with his quick eyes and hands. But Shu Xin pushed him away without hesitation, and her posture was extremely agile, not like someone who had been ill for a long time.
"It's not like that..." She was still talking when her high heels sprained her foot. She turned around and ran out of the cafe as if she didn't feel the pain. Before she reached the stairs, she bumped into another person.
"Nonsense, you are all lying to me..." Shu Xin kept mumbling, not looking up, rushing around blindly. The man grabbed her and said, "Shu Xin! Shu Xin!"
Li Xuan had chased after Li Mingge for a few steps, but he stopped when he saw him. He met the other party's resentful gaze and shrugged indifferently.
Li Mingge called out several times, but Shu Xin seemed not to recognize him anymore. She kicked and bit him. Li Mingge did not resist at all. There were several bloody marks on his face and hands. Until Shu Xin slapped him in the face suddenly. With a crisp sound, she seemed to wake up suddenly.
"Mingge..." Shu Xin looked at him, her whole face a mess of tears, "Son, my son doesn't recognize me anymore, he hates me, he still hates me..."
"No, how could that be?" Li Mingge's face was tilted by the blow. He swallowed the blood foam and said softly, "It's okay. You know our son is very obedient. He is just too tired from doing research recently and is in a bad mood. He just said some angry words. Didn't we have such experiences when we were studying?"
"But he is not in school. He said he doesn't want to study physics anymore..." she said helplessly.
"It's just an angry remark. But I take a break once in a while. I've been working very hard recently. I just talked to my junior brother on the phone before I came here. If you don't believe me, you can ask him later..."
He spoke softly, but his arm quietly went around Shu Xin's back. Li Xuan frowned and stood up subconsciously. The needle had already pierced into Shu Xin's shoulder joint.
Like a young animal caught by a hunter, Shu Xin struggled a few times and then collapsed limply.
Li Mingge on the other side nervously supported her and glared at Li Xuan. His gentle appearance was burned away by anger: "You did it! What nonsense did you talk to your mother about?!"
"I told you some truths that you dare not say." The needle had not been removed from Shu Xin's body yet, and the tube was shaking as if it would break at any time. Every time Li Mingge appeared, he could refresh Li Xuan's understanding of him. He said with disgust, "Do you really think this is good?"
"You don't need to control what I do."
"You're worrying too much. I don't want to care. As the saying goes, if you don't agree, there's no need to talk too much." Li Xuan casually drew his finger between the two of them, "That's it."
Li Mingge stared at him intently, veins popping out on his cheeks. Li Xuan met his gaze, neither dodging nor avoiding it, and walked over. When he passed by Li Mingge, he paused for a moment.
Mistakingly thinking that he was going to do something out of line, Li Mingge unconsciously hugged Shu Xin and took a step back. Li Xuan turned his wrist and pulled the needle off.
"If I don't pull it out, I'll lose blood." He casually placed it on the table next to him, without even looking at Li Mingge or Shu Xin, and called the waiter, "Pay the bill."
When he returned to the company as usual, Chu Tianheng and Qi Boyuan were obviously waiting for him. As soon as he entered the door, both pairs of eyes turned to him.
"Why are you looking at me?" Li Xuan yawned, "If you have work, work overtime. If you don't have work, go home. There's no need to waste time here."
Of course, he was the one who had to work overtime. He entered the office, closed the door, and lit another cigarette. After smoking, he looked at the editor without any thoughts. He pinched his nose and turned on the TV series starring Sheng Min as the background music.
Sheng Min's gentle voice rang out, covering up many unpleasant things in his mind. This is good, Li Xuan thought, and started typing the code again.
It was already morning when he started writing. The lights in the hall outside went off and on again. After finishing the playback system, he felt quite energetic and started to perfect the main plot background. He waited until the employees who went downstairs for lunch came back one after another before he asked the administration to order him a meal. He ate a meal that he didn't know which one it belonged to. He looked at the time and saw that Sheng Min's plane was about to land. He planned to sleep for a quarter of an hour before leaving for the airport. He leaned back in the chair and just closed his eyes when there was a knock on the door.
"Li Xuan."
"Hmm?" He opened his eyes slightly and saw Qi Boyuan, "What are you doing again?"
"Someone is looking for you." Qi Boyuan looked a little strange, and after a pause, he said, "It's your dad."
Li Xuan frowned, thinking that Li Mingge would come too soon. He covered his eyes with his backhand, squinted for another minute, and stood up: "Let him in."
"Really?" Li Xuan never mentioned his family affairs. Qi Boyuan had pieced together a little over the years, thinking that they were authoritarian parents who did not respect their children's wishes. Thinking of the other party's accusatory look, "He..."
Li Xuan sneered: "There are so many people waiting to become my relatives."
"Can you please speak properly?" Qi Boyuan was choked by him, rolled his eyes and was about to leave.
"Wait." Li Xuan pointed at the takeaway box, "Help me take the trash out."
He went to wash his face, and when he came back, Li Mingge was already sitting on the sofa. Shu Xin slapped him too hard yesterday, and half of his face was swollen. His clothes were still the same as yesterday, a little wrinkled, and there were some bloodstains on the collar. Since the first time he appeared in Qingshui Lane that year, this was the first time Li Xuan saw him in such an unseemly state.
"Thanks to you, your mother didn't sleep well last night. She kept waking up and crying when she woke up." Li Mingge's brows were filled with deep fatigue. "It's a good thing you did."
"That's not necessary. I don't deserve the credit."
"You can't take the responsibility? You provoked her so much, and now you want to shirk responsibility?" Li Mingge's face was gloomy. "She is a woman! She is a patient!"
"You finally admit that she's sick?" Li Xuan raised his eyebrows. "She's sick, but you don't let her see a doctor. Have you seen her get better after all these years of coaxing her?"
"You don't have to judge this!" Li Mingge avoided the question and warned, "She must see you now. You must go back today."
Li Xuan shook his head, barely able to smile: "She doesn't want to see me, who does she want to see? Take her to the cemetery, or dig out the ashes and carry them back."
This sentence obviously hurt Li Mingge, "If she recognizes you as the real one, then you are the real one." He squeezed out a sentence from between his teeth, as if he could no longer bear it, "Listen, I've given you enough face. You are lucky and have some talent in physics, so you can pretend to be a real one for so many years..."
"You can judge Pearl Fish Eyes as you like, I have a talent for everything. But I am selfish and only choose what I like."
The words were repeated without any new twists. Li Xuan's limited patience quickly disappeared in Li Mingge's words. He lowered his head and glanced at his watch again. This frequent action was like adding fuel to the fire at this moment: "What's your attitude!"
"It means I have something else to do and need to see you off."
"I've given you enough face." Li Mingge said viciously, slamming the table and standing up, throwing away the dignity of an intellectual, pointing at his nose, "Three times is the limit, this is the third time I've come to talk to you, if you don't come back with me today..."
"Don't talk in your sleep in broad daylight. This one is enough for me, and you can keep the rest for yourself."
Li Mingge took a breath, half-closed his eyes, and his throat made a heavy wheezing sound like an old bellows, with a vaguely crazy look on his face: "You didn't learn enough from the previous lesson, did you?"
"No problem." Li Xuan nodded easily. "It's a waste of money. I don't need to pay for it, right?"
"I can afford it, but you can't."
Li Xuan pretended to think seriously for a while: "Let's try it. How can we know if we don't try it?"
If you regret something, just wait and see.
Li Mingge said something before leaving, and his eyes were already a little cloudy, like the cloudy sky before a rainstorm. Li Xuan just told him to go ahead - there was one thing he regretted immediately, Li Mingge delayed him for too long and missed the landing time of Sheng Min's plane.
"I have to go to the interview now. See you later."
When he opened WeChat, he saw this message. Li Xuan replied with a "OK", but it was too early to go back now. He stared at Sheng Min's profile picture for a while, then returned to the computer.
He continued writing code for about an hour, and seeing that it was almost time, he picked up his clothes and prepared to leave. Perhaps he heard the quarrel, the hall, which was originally full of talking, became quiet as soon as he saw him.
Li Xuan didn't care and walked towards the elevator. Just as he pressed the down button, Chu Tianheng caught up with him.
"What's going on?" he asked. "Bo Yuan was hesitant and couldn't explain it clearly, but he was worried and pushed me to ask you."
"I'm always worried." After hearing him say this, Li Xuan looked towards the company's entrance. He didn't see Qi Boyuan, but he noticed Zhao Jize hiding behind the door and eavesdropping. The latter met his gaze and quickly lowered his head and shrank back.
"I'm concerned about you." Chu Tianheng didn't notice. When he didn't answer, he looked more serious: "Are you okay?"
They could tell from the several doors that the visitor had bad intentions. Li Xuan still looked nonchalant and nodded as he entered the elevator: "It's nothing."
After hearing these two words, Chu Tianheng didn't know how to ask.
"By the way." Seeing the elevator door about to close, Li Xuan stretched out his hand to block it, "I've sent it to your email."
"What?"
"The code for the random visit function." He said in a relaxed tone, "Didn't you say you were too late? I've finished it. Add it in."