032 I’ll Buy It for You
When Wang Heng and Pei Ningle walked out of the police station, it was already evening with the sun hanging low. The two stood by the roadside and began to consider a very practical problem—where to go next.
“I’m going back to school,” Wang Heng said. “What about you?”
Pei Ningle looked lost. “When I came, Brother Song said room and board were covered, but now…”
Wang Heng: “Yeah, now Brother Song is enjoying free room and board himself. You can probably only go home, right?”
Pei Ningle: “I don’t want to go home.”
Wang Heng: “Don’t be ridiculous. Your pockets are empty. What will you do if you don’t go home?”
The girl’s shoulders slumped, her face full of dejection. “Going home now feels like admitting defeat… No, it’s not a feeling, it’s a fact that I’ve admitted defeat. I haven’t accomplished anything, and I’ve spent all my saved-up New Year’s money and pocket money! If I go home now, I’ll have to ask my parents for money first. I’ll have no face at all.”
Wang Heng stuck his hands in his pockets, looking as if it had nothing to do with him. “You’re still too young, kid. After a few more beatings from society, you’ll know that face, just like integrity, is something you’re better off losing early.”
“But I…”
Pei Ningle hung her head, unable to speak.
Looking at her dejected appearance, Wang Heng’s hands remained in his pockets, but a trace of conflict appeared in his eyes.
Then he said, “How about this? I have some spare change here. I can lend it to you to buy a ticket home.”
Pei Ningle turned her head to stare at him, the gratitude in her big eyes condensing into glistening tears.
“We only met yesterday. Why are you so good to me…”
It’s not that I’m good to you, I just hope you leave quickly. Wang Heng really wanted to say this, but facing the girl’s grateful gaze, he still chose a more tactful way of putting it, giving himself a “good person card.”
Wang Heng: “Because I’m a good person.”
Pei Ningle’s eyes suddenly lit up, as if an old lottery player had just won the jackpot. This reaction made Wang Heng a little confused. After all, what he had just said should have been quite normal.
But then the girl explained, “A melody just suddenly… appeared in my head! Just now, a really nice melody!”
So that was it.
Wang Heng remembered that during the time he spent with her back then, this girl’s thinking was indeed very difficult to grasp. Besides being absent-minded, she would suddenly have bursts of musical inspiration from time to time.
It was the same at this moment. Pei Ningle hurriedly took off her backpack, threw it on the ground, found a pen and paper from inside, and squatted down by the roadside to start writing a simple musical score. As she wrote, she hummed softly…
Wang Heng stared at the engrossed girl until a familiar voice sounded from not far away:
“Wang Heng?”
He looked up and saw Lu Qi, and couldn’t help but be startled.
“Sister Lu! What are you doing here?”
Lu Qi walked up to him and smiled. “I asked the police. They said you’ve already finished giving your statement. Coincidentally, I’ve just gotten off work. I can just take the subway over. It’s very convenient.”
But the problem wasn’t whether the transportation was convenient or not. The problem was, what are you doing here!
The corner of Wang Heng’s mouth twitched slightly. “Sister Lu is so thoughtful… Thank you, thank you.”
Lu Qi gently brushed the short hair by her ear. “So formal. Aren’t we friends?”
“Uh, of course we are,” Wang Heng immediately changed direction. “Friends who can discuss code together, we must be close buddies.”
“Haha, if you’re my close buddy, then after you graduate, you won’t have to worry about finding a job at all.”
“Sister Lu, I still hope to find a job on the market based on my own abilities…”
“That’s four years from now. We’ll talk about it then. By the way, is this young lady the friend who went on an adventure with you?”
Lu Qi finally shifted the focus of the conversation to Pei Ningle, but Pei Ningle didn’t react at all. She was still squatting on the ground, writing and drawing.
Wang Heng: “Yes, her name is Pei Ningle.”
Hearing her own name, the girl finally came to her senses and noticed Lu Qi, who was only three steps away.
“Pei Ningle, this is Sister Lu Qi, the person who helped us call the police.”
The girl quickly stood up, holding her pen and notebook, and bowed. “You’re Sister Lu Qi? Thank you. I’m really, really grateful!”
“You’re welcome,” Lu Qi narrowed her eyes slightly. “May I ask, are you Wang Heng’s university classmate?”
Pei Ningle rubbed the back of her head and said with some embarrassment, “I didn’t go to university, and I only met him yesterday…”
Lu Qi nodded, having already made a judgment in her mind.
She knew that Wang Heng’s programming skills were not at all like those of a freshman. The code he wrote even had some details that surprised her in ways she had never seen before, but upon careful consideration, she would find that the code was actually very reasonable and efficient. A boy like this would definitely have very high standards for his ‘friends,’ just like Lu Qi herself.
Because she was used to her mind operating at high speed when writing code, she really couldn’t muster any interest in the majority of people who were slow to react and couldn’t keep up with her logic. Therefore, the chance encounter and casual chat with Wang Heng a few days ago had become one of the few conversations that had made Lu Qi feel refreshed in the past year.
So Lu Qi was certain that Wang Heng and a girl like Pei Ningle definitely wouldn’t get along. At most, they could be friends for two or three days. It was impossible for them to have a deeper relationship.
But then, she realized—Why am I subconsciously analyzing the relationship between Wang Heng and Pei Ningle? Am I bored?
Even though Wang Heng knew Lu Qi so well, he never would have thought that this sister’s mind had already spun several times in just two seconds. He could only observe the expressions of the two girls and found that their emotions seemed very calm, completely different from when they first met in the first timeline.
He still remembered that time when Lu Qi had suddenly gone to his rented apartment and saw Pei Ningle there, the murderous look on her face…
But now, there was nothing unusual about Lu Qi’s and Pei Ningle’s expressions, which finally made Wang Heng breathe a sigh of relief. It seemed that the so-called ‘dream’ that Han Yixuan had experienced had not happened to these two, at least not yet.
Lu Qi suddenly said, “Oh right, Wang Heng, you really should get a new phone. Let me tell you, if you were using a smartphone, it would have been much simpler to call the police. If you could have sent your GPS location directly to the police, you two would have been safe last night.”
Wang Heng: “Is that so…”
Lu Qi continued to persuade him, “And university students don’t have many expenses. Your income isn’t low. What’s the use of keeping all that money in the bank? Spend it, buy a new phone.”
Wang Heng thought for a moment and decided to tell the truth. “That money is no longer in the bank. I bought Bitcoin.”
Lu Qi was stunned for a moment, her gaze sweeping up and down Wang Heng, as if she were getting to know him all over again.
Then she exclaimed, “I can’t believe it. You have such a strong gambler’s mentality!”
Wang Heng touched the tip of his nose. “It’s not that bad…”
Lu Qi: “It’s okay. I’ll buy you one. Just consider it an advance payment for the next task.”
Wang Heng: “?”
