Chapter 3 Rumors

  "Fallen leaves will always return to their roots. I am more accustomed to the soil and air of my hometown." said Nie Zhen.

  ……

  It finally settled down like this.

  After being accepted by the magazine company, Nie Zhiyan rented a one-bedroom apartment in a nearby community for convenience at work, and everything was settled within a week.

  When Duan Jiayan called, it had been a week since she and Cheng returned from their honeymoon. Nie Zhiyan was at the company translating an article about Sino-French diplomatic relations in French, which used many professional terms and was translated relatively slowly by her.

  Nie Ziyu was still entangled in several professional terms when Duan Jiayan's loud voice came over.

  "Nie Zhiyan, are you still in the country?"

  She rubbed her battered ears and replied to her question, "Yeah, what's up?"

  "Awesome! You didn't tell me you weren't going abroad!"

  Nie Zhiyan held the phone, she could even imagine Jia Yan's gritted teeth, and couldn't help but feel a little amused. "You didn't ask me, and I've already found a job. We have a long future ahead of us, no need to rush for the time being."

  Fang Jiayan quickly convinced herself and accepted Zhiyan's long-term proposition. "Zhiyan, let's have dinner together."

  Fang Jiayan said they were together, of course, just the two of them. Having been close friends for so many years without seeing each other, there was a lot to talk about.

  They went to a hot pot restaurant near Nie Zhiyan's company to have hot pot, the steaming hot pot was boiling over, paired with chilled beer, making Nie Zhiyan drool.

  She hasn't had hot pot for a very long time.

  "How can you be so hungry?" Fang Jiayan was almost stunned by Nie Zhiyan's wolf-like eating habits.

  How long has this child gone without eating?

  "It's not available abroad," she said with a unclear tone, taking a sip of beer, complaining somewhat resentfully, "I'm tired of those half-cooked things abroad, hometown food is still the best."

  No one knows how much she misses everything here in those years, sometimes thinking about it all night and not sleeping, then staring at the sky until dawn.

  Duan Jiayan snorted twice, with a "you-deserved-it" expression. "Who told you to run abroad? You've been gone for six years now, if you don't come back soon, I'll hardly recognize you."

  "I had planned to return early, but only to attend your wedding, I was a month ahead of schedule. Look at how big your face is!"

  Duan Jiayan smiled, "You poor thing, I'll only get married once in my life and wear a wedding dress once. If you don't come back to watch, it's your loss."

  "Yes, yes, yes," he said with a nod, "so the little horse flew back without stopping."

  "Right," Nieshi hesitated for a moment before finally asking, "That... Lu Yiheng seems to have changed a lot."

  "He did," Jiayan's expression was very dull, "changed a lot, his college entrance exam results came out and shocked the entire school, you know? He didn't even pass the second-tier university admission line in the first semester of his senior year, but he actually jumped to get into Renmin University. Do you know what he became after coming back from university for a year?"

  "What kind of thing is it?"

  "It's like, it's like I've died once."

  Nie Zhiyan's fingers around the wine cup tightened and loosened again.

  Duan Jiayan leaned on her elbow, recalling as she spoke: "I heard from Cheng Dong that it was because of a... a girl."

  The person he likes has someone else.