Assistant Lin Has Something To Say - Chapter 52

    He Jianshan hurried back to Wanzhu without waiting for the end of the reception. Zhao Jianhua’s car drove very fast, and the high-rise buildings that passed quickly outside the car window cut He Jianshan’s thoughts into pieces. Together with Xu Huaiqing’s voice at the reception, it kept flashing in his mind like a neon sign:

    “There were only two people who entered the second round of interviews that year, one was Annie and the other was Lin Hui. I want to choose one in the middle and let Mr. He conduct three interviews. To be honest, at that time I I am more inclined towards Annie, although Lin Hui is excellent, as you said, he is a horticultural graduate after all, not to mention that he has nothing to do with Wanzhu, nor does he work with assistants, it may be very difficult to follow you in the future.”

    “However, Lin Hui is really excellent. His ideas, speech, on-the-spot reaction, etc. are very suitable for my recruitment needs. As soon as I got a chance, I asked him a question, I said, do you have any other advantages that can reflect your ability?”

    “He thought about it for a while and said, ‘I am a beneficiary of the Honey Pot Fund’.”

    “I’m actually quite surprised, because he didn’t say it during the interview. To be honest, it’s not an advantage, so I just joked casually, are you here to repay your kindness? ?”

    “I still remember Lin Hui smiling embarrassedly at that time and saying, ‘Wanzhu gave me a very precious gift. I was curious and came here.’”

    “I thought maybe he wanted to thank you in person, so I gave him this opportunity and handed you the resumes of Annie and Lin Hui. But—”

    However, He Jianshan did not conduct the third round of interviews, he didn’t even read the resumes of the two people, and directly chose one of them as his assistant – this is what he has done in his life The most casual thing.

    He Jianshan came to the 12th floor, he opened Lin Hui’s office: under the bright white light, the windows were bright and clean. After Lin Hui “resigned”, except for the bunch of building block flowers, he left all the other things untouched. The janitor cleans the office every day, waiting for the owner to come back at any time.

    He Jianshan was suddenly nervous.

    The materials for the Honey Pot Fund are in the bookcase behind Lin Hui’s desk. After Lin Hui served as his assistant, he took over this part of the work. For various reasons, He Jianshan has always been disgusted with this fund. He is not interested in how the fund has been operating since its establishment, and he rarely asks about it. For him, the greatest sense of existence of this fund lies in the few lines of Lin Hui’s annual report.

    He never thought that Lin Hui came to him because of this fund.

    In fact, he also wondered, in Lin Hui’s childhood memory, it seemed that only his grandmother existed, and his parents never appeared. After the two were together, he heard Lin Hui mention once that both his parents had died, and his tone was very calm. He thought that Lin Hui, like himself, had a weak relationship, and maybe some unpleasant things happened, so he didn’t mention it anymore; as for the pen, he asked clearly on the day he and Lin Hui expressed their feelings, but Lin Hui avoided it. This question, so he did not want to continue to ask.

    If you think about it further, when Lin Hui first came to his house for dinner and chat, he obviously showed great interest in the Honey Pot Fund, even when he said it was to protect his interests Lin Hui also expressed his strong disapproval of the product. He should have thought of it then, but there were so many good memories of that night that he was so distracted that he completely ignored it.

    He Jianshan opened the cabinet door and took out a document with the label of “Honeypot Project Fund Applicant Information”.

    When the Honey Pot Fund was established, according to his intention, the company provided two options: one is a fixed gift of 4,950 yuan, which can be received at one time; the other is a gift with a period of up to one year In addition to the ten gifts selected by the company’s female employees, there are also two bags that He Jianshan requested: a birthday cake and a classic AS pen.

    For him, birthday is not a blessing, but the beginning of a nightmare that haunts him for a long time; and the pen is worth 49,500 yuan, which is the last thing Yao Qianyi left him, and it is in He Jianshan’s memory , the price of motherly love.

    Those are two things, and it’s hard for him to explain why he’s putting them in his mother’s love gift bag: the name “Honeypot” is so deceptive , it conjures up all things soft, warm and sweet, and who would have thought that it is a lie born to cover up a lie. When the malice in their hearts was wrapped in honey and delivered to the applicant’s hands, it seemed to have completed a huge performance art: they would never know that behind this gift representing mother’s love, there was a horrific scene murder-

    The family of three, either actively or passively, murdered their love for each other.

    This is a true and absurd black comedy. He Jianshan thought, he is really a liar.

    He doesn’t care about anything as he confessed to Lin Hui that night: he doesn’t care about getting, and he doesn’t care about losing. At least many years ago, he also collapsed into what he had suffered, so that he would also take the inexplicable anger and hatred in his heart to innocent people. But he never imagined that, after going around in circles, in the end it was the person he loved the most who took over everything for him.

    The air conditioners in the building have been turned off. Maybe it was a cold winter night. He Jianshan shook his hands and pulled out the documents inside—

    A thick stack of application forms containing all the information on the beneficiaries of the Honey Pot Fund over the years. He Jianshan looked at them from top to bottom, and when he saw one of them, he stopped—

    Lin Hui.

    A blue background photo of Lin Hui was attached to the form. In the photo, he was much younger and younger than he is now. The only thing that didn’t change was his smile. He Jianshan is very familiar with this smile. He has seen exactly the same one at home this morning, in Wanzhu’s office building, on any day in the past eight years.

    He Jianshan stared at the thin A4 paper, couldn’t help laughing, and then slowly, his eyes turned red.

    The world is so illogical sometimes.

    He Jianshan closed his eyes and opened them again after a long time. He took out his mobile phone and made a call:

    “Hey, Mr. He—”

    “Annie, help me book the fastest flight to Yangcheng.”

    Yangcheng, Linzhuang, Fenggou Town, Pingjiang District.

    Early in the morning, Lin Hui took the couplets and blessings that he had bought a long time ago, set off from the hotel, and came to his home. The taxi stopped on the side of the road at the entrance of the village, and there was a very narrow path going inside. Lin Hui stood at the intersection, covered in a layer of fog, and began to walk in the direction of home.

    This road, he went from a babbling child until he graduated from college: when he was a child, this road was a dirt road. When it rained heavily, he would put on rubber shoes, and his grandmother would be one foot deep and one foot shallow. I walked on one foot; when I was in junior high school, this road turned into a gravel road. A factory was opened near the village. The factory owner, for the convenience of his own walking, paid to drag several carts of gravel and paved the road. In the following years One after another, some people are laying stones in relays, some people are for the family and children to get married, and it is convenient for the wedding car, and some people have a birthday party for the elderly at home, in order to look good; by now, it has become a cement road, and even has a name, called Xiu Yinglu-Wang Xiuying, this is the name of Lin Hui’s grandmother. Lin Hui paid for the road to be built. At that time, the cadres in the village thanked him for his donation and asked him what he wanted.

    In the countryside in winter, there is nothing in the fields, and the roads are full of bleak weeds, growing everywhere, looking really lonely. Lin Hui felt very cordial, he walked all the way and shouted:

    “Good morning, Big Three.”

    “Ah, it’s Xiaohui, come back so early this year?”

     “Brother Hui, long time no see, you lost weight!”

    “Lin Hui? When did you come back? Don’t say a word. Come to my house for dinner at noon.”

    “Second Master, walk slowly, there is a pit here!”

    “Okay, I can see it, hey, it’s Xiaohui!”

    …

    At the end of Xiuying Road is Lin Hui’s home, the first household in the village. The house is very old, Lin Hui stood at the door, looking at the porch that used to be very tall, the red “Fu” posted last year had faded to pink and white. He took a key from his pocket, inserted it into the rusted lock, and opened the door.

    Lin Hui did not delay for a moment. He quickly found the basin, went to the yard to fetch water from the well, and then wiped the couplet and the word “Fu” with a rag several times. , to paste a new one. While waiting, he chatted with the second aunt next door:

    “Little Hui, why did you come back so early this year?”

    Lin Hui touched the scarf around his neck: “It’s early this year, and it’s going to be New Year’s Eve when I return to Beijing.”

    Second aunt is someone from the past, after seeing Lin Hui’s shyness, he understands: “Oh, oh, you have a partner?”

    Lin Hui smiled: “Yes, there is a target.”

    “Really?” The second aunt was refreshed, “Where are you from? What kind of work?”

    Lin recalled for a moment: “It’s from Jinghua, and it looks very good. It’s from the same company as me.”

    “The locals are good, and your parents can help you.” The second aunt nodded, “A company is fine, commute to get off work together, drive a car, and save money.”

    Lin Hui laughed: “Yeah, second aunt, he cooks deliciously too.”

    “Oh, there are really not many people who can cook now. But the second aunt will tell you, they must be grown up by their parents, don’t let them work and live. Well, that’s it, you have to give in more.”

    “I know, he asked Lan to seal me.”

    The second aunt and Lin Hui chatted for a long time, feeling that the little couple was in a good relationship, and then smiled again: “When are you going to get married? Don’t forget to invite the second aunt to eat candy.”

    “Get married, whatever time you want, I don’t care.” Lin Hui said so, but in his mind, if the two of them got married, do they really want to go to Las Vegas to register?

    Lin Hui took out his mobile phone and found that the WeChat message he sent to He Jianshan yesterday has not been returned yet. I wonder if he is busy again. Lin Hui raised his mobile phone and took a picture of the scene in front of him: the tall and short houses covered in light mist and the farmland with a thin layer of green. He sent the photo to He Jianshan and said: [Ready to work]

    The second aunt had sharp eyes, and when she saw him starting to look at the phone, she quickly said, “How about chatting with the partner? Don’t pat the fields, there is nothing in the fields, pat the vegetables grown by the second aunt, and pick them when you leave. I’ll give you some greens.”

    Lin Hui replied with a smile, turned his head and photographed a small green vegetable field, sent it to He Jianshan, and then locked his phone.

    After a while, Lin Hui saw that it was almost time and started to get busy. From his hometown in Fenggou Town, he comes back twice a year at most: once during the Qingming Festival and once during the New Year. The house has been vacant for a long time, and I can’t live at home when I come back. They are all staying in hotels. But even so, every Chinese New Year, he would wipe off all the floating dust on the tables, chairs and benches in the house before he started to paste couplets, just like his grandmother did when he was a child.

    This is not something that can be done in two hours. In the past few years, Lin Hui was not in a hurry, and he might have to eat a meal in the village before leaving. Now he has Jinghua in mind, and his movements are not consciously accelerated. If he wants to make a quick decision, it is best to go back earlier. He pondered in his heart, and he was so busy that he couldn’t stop, let alone the couplet of the live broadcast that he had agreed with He Jianshan, he forgot all about it, and he didn’t even bother to read it on his mobile phone.

    So he didn’t know, half an hour ago, He Jianshan sent him the location of Yangcheng Airport, and the airport was a 15-minute drive away from this town.

    When He Jianshan followed the location to find it, the fog had completely cleared up, and the sun was gently covering the farmland and houses through the clouds. This is a completely unfamiliar place, but because of Lin Hui, when He Jianshan stepped on this land, he felt a touch of kindness.

    He looked at the location again and determined that Lin Hui’s home was at the end of the road. He Jianshan glanced at the blue sign at the intersection, he took a deep breath, set foot on the Xiuying Road, and walked towards the existence that Lin Hui repeatedly mentioned, which is better than anything in the world . After standing at the door, He Jianshan raised his head:

    It’s small and old.

    The two bright red “Fu” characters on the gate seem to have the temperature of Lin Hui’s fingers;

    The square red Eight Immortals table in the house is missing a corner, I heard that it was hit by a ladder;

    The white chain link table mat under the glass of the long table also turned yellow and black;

    Crossing the threshold of the back door, He Jianshan came to the yard, there was a well in the yard, there was a basin next to it, and there was water on the ground, which should have been used by Lin Hui just now;

    In the center of the yard, it is not the peach tree that He Jianshan is thinking about, but a lush plum.

    He Jianshan couldn’t help but walk in front of it: the winter plum tree is a little tall, and the yellow buds are neatly clustered on the branches, revealing a faint fragrance.

    A clear voice came from nowhere:

    “Xiao Hui, is this all posted to the courtyard gate?”

    “Yes, almost there.”

    “Eat at the second aunt’s house at noon?”

    “No second aunt, I’ll leave when I’m done. I’m in a hurry to go back.”

    “Okay, whatever you want. By the way, I just saw someone entering your house. Do you want to see if someone in the village is looking for you?”

    “Huh? Me? Impossible—”

    Lin Hui’s voice gradually grew louder from far to near, with the sound of footsteps stepping on He Jianshan’s tense nerves. He Jianshan’s heartbeat began to speed up. He stood behind the plum tree, staring at the direction where the voice came from, until a familiar face appeared in front of him.

    “I’ll see—”

    Lin Hui was stunned.

    He Jianshan stood there quietly.

    When the wind blows, the aroma of the yard floats up, and the plum blossoms are quietly blooming.

    The author has something to say:

    I was destined to visit my hometown years ago. In the next chapter, I will listen to Lin Hui tell this long story.