Please Be More Serious Chapter 5

Previous chapter links: Chapter 1 ❀ Chapter 2❀ Chapter 3 ❀ Chapter 4


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Lonely In Autumn:

The mid-Autumn holidays rolled round. Zhengqing did not like long holidays. A long vacation meant he’d have to stay at home on his own for far too many days. The company was usually busy, whichever side they were on there were always people around him, so at work, he felt more substantial. The Mid-Autumn Festival, although only one day more than a weekend, made him somewhat uncomfortable.

The day before the public holiday began, Zhengqing went through his work and finished his reports. He was bored. He did not know much about psychology, but as he was getting older he was beginning to understand feelings of loneliness and boredom. There was nothing tangible on TV, and he felt a little drained. His colleagues and friends sent him a lot of moon cakes commemorating the festival but only kept a small box and sent the rest to his aunt in his home town. He did not like to eat sweat and greasy food, and the moon cakes made him think of family reunions which he could not have. He sat on his sofa in a daze not paying attention to the TV.

His phone rang, Zhengqing looked at the caller ID, it was his aunt back home.

‘Are you busy, Zhengqing?’ she asked. She always opened with this sentence.

Zhengqing’s reply was always, ‘No,’ even if he was very busy he always made time for his aunt. He didn’t have much family and his aunt was the one most concerned about his well-being even though they have not seen each other in a long while.

‘I got the moon cakes, there is so much of it,’ his aunt said, ‘don’t send so much next time.’

‘It doesn’t matter they were given to me,’ he said, although he had bought a few more boxes in addition. The neighbourhood his aunt lived had many families that were close to her, she could give the moon cakes to them, facilitate good neighbourliness.

‘I also got the money. Zhengqing ah, don’t send me money anymore. I know you are filial, but A Hua has work and we are not short of money,’ A Hua was his cousin, his aunt’s only son. ‘When you are studying Aunt couldn’t help you much. You worked hard to get where you are now, it wasn’t easy. You should be enjoying yourself. Don’t send money to me, I know your heart.’

But Zhengqing said, ‘I don’t have any other relatives to show filial piety to, so please accept it.’ He knew his aunt and uncle’s pension was not much, and A Hua’s job at the factory did not pay that well His cousin also had a wife and children to raise. He was far from them, they only way he could contribute to their well being was to send money.

His aunt was silent for a bit, then asked, ‘Are you going to see your parents tomorrow?’

‘Yes,’ he replied.

‘Now that you’re doing well, your parents would certainly be happy, but you’re now getting older, you have to start thinking about marriage. A Hua’s children are now in primary school, you can’t delay, although aunt cannot help in this matter. You’re now very precious and Aunt isn’t worthy of you therefore can’t help introduce you to someone. So please meet a nice girl quickly, and get married so your parents would not be anxious about your well being.’ (Zuben: Weren’t his parents satisfied earlier?)

‘Nn, yes.’ Zhenqing replied as he should. The past two to three years, whenever he spoke to his aunt she must talk about this, he wasn’t anxious; it was just this year that he started getting restless and thinking seriously about it. (Zuben: ZQ, your biological clock is ticking.)

They chattered for a few more minutes and his aunt rang off. Zhengqing suddenly thought of Mao Huizhu, last time they had met, she had proposed another date, but she hadn’t contacted him since. On Friday, she called and said she had to go home for the mid-Autumn festival, but she’d told him every time she went back home she felt more mentally tired.

Zhengqing understood this feeling; a few years ago he also returned home to visit his aunt, the result was they didn’t seem to gel. He didn’t know why but things felt out of sync.  His aunt treated him too cautiously, as if he was now inlaid with gold. The neighbours came to have a fresh look at him. His other relatives came out of the wood work, pulled their children along saying he should buy them presents. They did not once talk about how they treated him during his childhood. It made him feel disgusted and offended. His aunt nearly made his adoptive aunt prepare a banquet at home, and kept heaping false platitudes on him. It made his aunt very embarrassed.

In the end, Zhengqing pleased everyone by taking them out to a local restaurant to have a feast. From conversations he heard, people did not know the strange woman, but she seemed to want to benefit a lot from his aunt. She was asking his aunt to convince him to help her children with job connections when they went to the city. (Zuben: How tiring.)

 Zhengqing left like a thief in the night, but not before he secretly gave his aunt a sum of money. His Aunt told him not to come so often, in order to avoid trouble, she did not mind not seeing him.

He certainly did not mind not going. There was nothing to do, and there were many young people asking him about good jobs in the city because of tenuous connections. They thought that making money in the city was easy. Zhengqing had lived for many years but he did not know an easy way to make money. His salary was topped with large bonuses, but it had taken a lot of hard work for such achievements, so he felt like he could not help those people. (Zuben: Is all this drivel for word count?)

Since his aunt has asked him not to come back, he did not. His presence caused trouble and bothered her. He was grateful to his aunt so he did not want to inconvenience her life; when his father died young, his mother had worked hard so him to study in good schools. His aunt took care of him and his mother. When his mother was sick, his aunt carried her a long way to see a doctor. All these things she did for them, he kept it in his heart. So, when he began to work, and his conditions improved, he was able to pay off the debts his mother incurred while she was ill. He always regretted the fact that his mother never had a moment of rest while she was alive because of this he worked very hard to earn more and more money. He had promised his mother, he would buy her a big house, but by the time he could afford it, she was gone.

 Zhengqing crossed over to his balcony to look at the large full moon, sadness filling his heart. He moved his parents’ graves to a good cemetery and bought the best grave for them. (Zuben: They are dead, I don’t think they care where they are buried. Isn’t it just to do the appropriate rites and visits?) He could not do much do much for his parents in their life but he hoped to make up for it in their death (Zuben: with fancy graves.) His aunt saying that his parents were anxious made him sad (Zuben: For realz?! Does she have a telephone line to the land of the dead?!)

All the same, he was still young, he would see how things worked out with Huizhu..

❀❀❀

The day of the mid-Autumn Festival dawned bright. In the afternoon, Zhengqing went to the cemetery with a box of moon cakes, fruits and flowers.

The cost of the land was not small, but he felt very fortunate to be able to intern his parents there. The tombstones were clean and swept. The caretakers of this cemetery were very good. At their head stones, Zhengqing placed the food and flowers before the incense pot. Whenever he had holidays, or had a happy event such as signing a large contract, a promotion and salary increase, he would come and visit his parents to tell them about it (Zuben: So many arbitrary words.)

He usually just sat there quietly contemplating things. When it comes to work, he knew what to say and how to say it. He was very good at analysing issues and solving problems. But when he visited his parents, he didn’t have many words to say.

His life was very monotonous, and he didn’t have many things to say that were not pertaining to work. And he couldn't really talk about work with his parents. So he just sat quietly with his parents, watching the day go by; it was very peaceful.

He knocked on the head stone three times and sat on the stone steps, ‘It’s the mid-autumn festival today. Are you well? I am fine.’ He sat quietly for a while not knowing what to say. After a thought came to him and he said, ‘Don’t worry about these things. I am looking, I will proceed as usual the deadline is two years. Once we decide to marry, I will bring her here.’ (Zuben: I dunno if it works like that, but good luck!) Finding a person was not difficult. Like work, as long as you dealt with it logically and thought of marriage as an important project with set steps; find the target audience, set up meetings, step up to promote progress, and seal the deal with a contract. Definitely would be no problem. (Zuben: Sure, no problem at all)

The reason many people do not finish this is that they do not want it. One would not die if one didn’t marry, but if you don’t work there would be no money to eat. Humans understand their priorities.  He knew that although it wasn’t imperative to his life, and things should be done in stages. And he was at the stage for marriage.

‘Don’t worry about me,’ he said again to his parents. He sat silently for a little while longer. He got up and was about to say goodbye and leave when he heard the sound of laughter. He turned to the sound and saw Yin Ting holding a young man's arm. They were coming from a few rows behind him. He had been so focused on his parents he did not notice that there were people around him.

‘Qiu Zong!’ Ying Ting called when she saw him and waved..

Zhengqing nodded and replied, ‘Hello.’

Yin Ting brought the young man over with her, ‘Are Qiu Zong’s family here too?’

He nodded, ‘My parents.’

Yin Ting smiled and pointed to a grave three rows from the Qiu family’s where an old man stood talking.

‘My mother’s there. My father is talking to her. Qiu Zong, this is my brother. Brother this is Qiu Zhengqing Zong of Yong Kai; young and promising, oh.’

‘Hello, my name is Yin Shi,’ the young man greeted as he held his large hand out for a handshake, Zhengqing took his hand,

‘Qiu Zhengqing.’

‘My brother is opening a bar, if you have time bring your friends to play oh. I think I mentioned it last time,’ Ying Tin said as she winked at him. Her expression made Zhengqing wonder if she was hinting that he went along with his girlfriend.

He remembered their first meeting at Yong Kai. He did not know that Qin Yufei was up to mischief.  He was meeting with Gu Yingjie, a representative of the company Mingde. Yin Ting ran over to invite them to dinner. Gu Yingjie accepted and Zhengqing accompanied him. He thought Yin Ting was interested in Yingjie, but he did not hear any rumours about them, but he wasn’t one to go looking for gossip.

That incident made him regard her as a bit careless.

He told her he never went to bars to play, only to entertain business partners. Her expression was as though she’d seen an alien.

Zhengqing bristled, he decided he didn’t quite like Yin Ting.

Yin Ting turned to her brother to give Zhengqing a VIP card, but Yin Shi did not bring them along. She muttered to her brother that he was not dedicated, and would he like a knock on the head. But Yin Ting got over it, no longer bothering about the VIP card., she turned to Zhengqing’s parents headstones and said, ‘Uncle, Aunt, my name is Yin Ting. I am a friend of Qiu Zhengqing Zong. Qiu Zong is very competent, the backbone of his company, a social elite. You must be very proud of him. My mother stays nearby,’ she pointed to her mother’s grave stone. ‘Her name is Yu Xiuping. I hope you can be friends. She’s a little lonely. Please help me look after her.’

Zhengqing was somewhat dumbfounded, was she really entrusting her mother to his dead parents?

Zuben: Someone asked if I could do this. Personally I don't care, the forward is more important to me, but I get the feeling of thinking that you might have missed out on something. So 5 to 20 will be done at the same time as the forward chapters. I will attempt to do one of each until it is done and I can focus on the rest of the chapters. As always, I can't give set times I will update. It is really as the mood takes me, 'cos I've got other things I like doing just as much.

Enjoy x

Index❀Chapter 6