DM Chapter 36

Chapter 36: Chen Fangzhou Can’t Understand Jiang Xiaoyuan

 

Jiang Xiaoyuan’s sudden decision sent shockwaves through the entire salon—everyone from the manager to the interns was stunned. To be fair, turnover in the hairstyling industry was indeed quick, but who quits right after a promotion to technician, when a raise is imminent, and heads into an uncertain job with not a penny in savings?

In truth, most people already saw the beauty and hairstyling industry as unreliable, but what she was planning to switch to seemed even worse.

If you’re going to job-hop, at least don’t hop downward.

When Lily heard the news, she wailed and wailed out an “ah” on the spot. Colleagues at the salon always left after just a few years—some moved on to better opportunities, but most went back home to get married. Lily, being deeply sentimental, felt torn at the thought of her friend leaving and also worried about her own unstable life. Every time someone left, she became more aware of how unsustainable this line of work was, and it stirred her own anxieties.

Chen Fangzhou’s reaction, much like Qi Lian’s, was practical: “You’re quitting? Where will you live?”

Jiang Xiaoyuan: “I haven’t thought about it yet.”

Chen Fangzhou: “You haven’t thought about it? You’re being too naive! Do you even know how much rent costs?”

Jiang Xiaoyuan: “… roughly?”

Chen Fangzhou: “Let me tell you, rent alone is at least a thousand. Then, you’ve got utilities—water, electricity, gas, and property management fees, which will cost a few hundred more. Even if you walk to work and save on transportation, you’ve still got to eat, right? Even if you barely eat, you’d still need 15 yuan a day, which adds up to 450 a month. If you want to treat yourself occasionally, that’s easily 600 or 700.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan: “……..”

For the first time, she realized how quickly money could be spent.

“That’s almost two thousand already,” Chen Fangzhou continued, “and you can’t guarantee you won’t get sick or need medicine, can you? What about emergencies or unexpected expenses? You need toiletries, right? Even if you don’t wear makeup, in the winter you at least need some face cream. What about new clothes when the seasons change? Sweetheart, even if you earn 3,000 a month, how much will you have left at the end of each month? And have you checked if that new job has benefits like social insurance and housing funds? If not, you’ll be scrambling to save up for that at the end of the year.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan had no clue. She didn’t even understand what social insurance covered, and blankly asked, “You have to pay for social insurance? Where? How much?”

She clearly wasn’t cut out for day-to-day living. Even if she were destitute, she could never break down daily expenses with the clarity and precision of someone like Boss Chen. In just a few words, he had stripped her of all her idealism. Jiang Xiaoyuan was shocked on the spot. All her reasons were refuted by the dense numbers.

“Go sit somewhere and cool down. You don’t know anything….” Chen Fangzhou sighed. Now he finally understood why Qi Lian had asked him to look after Jiang Xiaoyuan—she really was thoughtless. She could afford to be careless about a lot of things, but being careless about her own well-being was something else entirely. She was impulsive.

Chen Fangzhou continued, “Our base salary as technicians is 1,500, but as long as you’re not slacking off, you’ll earn commissions, sometimes more than your salary. The salon covers your food and lodging, so if you save a little, you can manage to put some aside. Now you want to leave—is your brain broken or is your math just bad?”

He was getting worked up as he spoke.

Jiang Xiaoyuan had no response. Sometimes, dreams and reality just didn’t align.

She silently studied Chen Fangzhou for a moment, noticing for the first time how unwell he looked. His complexion was dark, his stubble unshaven, and his eyes were bloodshot. He was clearly stressed.

Jiang Xiaoyuan cautiously asked, “Boss Chen, are you okay?”

Chen Fangzhou waved his hand weakly, softened his tone, and instructed Jiang Xiaoyuan: “Go and make a cup of milk tea.”

She made him an unhealthy instant milk tea, while the rest of the staff busied themselves with opening the salon—cleaning, checking the equipment, and taking stock. Jiang Xiaoyuan, who was about to quit, skipped the chores and chatted with Boss Chen in the break room.

Jiang Xiaoyuan: “You’re not unemployed, so could it be… heartbreak?”

Upon hearing this, Chen Fangzhou gulped down the milk tea like it was hard liquor and immediately soon suffered the retribution of pretending to be cool—he was scalded by the boiling water and screamed.

Yup, definitely heartbreak.

In Jiang Xiaoyuan’s view, though, Chen Fangzhou had never truly been in a relationship to begin with, so it couldn’t be considered heartbreak. At best, he had just gone out with a woman of similar age, negotiated a few times, and the friendly talks had failed to reach an agreement.

Jiang Xiaoyuan: “What happened?”

After a moment of silence, Chen Fangzhou quietly said, “It was about work. She didn’t think this job was something I could do for the rest of my life. It wasn’t stable.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan patted his back in a show of comfort.

People often think that spending your whole life in one job, living the same life at twenty as at fifty, is both terrifying and uninspiring—a sign of no ambition. Yet at the same time, they consider jobs with high turnover and instability unreliable, and those who switch jobs frequently just as unreliable.

How can one be both ambitious and stable? Society’s expectations are indeed hard to reconcile.

Perhaps the only real solution is “money.”

Boss Chen was destined to continue his long and hopeless journey of matchmaking. Every time he went through it, it was like watching the stock representing his self-worth drop another point, until it hit rock bottom. He spoke to Jiang Xiaoyuan in a swamp of green clouds and bleakness, and every word he said was poured from his heart.

“So, as someone with experience, I’m telling you—be grounded, be steady. Don’t live in a fantasy world! I don’t mind if you quit, but at least find something stable, girl! If you keep being this reckless, you might never find a partner.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan thought for a moment: “That’s not something I’m worried about.”

Chen Fangzhou listened intently: “Oh? Why not?”

Jiang Xiaoyuan said, “I’m a young, beautiful girl. Even if I don’t have a job, finding a partner won’t be a problem.”

Chen Fangzhou shut up bleakly, and was stunned by the shamelessness of this girl.

Jiang Xiaoyuan: “Boss Chen, you’re right. But my situation is different.”

Chen Fangzhou looked at her, bewildered.

“If I stay at the salon, I’ll earn more, life will be easier, and I’ll live more comfortably. But then what?” Jiang Xiaoyuan asked. “And then—before I know it, I’ll become you.”

Chen Fangzhou: “…….”

Jiang Xiaoyuan’s expression grew serious: “But I don’t want that, Boss Chen. One day, I want my signature on the box of an internationally famous perfume. I don’t want to keep practicing haircuts and trimming bangs. If I stay at the salon, every day I spend here is a day wasted, a day further from my goal. Boss Chen, how many days do we have in a lifetime?”

Chen Fangzhou couldn’t understand Jiang Xiaoyuan, just as she couldn’t understand him.

For Chen Fangzhou, “time” held no value. It was intangible, unmeasurable, and ultimately useless.

Both realized the futility of their conversation and fell silent.

After a long pause, Jiang Xiaoyuan firmly declared, “I won’t regret this.”

Chen Fangzhou’s eyes fell on his cup. Just when Jiang Xiaoyuan thought he was too angry to respond, he quietly said, “Do you know how I became friends with Qi Lian?”

Jiang Xiaoyuan: “…Elementary school classmates?”

Chen Fangzhou: “His parents were abroad for a while, and they sent him to live with relatives in our hometown. He was only at our school for two months and left before midterms. We weren’t even in the same class and never spoke to each other.”

“When I was in my teens, I read all kinds of random books and got it into my head that I was someone special, destined for greatness, and didn’t belong in some small school where I kept failing exams and writing self-criticisms.” Chen Fangzhou chuckled bitterly. “So, I ran away to a coastal city and worked a few months as a laborer. I wasn’t old enough to get a proper job, so only those hiring child laborers would take me—not exactly reputable places.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan nodded, thinking that his rough teenage years might have stunted his growth.

“I kept thinking, ‘How can I stay stuck in a sweatshop forever?’” Chen Fangzhou’s voice was hoarse, like a feather caught in a sandstorm, as he added, “Wasn’t I supposed to achieve something great?”

Jiang Xiaoyuan: “And then?”

Chen Fangzhou: “Then I met some unsavory people who tricked me into a pyramid scheme. My alias ‘Chen Noah’ came from those days… Don’t listen to Qi Lian’s nonsense about me worshipping some Lotus-Born Jesus.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan: …….

Chen Fangzhou shook the cup and downed the remaining milk tea in one go. “Back then, the crackdown hadn’t started yet. Pyramid schemes were way more rampant than they are now. Once you got in, you couldn’t get out—it was like the mafia. People even got killed. I managed to get a message out to my family, and they pulled all sorts of strings to find me. They remembered that Qi Lian’s mom was an old acquaintance from our hometown and got in touch with her. She wasn’t in the country at the time, but Qi Lian was a real stand-up guy—he’s the one who got me out.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan was stunned: “How did he get you out?”

Chen Fangzhou glanced at her.

Jiang Xiaoyuan suddenly remembered the time Qi Lian got stabbed and couldn’t even stop the car. She quickly nodded, “Oh, I think I get it now.”

“After that, I changed my name to Chen Fangzhou. It’s not because it sounds nice or fancy. I kept it to remind myself—you only eat as much as your stomach can handle, wear clothes that fit your size, and, most importantly, live and work steadily. Well, that’s my dark history for you. Now, you better think carefully about your own decisions.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan thought his advice made a lot of sense. She mulled it over all night and officially quit her job the next day.

She swiftly wrapped up her work, transferred the few clients she had gathered over the past six months to Lily, and under Chen Fangzhou’s cries of “You’ve lost your mind,” she packed up her belongings with ease.

Jiang Xiaoyuan tied up the pile of second-hand books she had bought and promptly sold them back to the same bookstore. She respectfully returned the statue of the “Faceless Ancestor” she had borrowed from the shop. As for her own belongings, they consisted of a few clothes, a hand warmer, some almost-used-up toiletries, the jingle of change in her pocket, a phone that looked like a TV remote, and no bedding whatsoever. The sheets, pillowcases, and duvet cover were things she had bought herself; the quilt was borrowed from the salon.

All her belongings could fit into one school backpack. She could carry it with ease, no need for a moving company.

Back when she first went to university, she lugged five oversized suitcases, and several people had to help her with her luggage on the flight.

Why had she been so troublesome back then? Why did she need so much stuff?

Jiang Xiaoyuan couldn’t figure it out, so she chalked it up as part of her own “dark history.”

With her entire “household” on her back, she went to find Jiang Sam. Under the Empress Dowager’s shocked gaze, she spread her hands and announced, “Teacher, from now on, I’ll be following you. But first, you need to help me find a place to stay—I don’t have money for a hotel.”

Jiang Sam had only called her that day because he had gotten drunk while out with friends. Otherwise, the aloof Empress Dowager would never have exposed the fact that he had lost a rolling pin while watching a fight. Groggy from the alcohol, he was captivated by a photo sent by the friend who had introduced him to the art troupe gig. The lively face paint on the lead dancer’s face had caught his eye, and in a moment of impulse, he had invited her. The next morning, sober, he regretted it deeply and secretly hoped Jiang Xiaoyuan would have the good sense to refuse.

Who would’ve thought Jiang Xiaoyuan would accept so eagerly?

As the saying goes, it’s easy to invite a god but hard to send one away. Jiang Sam sensed that Jiang Xiaoyuan had a “burn the ships” attitude and realized he had to face the consequences of his drunken invitation. So he said, “I’ll find an agent for you. You can look at apartments and decide what kind of place to rent.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan, mindful of the budget that Chen Fangzhou had helped her calculate, firmly rejected the idea: “I can’t afford to rent.”

Jiang Sam: “…….”

Jiang Xiaoyuan took a deep breath and resorted to playing the rogue. “Teacher Jiang, because of your one sentence, I quit my job to follow you. Now I’m about to be homeless—you can’t just leave me hanging.”

Jiang Sam was left feeling utterly disoriented, regret twisting his insides.

“Oh, by the way,” Jiang Xiaoyuan said, “I haven’t asked you yet, Teacher Jiang, what’s your real name?”

Jiang Sam’s real name was Jiang Bo. A few minutes later, with a pale face, the Empress Dowager paused for a moment and then said to Jiang Xiaoyuan, “Come with me for now.”

The Empress Dowager, with her new personal eunuch carrying an umbrella and a backpack, drove straight to the “Diamond Styling Training School” and barged into the principal’s office. Grabbing Jiang Xiaoyuan by the shoulders, she pushed her in front of the principal and arrogantly issued a decree.

“Let me introduce my new assistant,” Jiang Bo said. “She doesn’t have a place to stay right now, so could you arrange a spot for her in the girls’ dormitory temporarily?”

Jiang Xiaoyuan quickly flashed a sweet, obedient smile.

The principal’s glasses slowly slid down his nose.

And so, Jiang Xiaoyuan, now awkwardly employed as a teaching assistant, moved into a six-person girls’ dorm room. She felt oddly out of place, like a weasel infiltrating a rat’s nest—there to spy on them.

“Do you have any money?” Jiang Bo asked.

Jiang Xiaoyuan: “Yes.”

She rummaged through all her pockets and came up with 403.5 yuan. The coins clattered to the floor, and she quickly picked them up.

Jiang Bo, unable to bear it, pulled out his wallet and gave her 2,000 yuan as an advance on her salary. Covering his face, he bid her farewell at the entrance of the girls’ dormitory and twisted his way out of sight.

“Teacher Jiang, wait!” Jiang Xiaoyuan called after him.

“What is it now?” Jiang Bo asked.

“Can I sit in on other teachers’ classes when I have free time?”

Jiang Bo’s face became a spectacle of emotions. He was practically boiling with anger. “My assistant needs to sit in on someone else’s class? Say that again!”

Realizing she had hit a sore spot, Jiang Xiaoyuan didn’t dare make another sound. She anxiously waved her handkerchief, bidding the Empress Dowager farewell, and turned back into what would be her new home.

 

 

 

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