Liu looked at him, sensing his worry. “I won’t let go of what needs to be protected,” she assured him.
By the time they finished their meal, they had covered most of the past year’s events.
When Gan Kunliang was first released from prison, he could barely stand or feed himself. Half his face was paralyzed, and he struggled to speak clearly. Liu sent him to a top-tier provincial hospital’s rehabilitation ward for nearly six months. The conditions there were far superior to the prison hospital. With daily supervised exercises on various machines, he gradually recovered to his current state. After discharge, Gan Kunliang moved into their old family house. He had only begun to appear in public in recent months.
As Gan Yang listened, he concluded it was likely true. Indeed, there were no traces of his father in the new house. After dinner, Liu drove Gan Kunliang back to the old house. Moreover, in this small city, most locals knew each other directly or indirectly. Even Zeng Junjie had only recently seen Mr. Gan on television.
After dropping off Gan Kunliang, only mother and son remained in the car. The evening had been harmonious, and Liu seemed to be in good spirits.
Gan Yang waited until this moment to ask, “What does he do every day now?”
The “he,” of course, referred to Gan Kunliang.
Liu glanced at him, not insisting he call Gan Kunliang “Dad.” She replied matter-of-factly, “After resting for a while, he said he was bored. So I let him work at the new district’s sole production factory. He has an office to sit in, but doesn’t need to manage anything else.”
Skeptical, Gan Yang probed further, “Then why did my classmate see him on TV?”
Liu laughed, “Is that why you came back? To surprise your old mom?”
Gan Yang blushed but waited for her explanation.
Liu sighed with a smile, “It was just a formality for the news. The day the TV station came to film, I happened to be busy. Your father had nothing to do, and I could see he wanted to be on camera, so I let him go.”
Gan Yang nodded, saying nothing.
Seeing his concern, Liu reached over and ruffled his hair. “I know you’re worried about me, but your mom isn’t a fool. I won’t let go of what needs to be protected.”
With the conversation having reached this point, Gan Yang felt a bit embarrassed. Who was he to think Liu was naive? Although his mother had always been overly kind to her husband and in-laws, she was still a seasoned businesswoman. He realized he might have overthought the situation this time.
With this worry seemingly resolved, Gan Yang spent the next few days revisiting his hometown.
He arranged to have dinner with Zeng Junjie and planned to invite a few more people.
When his classmates in the group chat heard he was back, they also wanted to meet up. However, few people their age still lived in town. Some, like him, had gone abroad. Others had moved to big cities for university and stayed there to work. Some, as Liu had mentioned, had moved to nearby cities due to air quality concerns. It was impossible to gather everyone except during holidays. The town was now filled with young workers from other regions, especially in the new district with its factories and dormitories. One could walk for a long time without hearing the local dialect.
In the end, Zeng Junjie invited two other close friends from middle school. One had become a civil servant in the local water conservancy bureau after graduating from a vocational college. The other had taken over his family’s factory, having been a young boss for two years.
Zeng, nicknamed “Fatty,” hosted the dinner at his family’s restaurant. Three of the four at the table already seemed quite worldly, toasting and drinking. Only Gan Yang abstained from alcohol.
Back when they were training together, a coach had told them that alcohol affects reaction time, balance, and coordination. Gan Yang, who already had a low tolerance and didn’t enjoy drinking, had always used this as an excuse.
Fatty Zeng scoffed, “How are you still like this? There’s no coach to supervise you now.”
Gan Yang replied, “No coach, but I have a girlfriend who does.”
“A foreign girl?” Zeng Junjie asked, intrigued.
Gan Yang shook his head. “She’s also an international student.”
Zeng Junjie pressed, “Where is she? Did you bring her back?”
“She’s in New York,” Gan Yang answered, smiling as he spoke.
“How can she control you when she’s not even here?” Fatty teased, bringing up old memories. “Even our fierce homeroom teacher, Ms. Lu, couldn’t handle you back then.”
The young boss chimed in, “I remember! I remember! Ms. Lu would stand up, look at him, and say…”
“Gan Yang, don’t think you can do whatever you want just because I like you!” Fatty was imitated in a surprisingly accurate female voice.
Gan Yang just smiled, ordered dishes, poured drinks, and listened to their animated conversation.
The civil servant described his daily routine: work from 8 to 4, a five-minute walk from home. Except for rare outings with superiors, by 5 PM, when the sun was still high, he’d already finished dinner and started gaming in his room. Recently, his family had arranged a blind date for him with a local primary school teacher. They had chatted on QQ but hadn’t met in person yet. He wasn’t very interested, saying he had already asked about her birth date and salary and could envision their golden wedding anniversary after retirement. The middle-aged colleagues in his office were a glimpse into his future – so bored they’d cultivate small plots on the riverbanks in their jurisdiction, pondering what to grow.
Zeng Junjie patted the civil servant’s belly, saying, “Hmm, you’re starting to look middle-aged.”
The civil servant patted him back, retorting, “Look who’s talking!”
The young boss looked more stylish than before, with oiled hair, cologne, fashionable clothes, and his Porsche keys next to his cigarettes and Louis Vuitton wallet. However, as he drank more, he confided in Gan Yang, “Business has been incredibly tough this year. I’m afraid to look at the accounts too closely.”
“Are orders down?” Gan Yang asked, recalling a recent conversation with Liu on the same topic.
The young boss nodded and shook his head. “If it were just fewer orders, that would be manageable. The scary part is how different it is from expectations. You don’t know how many orders we had last year. Everyone hired new workers and added production lines. Who could have guessed it would change so drastically in just a few months?”
Isn’t that typical of OEMs? Gan Yang thought to himself. Whether it’s market demand or exchange rate fluctuations, the risk always falls on the contract manufacturers. The brand companies bear no responsibility, ensuring their profits regardless of the circumstances.
“But then again,” the young boss continued, “small factories like ours are still better off. If worse comes to worst, we can just close shop. It’s not like those large factories. Last year, banks were eager to lend. Even if you didn’t want to borrow, account managers would pester you daily, saying, ‘Just borrow a bit, invest in anything, you’ll make money, and it’ll boost my performance too.’ Now that they’ve borrowed and spent the money, suddenly facing this situation with banks withdrawing credit lines – that’s a recipe for disaster.”
Midway through his speech, he seemed to remember that Gan Yang’s family owned one of those large factories. He quickly changed his tone, smiling, “Your sports brand business should be better off. After all, your profit margins are higher, and the entry barrier is high too. Not just any small factory can get those orders, so the competition isn’t as fierce.”
Gan Yang wanted to inquire further, but Zeng Junjie had already moved on, discussing with the young boss where to go next for entertainment.
Hearing the name of a certain massage parlor, Gan Yang sensed the implications and declined to join.
Zeng Junjie, displeased with Gan Yang’s prudishness, teased him, “Oh, our Yangyang is different now. Even if you wanted to go, I’d feel bad taking you to such a lowbrow place.”
Gan Yang, unfazed, pushed him away, saying, “I’ve always been different from you.”
Zeng Junjie, exasperated, imitated the female voice again, pointing at Gan Yang, “Gan Yang, don’t think you can do whatever you want just because I like you!”
The table erupted in laughter. In the end, Zeng Junjie’s wife arrived, pushing a baby stroller. As a result, no one went out, and they parted ways civilly.
The following weekend, Gan Yang attended a wedding.
He had told Ding Zhitong that he was returning for a relative’s wedding. At the time, it was just an excuse, and the timing didn’t quite align with the wedding season. But in his hometown, there were always weddings. The groom was one of his cousins. Gan Yang remembered his childhood nickname but barely recognized his face. Throughout the event, he followed the elders’ instructions, participating in the bride’s pickup and then sitting down for the meal, playing the role of a dutiful male relative of the groom.
After the wedding, Gan Yang sent a few photos to Ding Zhitong as proof of his reason for returning home. Only after sending the email did he feel like he was protesting too much.
One photo showed him sitting at a round table, eating. Next to him, a boy just over a year old stood on a chair. Despite not having all his teeth, the child was enthusiastically gnawing on king crab legs, one in each hand.