Chapter Eighty-Four: The Contract

  Ding ding......

  Ning Qingmin clearly heard that it was her own phone ringing, and she quickly picked it up and pressed the answer button. On the other end of the line, Du Hujia seemed to have not expected the phone to be answered so soon, and he smiled blandly, saying: "Were you waiting for my call?"

  "Huh! I just picked up the phone and was about to dial, it rang at the right time, so I answered immediately." Ning Qing's left hand unconsciously tugged at the corner of the pillow, secretly resenting herself for answering too quickly, at least letting it ring three or two more times would be better.

  "Oh, I was overthinking it!" Du's family said calmly, without any tone of joy or anger. "Grandpa said you haven't visited him in a long time and asked if you're busy?"

  Grandpa Du misses me, why doesn't he call himself? Why bother a busy person to say it for him? Ning Qingming had a self-righteous guess: Is this an excuse Du's family found to see her? Just thinking of explaining that she would go visit Grandpa Du tomorrow when she has time, suddenly thought, can't rush over after just one word, it seems like she is in a hurry. So she said: "I'll go visit grandpa in a few days when I have time."

  Ning Qingmin said, "I feel like I'm being too cautious with my words. Before, when I didn't have many thoughts, I would just say whatever came to mind and it was simple and straightforward. Now that I have more thoughts, it's like I'm being overly careful and hesitant."

  "Well, it's settled then!" Du Huajia seemed unable to think of anything else to say, "I'm hanging up the phone!"

  "Uh-huh, bye-bye!"

  Ning Qingmin hung up the phone, and for some reason, she felt a bit suffocated in her heart. She muttered to herself: "What's wrong with me?" She was dazed for a long time, and involuntarily jumped off the bed to search online for some so-called love experts' opinions.

  How did men and women fall in love?

  There is no unprovoked hatred in the world. Nor is there unprovoked love. Between men and women, of course, they will not fall in love with each other for no reason. The feeling of love arises for a reason.

  Men fall in love with women at first sight. Often because of their beauty. Seeing the other person smile back and forth, a hundred charms are born. And thus they can't help but be infatuated. Have you ever seen anyone fall in love with an ugly woman at first sight? So the condition for this kind of love is beauty.

  Women fall in love with men at first sight. Often because the other party is handsome and elegant, born noble, rich and powerful, or talented and outstanding, or warm and kind. Have you ever seen a woman fall in love with a garbage collector at first sight? So this kind of love has the condition that the other party must be talented and outstanding.

  In short. To sum it up. Two people in love. Both are attracted to each other's conditions.

  After listening to the expert's words, Qing felt depressed. Is there no one who loves unconditionally? She couldn't help but foolishly continue searching for what the experts said.

  Those who fall in love at first sight. They just rely on their own keen intuition. At a glance, they can see that the other person is a suitable candidate for themselves. Of course, what is called "conditions" has different standards for everyone. Due to individual requirements and tastes, there are differences.

  If one is not stunning in appearance and not outstanding in talent, they can only rely on other conditions to attract others. Most people of this type develop feelings for each other over time.

  After browsing through many experts' words, Ning Qing fell silent and shed tears. Her condition belonged to the middle class, which also meant that she could only attract people of the same social status!

  Staring blankly, QOO's avatar "Tofu" flickered with a green dot. I opened it to take a look, and the other person said: "Haven't slept yet?"

  "No!" Ning Qingming replied briefly. A line of text from the past said: "Ask you a question, have you ever loved someone else?" Because it was a stranger, Qingming opened up her heart and spoke more directly. In case she didn't like chatting with the other party, at most, she would be blacklisted, or she would change to another O-number, with no risk at all.

  "I'm not sure if I've fallen in love with someone else, but one thing is certain, there are many people who want to love me!" Tofu said with a big smile, "I've been waiting for the person who can move my heart."

  "What kind of person can make your heart move?" Ning Qing took a deep breath, an expert's opinion isn't necessarily reliable, let's ask ordinary people instead!

  "Hmm, this can only be understood, cannot be explained!" Tofu quickly replied, "I'm going down, bye bye!"

  "Oh, bye!" Ning Qing's avatar, a cartoon head with a waving handkerchief, also went offline.

  Lying in bed, she couldn't sleep for a long time. Ning Qingmin pulled at her short hair, feeling a bit frustrated. This time, if she were to fall in love again, it definitely couldn't be like what happened with Guo Shangliang back then.

  Guo Shangliang is a warning, proving that I have intentions, and if Lang is heartless, the consequences will be very painful. Compared to Guo Shangliang, it may be even more difficult for me to get together with Du Hufa's family. After thinking about it all night, Ning Qingmin made a painful decision: to avoid getting hurt again, she must strangle her newly sprouted feelings in the cradle. Although Cinderella and Prince Charming's story has been passed down for centuries, if Cinderella really marries into the royal family, she will definitely face all kinds of unspeakable discrimination, and I don't want to be Cinderella.

  It was almost dawn when Qingming finally fell asleep. When she woke up, the house was quiet. After washing her face, she went out to take a look and found a note on the dining table that read: "Little Qingming, I've gone to the temple with your grandmother to burn incense and draw lots. There's soy milk left in the pot for you to drink. Also, it's hot outside and your eyes haven't fully recovered yet. If there's not much business at the shop, don't go out. Stay home and rest well."

  Ning Qingmin couldn't help but laugh, her grandmother and the others were a bit superstitious, they loved to go around worshipping in the countryside, and when they came here, they also went around asking which temple had the most incense. Yesterday they slept so late, today they still had the energy to go to the temple, she really admired them! Ning Qingmin thought to herself, opened the refrigerator, took out a bread and heated it in the microwave "ding", then went into the kitchen and lifted the lid of the pot, muttering: "How can there be so much, there's enough for three bowls of soy milk, how can I finish drinking it all?"

  Just before noon, Ning's aunt and the others returned, smiling and saying: "I didn't expect that the temple here would have such a thriving incense fire. We went early in the morning, and there were already many people burning incense."

  "Grandma, if you're going to burn incense, just do it. If someone tells you a bunch of nonsense and asks you to take out the money and jewelry on your body to ward off disasters or difficulties, don't believe them, they're scammers." Ning Qingmin reminded with a smile, "There are many scammers now, don't talk to strangers randomly."

  "This we understand, TV programs have also called for it, and won't be deceived." Ning's grandmother smiled and said: "Xiao Min, I helped you draw a divination stick, it's an excellent sign."

  "Because you got the top sign, your grandma was so happy that she even donated 200 yuan to the temple!" Ning's mom changed into home clothes and came out, sat on the sofa, smiling and said: "The sign I asked for is also the top sign, the lyrics are quite interesting."

  "What's the sign, come and listen!" Ning Qingming smiled and went over to sit with her mother, leaning on her mother's arm and saying: "Mom, you're lucky, it's best if you have a peach blossom luck."

  Grandma Ning smiled and said: "This couplet indeed has a bit of a romantic connotation, it's easy to remember, 'For years sitting alone with few visitors, today the withered branch sprouts tender shoots, destined to meet from afar, no fate face to face on a distant road.'"