Chapter 46: Saving Money Isn’t Easy
Not long after, a woman who wore an armband appeared by the road at the park entrance. She was the ticketing staff who told Gu Jinghang about the special event yesterday.
When Supervisor Li approached, she sized up Gu Jinghang from head to toe. “I heard about your heroic deed yesterday. We had the shop make a pennant for you. Are you in such a rush that you have to come personally and pick it up?”
Gu Jinghang came straight to the point. “Supervisor Li, those tickets yesterday were not from some event, am I right?”
Supervisor Li scratched her head with her little finger. “Why do you want to know? And why are you so serious about it?”
“Please tell me the truth.”
Supervisor Li peered at him. “You young people are really… Fine. To be honest, your girlfriend pestered me for the entire day.
“She told me earnestly that she had been ignorant in the past, splurging your money away. Then, she cried and described your difficulties – she just wanted to save your money. I didn’t agree to her request at first. So, she waited here and almost got a heat stroke. Frankly speaking, I was quite moved by her. So I agreed to help her. But you should know that she didn’t want you to find out about what she had done.”
Gu Jinghang clenched his fist while his eyebrows slightly twitched. He looked quiet and restrained, but emotions surged in his eyes.
Gu Jinghang stood there for a while before he turned around and walked off. He even forgot to say goodbye to Supervisor Li until she stopped him. “Hey, young man. Where are you going?”
“I am going to go look for her.”
“She’s in the park right now.”
Gu Jinghang turned back with surprise. “In the park?”
Supervisor Li nodded. “I told her she must clean up the park for the next two days in exchange for my help.”
Gu Jinghang felt bad. Song Ran was a spoiled girl who would not even pick up a fallen soy sauce bottle at home. Yet, she actually came to clean up the park for him during the summer.
His heart wrenched so hard that he felt a twinge in his nose. She had always called him a fool, but she was the bigger fool.
He looked at Supervisor Li with sincerity. “Can I… help her out?”
Supervisor Li laughed. “You two sound like a pair of ill-fated love birds while I’m the evil woman. Fine, you can help her out. But you must not let her know. That little la.s.s is extremely fierce. If she finds out you knew, she’d probably go after me.”
“I understand. I will not let her know.”
For fear that Song Ran might spot him, Gu Jinghang suited up. He wore a long-sleeved uniform and pants with a scarf over his face. He put on a straw hat, wrapping himself from head to toe.
Supervisor Li looked at him, worried. “Young man, the highest temperature today is 37 degrees Celsius. Are you sure you won’t be overheated when you cover yourself like that?”
“It’s okay.”
Supervisor Li felt a little sorry for him. “If you can’t stand the heat, just go to my office, which is in the second room on the left behind the ticketing office. There is water and a fan. Got it?”
“Got it.”
The sun was scorching hot, and the cicadas were noisily singing away. Even though it was not a Sunday, there were many tourists visiting People’s Park because it was the summer holiday.
Song Ran was wearing the park’s armband, holding a big black plastic bag on one hand and a pair of long iron pliers for picking up trash on the other hand.
Supervisor Li had explained the job scope to her. She must walk continuously without stopping. She was the only one taking care of the sanitary in this park today and no eye-catching trash should be found on the roads. There were 15 trash bins in the park. Due to the high volume of summer tourists, they must be clear once every hour.
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