"What?" Qi Hui didn't look up, focusing intently on the lighter in his hand, lighting it, then extinguishing it, then lighting it again, then extinguishing it again. In the flickering light, Le Xi's shadow seemed to appear, hazy and unreal.
"Everyone says you're a real capitalist, only good at exploiting the poor!" Yang Jingyu teased.
"Is that so?" Qi Hui chuckled slightly. "Are you here to plead with them or to report them to me?"
"Unfortunately, neither is true." Yang Jingyu walked to Qi Hui's side, lazily leaned against the desk, and snatched the lighter from Qi Hui's hand. He was about to light his cigarette when Qi Hui grabbed his wrist and, with a slight pull, the lighter fell into Qi Hui's palm.
"I think I told you before, don't touch things I don't want you to touch. Don't be like a woman, always full of curiosity."
"Tch, it's rare to see President Qi so happy using a cheap Zippo lighter." Yang Jingyu chuckled and leaned closer to Qi Hui. "What's so great about a broken lighter? I'll give you seven tomorrow, you can rotate them every week. I refuse to believe there's anything in this world that can't be replaced!"
"You didn't barge into my office this early in the morning just to launch into a long-winded speech about a lighter, did you?"
"No, that's not it. I want to go back to City C. There are still many things to take care of there."
"Okay, you can go back. I'll give you another week off."
"Hey, are you trying to kick me out like this?"
"You came of your own accord, and now you're the one saying you want to leave. What can I do?"
"Didn't you study here before? You know this place so well, you could be my guide. I'm afraid to drive now, I'm afraid I won't be able to find my way! I'd rather die than stay here like this."
"Okay, I'll be your guide. Just tell me what you want to do."
"You said it!"
"I said it. Tell me what you want to do first, and I'll be your driver, okay?"
"That's more like it!" Yang Jingyu revealed a triumphant smile—it seemed he wasn't entirely indifferent to him. His efforts, from chasing him back from the US to bringing him here, hadn't been in vain.
"Well, I want to go shopping for clothes this afternoon. I was in such a rush when I came here that I didn't bring any workout clothes, so I won't have anything to wear to the gym."
"Okay, call me this afternoon when you're done with what you're doing," Qi Hui smiled. "I'll take you shopping for clothes, and then we'll go to the gym together. By the way, how's that case you're working on coming along?"
"Fortunately, everything has been settled. The funds will be arriving gradually. However, you will need to return to City C soon to make the final decision."
"Hmm. Not bad, as expected of a Harvard graduate, you've got a knack for it."
"Any reward for just talking the talk but not walking the walk?" Yang Jingyu asked with a smile.
What reward do you want?
"You're willing to buy Yao Lexi a Smart car, so all I ask is that you treat me to a meal. That's not too much to ask, is it? Where else can you find someone as dedicated and devoted as me?"
"Ha, you can read classical Chinese? So you're not a banana (yellow on the outside, white on the inside) after all. I underestimated you."
"Banana person?" Yang Jingyu widened his eyes and repeated the three words meaningfully. "Do you want to peel it open and take a look?"
Author's Note:
First snow
Because of an important contract to be signed in City C, Qi Hui had no choice but to leave with Yang Jingyu for a while. He originally wanted to take Le Xi back with him, but had to give up considering his studies. After confirming the itinerary, Qi Hui called Le Xi immediately, expecting to hear her reluctant voice, but unexpectedly, Le Xi was teaching the children at the time. She answered the phone hastily and hung up after saying only a few words.
On the day of departure, Le Xi took half a day off to see him off. Qi Hui gave her a long list of instructions, which made Le Xi yawn repeatedly, but she didn't dare to let Qi Hui see it. After passing through the security checkpoint, Qi Hui turned around and saw Le Xi happily answering the phone. He felt inexplicably annoyed.
Without Qi Hui's supervision, Le Xi was quite content. Before leaving, Qi Hui learned that a client of the company was interested in making a small sample of promotional T-shirts, so he entrusted Yan Shuang to negotiate with them. After nearly a semester of practice, the students at the special education school had learned basic sewing skills. If this deal went through, the students would have a small income and taste the sweetness of their labor. So Le Xi studied and worked even harder every day. Shi Lu, of course, was busy running errands for her, acting as her protector, designing styles, sourcing raw materials, practically accompanying her the whole time. In the meantime, he couldn't help but grope her, openly taking advantage of her.
After finally finalizing the design and delivering it to the client, we signed the contract, and it was almost evening when we left. As we exited the office building, it started snowing.
"It's snowing..." Le Xi pointed to the sky. Snowflakes drifted down like feathers under the night sky, appearing and disappearing under the streetlights, softening the entire city with their gentle touch. The tall buildings, dazzling neon lights, and speeding cars on the opposite bank of the river seemed to shift in rhythm with the snow, appearing in slow motion. But in Shi Lu's eyes, there was only this one person, surprised by the first snow.
"This is the first time I've seen snow here." Le Xi excitedly stretched out her hands, cupping them in her palms as if trying to catch the swirling snowflakes. "I've heard my brother say before how beautiful this city's winters are, and now I've finally seen it for myself!"
"It's nothing, there will be many more opportunities in the future. It will snow all winter," Shi Lu said casually. It's unclear whether this nonchalance could conceal her momentary embarrassment at being caught off guard. Shi Lu took off her scarf and wrapped it around Le Xi's neck. "You southerners might freeze to death in winter! Don't catch a cold, or your Zi Jie and your brother will start nagging you. I can't take responsibility for that."
"Although Zijie is a bit fussy, he's a really nice person," Lexi said with a smile.
"Really? I feel like we're incompatible. He's always yelling and shouting. I can hear him arguing with Chen Song from next door."
"No way!" Le Xi jumped up dramatically. "Was he that loud?" But in her heart, she thought: Oh no, with Zi Jie's loud voice, Shi Lu probably heard everything he was doing with Chen Song...
"Did you hear any strange noises?" Lexi asked cautiously.
"A strange sound?" Shi Lu frowned, looked up at the sky and thought for a moment. "It sounds like a cat meowing. I was wondering why there would be a cat meowing when you don't seem to have any cats in your shop. Yan Shuang said it even sounds like a male cat in heat."
Lexi lowered her head, her face darkening: It seems I need to talk to them about the timing and place of OOXX...
The temperature was quite low after the snow, and the breath I exhaled turned into white mist.
"Let's go, or we won't be able to get a taxi if we don't leave soon," Shi Lu reminded Le Xi, who was still enjoying the snowy scenery. "It's still so cold, you'll catch a cold."
As if in response to Shi Lu's words, Le Xi sneezed twice loudly. Embarrassed, she rubbed her nose, which was red from the cold, and grinned foolishly as Shi Lu naturally grabbed her arm and led her to the road.
"Hurry up, stop dawdling!" Shi Lu grabbed Le Xi's hand and hurried forward. Seeing a taxi ahead being cut off, she couldn't help but yell, "Stop crawling! Ugh, someone beat us to it again!"
It was almost nine o'clock when they got home. The two of them quickly made something to eat and chatted for a while before Shi Lu realized that Le Xi seemed to have a fever.
"She has a fever. She probably caught a chill from the wind." Shi Lu touched Le Xi's forehead; it was a little hot, but thankfully it wasn't too serious. "Do you have any medicine? Take some medicine, sleep it off, and sweat it out, and you'll be fine."
"It seems not." Le Xi lay obediently on the bed, letting Shi Lu pull the blanket over him and tuck the corners in tightly.
"I'll go buy some, wait a minute!"
"Mmm." Lexi nodded softly, then closed her eyes as if she were struggling, adding one last thing, "I want two grilled sausages from the lady at the door! The crispy kind!"
Shi Lu was furious and slapped him on the forehead: "Can't you at least have some self-awareness as a patient?!"
Not long after Shi Lu left, Qi Hui called, and Le Xi answered the phone lazily.
"Baby, why does your voice sound so weak? Are you sick?" Qi Hui asked with concern on the other end of the phone.
"It's alright! Brother, it's snowing here!" Le Xi coughed lightly, got up and leaned against the window to admire the snow scene, excitedly reporting to Qi Hui her feelings about seeing heavy snow for the first time.
“Silly girl, what’s so interesting about snow? You’ll be staying there for four years, and you’ll have plenty to see every year,” Qi Hui laughed.
“It’s different! I’m from the countryside, I’ve never seen the world. I’ve never even seen heavy snow.” Le Xi drew circles on the glass with her finger and said with a grin.
"By the way, Susan told me you landed a big deal. Why didn't you tell me?"
"What big business? Don't listen to her nonsense. It's just that a company ordered a small batch of T-shirts."
"Congratulations! This is the first business our baby has done all by himself."
"Okay, thanks, bro! I'll treat you to dinner when you get back!" Lexi said with a smug smile.
"Lexi, Lexi, open the door! I don't have the key!" Shi Lu's knocking came from outside the door. Lexi, holding the phone, said with a smile, "Brother, I have to go now! A classmate is here, I'll go open the door."
"Who's coming so late?" Qi Hui asked, somewhat displeased.
"Oh, you know there's an exam coming up, so I need to go over the teacher's notes and test questions with my classmates!" Lexi said without batting an eye.
"Okay, then take care of yourself. Don't stay up too late," Qi Hui sighed.
"Yes, I know!" Lexi jumped out of bed, saying goodbye to her brother as she walked towards the door.
Lexi felt a little dizzy when she stood up, but she didn't pay much attention to it. However, after taking only a few steps, she felt extremely uncomfortable, as if she couldn't breathe properly, and she could barely hold the phone in her hand. When she finally reached the door, she found that her hands were shaking violently, and the door lock seemed to have become two locks. When she opened the door, she saw Shi Lu's worried expression. She was about to tell him not to worry, but she collapsed into his arms as if all her strength had left her.
Snowy Night
Shi Lu was terrified by Le Xi's appearance. He hurriedly dressed him, carried him on his back, and ran outside. At the community health center, after a doctor examined Le Xi, the diagnosis was anemia, which, combined with fatigue, had caused him to catch a cold. Le Xi received an IV drip and some medication, and was told to go home and rest for two days. Only then did Shi Lu breathe a long sigh of relief.
The final exams were on the 14th, and there would be exams for a whole week, leaving only three days until the finals. So the doctor's advice to rest for two days was completely ignored by Le Xi. Although Shi Lu had helped him get leave, Le Xi still made the most of his time to review his lessons. In his words, he wanted to try his best to get a scholarship; it was money the school gave him, so why not take it? Zi Jie was quite exasperated by this, saying that Le Xi was simply a little money-grubber, obsessed with money, and that the happiest thing for Le Xi was spending all day at home counting money. Le Xi simply looked up from his book, glanced at him, and then snorted in disdain.
The next day, as soon as Shi Lu finished class, she rushed back to see Le Xi. Upon entering, she saw Le Xi sitting at her desk, studying. Wearing glasses, she was intently working on math problems, biting her pen. The desk was piled high with scratch paper and scraps of paper. When she needed to look at her book, she would rummage through the pile, finally finding the book only to have her scratch paper mixed in with the scraps. Shi Lu was quite exasperated.
"This pile of stuff of yours is truly astounding!" Shi Lu's lips twitched slightly.
"There's nothing I can do, my math is just too bad, my eyes are getting blurry from doing so many problems," Le Xi sighed. "I should have put more effort into it."
"Teachers usually give you practice questions before the exam. Just do those questions thoroughly and then follow the same pattern!"
"Huh? Is that so? I didn't know!" Lexi was so excited she almost jumped up.
"Call and ask your classmates."
"...I don't think I...have their numbers..."
Shi Lu was speechless. Thinking about it, it made sense. Le Xi was busy studying all day and rarely interacted with his classmates. Although the girls initially adored him like a flood, Le Xi barely spoke to them. Over time, this initial admiration faded like a warm face pressed against a cold backside. He remembered that when Le Xi was sick, no one in his class knew. When he was called in class, no one explained until the teachers complained to the academy and they were told that Le Xi had taken sick leave. He also noticed that cliques were rampant in the class. The children of wealthy families liked to talk about electronic products, the children of even wealthier families loved international luxury goods, the children of high-ranking officials thought ordinary people were materialistic, and those from scholarly families considered themselves aloof and unapproachable. Basically, everyone looked down on everyone else and nobody wanted to talk to anyone else.
"Wait a minute, I'll call you and ask." Shi Lu said, dialing the class monitor Pan Ge's number. After chatting for a few minutes, he asked him for math problems. Pan Ge didn't hesitate and read out all the problems the teacher had marked for Shi Lu. He even joked at the end that Shi Lu was biased, only remembering to care about Le Xi and not thinking to comfort everyone else.
"I'll treat you all to dinner after your exams. Consider it a benefit you, as the class monitor, are providing for everyone, okay?"
"You said it! After dinner, we'll play twenty-four rounds of mahjong! Everyone was upset when you won last time! This time, we'll make you lose your underwear!"
"You've got quite the nerve! You'd better watch out next semester, you'll see!" Shi Lu laughed and scolded a few times. Just as he was about to hang up, Pan Ge said he wanted to say a few words to Le Xi, so Shi Lu handed the phone over again. Pan Ge asked about Le Xi's condition and told him to rest well before hanging up.
Shi Lu pushed the book with the marked questions in front of Le Xi and made him do them one by one. Midway through, Shi's mother brought up dinner and supervised Le Xi eating before leaving. Afterwards, relying on her decent math foundation from university, Shi Lu carefully explained the parts Le Xi didn't understand. Looking at the time, it was already 11 PM.
"It's getting late, you should get some rest! Do your best on the exam the day after tomorrow."
"Okay!" Le Xi thanked Shi Lu happily and prepared to see him out.
At the door, Shi Lu stopped Le Xi: "It's cold outside. You've just recovered a bit, so don't see me off anymore. I can go out by myself. You should go back and rest!"
"It's okay! I'll walk you downstairs! You've been doing problems for too long, just think of it as exercise," Le Xi said with a bright smile.
“Go back!” Shi Lu said to Le Xi from the front door.
"It's alright, it's alright! I'll see you out." Le Xi was in a good mood. "It's snowing outside! I was just thinking of going out to take a look." Seeing Shi Lu still standing by the gate, she quickly held up two fingers and swore, "Five minutes! I'll be back in five minutes!"
"Alright!" Shi Lu sighed and gave in. But before leaving, he carefully buttoned up Le Xi's clothes, put the hood on his coat, and wrapped his scarf around his neck before opening the door and going out.
Under the cover of night, snowflakes drifted down from the sky. The entire world was blanketed in silver, as if pure white was the only color on earth. The moonlight was bright, hanging in the night sky like a jewel set on black velvet. In the distance, rooftops were piled high with snow, gleaming a soft crescent white in the moonlight. The branches were also laden with snow, and with a gentle breeze, chunks of snow fluttered down. Listening closely, one could almost hear the sound of snow hitting the ground, and the crunching sound of footsteps on the snow. Looking down, one could see that the tops of one's feet were almost completely submerged in the snow.
Lexi was clearly stunned by the snowy scenery, almost at a loss for where to go. Her eyes were wide open, her mouth agape in a deep "O," and she kept repeating, "So beautiful! So beautiful!"
"Be careful, the snow is very slippery." Shi Lu took Le Xi's hand to prevent him from falling due to his excitement. He was more than half a head shorter than him, his hands were soft, and although his fingers were slender, he realized they were much smaller than his own. Looking down at him, he could see snowflakes landing on his eyelashes, sparkling and melting into a string of fine water droplets in an instant. He looked at him, his delicate face still carrying the satisfaction of finishing a math problem, his smile tinged with crescent moon white by the moonlight. He winked playfully, his upper and lower eyelashes glistening with moisture from the movement. Just as he was about to rub his eyes, Shi Lu couldn't help but grab his raised hand, holding it in his own, trembling involuntarily, and then, without thinking, kissed his eyes.
Le Xi froze for a moment, instinctively taking two steps back. His foot slipped, and he cried out, almost falling into the snow. Shi Lu, quick as a flash, reached out and pulled him forward, catching him perfectly in a tight embrace. His heart seemed to fill with something warm, pounding like a deer's, tinged with a strange trepidation. One second, two seconds, five seconds, ten seconds—he counted them down, one by one. This beautiful snowy night, the beautiful person before him, the world was truly wonderful.