Chai Qianning threw down her phone, collapsed onto the bed, and fell fast asleep the moment her face touched the mattress.
The next day, Chai Qianning didn't wake up until noon, but instead of getting up immediately, she lay on the quilt playing on her phone.
WeChat showed that at 10:30 a.m., Sheng Muxi sent her a message: 【Are you up yet?】
Chai Qianning replied: 【Just got up.】
Sheng Muxi: [Just woke up? Haven't had lunch yet?]
Chai Qianning: [No.]
Sheng Muxi: [I just cooked some dishes, and I can't finish them all by myself. Shall I bring you some?]
Chai Qianning thought to herself, Sheng Muxi is such a thoughtful neighbor, offering to drive people home and even providing lunch.
Good.
After replying to Sheng Muxi, she immediately jumped up to wash up. Just as she finished washing up, she heard the doorbell ring.
Sheng Muxi brought over a lot of things: disposable lunch boxes filled with food, and a thermos containing nutritious soup. In addition, Sheng Muxi also brought her a first-aid kit containing cold medicine, fever reducers, and various medicines for sprains and bruises, saying that it's good to keep some of these at home.
Since the other party was so generous and hospitable, Chai Qianning accepted everything without hesitation.
As a thank you, she suggested that she take Sheng Muxi out for a barbecue buffet when she has time.
Sheng Muxi happily agreed.
In the afternoon, Chai Qianning spent two hours at her desk, and after reviewing the documents, she collapsed onto the beanbag chair.
She nestled on the beanbag chair, with fruit beside her, within easy reach. She ate the fruit while playing games on her game console.
Just as the game ended, my phone, which was lying next to me, vibrated.
Chai Qianning picked up her phone and glanced at it. It was a WeChat message from Sheng Muxi: [Didn't you say you were going to show me you in sexy pajamas?]
She blinked a few times as she looked at the message, then checked the note at the top with a hint of disbelief.
That's right, it really is Sheng Muxi's WeChat account, not someone else's.
But why would she send her a message like that? Wasn't she quite reserved last night? Did she regret it after waking up?
However, when Chai Qianning raised her fingertip to touch the screen, tapped the 26 key, and was about to reply, the other party retracted the message.
Chai Qianning stared blankly at the light gray text that read, "The 'Good Neighbor' withdrew a message," for a while.
What's going on here?
She sent a question mark.
Sheng Muxi replied after about a minute: [It's okay, I sent the wrong message.]
Wrong message?!
Chai Qianning replied: 【Who else wants to wear sexy pajamas for you to see?】
The screen displayed "The other party is typing," but after typing for a long time, there was still no reply.
After a while, the line of text at the top disappeared. Chai Qianning waited a bit longer before seeing a message sent by the other party: 【Chai Qianning. 】
Chai Qianning: "..."
Chapter 6 Fate
Half an hour ago, Sheng Muxi and Shi Manwen were sitting in a milk tea shop when Shi Manwen asked her why she left the party early last night.
Sheng Muxi chatted with her for a while, and as they talked, the conversation turned to what happened last night with Chai Qianning.
Shi Manwen was even more excited than her, shaking her shoulders and saying that she had found love.
But Sheng Muxi doesn't think so.
Shi Manwen rubbed her forehead: "If he wasn't flirting with you, what else could he be doing?"
Sheng Muxi took a sip of milk tea: "Maybe they just want someone to chat with."
"Pfft." Shi Manwen almost spat out her milk tea: "What are you chatting about? You need to be more careful."
Immediately afterwards, the situation became somewhat out of control.
Unable to bear her friend's incredibly slow reaction time when it comes to love, Shi Manwen impulsively picked up her friend's phone and sent a message to Chai Qianning on her behalf.
After sending it, he said to Sheng Muxi with particular pride, "Only through give and take can love be born."
Sheng Muxi snatched the phone from her hand and immediately deleted the message, managing to salvage the situation slightly.
However, all attempts to salvage the situation were futile; Chai Qianning still saw it.
The evening sunset cast a warm glow on the railings, giving the cold, silvery-white surface a touch of warmth.
Sheng Muxi sat in the car, her gaze returning from the distance. She opened her WeChat chat with Chai Qianning for what seemed like the umpteenth time, typing and deleting words on the screen.
The chat ended with an emoji sent to her by Chai Qianning: a shy little bear with its eyes squinting. Sheng Muxi browsed the emoji shop but couldn't find a suitable reply.
In the end, she thought, why not just reply with a shy emoji? But then she realized something felt off.
So she typed again: Want to have dinner together tonight?
No, that would make it seem like she really had some ulterior motive.
She pressed the delete button and deleted it again.
After thinking it over, I realized it's all Shi Manwen's fault for being too impulsive. She's made the situation so awkward.
Sheng Muxi stared at the chat box for a long time, until the screen automatically turned off.
She suddenly realized that she had been quite impulsive. Why was she in such a hurry to back down? Wouldn't that make her feel guilty?
She tossed her phone onto her lap, then reached up to tuck her hair back. All the way home, she deliberately avoided looking at her phone.
Although they hadn't known each other for long, Sheng Muxi knew that Chai Qianning was a person who liked to joke around with people.
Therefore, she could assume that what Chai Qianning posted on WeChat was a joke.
It must be a joke, right?
That's what she thought, but when her phone beeped with a WeChat message notification, she still picked it up to check it immediately.
Thanks to her strong willpower, it really was a message from Chai Qianning: "I made some fruit salad, I'll send you some later."
Sheng Muxi was pleasantly surprised. She typed the message in the chat box and was about to reply when the other party retracted the message.
Her finger hovered over the screen for a while before she finally deleted the text she had edited and sent a question mark.
Chai Qianning: [Wrong message sent.]
Sheng Muxi: "..."
She wondered if the other person was angry. She lowered her eyes and quickly typed on the screen: "That was sent by my friend using my phone. I apologize if it caused you any trouble."
Sheng Muxi curled her fingers to her lips, gently biting her knuckles. Her long, curled eyelashes trembled. She read the edited text over and over again, and finally, just as she was about to press the send button, another message popped up in the chat box: [Wrong message sent. It's not that I'll send it to you later, it's that I'm sending it to you now.]
Sheng Muxi paused for a moment, reflexively withdrawing her finger, and then heard the doorbell ring outside.
She deleted the text message she had just edited, turned off her phone screen, and got up to open the door.
Chai Qianning stood at the door, wearing a light blue summer pajama set, holding a plate of yogurt and fruit salad.
"This was freshly made this afternoon." Chai Qianning smiled. Sheng Muxi took it, her gaze sweeping over the yogurt and fruit salad before she remembered what to say.
"Thank you, I really like yogurt fruit salad."
"Why be so polite between neighbors?" Chai Qianning lightly flicked her damp fingers. "I'll go downstairs now."
After closing the door, Sheng Muxi sat down at the table with the fruit salad in her hands. She went to the kitchen, washed a spoon, and stirred it in the bowl.
Small water droplets still clung to the sides of the bowl, and Sheng Muxi felt a cool sensation as she placed her fingers on them.
She breathed a sigh of relief when the other person didn't mention the pajamas again, realizing that Chai Qianning was indeed joking with her.
She didn't know why she cared so much about whether the other person was joking with her, and she felt that she was overthinking things.
She lowered her eyes, a few strands of hair slipped down her sides, half-covering her face. She raised her fingers to tuck the hair behind her ears, scooped up a piece of watermelon mixed with yogurt, and put it in her mouth.
After taking a few bites, she was surprised to find that there were no bananas in the fruit salad, which she hated the most. She didn't know if the other party simply didn't put bananas in, or if they knew she didn't eat bananas.
There probably wasn't any banana in it, right? Otherwise, how could the other person know her tastes so well in such a short time they've known each other? She hadn't told the other person that she didn't eat bananas.
On weekdays, neighbors see each other less often. Sheng Muxi sometimes has to supervise students' evening self-study at school, so he comes home quite late. Chai Qianning, on the other hand, rarely goes out.
Several times, when Sheng Muxi returned to the community, he occasionally saw Chai Qianning next to the green trash can.
It seems that Chai Qianning goes downstairs to throw out the trash every day; there seems to be a lot of trash in her house.
Every time Sheng Muxi saw her, she was always wearing pajamas and slippers.
She recalled that, apart from that singles party where Chai Qianning wasn't wearing pajamas, she usually wore pajamas.
Doesn't this person have to go to work? Oh, this neighbor said she owns a shop, but even if she does own a shop, doesn't she need to go to the shop and watch over it?
Sheng Muxi has never run a store before and doesn't know much about it; perhaps working from home is sufficient.
One time, Sheng Muxi came home early and ran into Chai Qianning, who had just finished throwing out the trash and was about to go upstairs. The two of them entered the same elevator.
Sheng Muxi scrutinized Chai Qianning for a moment. The other woman's eyes were hazy, and she looked listless, as if she had just woken up. She was wearing a loose, light pink nightgown, and her long hair was untied, cascading down her back. Sheng Muxi couldn't help but ask, "I've noticed that you seem to go downstairs to throw out the trash every day."
Chai Qianning almost yawned again, but didn't. She had slept for a long time in the afternoon, and her voice was a little hoarse: "Yeah." She took a step, leaned her body slightly, and leaned against the side.
There was a nutritional supplement advertisement pasted on it, and Chai Qianning's head was resting lightly on that spot, obscuring the second half of the advertisement's slogan.
In Sheng Muxi's eyes, this was just a sickly appearance.
Chai Qianning has very fair skin, so fair that sometimes people wonder if it's fake.
Although she knew that the other person's skin tone might be due to genetics—she had seen other people with such fair skin before—she now suspected that Chai Qianning might not go out in the sun.
Staying at home all day, the only exercise I get is going downstairs to throw out the trash, no wonder I'm getting so pale.
“It’s hot now, and garbage will stink if left at home for a day, especially in the kitchen, so I can only come down to throw it out once a day.” Chai Qianning smiled at Sheng Muxi and said, “Our fate is really amazing. I always see you when I’m throwing out the garbage.”
Sheng Muxi thought for a moment: "Could it be because you only go out to throw out the trash all day long, and we don't have a chance to meet at other times?"
“I’ll come down to pick up the takeout again.” Chai Qianning raised an eyebrow.
As the elevator reached the 10th floor, Chai Qianning said goodbye to Sheng Muxi as she walked out: "Bye-bye, neighbor, see you next time we take out the trash."