After doing that, she noticed the other party hadn’t moved at all. She unhappily looked over at him.
Her eyes stared very intently. Even with low emotional intelligence, Song Qing realized something was off. But his phone was old and broken, had to be held together with a rubber band to be usable.
Even so — screen glitches, cracks, and other problems — it had many issues.
It was passed down from his uncle and aunt’s daughter. It had been broken from being dropped, couldn’t be used anymore, so she pestered her parents for a new one. After buying a new one, the old one was given to him.
Just right to use for remotely bossing him around. Back when he didn’t have a phone, if he happened to be out, he could still get a moment of peace. At most he’d be scolded a bit for slacking off.
After getting a phone, no matter how far he ran, he couldn’t escape. He’d have to buy this and that for them on the way — and sometimes they wouldn’t even give him money. That’s also why he didn’t like reloading credit.
He didn’t like this phone either. It was pink. Every time he took it out, people would laugh at him, saying he was girly and using girls’ things.
However, Nan Zhi’s gaze was on him the whole time. It seemed that if he didn’t take it out, she’d keep staring. In the end, he still couldn’t resist and compromised — pulled out his phone from his pocket.
The drip was on his left hand. He held the phone in his right. On his right was Nan Zhi — her entire body tilted toward him, very close, wanting to watch him save the contact.
He couldn’t do it. With one hand, he unlocked the screen, found the call log, and began entering the name with difficulty.
This phone was very old. Even though he deleted all the apps inside, didn’t play games, didn’t touch any of those messy apps like Douyin or Weibo, it still lagged badly. Such a simple task took three to five minutes to finish.
She also stared for those three to five minutes, and during that time even reached out and curiously poked at the cracked part of the screen to see if it still worked.
It still worked — just a bit slow in response. Probably because of this that, back when the uncle and aunt’s daughter wanted to replace it, they firmly disagreed, saying it was still usable.
Their daughter cried for a long time, pestered for a long time before finally getting a new one.
In the beginning, it wasn’t this broken. Because he didn’t like it and didn’t cherish it, it got worse and worse — but it was still usable, couldn’t stop them from calling him.
—
Nan Zhi thought his phone was way too broken. Wouldn’t that mean answering her calls in the future would also take three to five minutes? In three to five minutes, yellow flower vegetables would already have gone cold. [黄花菜都凉了: idiom meaning “it’s already too late” or “the opportunity has passed.”]
So she da-da-ed (T/N: like the sound of slippers in case you’re confused) upstairs, found her other phone, brought it down to give him.
“This one was a gift I gave my mom before, but my mom thought it was too cheap and of poor quality, so she didn’t use it.”
Back then, she had just arrived at her parents’ house, wanted to blend in. She saw her mom always rubbing her neck, so she spent over five thousand to buy a massage chair. Her mom praised her, saying she was really thoughtful.
Naturally, she became even more attentive to her mom’s affairs. Seeing scratches on her phone screen, she spent over four thousand again to buy a new phone. When she was about to give it to her, she heard her mom say to her dad, “How do you even use a five-thousand yuan massage chair? Smells like burnt leather.”
Nan Zhi’s face stiffened. A phone even cheaper than that — only four thousand — naturally couldn’t be taken out anymore. So she used it herself.
Her own phone had been broken from a fall before, and was just recently replaced. It was about the same as this one. No need to use two. If she sold it, the price reduction would be big — not worth it. She had originally planned to use that one after her current one broke.
Then, she happened to meet Song Qing.
Song Qing didn’t take it. Nan Zhi preemptively said, “You’re not gonna say you mind that it’s cheap too, right?”
Song Qing quickly shook his head in alarm.
“Then use this one. It’ll be easier for me to contact you.” Nan Zhi counted off with her fingers. “Your WeChat, all have to add me.”
Song Qing still didn’t move. He had accepted too many of her good intentions. It had only been two days, and he already owed a lot.
Speaking of which, she not only didn’t mind him at all, she also didn’t guard against him one bit — only knew each other for one day, and she already let him move around the house freely. There were many valuable things in her home.
By the second day she was already giving him a phone. He wasn’t sensitive to brands, couldn’t recognize what it was. Although Nan Zhi said it was cheap, he felt the price couldn’t be that low.
“It didn’t cost much. Besides, it’s secondhand — I used it.”
Used it, yes, but only once or twice. When her own phone ran out of battery, she used this one to continue playing — that was it.
“Take it. It’s not like I’m giving it to you for free. Once you’re better, you have to do housework and cook for me.”
If you count in his labor, cooking and doing chores, then she’d definitely profit.
She had thought before about hiring an auntie to cook — just for three meals a day. Even that would cost three to five thousand a month. Household chores, those were one-visit-a-week types, 80 yuan per hour. However long it took, that’s how much you paid.
When she did the initial cleanup, she hired someone. First time, the auntie said her house was too dirty and wanted extra pay.
Second time, though it wasn’t dirty anymore, they said it was messy — also wanted extra. What was originally agreed on as 80 yuan per hour, in the end became at least 100 an hour. It took seven to eight hours to finish. After a few tries, she couldn’t take it anymore and gave up.
Might as well do it herself.
The idea was nice, but she actually didn’t do anything. Couldn’t even get out of bed.
She had been gloomy for many days. When Song Qing hadn’t come yet, she basically stayed upstairs, didn’t come down, didn’t get up, didn’t do anything — just played on her phone and slept all day, unless she ordered takeout.
After having him, she really became much more diligent — washed the dishes, fried fatty beef and eggs, made a few semi-prepared sandwiches.
Just the fact that he could make her more active and get moving — she already felt it was worth it.
Because her attitude was very firm, and she even brought out the “If you don’t use it, I won’t take you to see the good-hearted person” threat, plus she said some heavy stuff like “I’ll get mad,” this guy eventually still gave in.
He was good in every way, just sometimes a bit distant, not so easy to become close with her. But that was fine — the days ahead were still long.
Nan Zhi herself swapped out the SIM card for him. After turning the phone on, she told him to log in to WeChat and to add her. Maybe because she was too forceful — beside her, without saying anything, she also made him hand over his original phone. Song Qing’s brows were lower than before, and his eyes more subdued than before.
This look of his — like a grievance-bearer…
Nan Zhi started to reflect — was she being too overbearing?
After thinking it over, she lowered her head and sent him a message on the phone to coax him.
On Song Qing’s side, the ringtone rang almost immediately.
There were very few people in his phone. The class group chat was muted by him; usually, he didn’t log into WeChat. No one ever contacted him. When the phone froze from lag, he even uninstalled it. That’s why Nan Zhi’s message instantly stayed pinned at the top.
Song Qing tapped it open and took a look.
“I also want to sniff Hakimi”— had sent him a dynamic image (GIF): a red, long-eared little bunny, completely bare, lying flat on the ground. A large hand descended from the sky, stroking the bunny’s back. Beside it were the words:
[Alright, alright, good baby don’t cry]
Song Qing pressed his lips together.
He wasn’t crying.
He just thought it was too valuable, and was thinking about how to repay her. At the moment, he didn’t have any money, so he could only do more things.
But she had a vegetable washer for washing vegetables, a dishwasher for washing dishes, a washing machine and dryer for laundry, and even a robot vacuum for cleaning the floor. The only things he could do seemed to be wiping tables and cooking. He couldn’t even reach the high-up places.
He could only wipe the low ones.
He felt he completely didn’t deserve her kindness. There was no need for her to be this good to him.
She definitely hadn’t raised a puppy before.
In this aspect, his uncle and aunt actually did better than her.
A dog — if you give it steamed buns and rice, it will eat happily, and then guard the door for you, come when called, utterly loyal.
There’s really no need to give it big bones. After eating the big bones, it instead starts to go on hunger strike — would rather starve than go back to eating buns and rice.
Song Qing was also afraid that, after eating too many big bones and good things, he would start to grow something like dignity — then, like a dog, he would rather starve than go back to eating the steamed buns and rice that used to be his everyday meal.
She really was too good to him.
It shouldn’t be like this. Feeding him, giving him drinks, giving him a place to stay — that’s already very good. There was no need to be even better.
[I also want to sniff Hakimi]: You still have injuries on your body. You can’t do any work these days. When you get better, then you can — got it?
Song Qing also replied to her.
[Green Grass]: If I’m too idle, I get anxious.
It was true. He was the type who couldn’t stay still — usually busy from morning to night. Those few days in the hospital nearly drove him mad. When he had nothing to do, his mind would start to wander, thinking about all sorts of nonsense.
Being able to work intermittently like this was actually better for him.
[Green Grass]: I’ll control myself, I won’t overexert.
When talking face to face, for some reason, he always felt a little awkward. But on the phone, Nan Zhi obviously noticed — he spoke much more smoothly.
Before, every time he had to confront her, he could barely squeeze out half a sentence. But now, on the phone, he had already typed out two full replies.
[I also want to sniff Hakimi]: Then let’s listen to you this time.
[I also want to sniff Hakimi]: See, I listened to you too, so it’s not too much if you listen to me, right?
Song Qing paused slightly.
[Green Grass]: It’s not too much.
He had always known — Nan Zhi was doing all this for his own good.
[I also want to sniff Hakimi]: Then come with me to pick up the package later, okay? I don’t really want to go alone.
[Green Grass]: Okay.
Song Qing saw Nan Zhi put away her phone. After thinking for a bit, he sent her a message — but her WeChat notifications had no sound, so she didn’t seem to receive it.
After pondering it again and again, Song Qing leaned a little closer to her and said:
“Let’s buy a little more groceries.”
Nan Zhi felt a tug, looked down, and saw that he had lightly, timidly pinched her clothes with one small hand — like a little daughter-in-law — and said:
“I can cook.”