Nan Zhi isn’t the type to act just because the wind blows and it rains \[即 “说风就是雨,” a Chinese idiom meaning impulsive or overly reactive], but Song Qing is. She brings up an idea, Song Qing does the practical work. He already started contacting renovation companies, but the few that came over all said it wouldn’t work — because the bathroom needed pipes.
The upstairs neighbor said, it’s just that the pipe would be longer, used over time it’ll cause problems. The downstairs pipe would have to go through someone else’s ceiling — and that household has already renovated, definitely wouldn’t be willing.
There was one thing that surprised Nan Zhi — the loan on this apartment was about to be paid off.
She went to the bank to check the account flow, and it was tens of thousands each month for a month or two, and recently it had already almost been paid.
This point Nan Zhi really didn’t expect. She thought her parents would pay it step-by-step, didn’t expect them to go all out.
The two of them are both doctors, retired but rehired, with their pensions added in, each month at least over fifty thousand. They also hold shares in five pharmacies. Doing business takes capital, and also the daughters at home are quite expensive.
She heard that not long ago her older sister was wronged at the hospital and didn’t want to keep doing it — wanted to change hospitals to intern at. During internship there’s basically no salary. Every month’s living expenses, luxury brand bags, name-brand clothes, car insurance and the like were all paid by the parents.
The younger brother had all kinds of tutoring classes and such. It should be that outside of those expenses, all their leftover money was put into this apartment.
Nan Zhi held the account flow slip, stared at the numbers on it. For a moment she couldn’t say what she felt. Just for one instant, she felt — she really had no prospects.
Her parents love her, but not as much as the older sister and younger brother. The apartment wasn’t because of their own will, but because of the grandmother’s savings — only then was it able to enter their hearts, become something remembered after her needs were heard. But she still let go of all the grievances she suffered growing up with parents not by her side, let go of the unfairness she faced after growing up, and felt this was already pretty good.
Really very unpromising.
Because there were too many unexpected issues with this apartment, in the end the two of them didn’t mess with it anymore, planning instead to invest the money somewhere else.
This place was Song Qing’s old hometown. Although he had no particular feelings toward it, Nan Zhi still felt it was necessary to leave behind a home under his name here — like a home, so that in the future he could come back to live, have a place to settle down.
The apartment they currently lived in, Nan Zhi herself didn’t put in a single cent. She herself didn’t even dare say she was the full owner here, let alone Song Qing.
So buying a new one was very necessary.
Once they decided, the two immediately contacted all the major agencies. They didn’t run any less around the new development zones, kept looking, kept choosing — finally they took a fancy to one.
It was an old residential building, two and a half stories. Each floor was over 200 square meters, had a courtyard, could plant flowers and grow grass and such. What was unexpected was — this place even had a basement.
In the past it was used for storing grain. Later the area was zoned as part of a “village inside the city”. No place to park in the city, so it was converted into a parking space. Later when nearby housing prices rose, it was simply washed and scrubbed and converted into rooms for rent.
No sunlight, damp, but the price was cheap — and people still rented it.
They themselves would live on the second floor and the half floor above it. The rest of the first floor wasn’t rented out. Recently the whole family was about to immigrate overseas, so they wanted to sell this place off.
They visited several times, talked and bargained, and since that family’s immigration date was approaching, in the end they got the house at a slightly reasonable price.
Once they had it in hand, the first thing they did was schedule people to come renovate. The first floor was divided into four units, each over fifty square meters, around sixty square meters — no public sharing areas, all usable space.
Sixty square meters isn’t small. Each unit could be outfitted with a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, living room, and balcony — standard high-end apartment layout.
Two floors made eight units total, with the rooftop allowing up to two more units. The basement was fitted with skylights, expanded space, and the surroundings reinforced — now it could make five rooms. Slightly smaller than the floors above, but with sunlight and a small courtyard.
Right above the little courtyard was the skylight — growing flowers and vegetables was no problem at all. As for the dampness, the two of them didn’t skimp on effort. The floors and surroundings had multiple layers of waterproofing added.
Now when you go in, you’d find it clean and dry. There’s front and back ventilation to keep it dry. The courtyard above was originally over a hundred square meters. They split off about fifty square meters to install skylights. Plus, with nothing blocking the surroundings, sunlight was good — not too glaring, and not too dim. Living there wouldn’t feel stifling.
Although they were landlords — the kind people hate — the two of them were still very conscientious. The most basic level of guarantee had to be there.
They rushed and hurried before the new year — in the end, they still finished renovating the house. Since it was freshly renovated, it couldn’t be lived in right away, so they planned to let it sit for a while before listing it.
Right now the two of them weren’t lacking money, didn’t expect it to earn much — just making it a kind of future insurance.
Ten rooms in total, with one not rented out externally — as a future safeguard for Song Qing.
That unit was the one Nan Zhi was most serious about, not the one with the most sunlight, or the best location. The key was handed over to Song Qing. Although he felt it wasn’t necessary, she insisted, and he accepted it in the end.
He didn’t say anything on the surface, but actually, it could be seen — in his heart, he was indeed very happy.
After all, ever since the demolition of his family’s house here — or rather, his family’s home — he already didn’t have a home anymore.
A person without a home most longs for a home.
He already had one — but it belonged to the two of them. What he now had was one that belonged solely to himself, a harbor from the wind and rain, even if it wouldn’t be used for the time being — just having it there made one feel more at ease. No matter what, there would always be a place to go. No need to wander. When tired, one could return from anywhere under heaven to lie flat and rest a while.
By the end of January, the house matters were fully handled. The two, who held a huge sum of money before, returned to a state of being penniless — couldn’t even scrape together ten thousand yuan, but in their hearts, they were much more at ease.
No need to worry about someone scamming them, or the money being placed somewhere and disappearing. Now it was real estate — to take it away would require many procedures. It’s not something that could just vanish if one says so.
Once they finished up this place — a huge project — the two decided to rest. “Rest” meaning: after the New Year, go back to the hometown and live for a while.
Song Qing had no sentiment for this place. He had nearly no remaining relatives here after what happened to his family. So what they returned to was Nan Zhi’s hometown.
Nan Zhi’s parents and relatives were all in her hometown. Returning to one’s roots for the New Year seemed like something embedded in every Chinese person’s genes, and Nan Zhi was no exception.
Not working, so might as well go back early — no need to compete with others during the peak season.
The hometown wasn’t far from here — driving took about half a day. Using her little car was more than enough.
Wheelchair, cat litter, cat beds, and such were placed in the back. In the front, the two of them each occupied one seat, and Song Qing held the two cats in his arms.
The little car wasn’t fast, but in half a day, it still safely brought the two people and two cats to the front door of their home.
It wasn’t her parents’ house — because she clearly remembered, that place usually didn’t have a room for her to stay in.
What they returned to was the rural house she and her grandmother lived in. After a few days, they’d go to her parents’ place for a reunion dinner, happily celebrate the New Year, and then come back.
It had always been this way in the past. Her parents were doctors — even during the New Year, they didn’t get much time off and couldn’t come to the countryside. She would go there, and they would temporarily clear out the study for her to stay in.
No room belonged to her specifically. After the New Year, that space would go back to what it originally was — it was only lent to her temporarily.
This year, there was one more person. Even more impossible to fit.
On the other hand, the house she and Grandma lived in had many rooms — three floors, six rooms in total. It was just usually empty and unoccupied.
Her uncle and aunt didn’t come either. In previous years, after she left, Grandma would go have reunion dinner somewhere else and then come back — or she would take Grandma to her parents’ place, spend the three days around New Year there, then return.
Later on, after she grew up, she stopped running around. She and Grandma would celebrate the New Year together — the two of them still felt the festive spirit. Only one person wouldn’t.
This year, either she would spend it with Song Qing, or take Song Qing to her parents’ place. She wouldn’t leave him behind.
As soon as the door of the house opened, Nan Zhi was in front, and almost personally saw — behind her, Song Qing’s eyes lit up a bit. He seemed to really like this place.
Of course he did. This courtyard was designed by Grandma — had a circle of flowerbeds, space in the middle on both sides for planting vegetables, a fish pond in one corner, and the other side was for her to park.
She had owned a little car long ago — used it to drive Grandma around everywhere.
Song Qing’s hobbies were practically the same as Grandma’s. Whatever Grandma liked, he would definitely like too.
While Nan Zhi was reversing the car into the garage, Song Qing was already maneuvering his wheelchair around the courtyard, strolling back and forth.
When Nan Zhi closed the main gate and released the cats, he was currently staying in the vegetable planting area pulling weeds.
Every time Nan Zhi came back, she would put in effort to borrow a bit of plant ash to sprinkle on the ground — that way there wouldn’t be bugs, and weeds would rarely grow, but they still would.
They grew quite tall and needed to be cleaned up again.
The fish pond, flowerbeds — those didn’t need it.
Just got back, didn’t plan to get that tired. Nan Zhi first pulled the one who couldn’t sit still into the house, turned on the air conditioner, threw him onto the bed — and received in return a person who helped make the bed.
After Nan Zhi finished mopping the floor, she put him on the sofa — and received in return a person who tidied up the sofa.
When Nan Zhi went to tidy up her own room, same method: wherever she put him, he’d tidy up that spot.
He finished his side; Nan Zhi didn’t. In the living room and courtyard, she was already out of strength. A bit tired — needed to go take a nap.
They had arrived around one or two in the afternoon, tidied up until nightfall. After a nap, they got up around seven or eight to start cooking.
Brought some instant noodles and such. Boiled water. Had a simple meal and then cleaned the kitchen.
Song Qing handled cleaning and sorting the tabletop. Nan Zhi cleaned the floor. Once the kitchen was done, they moved on to the courtyard. Deep winter, already late night, yet somehow didn’t feel tired. With full energy, they finished sweeping, hands frozen red, and went to the sunroom to warm up by the fire.
On the way, they stopped by the nearby supermarket to buy some food to stock the fridge.
It was cold. Getting in and out of the car, entering and exiting the house — white vapor puffed out from the top of their heads. Speaking didn’t make a visible breath, but somehow, there was this kind of smoky, ordinary human life flavor to it.
Plain and dull, but very happy.
The savings account that had dropped to nearly zero, because they paused for a couple of days, went back up by a small ten thousand. It felt like life was starting to have some hope again.
Past eleven at night, finally couldn’t go on any longer. Hugged Song Qing and lay on the bed.
Where there’s one, there’s two, then three — now the two of them were already sleeping together every night. Before sleeping, she’d tell him to stretch out his leg so she could massage the part that was missing.
He had phantom limb pain. Nan Zhi knew that amputation would come with that, but because he had never shown signs, she hadn’t paid attention. Later on, after moving in together, sometimes in the middle of the night she’d see his brows furrowed, sitting up and rubbing his leg — only then did she remember.
Now, every night before sleeping, she’d press on it a bit for him. He’d feel much better. The leg would rarely hurt.
He was different now than before — if uncomfortable, he would speak up.
If his leg hurt, even without him saying anything, just from the way he leaned toward her, she could tell: this guy’s leg is uncomfortable again and needs a massage.
Maybe today he moved around too much, or maybe he wore too little and got cold — he scooted over to her side. Nan Zhi felt it and told him to stretch out his leg. He obediently listened.
Song Qing was looking at the pajamas Nan Zhi was wearing. A few days ago, Nan Zhi had placed an order on Douyin for a set of Chinese-style pajamas — pink, with ancient-style patterns on them, looked very nice.
This person — if she bought something for herself, she’d buy for him too. Normally it came as a set. If she had the fox one, he’d be the little white rabbit. If she had the cat, he’d be the puppy.
This time, what she bought for herself was the ancient-style one. What she bought for him was… an animal.
Song Qing thought of that brand new bat outfit hidden in the suitcase, then looked at the one Nan Zhi was wearing now — finally tugged at her sleeve, and opened his mouth: “Nan Zhi, the bat outfit you bought a few days ago — I brought it back, still haven’t worn it, the tag’s still on.”
His voice was muffled: “I don’t want the animal one. I want the Chinese-style one.”
He added, “The animal ones don’t look as nice as the Chinese-style ones.”
Nan Zhi was genuinely surprised —He could tell what’s pretty and what’s not?