They didn’t say it on the surface, but definitely in their hearts, they gave him bonus points. Can earn money, can cook, and is diligent and willing to do things. Aside from being bad at talking, every part of him was a plus.
The two of them were even in the same city as where she worked. In his hometown, he bought a small two-story house. They bought it together—if they broke up, either the house would be split in half, or she’d have to give him a million in cash.
She couldn’t bear it, so she didn’t plan to break up.
There was no mess to deal with either—anyway, they weren’t going to split up.
Actually, this time when her parents came back, she felt that they weren’t as against Song Qing as she had imagined. She didn’t know whether it was because of that phone call, or because her attitude had been too firm and they couldn’t win against her, so they chose to accept it.
And now, after she had outputted a whole pile of his good points—they were definitely more satisfied.
She told Song Qing not to worry. Song Qing nodded on the surface, but still felt a little heavy in his heart.
He didn’t know how to get along with her parents—especially since they weren’t strangers, they were Nan Zhi’s parents. He was afraid of running into awkwardness alone, so after breakfast, Song Qing just followed Nan Zhi wherever she went.
But the food wasn’t done yet, so her parents followed them into the kitchen to help. Whoever needed chopsticks fetched chopsticks, whoever needed bowls handed over bowls, helped clean up, and then all together went inside to eat.
The child had fallen asleep on the way and was temporarily placed on the sofa, covered with a blanket. Seemed like they had been on the road for a long time—very tired, very sleepy. Even a little noise wouldn’t wake them, so they didn’t need to bother; breakfast was eaten by just the four adults.
The dishes had been made early, so some were a bit cold. Song Qing meant to go into the kitchen and heat them up a bit, but Nan Zhi’s parents didn’t allow it. In the end, they brought the stove from the sunroom over, placed the pot over the fire for a bit, and ate like that.
It could be considered that they had finished this meal gathered around the fire. The atmosphere was relatively harmonious. Her parents were trying to find conversation topics. Nan Zhi too. He just occasionally gave a quiet “mm” or “oh,” and that was enough.
Anything extra, Nan Zhi didn’t let him say. Nan Zhi said—aside from putting himself down, nothing good comes out of his mouth anyway.
If he said more than a sentence, she’d pinch his leg where others couldn’t see. So Song Qing could only listen to her.
The two of them had finished eating earlier on purpose, left the table a bit ahead of her parents to go prepare the bed for her parents.
Originally, the plan was for them to stay on the second floor. The second floor was already prepared. But since Nan Zhi’s older sister didn’t return, and there were only her parents and the child—and the child was still small—the three of them planned to sleep in one room. So staying in the guest room on the left side would be fine. Saves them going up and down. A small child constantly going across the hallway wasn’t safe anyway.
It just so happened that the past two days had good sunlight. They had aired out a lot of quilts, patted them every day, all fluffy and full. Even a few sets of bed sheets had been aired. Nan Zhi, taking Song Qing with her, went to the laundry room to collect the quilts and covers.
—
In the living room, Tang Zhi saw it and nudged Old Nan, motioning for him to look.
In the sunroom, one person was standing, the other sitting in a wheelchair. Wherever the one standing went, the one in the wheelchair would follow. The wheelchair moved flexibly, following Nan Zhi as she walked back and forth.
After Nan Zhi took down a quilt hanging from the drying rope, she didn’t even bother to carry it—just tossed it directly to the one in the wheelchair. Song Qing, carrying the heavy quilt, continued following behind her.
Nan Zhi arrived at another quilt. The wheelchair also happened to stop, right beside Nan Zhi. Nan Zhi continued picking up the quilt and then tossed it to the young man in the wheelchair, then kept collecting more.
In total, three quilts. Pressed down by them, the young man on the wheelchair couldn’t straighten his upper body, but he still followed behind Nan Zhi, not too close, not too far. It’s just that his speed was a bit slower than before—covered under too many quilts, he could only see the road through the gaps.
One was walking, one was sitting in a wheelchair, and just like that they entered the guest room on the left. After a while, the two of them came out again. As usual, Nan Zhi walked in front and he followed behind. Seemed like the bed sets weren’t enough. Nan Zhi went upstairs to get more, and Song Qing waited at the stairwell.
About two or three minutes later, footsteps began to sound from upstairs. Then came a thump, followed by Nan Zhi’s voice crying out in pain—unclear whether she had fallen or something else had happened.
Almost visibly, the young man who had just been quietly waiting at the stairwell began spinning the wheelchair in circles. He even rushed to the sunroom, trying to look up to the second floor—probably didn’t see anything. After circling around the stairwell again, he seemed to remember something and turned toward the room on the right. He hadn’t even made it in when she called out to stop him, “I’ll go up and take a look.”
She and Old Nan were already nearby. By the time they came out after hearing the commotion, he had already spun the wheelchair several times.
Who knows whether it was out of worry—or perhaps, sometimes, a wheelchair was faster than legs.
Song Qing was slightly stunned, then nodded. Tang Zhi was just about to go upstairs when Nan Zhi’s voice came from above: “I’m fine, just took a fall.”
Judging by her voice, it wasn’t too serious. It sounded a bit weak, probably to keep people from worrying. Not long after, she appeared at the top of the stairs, limping. She leaned on the railing, her whole face scrunched up in pain.
Tang Zhi went up to take the bedsheets that had gotten dirty from the fall, supporting her down. Originally planning to send her to the room to rest and apply medicine, she waved her hand, “No need, let Song Qing take me. There’s a medicine box in the room. He knows how to use it.”
Just as she was wondering how Song Qing was supposed to help her down, she saw that the young man had seemingly already predicted this. No one knew when, but he had already turned the wheelchair around, back facing their direction.
Nan Zhi stepped onto the wheelchair’s footplate, standing on it, and was wheeled back into the room by the man sitting in the chair.
The two didn’t say a word. The whole process seemed as though they had done it countless times, as if they already knew what the other would do—natural, smooth, and practiced as they entered the neighboring sunroom.
Tang Zhi blinked and exchanged a look with Old Nan.
The two didn’t say anything, just went upstairs themselves to fetch the remaining bedding.
When they got upstairs, they saw the doors weren’t closed. The two rooms on the right had already been prepped with beds. One of the rooms had one bed set removed. The other still had a full set.
After entering the room, they fetched items while glancing around. It was obvious the room had been tidied with care. A few fresh flowers had been placed. A large water bottle had been cut open and arranged with lava rocks and aquatic plants—and even fish were being raised inside.
Toothpaste, toothbrushes, new towels—everything was fully prepared.
To be honest, this kind of level of preparation was usually something parents did for their children. It was the first time they’d been on the receiving end of that kind of effort.
Tang Zhi looked at the little living beings inside, full of vitality, and for some reason couldn’t understand why the past version of herself hadn’t liked Zhizhi.
Zhizhi was clearly so well-behaved and sensible—out of the three children, the only one who had stepped forward when she needed help.
She thought seriously for a while, and really did find the reason.
Zhizhi and her grandma had nearly identical personalities and habits. The two were even growing more and more alike in appearance. Whether people knew them or not, they’d easily think Zhizhi was her grandma’s daughter—as if she had given birth to a child for her mother-in-law. At that time, she had the worst fights with Zhizhi’s grandma, and naturally, her heart felt a bit uncomfortable.
But that was a grudge from the older generation, should be let go now.
The two of them came back downstairs, not only carrying the bed sets but also the toothpaste, toothbrushes, towels, bath towels, that flowerpot with fresh flowers and even the makeshift fish tank made from a 5-liter water jug.
Big and small, their arms were full and overstuffed—looked just like poor relatives visiting someone else’s home, carrying everything and dragging it along.
By the time they got to the first floor, the living room and hallway were already empty. Zhizhi and Song Qing were probably inside applying medicine. There was no one in the sunroom either.
Tang Zhi looked toward the far-right end and, for some reason, suddenly felt a stir in her heart.
Nan Zhi, Song Qing, Zhizhi and Qingqing—Zhi-Qing, or Qing-Zhi—when said out loud, they actually sounded pretty matching.
—
Nan Zhi had fallen quite hard—her palm and knee were scraped, with some bleeding. She even banged her kneecap. When Song Qing was applying medicine for her, the young man who had already looked gloomy looked even more downcast.
Nan Zhi instead comforted him. She was injured and bleeding, and so was he—they were both “crispy skins” [fragile-skinned], a perfect pair.
Song Qing didn’t speak, but after being teased a few times by her, his expression did ease up a little.
Once the medicine was applied and the wounds were bandaged, it was still a bit inconvenient to move. The leg that had hit the bone was now limping.
Before, it was always her being his crutch. Now they had swapped, he was hers. He already followed behind her almost every day, and now, just to fulfill his duty as a crutch, he had to accompany her even to the bathroom. He’d go in first, come out, and wait for Nan Zhi to finish before going back in to assist her.
Far away, he stood behind her. Up close, he held her shoulder for support.
It was the 28th of the lunar month. They had just returned, and the people next door had long since gone to sleep from exhaustion. After the two of them messed around in the room for a bit, they also went to rest.
The next morning, the house was generally quiet, all the way until a bit after 1:00 PM, when soft noises began. At that time, Song Qing was already awake. He had originally been typing on the keyboard in the sunroom. When he heard the noise, he went over and saw a small child sitting on the floor of the laundry room, playing with a toy train.
When the kid saw him and the wheelchair, his eyes lit up, and he ran over and began spinning around Song Qing’s wheelchair.