Song Qing put away the phone, glanced over for a while before going to cook, stewed the mutton she had been thinking about recently, in this weather drinking mutton soup warms the stomach.
After putting the meat in the pot, he went to the small living room, took the upright mirror on the table, and went into the bathroom with the eyebrow razor.
The mirror and eyebrow razor were gifts when Nan Zhi bought cosmetics in Nanchuan, she already had many, couldn’t use them all, so she gave them to him.
The mirror goes without saying, it’s for daily use. The eyebrow razor is somewhat like a razor for shaving. He didn’t have facial hair yet, but thought that it would probably grow later, so he kept it as a backup. He didn’t get to use it for shaving yet, and used it for another purpose first.
He could also not do it, but if he didn’t, that person might be Nan Zhi, so he decided to do it himself.
He was a boy, so comparatively didn’t really care.
It was Song Qing’s first time using an eyebrow razor, someone who hadn’t even shaved before, clumsily cut himself by mistake, bled a lot.
He used tissue to wipe it himself, checked the wound, saw it wasn’t too big so simply didn’t bother with it, cleaned it up, and came out after washing his hands.
He had been in there a bit long, and when he came out, saw that the lamb in the kitchen was almost fully stewed, and the boiling water kept lifting the lid.
He lifted it, turned the medium heat down to low, and conveniently took a photo and sent it to Nan Zhi.
—
Nan Zhi had actually already reached near home, but didn’t go up, and was skipping stones by the riverside of the park not far from the apartment.
So late at night, the park had nothing fun, she could only do things she used to often do as a child to amuse herself, force herself to be happy.
She didn’t know why, but felt like her body and spirit were separated — every time she was sad, she would do something to try to make herself happy.
As if she were coaxing herself.
Sometimes she would even talk to herself, say things to herself.
Look, I already brought you out to play, so don’t be sad.
It’s nothing, just got scolded a couple of times, it’s not like you lost a piece of meat.
After persuading herself for a while, she felt that her desire to survive was really strong — she could even comfort herself.
She really was hard to coax — all the nice words were said, yet she still had that half-dead expression. It didn’t seem like she was particularly happy, but she no longer looked like someone hit by a blow, so she tidied up and planned to go home.
Some emotions were just too strong and she didn’t want to bring them back, in case Song Qing felt bad too.
Bad moods can affect others. Song Qing’s condition was pretty good right now, and she didn’t want to make him end up like her — becoming negative.
Nan Zhi still decided to think.
Sometimes she was quite envious of Song Qing. He seemed to have no inner turmoil; if he wanted to do something, he just did it. When she thought cooking was already a depressing job, he could still write grass poems while doing it and post photos on short video apps.
When she thought extra tutoring was quite a good thing, he quit and found another job teaching high school students and got even better.
But she was still entangled with a job that made her physically and mentally exhausted. Resigning, change, the unknown — they made her panic and unable to make a choice.
Maybe she should learn from him — be decisive. If it’s a job that won’t make herself better, then simply abandon it.
Nan Zhi came up from the riverside, just about to turn into the pedestrian path, when she suddenly heard some noise nearby. She took a few steps back, leaned in to look — it was an old granny, picking up a plastic bottle.
The plastic bottle was stuck in the crevice between branches. The old granny’s body was too frail to bend down, couldn’t reach it, and was anxiously standing on tiptoe.
Nan Zhi took the initiative to go help. She was young, lowered her body slightly, and was already able to crawl in.
But the plastic bottle was really deep — the deeper it was, the more branches there were. Her clothes got snagged on twigs. Nan Zhi felt the resistance and even saw where she got caught, but didn’t feel regretful. She pulled hard, and eventually got deep enough to retrieve the bottle and handed it to the old granny.
The old granny got the bottle. Though it could only sell for a dime, her emotions were still stirred, and she kept thanking her.
After parting from the old granny, Nan Zhi patted the dead leaves stuck to her skirt while thinking.
She spent almost more than half an hour, and still didn’t manage to coax herself, but she made someone else feel happy.
So maybe it wasn’t a wasted trip after all.
Nan Zhi, once downstairs, looked up at her own apartment window. As expected, the light was still on. Song Qing hadn’t gone to bed like she told him to — he was probably waiting for her.
This was also the reason she didn’t dare come back too late — she had a hunch he would wait.
This person, well, he’s particularly stubborn about this — he insists on matching her routine. Whatever time she goes to work, he preps everything a bit earlier; when she gets off work, he also insists on making good food, eating well, and only goes to do his own stuff after she’s eaten and gone to sleep.
Even medieval butlers couldn’t be this meticulous.
Maybe it’s exactly because he’s too good — that she didn’t want to let her bad moods affect him, so she ran outside to digest them herself.
If she quits her job, maybe things on Song Qing’s side will be a lot easier too.
Nan Zhi entered the elevator and pressed her floor. It would take a while to go up, so she felt bored and, in the meantime, pulled out her phone. Seeing a notification at the top, she tapped in, and it jumped to the chat page with Song Qing.
The first thing she saw was two cats sitting on his wheelchair, leaning in toward the camera. Their noses scrunched up, eyes wide open and round, pupils shiny and black — beautiful and cute.
Speaking of which, she felt like they must’ve inherited from Song Qing. When Song Qing looked at her, his eyes were also wide and round, pupils dark and blank — a little dull, but cute.
When facing others, he was a different person — he’d appear a bit smarter, a bit colder.
Nan Zhi leaned into the corner of the elevator and thought: no wonder I like him so much. Turns out he’s completely different with others than he is with me.
Nan Zhi kept scrolling up and saw that this guy had lied — saying he wanted to eat something good, that he’d been eating too plain lately, so he braised lamb early on before she even sent a message.
Nan Zhi looked carefully at the dishes — none were things he liked. They were all things she loved. Besides lamb, there were candied dried orange slices and sheep’s milk.
Usually, when cooking at night, he made only small portions. He would also eat less. But today there was a whole pot full of lamb, plenty of oranges and sheep’s milk too.
Oranges with crushed plum mixed into sheep’s milk was very fragrant — she liked it, but if she drank too much, she’d wake up at night. Nan Zhi already had poor sleep. If she drank a bit too much, she’d wake up at least three times a night. Song Qing knew that. So normally at night, the kitchen would just bubble quietly. He’d make a little, just to satisfy the craving. But today, the full portion must have been so she could drink to her heart’s content.
They must’ve been together long enough — he could probably sense she wasn’t okay and wanted to heal her with food.
Nan Zhi lowered her head and looked at her clothes. Earlier, just to cheer up the old granny, she tore her own hem helping pick up a bottle. But there’s someone who, for her, spent some thought and effort too.
To say she didn’t feel anything would be a lie. It was probably like how, in the dead of winter, wind and snow kept drilling into your clothes, trying to freeze you to death — but she was clutching a hot water bottle to her chest. Not only did it keep her alive, but the warmth also spread from her chest to her five internal organs and six bowels, and her limbs — made her whole body feel more alive.
Nan Zhi’s pace unconsciously quickened. She passed through the corridor quickly and pressed her fingerprint to enter the house.
The heater at home had never been turned on, but the windows were double-sealed. The indoor temperature was nearly ten degrees higher than outside.
This whole time, the house had been continuously remodeled and tweaked — all the cold, unpleasant things and places she didn’t like had been replaced as much as possible. On top of that, there were people and cats in the home every day, with movement and activity. She didn’t know why, but it inexplicably gave her a very warm, very cozy feeling.
The moment she walked in, a rush of warmth greeted her face, dispelling the cold on her body.
Nan Zhi sighed in her heart.
No wonder I love coming home more and more — how could you not love a home like this?
Actually, the most important part was…
Nan Zhi looked at the people and cats not far away.
Today, the person and the cat were also coincidentally doing something right at the entrance.
This kind of thing had happened so many times already.
Once or twice could be called coincidence. But if it’s frequent, it can’t be. This guy was always wandering around near the door.
Nan Zhi suddenly thought of her grandma. Her grandma said that when she was younger, she had a cat. Every time she opened the door, the cat would always be waiting on top of the shoe cabinet at the entryway.
At first, she thought it was just a coincidence. But after installing a surveillance camera, she discovered that — unless the cat was playing with toy cars — it would always be waiting by the front door.
Song Qing, is that you?
Even if it’s not, it’s basically the same. Anyway, every time she opened the door, she just happened to see him at the right moment.
He was actually very busy — tutoring people, making videos, making software, studying, doing crafts — how could he have that much time to just hang around in the living room or by the front cabinet dusting?
That cabinet had a glossy surface, and he’d wiped it so much that it was almost reflective.
Anyway, Nan Zhi just acted like he was waiting for her — even if it was fake, at this moment it was enough to warm her, to stop her from being so stubbornly fixated. It meant someone actually cared about her.
Nan Zhi took off her outer coat, hung up her bag. Just as she was about to go hug Song Qing, she raised her hand and noticed her palm was swollen — from picking up the stone earlier.
Halfway, she changed direction and went to the dry zone outside the bathroom to wash her hands first. Behind her, Song Qing, like a little tail, stayed not far away, waiting for her to come out.
Nan Zhi also wanted to be quick, but suddenly remembered something urgent and went into the bathroom again.
When she went to throw away the tissue, her angle was a bit off. She didn’t care at first, but when she cleaned herself up and reached back in with the clip, she accidentally pushed too hard — unintentionally uncovered some other tissues and saw a smear of bright red underneath.
?
Nan Zhi hadn’t had her period for several months, so she was certain — it wasn’t hers.
Was it Song Qing’s? Was he injured?
If it was him…
She didn’t know why, but Nan Zhi instinctively flipped through the tissues — and sure enough, she saw even more red underneath.
This guy didn’t even want to waste tissues. Sometimes a whole piece was soaked through — all red.
That amount of bleeding — it felt like a serious wound.
Maybe he didn’t tell her because he didn’t want her to worry. Maybe he didn’t want her to find out, so he deliberately covered it with tissue.
The moment she saw it was under the tissue, she already had the thought — and sure enough, she was right.
It seemed that while Song Qing had come to understand her well lately — she had too.
When Nan Zhi came out, Song Qing was still standing outside. He didn’t look abnormal at all. His hands were nimble — he even pushed his wheelchair backward a little, no sign of obstruction, not a trace of discomfort on his face. She couldn’t tell where he was hurt at all.