What Nan Zhi didn’t expect the most was that the stingy-as-hell Song Qing this time booked a five-star hotel, with buffet, bathtub, panoramic windows and so on; the concert tickets were also close to the front, to the degree one could clearly see the person on stage’s whole body.
This position releases extremely few tickets, basically impossible to snatch. In the past, the most she could buy was a middle-position ticket, barely able to see the singer’s head on the big screen.
But very strangely, the scalpers not only always managed to get tickets, they even hoarded them, jacked the price sky-high — several times higher than official price.
Spending several times the regular price to buy a single ticket, Nan Zhi felt was not Song Qing’s style, so she was very curious how Song Qing managed it.
She asked, and Song Qing just said, said he found several ticket-snatching programs, decompiled the source code, absorbed their failure experience, then wrote a small program according to the ticketing software’s rules to snatch — not only did he get tickets for himself, actually even helped others snipe and earned a bit of price difference.
All the money was spent on this trip; he offset it with the capital in his offshore account from before, and there was even a bit left over, enough for the two of them to eat and drink and finish spending.
In short, this trip could be said to have cost no money. If he had left a few days earlier, and sublet the hotel room to someone else, he could’ve even made a bit more profit.
Because of the concert, there was a convention afterward; over a hundred thousand people poured into this city, hotel prices had already risen to several thousand. The room he’s staying in now — when he booked it, it was 899, now it’s 2,999.
After the concert is the convention, plus national holidays and summer vacation, which means this price will continue for a while.
If they let it go for 1,999, in three days they could still make more than 3,000.
Because she kept drawing big pie for him, he estimated that to travel everywhere, at least ten days of time should be reserved, so he prepaid ten days of room fee — they’ve only stayed for three days now.
This ten days of his, was calculated based on her being lazy and unable to get up early, unable to shop for too long in a single day.
If she were a bit more diligent, finished touring in a week, the two of them could’ve even made a profit of over 3,000.
Nan Zhi: “……”
She was simply stunned. You have to know, previously when she traveled alone, she spent over 10,000, and didn’t even get to go anywhere, just lay in the hotel for a few days. But together with Song Qing, two people, actually didn’t spend a single cent. All expenses were from the money he temporarily earned, and they even profited a few thousand.
The money from the offshore account was also transferred to her — several thousand.
Nan Zhi: “……”
She really wanted to say, Song Qing is truly a genius, a money-making little master, and also a pixiu [a mythical creature that eats gold and doesn’t excrete it, used to symbolize wealth accumulation], takes in but doesn’t spend.
But he was unlucky, met a money-spending little master, knew she definitely wouldn’t wrong herself, so the hotel he booked, the food, drink, fun, even the ticket positions weren’t lacking. When the concert started, this guy even pulled out a soft light board from his pocket for her.
This thing she had bought before — cost a hundred or two. Yet he was actually willing to spend.
Nan Zhi held the light board, even she felt it was unbelievable. But thinking about the money spent these days, she felt relieved.
Already spent that much, this bit doesn’t seem to matter anymore. Might as well play to the fullest.
Nan Zhi, under the bombardment of music, got excited and hugged him and gave him a kiss.
On the brim of the cap.
The concert was outdoors. At the coldest time of the night, there was even a light snow, freezing to death. The two of them were fully geared up, a little cap plus the hood of a jacket, bundled up tightly.
With two layers overlapping, Song Qing actually didn’t feel that kiss, but he saw Nan Zhi lean in, and then the brim on that side collapsed a little. When he looked again, Nan Zhi was already wearing gloves, lifting the light board, excitedly swaying and singing along to the music.
The off-key singing stacked layer by layer, from her mouth, from the mouths of people around them — you couldn’t even hear the music from the stage.
And couldn’t tell whether just now was real or not.
Or maybe it was just a light touch.
Song Qing touched the cap, on the spot just now, when he pulled back his finger, there was a touch of deep red. He rubbed it between his fingertips — it was lipstick.
Nan Zhi, for the sake of this concert, usually wearing pajamas, pajama pants, and tiger-head shoes , today not only dressed neatly, but even put on makeup.
So it was real.
He stared blankly at that smear of deep red for a long time. After a while, he lifted his eyes and once again looked toward Nan Zhi.
Nan Zhi was just like a little sun. At this moment she had already gotten familiar with a girl next to her, the two of them each pulling one corner of the light board and unfolding it, frequently lifting it up to cheer.
Winter was too cold; one person couldn’t hold it up for long. He saw that light board passed from Nan Zhi’s hands, to the little girl, then to the girl beside her.
Only after Nan Zhi’s hands were warmed up a bit did she continue holding up the light board, eyes always fixed on the stage, not noticing anything else.
Looks like it was an accident.
Song Qing withdrew his gaze, lowered his head, and continued knitting his own scarf.
He didn’t chase stars. The singing was covered by everyone’s screaming and singalongs — couldn’t hear clearly, so might as well bury his head and do his own thing.
Before coming he had more or less expected this. After all, he wasn’t interested in this stuff, and it lasted five to six hours, so he prepared in advance — brought needlework.
But he hadn’t expected it to be this cold today. Wearing gloves made it hard to move; taking them off made his hands freeze — couldn’t knit.
He shook his frozen-stiff hands, and could only put away the scarf, turning instead to watch Nan Zhi interact with the others. She and the girl next to her obviously didn’t know each other, but now they were already hugging, shouting and singing excitedly together.
—
Nan Zhi was listening to the music when suddenly a voice drifted into her ears. The girl next to her said that someone nearby had asked her whether the person beside her was a celebrity surnamed Li, one who had participated in that Celebrity Training Camp.
Nan Zhi was stunned, followed that person’s line of sight — who else could she be asking about besides Song Qing?
She had watched Celebrity Training Camp, didn’t remember what any Li-surnamed people looked like, but she knew Song Qing wasn’t one of them.
His background was clear as day — his school years were packed full, there was no way he had time to join some celebrity training camp.
Nan Zhi, across two seats, explained it to the girl. But that girl clearly didn’t believe her, insisting that he was. Because of her, others around also started looking over frequently. Nan Zhi heard the girl beside her start murmuring too:
“He really is handsome, though.”
“Looks just like a celeb.”
Nan Zhi couldn’t help but turn her head and take a few more glances at Song Qing.
—
This concert lasted five to six hours. Plus needing to arrive early, by eight or nine in the evening, people couldn’t help it anymore — they started frequently getting up from their seats to go to the restroom.
Almost everyone had to pass by him. Sometimes, with thick clothing, they even needed him to move his wheelchair a bit.
Because his seat was at the very edge — he had put quite a lot of effort into getting it. Had looked up lots of related information beforehand, aiming precisely for this row.
There was a wheelchair, he could sit in the wheelchair, but Nan Zhi still carried him out, and the two of them sat side by side on the seat to watch. The wheelchair then held a bag, which had things the two of them needed.
The weather was too cold. Song Qing fished a thermos cup out from the bag, just about to ask Nan Zhi if she wanted a drink — when Nan Zhi suddenly clamped his arm under her own, and that hand folded upward, lifting his chin to observe him seriously.
Song Qing paused slightly, the thermos pressed on his lap, and asked, “What is it?”
Nan Zhi didn’t say anything, was looking at his appearance.
These past few months, eating a balanced diet every day — meat and vegetables, fish, meat, shrimp, plus soup and rice — enough for an eighteen-year-old who was still growing to undergo a complete transformation, becoming more and more fair and delicate-looking.
His bone structure was becoming increasingly upright and proper. His conduct was also upright — sitting had sitting posture, like a green bamboo, always keeping his back straight, never slouched.
No wonder others mistook him for a celebrity — he really did have some capital.
Spending every day together with him, she had already grown immune to his appearance, could no longer recall how shocked she was when he first arrived. It was only when someone pointed it out again that she seemed to suddenly wake up and realize:
Song Qing was extremely good-looking, the kind who stood out in a crowd — very easy for others to notice.
There had been a few similar incidents before; as long as she took him out, there would always be whispered discussions.
Like a pearl covered in dust, after the surface dust was wiped clean, it began to shine and attract attention.
Nan Zhi didn’t know why, but she pulled his scarf up a bit, covering most of his face — didn’t want him to draw too much attention.
She opened her mouth, just about to bring up the mistaken identity earlier, when she was distracted by the big screen on stage.
It was the interaction segment — whichever couple the camera panned to, that couple would kiss in public.
It panned to a pair of young man and woman — one playing with their phone, the other pulling at the yarn ball on the chest of their sweater — completely unaware of the camera, only raising their heads when the crowd started laughing, and then upon seeing themselves on the screen, were both embarrassed and dodging, but still under the camera’s gaze shyly leaned in and kissed.
The camera then started sweeping randomly. Nan Zhi heard someone nearby say, “What if it lands on girl-girl or boy-boy, what then? Still have to kiss?”
“What does kissing feel like?”
“Have you kissed before?”
The person beside her shook their head. The girl on the other side turned her head to ask her, “How about you?”
Nan Zhi hadn’t kissed either — single since birth. Not that no one pursued her — some did, but her heart just wasn’t in it.
She honestly shook her head, and then the person beyond that said she had kissed a girl before — soft, kind of like the feeling of sucking on your arm.
Because of what she said, everyone in that row started rolling up their sleeves to kiss their own arms.
But they were all dressed too thick — at most they could only reveal their wrists. Nan Zhi was skinny, with no flesh at all at her wrist, not soft. The moment she kissed it, she could tell it wasn’t the feeling others were talking about.
The girl further down corrected her, saying to kiss a spot on your arm with more flesh — try it at home, can’t try it here.
Nan Zhi obediently put out the thought, watched the couples kissing on the screen. The camera had panned briefly to their area once, but only for a flash — the screen had shown a blur, then quickly moved on to someone else.
As for something like it happening to her — that only existed in TV dramas. In real life it was impossible to come across, so Nan Zhi had never expected it, and thus didn’t feel disappointed. After the interaction segment ended, she went right back to singing along.
A whole concert — entered safely, exited safely. Left about half an hour early, avoided peak time, so they were lucky enough to catch the hotel’s car and were safely delivered to the front door.
After five to six hours, the first thing Nan Zhi did upon getting back to the room was rush to the bathroom. Song Qing wanted to go too, but couldn’t compete with her — she got there first, and only after she came out could Song Qing go in.
The two of them were currently staying in one room.
Originally, it was two rooms — one was 899, the other 399. The 899 one was on the 10+ floor, the 399 one on the third floor. Meeting daily was troublesome.
Since the two of them started living together, they had never been apart. Nan Zhi wasn’t used to it, so she simply cancelled his and upgraded her own to a standard room — the two of them staying together.
The standard room had two beds. Two people sleeping in separate beds wasn’t a big deal — in fact, there were some benefits.
Nan Zhi had just realized — after sleeping face to face, now when she woke up in the middle of the night, she no longer saw an empty, dark closet.
She saw Song Qing wrapped in a blanket. Knowing there was a person on the opposite side, someone accompanying her — she felt full of security. Her sleep had gotten much better recently.