Extra 6: Snow (1)

In late December, Zhong Jiajing and four other colleagues were sent on a business trip to a company in the capital. Ji Nan personally sent them to the destination hotel.

But he was worried that his presence would affect Zhong Jiajing's work, so he settled her and flew back overnight.

The business trip lasted a total of five days. At nine o'clock in the evening on the third day, the two had a video call as usual.

Ji Nan stared at Zhong Jiajing's prominent red nose on the screen, frowned, and asked, "Are you sick?"

"Yeah," Zhong Jiajing nodded, her voice muffled, "It's too dry here. Last night, I suddenly started bleeding from the nose in the middle of the night. I spent a long time trying to stop it, but when I woke up this morning, I caught a cold again. It was like adding insult to injury."

She held up a pack of tissues and added pathetically, "I've used two packs of these 120-piece packs today."

"Have you seen a doctor?" Ji Nan couldn't help but feel distressed when he saw her red and peeling nose.

Zhong Jiajing nodded obediently, "Yes, the doctor prescribed some medicine, you don't have to worry."

"Well, you did a great job." Ji Nan praised her, and after watching her take her third dose of medicine today, he continued to instruct her, "I ordered four small humidifiers for delivery. They will be delivered in about forty minutes. You can install them before going to bed."

Worried that the medicine was taking effect on her, she fell into a deep sleep, and Ji Nan patiently found topics to talk to her.

"Wei Ge should officially announce his relationship." He mentioned it casually with a calm tone.

In fact, he was not interested in this kind of gossip at all, but he couldn't think of any better way at the moment, so he had to drag the old guy out for a walk again.

Zhong Jiajing was indeed interested after hearing this. "Is that the girl backstage at the last concert?"

Ji Nan nodded, "Yes, he has had a crush on her for many years. It can be said that the toad has eaten the swan meat."

The two chatted about many topics, and the errand boy delivered the humidifier at the last minute of the stipulated delivery time.

Ji Nan looked at the instructions through the screen and said, "First, clean the container and fill it with water. Be careful not to let water get into the interface."

Seeing that she had done as he asked, he continued, "Put one on each side of the bed. I remember there is a socket under the table to the right of the TV. You can put one there."

"There's also a socket on the back of the kettle, so just put the last one there."

Zhong Jiajing arranged the egg-shaped humidifiers as he had instructed. Her eyes sparkled, her face filled with surprise. "You've only been here for two hours, how come you know exactly where the sockets are?"

"Maybe it's because I don't have the problem of myopia." Ji Nan stared at her and spoke calmly.

Zhong Jiajing: “…”

Everyone knows that her eyes, which had just undergone myopia surgery a few years ago, have become myopic again...

Ji Nan insisted that her problem was due to her bad eye habits. She admitted that, after all, she just enjoyed the excitement of playing with her mobile phone in the dark at night.

After catching her three times in a row, Ji Nan began to take on the responsibilities of Zhong's mother at home. Random checks at midnight every night have become a routine, which has made this healthy man who goes to bed early and gets up early develop the habit of getting up at night.

Sometimes Zhong Jiajing would act, just like she did when she was a child to fool her parents. When she heard footsteps, she would quickly close her eyes and pretend to be asleep.

But she forgot that Ji Nan also came from that era, and these tricks were just left over from his time.

Every time this happened, Ji Nan would walk to her bedside in the dark and stare at her with eyes that saw through everything.

My scalp is tingling, and I feel like I'm being watched by the King of Hell and about to die. This thrill is much more exciting than playing with my phone secretly.

Ji Nan is a very patient person, and most of the time it is Zhong Jiajing who is defeated first.

She would soften her tone, cover her head with the quilt and begin to admit her mistake, "Okay, I was just playing."

"Oh? So you were the one playing? I wouldn't have known if you hadn't told me." Ji Nan said coldly.

He raised his hand to turn on the bedside lamp and looked at the girl curled up in a ball under the covers. "No wonder when I checked the electricity bill yesterday, I found that last month's electricity bill was two dollars less than before. It turns out it was all the result of your good intentions."

"To put it mildly, you saved our family a lot of money."

"To put it in a broader sense, you have made a contribution to the entire earth!"

"If you're not included in next year's selection of the most touching people in China, I won't even bother watching."

Every time he was caught, Ji Nan always had endless dirty talk to say. Zhong Jiajing even wanted to record it and memorize it silently so that she could successfully fight back next time, but it was obviously a pipe dream.

"Master, stop reading," she crawled out from under the quilt, stood up and covered his mouth. "Can you tell me how your little head can hold so many 'charming words'?"

Ji Nan smoothed her hair and asked, "Which word did you not recognize?"

Zhong Jiajing shook her head, "I know them all."

"So you don't know how to form words or sentences?" Ji Nan said indifferently, leaning over and stuffing the person back into the quilt.

Zhong Jiajing had only her head exposed. She blinked and said honestly, "I learned this when I was a kid. I usually get full marks on it."

Ji Nan paused slightly as he covered himself with the quilt. He usually scored 70 points in Chinese in primary school, and the remaining 30 points were deducted for his choice of words and sentence structure.

I remember one of the test papers was like this: Please make a sentence using the four words "mom, dad, me, apple, leave for".

Most of the children formed a united front, and the sentences they wrote were all heartwarming and the same.

The apples my father bought were very sweet. I gave half of them to my mother who had not yet gotten off work.

Only Ji Nan has a unique idea.

He wrote: The apples my aunt bought are very sour. My mother doesn’t like them, and I don’t like them either. It’s better to leave them for my jealous father.

After seeing the test paper, the teacher pulled him aside and gave him a long lecture, and finally asked him to rewrite it.

The sentence became like this: The apples my aunt bought were very sour. I was too full after eating half of them. In order not to waste food, I decided to leave the remaining half for my father.

The teachers were confused when they saw it: Does this apple have to be sour?

When Ji's father found out, he was so angry that he bought a big bag of sour apples and forced Ji Nan to eat them, "Aren't you trying to save food? Eat them!"

Just thinking about it made him feel awkward. Ji Nan turned off the lights with a sullen face and said coldly, "If you could develop your brain a little more than 0.01 percent, you wouldn't have this problem."

Zhong Jiajing: Thank you, I’m hurt again.

Of course, when it comes to catching people, Ji Nan is sometimes the first to "give in".

For example, he would put his still hot cell phone against Zhong Jiajing's face, which was a little tense due to nervousness, then pull her into his arms and pretend to take her to his room.

"I think you need my close surveillance."

Of course, the subsequent developments of the two people will be the same as described above, and both will be speechless.

After Zhong Jiajing put away the humidifiers, she pouted and tried to prove herself, "I've turned over a new leaf now. Haven't you noticed that you haven't caught me at a crime scene in a long time?"

"I found out, so I deleted all the old phones from my shopping cart." Ji Nan joked.

Zhong Jiajing was speechless and choked. She said viciously, "Fine, I decided to fall asleep."

As to whether Ji Nan's head was blown off in a dream, everyone present knew it well.

Ji Nan didn't say anything, but just responded, "Well, you can use the holder to put the phone on the bedside. I will hang up after you fall asleep."

Zhong Jiajing felt dizzy and fell asleep quickly. Ji Nan observed her for a while and made sure that she was fine before hanging up the video.

It was just past ten o'clock when the call ended. Mini Zoo was preparing to close. Ji Nan, who rarely worked overtime, said a few words to the store manager and left.

I hadn't taken a few steps when I saw an employee in the group post a photo of a cup of coffee, which he had just made a mistake and was about to throw away.

[The last two orders were for extra American coffee from a nearby overtime worker, and the boss made the same coffee extra strong twice.]

[Help! Working overtime is hard enough, but who knew something even worse was waiting for me? I'm in pain.]

Xiao Bai jumped out and said, "Are you thinking about your wife? How could our esteemed Boss Ji make such a small mistake? It's unbelievable!"

Mini Lion King, a veteran employee who still works at the store, confirmed: "Yes, the boss looked worried right after he hung up the phone. I suggested he fly to the capital overnight to seek the solace of true love."

This group was originally a work group, but the former employees did not leave the group, and over time it evolved into Mini Zoo's exclusive gossip platform.

Ji Nan wanted to fly there overnight, but there was a heavy snowfall in the capital at night and the flight was delayed.

The weather forecast showed that the snow would stop in the second half of the night. Ji Nan didn't care whether it was credible or not and immediately booked the earliest flight to the capital.

As expected, the weather was weird and Ji Nan's flight was delayed until the afternoon and finally landed at three in the afternoon.

Zhong Jiajing's room was arranged by the company. It was inconvenient for Ji Nan to move in, so he simply booked an empty room downstairs.

He simply packed his luggage and took a taxi to the company building.

It was just past four in the afternoon when he arrived, and there was still nearly an hour before the end of the working day in winter. Unable to bear the winter cold, Ji Nan went into the convenience store opposite the company to wait.

The five people on the business trip were divided into different groups. Zhong Jiajing mostly went home from get off work with her new colleagues in the same group these two days.

The two of them walked downstairs on time. A colleague stared at her sickly face and sighed, "My first job after graduation was in Hangzhou. It was my first time in the south as a northerner. Not to mention the climate, I felt like my quilt was damp, and it made me feel awful. I broke out in a rash that day. I went to the hospital and they said I was allergic to the damp air. I was so scared that I quit my job and ran back north."

"When I was a kid, I didn't understand the difference in climate between the north and the south. Now, seeing you and me, I realize how limited the human living environment is."

"I submitted my resume to the south because I longed for the Jiangnan water villages, but I didn't expect that I wouldn't be able to enjoy them."

"Occasional travel keeps things fresh," Zhong Jiajing said with a smile. "Although I won't live here permanently, I feel pretty lucky to be here during the snowy season. It's absolutely beautiful!"

Both Shanghai and Zhenjiang are cities with little snow, and snow is a fatal attraction for people in the south.

As the two were chatting, the phone in Zhong Jiajing's pocket rang. It was Ji Nan calling.

He asked, "Are you off work?"

Zhong Jiajing stood in the still-melted snow, looking up at the sky where snow had begun to fall again. "It's time to get off work, and it's snowing again."

She felt a little regretful, "It's a pity that I can't enjoy the snow with you."

The male voice on the phone was a little distant and vague. Zhong Jiajing heard him chuckle pleasantly, "It's not a pity. Look to the left and front."

Zhong Jiajing was stunned for a moment, then immediately turned her head to look towards the road.

Ji Nan was waving at her with a frown.

He said, "This is my first snow of the year, with you."