Chapter 35 Xu Zecheng, do you know that a zipper can be sold for two dollars?

It was already dark. Xu Zecheng half-tilted his head and stared at the wholesale market building in front of him. Sun Ziyi also looked at it, but didn't see anything special. There was just a circle of light strips around the roof, which made the building seem less shabby.

She glanced to the left. The streetlight at the intersection was no longer as bright as it was ten years ago. Squinting her eyes, she could see black spots on the yellow lampshade. The seat under the desk lamp was also mottled, and the black handle had peeled off, revealing the silver lining.

Sun Ziyi really wanted to use her hands to push Xu Zecheng beside her back to that position, because it was here more than ten years ago that she fell in love with Xu Zecheng.

Now, as they stood side by side, she wasn't quite sure what she was thinking after "falling in love" with Xu Zecheng. After all, for grown men and women, heart-throbs are inherently rare and numb. Furthermore, she worked in such a numb industry, having seen so many handsome men and beautiful women that she had already mastered the art of writing those "suspension bridge reactions" into scripts.

Seeing her in a daze, Xu Zecheng reached out and shook her. "What are you thinking about?"

Sun Ziyi came back to his senses, turned around and asked him, "What's exciting?"

Xu Zecheng pointed at the stairs and said, "Let's climb up, just like when we were kids, and lie on the roof to look at the stars."

Sun Ziyi had an expression on her face that said "That's it?" She looked around without any interest. The wholesale market was surrounded by high-rise buildings.

"It's hard for us to see the stars now because the buildings around us are too bright."

"My father told me that the ownership of this land is unclear and it is difficult to find the owner, so the surrounding buildings were demolished and only this place was left empty," said Sun Ziyi.

Sun Ziyi looked around with a bright look in his eyes. “But this isn’t a bad thing. If this place is demolished, we will lose all our childhood memories.”

"I wish I were a domineering CEO who could snap his fingers and turn off all the lights in the city." Xu Zecheng said seriously.

Sun Ziyi replied in a dull tone, "The one who reacts to a snap of his fingers is Thanos."

Xu Zecheng had long been accustomed to her dullness and her refusal to respond to romantic conversation. He ignored her and continued walking forward. Sun Ziyi followed him obediently. She followed Xu Zecheng all the way to the stairs. Just as she was about to ask, Xu Zecheng turned around and whispered, "Wait a minute, I'm going to steal something."

Sun Ziyi was surprised. "Steal?"

Xu Zecheng said, "Well, go steal from your mother's counter."

Sun Ziyi said, "You seem to be scolding me," and then watched Xu Zecheng put the huge picture in his hand into his arms, and picked up a stone from the ground. When he was about to go upstairs, Xu Zecheng suddenly turned around and asked, "Sun Ziyi, are we breaking the law?"

Sun Ziyi shook his head. "Lock the door when you get out, and the wholesale market won't bother you. The only one who'll suffer is my mom. Tell her that when the night watchman comes to ask, just say it's your family coming to get something, and don't let her call the police to arrest you."

Xu Zecheng chuckled and quickly went up the stairs. The lock opened without even having to smash it. He turned around in surprise and looked at her at the bottom of the stairs. "So easy to open?"

Sun Ziyi said, "Many people go through here when they need to get urgent work at night."

Xu Zecheng turned around with a dark face. As soon as he entered, he heard the night watchman shouting in the dark, "Which counter are you from?" Xu Zecheng was so scared that he threw the things aside.

Sun Ziyi followed in from behind, gave the name of Sun Ma's counter, and said he was there to pick up the goods.

The old man nodded and continued listening to the storytelling.

Sun Ziyi picked up the advertising poster on the ground and couldn't help laughing as he walked forward. Xu Zecheng said, "Did you know that the uncle was waiting at the door?"

Sun Ziyi said as a matter of course, "Of course!"

Xu Zecheng said bitterly, "Why is this so unromantic? I thought we would be roaming around together tonight, picking locks, dodging flashlights from old men, and moving from counter to counter like Mr. and Mrs. Smith!"

"Mr. and Mrs. Smith threw wine glasses into the gasoline barrel at the banquet, and we posted advertisements in the wholesale market... and Mr. and Mrs. Smith..." Sun Ziyi interrupted Xu Zecheng's imaginary romance again.

Xu Zecheng retorted, "We can at least make the whole Tianjin couple, right? With my looks, and your curiosity."

Xu Zecheng held out her hands, ready to defend herself, afraid that Sun Ziyi would hit her because of the word "curiosity", but Sun Ziyi suddenly became awkward and said, "Who are you and your spouse?"

"That's not the point," Xu Zecheng said.

"What's the point? Are you going to post the advertisement or not?" Sun Ziyi was a little impatient.

Xu Zecheng was puzzled. "Who told you I came here to post an ad? I came here to buy a projector."

Sun Ziyi put the advertisement in his arms on the counter and said, "Speak earlier, Chen." Then he went to Sun Ma's counter and picked up the domestic projector that had just arrived a few days ago. He sat under the counter, opened the plastic bag, and handed it to him, "Here, Sun Ma just brought it in."

Xu Zecheng asked, "How much money should we leave for Auntie?"

Sun Ziyi shook his head, put the box back on the table, and handed the projector to Xu Zecheng. "No, you gave me a phone, and I haven't returned it to you yet."

Xu Zecheng was unwilling and searched his pocket again, but in the end he only had twenty yuan left...Xu Zecheng thought about it and said, "It's better not to keep twenty yuan." So he took advantage of Sun's mother.

The security guard urged at the door, "Are you done? I'm going to lock the door."

The two of them looked towards the door together. The room was pitch black, and the light from outside came in to form a beam of light, which looked like a small stage.

"Right away, right away." Sun Ziyi smiled apologetically to the security guard and pulled Xu Zecheng out.

A second after the two people walked out, the door behind them slammed shut.

Sun Ziyi asked excitedly, "What next? What else is exciting? Are we going to climb up to the rooftop to look at the stars, using your advertisement as a backdrop? Is there anything else I can't imagine?"

Before Xu Zecheng could say anything, Sun Ziyi responded, "Don't ask me how I know this. With normal thinking, you can guess it. This is a common plot in scripts."

Xu Zecheng looked at her for a long time, then he felt a little angry, like a love saint being seen through by a love idiot. "You, do you know that in love, you have to pretend to be stupid sometimes?"

Xu Zecheng thought the two would quarrel, but Sun Ziyi just looked at him, made a long "oh" sound, and finally took out his mobile phone and started typing.

Xu Zecheng couldn't help but move closer to see what she was doing, and found that she was taking a memo - Xu Zecheng said that even in love, one must learn to play dumb.

Xu Zecheng then asked, "In the dead of night, you're alone, a man and a woman, and you're taking notes?"

Sun Ziyi finished typing and said, "I think you can often say some golden sentences so that I can accumulate knowledge. Okay, let's get on the right track and climb the stairs."

Before Xu Zecheng could react, Sun Ziyi walked up the stairs.

The stairs were only on the second floor, and there were two drainpipes on the third floor, making it a bit dangerous. By the time Xu Zecheng realized what was happening, Sun Ziyi had already climbed halfway up. He was so scared that he made a move to catch her from below. Sun Ziyi was quite agile and climbed up without any bumps or bruises.

Xu Zecheng felt that the theme of the night was speechlessness. After Sun Ziyi climbed up, he looked back and saw that he was still "frightened" below, so he patted the eaves. "Come up, Xu Zecheng, act like a man!"

Seeing that she was safe, Xu Zecheng breathed a sigh of relief and then climbed up in no time. Sun Ziyi had already run to the center of the rooftop, where there were several bags of coal, which looked bumpy.

Sun Ziyi turned his head to look at Xu Zecheng and continued his analysis. "I don't think this place is very good. The coal is bumpy and uncomfortable to lie down on. Only a not very romantic screenwriter could write such a moment."

Xu Zecheng said nothing. He slowly walked to her side, folded up the advertising cloth, spread it on the ground, then sat down and patted the extra cloth on one side towards Sun Ziyi. "Come, sit down."

Sun Ziyi chuckled and asked, "Why don't you play by the rules? What are you doing with the projection?"

Xu Zecheng thought about it and turned on the projector. He was originally fiddling with it towards the wall, but the two of them ended up squinting their eyes and looking at it for a long time.

"You can't see anything here, it's so small."

The two of them tried to throw it towards another wall, but they couldn't see it clearly because it was too far away.

Sun Ziyi said, "Tonight is destined to be unromantic, so what should I do next?"

Xu Zecheng was silent for three seconds and said, "A normal couple should be kissing at this moment. Don't you know? Jacky Cheung and his wife were locked in a garbage dump, without a cell phone, and they were kissing."

Now it was Sun Ziyi's turn to remain silent.

Sun Ziyi said, "Why don't we go? It's still quite cold. We can watch a movie anywhere."

Xu Zecheng said, "No, since you're here, stay a little longer."

Xu Zecheng reached out and suddenly pulled the projection down.

Sun Ziyi was stunned for a moment and asked, "What are you going to do?"

Xu Zecheng spread out the advertising cloth and lay down on it.

Then he stretched out his hand and pulled Sun Ziyi down as well.

Xu Zecheng: Take a look.

Sun Ziyi was dragged to the ground by him. He raised his head and saw the projected beam of light stretching to the sky. It became dimmer and dimmer as it went higher until it gradually disappeared.

Xu Zecheng said, "Don't waste it if you buy it. If you have some leftover energy, use it to your advantage."

Xu Zecheng said in a pretentious manner, "Life is like this too. When you get here, you try everything."

Then he turned around and asked Sun Ziyi, "Did you remember this sentence?"

Sun Ziyi shook his head. "That's a terrible sentence."

The two of them stared intently at the beam of light, which was actually a bit tiring for Sun Ziyi's eyes because he always wanted to see where the end was.

Xu Zecheng suddenly spoke up. "I've read Jingzhe. I can tell at first glance that you wrote some of the plots because they're real-life scenarios, not forced, clichéd ones. Also, when I'm with you, I can always feel your presence, not just the smell."

Sun Ziyi said at the side, "You can't smell it? My perfume is from Van Cleef & Arpels!"

How could Sun Ziyi not understand what he wanted to say seriously, but at this moment, she just wanted to play dumb.

Xu Zecheng closed his eyes in silence. "That's not important. I'm telling you how good you are as a human being. You should go back. I also think you can be a good screenwriter. You shouldn't give up so quickly."

"I didn't give up. I just felt that conducting realistic field research is indeed a part of being a screenwriter," said Sun Ziyi.

"I know you might think I'm running away, but Xu Zecheng, I really want to be a writer and screenwriter. This has been my dream since I was a child. Have you forgotten?"

"But working in a factory is really tiring." Xu Zecheng turned to look at her.

"Only by being tired can you understand what those girls feel. It's the only way your hard work will be worth it. If you were to sit at home and watch documentaries or monitor the surveillance footage, or just listen to what others say, you'd never know which finger their blisters were caused by, or that you have to pay a 50-yuan deposit to the factory for 50 cents a piece of clothing, and that when you're leaving, your pockets will be searched to see if anyone has taken home buttons or zippers."

"You wouldn't know that a zipper strip can be sold for two dollars, which is more expensive than the thread cutter."

Xu Zecheng suddenly pulled her hand out to look at it. "You have blisters, don't you?"

Sun Ziyi pulled back, "That's not the point..."

Xu Zecheng asked, "So when will you stop? Do you have any specific plans?"

Sun Ziyi suddenly fell silent.

Seeing she remained silent, Xu Zecheng continued. "You'd better be like you said. I remember when I was little, I went to your house and you wanted to cook me instant noodles. At that time, you had just learned how to turn on the gas. After school, you said you had learned how to boil eggs beautifully the day before, without any foam. But that afternoon, you boiled twenty eggs, and they still had foam. Later, your gas ran out, and the instant noodles we had didn't even have eggs. That's when I knew you were a paranoid person."

Sun Ziyi smiled. "How did you know? I remember I didn't tell you in the kitchen."

"...Since you were in the kitchen for two hours, I figured something was wrong."

Sun Ziyi felt like laughing.

Xu Zecheng said, "Of course I finally found out because there were no buses when I left, so I turned back to ask you to ride your bike, but I found out that you had boiled all the eggs and fed them to stray cats and puppies. I think you are very kind."

Sun Ziyi recalled, "But you didn't ride a bicycle that day..."

Xu Zecheng was silent for a few seconds, then said, "Later, I walked home for forty minutes. I didn't dare expose you at the time because you were reading Anne Frank and were immersed in the role of a rebellious girl. Rebellious girls can't feed stray cats."

Sun Ziyi knew the other party was trying to tease him, so he continued, "Back then, I used to feed a few stray cats. Every morning, I'd save half of the pancakes my mom bought for them. But the next year, I'd stop seeing them. From childhood to adulthood, I've fed dozens of stray cats. I was so naive as a child, I always thought they'd really wandered farther afield, like migratory birds flying south. Only when I grew up did I realize they just couldn't survive the winter."

Sun Ziyi added, "But it must have been a problem with the batch of eggs that day. How could I not know how to boil eggs? The eggs must have been in the refrigerator for too long."

Xu Zecheng said, "I guessed you would put the blame on the egg. After all, it's been more than ten years. Who can find evidence? You are so cruel that you even framed the egg from more than ten years ago. You are just trying to save face."

Sun Ziyi thought to himself, damn, I'm not as rich as you, I only have my face left and you won't let me show my abilities.

She raised her neck and said, "Yes, that's who I am!"

Xu Zecheng suddenly reached out and touched her head. "Be good, be gentler next time."

At such an ambiguous moment, Sun Ziyi actually shuddered.