Is it fun?

14

After several communities were closed one after another, Hai City was completely closed.

Lin Ju looked at the messages in several groups with trepidation. In those communities that had been sealed off for a while, community group buying had already appeared, including groups buying vegetables, meat, and chickens.

She also added a few, and her nightly activity before bed was to watch the group chats.

The food grabbing started early in the morning. She watched for a while, but finally couldn't help it and pulled Zhao Xingcan to join in.

Lin Ju knew that he was worrying too much, and there was no one stopping him from entering the Peninsula Villa. In the entire villa estate, there was only a no-entry sign at the intersection at the end of the dense forest.

In fact, if Zhao Xingcan wants, they don’t need to cook for themselves, as someone will deliver meals to them.

But he still agreed to Lin Ju and set the alarm to accompany her.

For several days in a row, I didn't get any food, but I did get dark circles under my eyes.

After giving up decisively, Lin Ju fell in love with cooking again.

She studies in the kitchen every day, and makes three meals a day, with Zhao Xingcan as her guinea pig.

Zhao Xingcan was very picky about the taste of food. Every time Lin Ju asked him to taste the food, he would delay for a long time.

Several times he refused to come out of the study, so Lin Ju went straight in with the plates.

Zhao Xingcan rarely felt so helpless. He knew that she was bored and was just grabbing food and cooking to kill time, which made his stomach suffer.

Fortunately, Lin Ju's enthusiasm for cooking was short-lived. A few days later, she found a bag of mung beans from somewhere and said that she had seen a tutorial on growing mung bean sprouts online and wanted to give it a try.

Lin Ju would go to the greenhouse from time to time to check on the green beans she had grown. After waiting for about four days, Zhao Xingcan was still asleep when Lin Ju woke him up.

He opened the door and leaned against the door frame with his brows lowered.

Lin Ju grabbed his arm and asked him to look at the bean sprouts she had grown.

She was mumbling quickly, her words unclear. Zhao Xingcan turned his head away, his brows furrowed. He could no longer bear it, so he grabbed her waist, picked her up, and carried her into the room.

He pressed the girl down on the bed, holding her tightly, not letting her move. He buried his face in her neck, his breath hot and his voice hoarse and muffled, "Lin Ju, I want to sleep."

Lin Ju instantly became quiet, and she curled up in Zhao Xingcan's arms with her body tensed.

She had just come in from outside and felt cold all over after being blown by the wind. Lying in Zhao Xingcan's warm arms, she felt like a small piece of ice that was gradually melting. Her head and body became dizzy as well.

I fell asleep unknowingly, and when I woke up, Zhao Xingcan was also awake. He was leaning on the balcony smoking, with one hand lazily resting on the handrail.

Lin Ju got up and crawled to the edge of the bed and sat down. The bed was quite high. She sat on the edge of the bed barefoot, swinging back and forth.

A pair of feet are like freshly poured milk, so white that it dazzles the eyes.

The light from outside the balcony fell into the dark room. Zhao Xingcan tilted his head, and under his black eyebrows and eyelashes, his eyes were like the light of the twilight period.

He took the last puff of his cigarette, waited for the smoke to dissipate, and walked into the room.

The shadow fell on Lin Ju. Zhao Xingcan lifted Lin Ju's chin and said, "Lin Ju, I sent something over."

Lin Ju has a small face, which is about the size of a palm when pinched between fingers. Her eyes are upturned and her double eyelids are deep. Her eyes are embedded in her snow-white face because of her curiosity, like two diamonds.

"What did you give me?"

Zhao Xingcan lowered his eyes and smiled, "You'll like it."

There was a glass house next to the greenhouse. After Zhao Xingcan let people in, he piled all the things inside.

When they arrived, the delivery man had already left. There were several cardboard boxes piled up in the glass room. They must have been disinfected and there was a strong smell of disinfectant.

Zhao Xingcan tore open the package and opened the box. Inside was all the materials and tools Lin Ju needed to make the sculpture, quite complete.

"I don't know what you need, so I bought them all." Before Zhao Xingcan could finish his words, Lin Ju crawled past him like a kitten, sat on the ground, and almost buried her head in the box.

She was rummaging through the boxes, mumbling something to herself. Zhao Xingcan listened, but couldn't quite hear what she was saying, but he could guess that she was probably ticking over the materials and tools.

He also squatted down and looked around with his head tilted.

This was the third time he gave her something, and this time, he finally saw a look of surprise on her face.

When Lin Ju looked up, Zhao Xingcan asked her if she liked it?

She pursed her lips, like a wild rose in a glass bottle, with the thorns removed, leaving only soft petals.

After more than half a month, Zhao Xingcan felt better.

There were no messy dishes for him to taste, no need to brave the cold wind to dig mud in the garden, and no need to get up early in the morning to grab vegetables. It was so leisurely, so leisurely that Zhao Xingcan was not used to it.

In addition to growing bean sprouts, Lin Ju also planted chili peppers in the greenhouse. The mung beans soaked in water had already sprouted several batches, but no one cared about them and they all withered.

The pepper seedlings in the greenhouse were growing quite well. Zhao Xingcan pushed open the greenhouse door, walked around, and stood at the glass window to look into the room next door.

She tied her outer robe into a knot, pulled it horizontally around her waist, and propped one leg up on a stool. On the shelf in front of her was a plaster statue, which should be almost finished and was being polished.

Zhao Xingcan called out through the window, but Lin Ju didn't respond.

He saw the hearing aid in her ear and guessed it was not turned on again.

Zhao Xingcan stopped shouting and stayed at the window for about ten minutes before leaving the greenhouse.

Before leaving, I watered the peppers.

After returning home, Zhao Xingcan finished watching the movie he and Lin Ju had watched halfway through. As evening approached, Zhao Xingcan was cooking in the kitchen. Lin Ju hurried back in, her clothes covered in mud and dirt, as dirty as a puppy that had rolled ten times in the mud.

Zhao Xingcan heard the noise and stuck his head out of the kitchen. Lin Ju had already run upstairs.

Zhao Xingcan fried the steak, cut it into small pieces, and pushed it to Lin Ju's hand.

Lin Ju took a bite absentmindedly. She had been busy polishing the plaster statues for the past half month, but she was never satisfied and had ruined several of them.

Just as he was lost in thought, Zhao Xingcan gently put down his knife and fork, tapped the table with his fingers, and said, "Lin Ju."

He called her name, and Lin Ju raised her eyes, with light gradually gathering in her eyes.

"Are you tired? You've lost weight."

Lin Ju smiled, "It's not tiring, I just love doing this."

"Can't you let me see it?"

"It's not finished yet." Lin Ju picked up the cup and drank water, his eyes wandering elsewhere.

"Didn't you just drink up the water in that cup?" Zhao Xingcan took the cup, pinched her chin and turned it towards him.

"You weren't like this when you were muraling in Wanning."

Lin Ju choked. "That's different. That mural was a composition, meant for the author to see. This is my own work." She paused. "I want to give this work to you, so... I have to devote my whole heart to completing it."

When Lin Ju said the second half of the sentence, her eyelashes drooped quietly, like a butterfly landing on a piece of white snow.

Zhao Xingcan was shocked and leaned back involuntarily, his back pressed firmly against the back of the chair. After coming to his senses, he looked at Lin Ju with lowered brows.

He thought he shouldn't provoke Lin Ju.

Staying in Haishi might be a wrong decision.

Lin Ju was different from those greenhouse seedlings; she blossomed in the wild, and he coveted her beauty and kept her in his greenhouse. But he was destined not to be a qualified flower grower. He concluded that he could not keep her.

When Zhao Xingcan thought of this, he felt that the days that he could see the end of became boring.

When the rainy season comes in Hai City, the vines planted on the side walls of the houses climb up and down the corners, and some of the wooden tiles are covered in green. The rain washes the walls, giving them a warm luster.

Three months of lockdown have flown by in a flash. Recently, news of the reopening has begun to trickle in, and many grassroots jobs in the city have gradually resumed. Several chat groups are reporting that some people have received passes to go out, no longer having to wait in line every day to buy groceries; they can go directly to the store to buy them, albeit with limited capacity. The entire city, after a harsh winter, is steadily warming up, and everything is moving in a positive direction.

The weather turned warmer in April. Lin Ju put on a sweater and dozed off in the rocking chair on the porch.

She wasn't wearing a hearing aid and had her eyes closed, so she didn't notice anyone coming to the door.

It was not until Feng Longlu, Mr. Zheng and his group walked in and surrounded her, looking at her curiously, that she seemed to realize something and slowly opened her eyes.

This is as strange as the seven dwarfs seeing Snow White open her eyes in the cabin.

This group of people had seen all kinds of beauties, but this was the first time they had seen someone who looked like Lin Ju.

The oval face made of snow, the black eyebrows and eyes, the bright red lips, are so beautiful that they are murderous.

Lin Ju stared at them expressionlessly, her mind already dazed with fear. She sat up, and they all took a step back. Everyone was stunned by her beauty, but Feng Longlu's expression was complicated, like a viewer who had been spoiled for the protagonist's tragedy.

He shouted Zhao Xingcan at the door.

Zhao Xingcan was processing some work emails in the living room. When he heard the sound, he looked up and saw several heads leaning against the bed.

As soon as he came out, Feng Longlu leaned over and whispered, "Why are you still hanging out with my mural artist? I thought you were just playing around."

"Be careful with your wording. It's not yours anymore, it's mine now." Zhao Xingcan raised his eyebrows and narrowed his eyes slightly.

They had their backs to Lin Ju, so she couldn't see what they were saying.

Her shoulder was suddenly tapped. A thin-faced man in formal attire looked at her, his lips moving. She figured out that he was asking her if she was Zhao Xingcan's girlfriend.

How should we judge the relationship between men and women?

A kiss, no promise, does that count?

Zhao Xingcan only asked her, "Does Lin Ju want to be with me?" He did not ask her, "Can Lin Ju be my girlfriend?"

She rashly agreed, and now when she was asked about it, she remembered her embarrassment.

Lin Ju subconsciously looked at Zhao Xingcan, and at this moment he really hoped that Zhao Xingcan would turn around.

Mr. Zheng pulled the man who asked the question aside and suggested his wording. He had seen Zhao Xingcan protecting his subordinates at the last dinner.

The other party was the typical guy who didn't take women seriously. Seeing that the woman in front of him didn't answer, he was secretly planning to wait until Zhao Xing got tired of her and then chase her after him for fun.

Just as he was thinking this, a cold gaze came over him. He looked up. Zhao Xingcan had finished talking to Feng Longlu at some point and, without saying a word, glanced at him. Just one glance, and the oppressive feeling came like a tide, suffocating him.