Chapter 14 A unique couple.
Zou Yan originally planned to give the coffee machine to He Dongli and leave, but Cheng Yaojin suddenly appeared.
What was Zong called? Anyway, he was a real young master. I didn't realize He Dongli's taste was so clichéd. Never mind. Zou Yan didn't mean to discredit his friend. At best, it was just common sense.
Money and power are two things everyone craves. But the irony is that many men, desperate to control these two things, hope the women around them don't have anything to do with them.
By the time the wind blew away the hot breath from his nose, Zou Yan had already guessed the general reason why the two people parted ways.
Zou Yan had briefly criticized He Dongli on WeChat that day; she hadn't been herself in front of her "old classmate." For the first time, He Dongli hadn't replied. Normally, the two of them would chat about work and patients, a constant stream of complaints and comfort.
Zou Yan waited for two days, but she didn't respond or bring up the topic again. He sent her a message today, but she still didn't reply.
It turned out that the problem was right in front of her: she went to meet her old lover.
This was not his business, but when the second shoe dropped, Zou Yan was not as relieved as he had imagined.
He Dongli unlocked the door with the key in her hand. As she pulled it out, she said to the person holding the brown paper bag, "I didn't ask for the flowers."
"Oh, that's up to you. Should I take her back? I can't even support her if I do."
He Dongli glanced at him. Zong Chi continued calmly, "I'm on a business trip, staying in hotels the whole time. I don't have time for these things. You know me. If you follow me, I can turn Bobern Mountain into the Western Highlands."
Zong Chi's family originally had a Bernese Mountain Dog, but because it was banned in the city, it had been kept at his parents' suburban villa. He Dongli liked it the first time she saw it, but once the dog fell ill and lost a lot of weight, she was heartbroken and blamed Zong Chi for not paying enough attention, saying that anyone who kept him would get tuberculosis.
At that time, she was squatting beside the dog and watching it eat. Zong Chi complained about her, saying that she was like an old sister-in-law who was comforting her puppy after seeing it regain its appetite.
He Dongli cursed back, you are the sister-in-law!
Zong Chi laughed so hard, teasing her, "Do you still want to be an old mother? No, it calls me mom and mommy, you can only be wronged and be a sister-in-law."
Zong Chi asked her again why she liked Bern Mountain so much?
There's no reason. Zong Chi invited many of his classmates to his house for a camping party for the first time. He Dongli fell in love with their 100-pound dog the first time she saw it. She teased Zong Chi, "It's like calling it Bern Mountain." No one is so lazy as to not even give it a name, so they just call it Bern Mountain.
Zong Chi didn't care and insisted on his own way. He was just himself. In martial arts dramas, swords are just swords, there is no need for so many fancy names.
The flowers were in the bag, out of the greenhouse for too long. He was holding it and handing it to her.
Zou Yan seemed to be watching a show and was reluctant to leave. He Dongli reached out to take his gift, but Zou Yan said, "Let me help you test the phone."
Finally, He Dongli opened the iron gate and invited everyone outside to come in. Zou Yan was about to move when Zong, who was only a step away from him, kindly reminded Dr. Zou, "It's better to bring the car in."
Zou Yan's car was indeed still parked in the middle of the road. When he turned around to look, Zong had already stepped inside.
It’s called a yard, but it’s more like a corner with a patio layout. However, when it rains, you can step into the house in two steps.
The door slid horizontally. Zong Chi stood outside the glass door and waited for a moment. Even though the door was open, he knocked on the glass symbolically. After two knocks, he asked the person inside, "Can I come in?"
He Dongli took the BlackBerry phone that she had bought for free at the antique shop with Jiang Xingyuan last week from the small bar where she ate and threw it into a nearby drawer.
The square brick entrance faced the staircase, and He Dongli's open-plan living room and bedroom were to the left of the staircase. She responded and stood at the doorway, pointing toward a sliding door at the end of the staircase. "The bathroom is over there." Before Zong Chi could bend down outside the door, she saw through it and reminded him, "No need to take off your shoes."
So the person outside the door really stepped in and went straight to the bathroom.
When Zong Chi came out after washing his hands, Zou Yan had already come in and unpacked half of the box. He Dongli stood by and looked on, holding a stack of instructions in his hand. He said to Zou Yan in a very impolite tone, "You can leave it here. I can do it myself."
"You're not the worst at reading instructions."
"Yeah, but I can check Xiaohongshu. There must be unboxing videos on it."
Zou Yan held out the all-in-one machine and asked her where to put it. He Dongli pointed to a corner of the bar and said, "That's it."
Zou Yan responded and went to set it up. She stood by and watched, as if remembering something. She turned back to look at the door. Zong Chi was standing there silently. He Dongli subconsciously turned her head. Zou Yan remembered an important point and reminded her, "The top half of it is a bean silo, and the other lid is a powder silo. Don't get them mixed up."
He Dongli nodded quickly. Zou Yan turned around to make sure she was listening. "Here. Don't be as confused as I am."
"Same as you?"
Zou Yan nodded and told her that in order to show the sincerity of the gift, he bought one in advance to try it out.
He Dongli probably knew the price of this brand and teased Zou Yan, "Why don't you give me the full price of both machines in cash?"
Zou Yan plugged in the power, added purified water, and then tested the machine by flushing and descaling it. The machine was making quite a bit of noise, and he said something, but He Dongli didn't hear. When she was about to ask him again, someone watching at the door called out to her, "He Dongli, have you contacted Chen Xiangyang for me?"
Without even turning her head, she said, "I've already notified you."
"How long does it take?"
She looked at her watch and gave him an estimate. "If there's no traffic, we should be there in 40 minutes."
The machine cleaned itself and completed the settings. Zou Yan, worried that He Dongli would run out of beans, brought a bag of coffee beans with him. He eagerly adjusted the parameters and prepared to make the first cup of coffee. He asked her what she wanted to drink, but He Dongli shook her head and said, "No, I've already had several cups today."
"Oh." When Zou Yan was pouring coffee beans, he accidentally dropped one on the ground. He bent down to pick it up.
He Dongli was calm and cooperative. He took a tissue and gave it to him, indicating that he should wipe his hands and throw it on the paper.
Zou Yan didn't say thank you, and the person at the door said again in a solitary voice: "He Dongli, when I was washing my hands just now, I think I accidentally dropped something into your basin drain."
Someone turned around after hearing the sound, and she stared at Zong Chi with an impatient look on her face.
Zong Chi lifted up one of his sleeves to show her that a cufflink was missing. "What should I do?"
He Dongli didn't respond much, but just taught him coldly, "There's a U-shaped bend in the sewer to prevent backflow. If you really fall in, go and turn that bend and look for it yourself."
"Can I say I don't understand what you're saying?"
Zou Yan couldn't help laughing beside him, and said cheerfully, "I'll help him."
He Dongli's face was gloomy, and she quickly reached out to stop Zou Yan. She had already taken off her coat, but the room was freezing cold without floor heating or air conditioning. When she rolled up her sweatshirt sleeves, her face turned pale.
With the host taking action, there is no reason for the guests who have lost things not to follow her footsteps.
He Dongli came to the bathroom. The basin was on the right side of the door. She was about to bend down to open the door of the storage cabinet below, but Zong Chi, who was following her, refused to do so. He quickly touched the round handle of the other cabinet door and said, "Teach me."
He Dongli looked up at him. The woody fragrance of Zong Chi mixed with the smell of tobacco from social events lingered on him as he bent over and fell on her. She listened as he added, "Tell me where it is. I don't want you to do anything. If you find it, it's fine. But if you can't find it, blame me for making things difficult for you."
He Dongli immediately dropped his hand, stepped back, and pointed to the spot. Even the simplest daily tasks, without practice, would be utterly botched. It's like adding noodles when there's too much water, or adding water when there's too much noodles. Young Master Zong once complained that the word "appropriate" must have been invented by a female cook. "Can't you all just say it all at once?"
Who knows what the appropriate amount is.
He still had no idea what to do. He Dongli folded her arms and watched the fight for less than ten seconds. In the end, she was still worried that he would use too much force and destroy her entire sewer. She let go of her hand and said in a nonchalant voice, "Get up."
Zong Chi seemed not to hear anything, and he almost buried his head under the basin.
He Dongli called him, "Let me do it."
Just as he finished speaking, he heard the sound of a pipe opening. He Dongli had forgotten to hand him a basin to catch the remaining water in the pipe. The head under the basin said nothing, reached in and fished around. There was nothing in the pipe except a strand of hair that had fallen due to force majeure.
He Dongli kicked the trash can over to him and offered him a tissue, but Zong Chi didn't take it. He leaned out from inside, threw her hair into the basket, and then turned on the faucet to wash his hands without saying a word.
He Dongli thought he was just unhappy because he couldn't find the things, so he ignored it and wiped the water stains under the basin with a few washcloths in his hand, almost squatting at Zong Chi's feet.
She stood up and quickly restored her bathroom to its original state. Then she pretended to comfort him, "Go back to the car and take a look. Maybe you dropped it somewhere else."
Zong Chi lowered his eyes and watched her crouch at his feet. He then stood up and said angrily, "Forget it. I won't look for her anymore."
He Dongli remained silent.
Zong Chi washed his hands and picked out a body lotion with a striking double C logo on the lid from the bottles and jars of toiletries, skin care and cosmetics on her basin. He glanced at He Dongli, as if silently telling her, "I said you like this brand."
Zong Chi picked up the bottle and asked the owner if he could lend it to him to apply on his hands.
He Dongli remained silent, watching him take it in his hands. However, Zong Chi obviously didn't know how to use it. He didn't know that the lid of this model was to open by rotating. He fiddled with it several times but still couldn't figure out where the mechanism was. He Dongli reached out and took it back from his hand and put it back where it belonged.
For a moment, their eyes met.
Zou Yan was calling He Dongli over there. Zong Chi, who hadn't been able to wipe the hand lotion, didn't want her to go back smoothly, so he asked her, "You're so impatient, do you think I'm lying to you?"
“…”
"They're not from any particular brand, but they were given to me as a gift. They're a one-of-a-kind pair." The cufflinks were gold-embellished with black and white pearls, with only the white pearl remaining on the sleeve holes. Zong Chi said this as he pulled out his trouser pockets to show He Dongli.
The self-proclaimed person just stood there lazily, waiting for her inspection.
He Dongli had no interest in whether the so-called unique or limited edition item he mentioned was lost. He would go find whoever gave it to him. Anyway, she didn't lose it for him.
The next second, Zong Chi's mind-reading ability worked again, "Unique means that they won't give it to you again."
Whether you give it or not is your business. He Dongli didn't want to spend the night with him, arguing with a gift-giver she didn't know. The key to ending a fight was to not linger on. So, she suddenly changed the subject, "Where are your car keys?" She saw that he had almost turned out all his pockets, but he didn't see where he put his car keys.
Zong Chi's expression changed, as if he was asked a question he hadn't expected, but he didn't care. "In the car."
He Dongli said with disdain: "Perhaps the fundamental reason why you can't find your limited edition cufflinks is that you don't like to lock the door."
Zong Chi was offended by her joke. He was the one who was about to laugh, but He Dongli didn't find it funny at all. "Either you go back to the car, or..."
He chose the second one, "I'll get it now."
He Dongli was so angry that he was speechless and turned away.
There was a noise of Zong Chi leaving the entrance. Zou Yan heard it and asked Dong Li who had returned, "Did your old classmate leave?"
He Dongli didn't respond directly. She stood by the bookshelf, pulling out a few books that were not neatly arranged at the top and then pushing them back. Jiang Xingyuan had just texted her, saying that the driver would be arriving soon and asked her to send the verification code she had received to the driver. So, He Dongli enthusiastically shared with Zou Yan, "Jiang Xingyuan, on a whim, brought me some butterfly cakes. I'm going to pick them up. Can you come with me? We can take some back with our coffee on the way."
Zou Yan smiled, straightened up from leaning against the edge of the bar, and asked calmly, "Dongli, are you telling me to leave?"
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The author has something to say: There is another chapter in the evening~
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