Investing in the Future
The next day, Lin Jingshang worked overtime until very late. When he got home, he was so tired that he collapsed on the sofa. Not long after he lay down, Xie Dang sent a video call request.
He answered the call. On the other end of the screen was a hotel room. Xie Dang had just finished a social engagement and was wearing a shirt with his tie slightly loosened.
"Just got home?" Xie Dang asked.
"Ugh, I'm exhausted." Lin Jingshang waved weakly at the camera.
"Have you eaten?"
"I ate a little... but I don't have much of an appetite." Lin Jingshang rolled over and buried his face in the sofa cushions. "How's everything going on your end?"
"Successfully." Xie Dang looked at the fluffy head on the screen. "Go take a hot shower and get some rest."
The two chatted casually for a few more minutes. Most of the time, Lin Jingshang complained about work or talked about interesting things. Xie Dang listened quietly until Lin Jingshang's voice grew softer and softer and his eyelids began to droop.
Go to bed.
"Hmm..." Lin Jingshang responded vaguely, without making any move.
The video call was not disconnected.
Xie Dang watched the person curled up on the sofa and gradually falling asleep on the screen, but didn't urge them. He put his phone on the stand and continued to deal with the emails he hadn't finished reading, occasionally glancing at the screen to make sure the other person hadn't rolled off the sofa.
Lin Jingshang slept soundly, and when he woke up, he found that his phone had run out of battery and shut down automatically. He plugged it in and turned it on, and saw that Xie Dang's last message was at 1 a.m.
[Xie Dang]: The computer is off. Remember to spray some diluted garlic water on Sixteen tomorrow.
Lin Jingshang felt a warm glow in his heart as he read the message. Although Xie Dang was not by his side, his concern had never been absent.
---
Xie Dang's flight back from his business trip was on Saturday afternoon.
Lin Jingshang checked the flight information in advance, calculated the time accurately, and started tinkering in the kitchen. He decided to give Xie Dang a surprise and cook a decent welcome feast. He secretly studied recipes for a few days and even wrote down the key steps on sticky notes and posted them on the kitchen wall.
Ideals are lofty, but reality is harsh.
When Xie Dang opened the door with the spare key, he was greeted not by the aroma of food, but by a faint smell of burning food wafting from the kitchen.
Lin Jingshang, wearing an apron with a bear print and with flour on his face, frantically rescued a plate of dark, unappetizing-looking food, resembling sweet and sour pork ribs, from the pot.
The cups and plates on the stove were a mess, as if it had just been bombed.
Hearing the door open, Lin Jingshang turned around abruptly and saw Xie Dang standing at the door, looking utterly astonished. He froze instantly, and the spatula in his hand clattered to the ground.
"You... how did you get here early?!" His voice was filled with despair.
He had timed it perfectly!
Xie Dang's gaze swept across the kitchen, finally landing on the plate of charred ribs. After a few seconds of silence, he said, "The flight has been moved up."
He put down his luggage, took off his coat, rolled up his shirt sleeves, went into the kitchen, took off the apron from Lin Jingshang, and tied it on himself.
"Go outside and wait."
Lin Jingshang slunk out of the kitchen, clinging to the doorframe as he watched Xie Dang skillfully clean up the mess, wash the pots and pans, and restart the fire with practiced ease.
In less than half an hour, several delicious and colorful home-style dishes were on the table: stir-fried seasonal vegetables, boiled shrimp, tomato and egg soup, and a plate of bright red sweet and sour pork ribs.
Lin Jingshang looked at the plate of ribs, then at the failed dish in the kitchen trash can, and felt ashamed and embarrassed.
"Eat." Xie Dang served him rice and handed him chopsticks.
Lin Jingshang picked up a piece of freshly made spare rib. It was perfectly sweet and sour, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. It was so delicious that he wanted to cry.
"Your cooking is still the best..." he muttered softly.
Xie Dang also took a bite and objectively commented, "The cooking time is quite good."
Lin Jingshang looked up at him.
Xie Dang added, "I appreciate your kind gesture."
That one sentence made all of Lin Jingshang's frustration vanish.
---
One Saturday morning, Lin Jingshang woke up and looked at Xie Dang, who was still fast asleep beside him. Suddenly, on a whim, he picked up his phone and checked the date. He vaguely remembered that it was around this time last year when he was first stuffed into the stairwell by that damned system and met Xie Dang, who was also tormented by the plot.
He nudged Xie Dang's arm: "Hey, Xie Dang, wake up."
Xie Dang opened his eyes with a frown, his gaze still somewhat hazy.
"Aren't we... about to celebrate our one-year anniversary?" Lin Jingshang asked somewhat uncertainly.
Xie Dang was silent for a few seconds, then nodded: "Based on the calculation of the initial forced plot node, it has been 359 days since then."
Lin Jingshang: "..."
As expected, this guy couldn't be expected to have any romantic flair, so he decided to create some of the ritual himself.
"Shall we celebrate today?" he suggested enthusiastically.
"The reasons for celebration are insufficient, and the date of meeting was random, not a result of active choice."
Lin Jingshang was taken aback, then retorted defiantly, "So what? The process is important! The result is that we're together now! Anyway, I'm going to celebrate!"
Seeing his unreasonable behavior, Xie Dang gave in and said, "Whatever."
Lin Jingshang began planning their anniversary itinerary: first, to reminisce in the stairwell of the company where they first met, then to the Cantonese tea restaurant where they first had a late-night snack together, and finally to watch a movie in the evening.
The nostalgic trip was stalled right from the start when the stairwell was temporarily locked due to a fire inspection.
They went to the tea restaurant without any problems, but Lin Jingshang found that the taste wasn't as amazing as he remembered, probably because they ate too many better things together later.
The movie they chose was a romance film with a cliché plot. Halfway through, both of them started to lose focus.
After going through the whole process, Lin Jingshang was a little deflated, feeling that the deliberately created sense of ceremony didn't seem as meaningful as he had imagined.
When they got home that evening, the two collapsed onto the sofa.
"It doesn't seem like anything special." Lin Jingshang sighed, somewhat dejected.
“Mm,” Xie Dang agreed.
After a moment of silence, he suddenly stood up, took a folder from the study, and handed it to Lin Jingshang.
Lin Jingshang opened it with a puzzled look. Inside was a draft of a purchase contract. The apartment layout and address were exactly the same as the one with the large balcony that they had previously looked at together.
"This is……"
"Anniversary gift, although the date is meaningless, your suggestion reminded me that it's time to move forward with this plan."
Lin Jingshang's heart skipped a beat as he looked at the two names written side by side on the contract. He then looked up at Xie Dang.
Xie Dang was also looking at him, and his eyes were particularly deep under the light.
"I prefer investing in the future rather than commemorating the past."
Lin Jingshang paused for a few seconds, then burst out laughing, clutching the contract tightly to his chest.
---
Lin Jingshang went back to his hometown to be a groomsman for his cousin's wedding. When he returned, he brought back a large amount of wedding candy, local specialties, and a wealth of stories about everyday life.
That evening, he sat cross-legged on Xie Dang's sofa, unwrapping wedding candies while rambling on to Xie Dang: "My cousin's wife is quite honest, but a bit stubborn. She almost had a falling out with my uncle over the bride price..."
"My little niece is so cute. She keeps chasing after me calling me 'Uncle,' and she insists on being carried..."
"By the way, my mom secretly asked me when I'm going to take you home for dinner."
As Lin Jingshang finished speaking, he secretly glanced at Xie Dang.
Xie Dang was leaning against the other end of the sofa reading a book. Hearing this, he paused in his page-turning motion, didn't look up, and just hummed in response.
Lin Jingshang knew he had heard him, but didn't press the matter further. Instead, he changed the subject: "Sigh, my aunt wanted to introduce me to someone, saying that I'm all alone in the city and no one will take care of me. I quickly said no, no, I already have someone to take care of me."
Xie Dang looked up from his book and glanced at him.
Lin Jingshang grinned and leaned over, stuffing a wedding candy into his mouth: "Try it, and share in the joy."
Xie Dang, with a candy in his mouth, continued reading without saying anything.
A few days later, Lin Jingshang received a call from home saying that his mother's old computer kept crashing and asking him to help her fix it. Lin Jingshang himself was only a novice when it came to computer hardware, so he had to put the call on speakerphone, listen to his mother describe the symptoms, and frantically search for information.
"...It's that circle that keeps spinning and then stops moving..." Lin's mother described over the phone.
"Could it be insufficient memory? Or an overheating problem?" Lin Jingshang looked at the various possibilities that came up in the search results, completely baffled.
Xie Dang, who had been quietly reading nearby, suddenly put down his book and walked over. He took Lin Jingshang's phone: "Auntie, hello, this is Xie Dang."
Lin's mother on the other end of the phone paused for a moment, then responded warmly, "Oh, it's Xiao Xie! Hello, hello!"
"Based on your description, the initial assessment is that the slow read/write speed may be due to hard drive aging. I suggest trying to defragment the hard drive first. If the problem persists, you can consider replacing it with a solid-state drive. I will have Lin Jingshang send you the operation steps later."
Lin's mother repeatedly agreed.
After hanging up the phone, Lin Jingshang stared at Xie Dang, dumbfounded: "You even know this?"
"Basic hardware knowledge." Xie Dang handed the phone back to him.
Send your mother the steps for cleaning up the disk and checking the hard drive's health. Ask her if she has any questions.
Lin Jingshang leaned over, nudged Xie Dang with his shoulder, and said with a grin, "Engineer Xie, you're amazing! Next time my mom has any problems, I'll be counting on you!"
Xie Dang glanced at him, not looking away: "Mm."
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