You're that girl with some mental issues!
In bursts, occasional torrential rain caused the water to nearly overflow the steps, but the people inside didn't care.
Rubbing her full stomach, Wen Dai leaned back in her chair and sighed contentedly, "No wonder this restaurant uses wooden boxes as takeout containers, the food is really good, but the price must be quite high... But do you have similar tastes to mine? The remaining dishes were all sweet, which I prefer. And, Chen Sizhe, you actually drink mango pomelo sago?"
Dimples and fangs appeared on her face. She turned her face to face the man who was facing her sideways, and reached out with her free hand to pick up the half-finished mango pomelo sago from beside her leg.
Seeing her face close to his, Chen Sizhe awkwardly turned his head to the other side. His hand, which was hanging on his lap, moved the drawer in the lunchbox that Wen Dai had put there earlier. "I don't stick to one kind of food. Also, you're overthinking the mango pomelo sago. I just accidentally touched it."
"Oh—I was wondering why. I'd never seen you eat anything sweet before. So, did you want to try some sweet dishes this time? Sorry, I ate them all. I should have shared the dishes with you first." He who eats another's food is bound to be grateful, so Wen Dai, being good-natured, didn't argue with him and even her tone was cheerful.
Chen Sizhe, with his lips pursed, seemed to be ignoring her, maintaining a half-turned posture to defend himself.
Unfortunately, Wen Dai, with her keen observation skills and grateful heart, started showing concern again: "Hey, why are your ears red? It's not that cold today, and you didn't get wet in the rain. Are you sick?"
Chen Sizhe leaned back in his chair and ground his back teeth. His fox-like eyes, glaring at him, always gave off a feeling of anger and embarrassment. His voice seemed to be biting out from between his teeth: "Can't you close your mouth? Can't you even shut your mouth with food?"
Slowly pulling her gaze away from his face, Wen Dai grumbled unhappily, "Why are you being so fierce... I won't criticize your rude attitude since you shared your food with me."
Her response was a heavy, cold snort.
As darkness fell, Changxi was brought out by his parents. The investigator walking beside them turned his gaze to Wen Dai and Chen Sizhe, raised his chin, and said to them in a loud voice, "Thank you for your help today. You can go back now."
Propelling herself up from her aching body, Wen Dai felt a burning gaze and instinctively looked over, meeting Chang Xi's eyes.
The boy's eyes were red again, and even from a distance, you could vaguely see the blood vessels in them. The white light shining on his face gave him a pitiful look.
A strange feeling arose in her heart, and Wen Dai's hand holding the empty cup gradually tightened. Unconsciously, she pinched the corner of her lower lip between her teeth.
She thought about the past. Was she like this in other people's eyes back then? Perhaps even more tragic and pitiful, because at ten years old she had no parents by her side; her parents were dead; she had no home, no relatives to take her in.
The muscles in her face seemed to have a mind of their own, and she flashed a smile at Changxi. Wen Dai's eyes, which had been vacant for a moment, regained their focus. She smiled as she looked up at Changxi, who was gazing at her, and waved to him with her other hand, "See you again sometime, and remember what I told you."
Changxi nodded slowly and earnestly, looking directly into Wen Dai's eyes, his childish voice raspy: "I will remember you, sister, and I will remember what you said."
The last frame of the farewell was a smile. Wen Dai turned around and walked towards the door of Chizheng Institute. Behind her, Chang Xi clenched his fist, as if he had finally mustered up his courage. He shouted to Wen Dai's back, "Sister, I wish you a better and better life. May you no longer have to eat instant noodles every day, and may you no longer think that clothes costing tens of yuan are expensive!"
Wen Dai, who was blessed by him, almost tripped over her own feet and ended up embracing the earth—no, embracing the puddles.
Holding onto the door, Wen Dai squeezed her lips to her cheekbones, turned her head to look at Chang Xi who was staring at her, and said through gritted teeth, "Thank you."
Feeling weary, Wen Dai walked down the steps and stood silently, looking at the puddles in front of her.
It was probably because the path leading to Chizheng was at a downward angle below the steps that rainwater accumulated into small ditches, but a little further ahead it became shallow puddles. However, if Wen Dai wanted to get across, she would probably have to perform a standing long jump, and jump more than 1.1 meters to ensure that her pants and shoes wouldn't get wet.
As she was contemplating whether she should hop over or try a half-split to step over, a sound came from her left—
"Do you really have to look straight ahead?" Chen Sizhe, who was standing to the side, had already stepped down the stairs and touched the ground.
In the dim light, Wen Dai sensed his disdainful gaze through the glow emanating from the Chizheng Office.
She blinked, turned around, and peeked at the side of the steps to her right. She saw that the water on the side was indeed shorter than the water directly in front of her, so she didn't need to perform a standing long jump.
She took a large step and leaped steadily out of the flooded area, though she still ran a few steps further due to inertia.
She quickly turned around and met up with Chen Sizhe, walking towards the car parked not far away. On the way, she said in a low voice, "Sigh, who can do anything about our Feng'an District? Even the Chizheng Office has an air of poverty. The road collapses down the steps, as if they're building a floating Chizheng Office. You guys are so lucky, Chaopu District is so rich. It's sad and lamentable that there are class differences between different districts in the same city."
“Then go talk to the district head. The gap between the rich and the poor exists everywhere. There are poor households in Chaopu District, just like there are Michelin three-star restaurants in Feng'an District. There will always be a consumer group.” Chen Sizhe pressed the car key.
He gestured to the person beside him with his chin, indicating that they should get in the car. The faint moonlight after the rain shone through the clouds, or perhaps it wasn't moonlight at all, but just a faint light lying on his face, illuminating his eyes.
"Get in the car, I'll take you home."
-
On a sunny spring day, the warm sunlight streamed in through the half-open window, shining on the person sleeping on the bed, like a natural, thin blanket covering her.
However, the blanket will soon be pulled off.
The phone, which was hanging on the bedside table and plugged in, rang with its system ringtone. Wen Dai, who was never a deep sleeper, was forced to wake up. Without opening her eyes, she reached for the phone that had made the sound, grabbed it, unplugged the charging cable, and groggily opened her eyelids to look at the phone screen. She swiped her thumb across the screen to answer the call.
"I'm downstairs at your place."
A cool, deep voice.
After a moment of slow, sluggish brain processing, Wen Dai finally responded, "...Hmm? What are you doing downstairs at my house?" Her speech was as slow as a sloth's, each word drawn out.
The person on the other end of the phone clearly hadn't expected the reply to still sound sleepy and sluggish. He hesitated and asked, "...Are you still sleeping?"
She let out a soft "hmm" from her nose as a response, then pressed her chin against the pillow, her eyelids, which she had just slightly opened, closed again.
Chen Sizhe's voice rang in her ears again: "Zhang Yi and his adoptive parents are with my parents now. He wants to see us, so I've come to pick you up. If you're going, get up now. If not, I'll go back and tell him you're sleeping and don't have time."
The tone is flat and even, yet it inexplicably conveys a sense of threat.
Wen Dai, burying her face in the pillow as if trying to suffocate herself, finally spoke after a long while: "I know, I'll get up now. You really are rude, saying such tactless things, you really want to kill me."
Her grumbling complaints were met with a cold snort from the man.
After finishing my washing and grooming routine, I dragged my body, still wanting to go back to bed for a nap, out the door.
The door slammed shut, the stairs were pounded with footsteps, and the building entrance door creaked open.
Wen Dai got into the car smoothly – she found the car in front of the residential building that was not usually seen, found the passenger seat and slipped in. Without even glancing at the person in the driver's seat to confirm their identity, she fastened her seatbelt herself.
"Wake me up when we get there, I'm going to sleep for a bit." The words she quickly uttered went unanswered, but she didn't expect to be paid any attention anyway.
Just as Wen Dai's head rested against the chair back and before her eyelids closed, what appeared in her field of vision was a sandwich and milk being held in one hand.
The corner of the sandwich packaging was pinched, and the milk was held in the palm of the hand.
Opening her eyes in confusion, Wen Dai turned her head to look at the owner of the hand, but Chen Sizhe simply placed the thing in his hand into her arms, as if intentionally avoiding her gaze. "Just take it. My mom asked me to buy it. You know she always cares about you."
He finished with another sneer, started the engine, and couldn't help but say sarcastically, "It's ten in the morning, and there are still people who haven't woken up yet."
"You have a problem with that? Not everyone can fall asleep at a healthy time. Some people work at night. You can't expect them to go to bed at 3 a.m. and get up at 6 or 7 a.m., can you? They'd be on the verge of sudden death." With her drowsiness temporarily gone, Wen Dai straightened up, her tone becoming more serious as she glanced at him. Then she tore open the sandwich packaging. Once the aroma of the food wafted out, her stomach finally sensed her hunger.
The sandwich, its pointed end peeking out of the packaging, was placed on her lap. Wen Dai held up the milk in her hand and stared at it for a while, her gaze sweeping over the instructions on top. She raised an eyebrow and said, "Milk with added lactase, huh? Why did you think of buying this lactose-free one?"
"I didn't know if you could accept pure milk, it's just a result of considering everything. Don't you like it?" He tightened his grip on the steering wheel, glancing at the passenger in the corner of his eye.
Unscrewing the cap, Wen Dai held the milk bottle to her lips and took two sips. She licked her lips and said, "No, I just find it quite strange. I've never seen anyone bring lactose-free milk. I'm lactose intolerant, but my reaction is rather unusual. Any milk containing lactose will make me vomit if it gets into my mouth, so I checked the ingredients and instructions first. I'm sure someone like you wouldn't buy cheap, low-quality milk. To prevent me from accidentally vomiting in your car, you'd better be careful—I'm afraid you'll try to blackmail me."
"Heh." His lips were tugged, and Chen Sizhe loosened his grip, leaning back in his chair. "Don't judge others by your own standards."
With the milk to soothe her throat, Wen Dai picked up the neglected sandwich and took a bite.
The woman in the passenger seat ate very quietly, almost as if she were eating silently.
By the time Wen Dai finished her sandwich and milk, Chen Sizhe had already driven the car into Chaopu District.
The person leaning back in the passenger seat rubbed their satisfied stomach and said lazily, "Where did you buy this sandwich? The packaging is transparent, and there's not even a name on it. It's really baffling. It tastes really good, though. I feel like I could become a fanatic for it."
The car was silent. Wen Dai, who hadn't heard a sound, turned her head curiously to look at Chen Sizhe. She saw that the man's body seemed a little tense, with fair skin above his clear jawline and pursed lips.
After a moment, he replied dryly, "I just randomly picked a shop in Asaura Ward and didn't pay attention to the name."
"Oh...that's a pity." Wen Dai looked regretfully at the last piece of packaging in her hand. She crumpled the packaging into a small ball and stuffed it into the milk bottle. "Having eaten it, I have no regrets. I never thought someone could make such a delicious sandwich...What are you laughing at?"
Suddenly noticing the slight upturn of the man's lips in the driver's seat, Wen Dai strangely shrank back and glanced at him.
However, Chen Sizhe's first reaction was to be stunned, and then the corners of his lips that were turned up fell back to their original position.
He avoided her gaze, his back straight. "I don't think my laughter bothered you."
After a brief pause, Chen Sizhe straightened his back slightly and leaned back again, saying casually, "But since you want to know the reason—I'm laughing at you because I've never seen anyone ramble on about a sandwich like that."
He glanced at her sideways, making his unspoken message a veiled insult that she was naive and unsophisticated.
“…I knew you couldn’t come up with anything decent.” Wen Dai’s throat tightened from his glare. She twitched her lips twice, rolled her eyes, and then turned her head away, her gaze shifting to the window.
By the time they arrived at the Chen family home, it was nearly eleven o'clock. They took the elevator upstairs side by side, changed their shoes after exiting the elevator, and entered the living room to find Zhang Yi sitting on the sofa in real life.
The little boy was sandwiched between a somewhat familiar man and woman. Unlike the spirits he had seen before, the boy's hair now reached his eyebrows, and his clean face, while not particularly refined, possessed a pleasing appearance due to its ordinary features. He wore a warm and comfortable knit sweater and corduroy trousers, his small hands resting obediently on his lap, and his timid eyes finally held a sparkle.
As Chen Sizhe and Wen Dai walked up to her, Li Qian suddenly sat up straight. She raised her hand and pointed at the two people sitting on the sofa. Her brows furrowed slightly, and her slightly parted lips paused for a moment. "You...you went to the hospital before the New Year, didn't you? You're that girl with some mental problems!"
The sudden surge of memories made her temporarily abandon etiquette, widen her eyes, and point at Wen Dai, expressing her excitement.
Sitting next to Li Qian, Fang Yang was also observing. He narrowed his eyes, then clapped his hands and said, "Hey, now that you mention it, I remember too. When I saw this Mr. Chen, he looked familiar, but I couldn't remember who he was. When I saw this girl, that feeling of familiarity became even stronger."
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