That night, Jiang Ting had a dream.
In the dream, yellow sand filled the sky, and she seemed to have turned into a single grain of sand in a vast desert, ruthlessly scorched by the pitiless sun.
She could only burrow desperately into the ground, deeper and deeper, wishing she could dig all the way to the Earth’s core to escape the omnipresent, blazing heat.
Nudging and pushing, she finally burrowed beneath a cool rock.
With the sun no longer able to reach her, Jiang Ting happily pressed herself against the rock and fell fast asleep.
The “rock,” Cong Yixing, who had been nudged awake: “…”
The room was dark, save for the faint green light from the air conditioner’s display. Cong Yixing looked down to see Jiang Ting sound asleep, her head nestled against his chest and her cheek pressed firmly against him.
She was lying on her side, her right hand tucked beneath her, while her left hand clutched at him desperately, trying to pull him over her as if he were a blanket.
“…” Isn’t she hot?
Cong Yixing felt a brief moment of confusion, which was immediately replaced by amusement at her sleeping posture. A low chuckle escaped his throat, causing a slight vibration in his chest.
The dreaming Jiang Ting was displeased. She “thumped” her forehead against his chest a few times, her brow furrowing in a look of extreme impatience.
Was she telling him to stop moving?
Truly adorable.
Cong Yixing stared at Jiang Ting’s sleeping face for a while. One arm was circled around her, while the fingers of his other hand unconsciously toyed with a lock of hair at the back of her head, twirling it around.
Jiang Ting’s hair was very black.
The nearly waist-length straight hair was glossy and smooth to the touch.
One could tell just by looking at her hair that she was healthy and well-nourished.
Furthermore, she had rosy lips, white teeth, and delicate skin. Her fair, exquisite skin was so fragile that even a little pressure could leave a clear mark.
She was, at a glance, a girl who had been meticulously and lovingly pampered.
She was very ticklish, often forbidding him from touching her here or there.
Every time he accidentally touched a sensitive spot, she would turn into a provoked kitten, retaliating with her blunt teeth and nails, biting and pinching him.
Normally, she wouldn’t let him touch her hair, thinking it would get oily if touched too much.
Washing long hair was a major chore. Even though he was the one who washed her hair most of the time after they moved in together, she still wouldn’t let him touch it.
She always complained that washing her hair was troublesome and drying it was exhausting. She would talk about cutting it short or shaving it off, but every time she went to the salon, she only allowed the stylist to trim the very ends.
It really was just a tiny bit; the length she gestured with two fingers would shrink further and further until the amount cut off was likely less than three centimeters.
Whenever he pretended to be distressed about her wasting money on such a trim, she would pout her rosy little mouth and spout all sorts of nonsense in her defense: “How is it a waste! These hairs grew because I worked hard at eating! They make me look better while they’re on me, but if they’re cut off, the barber just sells them for money. That’s the real waste!”
She never let anyone get the last word, like a silver-tongued, pampered kitten.
How could someone so lovely say that no one had pursued her during her school days?
He only regretted that he hadn’t met her sooner.
As he lost himself in thought, the movements of Cong Yixing’s fingertips twirling Jiang Ting’s hair became a bit more pronounced.
Perhaps the tugging on her scalp tickled her, for the next moment, Jiang Ting’s mouth twitched twice in her sleep. No sound came out, but based on Cong Yixing’s understanding of his girlfriend, he knew she was definitely warning him.
Sure enough, when he ignored the warning and continued to touch the tips of her hair, Jiang Ting—even in her sleep—accurately found his side. Her two fingers pinched a bit of soft flesh at his waist and gave it a sharp twist.
“Hiss…” Cong Yixing couldn’t help but gasp from the pinch, once again confirming Jiang Ting’s short temper.
Cong Yixing remembered the day he saw her on campus. She clearly had a bright and innocent face, yet she was full of a “where is home in this vast world” kind of melancholy.
What was she so melancholic about? Cong Yixing had kept staring at her until a friend noticed and egged him on: “Go for it, Ah Xing!”
He didn’t know why, but he had just run over.
That was the first time he had ever approached someone, and before that, he had never even spoken to a girl one-on-one.
As he thought back, the corners of his lips couldn’t help but curl up. Cong Yixing’s heart felt incredibly soft.
He kissed the crown of the little kitten’s head and, holding her close, fell back to sleep.
Jiang Ting was awakened by a dull thud, like the sound of something exploding. It came with a massive vibration that had weakened by the time it reached the neighborhood, but Jiang Ting still heard the window glass “buzz” and tremble, showing the residual power of the shockwave.
Her heart was pounding wildly. Scared into jumping out of bed, Jiang Ting pressed her hand to her chest and took deep breaths, only managing to recover after a full minute.
She fumbled for her phone and asked Cong Yixing on WeChat if he had heard the explosion.
Cong Yixing called her immediately. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine, just woke up from the fright.”
Cong Yixing said, “The sound I heard over here was very faint. Did something explode near the neighborhood? Is it close to you? Go check both the front and back windows. If it’s inside the neighborhood, you need to get away quickly.”
Jiang Ting replied, “It wasn’t very close. I don’t think it’s in the neighborhood.”
But she still obediently put on her slippers and walked out to check several windows. Finally, from the balcony, she saw thick smoke rising in the distance to the northwest.
Since they lived on the second floor, their view wasn’t great. The nearby and distant tall buildings blocked her sight, and she could only see the gray-black smoke continuously billowing into the sky.
She said to Cong Yixing on the phone, “It’s far away, looks like it’s over by Century Square. There’s smoke; something might be on fire.”
Cong Yixing calculated the distance and said, “That’s about three kilometers away. That area is relatively open, so the fire should be put out quickly.”
He then reminded her: “There have been many fire incidents lately. Be careful at home. I’ve turned off the appliances we aren’t using for now. When you do use something, remember to cut the power afterward, and be careful when using the gas…”
He gave her a long list of instructions, all of which Jiang Ting listened to seriously. Then she urged him: “You’ve finished lunch, right? Go take a nap. Your work is mentally taxing enough as it is. Don’t worry about me; I’ll be careful.”
After hanging up the phone and relaxing completely, Jiang Ting finally felt the scorching heat of the sun on her body. Heatwaves rolled through the air, and every breath felt like it was scalding her nostrils.
She quickly retreated into the living room to avoid the sun and pulled the transparent glass door shut.
But even in that short amount of time, her exposed arms that had faced the sun directly had turned slightly red from the heat.
Jiang Ting went to the bathroom. Seeing her sun-reddened face in the mirror, it was as if she were truly feeling the hardship and damage brought by this extreme heat for the first time.
She had been receiving high-temperature red alerts on her phone for several days, but she hadn’t paid much attention to them. Now, she cared very much.
She checked today’s temperature; it had already reached 44°C.
She didn’t have much of an appetite for lunch, so Jiang Ting took some cold skin noodles from the Space, paired them with a meat burger and a mung bean smoothie, and ate a simple meal.
While eating, she scrolled through the local news on her phone and, as expected, quickly found a report about the explosion.
The report said that a car had exploded. The owner of the car was having lunch near Century Square. Because the underground parking lot required a bit of a detour, he had lazily parked on the ground level. The older sedan had spontaneously combusted after being baked by the noon sun. Although the fire was discovered and reported quickly, the flames spread too fast. Before the fire trucks could arrive, it suddenly exploded.
Fortunately, there were no other vehicles parked nearby at the time, and the people around only helped by calling the fire department and didn’t approach the car, so there were no casualties.
Jiang Ting tapped on the photos attached to the news.
The raging fire, the charred and mangled wreckage of the car after the explosion—she swiped through them one by one, and before she knew it, she was covered in goosebumps.
Panicking slightly, she thought: If a car left in the sun can spontaneously combust, isn’t it dangerous for Cong Yixing to drive to and from work every day?
She forwarded the news to Cong Yixing and asked him: How about you park the car in the company garage and take the bus to work?
After scrolling through a few more news reports about fires, she felt even more anxious and sent him another message: Why don’t you just resign for now? Wait until the weather cools down before going back to work.
Cong Yixing replied after a while: Don’t overthink it. Don’t scare yourself. Be good, we’ll talk when I get back.
When Cong Yixing returned that evening, he brought some news.
He said, “Yu City is actually doing okay. In some cities that are naturally hot due to geography, the temperature has already broken 48°C. The local governments in some areas have already mandated that non-essential units temporarily stop work and production. Only industries related to people’s livelihoods are still running, but they’ve reorganized their shifts to a ’10 days on, 10 days off’ or ’15 days on, 15 days off’ schedule. Employees on shift are forced to stay in dorms and can only go home during their time off.”
“The temperature in Yu City is rising fast. My colleagues mentioned that our company might also implement this kind of shift system. They’re already looking for temporary dormitories.”
Jiang Ting fell into a long silence after hearing this.
She was used to Cong Yixing coming home on time every day after work and used to his meticulous care in her life. She didn’t want to think about how she would feel if Cong Yixing wasn’t home for ten days or half a month.
She almost couldn’t remember how she had lived alone before she had him.
Jiang Ting was a bit distracted all evening, and that night, she even dreamed of her grandmother.
Before her grandmother passed away, she had told her: “Jiang Ting, you have to be okay on your own.”
In the dream, Jiang Ting held her boyfriend’s hand and said to her grandmother: “I’m not alone anymore! Grandma, I have Cong Yixing now. He said he would always stay with me.”
Cong Yixing was fine while facing her grandmother, but in the next second, he pulled his hand away and said to her: “I can’t, Jiang Ting. I have to go to work. You have to be okay at home by yourself.”
Okay, my foot! In her dream, Jiang Ting was so angry she started smashing pots and pans.
So, when Cong Yixing got up the next morning, he was grabbed by Jiang Ting.
In the dimly lit room, Jiang Ting’s eyes were bright, as if they were burning with fire.
She said to Cong Yixing, “I won’t let you leave. I won’t let you go to work!”
Cong Yixing: “…”
He had to spend quite some time soothing his girlfriend, who was prone to over-imagining things and easily angered.
Only after Cong Yixing said, “If they really implement that shift system, I’ll resign and come back to live off you,” did Jiang Ting finally let go.
She knew she was being a bit willful, but this was Cong Yixing; he would always be patient with her.
Even though nothing was set in stone yet, to ensure Cong Yixing wouldn’t have to live on “chaff and wild herbs” after resigning, Jiang Ting worked extra hard on editing her videos that day. She worked for an entire afternoon, even forgetting to exercise.