The sound of washing up came from the bathroom.
Jiang Ting woke up at a time she normally wouldn’t. She blinked dazed eyes, looking first at the air conditioner and then at the window.
The AC was running, and the curtains were tightly closed.
The curtains, which weren’t completely blackout, allowed daylight to filter through. It was already broad daylight outside—excessively bright, in fact. It didn’t look like early morning light; it looked more like the glare of nearing noon.
Jiang Ting fumbled for her phone to check the time: 07:05 AM.
She hadn’t woken up at this hour in a long time.
Since getting used to Cong Yixing’s work schedule, she, a habitual late sleeper, usually slept soundly at this time every day, completely undisturbed by the noise of him getting out of bed.
The water in the bathroom stopped. Jiang Ting closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep. A moment later, Cong Yixing walked in. He leaned over the side of the bed. His face, slightly damp after washing, drew close. His moist lips, carrying the minty scent of toothpaste, pressed against hers.
This was a habit formed after they moved in together, established at Jiang Ting’s request.
Every time Cong Yixing left the house, he had to kiss her. Whether he was going to work, heading out for groceries on the weekend, or just stepping out to pick up a package, he had to kiss her before leaving.
Seeing that Cong Yixing was faithfully following the rule she had set, Jiang Ting couldn’t help herself. As his lips touched hers, she puckered up, then “pfft-ed” and broke into a laugh, ruining her act.
Cong Yixing was startled. He stood up straight at first, but then her laughter proved infectious. He smiled and asked, “How come you’re awake?”
Jiang Ting reached out both arms for a hug. Cong Yixing leaned back down, letting her hook her arms around his neck and act spoiled.
“Woken up by the heat. It’s so hot today~!” Jiang Ting’s mind was somewhat awake, but her voice definitely wasn’t; she spoke with a mumble.
Hearing the coquettish trail of her voice paired with her dazed little expression, Cong Yixing thought Jiang Ting looked soft, sweet, and incredibly adorable in that moment.
He was most vulnerable to Jiang Ting’s acting spoiled. When he spoke again, his voice was several degrees more tender, as if coaxing a small child. “Then I’ll turn the AC down two degrees. You go back to sleep like a good girl, okay?”
“Okay,” Jiang Ting responded obediently.
Cong Yixing gave her lips—which she had puckered high again after speaking—a kiss and patted her. “Go to sleep. I have to head to work.”
Jiang Ting hummed her agreement and rolled over in the light summer quilt to continue sleeping.
She heard the air conditioner remote being clicked a few times. Then, the bedroom door was pulled shut. Cong Yixing’s softened footsteps moved toward the entryway. Accompanied by the rustle of changing shoes and grabbing car keys, the front door was finally locked with a “click.” Those familiar footsteps quickly descended the stairs and faded into the distance. Drowsiness once again enveloped her.
When she woke up again, the lunch hour had already passed.
Jiang Ting first opened her phone to look at the picture of lunch Cong Yixing had sent. On the tray was a portion of diced chicken with mushrooms and stir-fried bok choy, along with a scoop of rice about the size of her fist.
Eating so little? Jiang Ting frowned. She saw Cong Yixing’s message below the picture: It’s so hot I have no appetite. Just eating a little bit.
She scrolled up. At around nine in the morning, Cong Yixing had said: The high-temperature subsidy has started. It’s 300 a month.
Jiang Ting switched out of the chat interface and checked the temperature. It was 12:18 PM, and the air temperature was 40°C.
The temperature was too high. Even if she couldn’t feel the heatwaves from inside the air-conditioned room, Jiang Ting still felt a bit stifled. During her subsequent wash-up and lunch, she spent her time scrolling through online discussions about the weather.
—This year is ridiculously hot. In our Yun Province, the highest temperature in previous summers was only 27 or 28 degrees. My god, it hit 30 degrees today!
—You guys were silent when people called for environmental protection, and now you start complaining. Did you think global warming was a joke?
—Don’t be ridiculous. Is global warming the responsibility of us ordinary people? Do you know how much water a single golf course uses in a day—enough for an ordinary person for how long? People like us, who can’t bear to run the AC 24/7 and won’t even drive if a place is within walking distance… what does global warming have to do with us?
—Someone save Jiang City. The high today is 43 degrees. There isn’t a breath of wind. You can’t step outside at all before 8 PM!
—43 degrees is too exaggerated. Wouldn’t work have to stop? Any Jiang City folks out there? Did you all go to work today?
—Replying to the above: Outdoor work has stopped, but office workers still have to go, ahhh! Our office parking lot is outdoors. Even under the shade canopy, it doesn’t help. Every day when I get into the car after work, it feels like sitting in a sauna!
—Location: Hai Province. Logically, we should be in the rainy season right now. Why hasn’t it rained once in months!
—Don’t even get me started. Our Chuan City usually has droughts anyway, but now it’s perfect—the countryside has run out of water completely! The wells are dry! We have to transport drinking water from the city now!
—Above, aren’t you exaggerating? What era is this? Can water be that scarce?
—I can testify, no exaggeration at all! My grandmother’s home is in the Chuan City countryside. The water level in the village well is almost at zero. The water we pump up is murky and undrinkable. Now we rely on government workers to transport water from the city every day just for drinking!
Jiang Ting: “…” She was someone easily infected by anxiety. Seeing the news online, she got so scared she hurried to the kitchen and turned on the tap to check. Of course, there was water, and the flow was the same as usual.
She patted her chest and breathed a sigh of relief. Then she remembered that Yu City’s tap water came from the Lanjiang Reservoir. Unless the reservoir dried up, Yu City shouldn’t have its water cut off.
But she was affected nonetheless. She looked at the drinking water barrel under the tea bar machine. Less than half a barrel remained, enough for her and Cong Yixing for about three days.
After thinking it over, she dialed the nearby drinking water delivery station. Besides ordering a new barrel, she also ordered a case of four bottles of mineral water, each 5L.
While waiting for the delivery, Jiang Ting suddenly realized—she had stockpiled plenty of food and drinks in her Space, but almost no plain mineral water.
That wouldn’t do! She quickly called back and had the station deliver two more cases of 5L mineral water.
A short while later, the ordered water was delivered. The delivery man from the station was drenched in sweat as he helped her carry them into the living room. He even asked her, “Why are you calling for so much water all of a sudden, sister? I remember your household usually finishes one barrel in over a week.”
Jiang Ting was surprised. “How do you even remember that?!”
The man gave a “hehe” laugh. “Of course I remember. This is my job, after all!”
Jiang Ting followed up with a fake smile and explained, “It’s been hot lately, so we’re going through it fast. I figured I’d call for more at once to save you the trips.”
After seeing the delivery man off, Jiang Ting put two of the cases of mineral water into her Space. The feeling of finally having done something smoothed over the anxiety she had caught. She turned back into the carefree, eating-drinking-and-gaming Jiang Ting!
After finishing another round of a game, she checked the time. It was almost time for Cong Yixing to get off work.
Jiang Ting stood up from her gaming chair and did some symbolic arm stretches and leg kicks, pretending to have exercised.
She picked up the remote and turned off the AC, then walked out and shut the study door.
An afternoon had passed, and the living room was already sweltering. And this was just the second floor; if they lived on the top floor, who knew what the house would be baked into?
Thinking this, Jiang Ting pulled the glass door separating the living room and balcony shut, then turned on the floor-standing AC in the corner of the living room, setting the temperature two degrees lower than usual.
She curled up on the sofa to play on her phone for a bit and soon received a “leaving work to go home” animated sticker from Cong Yixing. She replied with a joyful sticker, and the next second, Cong Yixing called her.
Jiang Ting answered and heard him ask, “Is your work finished?”
Jiang Ting felt guilty. She had played games all afternoon and hadn’t edited a single video today.
She replied, “Mhm, mhm. Finished my ‘game.'”
This answer prompted a laugh from Cong Yixing’s end. He asked, “What do you want to eat tonight?”
Jiang Ting wasn’t very hungry. She stood up and walked to the fridge. After looking inside for a while, she hesitated. “I’ll just eat whatever. Boiled corn or pan-seared chicken breast is fine. What about you?”
Cong Yixing asked, “Are there any leftovers from my lunch delivery?”
Jiang Ting’s tone was proud. “Nope! Ate it all today!”
“Good girl. Then I’ll just cook some instant noodles. I remember those noodles you bought online are about to expire.”
Jiang Ting felt guilty once again. Those were from an ad she saw on a short video app. A brand of instant noodles she liked as a child had released several new flavors. She had enthusiastically bought a large mixed box, but then got tired of them after eating them twice. Usually, she relied on Cong Yixing to consume them. But Cong Yixing worked and had breakfast and lunch at the company canteen; he only ate at home for dinner, and often had to eat her lunch leftovers. Consequently, that box of noodles had been there for almost half a year and there were still many left.
She felt a bit embarrassed and reflected, “I won’t buy things randomly next time.”
Regarding her promise, Cong Yixing knew he could only take it with a grain of salt. He laughed again and said, “I’m starting the car. I’ll be home soon.”
“Don’t rush. Drive slowly.”
“Okay.”
Cong Yixing got off work at 5:30 PM, but it was almost 7:00 PM by the time he got home. Jiang Ting had long since grown used to a late dinner, so she wasn’t particularly hungry.
The two of them settled their dinner simply. While Cong Yixing washed the dishes, Jiang Ting lay on the living room sofa with the TV on, playing on her phone.
It was news time. In the gaps between playing on her phone, she overheard a few things. The female anchor was talking about high temperatures and droughts in many places, with frequent fires, reminding citizens to be careful with fire and electricity safety.
A while later, she heard the male anchor say that hospitals were receiving an increasing number of patients who had fainted from heatstroke, urging employers to reduce outdoor operations and try to provide cooling environments and equipment for laborers.
Cong Yixing had just finished the dishes. As he walked into the living room, he heard a few lines. He sat down at Jiang Ting’s feet. Seeing Jiang Ting subconsciously lift and then drop her feet onto his lap, a flash of a smile appeared in his eyes. He picked up one of her feet and began to massage it gently.
He had just dried his hands, but they still carried a hint of moisture. The contact point on her skin felt cool and comfortable. Jiang Ting couldn’t help but wiggle her toes and ask him, “How is your work environment? You won’t get heatstroke, will you?”
Cong Yixing: “The AC in the office is very strong. Speaking of heatstroke, a female colleague actually got it on her way to work this morning.”
Jiang Ting let out an “ah” and immediately put down her phone. “What happened? You can get heatstroke in the morning too?”
Look at that gossiping little face!
Cong Yixing smiled inwardly, but kept a serious expression. “Probably because she sits in an office all year and doesn’t exercise. Her body is too weak.”
Seeing Jiang Ting looking at him in confusion, he explained, “She takes the bus to work. Her house is a bit remote, so it’s a several-hundred-meter walk to the bus stop. It’s been so hot lately, and who knows if she didn’t sleep well the night before. In just those few hundred meters, she fainted halfway there. Luckily, there are many people commuting in the morning, and passersby saw her and called 120.”
Jiang Ting frowned after hearing this. “But the walk from our house to the complex gate, and then to where you park, is also several hundred meters! You won’t get heatstroke, right?”
Cong Yixing: “I definitely won’t. I’m a strong, healthy young man. If I got heatstroke after walking a few hundred meters, that would be a disaster.”
Seeing Jiang Ting’s brow relax as she prepared to lie back down, he continued, “But you might be a different story. Like my colleague, you sit all day and don’t exercise. At least she walks a few steps commuting and takes care of her kids at home. But you? You’re either sitting or lying down all day. You don’t even step out once in ten days or half a month. Your daily exercise is basically zero. If you keep going like this, your body will get weak. Don’t you know that poor resistance makes it easy to get sick?”
Jiang Ting: “…” She pinched the flesh on her arm and showed it to him. “I’m very strong!”
“You call this strong? Isn’t this called being puffy?”
Jiang Ting got upset and lunged at him. “Who are you calling fat!”
Although Cong Yixing quickly raised his hands in surrender under her “pressure,” he still insisted: “Babe, you really need to move. The temperature is staying high right now. What if there’s a power outage one day while I’m not home, and you get heatstroke alone with no one to find you? If you exercise, you can improve your physical fitness and lose weight. It’s killing two birds with one stone. Isn’t that great?”
Jiang Ting racked her brain, trying to argue back: “It’s not that easy for the power to go out!”
Cong Yixing: “The temperature is too high, after all. AC usage is definitely higher than in previous years, which increases the pressure on the grid. Yu City’s own power generation isn’t that large; during peak winter and summer periods, we often need support from other cities. In this situation, who knows if there will be power rationing this year?”
Jiang Ting didn’t understand all that. She only knew that the good days seemed to be coming to an end. The Cong Yixing who usually indulged her was starting to force her to exercise.
She grumbled, “But we don’t have any exercise equipment at home. It’s so hot, you can’t expect me to go out for a run, right?”
Cong Yixing was prepared. “I’ve already picked out a second-hand treadmill on Xianyu. As long as you’re willing to exercise, I can place the order immediately.”
Jiang Ting: “Then… then is just running enough to train the body? I see people who work out have a ton of equipment!”
Cong Yixing: “People work out to build muscle. Do you want to build muscle?”
Jiang Ting shook her head frantically. “No!”
Cong Yixing was still prepared. “Then that’s it. You just run a bit every day and do some stretching or whatever.” He went to the bedroom and brought back the tablet Jiang Ting had bought but mostly left to gather dust. He handed it to her. “I’ve downloaded several fitness apps for you, and there are plenty of yoga and targeted weight-loss follow-along videos. You can pick the ones you like.”
Jiang Ting: “…” I don’t want to do any of them!
She wailed, “Benefactor, why must you be so persistent!!!”
Cong Yixing smiled but said nothing.
Training is good. Otherwise, every time I mess around with you a little bit, you cry about being tired. It’s affecting our happy life.