“Wife’s family name is Jiang, heh heh.”
The evening venue was a place decided by Li Li. If Chen Zui had just arrived here and been asked to pick the spot, they probably wouldn’t have managed to eat this meal today.
After getting off work, Li Li went to the shop to pick someone up, her gaze like a radar, instantly locating the good friend she hadn’t seen in months, her stride even widening a bit: “Oh my, you’ve finished conquering the world, finally willing to put down roots and settle down?”
Chen Zui refused to admit it: “Wasn’t it you who insisted I buy a house here?”
“Isn’t that right? You’re already 29, good sister, do you really plan to hang a rope and sleep by the edge of a cliff when you’re old?” Li Li’s mouth was always as if soaked in poison; hearing it made one’s ears ache straight to the heart.
Chen Zui was unimpressed, flipping her phone horizontally to start a game: “So what if I’m 29? Living for thirty-odd years is just about enough; any older and I won’t look good anymore.”
Hehe.
Fascinating.
Every time she talked to her, Li Li had to frantically press her own philtrum to recover.
The coffee shop’s closing work would still take a while. In the work group chat where nobody had said a word from beginning to end, Chen Zui sent a pinned red envelope, telling them to take a taxi over after finishing, while she and Li Li went ahead to order food.
During the evening rush hour, the traffic volume was not small, and the city had many traffic lights. Every time she just touched the accelerator, she had to step on the brake, making the travel speed slow.
“Planning to take a driver’s license test and buy a car?” Li Li suddenly brought this up.
Chen Zui immediately replied: “Not testing, not buying.”
Test for what, buy what; with this much traffic congestion, she could almost walk there by the time they arrived.
“Fine then,” rarely, Li Li didn’t try much persuasion: “When did you land, why didn’t you call me to pick you up?”
“This morning. Too early; moving tomorrow, though, I might need you.”
Landing at the airport before six in the morning, and Li Li still had to work during the day, there was no need to put her through that trouble.
Perhaps due to frequently traveling outdoors, Chen Zui was very good at arranging her time. After settling her luggage at the hotel, she immediately went to view the rental housing she had pre-arranged and discussed.
Two sets of apartments; after viewing them, her decision was also very decisive.
Choosing between two options was a problem Chen Zui had always excelled at; her rationality didn’t allow her to constantly linger and hesitate on a single issue.
“Where is it?” Nearing the destination, Li Li pulled the car over to the side.
“Shengting.”
The landlord was coordinated through Li Li. They had initially gone through Li Li’s preliminary screening before sending the housing areas to her, so Li Li knew the two pre-selected housing areas like the back of her hand.
Upon hearing that Chen Zui ultimately decided to rent at Shengting, Li Li was somewhat puzzled: “Shengting? Didn’t you say you liked the top-floor unit better?”
“The floor right below the top floor also counts as the top floor,” Chen Zui reasoned for this apartment: “Besides, this apartment doesn’t have much furniture, so I can add things myself later, which is quite nice.”
“You actually didn’t want the ready-made one.”
“It’s not pretty.”
Tch, impossible to understand.
..
Including Chen Zui and Li Li, there were 11 people in total. Since the money was coming out of Chen Zui’s pocket anyway, Li Li certainly wouldn’t let go of this rare opportunity to “slaughter the pig.”
A large private room, a full 20 dishes.
What was infuriating was that Chen Zui didn’t even look closely at the bill, glancing at the dish names and then sealing the decision.
Tch.
Those who don’t work and those who do…….
Hey, isn’t this reversed?
“What?”
Noticing the resentful gaze beside her, Chen Zui couldn’t help leaning back, trying to dodge away.
“I was thinking, maybe I should also go hang a rope with you and sleep on a cliff.” You can play and still make money, damn, and it’s exciting too, much better than sitting at a desk.
Chen Zui caught her meaning and burst out laughing: “Sure, you resign, I’ll transfer the storefront out, and we’ll book the plane tickets tonight.”
Li Li glared at her: “Sure my head!”
Chen Zui went to grab the phone on the table.
Thinking she was really going to do this, Li Li grabbed her hand: “What are you doing!”
“Going to the restroom.”
“……”
Chen Zui walked out of the private room door, looked left and right, and decided to walk inward.
The restaurant’s private rooms were set up like a hotel, a whole row of them entirely being private rooms, and the numbers at the doors were either bombs or sequential straights, a consistent style of “auspicious meanings.”
The illuminated numbers represented that someone was inside, and the heavy doors were tightly closed, but it wasn’t hard to hear that there were bursts of roaring laughter filling the room inside.
Finally seeing the directional sign for the restroom, Chen Zui lengthened her stride slightly, passing by a half-open private room door.
Peripheral vision is always better at capturing areas with relatively noticeable light sources. Chen Zui froze half a step, stopping at a distance of two steps from the private room door.
This time, Chen Zui really had an impression.
They had only seen each other at noon today, in her coffee shop—that woman who ordered a cup of sweet apricot Americano.
Chen Zui confirmed it in her mind, and making sure she hadn’t recognized the wrong person, she nodded, raised her foot, and prepared to continue forward; she hadn’t forgotten that the purpose of coming out was to find the restroom.
“What standards does Ms. Jiang have for her future husband?”
It was a man’s voice. Even across a door, it wasn’t hard to hear how deliberately the owner of that voice lowered his pitch, his tone full of feigned gentlemanliness.
Chen Zui had no intention of eavesdropping on other people’s conversations; that kind of behavior was quite lacking in virtue.
She really intended to leave.
But.
“We should be meeting for the first time; we probably don’t need to discuss this issue, right?”
A blind date?
Her step ultimately failed to move forward. Chen Zui blinked, backhanded and casually half-tied her hair at the back of her head into a small bun.
Her hair wasn’t long, so she could only leave half down and tie half up.
Thinking for a moment, she took her phone out of her pocket again, leaning aimlessly against the wall by the door, scrolling through her WeChat contact list to put on an act.
“Meeting for the first time doesn’t matter. Your mom told my mom that you are relatively slow-warming, and when it comes to chatting, she hopes I can be more proactive,” the man’s words began to increase, “I think women who are slow-warming are good; only being slow-warming allows emotions to last long.”
“However, you don’t need to rush to answer this question. We’ll be seeing each other often in the future……..”
Tch.
Chen Zui knitted her brows. The man’s words made her physically uncomfortable, and she chose to automatically shield the subsequent words, refusing to listen.
That Ms. Jiang had a rather mild temperament, not interrupting either, and only replying after a long silence.
Chen Zui perked up her ears. The chat list was swiped all the way to the bottom by her and stopped moving.
“Thank you, but I currently have no intention of entering into marriage.”
Even like this, her voice was still warm, unhurried, and calm.
Chen Zui’s physical discomfort from just now was soothed, and every hair on her body shuddered and let out a sigh of comfort.
“Why? Isn’t Ms. Jiang already 31? At 31, you should be preparing for it.”
So she was already 31? Surprisingly two years older than her, couldn’t tell.
“Is it that unbelievable?”
“A bit. For a woman to not even have the thought of getting married at this age….. I think it’s not quite normal, you……”
Chen Zui’s brows furrowed into a vertical line.
Such unpleasant words.
She had been out for a bit too long, and Li Li urging her with a phone call popped up on her phone screen. The huge phone ringtone made Chen Zui’s heart tremble.
Eavesdropping really wasn’t a glorious thing. Feeling guilty, she glanced toward the door, turned off her phone, and hurried back, completely forgetting that her original purpose for coming out was to go to the restroom.
Chen Zui pushed open the door to the private room. Everyone else had arrived, and dishes had been served one after another. Only then did she belatedly realize that the time she spent outside hadn’t been short.
Li Li had left her seat reserved next to her. She walked over, sat down, and poured herself a cup of tea: “If you want to add any dishes, feel free to add them yourselves.”
After all, facing the boss, aside from the somewhat brazen An Qi, the rest of them appeared timid, choosing to smile amidst mutual glances and wave their hands to say no.
“Do I look that scary?” Chen Zui found it amusing.
The group waved their hands again in a flurry, saying she wasn’t scary.
“Do you want to drink some alcohol? I’ll have Li Li send you back later,” Chen Zui asked.
Li Li smiled, raised her hand, and gave an elbow nudge right next to Chen Zui’s side.
“Can we drink?” An Qi’s eyes lit up; she genuinely wanted to drink a bit.
Chen Zui let out a soft cry of pain, “Sure, just drink a bit and don’t get drunk.”
In a tense environment, alcohol could sometimes loosen up thoughts very well. Once the nerves relaxed, Chen Zui finally made a simple self-introduction: “Chen Zui, ‘Chen’ with ear-east [ears-east radical], ‘Zui’ meaning the utmost/best, just call me that.”
She wasn’t accustomed to others calling her boss this and boss that; it sounded weirdly “old and cunning.”
“Sister Chen” won’t do either; it sounds like she’s well into her fifties and the kind who frequently rushes to the wet market to snatch discounted eggs.
Sorry, that was a stereotype, but Chen Zui couldn’t help associating it.
With alcohol as paving and her totally un-boss-like self-introduction, the originally rigid atmosphere finally eased up.
There was also the boisterous An Qi.
“Boss, you’re of mixed heritage, right?” An Qi started gossiping, “I saw your eyes were blue this afternoon!”
Chen Zui smiled, noncommittal: “I already said, call me by my name.”
She probably was of mixed heritage.
Chen Zui possessed a pair of high eye sockets that didn’t belong to East Asians, yet they weren’t as high as those of white people. The just-right curve added a precise heroic spirit to her facial features. Under the light, she also had a pair of blue eyes clear enough to look like a natural blue spring nurtured by nature; one would want to pry, but could only back away in awe.
“Then……” An Qi felt that calling her directly by her name lacked a bit of respect, thought about it, and decided against it: “Which countries are you mixed with!”
“Does mixed heritage break down by which country?” Chen Zui laughed and said.
“Of course!” An Qi drank another sip of alcohol; the beer was biting in her mouth. She smacked her lips and said, “Anyway, boss, you’re pretty, and pale too—you must be mixed with white.”
“Call me boss again, and you’ll do a week of hand-ground coffee.”
“Okay! Chen…… j..”
“Call me Sister Chen and you’ll do two weeks of hand-ground.”
“Chen Zui!”
She had taken the bait; she too had become one of these working cattle directly calling out the big boss’s first name.
Chen Zui nodded, still saying: “Still gotta grind for three days, though.”
“…….”
Chen Zui rarely had the habit of eating dinner. She hadn’t eaten many bites from the large dining table of dishes, but she had drunk a few cups of alcohol.
“Hey, drinking so much, has your alcohol tolerance improved?” Li Li maintained her figure, symbolically picking up a few bites of food before stopping as well. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the wine glass beside her emptying repeatedly, and couldn’t help reminding her.
“Does beer require an alcohol tolerance?” Chen Zui found it funny, tapped her glass against the table, and stood up: “Going to the restroom, coming or not?”
Li Li tested the feeling and sensed nothing: “Do you have a bad kidney? You’ve gone twice since the start.”
Chen Zui gave her a sidelong glance, “Yeah, your bladder’s worth two of anyone else’s.”
Listen to that, what kind of talk was that.
Chen Zui pulled the door open and stepped out. Having walked it once before, the direction felt more familiar this time.
Still that same corner.
The half-open private room door from earlier was now tightly closed, while the light sign reading the number 999 beside the door was illuminated, indicating that the people inside hadn’t finished eating yet.
Unable to hear the conversation inside anymore, Chen Zui pressed her lips together and turned away toward the restroom sign.
In truth, she didn’t even need to use the restroom.
If forced to squeeze, she could probably squeeze out a few drops.
“Ahem… ahem…”
Chen Zui’s steps going up the stairs paused, and she raised her head.
Her vision froze as well.
Ms. Jiang?