Fang Man immediately stood up. “Brother Yuan, you’re finally back. Can you stop keeping your phone on silent all the time? Every time I need you, I can’t reach you.”
“There are too many calls. It affects my driving.” Zhou Jinyuan carried the bag inside and shut the door behind him.
Fang Man nodded in deep sympathy. “Same here. I get a pile of debt collection calls, hardly any normal ones. If I wasn’t afraid people couldn’t contact me, I’d shut my phone off too.”
Fang Man followed him into the kitchen, and the two of them muttered together about serious business.
Lin Wangxi glanced at them. She could not understand a word they were saying.
She turned her attention to the pipe cleaners on the table and casually picked up two of them to start twisting.
She had never expected this stuff could actually be sold for money.
She was best at playing with things like this. When she had nothing to do at home, she felt she could make these and sell them too.
Fang Man stayed for lunch. Perhaps because there was one more person around, the atmosphere was not as awkward as before.
He was talkative and chatted back and forth with Lin Wangxi. The two of them even added each other on WeChat.
Zhou Jinyuan and Zhou Yuean, brother and sister, sat across from them and simply watched the two chatting.
When they added each other on WeChat, Zhou Jinyuan’s lips moved slightly, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he said nothing.
He put down his chopsticks and said to Fang Man, “Since you’re done eating, go wash the dishes.”
Fang Man tucked away his phone and did not object. “Alright.”
Lin Wangxi looked at him in surprise as he gathered the dishes and cheerfully headed into the kitchen.
She whispered, “Isn’t he a guest? You’re making him wash dishes?”
Zhou Jinyuan glanced toward Fang Man in the kitchen. “What kind of guest is he supposed to be?”
“Uh…”
Zhou Yuean explained, “He comes here to freeload meals several times a week.”
“I see.” Lin Wangxi nodded in understanding, then glanced at Zhou Yuean in surprise.
She had actually spoken to her.
But after only that one sentence, Zhou Yuean hurried back into the bedroom.
Once Fang Man finished washing the dishes, he and Zhou Jinyuan left together.
Only Lin Wangxi remained at home again. Zhou Yuean shut herself inside her room and would not talk to her.
Lin Wangxi could only lie back and forth between the sofa and the bed.
Later, she still could not resist turning her phone back on.
She ignored all the messages asking her for gossip, and after that, only silence remained.
Lin Wangxi sighed, put down her phone, and stared blankly at the ceiling.
Suddenly, her phone rang. She quickly picked it up to check.
Alright then—it was a refund notification. The ten thousand yuan she had transferred to Zhou Jinyuan yesterday had expired unclaimed.
Thinking of how he had said earlier that his phone was always on silent, Lin Wangxi guessed he had simply forgotten because he was busy, so she sent it to him again.
She also checked the game account she had listed for sale.
No interest at all.
After doing all that, someone knocked outside the bedroom.
Lin Wangxi used her crutch to reach the door. When she opened it, she found it was Zhou Yuean.
Zhou Yuean still looked somewhat awkward. “I’m about to cook. Do you have anything you don’t eat?”
Seeing that someone so young could already cook, Lin Wangxi could not help praising her.
“You can cook? That’s amazing.”
Zhou Yuean became embarrassed from the compliment and avoided eye contact.
“What’s so amazing about cooking?”
“I’m already this old and I still can’t cook, so of course it’s amazing.”
Zhou Yuean acted as if she had not heard and asked again, “Do you have anything you avoid eating?”
“No. Just don’t add garlic.”
“Oh.”
Zhou Yuean turned and went to the kitchen, originally intending to move the garlic elsewhere so she would not accidentally use it later.
But she discovered her elder brother had not bought any garlic at all.
Lin Wangxi also followed her into the kitchen and watched her cook.
“Where do you sell those pipe-cleaner toys?”
“Online.”
Lin Wangxi continued asking, “How do you sell them? Teach me.”
Zhou Yuean looked at her suspiciously. “What do you want to do?”
Lin Wangxi smiled. “I’ve got nothing to do staying at home anyway. I can make them and sell them too.”
Zhou Yuean became even more suspicious. Would a rich second-generation heiress really care about such tiny amounts of money?
She guessed Lin Wangxi had probably argued with her family and run away from home, which was why she was staying here temporarily.
Most likely she was just bored and wanted something to do, so Zhou Yuean told her how.
A few minutes later, Lin Wangxi returned to the sofa and began fiddling with her phone.
Zhou Yuean said she had started a short-video account, then registered a shop. She occasionally posted videos, and whenever someone placed an order, she mailed it directly.
But she sold them too cheaply. The rabbit she made sold for only a little over twenty yuan.
After subtracting shipping and material costs, she only earned a few yuan.
Lin Wangxi did not really want to do it, but thinking that her leg was inconvenient now and she had nothing better to do at home, she decided to treat it as entertainment.
She knew how to make many things—foxes, tigers, lions, elephants, even dragons.
That evening, Zhou Jinyuan did not come home for dinner, so only she and Zhou Yuean ate.
After finishing dinner, Zhou Yuean shut herself in her room again.
Lin Wangxi sat at the dining table, studying her own artwork.
After ten at night, Zhou Jinyuan returned.
He took off his coat and habitually swept his gaze across the living room.
At one glance, he saw her bent over the dining table, hard at work.
She wore pajamas, her long hair casually tied back with an elastic band. Several loose strands hung over her forehead, swaying gently as she lowered her head.
She had not turned on the main light. Instead, she had brought the bedside lamp out from the bedroom and placed it on the table, illuminating only a small patch around her.
In the darkness, she looked indescribably lonely.
Zhou Jinyuan stood where he was and watched for quite a while before slowly closing the door.
Hearing the sound, Lin Wangxi raised her head and smiled at him.
“You’re back?”
Zhou Jinyuan changed his shoes, gave a low response, and walked to the dining table, looking at the cluttered mess on top.
“You’ve started playing with this too?”
Lin Wangxi glared at him in dissatisfaction. “What do you mean playing? I’m making money, alright?”
Zhou Jinyuan froze. “Making money?”
“Mm-hmm.” She picked up the pig head she had finished beside her, looking a little smug. “Cute, right? I think if I sell one for fifty yuan, there’ll definitely be no problem.”
But Zhou Jinyuan stared at the outline of the pig head in her hand, and the expression on his face became complicated.
Lin Wangxi saw him standing there, seeming to carry a trace of loneliness around him.
She lowered her head to look at her own creation and thought perhaps she had made it too ugly.
Lin Wangxi explained, “This is only half-finished. It’ll look good once I finish it.”
The man remained silent.
The hand holding the little pig slowly lowered as well.
“What’s wrong? It doesn’t look good? Or do you think fifty is too expensive?”
In the past, a single afternoon tea would casually cost countless sums of fifty yuan.
And now, she was delighted over fifty yuan.
Zhou Jinyuan forced himself to move his gaze away from her face. His voice carried a trace of hoarseness.
“No. You made it very well.”
“Then why do you look like that?”
“I’m just a little tired. Why did you suddenly want to make money selling this?”
Lin Wangxi said, “Because I’ve got nothing to do. And I don’t want to be some burden who eats and drinks for free. Oh right, the money I sent you yesterday expired, so I sent it again. Remember to accept it.”
Her smiling face under the light, together with those brightly colored things on the table, struck Zhou Jinyuan’s face like slaps.
He stood there awkwardly, his gaze unreadably complicated.
Seeing that something seemed wrong with him, Lin Wangxi asked worriedly,
“What’s wrong with you?”