“It’s late. Go to sleep early.”
After saying that, he turned around, took a set of sleepwear from the box in the corner, and quickly walked into the bathroom.
Lin Wangxi watched his back, feeling inexplicably irritated. In a fit of pique, she tossed the items onto the table.
She had worked so hard on it—what was wrong with selling it for fifty?
She was going to sell it for fifty!
She did not feel like continuing anymore. Grabbing her crutch, she angrily hopped toward the bedroom.
After taking two steps, she turned back, picked up the desk lamp, and carried it with her.
Earlier, she had calculated that if she kept the light on, she would have to deduct electricity costs, meaning she would earn even less.
Suddenly, she glanced at the lamp in her arms.
Could it be that Zhou Jinyuan was upset because he thought she was wasting electricity?
Then she would just work during the day from now on. After all, he was so poor.
Lin Wangxi felt so frustrated that she could not fall asleep the entire night. Before dawn, the urge to use the bathroom made it even more impossible to sleep.
She got up again, leaning on her crutch as she hopped out of the bedroom.
Unexpectedly, when she opened the door, she found that Zhou Jinyuan had not gone to sleep at all.
The man wore his sleepwear, with a jacket draped over his shoulders.
This time, he was not playing with clay—he was working on his laptop.
She instinctively took out her phone and checked the time. It was already five in the morning.
Lin Wangxi paused, then hopped toward him.
Coming to his side, she asked softly, “Why are you still awake?”
Zhou Jinyuan glanced at her, then withdrew his gaze and continued typing.
“Writing a paper.”
“You’ve already graduated. Why are you still writing papers?”
Lin Wangxi sat beside him curiously and peeked at his laptop screen. It was filled with dense text she could not understand at all.
Zhou Jinyuan casually picked up a book from the table, flipped it open, and quickly skimmed through it as he said, “I’m writing it for someone else.”
Lin Wangxi understood that—she had bought her own graduation thesis before, spending over thirty thousand on it.
“How much do you get for writing one?”
“Twenty thousand for a full package. Three thousand for a single paper.”
“But you can’t just not sleep. Don’t you still have to drive during the day? Driving while tired is dangerous.”
Zhou Jinyuan paused briefly in flipping through the book, then continued. “Not driving tomorrow.”
“Then will you sleep during the day?”
“Going to a factory tomorrow. Fang Man will drive. I’ll sleep in the car.”
“Oh.”
“What factory? The one that makes gloves?”
…
Lin Wangxi kept chattering beside him, asking question after question. Zhou Jinyuan answered whatever he could.
He was even able to multitask—responding to her while his hands never stopped working.
Resting her chin on her hand, Lin Wangxi stared at the incomprehensible text on his computer. Before she knew it, her eyelids began to droop.
She realized that watching Zhou Jinyuan work was far more effective than trying to lull herself to sleep in bed.
In bed, she tossed and turned with insomnia, but as long as she sat beside Zhou Jinyuan, she would quickly fall asleep.
The sky gradually lightened with the pale glow of dawn. The surroundings grew quiet. Zhou Jinyuan stopped what he was doing and turned to look at her.
She held her crutch in one hand, propped her chin with the other, her eyelids drooping as her head bobbed forward.
Zhou Jinyuan stared at her like that.
Eventually, the hand supporting her chin slipped from her cheek, and her head tilted forward toward the table.
Zhou Jinyuan reacted quickly, catching her forehead in his hand, preventing it from hitting the table.
She seemed to find a pillow in his palm, rubbing against it slightly before settling into a comfortable position and continuing to sleep.
He remained frozen like that, his gaze fixed on her face.
Time passed bit by bit. The light from the desk lamp was gradually replaced by the morning sunlight outside.
Until the noisy sounds from outside the window, mixed with birdsong, drifted in.
Zhou Jinyuan suddenly came back to his senses and realized that the distance between them was less than two centimeters—so close they were almost touching.
The unique morning sounds of the urban village, tinged with poverty, pulled him back to reality in an instant.
When Lin Wangxi woke up again, it was already afternoon.
Her stomach growled with hunger, but when she came into the living room, there was no one there.
Zhou Yuean had gone to school, and Zhou Jinyuan was nowhere to be seen.
She picked up her phone and saw a message from Zhou Jinyuan.
It said that since she had not woken up at noon, Zhou Yuean had been too shy to call her, so they had left food for her in the refrigerator.
If she got hungry, she could take it out and heat it herself.
Lin Wangxi put down her phone and hopped over to the refrigerator. Opening it, she saw the neatly stored dishes inside.
After searching around, she could not find a microwave.
With no other choice, she decided to heat the food in a pot herself.
Having never cooked in her life, Lin Wangxi approached the stove with determination—but she was stopped at the very first step.
She could not light the fire.
Still, that was a small problem. She opened her phone and searched: how to light a stove.
She could not distinguish between a gas stove and a bottled gas stove, and Zhou Jinyuan’s home happened to use a gas cylinder.
Following the online instructions, she tried for quite a while but still could not ignite it.
In the end, with no other option, she called Zhou Jinyuan for help.
At that moment, Zhou Jinyuan was at the factory, discussing order pricing with the manager.
When his phone rang, he glanced at it and said to the manager, “Sorry, I need to take this call.”
The manager smiled. “No problem. We’ve basically settled it anyway. If there’s anything else, we can talk later.”
Zhou Jinyuan nodded slightly and stepped out of the office.
After answering the call, Lin Wangxi’s voice came through, “Zhou Jinyuan, why can’t I light the stove at your place?”
Zhou Jinyuan glanced at Fang Man nearby, then walked a bit farther away before speaking. “Did you open the gas valve?”
“What valve?”
“On top of the gas cylinder, there’s a switch. Press it, then turn the knob.”
“I’ll try.”
Lin Wangxi set down the phone and examined the gas cylinder. She found the valve, pressed the button, and then turned the knob.
Following the online instructions again, she finally managed to ignite the fire.
A moment later, her excited voice came through the phone, “It lit! I’m amazing.”
Zhou Jinyuan did not share her excitement.
After a brief pause, he asked, “You just woke up now?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Nothing. If you don’t know how to heat the food, I can order takeout for you.”
Lin Wangxi protested, “Who are you looking down on? It’s just reheating food.”
Zhou Jinyuan was about to say something more, but Lin Wangxi cut him off. “Alright, I’m hanging up. I need to heat the food. Bye!”
The call ended the next second.
Zhou Jinyuan looked at his phone screen and fell into thought.
Fang Man leaned over with a teasing tone. “Brother Yuan, why is it that I can never reach you when I call, but the moment this young lady calls, you pick up immediately?”
Zhou Jinyuan replied calmly, “She doesn’t know how to do anything. I’m worried something might happen to her if she’s alone at home.”
Fang Man let out a meaningful “oh.” “And you’re not worried something might happen to me if I can’t reach you? Ah, as expected—brothers are like clothes, but wives are like hands and feet.”