The creamy, silky pumpkin and yam soup warmed his battered stomach after just a few sips.
The rice noodles had meat in them. In the past, he wouldn’t have eaten anything greasy in the morning—just a couple of bites would make him feel uncomfortable all over. But this morning, he felt unusually hungry.
He tried a few bites. It wasn’t greasy at all, and the flavor was wonderfully fresh. Before he knew it, he’d even drunk all the soup.
By the time he’d finished both dishes, Wen Qi himself was a bit shocked. So his stomach could hold this much?
His breakfast portion today was probably more than what he’d eaten in an entire day at some points in the past, yet his stomach didn’t feel uncomfortably full.
He remembered what the little girl had written on the sticky note, picked up his phone, and took a photo of the two empty lunch containers. After hesitating for a moment, he opened the little girl’s WeChat and sent it to her.
After sending the photo, he didn’t exit the chat interface. He just waited quietly, waiting for the person on the other end to reply. He didn’t even realize it himself—that he would one day actually look forward to someone replying to his message.
Li Suian replied quickly, sending a cat meme that said “Good boy, pat pat.” Wen Qi’s lips curved upward, and he put his phone away with satisfaction, ready to wash the lunch containers. Then he suddenly realized with horror—he’d eaten breakfast before even washing his face or brushing his teeth.
Daylight was already fully bright, the sun about to rise. Li Suian was working in the mountains, drenched in sweat.
She held a rake in her hands, gathering the piled pine needles, fallen leaves, and moss in the forest into a pile, then stuffing them into a basket on her back before carrying it to the truck bed.
These pine needles and leaves served two purposes: one was for starting fires, and the other was to make bedding for her pigs and cows. Laying dried pine needles and leaves in the pens would keep the animals warm when they slept—only when they slept comfortably would they put on fat quickly.
Da Hu had followed her up the mountain and was now foraging for firewood all over the forest. He was smart about it, carrying every piece of wood he found back to the three-wheeled cart, so they could take it all when they left.
They worked until around ten o’clock, when the sun had already reached into the forest. Both the girl and the dog had reaped a full harvest, and Li Suian drove home.
As she passed by Wen Qi’s doorstep, she’d expected the man to be sunbathing and sleeping like he usually did, but to her surprise, he was standing at the gate waiting, holding the washed insulated lunch containers in one hand and a plastic bag in the other.
Li Suian stopped the three-wheeled cart and flashed the man a brilliant smile. “Good morning, Wen Qi-ge.”
Wen Qi looked up at the sun already hanging high in the sky—it was hardly morning anymore.
He didn’t say anything, a faint smile on his face. He stepped forward and held out the items to Li Suian. “Thank you.”
The thanks came out like a cool, soft murmur. Li Suian thought it sounded wonderful—even her ears felt a little warm.
“You’re welcome.”
The usually bold and straightforward girl showed a rare hint of shyness as she took the items. She noticed the plastic bag contained some snacks—chocolate, it seemed—and some of the packaging had foreign text on it.
She looked up, confused. “This is…?”
Wen Qi spoke softly. “A gift for you. Consider it a return present.”
Li Suian was delighted. She grinned, her smile even brighter than the sun in the sky. She wore a straw hat on her head, and beneath the brim, her small face was fair and flawless, glowing with a healthy flush.
Wen Qi was curious—how was it that this young girl, who had been running around all day, hadn’t gotten tanned by the sun? She stood out completely from the rest of the villagers.
Li Suian was delighted, clutching a bag of snacks. She wasn’t the type to be shy or reserved. When chasing a man, there had to be give and take—if she kept pushing him away with polite refusals, wouldn’t that just create distance between them? So she accepted the snacks generously and replied cheerfully, “Thanks, Wen Qi-ge!”
Her mind spun, and she came up with a brilliant idea. She invited him brightly, “Wen Qi-ge, why don’t you come over to my place for breakfast this morning? You just got your shot yesterday, so you probably don’t have much energy to cook. I’m going to be cooking anyway—you can just come straight over and eat at my place!”
Her eager little thoughts were written all over her face, her round, apricot-shaped eyes sparkling. If she could get Wen Qi to come over for a meal, their relationship would take another step forward!
Wen Qi remained silent, not answering. He didn’t understand why this girl in front of him was being so good to him. He was nothing but a useless wreck on the verge of death.
A flicker of dejection passed through his eyes, and when he spoke, his voice was as cold and indifferent as ever: “No.”
The little hope in Li Suian’s eyes shattered with a pop. Wah, this man was so heartless! Could it be that her plan to win him over was going to die before it even got off the ground?
But she wasn’t the type to give up easily. Her disappointment lasted only a moment. She set the snacks down on the vehicle bed, jumped off, and grabbed Wen Qi’s arm.
“Come on, come on, don’t be polite with me! When I need your help in the future, you can help me back then, right? We’re neighbors—we should look out for each other!”
The young girl unconsciously acted coy, her crisp voice turning sweet and sticky. Wen Qi’s heart couldn’t help but tremble.
In the end, the cold and indifferent Wen Qi was no match for the warm and passionate Li Suian, and he was dragged back to her home.
Da Hu had originally been sitting in the passenger seat, but seeing his master talking endlessly with that scrawny man, he grew impatient and ran home on his own. So Wen Qi ended up taking Da Hu’s exclusive passenger seat.
It was Wen Qi’s first time riding in the passenger seat of a three-wheeler, and the experience was quite novel. The two homes were very close—just down one slope and they arrived.
The three-wheeler stopped in the courtyard. Da Hu had run home first to dig out his treasured bone and gnaw on it, but when he saw Wen Qi sitting in his spot, he was so furious that the bone fell right out of his mouth.
He’d only been gone for a moment, and his home had already been stolen?
Fuming, Da Hu barked wildly at Wen Qi. Wen Qi stared at the frantic dog in silence.
After barking a couple of times, Da Hu decided this skinny fellow was no fun at all, and trotted off with his bone again.
Wen Qi’s demeanor had a kind of unshakable calm—you can rage all you want, I remain unmoved—so much so that even the dog couldn’t be bothered to keep barking.
Li Suian knew Da Hu could be aggressive toward strangers, so she just patted his head to comfort him, then bustled around to take care of Wen Qi.
She knew Wen Qi loved basking in the sun, so she moved the table to the corner of the courtyard that got the best sunlight. She brewed tea, brought out melon seeds, and set out fruit.
Noticing how fair Wen Qi’s hands were—so delicate that the veins showed through the skin on the backs—she worried he might hurt himself peeling fruit, so she even peeled and cut everything for him.
She peeled the apple, cut it into small pieces, and placed them on a plate, then gave him toothpicks to spear them with. She even peeled the tangerines for him.
To be honest, aside from her grandmother, she had never taken such meticulous care of anyone before. If anyone else had put her through this much trouble, she probably would have given them a couple of eye rolls.
But Wen Qi was different. He just sat there quietly, and she found it a pleasure to behold. A man as precious as him naturally deserved to be well looked after.
No wonder men liked beautiful women. Now that it was her turn, she finally understood—marrying someone beautiful, you didn’t need them to be capable at all; just looking at them was comfort enough.