The child’s cold was probably pretty severe—he was staying in the health clinic, so he’d brought his own little bowl for meals. Li Suian scooped a full bowl’s worth of porridge into it.
The little boy ate the porridge with a smile on his face, stuffing his mouth full with every bite.
After finishing, he told his grandmother how delicious the porridge was. The old lady took a taste, and her eyes immediately lit up. She’d made porridge like this before too, but it never tasted as good as this.
She couldn’t help but praise, “Young lady, your cooking skills are something else! This young man here—is he your boyfriend? He’s going to be eating well from now on!”
Li Suian felt a bit awkward and quickly explained to the old lady that he was just her neighbor, but the words still planted a seed in her heart.
She continued feeding Wen Qi. He ate very slowly, very gracefully, and very beautifully. With a face like his, she figured he’d look good doing just about anything.
She couldn’t help but think back to what the old lady had said—boyfriend? If he were her boyfriend, that wouldn’t be half bad. Except for being a bit thin and lacking energy, he was flawless in every other way.
Although she was only twenty this year, she’d already been on many blind dates. It wasn’t that she was desperate to marry—she just wanted to find someone to live a good life with, to build their little home together.
She’d lost both parents at twelve. Though her parents had been as good as absent anyway, she’d still ended up an orphan without a mother or father.
At seventeen, the grandmother who’d raised her fell ill and took to her bed. She dropped out of school to care for her, but after two years, the illness ultimately took her grandmother away. From then on, she was alone in this world.
Before she passed, her grandmother had said she hoped she’d find someone who would love and protect her, and live a thriving life. She’d done as she was told—from the day she turned twenty, the legal marriage age, she’d been searching for the right person.
But all she’d met were rotten melons and cracked dates—or top-tier scumbags. It was giving her a real headache.
She thought she wasn’t bad-looking herself, and she was hardworking too. Why couldn’t she find the right person!
As she thought, her attention drifted to Wen Qi. Come to think of it, her neighbor really was handsome. She wondered if he’d be interested in developing something with her.
Seeing how he’d come all alone to their little mountain village from another province, maybe he’d be willing to stay and become a live-in son-in-law? There were already several out-of-province live-in sons-in-law in the village.
Although he was soft-skinned, delicate, and looked like he couldn’t do heavy labor, that didn’t matter—he was handsome. She could marry him and keep him as a vase to admire, a pleasure for the eyes every day.
From now on, he’d be responsible for being beautiful, and she’d be responsible for earning the money. In a couple of years, they could have two pretty kids, and wouldn’t that be a nice little life?
The more she thought about it, the more her heart stirred. The way she looked at Wen Qi carried a few degrees of blatant heat. Wen Qi felt a little bewildered—he had the strange feeling that something had set its sights on him.
With food in his stomach, a warm glow spread through him—it was the most comfortable he’d felt in recent days.
Tormented every day by the aroma of his neighbor’s cooking, he’d finally gotten to eat it today. He sighed inwardly—her cooking really was excellent.
Li Suian watched the man who’d barely eaten a few bites before stopping, feeling a sense of exasperated disdain. Eating that little—no wonder he was so thin. A cat ate more than he did!
She packed up the bowls and chopsticks, and thinking back to her earlier idea, she couldn’t resist the itch of curiosity. She began subtly probing him for information.
“Brother Wen Qi, how old are you this year? Do you have a girlfriend?”
In the past, Wen Qi wouldn’t have answered such questions, but Li Suian was his savior, and he wasn’t ungrateful enough to ignore her. His voice was cool and lacked energy: “Twenty-four. No.”
Li Suian’s heart blossomed with joy—no girlfriend, so she still had a chance, right? He was twenty-four, she was twenty, and their ages were a perfect match!
The young girl was so delighted she could barely contain herself, a hint of shyness coloring her expression. “Then, Brother Wen Qi, do you have any plans to find a girlfriend recently?”
Wen Qi was slightly taken aback by the question. He didn’t look at her expression, his dark eyes staring coldly ahead as if lost in his own world.
How could a man who’d been told by doctors he wouldn’t live past twenty-six think about finding a girlfriend, or hope for a future?
A bitter curve tugged at the corner of his lips, his heart aching with the same bitterness before he slowly spoke: “No.”
Li Suian’s little face couldn’t help but fall, all her little thoughts written plainly across it. If Wen Qi had looked at her then, he would have seen the disappointment spelled out in large letters.
But Li Suian wasn’t the type to give up easily. Once she set her mind on something, she’d find a way to make it happen. So she turned back to Wen Qi with a bright smile: “No plans right now is fine. A girlfriend will come eventually.”
“Oh, right, Brother Wen Qi, let’s add each other on WeChat. That way we can look out for each other.”
Having been rejected once, this time she didn’t sit idle—she directly pulled out her phone and brought up her QR code. She’d gone this far; surely he couldn’t refuse now?
Wen Qi was silent, his deep eyes glancing at Li Suian before he slowly took out his phone and scanned the code.
Fine. She’d saved him tonight; he owed her a debt of gratitude. Adding her on WeChat was convenient for thanking her later.
When Li Suian saw he’d added her, little flowers bloomed in her heart. Hehe, step one in chasing a man: get his WeChat. As long as he didn’t refuse, wasn’t there a chance for the future?
His friend request came through, and Li Suian quickly tapped to open it. The note on the request was simple—just two characters: Wen Qi.
So that was his real name. So it was this Wen Qi.
She accepted the request and glanced at his profile. His Moments were completely empty, and even his profile picture was simple—a lone ink-wash boat drifting across a vast, boundless expanse of water, lonely and desolate.
The young girl couldn’t help but frown. This man was truly cold and detached, even his WeChat reflected it. He was like an immortal who’d seen through the mortal world, ready to fade away at any moment.
Meanwhile, Wen Qi was also looking at the girl’s WeChat. Her profile picture was of herself, wearing a straw hat, standing in a field of sunflowers, her smile even more radiant than the blooming flowers. Her nickname was “Peace Year After Year.”
He thought to herself, her loud, fiery personality really did resemble a sunflower.
Li Suian was about to put her phone away when a WeChat notification sounded. She tapped it open and saw it was a transfer notification—from Wen Qi.
The young girl carefully counted the zeros in the transfer amount, her already large almond-shaped eyes widening into perfect circles. Ten thousand—he’d actually transferred her ten thousand yuan!
She couldn’t help but reach up and touch Wen Qi’s forehead. It wasn’t hot—it was actually a bit cool. He wasn’t running a fever, so why would he send her money?
Wen Qi was caught off guard by her sudden move, his head instinctively leaning back to avoid it, but unfortunately without success.
The young girl’s hand was warm, yet the texture was not particularly soft—he could even feel a thin layer of calluses on her palm.