“Just sleep in the room the auntie used before. If you want to watch TV, watch TV, but remember not to come to my room to bother me.”
Why on earth did things end up like this?
Gong Nanxing lay on his large bed, slapping his forehead in frustration. This all started back when he took in Little Bull, who had suddenly developed agoraphobia, and let him stay at the company.
At first, Gong Nanxing only thought Little Bull could come to the company to relax his mood and naturally feel better after chatting more with experienced models. Who would have known that this cow would stubbornly linger in his office, refusing to move even half a step, looking pitiful and asking to be treated as if he were transparent?
Are you kidding me? Someone this tall and dark, how could anyone pretend not to see him! Under Gong Nanxing’s ruthless expulsion, Little Bull’s ultimate compromise was to go play dead on the reception room sofa.
At lunchtime, Gong Nanxing felt pity for him again. Looking back now, what was there to feel pity for about someone so big and dark? But he would look at him with those begging eyes.
In short, Gong Nanxing invited Little Bull to have lunch with him again, even though it was just a serving of greens, a glass of juice, and a burger that could barely be called juicy. While eating, he couldn’t help asking out of excess curiosity: What is the cow going to do about skipping class like this? As a result, Little Bull told him that not only had he skipped his public class for the first time, but he had also asked for leave from his part-time job today.
At this point, Gong Nanxing finally realized the gravity of the situation. Little Bull wasn’t even going to his part-time jobs?!
“When I went back to the tree house last night, I purposely waited until my roommates turned off their lights before going in. I went to the express delivery pickup point to get my fruit and came right over. Big Brother, am I sick? Now, whenever I stay around other people for a little while, I feel like there’s this buzzing sound of people talking in my ears.”
When saying these things, Little Bull buried his head very low. Although Gong Nanxing couldn’t completely understand his feelings, after analyzing it based on his explanation, he felt that the cow must have suffered some kind of psychological shadow to become like this now.
“Little Bull, have you ever had the exact same feeling before?”
“Mm, sort of. When I was little, there was a parent-teacher meeting at my school. We performed a small chorus for the parents, and I was the lead singer. At the time, my dad was sitting down below, and for some reason, he just wouldn’t look at me. Whenever I looked at him, he would turn his face away. Back then, I felt, was I making him look bad?”
As Little Bull spoke, he bashfully scratched the back of his head.
“After that, I didn’t dare make eye contact with other people anymore, nor did I dare think about how others evaluated me.”
Gong Nanxing more or less understood the root cause of Little Bull’s ailment, but he couldn’t say any comforting words. Looking at the other person’s helpless, smiling face, he knew this was likely not a problem he could solve all by themselves.
“Are you going home for the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday?”
Unexpectedly, Gong Nanxing asked a completely different question. Little Bull was clearly stunned for a moment, then shook his head vigorously and answered, “I’m not going back. It’s not even because of those kinds of things, it’s just that going back takes over forty hours on the train. Big Brother, during those few days of the holiday, can I stay at the company too?”
“Why would you come to the company? Everyone is on holiday.” Hearing this, Gong Nanxing smiled helplessly. “All right, if you don’t want to stay at school, just come straight to my house. My family members are so busy they’re nowhere to be found and don’t celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival anyway. I’m also home alone.”
“Really!”
With the memory freezing on Little Bull’s smile clearing up from cloudy skies, Gong Nanxing turned off the bedside lamp and resignedly coaxed himself to fall asleep quickly. Fortunately, his house was big enough; even with such a massive cow staying over, if you didn’t look closely, you wouldn’t even notice him.
At least that was what he thought on that particular night.
Early the next morning, his biological clock dragged Gong Nanxing out of bed. Moving with the slow, deliberate pace of a deranged serial killer, he shuffled over to the bathroom for a simple wash-up to wake himself up. Using the remaining water on his hands, he casually brushed his slightly long bangs back from his forehead, and once again migrated to the balcony’s fitness area.
Perhaps because the room’s soundproofing was exceptionally good, when he opened the balcony door and suddenly heard the sound of a cow calling from outside, Gong Nanxing thought he had time-traveled.
“Moo, cow! What on earth are you howling about?”
“Wow! Big Brother! You’re up! Wow! The balcony of this living room is connected to your bedroom! Wow! A rotating mirror door!”
Unwilling to entertain Little Bull’s escalating chorus of wows, Gong Nanxing looked around and basically confirmed that the commotion was just the cow getting up at the crack of dawn to clean while singing.
Wait, how can anyone sing like a dying cow?!
Yesterday, he said that whenever he sang, his dad wouldn’t even dare look him in the eye because it was so embarrassing. It was clearly because his singing was utterly atrocious! Wasn’t it completely normal to find such terrible singing embarrassing?
Had really no one ever told Little Bull that his singing was terrible? Gong Nanxing’s words hovered on the tip of his tongue, swallowing them back. Just because he didn’t make eye contact while singing, the kid had worked himself up into agoraphobia. If he actually told him his singing was terrible, wouldn’t the cow shatter into a million pieces?
That would be way too troublesome and messy to deal with. He only liked eating beefsteak.
With that thought, Gong Nanxing forcefully swallowed his words back, though he felt a lingering sense of reluctance. So, he asked, “Little Bull, how did your class choose lead singers when you were little?”
“Loud voices, of course.”
Ah, case solved. Detective Gong Nanxing.
“Little Bull, you shared a secret with me yesterday, so today I want to tell you something too. Actually, I also have some psychological barriers.” Gong Nanxing smiled through gritted teeth, stepping closer to Little Bull inch by inch. “Actually, I cannot stand listening to people sing in front of me. The moment I hear it, I faint. Also, stop randomly sticking retroflex r sounds into everything.”
“How can that be!” Shocked, Little Bull covered his mouth, then suddenly remembered that talking was talking and singing was singing, so he dropped his hands and swore with absolute certainty, “I will never sing in front of Big Brother again! I swear it on a flower.”
Having gotten the exact answer he wanted, Gong Nanxing finally let out a sigh of relief and prepared to go back to his workout. Just as he turned around, he felt a sudden black whirlwind rush past him. Little Bull had somehow prepared a standard sandwich and held it out right in front of him.
“Big Brother, eat breakfast before working out, it’s healthy!”
Whatever, just do things the cow’s way, otherwise he would undoubtedly start whining with those big cow eyes from some corner of the room. Obediently, Gong Nanxing took the sandwich and walked over to sit at the dining table. Seeing how cooperative Gong Nanxing was, Little Bull was absolutely overjoyed, magically producing a fruit plate and the coffee Gong Nanxing loved.
“You, never mind, you must have worked in a coffee shop too.” So it wasn’t strange at all that Little Bull knew how to operate a coffee machine. Gong Nanxing instantly answered his own question, radiating a faint aura of total resignation. “Still, since you’ve done all these chores, how early did you have to wake up? It’s a holiday, you should rest more.”
“There’s no need to rest, Big Brother. Back home, at this hour, I would’ve already fed the livestock and plowed two mu of land.”
It was rare to find someone even more eager to make work for themselves than he was. Looking at Little Bull, Gong Nanxing started feeling an unearned sense of hero-meets-hero camaraderie. No wonder he could handle so many part-time jobs at once; he simply had an endless supply of boundless cow energy every single day.
“Your family has farmland, raises livestock, and grows fruit. Life sounds like it’s going pretty well, so why are you rushing around trying to earn money like this?”
Before, he had assumed that due to financial hardship and being the eldest son, Little Bull had no choice but to shoulder the family’s heavy burdens, working from dawn to dusk while balancing school and making money to support his household. He had even wondered whether he should find an anonymous channel to sponsor the cow. But adding it all up now, Gong Nanxing figured Little Bull’s family situation couldn’t possibly be considered particularly destitute, right? Could there be some hidden story?
“My family is doing okay. My younger brother isn’t great at studying, but he’s really good at growing fruit! The ones we’re eating right now were grown by him!”
The more he listened, the more confused Gong Nanxing became. Since their household income was decent and his family members were hardworking with good skills, was the cow really running around this busy just because he had excess energy burning a hole in his pocket? Seeing his expression grow increasingly puzzled, Little Bull’s cheeks unexpectedly flushed with an unnatural red tint, prompting Gong Nanxing’s curiosity.
“So you aren’t saving up money to date and get married, are you?”
“Ahem, no, no! I haven’t thought that much, I…” Little Bull choked on his water. By the way, this cow even had his own exclusive water cup at Gong Nanxing’s place. With the coughing fit, his cheeks turned even redder. Unable to hold it back any longer, Little Bull bashfully stammered out the answer for Gong Nanxing.
“Big Brother, please don’t laugh at me. Actually, I want to earn enough money to pave a road for our village.”