Through her haze, Chen Jia felt the person beside her get up. She half-opened her eyes and saw Xu An’an standing by the bed with his back to her, pulling on his shirt. The short sleeves fell into place, covering the three or four red scratch marks on his back. His lean waist was one Chen Jia had her arms around just last night. Xu An’an bent over to pull on his casual shorts, then turned back to see Chen Jia’s eyes slightly open on the bed, her black hair scattered across the white pillow, her half-lidded gaze still not fully awake. Xu An’an couldn’t help but feel a surge of tenderness. He gently stroked her head, his eyes deep and dark. Chen Jia didn’t catch what Xu An’an said to her, and in her drowsy state, she drifted back to sleep.
When she woke again, it was already nine-thirty in the morning. Chen Jia got up. Her clothes had already been changed by Xu An’an. Aside from a slight discomfort down below, everything else was fine.
It was Saturday. Chen Yue was sitting on the sofa watching TV with the volume turned very low—no wonder Chen Jia had thought she was the only one home.
“Where’s Xu An’an?” Chen Jia asked.
“Brother-in-law bought breakfast and groceries, then headed out. Sis, so Brother-in-law stayed over last night?”
Chen Yue was already twelve, and she winked at Chen Jia with a knowing look. Chen Jia frowned and turned to head into the bathroom.
After brushing her teeth and washing her face, she began eating the breakfast Xu An’an had bought.
It was her favorite—soy milk with steamed buns, still warm. She ate while scrolling through her phone and noticed a message from a classmate sent at ten-thirty last night that she was only seeing now.
The message was from Wan Suihe, Chen Jia’s high school classmate.
Wan Suihe: I’m getting married in City B on the 12th of next month. Will you come?
Wan Suihe: Also, I’m having another banquet in Anzhou on October 1st. If you can’t make it to City B, you have to come to Anzhou, okay? I’ll send you the invitation.
Chen Jia opened the e-invitation she’d sent and saw various photos of Wan Suihe and her husband, along with the hotel location.
Just as she was looking at it, the doorbell rang. Xu An’an opened the door, carrying a bag in one hand, his other hand on the doorknob. He nodded in farewell to the neighbor, then closed the door, changed his shoes, and came in.
“Who were you talking to?”
“Just your next-door neighbor. I ran into her on my way to buy groceries, and again on my way back, so we chatted a bit.”
Xu An’an was full of energy this morning, his handsome features especially pleasing to the eye in the morning light.
Chen Jia had a vague impression of the neighbor—she thought the woman was a real estate agent with a kid already in middle school. She nodded and focused on her food, not bothering to ask what they’d talked about. It was probably just gossip about her, anyway—what else could it be?
Xu An’an walked over, pulled up a stool, and sat down next to her. The scent of the same facial cleanser Chen Jia used wafted over. “What are you looking at?”
As he spoke, he was already looking down at the phone screen Chen Jia was reading.
Chen Jia said, “A high school classmate of mine—basically my best friend from back then. She says she’s getting married next month. I didn’t even know she had a boyfriend.”
Chen Jia had taken too big a bite and nearly choked on the bun. She took a sip of soy milk to wash it down. “The wedding is in City B on the 12th. I checked, and I have work that day. Taking leave means losing my full-attendance bonus and a day’s pay. Anyway, she’s also having a banquet in Anzhou, so I’ll just give her a red envelope then.”
Xu An’an nodded, watching her with those beautiful eyes until she finished her breakfast, then took her hand and led her back into the bedroom.
As soon as she stepped into the room, Chen Jia sensed something was off and scrambled backward. “What are you doing?! I’m still not feeling well!”
…
Xu An’an pulled out the ointment she’d just bought. “I just wanted to apply some medicine for you. I wasn’t planning anything.”
Chen Jia’s face flushed red. She tried to snatch the ointment away, but Xu An’an was tall and simply raised her hand higher, causing Chen Jia’s grab to fall short. “Give it to me. I’ll apply it myself.”
“I’ll help you.”
Resistance was futile. The curtains in the room were half-open, and light filtered through the layered gauze, casting a warm glow. The atmosphere in the room was both intimate and humid.
…
After finishing up with Chen Jia, Xu An’an was drenched in sweat herself.
She’d made her own bed, and now she had to lie in it.
Chen Jia finally managed to cool the heat in her cheeks and went to rummage through the groceries Xu An’an had bought from the supermarket, planning what to cook for lunch.
Having a little kid in the house was a hassle—otherwise, she’d just order takeout to get by. But Xu An’an actually enjoyed cooking and would nag Chen Jia about how takeout wasn’t good and that home-cooked meals were the freshest. What Chen Jia loved about her was that she’d take action herself rather than just voicing ideas and expecting Chen Jia to carry them out.
Chen Jia suddenly realized that in all the time they’d been together, she’d never once argued with Xu An’an.
Maybe it was because when they first met online and chatted about everything under the sun, they’d felt their values aligned perfectly. She’d thought meeting in person would ruin it—that classic “meet and die” scenario—but instead, their feelings had only grown stronger.
Chen Jia’s first love was the vice class monitor she’d had a crush on since elementary school.
She could still remember that face—single eyelids, thin lips, a handsome young look. But the early “white moonlight” had turned into a “grain of rice” later on.
Her second relationship ended over incompatible values. Chen Jia couldn’t stand being lectured about everything she did. She was just sharing her thoughts, but he’d tell her how she should or shouldn’t do things. When she got upset, he’d say, “I didn’t mean anything by it, just chatting,” and then the next time, he’d kill her enthusiasm all over again.
Good riddance to that breakup—it led her to Xu An’an, who suited her so perfectly now.
Early in the morning, Xu An’an had already disappeared into the kitchen, saying she was going to make soup for Chen Jia. Chen Jia couldn’t be bothered to deal with her and went back to her own room to blast the AC and play games.
She also wanted to admire her 300,000-yuan designer outfit in detail.
Xu An’an was sitting on a small stool in the kitchen when she received a video call from Mother Xu.
Mother Xu was lying on a beach chair, soaking up the sea breeze, wearing a pair of sunglasses. Seeing her youngest child, she greeted him, “Hello, son.”
Noticing the bright lighting on Xu An’an’s end, Mother Xu asked, “Aren’t you in country X? Where did you run off to?”
“Oh, I came back. Nothing was happening at sis’s place, and I got bored, so I came back to find my girlfriend.”
Xu An’an’s free hand was deftly picking through vegetable leaves.
“OK, fine. What are you doing?”
“Picking vegetables.” Xu An’an raised her hand and waved it in front of the camera. “Nothing important, so I’ll hang up now. I’m busy.”
“Alright then. My son’s all grown up—his mother won’t bother you. Bye-bye.”
Mother Xu hung up. Father Xu, who had been lying beside her with a towel over his eyes, sat up. “An has a girlfriend?”
Mother Xu sipped her drink through a straw and cast a sidelong glance at him. “Your son is 22 now, not 12.”
Father Xu: “…”
Father Xu: “What’s her name? Is she the daughter of someone we know in City C?”
Mother Xu: “Why are you asking me? Call him yourself.” Why did everything have to go through her? Was she a telephone?
Father Xu lay back down again. “I’m not calling him. Every time, I’m the one who calls him. How many times has he taken the initiative to call us? I can’t be bothered with him. Hmph.”
Mother Xu: “…”
The two were silent for a moment, then Mother Xu said, “Tingting did tell me last week that she’s seeing a student studying abroad over there—seems to be the eldest son of the Chen family from City B.”
Father Xu: “She dates several people in a year. I can’t be bothered to care who she’s seeing.”
Mother Xu: “Would you dare say that to Tingting’s face?”
Father Xu: “Why would I say it to her?”
Mother Xu: “…”
Even at their age, his personality was still much the same as it was over thirty years ago. Mother Xu wore a faint smile and said nothing, only speaking after a long pause. “Tingting mentioned last time that An’an’s current girlfriend comes from a very poor family, but she seems quite well-behaved and sensible. An’an even went to her place to play chef for her. Sounds a lot like you back in the day, doesn’t it?”
“Why bring up all that old history…”
“So how long has it been since you last cooked for me with your own hands?”
“…It’s not like every time I cook, you complain that it’s either too salty or too bland. You won’t cook yourself, but you’re picky as anything.”
“Fine, then.”
“…Are you upset?”
After dinner, Xu An’an stayed over again, and even bought new toiletries from the supermarket across the street downstairs. Her boyfriend had made himself at home, but Chen Jia didn’t react much—she just lay under the covers scrolling through WeChat.
Boss: Wanna game? Transferring 200.
Chen Jia: Sure, logging on.
Boss: OK.
Xu An’an finished brushing his teeth and pushed open Chen Jia’s door, only to see her sitting up, leaning against the headboard with headphones on, playing a game. She hadn’t washed her hair, but the ends were slightly damp from her shower, scattered messily over her bare shoulders. Xu An’an sat down beside her and watched her play. Midway through, she pushed him away once, saying not to sit so close, so he moved a bit farther and kept watching.
As the second match was picking heroes, Xu An’an suddenly pointed at the boss’s game ID. “Is this your friend?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Male or female? I noticed last round you kept supporting him the whole time—you didn’t follow the marksman even once.”
Chen Jia hadn’t expected him to notice that. When playing with the boss, the boss always came first in everything. Winning or losing the game didn’t matter to Chen Jia; what she needed to do was make sure the boss had the best experience possible. That was probably why this boss liked hiring her so much.
At that moment in the match, the boss finished picking his hero and showed off his national-level Jungler badge.
The boss was playing a character male players loved, and he was national-ranked. With his stereotyped assumption, Xu An’an asked, “Is he a guy?”
Seeing that Chen Jia didn’t respond, he added, “You haven’t played Lun Tianxia with me lately. You’ll play with your friend but not with me.”
The sourness in his tone was practically overflowing. Chen Jia couldn’t keep playing dumb anymore. She took off one Bluetooth earbud and said to him, “He’s a guy, but he’s not my friend—he’s just my client in the game. It’s two hundred an hour. Even playing half an hour in the guild war, sometimes I can’t even grab fifty in lucky red packets.”
“You still take companion-play commissions?” This time Xu An’an was genuinely surprised. The two of them had been together online and offline for quite a while now—how had he known nothing about this?
“Yeah, I started taking them before I even met you. Just to earn a little pocket money.”
Xu An’an found it hard to accept. Although he had never hired a game companion before, he knew that some people did it just to flirt. Chen Jia was in that line of work, so she was bound to run into all sorts of bad apples.
Seeing Xu An’an stop smiling, Chen Jia remembered the time in City C when Yan Qinggong had caught them together, and felt a twinge of guilt. She took the initiative to explain, “This is a client I’ve known for a long time. We usually just play games and rarely chat. Lately I haven’t been taking many orders, but for long-time regulars, I’ll still accept theirs—at most two or three rounds a day.”
She had originally wanted to bring up the abs incident herself, thinking it was better to tell him than to let Yan Qinggong reveal it. Just as she was figuring out how to phrase it, Xu An’an said, “If you’re short on money, I can help you. If you don’t want it as a gift, consider it a loan. It hurts me to see you playing games with other guys. Back when you were always following your master around, I kept thinking how nice it would be if you’d run dungeons with me instead.”
That time she’d been glued to her master’s side must have been before she got close to Xu An’an. So he’d already noticed her back then.
It sounded sweet enough, but Chen Jia still wasn’t happy. “But we weren’t doing anything—just playing games. Your master married his wife and still takes on disciples left and right, doesn’t he? I’ve teamed up with Chunfeng plenty of times too. How many people could possibly like me?”
“That’s not the same as duo queueing. With so many people around, it’s different. Playing alone together one-on-one just isn’t okay.”
Seeing Chen Jia’s displeased expression, Xu An’an felt unhappy too. “Unless you invite me when you play. I’m really good at Honor of Kings too. If he pays for one person, we’ll throw in two extra services for free.”
“…” Chen Jia ignored him and continued playing. After finishing that round, she turned off her phone, switched off the light, and got ready to sleep.
In the darkness, Xu An’an tossed and turned. Seeing that Chen Jia kept her back to him, he poked her. “Are you asleep?”
Chen Jia didn’t respond.
“Put yourself in my shoes. If I played games alone with someone else, just the two of us, would you be happy?”
Chen Jia was stubborn. “I wouldn’t care. It’s not like we can’t have social lives just because we’re together.”
“Fine, fine. If that’s how you want to play it, then I’ll go find a girl to play games with right now!” Xu An’an sat up, turned on the light, grabbed his phone, and started scrolling through it.
Chen Jia was also fuming, even angrier now. She got up and pushed him out. “If you want to play, go play outside! Don’t play in my room!”
Xu An’an was pushed into the living room, and his head cleared a bit. He hugged her firmly. “Why are you so angry? I’m not trying to control who you play with. I just think you’re working too hard for money when there’s an easier way.”
Chen Jia snorted. “You’re full of it. I don’t believe you. You just don’t want me playing games with other people. The fast ways to make money are all written in the criminal code—if I wanted to know, I’d just look it up.”
Xu An’an laughed softly. “There’s another way—marry me. My money is yours to spend however you like. I won’t do a prenup. What’s mine is yours.”
Chen Jia’s head shot up. “Huh? That line sounds exactly like those scumbags who say ‘quit your job, I’ll take care of you.’ Next you’ll be telling me how hard you work and asking why I can’t share the burden.”
Chen Jia was immune to both soft words and hard pressure.
Xu An’an, however, had other thoughts on her mind. “Marriage is, after all, two people forming a family. So when it comes to the distribution of family assets, you have a right to it as well. Nowadays, a lot of motivational talk says people should rely on themselves and endure hardship, but some hardships are meaningless to endure. If you want to suffer, why not learn business from me instead? The money you earn from that kind of hardship would still be more than what you’re making now.”
Chen Jia, who was naturally lazy, almost nodded in agreement before suddenly realizing, “Are you proposing to me?”
Xu An’an smiled, her deep brown eyes lowered to gaze intently at Chen Jia, saying nothing.
Chen Jia: “…” She almost agreed! That was close.