Ning Xi was woken up by her alarm.
She instinctively reached for her phone, fumbling around for a good while without finding it.
Her brain, forced into wakefulness, had only one thought: turn off the alarm, then snooze for five more minutes. After five minutes, she would definitely get up.
Not enough sleep. Simply not enough sleep.
Since when had the sofa become this spacious?
Ning Xi struggled to open her eyes.
When she realized she was lying in bed in her room, her mind went blank for several seconds.
Had she sleepwalked?
That shouldn’t be possible—she didn’t have that habit.
Could He Kezhou have carried her to bed?
The more she thought about it, the more she felt it was the only possibility.
She hadn’t felt a thing!
The alarm was in the living room, ringing like it was demanding her life.
Ning Xi threw off the thin blanket and went to the living room to get her phone.
The phone showed 8:03.
At home, unsurprisingly, He Kezhou was nowhere to be seen.
Ning Xi turned off the phone alarm, her peripheral vision drawn to the breakfast on the dining table.
A boiled egg, a plate of pan-fried dumplings, and a bowl of millet porridge.
Next to the breakfast was a stack of cash.
Ning Xi counted—there were sixteen bills.
She hadn’t accepted the money He Kezhou transferred, so he’d simply switched to cash and left it at home.
Ning Xi didn’t touch the money.
She touched the dumplings and porridge—still slightly warm.
It wasn’t hard to guess that He Kezhou had probably left just a short while ago.
A scene suddenly flashed through Ning Xi’s mind: He Kezhou carrying her back to the room, closing the door behind him. Washing up, going out to exchange money. Buying breakfast, bringing it back. Then rushing off to work.
Calculating the time, he’d only rested for less than four hours.
Ning Xi picked up the egg and cracked it hard against her own forehead.
She winced in pain, but her mind was now clear.
Time didn’t allow her to dawdle any longer.
She put down the egg and headed to the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face.
Outside, the sun was shining brightly, flooding the room with light.
Ning Xi applied sunscreen and used concealer to cover her dark circles.
After quickly changing and finishing breakfast, she headed straight to the community parcel station.
She’d barely stood at the entrance when a thick-soled green foam slipper came flying out and hit her.
She instinctively caught the slipper and looked down at her arm, now red from the impact.
That was some real force.
The onlookers, clearly enjoying the drama, helpfully told Ning Xi, “That kid bouncing around at the door is the station owner’s son. Five days a week he refuses to go to school, and every morning his mom has to give him a beating before dragging him off.”
The tall, sturdy owner, with one bare foot, grabbed her son’s ear and slapped him in return. “I’m asking you—are you going to school today or not?”
The boy, seven or eight years old and built like a barrel, was bleeding from the nose, crying and wailing, “Beat me to death, beat me to death, then I won’t have to go to school.”
“You think I don’t want to?”
That explosive roar made the bystanders scatter a few steps back.
Ning Xi clutched the green slipper and met the woman’s gaze.
She handed the slipper to her. “I’m here for the part-time job today.”
The woman snatched the slipper from her hand, her features twisted with anger, looking fierce and irritable.
She shouted impatiently toward the door, “Dongzi, come out and show her what to do.”
A boy with delicate features and a cap walked out from inside and waved at Ning Xi.
The moment Ning Xi stepped in, she was hit by the overwhelming smell of packages. Shelves stretched from floor to ceiling, and as far as the eye could see, there were packages everywhere.
On the ground were freshly delivered parcels that hadn’t been sorted yet.
The boy’s dark circles rivaled a panda’s, and his voice was weak as he gave her a few instructions before putting her straight to work.
Ning Xi took the phone and barcode scanner he handed her.
The work at the parcel station was tedious and complicated, and the boy never stopped moving.
Ning Xi first observed the shelf numbering and what the boy was currently doing.
After watching for about ten minutes, she crouched down beside him and began sorting parcels with practiced ease, moving the packages of all sizes just unloaded from the truck to their corresponding areas according to tracking number endings and shelf numbers.
The boy finally looked up at her. “When Sister Xi comes back, don’t talk to her on your own. She’s mean, fierce, and hot-tempered. Just focus on your work and you’ll make it through the day. When I’m free, I’ll teach you the shipping process. Ask me if you don’t know something. And don’t play with your phone when it’s busy.”
Ning Xi carefully noted his words.
Two storefronts, two floors of the station, with only Ning Xi and the boy who never dared to rest.
The workload was heavy.
She worked straight through until noon before she saw the owner return on her electric scooter.
For lunch, she took turns with Da Dong.
He told her to eat first. Since it wasn’t yet twelve, she used the lunch break to order a meal for He Kezhou and three iced Americanos to be delivered to the auto shop.
Why not other coffee? Because iced Americano was the cheapest.
Save where you can, spend where you should.
Ning Xi had originally wanted to call and ask He Kezhou if he had money for food.
If she asked, He Kezhou would definitely say he had money.
So Ning Xi just took care of it directly.
She sent him a screenshot of the delivery order.
Noon was a mini peak hour at the station, and she had no time at all to check her phone.
He was delivering a package for an old lady when he heard her elderly phone announce the time.
The delivery should have arrived by now, right?
Xiao Meng Auto Repair.
Zhou Zhishui took the coffee and food from the delivery guy and called out to He Kezhou, who was lying under a car, “Brother Zhou, your food is here.”
He Kezhou’s voice came from under the car, “I didn’t order takeout.”
Zhou Zhishui: “The coffee and food have your name on them.”
He smiled with a spring breeze in his tone, “Who knows, maybe some sweetheart is feeling sorry for how hard our Brother Zhou works.”
“Is it fixed yet? If it’s done, come out and eat.”
He Kezhou crawled out from under the car, covered in grease, and wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand: “You guys didn’t order this?”
Zhou Zhishui and Meng Yizhen had been subtly helping He Kezhou out over the past while. Every mealtime, they’d order a portion for him too.
He Kezhou didn’t stand on ceremony with them, but he also made it clear that he didn’t need their help. This was his own choice.
They were all straightforward people who disliked unnecessary words and melodrama.
Men understood men better.
After that, when He Kezhou cooked noodles at the shop for lunch or bought a ten-yuan boxed meal, they no longer felt he wasn’t eating well.
Zhou Zhishui said, “Not us,” “Brother Zhen is out running errands today. If it were me, I definitely wouldn’t order three cups of coffee.”
He reminded He Kezhou to check his phone, to see if anyone had messaged him.
He Kezhou wiped his hands with a rag and went to grab his phone.
The screenshot Ning Xi had sent was spotted by the curious Zhou Zhishui.
His expression turned a bit odd, “Your girlfriend ordered this for you?”
He Kezhou stared at the two screenshots in the chat window, his fingertips pausing briefly.
Zhou Zhishui looked down at the coffee, then at He Kezhou.
These three cups of coffee were clearly Ning Xi ordering for the three of them.
Was the sun rising from the west?
At any other time, he definitely wouldn’t drink anything Ning Xi ordered.
But today was an exception.
He was hot and restless right now, and this iced coffee came at just the right moment.
Zhou Zhishui took one cup without being asked, “Brother Zhou, I’m going to buy food. You eat and drink first.”
He Kezhou opened the delivery bag.
Three dishes and a soup, with two portions of rice. The portions were so generous that Zhou Zhishui, who’d returned from buying his own food, took several extra looks.
He remarked, “This place is really generous.”
That heartless woman Ning Xi had finally learned to show some consideration for her boyfriend’s hard work.
Zhou Zhishui clearly noticed that He Kezhou checked his phone more often that afternoon than any other day.
It was like he was waiting for someone’s message.
That afternoon, a middle-aged woman came to the shop to get her car repaired. Her headlight was smashed to pieces.
Zhou Zhishui stepped forward to help, only to hear the woman sitting in her car shouting into her phone: “I was blind to marry you, to end up with a man like you. No money, no companionship, and sex once every two months. If I could resist finding another man, I’d be doing myself a disservice.”
Zhou Zhishui nodded along as he listened.
He Kezhou’s gaze shifted from his phone to the middle-aged woman’s face.
The woman opened her car door and got out, “This is the right place. You guys really are easy on the eyes.”
Zhou Zhishui took half a step back and pushed He Kezhou forward.
He still hadn’t recovered from being flirted with by that older woman yesterday.
This customer service, he was passing on.
He Kezhou remained expressionless, his eyes only on the car that needed repairing.
The middle-aged woman’s gaze softened, and she said with particular bitterness, “My words are crude, but the meaning isn’t.”
“Do you have a girlfriend? If you do, treat her well.”
After speaking, she handed the car keys to He Kezhou and started wiping her tears.
Zhou Zhishui wanted to offer some comfort.
But this was a woman in her forties, not a girl in her teens or twenties.
He didn’t dare to spout random advice.
“What should I do to make a girlfriend satisfied and happy?”
He Kezhou’s question stunned both the middle-aged woman and Zhou Zhishui.
The woman let out an “Ah,” and said, “Enough material support, being there when she needs you. And most importantly, ideally having an exciting life every night.”
“If you can manage those three things, your girlfriend will definitely be happy.”
The seriousness in He Kezhou’s eyes made Zhou Zhishui’s eyes go wide.
He realized that He Kezhou actually seemed to be taking the older woman’s words to heart.
The woman’s car wasn’t a one-or-two-day repair job.
Zhou Zhishui saw the woman off and stared at He Kezhou’s back.
After his diagnosis, He Kezhou was truly lovesick!
That day, He Kezhou got off work early.
He used industrial laundry detergent to scrub the grease off his hands, then took a cold shower.
Coming out of the bathroom, he picked up his phone from the cardboard box.
The pinned contact at the top of his chat list hadn’t sent a single new message all afternoon.