That evening, Xun Xun stayed in the guest room at Chi Cheng’s home. Initially, he adamantly insisted that no one had ever stayed in the guest room and it had collected a layer of dust. He sat cross-legged in the living room, watching Xun Xun busily clean, not only refusing to help but continuously complaining about her creating extra work for herself. Then he kept insisting that he only had one set of bedding with absolutely no spares, declaring he wouldn’t be responsible if she froze to death in the middle of the night. This continued until Xun Xun found a blanket in the wardrobe herself and closed the door right in front of him.
Yet he still wouldn’t give up. His persistence was so remarkable that Xun Xun could only marvel at it. Through the door, he tried every trick – cajoling, threatening, and persuading.
“Since you’ve already agreed to be with me, why are you being so distant?”
“Come to my side, can’t we just hold each other and talk?”
“Why are you always so stubborn? No one can see your virtue. Everyone who knows about your divorce already thinks we’ve been having an affair. Instead of maintaining a false reputation, why not make the rumors true?”
“Zhao Xun Xun, if you think you can string me along, you’re mistaken. I’m quite a catch right in front of you, and you’re not appreciating it. Be careful – once this opportunity passes, it won’t come again.”
Xun Xun found it amusing at first, but then it turned to helplessness. This was the advantage of youth – the ability to pursue someone relentlessly, stubbornly refusing to let go based on pure impulse. Like those persistent boys beneath the girls’ dormitory in their school days: I’ll wait for you, see if you come or not, come or not, you must come even if you don’t want to…
To be honest, for a woman accustomed to calm waters and routine, this had its destructive power. Xun Xun thought, leaning against the headboard, that if she were a few years younger if she weren’t such an overly cautious person, she might have already succumbed to temptation and opened the door to fall into his embrace. But reality was crystal clear to her – sometimes, relationships between men and women were like a game of chess; lose your patience, and you lose everything.
Finally, he seemed to tire out. In his frustration, he asked: “Zhao Xun Xun, you’re determined not to open the door, aren’t you?”
Xun Xun smiled bitterly, holding her head, and replied: “If you keep this up, I really won’t be able to stay here.”
Just as she finished speaking, she unexpectedly heard the sound of a key turning. Startled, before she could react, Chi Cheng had already pushed open the door and stood behind it.
“What are you doing…” Xun Xun unconsciously shrank back.
He unceremoniously threw the blanket he was carrying onto the small bed in the guest room, forcefully pulling away the wool blanket that had been covering Xun Xun’s legs.
“You win. Here’s the blanket, so you can’t say I mistreated you from the start,” Chi Cheng said fiercely.
Xun Xun was somewhat surprised. “Such sudden kindness, I’m finding it hard to adjust.”
Chi Cheng retorted sarcastically: “Don’t get too excited. Don’t come crying to me if you change your mind in the middle of the night – even if you beg, I won’t open the door!”
Xun Xun bid him goodnight, but he didn’t respond, returning to his room with a dark face.
Shortly after lying down, Xun Xun heard the sound of paws scratching at the door, accompanied by low meowing. It was the timid old cat, who had finally reappeared after finding the living room dark and empty, wanting to return to its owner’s side.
Xun Xun quietly got out of bed and opened the door a crack to let the old cat in. At that moment, there seemed to be movement from the next room, and that door also opened slightly. Chi Cheng poked his head out, and upon seeing it was just to let the old cat in, he gave an indignant “hmph” and slammed his door shut again.
The old cat sniffed around, made a circuit of the room, and finally curled up at Xun Xun’s feet. It was the only familiar presence Xun Xun felt in this place. She lay with her eyes open, trying to recall everything that had happened that day. She had expected to be troubled by too many worries and thoughts, but before she could sort anything out, she fell into a deep sleep to the sound of the cat’s purring.
What Xun Xun didn’t expect was that the next day, she would wake up to Chi Cheng’s forceful door-pounding. She didn’t usually have a habit of oversleeping, and his increasingly urgent calls startled her out of bed. At first, she felt somewhat ashamed, as if he had caught evidence of her laziness during their first close living experience. However, when she hurriedly opened the door, she discovered that the sky outside the floor-to-ceiling windows was just beginning to dawn, and Chi Cheng was sitting fully dressed on the sofa, with the clock showing just six in the morning.
“I thought I was going to be late for work,” Xun Xun said suspiciously, examining Chi Cheng. “Do you always get up this early?”
He pretended not to hear and said, “Shouldn’t you, by all rights, get up early today and prepare a sumptuous breakfast for me to celebrate our new beginning?”
Xun Xun walked past him like a sleepwalker and quickly freshened up.
Chi Cheng continued daydreaming on the sofa.
“Let’s skip coffee today. Better to make porridge – you should know how to do that. Fried eggs would be good too, fully cooked, and I think there’s still bacon in the fridge. Or if you prefer to buy breakfast downstairs, there’s a place at the corner…”
Xun Xun walked back to the sofa like a sleepwalker and randomly grabbed two packages of instant noodles from the cardboard box.
“You’re giving me this to eat?” Chi Cheng couldn’t believe it.
Xun Xun said, “Didn’t you say last night that you love instant noodles? As it happens, I don’t mind them either.”
He paced back and forth, venting his frustration at the person cooking the noodles. “Sleeping next door to me at night, feeding me instant noodles in the morning. What’s the point of having a woman around?”
Xun Xun ignored him and shortly brought two bowls of noodles to the dining table.
“Are you eating or not?”
He sat in his original spot, expressionless and silent.
“I thought you must be hungry since you probably didn’t eat much last night, just drank. Well, I won’t stand on ceremony.” Xun Xun started eating by herself. “When I was little, every time my mom went on dates with men, I had to eat instant noodles at home. Who would have thought after all these years, the taste is still the same.”
After a few bites, she noticed from the corner of her eye that someone had sat down across from her. She smiled, half-coaxing, half-reassuring: “Go ahead and eat. These aren’t just ordinary instant noodles – before you ate them alone, now there are two of us. To celebrate, I even added an egg, fully cooked!”
Chi Cheng finally picked up his chopsticks and after a few bites asked, “Do you still want to go back to the company? It’s fine if you’d rather stay at home.”
Xun Xun silently stirred her noodles for a while before saying, “If you think I’m embarrassing you by staying at Yao Kai, I can find another job.”
“That’s not what I meant. I just want you to know that whatever life Xie Ping Ning could give you, I can provide too,” Chi Cheng said. “Of course, it would be better if you could stay. As you can see, people’s loyalties are divided at the company now. With you there, at least I know I have… someone I can trust.”
Xun Xun thought of Sun Yi Fan, Chen Zhou, Zhou Rui Sheng… and all those colleagues who either belonged to different factions or were still waiting to see which way the wind would blow, and she felt a headache coming on.
“I don’t even know if I can help you,” she was still hesitant about whether to tell Chi Cheng about Sun Yi Fan’s unusual behavior and dissatisfaction. Not telling seemed disloyal to him, but telling seemed dishonorable. Although Xun Xun despised Sun Yi Fan’s approach to relationships, it was a private matter, and she had no intention of adding fuel to the fire of men’s power struggles.
“Just do your job and let me see you – that’s help enough,” Chi Cheng finished eating and pushed his bowl toward her. “You’re washing dishes today!”
After cleaning up, Xun Xun went to the company in Chi Cheng’s car. She had him drop her off at the bus stop in front of the building, and she walked to the office.
With Spring Festival approaching, the entire company seemed to have collectively fallen into a pre-holiday syndrome. Everyone was just counting down the days until the holiday, most having lost interest in work. Even though Zhou Rui Sheng was still making a fuss about maintaining work discipline, few paid attention to him, and with Chi Cheng seemingly indifferent as well, everyone was discussing their holiday plans.
When Zhou Rui Sheng saw Xun Xun, his smile carried hints of fawning and unnatural intimacy. He tried several times to find an opportunity to speak with her, perhaps wanting to explain his relationship with Sister Yan Li. Xun Xun felt nauseated by his attempt to curry favor while maintaining a facade of elder family-like affection, but she couldn’t say anything and just quietly maintained her distance from him.
Sun Yi Fan wasn’t at the company, reportedly out visiting clients, but Chen Zhou seemed particularly cheerful. Several times when Xun Xun looked up from her computer, she caught glimpses of Chen Zhou’s unconscious smiles – that special radiance unique to women in love. Xun Xun felt it was a waste. Though she had never experienced the feeling of being consumed by thoughts of someone, it was precisely because she hadn’t that she saw it as something precious – even if not accepted, it shouldn’t be tainted or squandered. But she couldn’t say anything, not knowing if Sun Yi Fan had mentioned her to Chen Zhou or how he might have described things. Her position was awkward now; one wrong move could make an enemy of Chen Zhou.
She returned to her work, and during brief moments of daydreaming, she noticed colleagues coming and going from Chi Cheng’s office. When the door opened, she could catch brief glimpses of him sitting behind his desk. Since arriving at the company, they hadn’t directly interacted. No wonder people said office romances had their subtle complexities – two people intimate in private, sitting formally in nearby cubicles, like having a mosquito bite and deliberately not scratching it.
For some reason, Chi Cheng didn’t look well, always seeming somewhat distracted – perhaps he hadn’t slept well last night. While Xun Xun was lost in these thoughts, she was startled by a ringtone.
“Little dimple, long eyelashes, hopelessly enchanting, I can’t sleep every night…”
She thought to herself, who would use such a sappy ringtone – had love-struck Chen Zhou lost all sense? But then she noticed Chen Zhou looking back at her with an equally disgusted expression. Her heart jumped as she felt her bag – it was her phone ringing.
Xun Xun answered the phone with mortification. Sure enough, it was Chi Cheng calling – he must have tampered with her phone while she was washing up or cooking noodles. As soon as she answered, he gleefully asked if she liked the special ringtone he’d set for himself.
Xun Xun lowered her voice and replied, “Please no, I can’t handle this kind of ‘praise.'”
Chi Cheng retorted, “You think I’m complimenting you? I have dimples too – you’re the one who can’t sleep every night!”
Before her goosebumps could fully develop, Xun Xun quickly asked what he wanted. This way of communicating made her feel like a thief, though aside from her guilty conscience, most people around wouldn’t possibly connect her with Chi Cheng.
Chi Cheng asked her to wait for him at the small café on the corner after work so they could have dinner together and buy an extra set of bedding for the house.
“I almost froze to death, soaked in cold water for an hour, then had to wrap myself in a thin blanket all night. If you won’t sleep with me, that’s one thing, but we need to buy bedding,” he said, followed by several well-timed sneezes.
When Xun Xun hung up, Chen Zhou’s look became meaningful, though more curious than malicious. Even Old Wang from accounting asked with a smile if Xun Xun had a boyfriend. Xun Xun just smiled, thinking it was better to stay silent than say too much.
During dinner, Xun Xun realized Chi Cheng hadn’t been joking to gain sympathy – he could barely speak a few sentences without being interrupted by sneezes, clearly having caught a cold. She felt somewhat guilty, after all, he’d gotten sick from being “honest” with her for too long. Chi Cheng took full advantage, frequently complaining of dizziness and insisting she support his arm under the pretense of needing help, making Xun Xun feel like Li Lian Ying attending to the Empress Dowager.
To get Chi Cheng to rest early, Xun Xun went with him to a nearby supermarket. In the bedding section, while she was examining the composition labels of two down comforters with a thrifty housewife’s instinct, she unexpectedly heard a familiar voice calling her name.
Looking toward the sound, it was Xie Ping Ning, pushing a shopping cart past them in an adjacent aisle.
Chi Cheng, who had been absent-mindedly browsing his phone beside Xun Xun, suddenly perked up as if he’d received an injection of adrenaline when he saw the newcomer. He put his arm around Xun Xun’s shoulders and greeted Xie Ping Ning warmly.
“What a coincidence, running into someone we know here.”
Though Xie Ping Ning’s face revealed nothing, Xun Xun could feel his gaze drifting between her, Chi Cheng, and the bedding in her hands.
“It is quite a coincidence. Xun Xun, it’s been a while.”
Chi Cheng seemed to be the most relaxed among them. He smiled and released Xun Xun, saying, “Why don’t I go buy some batteries, and you two can chat?”
Xun Xun said quietly, “It’s fine, don’t.”
Without Chi Cheng needing to create any drama, anyone with normal thinking would understand the implications of seeing two people shopping together for bedding. She felt somewhat uncomfortable, but on reflection, there was nothing to hide.
Xun Xun knew Xie Ping Ning had returned from Shanghai. In fact, after their divorce, she and Xie Ping Ning had maintained occasional phone contact, though it was mainly him initiating the calls. He had told her about everything that happened after going to Shanghai, including how he found Shao Jia Quan, how they decided to rekindle their past, and why it ultimately ended in failure.
Xie Ping Ning told Xun Xun that what he found hardest to accept wasn’t that he and Shao Jia Quan couldn’t make it work, but that when they finally decided to break through all barriers to be together, they discovered the person beside them didn’t completely match the shadow in their memories. They were used to obstacle courses but couldn’t walk on flat ground.
Xie Ping Ning was reserved, conservative, and traditionally masculine, while Shao Jia Quan was outgoing, fun-loving, and extremely independent. Previously, family opposition had cast a veil of mystery over their romance – love could exist on just a veiled, tender glance, but daily life eventually turned that veil into a cleaning rag. They argued over countless trivial matters and disagreed on the most ordinary choices, yet both expected the other to compromise out of love. The final break came simply because Shao Jia Quan insisted on having Japanese food after work, while Xie Ping Ning said he hated sushi and ramen. A regular dinner, a ridiculous reason, became the last straw that broke the camel’s back, leaving them completely disappointed in each other. In the end, the soup-lover had their soup, the noodle-lover their noodles, and if time could be turned back, they’d probably both wish they never had that later chapter, so they could at least blame fate and preserve that hopeless love. After his training ended, Xie Ping Ning gave up his plans for a position there and returned home alone.
When listening to Xie Ping Ning’s confessions, Xun Xun didn’t show much enthusiasm; on the contrary, she feared secrets forced upon her by others. The person who spoke felt relieved, like spitting out phlegm, but the forced listener had to make room in their mind for something not necessarily pleasant.
Xie Ping Ning was perceptive; he could sense Xun Xun’s indifference, but among those he trusted, she was the only one who both understood and wouldn’t overreact – he couldn’t exactly tell his parents these things.
He had asked Xun Xun if they could be friends since their breakup had been amicable – if they couldn’t be husband and wife, couldn’t they at least be friends?
Xun Xun had difficulty telling him the truth: she didn’t need this friendship.
“We’ll still be friends” – that’s what songs say, but in reality, with so many people in the world, why insist on friendship with someone who had been intimately close but then became estranged? After divorce, if there were no lingering feelings, better to go separate ways – no attachments, no grudges, and becoming strangers was the best ending. If they happened to meet, a simple “How are you?” would suffice, just like now.
Xun Xun politely greeted Xie Ping Ning, then waited for his equally polite “Fine” in response.
But Xie Ping Ning remained silent for a long while. Feeling awkward, she continued on her own, “You must be doing well. I’m doing quite well too.”
Chi Cheng’s expression suggested he’d just heard a bad joke. Xun Xun tugged at his sleeve, saying, “We’ve picked what we need, we should go.”
She nodded to Xie Ping Ning, “Goodbye.”
Chi Cheng carried the newly bought bedding and held her hand with his other hand. As they passed Xie Ping Ning, he suddenly asked, “Xun Xun, are you doing well?”
Xun Xun looked back at him.
Xie Ping Ning’s shopping cart was full of various ingredients. The store wasn’t far from his workplace; he must have come after work to buy supplies for several days. During their time together, Xun Xun had handled all these things. Xie Ping Ning rarely concerned himself with daily necessities; he had never even accompanied her to a mall or brought home a single vegetable on his own. Three years of marriage, over a thousand days and nights, couldn’t vanish like a spring dream, yet after separating, Xun Xun would remember the west-facing balcony of the Xie house, the endless laundry, his shirts, ties, and shoes, but rarely the face of the man himself. The Xie Ping Ning pushing a shopping cart before her now seemed completely unfamiliar.
At this point, what did it matter to him whether she was doing well or not?
Chi Cheng fidgeted with his phone. Xie Ping Ning’s question, though directed at Xun Xun, was essentially a probe and interrogation of him.
He waited for Xun Xun a moment, then shook his head.
“What’s the holdup? My head is killing me, let’s go home!”
Xun Xun had no choice but to support the “critically ill” man again. After a few steps, she couldn’t bear it anymore and reminded him, “Hey, you just have a cold, why are you limping?”