Holding the tanghulu, Wei Zhi felt completely unsettled. She stared blankly at the man standing in her room, who was frowning impatiently as he rummaged through the bags scattered on the table.
Seeing the discarded jelly wrappers in the bag, the man quickly withdrew his hand. He thought to himself, how could such a clean and tidy-looking young girl be so messy? A garbage bag was on the table, and not far from it, her snow jacket was tossed carelessly. Wasn’t she worried about the trash dirtying her clothes?
Feeling distressed, he picked up the garbage bag and threw it into the trash can under the table. As he turned around, intending to scold her, he unexpectedly met the starry-eyed gaze of the young girl nearby.
Shan Chong: “…”
Shan Chong: “What are you doing?”
The harsh words that had been rolling around in his throat were forcibly swallowed back. Compelled to change the subject, the man’s voice still carried traces of his previous tension, sounding somewhat stiff.
The young girl’s eyes darted around in their sockets. Clutching the tanghulu in her hand, she finally mustered the courage to ask after a long pause, “Did you overhear Lao Yan’s phone call with Nan Feng?”
At that time, there had been quite a bit of background noise during that call.
For instance, her rolling on the floor, demanding sweet and sour guobaorou…
And then—
And then.
Wei Zhi’s face gradually reddened. She wanted to wave a flag and shout, “Sisters, stop shipping random CPs online! Go fall in love, have a crush on someone, and ship your CP!”
You don’t know until you try it, but shipping your CP is truly intoxicating!
Eight horses galloping, racing through the river of an epic romance!
Nine dragons pulling a coffin, dragging the golden casket of marital bliss!
Thanks for asking, I’m at the hotel, just started my period, holding a diamond ring in my hand, not some candied hawthorn!
Her mind was in turmoil. Gripping the tanghulu, she wanted to ask if technology had advanced to the point where food could remain preserved for ten thousand years. If so, she hoped this tanghulu could be buried with her ashes seventy years from now, with an epitaph that read—
In this urn lies an elegant woman, and beside it, her eternally youthful heart.
She had imagined so much.
She was already considering which city and which street’s civil affairs bureau they should register their marriage at.
“What phone call?”
Just then, Wei Zhi heard the man ask from nearby, “I’ve been at the U-shaped pool the whole time. Did Lao Yan call Jiang Nan Feng earlier?”
The calm, deep voice, devoid of any nervousness, instantly pulled her back to reality from her daydream of crying in her father’s arms at her wedding.
Wei Zhi’s fingertips twitched. She wasn’t too disappointed by this answer. Obediently responding with an “Oh,” she sat down on the edge of the bed—her back straight, daring to sit only on the very edge. Tilting her head, she asked the man, “Why did you suddenly decide to buy this?”
“I came across it on the way back. It’s rarely seen around here, so I bought some,” Shan Chong thought for a moment, then added expressionlessly, “I bought quite a few.”
“Did you buy them for many people?” Wei Zhi asked, picking up her phone to check his disciples’ group chat—which was quiet. She was just thinking that it wasn’t that many people when she refreshed her Moments feed…
Well, it seemed the tanghulu seller had encountered a big spender today.
Wei Zhi’s Moments feed was flooded with tanghulu posts—
[Hua Yan: 「Photo」 It’s the end of the world! The guy who only sends out random red envelopes capped at 8.8 yuan on New Year’s Eve bought me tanghulu!]
[Yan Yan: 「Photo」「Photo」「Photo」 I don’t know what I did right, or if I did something wrong. I’m mainly just anxious about suddenly receiving a gift?]
[Lao Yan: 「Photo」 Master suddenly stopped the car halfway and bought a bunch of tanghulu??]
[Bei Ci: *burp*.]
Wei Zhi: “…”
Scrolling down, her eyes were practically washed with various images of tanghulu.
Wei Zhi: “You did buy quite a few.”
“Mm,” Shan Chong glanced at her, “Everyone got some.”
Wei Zhi: “…”
Alright, alright, no need to emphasize it. After that momentary flutter of the heart, I can regain my composure too.jpg.
Feeling the man’s gaze lingering on her profile, the subtle atmosphere floating in the air made her uncomfortable… She scratched her chin with her index finger and fiddled with the tanghulu, changing the subject: “You mentioned Altay earlier? Why are you suddenly going to Altay? Have you decided to go all out and compete against the whole world?”
Shan Chong was silent for two seconds, clearly not expecting her to ask so many questions in succession—
First about the tanghulu, and now about Altay.
This question was a bit difficult to answer, and he couldn’t easily brush it off. After all, he rarely made such impulsive decisions. If he had to give a reason?
It was probably because he was unhappy with that Wan Tong Tang guy, who persistently tried to lure away his disciple. What was wrong with him? He just couldn’t be driven away…
In Altay, there should be fewer people from Wan Tong Tang.
Probably.
But he couldn’t say that.
After some thought, he inadvertently recalled what Bei Ci had said earlier about the aging equipment in the snow park here. So the man paused and said, “It might be because the U-shaped pool here is old and in disrepair, making it inconvenient for training.”
Hearing this, Wei Zhi realized he was still fixated on the U-shaped pool. She muttered, “You don’t have to know everything.”
Shan Chong raised an eyebrow at her, clearly feeling that this matter was not unrelated to her.
Wei Zhi lowered her head sheepishly under his gaze.
Holding the tanghulu bag in her hand, she felt the crisp cracking of the candy shell under her fingertips through the paper bag. The sweet aroma wafted towards her.
The room fell into a brief silence.
“I’m leaving,” Shan Chong said, hands in his pockets. “If you’re not feeling well, get some rest.”
“Oh.”
As the man passed by her, she stood up and followed him to the door, her slippers tapping along the way…
However, as they reached the entryway, she stopped again.
The man’s eyes casually swept over the cake box that Wei Zhi had carelessly placed on the entryway table earlier. His long eyelashes fluttered, perfectly concealing any emotion in his eyes. “You already have dessert?” he said slowly.
“Huh?” Wei Zhi reflexively followed the man’s gaze, and upon seeing the cake box that Lu Xin had brought, she said, “No, Lu Xin brought it this morning…”
She paused, then added, “I forgot to eat it.”
After she finished speaking, Shan Chong didn’t say anything. He didn’t express satisfaction or dissatisfaction with her answer… He just kept one hand in his coat pocket while the other hung at his side, swaying slightly.
The tip of his tongue pressed against his teeth as the man took three seconds to consider how to handle this situation.
But he was not adept at thinking about such things—he couldn’t even understand why he instinctively wanted to “handle” this—just like he suddenly wanted to go to Altay to “handle” Wan Tong Tang…
In the past, he never paid attention to these things.
Now it seemed his eyes were full of them.
Tch.
It was quite annoying.
“Then why don’t you eat the cake?” The man turned slightly, looking at the young girl behind him, using a not-so-clever line, “You shouldn’t eat too many sweets in one day. You might as well give the tanghulu back to me.”
As he finished speaking, he saw her hand suddenly “pat” over the tanghulu.
Through the kraft paper, the fruit coated with a thin layer of rock sugar made a sound of unbearable crushing.
Wei Zhi didn’t care about that. Her bright almond eyes looked at him warily: “You’re taking back what you’ve already given? Besides, I’ve already crushed it, didn’t you hear—”
She grabbed the kraft paper and shook it vigorously, like a schoolchild shaking a bag of Little Raccoon potato chips: “Who are you planning to give this defective product to?”
“Me.”
“…”
After three seconds of consideration, the young girl grabbed the cake box and shoved it into his arms. “You eat this instead.”
She saw the man looking at the cake box in his arms, not rejecting it, but lazily lifting his eyelids to glance at her. “That’s not right,” he said in a completely insincere tone. “Someone gave it to you.”
“Unless they poisoned it,” Wei Zhi said, “what’s wrong with it? Right now I’m in the mood for something sweet and sour. You brought tanghulu, so let’s just consider it an exchange.”
As she rambled on, she continued to follow behind him, watching as he picked up the cake box, opened the door, and stepped out into the hallway.
Yawning, she was about to close the door when suddenly a hand reached out from outside, blocking her attempt to shut it.
“?”
What now?
“Yawning non-stop? One last question, what time did you go to sleep last night?”
Standing in the hallway, the man who was about to leave suddenly asked this strange question.
Wei Zhi didn’t understand why he was asking this and just wanted to tell the man that if he was reluctant to leave, he might as well stay for lunch—at most, she could call Jiang Nan Feng and ask her to bring an extra dish—
Of course, saying that out loud would earn her a scolding.
So even though she sensed the man’s unusual behavior today, she still answered honestly, “Two o’clock, maybe.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, she felt his gaze coming through the door crack, with a hint of coolness: “Were you busy making phone calls to others again?”
“No,” the young girl widened her eyes slightly, sincere and innocent. “No, I wasn’t.”
“Who did you call?” he asked. “SF Express? ZTO Express? YTO Express? Yunda Express? The neighbor’s brother?”
“…No,” she said. “None of them.”
“You finished talking to me just after midnight.”
“After hanging up, I still had to remove my makeup and wash up—why are you keeping track of such random times?”
The man outside the door was silent for two seconds. After a while, he withdrew his hand that had been blocking the door and suddenly said something seemingly out of nowhere: “It’s nothing. Fine, I’ll let it go this time. Remember, don’t promise things you can’t do. If you make a promise and then break it…”
He paused.
“I’ll be angry.”
Standing inside the door, the young girl looked up at his face, half-hidden in the dark shadows. Unable to see his emotions clearly, she wore a bewildered expression, full of question marks, unable to understand the meaning behind his words.
The air was filled with a confused atmosphere.
It seemed to affect the person outside the door. His brow relaxed as he said lightly, “I’m leaving,” and was about to turn around when the young girl suddenly grabbed his sleeve.
He was taken aback.
Looking up, he met her eager, knowledge-seeking eyes.
The man suddenly clicked his tongue: “It’s this exact posture.”
Wei Zhi: “Huh?”
Shan Chong: “Last time when you were drunk, what did you say while pulling my sleeve?”
He looked down at her calmly.
He watched as her face went from initial confusion to entering a state of comprehensive recall, then that confusion was gradually replaced by alternating red and green hues. Finally, she let out another “Ah” and then closed her mouth—
Of course, it wasn’t that her heart remained undisturbed. The tanghulu in her hand was instinctively crushed with a “crack,” breaking one of the fruits.
[Are you unhappy?]
[No.]
[Then I’ll call you next time.]
That day, she was much drunker than yesterday, barely able to stand, yet she knew to grab his sleeve and earnestly emphasize, [I’ll only call you.]
…
Ah.
So that’s what she said that day, like a fickle woman making rash promises when drunk—
Making a vow to him.
Behind the door, Wei Zhi’s face turned red from her neck to her ears, with steam practically coming out of her ears. She let go of his sleeve, retreating three steps in quick succession. Suddenly realizing what had happened, she raised her foot and “bang!” kicked the door shut!
Amidst the earth-shattering noise, the expressionless man was left outside the door.
Inside, the young girl’s legs went weak, and she slid down the wall. Her mind was blank, with only the crushed tanghulu in her hand emitting the sweet fragrance of fresh hawthorn mixed with rock sugar, wafting into her nose.
…
It was nearly noon when Shan Chong left.
Not long after, Jiang Nan Feng returned with the beef version of guobaorou. She had searched three restaurants for this dish, ending up with snow all over her shoulders… When she opened the door to the room, she discovered that the corpse that had been barely breathing when she left in the morning had now resurrected on the spot.
At this moment, Wei Zhi was wearing pajama pants, her hair tied up, sitting cross-legged in front of the computer, diligently gripping a stylus and updating her work.
While drawing with one hand, the other held a stick of tanghulu that she was nibbling on—
To be precise, it was the remains of the tanghulu. The fruits hanging on it had been unceremoniously crushed into hawthorn cakes. The bright red hawthorn slices mixed with sugar crumbs made a crisp “crunch” sound with each bite the young girl took.
The room seemed to be filled with a sweet fragrance.
“Did you go out? Where did you get this?” Jiang Nan Feng stared at her cheeks, puffed out from chewing. “Can you even eat these things during your period? Aren’t you afraid of excessive bleeding? It’s so cold outside, why couldn’t you just stay put if your stomach hurts? Aiya, are you throwing your life away for a bite to eat?”
“Not eating would cause more bleeding,” Wei Zhi grumbled, still working hard on her drawing tablet without looking up. “He bought it.”
“Who?”
“Shan Chong.”
Jiang Nan Feng paused in the act of taking off her shoes, looking at Wei Zhi in bewilderment. Her face clearly said, “What’s going on? Are you two together now and didn’t tell me?” Wei Zhi glanced at her, her face unperturbed: “Didn’t you check WeChat?”
“I’ve been running around like the busiest donkey in the village, searching everywhere for your guobaorou. How could I have time to look at my phone? I went to three stores, and with each extra trip, I wanted to scold you one more time.”
Jiang Nan Feng took out her phone and, following Wei Zhi’s reminder to “check Moments,” refreshed and saw that she too had been subjected to the tanghulu flood.
“Did Chong really buy the tanghulu?” She swiped her screen. “Oh, he didn’t just buy it for you, he bought it for everyone—wow, that’s a lot of people. I suspect if the vendor hadn’t run out, he might have wanted to throw a tanghulu party for the entire Silk Road Ski Resort.”
…How mean!
Wei Zhi didn’t turn around: “Thank you.”
Jiang Nan Feng: “For what?”
Wei Zhi: “Thank you for emphatically reminding me that I’m just one unremarkable freeloader among the masses, preventing me from getting dizzy, losing myself, being presumptuous, and losing face—”
“Don’t be like that, I haven’t even—”
“Oh, blame the tanghulu vendor for not making enough.”
“…At least the guobaorou is yours, brought specially for you.” Jiang Nan Feng placed the takeout bag in front of Wei Zhi. “Eat before you draw. What’s going on with you? You were dragging your feet when you were fine a few days ago, and now during your period, you were pale this morning but perked up to rush updates by noon. What kind of new suffering character setting are you forcibly creating—”
“It’s not that.”
Spitting out a hawthorn seed with a “ptui,” Wei Zhi said expressionlessly: “I just suddenly got some inspiration.”
…
That evening, “Eighteen Ways to Cultivate in Another World” was updated with many new pages.
Continuing from last time, after the female lead’s failed attempt to tease the male second lead under the table and angrily questioning if he was impotent, fans easily noticed that recent plot developments seemed to revolve around the female lead trying to win over the male second lead…
After various unsuccessful attempts, the male second lead, apart from having an exceptionally attractive appearance, remained as unresponsive as a wooden block from his soul to his eyes, unmoved by beatings and deaf to scoldings—
In this update, the otaku artist drew a very innocent scenario. Essentially, after several failed attempts at flirting, the female lead’s pride was hurt, and she finally decided to ignore the male second lead out of spite.
Coincidentally during a trip, the female lead hid in the carriage, silent and brooding.
As the carriage passed through bustling streets, she didn’t even glance outside… Her mind was full of the male second lead riding a horse behind the carriage, hoping the sun would burn him to death and be done with it. Just then, someone reported—
The dog guard had disappeared.
Oh.
The dog guard had reappeared.
This time, the guard hadn’t left his post in vain. Just as the female lead was about to explode in anger, the carriage curtain was lifted. The man on horseback bent down, his shadow covering her, and he handed her a package of osmanthus cakes for the wilting female lead.
…Moreover.
To disguise his unusual behavior, he bought a large number of osmanthus cakes, distributing them evenly, and even giving one to each horse pulling the carriage.
The guard was persistent, insisting on watching the female lead accept the osmanthus cake and eat a piece with a dark face. Only then did his eyes flicker slightly, and he remained silent and aloof as he lowered the curtain and whistled to signal the procession to continue.
On this day, the otaku artist’s update ended here.
Leaving fans in the comments section devastated—
Fan 1: Holy crap crap crap so it’s mutual pining ahhhhhhh what are you doing, dog guard!!!
Fan 2: Mommy, I want osmanthus cake!
Fan 3: Wuwuwuwuwuwu buying osmanthus cake is so sweet I’m dead why am I looking for plot sugar in 18+ comics and meat in innocent sugar comics it’s so frustrating ah is this the essence of human nature!
Fan 4: Ahhhhhhh the guard is so cute! I approve!
Fan 5: What’s with this plot? It’s so sweet!! Has the otaku fallen in love?
Fan 6: What are you waiting for? Haven’t you realized you like the female lead too? Damn it, throw those monthly tickets and start donating, baby, let’s go!!!
…
Omitting thousands of comments from “fans who followed the rhythm well and accidentally fell into the otaku artist’s innocent plot trap.”
In Room 1103.
The entire room was divided in two.
The left half was neat, everything in its proper place. An open suitcase lay on the bed, clothes folded neatly inside—
Clean and dirty clothes each occupying half, toiletries separately packed in a bag next to it.
Two pairs of snow boots stood beside the suitcase, freshly cleaned and spotless.
The right half was a mess, half-packed due to the owner suddenly stopping. The suitcase on the bed was carelessly left wide open, clothes strewn about.
Snow boots were scattered haphazardly, with a Nitro left boot closest to a Burton right boot.
Bei Ci lay on the bed amidst a pile of clean and dirty clothes, one hand propping up his chin, the other scrolling through his phone screen, earnestly reading none other than the otaku artist’s update today—
“Oh my, this guard… if he weren’t good-looking, he’d probably be a gold-medal contender for eternal bachelorhood.”
While criticizing, he frantically liked comments questioning “Ahhh what is the dog guard doing?”
Just as his hand was cramping from all the liking, the bathroom door opened behind him. Steam rushed out, and the man emerged like a celestial being accompanied by heavenly mist…
Fresh from the shower, Shan Chong’s hair was dripping wet, and a towel draped over his head. The hot steam on his eyelashes condensed into water droplets, making his entire appearance seem dewy.
Without his usual sharpness and arrogance, he seemed more down-to-earth.
Using the towel around his neck to dry his dripping hair, the man walked to the edge of the messy bed, raised his foot, and firmly stepped on his disciple’s backside—
Bei Ci let out an “Ow.”
The man’s foot didn’t move: “Your turn to shower, hurry up.”
“Don’t rush, let me finish this update…” Bei Ci said, suddenly remembering something and pointing at his phone, “Master, I just realized something terrifying. You don’t think there are parallel universes in this world, right—have you ever considered that in some dimension, you might be… a supporting character in an 18+ AV?”
Shan Chong paused in drying his hair, turned his head to give him a cold glance, hesitated, then asked: “Are you sick?”
His tone was quite serious—at least as serious as Bei Ci had been when he said “parallel universe.”
Bei Ci wasn’t offended at all and pointed at his phone: “Don’t dismiss it! Didn’t I tell you before that I saw a comic where a supporting character looked just like you? I remember showing it to you, and you didn’t even deny it… Hey, it’s this comic, and today again—that character who looks like you did the same thing you did!”
“What thing?”
“Covering your ears while stealing the bell.”
“…”
“…”
“?”
Under the man’s questioning gaze, Bei Ci patiently described in words how in today’s update by the otaku artist, the pitiful, humble little guard cleverly used osmanthus cakes to humbly and sneakily win the female lead’s favor. For the sake of her taking one bite of the osmanthus cake, he didn’t even spare the horses—
“Isn’t it just like what you did today?” Bei Ci scrolled through his phone, showing Shan Chong the close-up of the horse eating the osmanthus cake, saying, “It’s practically the same! When I received the tanghulu you bought today, Hua Yan’s expression was not just similar to this horse’s, it was identical—I knew this horse looked familiar when I first saw the comic—Let me screenshot it and send it to her to appreciate!”
As Bei Ci rattled on like a machine gun, unable to stop and attempting to provoke a beating, he was so immersed in the joy brought by the confusion between 2D and 3D…
That he didn’t notice the man had fallen silent.
With the major premise of “Master, you’re very similar to the guard,” regarding Bei Ci’s inexplicable and exaggerated description of the comic filled with words like “humble,” “careful,” and “awkward,” Shan Chong…
Didn’t refute a single word.
Even when he mentioned “not sparing the horses,” the man lifted his eyelids slightly and let out a lazy, brief laugh.
Meanwhile, Bei Ci had already sent the “horse-eating osmanthus cake” to Hua Yan. With Hua Yan’s “?” as the opening, at this moment, WeChat was buzzing with new voice messages arriving at a standard rate of insults, but he was unfazed and thoroughly enjoying himself—
“Maybe I do like your little junior sister a bit.”
The deep male voice reached his ears.
The world froze for about three seconds. Bei Ci, still holding his phone, stiffly and bewilderedly turned his head.
The man tossed aside the towel, sat down, pulled over the medical kit, and began wrapping a bandage around his right hand. His expression was calm as if that earth-shattering statement had never left his mouth.
He appeared very composed—
His issues, he considered most clearly.
Recently, he had been a bit unusual.
Although he didn’t know when it started…
Perhaps it was from the day he opened the car door, and she looked at him asking if he wanted a hug;
Perhaps it was from when she pounded the table, arguing with others that her master was the best in the world;
Perhaps it was from when she tugged at his sleeve, promising him she’d call him before SF Express, ZTO, YTO, Yunda, and other random couriers;
Perhaps it was even earlier when she preciously hugged the turtle he gave her, crouching in front of the inner protective gear and decisively shaking her head…
It wasn’t clear.
Anyway, he cared.
At first, it was just like raising a daughter…
Later.
The path took a slight detour.
For no reason, he wanted to look at her a bit more, even if after looking, his eyes felt strained, he still wanted to bring her in front of him to watch.
Hearing other people’s names come out of her mouth made him unhappy. Forget about the neighbor’s brother, even the delivery guy wasn’t okay.
Even when she proactively suggested that the neighbor’s brother might be able to get a discount on prosthetics, it wasn’t okay. A discount of over ten thousand yuan, he refused so decisively that even he was surprised.
Like this, was it enough?
He didn’t even care about real cash discounts anymore—
Was that still not enough?
In summary, Shan Chong calmly accepted his unusual behavior.
Only Bei Ci, who was fond of teasing, spreading rumors, and making up stories, suddenly caught off guard by hearing the subject say “You’re right,” was left in disarray.
The young biker moved his lips helplessly, thought for a long time, and fearfully squeezed out a sentence: “Not necessarily, right?”
Shan Chong gave him a cold sidelong glance.
Bei Ci: “Well… the situation is different. In the comic, the female lead flirted with the male supporting character first, and from the previous updates, it seems the male supporting character might have been secretly in love with the female lead for a long time. You’re different. You and little junior sister, what is that? At most, you held hands and pushed a slope. When you had a class, you left her without blinking an eye. And that tanghulu, right? There’s a vendor in front of the cable car at the top of the snow mountain. Last time I begged you to buy some for me and you didn’t agree. Maybe today was just a whim, a sudden bout of conscience—”
He rattled off a long explanation out of fear—
As the saying goes, play is play, jokes are jokes, and teasing can join in the fun…
Just don’t make such earth-shattering jokes.
Shan Chong: “When I bought the tanghulu, I didn’t even think of a single hair on your head.”
Bei Ci: “…”
That’s a bit hurtful.jpg.
Bei Ci: “This goes back to human subconsciousness. Just because you didn’t consciously think of me doesn’t mean you truly didn’t remember me. Perhaps my behavior of rolling on the ground in Chongli begging you for tanghulu is deeply ingrained in your mind—”
Shan Chong frowned, as if not understanding why he was still analyzing this at length, and glanced at him a bit impatiently: “If I didn’t like her, why would I buy her tanghulu just from hearing her mention her taste preference on the phone?”
Bei Ci: “…”
Alright then.
Wasn’t I trying to analyze this rationally and face it calmly?
And now you’re getting impatient?
Bei Ci: “But you bought some for us too.”
Shan Chong frowned: “Why are you arguing?”
Bei Ci, shocked: “I’m arguing?!”
Shan Chong: “It was bought for her, you all were just incidental.”
Bei Ci: “…”
Shan Chong: “Satisfied now?”
Bei Ci: “…”
Bei Ci: “Satisfied… but what are you trying to prove to me here?”
Bei Ci: “If you’ve got the guts, go tell little junior sister!”
Bei Ci: “Go on!”
Shan Chong: “…”
Bei Ci: “…”
Look, he’s gone silent again.
Can’t do it, right?
Heh.
Coward.