On the fifth floor, at Chen Zhang Gang’s home. The bank colleagues had just begun their routine loan inquiry when Tang Yang heard a soft “boom” explosion.
Tang Yang looked towards the source of the sound. The bank branch manager whispered in her ear, “It might be kids playing with firecrackers downstairs.”
Tang Yang withdrew her gaze.
When the thick smoke reached the living room and everyone realized there was a fire, crimson flames had already licked up the TV wall.
Simultaneously, a neighbor outside shouted in panic, “Fire! The fifth floor is on fire! Didn’t you hear? Run quickly!”
“Chen Qiang!” Chen Zhang Gang instinctively ran towards his son’s bedroom, with several young male colleagues following to help rescue him.
Tang Yang was scared, but not small-hearted.
She ran to the entrance and opened the door, speaking rapidly to her colleagues, “Go downstairs and confirm your safety via WeChat. I’ll approve leave for the afternoon.”
“Manager Tang, you go first.”
Tang Yang looked back into Chen Zhang Gang’s apartment: “You all evacuate first.”
The colleagues hesitated no longer.
Xingfu Garden was an old community. The fire hydrant hadn’t been maintained and had long since rusted shut. Outside the building, withered Virginia creeper hung like cloth. As soon as the flames touched its tips, the entire outer wall ignited in an instant.
Xingfu Garden had eight households per floor, with a narrow stairwell. Unfortunately, it was lunchtime, and most families were at full occupancy.
Smoke billowed into the stairwell as people shouted and choked, rushing down. In the stumbling and pushing, it seemed someone fell, someone helped them up, and others stepped over them.
The security guard on the first floor shone a bright flashlight, repeatedly shouting, “Elderly and children first! Elderly and children first!”
Chen Zhang Gang and several bank employees pushed out the unconscious Chen Qiang. Tang Yang gave each of them a wet wipe and followed behind.
The group reached the third floor when the queue suddenly stopped moving.
Amidst the clamor and noise, someone started cursing.
Incredibly, even at this moment, someone was trying to move their newly bought refrigerator downstairs. The fridge was stuck in the doorway, and they refused to abandon it.
“Get out first! What are you doing down there?” Tang Yang inhaled a lungful of thick smoke. Glimpsing the people blocking the way below, she hurled her rolled-up documents down at them. “Get the f*** out of the way if you won’t leave, don’t block the path! There are still two floors of people above!”
The person moving the fridge dodged the documents, momentarily creating a one-person-wide passage. The bank manager and others, without time to marvel at Manager Tang’s shocking outburst, quickly and forcefully squeezed past, restoring order…
After Chen Zhang Gang’s group exited the building, Tang Yang, having let others pass, found herself squeezed onto the second-floor open terrace.
She saw the dense crowd below, flowing like a wind-driven river. In that river, she couldn’t believe but indeed saw Jiang Shiyan running from afar, repeatedly saying “Excuse me” and “Please make way” as he moved against the flow of people.
On the first floor, he disappeared from view.
Less than a minute later, he appeared before her, his face full of urgency.
“Why did you come up?” Tang Yang pushed him. “Did you forget some documents? Are documents more important than people—”
Before Tang Yang could finish, Jiang Shiyan grabbed her hand and turned to run towards the other side of the terrace.
They moved away from the main crowd, away from the chaos.
White plaster from the ceiling fell in flakes, along with broken wood and bent rebar.
Tang Yang’s heart was racing, and so was Jiang Shiyan’s.
Jiang Shiyan held Tang Yang’s hand tightly, very tightly, not letting go.
Jiang Shiyan led Tang Yang to the edge of the second-floor terrace. He jumped down along the drainpipe.
Tang Yang followed Jiang Shiyan’s steps onto the drainpipe but hesitated when she saw that the last section was over two meters from the ground.
Jiang Shiyan landed and reached out with both hands. Tang Yang softly said, “91 jin” (about 100 lbs). Jiang Shiyan nodded, panting. Without hesitation, Tang Yang jumped down. Jiang Shiyan leaned back slightly from the impact, then steadied himself, holding her securely in his arms.
The surroundings were in tumult, but in Tang Yang’s ears, she only heard two heartbeats, two breaths.
Rising and falling, intertwining like a competition.
The fire trucks arrived quickly, extending ladders and turning on water cannons. High-pressure water cascaded directly into the sea of flames.
As the evacuation entered its final stages, many people turned their attention to the couple in the corner.
“You came to find me just now?” Tang Yang gently pushed against Jiang Shiyan’s chest, creating some distance between them.
Jiang Shiyan’s gaze swept over her entire body, confirming she wasn’t injured, and smiled, “What else?” He lightly brushed the dust off her nose with his index finger.
Tang Yang’s nose tickled: “Is it that touching?”
Jiang Shiyan: “If I were inside, wouldn’t you come for me?”
Tang Yang: “Didn’t you just get out?”
Jiang Shiyan persisted: “If I were inside, wouldn’t you come for me?”
The remaining flames on the Virginia creeper cast a rosy glow on Tang Yang’s face.
“I would,” she answered, her voice as soft as a mosquito’s buzz.
Jiang Shiyan satisfiedly patted Tang Yang’s head, then messaged his assistant to take the other colleagues back to the company first.
Tang Yang’s scalp tingled slightly. She confirmed that all bank colleagues were safe, and Chen Qiang, with minor burns, had been sent to the hospital.
Tang Yang turned her head, about to speak to Jiang Shiyan when she caught sight of Zhang Zhilan trying to exit the side door with her two children, blocked by a fallen beam.
Thick smoke pursued the mother and children like desperate bandits. Tang Yang suddenly kicked off her high heels and ran barefoot towards them. Seeing her move, Jiang Shiyan ran even faster, reaching Tang Yang’s front.
“Clang,” “Thud,” the sound of breaking wood was incessant.
Jiang Shiyan carried out Min Mu and Min Lin. Min Lin, holding back tears, called for her mother.
Tang Yang stepped into the building to pull Zhang Zhilan. She pushed Zhang Zhilan out, and just as she was about to exit herself, a long, thin fluorescent tube above her swayed precariously, about to fall. Tang Yang couldn’t dodge in time. Jiang Shiyan rushed over, turning his back to shield Tang Yang in his arms.
“Crack,” the light tube fell.
Jiang Shiyan let out a muffled groan.
Firefighters rushed into the building to completely extinguish the fire, while security guards assisted the fire brigade in checking for casualties.
The fallen light tube was painful, but certainly not enough to cause serious injury.
Yet Tang Yang watched Jiang Shiyan take that blow, his face suddenly turning pale, large beads of sweat breaking out on his forehead.
Then, his hand supporting himself lost strength and slid down. His whole body, in extreme pain, slowly crouched down.
“Yan Gou, what’s wrong! What happened!” Tang Yang panicked, asking Jiang Shiyan while anxiously shouting, “Help! We need help here! Someone, please!”
The lingering smoke choked her, and her voice broke.
The ambulance had arrived earlier with the fire trucks. Doctors and firefighters quickly lifted Jiang Shiyan into it.
Tang Yang followed, watching the doctors and nurses examine him, the machines beeping with various indicators.
A sudden heart attack? But Yan Gou didn’t have heart problems.
Was his spine hit? Or something else…
Tang Yang scanned those indicator lights, her heart terrified, but her face maintained forced calm. She didn’t know if she was comforting him or convincing herself: “It’ll be fine… Yan Gou, you’ll be fine…”
Jiang Shiyan hissed in pain and moved his hand slightly.
Tang Yang instinctively reached out her hand.
Jiang Shiyan grasped it.
Jiang Shiyan looked at her anxious yet helpless expression, wanting to say so much.
But his lips moved, too weak to utter a single word.
Jiang Shiyan thought, that if he couldn’t speak, touching her hand was also wonderful.
Tang Yang’s hand was small, white, and soft, feeling boneless.
Jiang Shiyan caressed it over and over, growing increasingly heartbroken. His Yang Yang cared for him, his Yang Yang was worried about him, his Yang Yang was so anxious…
But damn it, he found even her flustered yet forcibly calm appearance so beautiful and adorable.
Jiang Shiyan couldn’t speak.
To Tang Yang, these actions looked like the helplessness of someone facing a severe illness.
Tang Yang couldn’t help but stroke his hair, comforting him: “It’s okay, you won’t die, you won’t die…”
Jiang Shiyan didn’t find this comforting.
Tang Yang naturally followed up by gently kissing Jiang Shiyan’s brow.
Soft and fleeting.
At this moment, Jiang Shiyan’s breath caught, and he truly felt he might die.
The ambulance raced to the hospital at lightning speed, and doctors and nurses rushed Jiang Shiyan to the operating room.
Tang Yang ran alongside the whole way. As the operating room doors closed, she leaned against the wall and slowly crouched down…
The fire, Jiang Shiyan coming against the flow of people, she saw Zhang Zhilan and her two children, Yan Gou protecting her.
Everything happened so fast, leaving no time to react.
“Did you come to find me?” “What else?” “Is it that touching?” “If I were inside, would you come?” “Yes”…
Tang Yang recalled a time when she and Jiang Shiyan were eating at the school gate and encountered some hooligans whistling and making inappropriate comments.
At that time, he was preparing documents for an exchange program in Taiwan, and every word and action was crucial. But even then, he had shielded her behind him, suddenly standing up and smashing a beer bottle at the hooligans, reckless and unrestrained, like a madman…
After a long while.
Tang Yang took a deep breath, went to the bathroom to clean herself up, then put on her shoes and touched up her makeup.
Upon coming out, she called Jiang Shiyan’s family, communicated with the doctor, and then answered a call from Fan Linlang.
“Are you still going to the meeting?” Fan Linlang asked with concern, “I just saw on Weibo that there was a fire on South Jin Street. Weren’t you there?”
Tang Yang thought about how Jiang Shiyan’s surgery would take a few more hours.
“Yes, I’m going,” she gave Fan Linlang a firm answer, then gave a few more instructions before getting into the elevator.
Tang Yang left the hospital and encountered reporters for an interview. She said a few words casually and hurried away.
————
No one died in this fire, and the property damage was minimal.
The cause of the fire was Chen Zhanggang’s son smoking but not finishing his cigarette, leaving half of it unextinguished. Then, during his afternoon nap, he accidentally knocked the cigarette to the floor, igniting some newspapers.
For such an incident, netizens could only derive one lesson – “remember to put out unfinished cigarettes” – and quickly lost interest. It didn’t even make it to the trending topics.
The affected neighbors, who usually argued and cursed Chen Qiang as a parasite, realized his family couldn’t afford much compensation, and their belongings weren’t significantly burned. They made a show of going to the hospital to have their blood pressure, height, and weight checked, but ultimately let the matter drop.
At seven in the evening, leaden clouds in the distant sky transformed the city, blending old and new, into a richly colored ink painting.
Tang Yang finished her meeting, returned to Huishang Bank briefly, and then came to the hospital to see Jiang Shiyan.
In Jiang Shiyan’s private room, his mother and others had gone home for dinner, leaving only Feng Weiran to keep watch.
Jiang Shiyan, still not fully recovered from the anesthesia, was playing a game on his phone with Feng Weiran.
Tang Yang’s lips twitched twice as she closed the door behind her.
Hearing the “click,” Feng Weiran saw it was Tang Yang and quickly excused himself, closing the door as he left. Jiang Shiyan turned his head to the side.
Tang Yang put her things on the coffee table and walked over, chuckling, “Are you sulking with me?”
How could he not be upset?
He hadn’t felt it when he was in pain earlier, but now that Jiang Shiyan was awake, he realized belatedly – he had been hit by a lamp and had acted so pathetically in front of Yangyang, even scaring her. How was this any different from heroically saving a damsel in distress only to let out a garlic-filled burp in front of her?
Thinking back to when he had accidentally caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror, with his features contorted in pain, Jiang Shiyan felt a moment of suffocation.
Tang Yang, seeing right through his thoughts, held back a smile: “It’s okay, you’re still handsome.”
Ah…
Jiang Shiyan hesitated for half a second between sulking and looking at Tang Yang, then turned his head back with a grumble, meeting Tang Yang’s beaming smile.
One second, two seconds, three seconds.
Jiang Shiyan called out: “Yangyang.”
“Hm?” Tang Yang raised an eyebrow.
Jiang Shiyan: “If I became paralyzed, would you take care of me for the rest of my life?”
Tang Yang replied seriously: “Yes.”
Jiang Shiyan: “If I had a terminal illness, would you stay with me until the very end?”
Tang Yang answered steadily: “Yes.”
Jiang Shiyan asked again: “Then if I were—”
Tang Yang finally couldn’t hold back anymore. She flicked his forehead with her fingers, both angry and amused: “If you keep whining about your damn acute appendicitis, you can forget about the porridge.”
Jiang Shiyan’s eyes lit up: “You brought porridge?”
“Vegetable porridge. You can’t eat anything else before your stitches are removed.” Tang Yang opened the thermos, and the aroma and steam wafted to Jiang Shiyan’s nose.
He couldn’t resist sniffing.
Tang Yang suppressed a smile, raised his hospital bed, then ladled out some porridge, stirred it to cool it down, and brought it to him.
While the porridge was still too hot, Jiang Shiyan asked about the progress and situation of the fire incident.
Tang Yang told him slowly while preparing some blanched vegetables for him.
Her voice was soft and gentle, more soothing than the dimming evening light outside the window.
When she looked at him with gentle eyes, Jiang Shiyan almost had the illusion that he and Yangyang had a child, and the child was in elementary school…
As they talked, the porridge cooled down enough.
Jiang Shiyan took a sip with his eyes half-closed. Perhaps it had been cooked too long; the porridge was a bit mushy. The roots of the bok choy hadn’t been removed and were tough to chew. The salt was a bit excessive, and amidst the saltiness, there was a strange hint of… had she added sugar?!
It took Jiang Shiyan only a second to identify the cook.
Meeting her expectant gaze: “How is it? Is it okay?”
Jiang Shiyan composed his expression and said: “Did you buy it from Ziwei Ge? Or Youran Ju? The taste of these two places is similar; I can’t tell the difference.”
Both were famous for their porridge.
Tang Yang happily said: “I made it myself.”
“Ah?” Jiang Shiyan feigned disbelief, “Didn’t you go to the meeting at Jiujiang this afternoon?”
Tang Yang: “Yes.”
Jiang Shiyan: “Did you make it to Jiujiang? Or does your office have a rice cooker?”
Tang Yang, slightly proud: “No, neither.”
Jiang Shiyan followed her lead: “Then?”
Tang Yang’s invisible tail was almost wagging to the sky, though her voice only lifted slightly: “I went back to Huishang after leaving the hospital, bought rice and vegetables downstairs, borrowed a rice cooker from Linlang, set the timer, went to the meeting at Jiujiang, came back after the meeting when the porridge was almost done, had my dinner at Huishang and brought it over to you,” Tang Yang said softly, “You don’t know, Linlang didn’t want to lend it to me at first. It took a lot of coaxing before she gave it to me.”
Director Tang’s work in credit review was quite confidential, and her habit of encrypting her speech was strong.
At first glance, it seemed she had coaxed Fan Linlang for a while before borrowing the rice cooker. In reality, it was Fan Linlang who had pestered her for a while, asking who she was cooking for and what her relationship with Jiang Shiyan was. Tang Yang, unable to deflect, had pushed her away with a red face saying, “Don’t ask, don’t ask.” Fan Linlang got her answer from Tang Yang’s expression and lent her the cooker with a knowing smile.
As Jiang Shiyan ate the porridge, he felt the warmth of the steam enveloping him gently.
Basking in Tang Yang’s gaze, his heart felt as if it were soaking in a warm spring.
Jiang Shiyan finished a mouthful and looked up at her, carefully yet trying to sound natural: “I suddenly feel like Yangyang loves me very much.”
Tang Yang reached out and nudged his spoon: “Of course!”
Jiang Shiyan was caught off guard as two pieces of candy were stuffed into his mouth, filling it with sweetness.
Perhaps feeling she had answered too quickly and decisively, Tang Yang felt a bit embarrassed.
“Is the porridge really good?” She forgot she had asked this question before and tried to regain some composure, pretending to be fierce: “Don’t you dare say it’s not good.”
Jiang Shiyan mimicked her tone: “It’s the best in the entire universe.”
So good that… I want to repay you with myself.
Look at this man lying without even thinking!
Tang Yang was secretly delighted but still wanted to tease him a bit. She put the vegetables on the side table and sat on the edge of Jiang Shiyan’s bed. She looked up with a smile, meeting Jiang Shiyan’s deep, smiling eyes.
Her shoulder-length hair slid a bit into her neck, making Tang Yang scrunch her neck from the ticklish sensation.
Jiang Shiyan leisurely helped her brush the hair out: “Director Tang…”
“Yan Gou…” Director Tang couldn’t bear to look directly into his eyes, her confrontational spirit deflating like a punctured balloon. She tilted her head slightly, her voice barely audible.
Jiang Shiyan gazed at her intently, his fingertips grazing Tang Yang’s delicate neck, accompanied by the ticklish feeling of her hair brushing the same spot. He called out in a low voice: “Tang Yang—”
“Buzz buzz buzz.” The phone on the table began to vibrate.
“Phone,” Tang Yang reminded him softly.
“Jun Xiaoyue…” Jiang Shiyan didn’t want to give up.
“Buzz buzz buzz.” The vibration continued noisily.
Jiang Shiyan persisted: “Yangyang…”
“Phone,” Tang Yang gently pushed him.
“Knock knock knock!”
This time, there was also a knock at the door.