Chapter 4

Ji Zhou woke up before the alarm went off.
He pulled open the curtains. Daylight flooded in; orange-yellow light threaded through the clouds. Today should be a bright, sunny day.
After washing up, he walked out of the bathroom. At that moment, the front door opened. He first heard the rustle of plastic bags, then Tong Wen’s weary face appeared.
Yawning, Tong Wen shuffled into the living room in slippers. Seeing Ji Zhou, he lifted a hand. “Bro, I brought you breakfast.”
“Pulled an all-nighter?” Ji Zhou asked.
Tong Wen waved it off. “Everyone drank too much. We crashed in a private room for the night.”
Ji Zhou asked, “How many days are you planning to stay this time?”
Tong Wen set the congee and braised-meat buns on the dining table and asked gloomily, “Bro, are you kicking me out?”
Ji Zhou dodged the question. “You fought with your dad again?”
Every time Tong Wen fought with his father, he’d run to Ji Zhou’s place to hide in peace. This time was probably no different.
Tong Wen scratched his head and murmured a low “Mm.”
Ji Zhou pulled out a chair and sat down to eat slowly. Tong Wen probably found the reason for his “running away from home” hard to say. After awkwardly tossing out a “Bro, I’m going back to sleep,” he retreated to his room.
Sunlight poured through the floor-to-ceiling window into the living room. Ji Zhou looked at the now-closed guest room door and didn’t say anything else.
He’d always been like this: he didn’t pry into things people didn’t want to say.
At 8:10, Ji Zhou arrived at the hospital.
Xiao Gao at the front desk greeted him with a smile. “Dr. Ji, morning!”
Ji Zhou paused slightly, then smiled. “Morning.”
He went to the break room and changed into his work clothes. Then he took out his phone and sent a message: [Good morning.]
The morning schedule was packed, the same as every other day—so busy he could barely straighten his back.
Near noon, only after finishing a root canal treatment for a young man did Ji Zhou finally have a moment of breathing room.
After explaining the aftercare, the young man pushed the door open and left.
Ji Zhou washed his hands, then pulled his phone from his pocket.
Two missed calls were on the screen—from his aunt.
He called back. The line rang twice before someone picked up.
“Hello, Zhou.” Li Meiling’s gentle voice came through.
“Auntie, what’s wrong? I was busy just now and didn’t hear my phone.”
A nurse was cleaning up the treatment station nearby, preparing to disinfect the dental chair.
Ji Zhou pushed the door open and walked out of the clinic room, continuing the call at the end of the hallway.
“Did Wenwen run to your place again?” Li Meiling asked.
“Mm.”
“I tried calling him, but I can’t get through.”
Knowing she was worried, Ji Zhou soothed her. “He’s probably still asleep. I’ll have him call you back later.”
“With you there, I’m at ease. He always runs to you the moment something happens—interrupting your work.”
“It doesn’t interrupt anything,” Ji Zhou said. “Did he fight with Uncle again?”
“Yes.” Li Meiling sighed. “He wants to invest with friends to open a bar—over three hundred thousand each. Your uncle won’t agree. It’s not about the money. You know your little brother—he has a three-minute passion for everything. He’s never even held a job, and he wants to learn how to do business?”
Of course Ji Zhou understood Tong Wen.
To put it bluntly, the family had spoiled him too much. He’d never suffered, never taken a hard fall, and life had gone too smoothly—so his ideas were naive.
“If only Wenwen were half as sensible as you,” Li Meiling concluded, as she always did on calls like this.
Ji Zhou’s response was the same as ever. “I’ll talk to him tonight when I’m home.”
Li Meiling said, “I’m coming to pick him up today. He’s had enough. He’s a grown man—running away from home at the drop of a hat. One day his dad will cut off his cards, and then he’ll behave.”
Ji Zhou didn’t comment.
“Right, Zhou—what do you want for dinner?” Li Meiling asked.
“Anything,” Ji Zhou said.
“How about braised ribs?”
“Sure.”
After hanging up, Ji Zhou finally noticed three unread messages sitting quietly on his phone.
Mianmian: [Good morning~]
Mianmian: [Mm, wait, no—right now it should be good afternoon.]
Mianmian: [Have you eaten, bro? What did you eat?]
Standing by the glass window, Ji Zhou’s fingers moved: [Not yet.]
Mianmian: [[Image]]
Mianmian: [Let me show you mine—honey-glazed BBQ rice bowl.]
Ji Zhou opened the picture. The rice bowl looked appetizing. A girl’s slender, fair fingers hovered above it in a “V.”
Joice: [Mm.]
Mianmian: [You have to eat well too.]
Joice: [Okay.]
After the nurse finished disinfecting the room and came out, she saw Ji Zhou still standing in the hallway and asked strangely, “Brother Ji, why aren’t you going to eat?”
Ji Zhou put away his phone. “I just ordered delivery.”
“What did you order?”
“BBQ rice bowl,” Ji Zhou said.
After a brief pause, he added, “Someone said it’s really good. I’m trying it.”
The young nurse seemed to catch the scent of gossip and joked, “Someone? Your girlfriend?”
Ji Zhou’s thoughts drifted for a moment. He shook his head. “No.”
As he grew older, he felt less and less longing for marriage and love. He still couldn’t forget what he’d seen in the greenhouse at ten years old—under glaring sunlight, two bodies entwined.
The delivery didn’t arrive until half an hour later. Ji Zhou sat in the break room about to eat when his phone got another message.
Mianmian: [[Image]]
Mianmian: [Clean-plate campaign.]
Mianmian: [Getting ready to go out and see the dentist.]
Joice: [Mm.]
Mianmian: [If I don’t ask you about teeth, will you only ever say “mm” and “okay”?]
Joice: [No.]
Mianmian: [Then say something nice.]
Ji Zhou thought for a moment and typed: [Nice.]
Mianmian: [Are you messing with me on purpose?]
Joice: [No.]
Mianmian: [I’m starting to suspect you’re a robot assigned by the system.]
Joice: [Robots don’t eat. I do.]
Mianmian: [6]
The corners of Ji Zhou’s mouth lifted. For no clear reason, he felt a little happy. He set down his phone, mixed the rice in the box, and found it tasted better than he expected.
In the afternoon there was a short meeting. Ji Zhou got home a bit late. The moment he opened the door, a familiar aroma of food drifted out.
Tong Wen poked his head out and called, “Bro, you’re back? Mom’s here.”
Before his words even fell, Li Meiling came out untying her apron. She told Tong Wen, “Go bring the soup out.”
Tong Wen obediently replied, “Oh.”
“Auntie.” Ji Zhou stepped forward.
Li Meiling looked him over carefully, pained. “You’ve gotten thinner again. Work’s hard, isn’t it?”
“Not really,” Ji Zhou said.
“Once you get off work, you come home and there’s no one to talk to. You can’t keep going like this.” Li Meiling said. “If there’s someone suitable, go meet her. You should still date. Otherwise I always worry—you seem lonely.”
“Oh come on, Mom, stop worrying about it,” Tong Wen said as he set the soup on the table, blowing on his reddened fingers. “My brother has been chatting with a girl he gets along with recently.”
“Really?” Li Meiling asked in delight. She looked to Ji Zhou for confirmation. “Is that true?”
Ji Zhou reacted a beat late, but still nodded. “Yes.”
“What kind of girl is she?” Li Meiling pulled Ji Zhou’s hand and guided him to sit.
Two pairs of eyes stared at him—expectant and probing.
Ji Zhou answered with a straight face, “A very talkative person.”
Li Meiling: …
Tong Wen: “Talkative is good—complements you.”
Ji Zhou smiled faintly. “Mm.”
Dinner was cooked by Li Meiling.
Ji Zhou’s mother had died early, and he was almost completely estranged from his father. Li Meiling felt sorry for this nephew and wanted to care for him more, but the older Ji Zhou got, the more distant he became with her. He always said he didn’t want to trouble them—yet he never refused Tong Wen, again and again, coming to trouble him.
Li Meiling knew that deep down Ji Zhou still wanted someone’s company, so she never stopped Tong Wen’s once-a-month “running away from home.” In the end, he could only run to Ji Zhou, and it also meant someone could keep Ji Zhou company.
When she had time, she would also come over to cook a meal. No matter what, she wouldn’t let him go without feeling a shred of family warmth.
After dinner, Li Meiling grabbed Tong Wen by the ear and made him go back to apologize to Tong Jingcheng.
It was said Tong Jingcheng hadn’t slept well for three straight days. Lying in bed, he’d held Li Meiling’s hand and talked heart-to-heart: “How did I raise our son into this?”
Li Meiling had been bothered beyond endurance. With Tong Wen refusing to answer calls, she could only come and catch him in person.
Ji Zhou escorted them downstairs. Tong Wen went to get the car, while Li Meiling chattered with Ji Zhou for a long time. In the end she sighed. “Xiao Zhou, don’t punish yourself for other people’s mistakes. It’s not worth it.”
Ji Zhou’s expression stayed calm. “I know.”
After the car drove away, the phone in his pocket vibrated.
Ji Zhou took it out and glanced. It was the lady he’d evaluated as “very talkative.”
Mianmian: [I went to the hospital to apply medicine. I feel much better now. Food tastes good again too. The doctor said I should wait for the swelling to go down before getting the tooth pulled.]
Mianmian: [When the time comes, can I choose full anesthesia?]
Joice: [Not really recommended. Unless you have a special condition that makes it impossible to cooperate with an extraction, or your wisdom tooth is especially difficult and can’t be done under local anesthesia in an outpatient clinic, then we would consider general anesthesia.]
Mianmian: [Then can’t you consider my heart’s capacity? What if I’m really nervous, really anxious, and can’t cooperate with the doctor?]
In summer, the days were long. It was already almost eight o’clock, yet it still wasn’t fully dark.
There was no elevator in Ji Zhou’s complex. With each step, the motion-sensor lights lit up floor by floor. The dim yellow light fell on the white walls, giving the place a gentle softness.
Joice: [You can do it.]
Mianmian: [Does that count as encouragement?]
Joice: [Mm.]
Mianmian: [Then can you say a couple more encouraging words?]
Climbing the last step, he took out his keys and opened the door.
The air conditioner inside blew away the heat on his skin. He changed shoes, sat back on the sofa, and replied: [You’ve got this.]
This time, instead of typing, Mianmian sent an eight-second voice message.
Ji Zhou first heard a soft laugh, then the girl’s teasing voice, slowed down on purpose: “Doctor, has anyone ever told you you’re kind of… wooden? Like a human-shaped robot?”
Her nasal tone wasn’t as heavy as yesterday, and her voice wasn’t as hoarse. Her cold must have improved.
Ji Zhou tapped it and listened again.
Mianmian’s voice matched her appearance perfectly—clear and sweet, soft, with no aggressiveness at all. It made you want, very much want, to keep talking to her.
Joice: [No.]
Mianmian: [If you get familiar with me, you won’t be like this?]
Joice: [Mm.]
Mianmian: [Then how do I get more familiar with you? Can I chase you?]
Joice: […]
A long silence—though maybe it wasn’t all that long.
Today Ji Zhou hadn’t turned on the TV. Outside the window, cicadas chirped without end, making his thoughts restless.
This time she sent another voice message. Mianmian’s voice carried a smile, her rising tone sweetly coquettish.
“Doctor, are you easy to chase?”