Chen Jian stared at Shan Yu on the screen for a long time before finally saying, “I can tell you’re in a really good mood after going home.”
“Is that so?” Shan Yu’s lips curled up in a smile.
“You had a pretty pleasant dinner with Yue Lang tonight, too, didn’t you?” Chen Jian pulled the pants out of Shan Yu’s closet.
“Not calling him ‘Lang-ge’ anymore?” Shan Yu asked.
“You usually call him ‘Lang-ge’ so sweetly,” Chen Jian said. “I won’t mix myself in.”
Shan Yu didn’t say anything. He leaned back in his chair, feet propped against the desk next to him, gently rocking back and forth. After a while, he smiled and asked, “Is it hard to tell if you’re actually jealous right now?”
“Why would I be jealous,” Chen Jian tossed the pants onto the bed. “I’d rather be jealous of that leopard gecko than him.”
“Hm?” Shan Yu froze.
“He said you used to be in love with your leopard gecko,” Chen Jian held back a laugh.
“…Fuck.” Shan Yu paused for several seconds before suddenly bursting into laughter. “I really am too lenient with him normally.”
Chen Jian smiled without a word. He pointed the phone camera at the mirror and rested his fingers on the waistband of his sweatpants.
“You’re actually going to change?” Shan Yu stopped rocking the chair.
Chen Jian was wearing sweatpants today. He hooked a finger in the waistband and pulled them down slightly.
“Oh?” Shan Yu looked a bit surprised, pulling his legs down from the desk.
Chen Jian tugged them down a little further.
Just as Shan Yu leaned his face closer to his phone screen, Chen Jian hung up the video call.
Then he tossed his phone onto the bed, laughing to himself as he pulled his pants back up.
Shan Yu’s video call immediately rang back.
“Hello,” Chen Jian answered.
“Spit it out,” Shan Yu, holding a water gun on the screen, pointed it at him. “Where did you learn such a wicked trick?”
“Hang around a crazy person long enough, and you learn a thing or two. Don’t shoot, Boss.” Chen Jian raised his hands in surrender.
“I’ve never pulled that kind of crazy stunt,” Shan Yu said.
Chen Jian laughed, walked out of the bedroom, and sat back down at the office desk. Shan Yu’s laptop was still open on the desk, displaying that Breaking the Ice on Tourism document he had already read over three thousand times.
“Are you really just wearing sweatpants?” Shan Yu asked.
“I have underwear on too,” Chen Jian said.
“Pretty resistant to the cold, aren’t you,” Shan Yu noted.
“Don’t you usually just wear one pair of thick pants too?” Chen Jian said.
“That’s when I don’t leave the house. I always wear an extra layer when I go out,” Shan Yu said. “You’re constantly running in and out all day, and practicing driving on top of that.”
“I just took a shower, so I didn’t put them on,” Chen Jian smiled. “I’ll do one last patrol in a bit and then go to sleep.”
“Mm.” Shan Yu remained leaning back in his chair. With only a single desk lamp turned on beside him, half his face was bathed in soft, warm light. He looked completely relaxed and comfortable.
Chen Jian stared at him for a while, feeling himself grow a bit drowsy as well.
“Earlier, I…” he hesitated. “It’s not that I, you know, didn’t want to… it’s mainly that I…”
“I know,” Shan Yu started laughing. “I didn’t plan on doing anything either. I knew you were nervous.”
Chen Jian smiled. Propping his chin on his hand, he looked at Shan Yu, then glanced at the laptop.
“Is Nana going with you tomorrow?” Shan Yu asked.
“Mm,” Chen Jian responded.
“Having someone with you makes it less nerve-wracking, right?” Shan Yu smiled.
“A little, but not much,” Chen Jian said. “I’m still reviewing what you wrote.”
“It’s a meeting, not an exam,” Shan Yu said. “Think about it. There will be lots of people there, even guys like Da Li. They aren’t panicking, so why are you?”
“Honestly, I know that if you were coming with me, I definitely wouldn’t be panicking. Because no matter what happens, you’d be there to catch me,” Chen Jian said. “But now I’m the one who has to do the catching. It’s different.”
“You’ve been catching your dad since you were a teenager,” Shan Yu said. “What can’t you catch?”
Chen Jian thought about it and smiled.
“Now that I’ve said that, do you feel more grounded?” Shan Yu asked.
“Whatever you say makes me feel grounded,” Chen Jian said.
“Since you’re grounded now, go to sleep early,” Shan Yu said. “Whatever you say during the speech is what it is. The only thing that would truly look bad is if you fell asleep while the leaders are speaking.”
“Mm,” Chen Jian laughed, then leaned closer to the screen and whispered, “Hey, they’re providing lunch too. We’re eating in their cafeteria at noon.”
“The meeting starts at ten-thirty. It’ll be noon by the time it ends, so that’s standard,” Shan Yu smiled. “What’s there to eat in a crappy cafeteria? Take Nana out for something good.”
“Neither of us has ever eaten in that kind of cafeteria before,” Chen Jian said. “We want to try it. Plus, it’s fast, and we still have to buy a few things for the others in the afternoon… Hu Pan actually asked us to buy yarn. Said she wants to knit a scarf.”
“For who?” Shan Yu asked.
“Herself, obviously. Who else would she knit it for?” Chen Jian said.
“I thought she was knitting it for you,” Shan Yu said. “Since you two have such a good relationship.”
“Why don’t you knit one for me then? Don’t we have an even better relationship?” Chen Jian countered.
“Oh?” Shan Yu raised an eyebrow. “Getting bold now, are we?”
Chen Jian smiled without a word.
“I actually know how,” Shan Yu said. “But I only know how to crochet.”
Chen Jian froze, feeling like he hadn’t understood the sentence at all.
“Did you lag out?” Shan Yu whistled.
“You know how to do yarn crafts?” Chen Jian asked in utter shock.
“A little bit of simple stuff,” Shan Yu said. “Hats, scarves, that kind of thing.”
“Wait,” Chen Jian still found it hard to associate this activity with Shan Yu. “What specific series of coincidences led you to learn how to crochet hats and scarves?”
“My Eldest Aunt taught me,” Shan Yu said. “Said I couldn’t sit still, needed to temper my patience.”
“That proves yarn crafts tempering patience is a total myth.” Chen Jian stared at Shan Yu for a moment. Snapping out of it, he leaned over the desk, close to his phone. “Do you have time recently?”
“For what?” Shan Yu laughed.
“Crochet a scarf for me,” Chen Jian said.
“Don’t you always lose them? You don’t even wear them normally,” Shan Yu said.
“If you give it to me, I definitely won’t lose it. Plus, I don’t do odd jobs anymore. I’m a store manager,” Chen Jian said. “Store Manager Chen of Dayin. Store Manager Chen who’s going to the city for a meeting tomorrow.”
Shan Yu laughed for a long time. “A hat, then.”
“What kind?” Chen Jian asked immediately. “A baseball cap?”
“Fuck off,” Shan Yu said. “Are you ordering off a menu now? Only the simplest kind.”
“Deal.” Chen Jian smiled and nodded.
“Go to sleep,” Shan Yu glanced at the time. “I have to get up early tomorrow too. Trying to catch some sleep.”
“Where are you going early?” Chen Jian asked.
“Running errands. I’ll tell you when I’m done,” Shan Yu said.
“Mm,” Chen Jian stood up holding his phone. “Then go to sleep.”
“Goodnight,” Shan Yu said.
“Goodnight, baby,” Chen Jian said.
Shan Yu froze for two seconds, then started laughing: “Goodnight, baby.”
Chen Jian slept quite soundly that night. Although he thought he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep, he not only slept deeply but didn’t even hear the notification chime when Shan Yu messaged him a little past six in the morning.
[Fa Shan Ke Chen]:Morning, baby
[Chen Yu Luo Yan]:??
[Chen Yu Luo Yan]:I just woke up. Why are you up so early?
However, Shan Yu was probably busy and didn’t reply.
[Chen Yu Luo Yan]:Nana and I are heading to the city in a bit. I’ll call you after the meeting.
Sun Nana looked very pretty today—a sharp, capable kind of pretty. Her hair was tied up, and she wore a cropped woolen jacket. Her high heels were swapped for square-toed, mid-heel ankle boots.
“Morning, Leader,” Chen Jian said.
“Little Chen is up,” Sun Nana drank her coffee. “Hurry up, eat something, and let’s go. We aren’t familiar with the area, we’ll need time to find the place once we get there.”
“Mm,” Chen Jian nodded.
Zhao-jie made pan-fried flatbreads today, which smelled amazing. Originally, eating two was enough, but thinking about how he wouldn’t be able to eat Zhao-jie’s cooking during the New Year, Chen Jian grabbed a third.
“These flatbreads are huge, and you’re eating three?” Hu Pan sipped her soy milk.
“My dad’s cooking really isn’t as good as Zhao-jie’s,” Chen Jian said. “Gotta eat more while I still can.”
Hu Pan laughed. “I have a little snitch notebook here. I’ve already recorded several offenses against you over the past two days.”
With a piece of flatbread hanging from his mouth, Chen Jian turned back as he walked out, forming a finger gun and pointing it at her.
The moment he ‘pulled the trigger’, Sanbing—standing nearby—dove between them, taking the bullet for Hu Pan.
“Ah!” he clutched his chest. “Panpan, I…”
“I aimed for the head,” Chen Jian removed the flatbread from his mouth to clarify.
“I…” Sanbing didn’t give up, clinging to the front desk and struggling. “Panpan…”
“Bang bang bang!” Chen Jian fired three more rapid shots. Before Sanbing could continue struggling, he added a sound effect: “Boom! I threw a grenade too.”
“Fuck you, Chen Jian!” Sanbing cursed.
Chen Erhu laughed from the side. “You’re an idiot too. You said ‘Panpan Panpan’—that’s four syllables already. If you had said anything else, you could’ve formed a whole sentence. Instead, you died for nothing without saying a single useful word.”
Chen Jian walked out the door with a smile. Sun Nana had already pulled the car around.
“Do we need to pick up Old Ding?” she asked.
“No, Old Ding’s home is in the city, he went back for the weekend,” Chen Jian said. “He originally said he’d come back yesterday to pick me up, but I told him we’d drive ourselves and he could just head straight to the meeting venue.”
“Then let’s go,” Sun Nana slapped the steering wheel. “Yeehaw—”
“Hey,” Chen Jian was startled by her. Seeing how she slammed on the gas and bolted out of the courtyard, he quickly reminded her, “We’re going to a meeting, not a drag race.”
“I know,” Sun Nana smiled. “I’m just happy.”
“Happy to go into the city?” Chen Jian asked.
“The kind of happy where you can go wherever you want to go,” Sun Nana said.
“That Zhang guy of yours,” Chen Jian said, “has he been harassing you?”
“Not lately,” Sun Nana said. “I’ve contacted a lawyer. Going to finalize the divorce after the New Year.”
“Let us know when you go to see him,” Chen Jian said. “We’ll go with you.”
“Store Manager Chen.” Sun Nana turned to look at him.
“Hm?” Chen Jian replied.
“Thank you,” Sun Nana said.
“…I thought you were going to say something else,” Chen Jian smiled.
“I mean it very seriously,” Sun Nana said.
“Then I accept it very seriously,” Chen Jian said with a smile.
The meeting was held at the Culture and Tourism Bureau. Chen Jian had never been to this area before. There were many government offices around, giving the place an air of… he couldn’t quite describe it—majesty, perhaps? Yet simultaneously, bustling commercial streets seamlessly intertwined with these solemn buildings.
A distinctively decorated small shop glided past his window. Catching a glimpse of the store name, Chen Jian immediately pressed his face against the glass.
“What is it?” Sun Nana asked. “I didn’t take a wrong turn, did I? It should be right up ahead.”
“No, I’m just looking.” Chen Jian saw clearly that it was a reptile shop.
“We can wander around this area after the meeting. We should be able to buy everything we need here,” Sun Nana said.
“Mm,” Chen Jian nodded.
Old Ding arrived around the same time as them. They met up in the parking lot. The other representatives from Hongye Town had also arrived.
“Have you had breakfast yet?” Old Ding asked.
“We ate,” Chen Jian said.
“I brought a few steamed buns, afraid you might not have eaten,” Old Ding smiled.
“Homemade?” Chen Jian asked.
“My wife made them. Her steamed buns are top-tier,” Old Ding said, his tone brimming with pride.
“Then I have to try them,” Chen Jian said.
Smiling, Old Ding took a sealed food bag from his car. “Here.”
From the parking lot to the small conference room at the far left of the front building, a walk of about one minute, Chen Jian devoured both large steamed buns in the bag.
With every bite, Sun Nana turned her head to cast a glance at him.
After Old Ding stepped into the conference room first, she whispered in Chen Jian’s ear: “My god, you can really eat…”
“Nowhere to put them,” Chen Jian whispered back. “Plus, Old Ding brought them specifically for us…”
“You really are something,” Sun Nana sighed in awe.
Quite a few people had already arrived in the conference room. Some who lived far away had come early yesterday. Chen Jian found the placard labeled Hongye Town and sat down with Sun Nana.
He didn’t know the people sitting next to them, but they looked familiar; he had probably seen them in town.
Old Ding introduced them: The boss of Hillside Restaurant, surnamed Xu, a very thin older woman; the boss of the rafting and water sports center, surnamed Yang, a dark-skinned, chubby older man.
…Everyone else sent their bosses!
Boss Yang even brought an assistant.
Dayin brought an “assistant” too, but that was because the one attending was an unconfident store manager.
Tsk tsk.
It truly was a small meeting, though. About thirty people were in attendance. Looking at the placards on the tables, they were basically all from tourist spots around the Hongye Town area. Chen Jian only learned from the placards that these places existed nearby.
There was no host for the meeting. When the leaders walked in, Chen Jian glanced up: it was Lu Yun, along with someone he didn’t recognize.
The unrecognized man introduced himself as Lin-something from the Resource Development Department. He had a slight accent, so Chen Jian didn’t catch the name clearly. He then went straight to the point, inviting Lu Yun, the Deputy Director of the Resource Development Department, to speak.
“Thank you all for making the trip, and thank you for supporting our work,” Lu Yun said. “We won’t waste time with empty words…”
Chen Jian pulled a small notebook from his inner pocket, pen at the ready to take notes.
He glanced around and noticed quite a few people looking like attentive students in class. He felt he wasn’t the only one attending this kind of meeting for the first time.
That realization instantly relaxed him considerably.
“Recently, my colleagues and I conducted surveys and evaluations of the tourism resources in our area… The resources are quite abundant, but mostly operate in silos, lacking core cohesive attraction…” Lu Yun’s speaking pace wasn’t fast, and his voice was steady—very suitable for taking notes.
Chen Jian started a voice recording on his phone while furiously scribbling in his notebook. He had no idea which sentences were key points; he just acted like he did back in school—write everything down to look incredibly busy.
Sun Nana, on the other hand, elegantly propped her chin on her hand, watching Lu Yun speak and nodding occasionally.
About twenty minutes later, Chen Jian’s notebook was filled with two pages of chaotic chicken scratch. He felt that recording the audio was a very wise decision. With handwriting like this, forget about reading it later—even looking at it now, he could barely decipher it himself.
…And my hand is already cramping.
He put the pen down. While rubbing his hand, he caught sight of the back door of the conference room opening out of the corner of his eye. A receptionist walked in and seemed to point in their direction.
When Chen Jian turned his head to look, someone walked out from behind the receptionist.
The moment he got a clear look at the person’s face, Chen Jian felt his breath hitch.
It was Shan Yu.
Shan Yu’s lips curved in a slight smirk. Bending slightly, he walked over briskly and sat in the empty seat right behind them.
“Why are you here?” Chen Jian asked in a hushed voice, feeling his heartbeat thundering louder than his words.
“Just joining the fun,” Shan Yu whispered back.
