When they came out of the hospital, light snow was falling from the pitch-black sky outside. White ice crystals landed on the ground, vanishing without a trace in less than two seconds.
The rows of streetlights outside the hospital lit up the floating snowflakes clearly in the air.
Bai Shuijin pursed his lips and touched his nose helplessly.
It started snowing all of a sudden, maybe even Heaven thought Wang Huanxiu had been wronged.
In Bai Shuijin’s hand was a plastic bag containing Wang Huanxiu’s spare splint, bandages, and some medicinal ointments.
As the two stepped out of the hospital, the driver who had been waiting outside all along drove the car to the roadside and got out of the driver’s seat to open the car door for them.
Bai Shuijin thanked him and bent down to climb into the car. At this time, Wang Huanxiu had already taken his seat on the other side. Between them was the central armrest box. As soon as the man got in, he closed his eyes and rested.
The car’s interior lights were off, so it was dim and gloomy, making Bai Shuijin’s guilt amplified in the enclosed space.
“Laogong-ge.”
He sat there, and because he had a slender frame, he looked like a little mouse wrapped in a thick quilt in his puffy down jacket.
He had once fantasized that if he ate properly, he could grow past 1.8 meters, but in the end, his height remained only 1.76 meters even in this lifetime.
Nothing in this world fully belonged to him, except his height, which was four centimeters short of 1.8 meters.
Because Wang Huanxiu was injured, they had left home in a rush so Bai Shuijin had only thrown on a down jacket over his pajamas and was still wearing the white cotton slippers from home.
He wiggled his socked feet inside the slippers.
Wang Huanxiu didn’t open his eyes. “What is it?”
Cold and indifferent.
Bai Shuijin mumbled, “Will you still watch TV with me in the future?”
Even at a time like this, Bai Shuijin was still thinking about that broken TV of his.
Wang Huanxiu didn’t respond.
Silence was tonight’s Cambridge.
**“Silence was tonight’s Cambridge” alludes to Xu Zhimo’s poem “Saying Goodbye to Cambridge Again”, where “Cambridge” is a symbol of quietness, melancholy, nostalgia, etc.
The only sound was the windshield wipers swinging back and forth.
However, the more the other person ignored him, the more tormented Bai Shuijin felt, like being thrown into a pot full of water and watching helplessly as someone added firewood underneath.
Bai Shuijin buried his head in his hands, his thoughts already running wild.
“Laogong-ge, will you still accompany me in the future?” Bai Shuijin asked again, drooping his head. “I don’t want to watch TV alone.”
His rainbow-colored hair instantly lost its shine.
Wang Huanxiu frowned.
So annoying.
But the pitiful, pleading voice made even the driver’s ears twitch. No wonder the boss’s hand got fractured, yet he didn’t even touch this little shorty.
Anyone else would’ve already caved in.
Just a few words of self blame, and all the anger vanished.
Maybe there was something wrong with the boss’s little finger? It broke with just one twist.
Wang Huanxiu opened his eyes, looked at the dim interior of the car, his eyes landing on Bai Shuijin.
“Then don’t watch.”
“If I don’t watch, I’ll be bored. I still want to watch with you.”
Bai Shuijin’s gaze dropped to Wang Huanxiu’s thigh.
Wang Huanxiu: “…”
‘So slapping his own thigh hurt more, huh?’
After getting a second life, the first thing Bai Shuijin wanted to experience in a normal person’s life was watching TV to his heart’s content. Not only were the shows interesting, but there were also handsome men on screen.
Although a phone was more convenient and could be used at any time and anywhere, watching on TV or with screen casting just felt better.
Bai Shuijin couldn’t bear to give up this activity that would help strengthen their bond.
It hurt almost as much as his 1.76 height.
Wang Huanxiu ignored him and went back to resting with his eyes closed. His little finger was secured in a splint and wrapped in thick bandages.
Bai Shuijin looked at the little finger. Wang Huanxiu had very good-looking hands, with long bones and distinct joints, but now the little finger was wrapped in thick gauze and looked completely out of place with the rest.
Although Wang Huanxiu never cried out in pain from the time they moved from home to the hospital, and then back again, he must have felt uncomfortable.
Maybe if he actually cried out, he’d feel better inside.
And maybe the reason Wang Huanxiu didn’t cry out in pain was because of his evil, domineering and overbearing CEO persona. A typical domineering CEO never easily admits to pain or fatigue, as doing so would break the persona. They usually endure in silence, and even if ten tons of cement were dropped on them, they’d still curve their lips into an evil sneer and say, “That’s it?”
Especially someone like Wang Huanxiu, a villainous CEO with a dark heart. But wouldn’t bottling it all up inside only make him more uncomfortable?
“Laogong-ge, aren’t you going to cry?”
Wang Huanxiu didn’t move an inch. Ever since Bai Shuijin came into his life, peace had become a distant memory.
When he gets home, the other party wants to chat while eating, after dinner it was watching TV, after that it was the hospital, and now in the car, the other party still had to talk.
He didn’t want to talk, so he just pretended to be dead.
The next second, his eyelids were pried open.
“Laogong-ge, are you asleep?”
Wang Huanxiu: “…”
Enough!
He sat up straight from the seat, and his broad shoulders instantly pressured Bai Shuijin into sitting back obediently.
“You didn’t fasten your seatbelt?”
After being reminded, Bai Shuijin realized it and hurried to grab the seatbelt on his left to buckle up. “Sorry, I forgot.”
“It’s fine if you don’t.”
Bai Shuijin turned his head and looked at Wang Huanxiu in confusion
Wasn’t it necessary to wear seat belts for safety?
Then he heard Wang Huanxiu say in a slow and faintly amused tone, “If we get into a car accident and your neck breaks, you’ll die instantly. No suffering.”
Bai Shuijin: “…”
Bad man!
He was scaring him! He was definitely scaring him!
Bai Shuijin quickly fastened the seatbelt, even reaching up to touch his own neck. “I’ll definitely remember next time. I don’t want to die. I can’t bear to leave you, laogong-ge.”
Wang Huanxiu let out a cold snort and said nothing more.
Seeing that he was at least willing to talk, Bai Shuijin didn’t dwell on the scare. After all, it was just empty words, while he had actually fractured Wang Huanxiu’s finger.
He whispered to Wang Huanxiu, “Laogong-ge, your hand must hurt a lot. Why don’t you scream out? I’ll pretend I didn’t hear anything.”
As he spoke, he covered his ears with both hands, blinking up at him in a flattering manner.
Crying out in pain when it hurt was the proper way to vent.
At this moment, the driver up front, as if infected by Bai Shuijin’s thoughtfulness, quietly raised the partition in the car, separating the driver’s seat from the back.
The driver muttered to himself, “Sir, just go ahead and cry out. I’ll pretend I didn’t hear it.”
From the back came Wang Huanxiu’s faint voice, “I can hear you.”
Driver: “…”
.
Once they got home, Wang Huanxiu didn’t even spare Bai Shuijin a glance and went straight up to the third floor.
Bai Shuijin wanted to follow, but his legs weren’t as long as Wang Huanxiu’s, and he was left behind after a few steps.
Bai Shuijin: “…”
Damn it. He must grow to 1.8meters tall in his next life.
The next day, Wang Huanxiu got up and went to work as usual. The driver took a thermal bag from Aunt Li. Compared to yesterday’s love bento, today there was an additional serving of soup.
Aunt Li rarely added soup to bentos, because soup was only truly delicious when freshly served. Even a slight chill would affect the taste, and thermal containers couldn’t preserve the flavor. So usually, bentos didn’t come with soup, unless it was a creamy dessert soup.
It was still that same pink thermal bag and lunch box. There was no need to guess who made it.
Whether there was soup or not didn’t matter. In Wang Huanxiu’s eyes, it was all poison.
“Don’t let him do this again.”
Aunt Li had never been bold even when she was young. Working in such a wealthy and powerful household made her even more cautious. However, Bai Shuijin was also the master of this house and she didn’t want to offend either side, so she asked nervously, “What if Young Master Bai insists?”
The smell of dark cuisine still lingered in his mind, and Wang Huanxiu’s face darkened. “Then let him try it himself.”
He turned and left, taking the car to the company. Once he arrived at the top floor, he stepped out of the elevator carrying the thermal bag. His assistant and secretary stood up, ready to brief him on the day’s schedule.
As a result, the first thing they noticed was Wang Huanxiu’s injured left hand.
!
The boss’s hand was injured?
“Boss, what happened to your hand? Are you alright?” As a subordinate, the assistant offered the highest level of corporate concern…flattery.
Wang Huanxiu replied coldly, “I got injured at home.”
The secretary and assistant exchanged glances. That same afternoon, the company’s private gossip group lit up again.
The group had been created by newly hired fresh graduates. At the time, the graduates had just joined the company and did not know the hardships of work. They would share daily life and fun stories in the chat. Then after passing internship and officially joining, well… there was nothing after that. Once full-time, it was as if they had died…completely silent.
No one spoke in the group anymore.
But ever since Wang Huanxiu got married, this group, which had been silent for days, suddenly boiled over.
Although Wang Huanxiu’s marriage had nothing to do with these employees, the melons of their immediate boss taste better than those of others.
Word was, Wang Huanxiu had married a clown-face.
The news of Wang Huanxiu’s wedding had hit the papers during the day. Though capitalists didn’t deserve empathy, when people saw that handsome face standing next to a clown-face, they felt a sudden pang of heartache.
The group was full of expressions of sympathy.
“From now on, all the boss’s sins are wiped clean.”
“This moment, the saying ‘white cabbage got trampled by pigs’ finally has a visual representation.”
“Why doesn’t the boss smile? Is he naturally gloomy?”
“How could anyone smile in that situation?”
But that night, after Wang Huanxiu hosted a video conference, everyone in the group was left dumbfounded.
“The boss could still hold a video meeting after doing it seven times in one night.”
“He still had on Jin Daying’s bellyband during the meeting!”
**Jin Daying is a concubine in the TV drama “Story of Yanxi Palace”. A belly band is an undergarment, like a cloth bib or chest wrap, usually worn by women in ancient times as a bra. The implication is that he had a meeting immediately after/without even changing.
“Maybe the boss never encountered vulgar and tacky things growing up, so he brought one home just to see.”
“If he likes vulgarity, he should’ve said so! I’ll send my cousin Chun Niu to give it a try!”
“There’s no need to pity him. He’s very into it.”
On the second and third days, the group remained fired up.
“The boss went to the company cafeteria on the second day of his wedding! He usually brings lunch. That means he wasn’t full from the love bento and went for more.”
“As expected, marriage is physically taxing. The boss was so exhausted he ate two rounds in the cafeteria.”
“The boss still ate in the cafeteria on the third day of marriage! His appetite is increasing by the day.”
“After eating at the cafeteria, the little wife called the company pretending to be concerned for his health.”
“The little wife really drained the boss dry.”
“The boss is now taking supplements overnight.”
And today, there was a new topic.
“The boss and his little wife were doing some kind of play and broke his hand!”
“As expected of the boss, he plays perverted.”
“Play is bad for your health. So what kind of play was it?”
“What kind of play? HR wants to know.”
“What kind of play? Marketing wants to know.”
“What kind of play? Planning wants to know.”
“The one of the HR department, don’t let me find out who you are!!”
The HR employee who had just been giggling while holding his phone immediately pulled his lips shut.
Fuck, the supervisor was in the group?
As expected, gossip was human nature.
.
Bai Shuijin got up early in the morning and went to the kitchen to make soup for Wang Huanxiu, then he went back to bed for a nap.
When he woke again, the sun was already high. He pulled his phone out from under the pillow and it was already eleven.
Bai Shuijin gave a satisfied smile.
Just in time for lunch.
He walked to the bathroom and washed his face. As he straightened up, he looked at himself in the mirror. In his previous life, he had never dyed his hair, and it had always been its natural black.
Now, looking at the colorful hair on his head, he thought it looked quite nice. He gave a shy laugh. Because he had just woken up, a few tufts of hair on the crown of his head were sticking up.
Bai Shuijin reached up and slapped it down.
Pa!
Flat.
He flew out of the bathroom in his slippers and went downstairs to have lunch.
He had another exciting activity today…using the gold card Wang Huanxiu gave him to go shopping.
After devouring lunch like a whirlwind, he looked at the clean, empty dishes.
Servants: Another day of normal performance.
After lunch, Bai Shuijin dressed up neatly and went out. Although it was winter, he didn’t neglect outfit coordination.
Actually, he really loved looking good. It was just that in his last life, conditions didn’t allow it. Otherwise, he’d have dressed like a little peacock for class every day.
He stood in front of the mirror mixing and matching left and right. His hairstyle was trendy, so his clothes couldn’t fall short either. The simpler, the less likely to mess up. He picked a light camel-colored coat, a beige knit sweater inside, loose wide-legged jeans below, and a scarf wrapped around his neck.
After admiring himself in the mirror for a while, he finally went out.
Bai Shuijin breathed in the cold air outside. The gold card in his hand shone brilliantly under the sunlight.
Now that he had money, he wasn’t going to be polite. He walked all the way out of the villa community, got on a bus, arrived in front of a sacred and solemn building, took confident strides forward, then turned right and entered the snack shop at the school gate.
“Boss, spicy sticks, twenty packs.”
What a wild and extravagant expense. Bai Shuijin didn’t even dare look himself in the face right now.
While the boss was loading spicy sticks into the bag, he walked to the refrigerated cabinet nearby.
The fridge was even taller than his 1.76-meter height.
Bai Shuijin: Bad review!
He stared at the various kinds of milk in the fridge, especially the ones in nice-looking boxed packaging.
He licked his lips.
Back in elementary school, the class signed up for breakfast milk delivery, and he was the only child who didn’t sign up…because he had no money, no family, and grew up in an orphanage.
To this day, Bai Shuijin still remembered those milk cartons shaped like little houses, and how he used to watch his classmates drink them with envy.
He had bought milk after starting to work, but life never gave him the luxury. It seemed he never once treated himself, always buying the one- or two-yuan bagged milk.
Actually, he was really grateful to Wang Huanshou, so he hoped the two of them could get along.
If he were still the stingy, frugal Bai Shuijin of the past, maybe he’d still drink bagged milk. But sorry, bagged milk, now he had money. He wanted boxed milk!
Maybe he’ll buy the bagged kind next time.
Bai Shuijin carefully and expectantly took a box of milk. It was an original flavor, with blue and white packaging, just like the little house ones from his childhood.
With his shopping done, Bai Shuijin carried his bag full of spicy sticks and milk and prepared to head home, bubbling with joy all the way.
Just as he was deciding whether to take the bus or the subway, a tight and numbing vibration suddenly came from the pocket of his coat.
His phone was ringing.
Bai Shuijin looked at the number. It seemed familiar. This number had called him before, but he’d hung up. Could it be someone he knew and not a scam?
He tapped to answer.
“Hello.”
“Why didn’t you answer last time?” The voice on the other end was noisy and harsh. “Forget it, let’s not talk about that. You hurry up and come meet us.”
‘Meet? First, who was the other person even?’
“I’ll send you the address. Come right away.” Li Jie was afraid Bai Shuijin wouldn’t come, so he quickly added, “Pei Zhiheng is here too.”
Beep… The call ended.
‘Pei Zhiheng?’
Bai Shuijin stood on the side of the street in confusion. Wasn’t that the main protagonist?
Since the other party was with Pei Zhiheng, they had to be part of the protagonist group.
Soon after, the location was sent over. It was a dessert café, not far from where he currently was.
He looked at the bag in his hand and his eyes landed on the box of milk.
Little flirty-milk, Daddy has business to handle right now. When Daddy’s done, he’ll go home and drink you hard with a big straw.
