There were hints of chagrin in his tone.
Zhou Xufang had no idea what had ticked him off, so she obediently stopped in her tracks. With a single finger, she pushed the umbrella back over to Jiang Zhi’s side.
“I’m already drenched so it doesn’t matter anymore. I know you can’t handle the cold well, so you should stay dry yourself.”
Jiang Zhi responded with a snort, adamantly holding the umbrella closer to Zhou Xufang’s side.
Using the light from a nearby streetlamp, Zhou Xufang looked up at his face. Raindrops that splattered off the umbrella had turned his hair soggy. The air of superiority that he maintained around him during the day was nowhere to be found at the moment.
He seemed so delicate now. Zhou Xufang pulled the hood of the coat he had wrapped around her over her head before running out into the rain, leaving him alone underneath the umbrella. However, she didn’t run too far off, stopping a few steps ahead of him.
“…”
Jiang Zhi’s unit was just a few steps away from the entrance of the residential park, but due to the heavy downpour, Zhou Xufang was completely soaked in rainwater.
She was wearing a pair of black canvas shoes tonight which had been soiled by mud thanks to the rain. She stared down at the carpet at Jiang Zhi’s doorway for quite a while and chose not to follow Jiang Zhi any further.
“Why are you still standing there?” Jiang Zhi asked while crouching down to look for a pair of slippers.
Zhou Xufang lingered around the doorway. “I’m soaked through so I might dirty your carpet.” That carpet seemed to be the expensive kind.
Jiang Zhi fumbled around his cabinet for a while before retrieving a pair of slippers meant for men in the smallest size he could find. Still crouched down, he placed the slippers by her feet. “I don’t have shoes for women, so use these for now.” Growing impatient, he urged her. “Hurry up and come in here. It doesn’t matter if you dirty the carpet, that is precisely the purpose of having it here anyway.”
His words made sense to Zhou Xufang.
Changing into the slippers, she finally stepped onto the carpet. This wasn’t the first time she had been at his home although, it had been a dark and windy night the last time she was here, so her memory of his place wasn’t too detailed in her mind. Even so, she could still remember quite clearly that she had smashed that lilac-glazed chandelier during that scuffle.
Tonight, there was already a new one hanging from the ceiling. It appeared to be made from crystals and looked similar to a wind chime. It was very pretty. In fact, Zhou Xufang thought it looked even prettier and more intricately crafted than the one at the porridge shop where she worked.
She couldn’t help but stare at it a few seconds longer before turning toward Jiang Zhi.
“Where’s the bathroom?”
Because she was drenched, her body was ice-cold to the touch. Despite this, she wasn’t too bothered by it as she did not fear the cold. What bothered her, however, was the fear that Jiang Zhi would catch a cold or something from her “coldness”, so she needed to warm herself up as soon as possible.
Contrary to what she feared, Jiang Zhi was actually feeling pretty warm. Too warm in fact. Even though they were in the middle of winter, he tugged at his shirt a few times in an attempt to cool himself down.
“It’s to your left.” His entire torso was also soaking wet but he paid no heed to it. The only thing he did was messily wipe his hair dry with a towel. “I’ll go get you some clothes first.”
“You should change into some dry clothes before doing that.” He was weak and delicate unlike herself. She could single-handedly take down a raging bull if she wanted to, so a bit of rainwater on her body wasn’t too big of a deal.
Jiang Zhi filled up a tall glass with warm water and shoved it into her hands before disappearing into his cloakroom.
Zhou Xufang held the glass with both hands as she waited patiently in the living room without moving a single muscle. A pool of water had even started forming underneath where she stood.
Taking a sip of warm water, she couldn’t resist the urge to look back at the chandelier.
‘So pretty. I feel like taking it home with me…’
“Again, I don’t have women’s clothes here.” Jiang Zhi re-emerged from the cloakroom, still wearing the soaking wet sweater. Before he had gone in search of some fresh clothes, his face had already been beet red, however, after reappearing in Zhou Xufang’s vision, the redness had somehow spread down to his neck and up to the tip of his ears. The neatly folded clothes he held were pure white in color. He pushed them toward Zhou Xufang. “Here, you can wear these.”
His neck was so red that Zhou Xufang began suspecting that a fever might have suddenly flared up.
“I’ll go take a shower now. You should go change your clothes too,” Zhou Xufang said as she hastily grabbed the clothes from Jiang Zhi’s hands.
He nervously averted his gaze and mumbled a response.
Hugging the clothes, Zhou Xufang suddenly turned back as she made her way toward the bathroom. “Jiang Zhi.”
His head turned toward her immediately. “Hmm?”
“Where did you buy that chandelier? I want one too.”
Jiang Zhi looked up at the ceiling.
‘How much did this one cost me? Oh right, 2 million yuan.’
With a calm expression, he replied, “I don’t think that’s possible. This was the last one for sale in the market.”
A sad expression made itself prominent on Zhou Xufang’s face.
She liked pretty things and would always get the urge to tuck them away safely the moment an opportunity presented itself. Next time, she would bring it with her to Moonlight Bay to gaze at for the rest of her life. Too bad the chance to buy this piece of art had disappeared. Her head lowered, she walked sullenly toward the bathroom.
Jiang Zhi then yelled out to her.
“What’s the matter?”
There were two rosy rings around his eyes, making him seem completely different from the stone-cold Jiang Zhi many knew during the day. Now, his gaze was heated and intense, his eyes glimmering as it reflected the light that was radiating from the chandelier.
“I’ll get my men to remove this fixture. You can bring it back home with you.”
She would have to work her minimum wage job continuously for a few decades before she could afford to buy this chandelier.
Zhou Xufang became euphoric the moment Jiang Zhi’s words entered her ears. Wide-eyed, she asked Jiang Zhi, “What should I get you in return?” Seconds later, she added, “We’ll exchange gifts.”
She did not like receiving gifts from others without giving something in return.
‘Should I get him a car? I know a lot of boys are into cars. A watch, perhaps? I could give him a diamond-encrusted one. Those look extra-beautiful.’
Jiang Zhi’s reply went against all her expectations. “Free-range eggs.”
“Huh?”
“I like eggs. You should get me some free-range eggs.” She should be able to afford that at least.