Chapter 10 – What are you crying for? I’m here now.

Shi Zhen didn’t expect Xie-ge’s men to arrive so quickly.

The urgent knocking on the door hadn’t stopped. Shi Zhen piled more things against the door and then hid inside the bedroom.

She had just finished the phone call, and not even ten minutes later, the noise outside ceased.

The soundproofing in the Yangguang Complex was terrible. Even inside the innermost room with the door shut, one could clearly hear sounds from the hallway.

Shi Zhen only felt the restless particles in the air go still for a few minutes before a gentle knocking resumed.

Was it… Xie-ge’s men?

Shi Zhen let out a long sigh and tiptoed to the door to listen carefully.

“Shi Zhen, little sis, don’t be scared. The bros are here.”

It sounded like a burly man.

Shi Zhen cautiously asked, “Are you the ones sent by Xie-ge?”

The man outside immediately answered, “Hey hey hey, yes, President Xie sent us. Don’t worry, sis. Uh, open the door, those guys have already left. We need to confirm you’re safe, otherwise we can’t report back.”

Shi Zhen straightened her messy hair, moved away from the barricade, and slowly opened the door.

With a creaking sound, the old security door opened halfway.

Outside stood three burly men. One of them had a scar running straight across his nose.

To the left of the scar-faced man was a tall and slender young man with delicate features. On the right was a man just as muscular, wearing sunglasses.

Four pairs of eyes stared at each other. Shi Zhen’s social anxiety suddenly flared up.

She swallowed nervously and said, “Bros, th-thank you for the trouble, I…”

“No trouble at all, sis. It’s fine as long as you’re okay.”

Scar-face scratched his head with a goofy grin. “Let’s introduce ourselves first. We don’t go by real names—just nicknames.”

Shi Zhen nodded, about to speak, when the three men startled her with their next move.

They immediately stood straight and saluted in unison, then stared resolutely at the blank white wall in front of them.

Their loud voices echoed through the tiny room.

Scar-face: “Tiez Security, Number 34, Zhaocai.”

Sunglasses guy: “Tiez Security, Number 56, Jinbao.”

Young man: “Tiez Security, Number 105, Mickey.”

“All at your service, Shi Zhen, little sis.”

The three shouted the company slogan in unison, then solemnly bowed to her.

Shi Zhen was completely stunned. If she was socially anxious just now, then now she wanted to find a hole and crawl into it.

Not from fear—but because it was just too funny. Hahahahahaha!

Zhaocai, Jinbao, and Mickey?

Hahahaha, what a weird yet hilarious combo.

Still, as a modern and educated college student, Shi Zhen held back her laughter and bit her lip hard.

Her tightly closed lips twitched slightly from the effort.

“Sis, if you want to laugh, go ahead. It’s fine. You’re not the first client who couldn’t hold it in,” said Zhaocai.

Shi Zhen fought the urge to laugh and smiled faintly. “Are all the names in your company like this?”

Jinbao immediately got into complaining mode, “Sis, you have no idea. On the first day in the company, the boss told us to pick a codename. We all figured we’d pick something with a good meaning, right? Who knew we’d be stuck using it for every mission after that!”

Mickey added, “The worst part is, the codename can’t be changed. It’s for life. Can you believe that?”

This time, Shi Zhen couldn’t hold it in. She let out a snort of laughter. “Brutal, just brutal.”

Just a few lines of conversation instantly eased the tense atmosphere, and Shi Zhen felt a lot more relaxed.

As soon as she spoke, the room fell silent again. An awkward tension suddenly lingered in the air.

Shi Zhen glanced at Zhaocai, then at Jinbao, and finally at Mickey.

Her large peach blossom eyes showed a hint of awkwardness and subtle suggestion: the issue is resolved now… do you guys still need anything?

Mickey caught the meaning in her gaze and explained, “Sis, our company policy requires us to stay for a full three hours to ensure those people don’t come back.”

Shi Zhen nodded in understanding and joked, “Tiez Security, really dependable. Hahaha. Bros, have a seat. I’ll get you some water.”

As she spoke, Shi Zhen turned to close the door.

“Hey, sis, don’t close the door!”

Zhaocai’s loud voice startled Shi Zhen so much that her hand shook three times.

Mickey explained, “We’ve got a rule—if the client is female, we can’t close the door.”

“Okay, okay,” Shi Zhen chuckled dryly. “I’ll get you some water then.”

She turned toward the kitchen. Originally intending to use her phone to contact Xie-ge, she noticed her phone lying pitifully beside the sofa.

Shi Zhen quickly picked it up and pressed the power button several times, but there was no response.

The screen was shattered, and two of the four corners were dented.

Ouch, it hurts just to look at!

Shi Zhen carefully placed the phone on the kitchen counter, figuring it must have gotten smashed earlier while she was moving things.

Thinking about how expensive repairs would be, she finished pouring water and returned to the living room.

The three men sat upright on the sofa. Shi Zhen placed the warm water in front of them, but they didn’t move.

Shi Zhen asked, “Is this… another rule?”

The three of them nodded vigorously in unison.

Shi Zhen snorted, “I’m the client, so I make the rules, right? I say we relax and have some water now. Sound good?”

All three replied at once, “Sounds good!”

With the client’s word, the three finally relaxed and began chatting with Shi Zhen.

Shi Zhen was someone who was both socially anxious and a homebody. But as the saying goes, “There are no introverts in Northeast China.”

Before long, the humorous banter of the three big guys had her laughing nonstop. Shi Zhen went from being a quiet listener to cracking jokes with them.

The big guys talked about their first assignment when they joined the company, all the way to their eighth.

From an old man who wasn’t too bright and liked chewing on shoe soles, to a factory manager afraid of his wife’s revenge after cheating on her.

By the end, Shi Zhen’s face was stiff from laughing.

At some point, someone asked, “Sis, got any playing cards?”

The four of them started playing cards, going from Big Two to Paoyao.

Happy times always fly by quickly. The three-hour mark had long passed, and no one even noticed.

The room was filled with hearty laughter and playful banter—no one heard the urgent footsteps rushing up the stairs outside.

As soon as Xie Qian reached the third floor, he heard laughter coming from the fifth floor. Even though he had mentally prepared himself, he still hadn’t expected to witness such a scene.

In the rundown apartment, furniture was randomly arranged. The coffee table had been moved to the center of the room, and four people were sitting around it.

The most eye-catching among them was the young girl in a blue coral fleece onesie. Several white sticky notes were stuck to her face.

As she moved, the notes fluttered in the air. She seemed completely unrestrained, laying down her cards with bold, exaggerated gestures, not the least bit nervous or self-conscious.

Whenever she laughed out loud, her round eyes curved into crescent moons. So full of life—she looked no different from the heroine of a movie.

Xie Qian didn’t even know how long he’d been standing outside the door. It felt like the world around him had gone quiet, and a beam of light shone down on Shi Zhen.

He seemed to watch the number of sticky notes on her face grow—from three to seven, or maybe from five to seven.

Xie Qian was completely unaware of time passing. By the time he came back to his senses, his hands were numb from the cold.

He knocked hard on the door, but the four inside were having so much fun that they didn’t hear the soft knocks.

So he knocked harder—loud enough to make the door shake.

Shi Zhen was the first to notice the noise. When she looked up, she saw someone standing at the door.

That person was nearly as tall as the door—about 1.9 meters. He was dressed thinly, and his hands and cheeks were red from the cold, with frozen droplets clinging to his long eyelashes.

Their eyes met, silently observing each other, as if everything around them faded into a blur.

Shi Zhen instantly recognized who it was—who else could it be but Xie-ge?

Her smile vanished, and she stood up stiffly. The cards in her hands scattered all over the floor.

She had imagined before what kind of person Xie-ge might be. After all, half of her script’s inspiration came from him.

But when this person—who had always existed only on the other end of the internet, someone without a physical presence—suddenly appeared in front of her, Shi Zhen couldn’t put the feeling into words.

She only knew that her heart suddenly ached, a sourness that rose up into her nose and then into her eyes.

She thought of how, when she only had 100 yuan left, Xie-ge had sent her 5,000. Even though she didn’t spend it, it gave her a deep sense of reassurance.

She thought of the pile of takeout that arrived that night, when she began writing her script.

She thought of the meals that kept coming for many days after—of how, after leaving home, she finally tasted what a warm breakfast felt like.

She thought of how just a second ago, she had still been anxious and scared—but after one phone call to Xie-ge, she was now playing cards with three funny tough guys.

All these incredible experiences—things she hadn’t felt in 22 years—had come all at once over the past month.

And all of it was because of the man in front of her.

He had sent people to her, and then he had come himself—just like that, standing openly before her.

Shi Zhen was indeed a little prone to tearfulness. Maybe all emotional people are like that.

But when her eyes landed on Xie-ge’s red, frozen hands, and the awkward flush on his pale face from the cold, she was hit right in the heart.

She couldn’t stop her imagination from conjuring up an image of a handsome young man, trudging through a dark, snowy night.

Perhaps all creatives love to fantasize. Shi Zhen was no exception.

And the result of that fantasy was tears she couldn’t control—falling drop after drop, quickly forming a stream.

Xie Qian had to admit that when he saw Shi Zhen crying, he panicked.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have rushed to her side without thinking.

And he definitely wouldn’t have gently wiped away her tears while murmuring something he hadn’t said in thirty years—soft words meant to comfort someone: “What are you crying for? I’m here now.”

When his cold fingers touched her face, another emotional trigger went off in Shi Zhen’s heart.

She thought, Just how long was he out there in the cold for his hands to be this frozen?

And then she started crying even harder.

Seeing her cry made Xie Qian panic even more. He desperately searched his mind for every tender word he could think of to soothe her.

The two of them were completely lost in their own world, oblivious to the three other people nearby.

Zhaocai: shocked.jpg

Jinbao: “President Xie… has a girlfriend?”

Mickey: “So sweet! Gotta share this with my girlfriend tonight.”

The three of them stood frozen in place, glancing at each other.

All thinking the same thing:
So… should we leave?