Extra 1


Sang Zhi’s summer vacation was quite uneventful and she spent most of her time in a leisurely manner. Occasionally, her friends would invite her out to have fun, but for the most part, she stayed at home drawing.

She saw Duan Jiaxu from time to time.

But unlike her, Duan Jiaxu was busy with work, often working overtime until 11:00 or 12:00 at night. His rest time was squeezed out like toothpaste. Besides the occasional single day off, he had little free time each day.

Usually, Sang Zhi could only visit him during meal times, but compared to when they were in different cities, things had improved quite a bit.

Knowing that starting a business was exhausting and that Duan Jiaxu was trying his best to make time for her, Sang Zhi didn’t feel angry. She just found the days excessively boring.

A week passed like that.

Sang Zhi decided to find something else to do.

Because of a video she saw online, Sang Zhi suddenly developed an interest in cooking. Since there were plenty of ingredients at home, she didn’t need to go out to buy anything. When the mood struck, she jump up and ran to the kitchen.

Following the steps in the video, Sang Zhi carefully completed each one, convinced that her execution was perfect— until it was time to put the ingredients into the pan and start frying.

Sang Zhi had a firm principle. Even if she embarrassed herself, it didn’t matter, as long as she didn’t hurt herself in the slightest.

She was home alone on weekdays so no one would know how much she was struggling.

She stood in place, thought for a moment, then washed her hands and returned to her room. Sang Zhi pulled out a long coat that reached her ankles as well as a scarf that she wrapped around her neck.

After thinking it over, Sang Zhi also put on gloves, a mask, and a pair of non-prescription glasses. She then grabbed an eye mask from the drawer to cover her forehead before leaving the room.

Just as she reached the dining room, she heard a noise from the entrance.

Her heart skipped a beat, and when she looked up, she met Sang Yan’s gaze, who was looking at her as if she had lost her mind. She felt a bit embarrassed and awkwardly stood in place. “Brother, why are you back?”

“Just picking something up.” Sang Yan looked her up and down and said, with an expression hard to describe, “Are you planning to go out like that?”

Sang Zhi replied honestly, “I’m planning to fry an egg.”

“……”

There was a few seconds of silence.

Sang Yan suddenly pulled out his phone and took a picture of her.

Sang Zhi was startled. “What are you doing?”

Sang Yan nonchalantly said, “Posting it to my Moments.”

Sang Zhi’s eyes widened and she walked over, trying to snatch his phone. “Are you really that bored?”

Sang Yan raised his hand high, tilting his head back, his fingers flying across the screen. With his other hand, he pressed her head, pushing her away.

After he was done, Sang Yan locked the screen and said, “Alright, go fry your egg.”

“……” Sang Zhi glared at him, suppressing the urge to beat him up. She restrained her temper, took out her phone from her pocket, and checked Moments.

There was nothing new.

She looked up suspiciously and asked, “Did you block me?”

Sang Yan was walking towards his room. Hearing her question, he paused for a moment and lazily replied, “I misspoke.”

Sang Zhi: “?”

“I sent it to Duan Jiaxu.”

“……”

Sang Zhi pursed her lips and opened her chat with Duan Jiaxu. He was probably still busy and hadn’t checked WeChat, nor had he messaged her.

Since she had already embarrassed herself in front of these two before, Sang Zhi decided not to care. However, she still felt somewhat annoyed and, after searching through her photo album for a while, found an embarrassing photo of Sang Yan and sent it to Wen Yifan.

Then, she returned to the kitchen.

She turned on the stove, waited for the oil to heat up, and poured the beaten egg mixture into the pan. She heard the sizzling sound but, to her relief, the oil didn’t splatter as much as she feared.

At that moment, Sang Yan walked into the kitchen and took the spatula from her hand. “Move aside.”

“……” Sang Zhi wasn’t happy about it. “I want to do it myself.”

“I’m afraid the kitchen will explode.”

Sang Zhi stood by, peering into the pan and muttering, “You’re exaggerating. I think I’m doing just fine.”

“Do you usually cook by yourself?” Sang Yan asked casually. “Are you trying to self-harm?”

“……” Sang Zhi swallowed her frustration and said, “I usually don’t cook for myself and just order takeout. I wanted to make a lunchbox today. If it turns out well, I’ll take it to Brother Jiaxu.”

“Oh.” Sang Yan understood. “You want to change boyfriends.”

“……”

This time, Sang Zhi couldn’t hold back, “The food I make isn’t that bad!”

Sang Yan just finished frying the egg and scooped it into a nearby bowl. He looked down at it, his tone particularly annoying, “Duan Jiaxu treats you well, there’s no need to harm him like this.”

Sang Zhi decided to ignore him.

Seeing the vegetables and meat she had already cut and set aside, Sang Yan opened his hand, gestured towards it, and decided to help her stir-fry those as well. “Bring them over.”

Sang Zhi moved her lips, wanting to say something, but in the end, she reluctantly handed him the plate.

While waiting, Sang Zhi returned to her room to change her clothes. Afterward, she went back to the kitchen, took out two food containers, filled them with rice, and carefully arranged the food.

Sang Yan washed his hands. “I’m leaving.”

Sang Zhi asked, “Brother, did you drive here?”

“Yeah.”

“Then, can you drop me off at my boyfriend’s place?”

“……”

Sang Zhi closed the lunchbox, put it into a bag, and her expression turned a bit strange. “I was planning to slowly make him a love-packed lunch, but you ended up doing half of it. What’s the point of that?”

Sang Yan’s brow twitched.

“It’s honestly a bit weird to say out loud.” Sang Zhi muttered, “My brother and I made a love-packed lunch for my boyfriend.”

“……” Sang Yan said flatly, “Take a taxi by yourself.”

———pr

This translation is by Pocketrobbin at S h a n g h a i f a n t a s y . c o m

Sang Zhi sent Duan Jiaxu a message on WeChat, letting him know she was on her way. She had never been to his studio before, only passing by the area whenever she visited him.

When she arrived in front of the office building, she happened to see Duan Jiaxu’s figure.

He walked over, took the bag from her, and casually asked, “You made this yourself?”

Sang Zhi deliberately ignored Sang Yan’s contribution and nodded. “Mm.”

Duan Jiaxu chuckled. “Dressed like ‘that’ while cooking?”

Sang Zhi frowned. “Are you trying to make fun of me too?”

“No.” Duan Jiaxu said, holding her hand with a playful raise of his eyebrow, “It’s cute. You should always dress like that when you cook. It’s fine as long as you don’t get hurt.”

Sang Zhi offered, “I’ll make you another one tomorrow.”

Duan Jiaxu smiled again. “Mm.”

After a moment, he asked, “Why did you suddenly want to cook?”

“I had nothing to do.” Sang Zhi replied. “Cooking seemed kind of fun.”

They took the elevator up and entered the studio.

The space was small, housing about a dozen people, all of whom were eating takeout. As soon as they heard the movements, everyone turned their heads to look.

Duan Jiaxu introduced her lightly, “My girlfriend. You can call her sister-in-law.”

Immediately, a loud and synchronized chorus of “Hello, Sister-in-law!” echoed.

Sang Zhi: “……”

She felt a bit embarrassed but tried to maintain her composure as she greeted them back. Then, Duan Jiaxu pulled her over to his desk. “Sit here.”

He dragged a chair next to hers and sat down. Opening the lunchbox with interest, he asked, “So you can cook now?”

Sang Zhi explained, “I followed an online tutorial.”

Duan Jiaxu seemed to be in a good mood, but he still reminded her, “Be careful. If you’re not confident, don’t bother. I can always eat takeout.”

“It’s fine.” Sang Zhi said. “It’s actually kind of fun.”

For the next few days, Sang Zhi spent her mornings making two lunchboxes. Although the taste wasn’t as good as Sang Yan’s cooking, it was still acceptable.

Sang Zhi started coming to Duan Jiaxu’s studio often and naturally chatted with his colleagues. She found out that they all knew about her, even though they had never met her in person.

However, after less than a week, Sang Zhi began to lose interest in cooking as well as her enthusiasm. When she woke up that morning, she lazed around in bed and told Duan Jiaxu in advance that she wouldn’t be coming over that day.

She spent her time lying in bed with her tablet, planning to visit him the next day.

But the next day, she did the same.

And the day after that, too.

Eventually, Sang Zhi stopped going into the kitchen altogether.

After Sang Zhi stopped bringing him lunch at noon, Duan Jiaxu went back to eating takeout with his colleagues. He didn’t mind, still worried she might hurt herself if she stayed in the kitchen all the time.

But strangely enough, his colleagues didn’t see it that way.

One afternoon, Duan Jiaxu overheard them chatting in the break room.

“Honestly, I always thought our boss made up having a girlfriend because he didn’t want to date and is just giving an excuse.”

“Yeah, yeah, me too. I never saw him bring anyone around.”

“Really? But he’s always on his phone or making calls during breaks. He looks like someone who has a girlfriend.”

“You can tell he has a girlfriend at first glance! I overheard him on the phone once, and can you believe it? Our scary boss was actually acting cute.” A guy started mimicking Duan Jiaxu in a greasy voice, “Little Friend, why are you so fierce?”

Duan Jiaxu’s eyelid twitched.

“And don’t you think our boss has been a bit scary lately?”

“A little bit, yeah.”

“Right? Ever since Sister-in-law stopped coming, it feels like he’s smiling, but there’s something menacing behind it.”

“Do you think he got dumped? Why else would Sister-in-law stop coming?”

“It’s possible. I even overheard that Sister-in-law thought our boss was old. I found out he was born in the 80’s.”

“Damn.”

“Damn.”

“He’s about 36 years old?”

“Boss’s condition is pretty good, but Sister-in-law looks like she’s still in college. That’s quite an age gap. He seems to really like her, though. If he’s not working, he’s with her. He does come off as a bit clingy.”

“Let’s drop it.”

“Yeah, the boss probably doesn’t want us to know. He’s just putting up a front.”

“Let’s just pretend we don’t know.”

Duan Jiaxu: “……”

He smirked, deciding not to enter the break room, and instead returned to his desk, where he called Sang Zhi.

She answered quickly, “Hello?”

Duan Jiaxu lazily asked, “What are you up to?”

Sang Zhi replied, “Drawing.”

“Are you free tomorrow?”

“Yeah.”

After a few seconds of silence, Duan Jiaxu casually said, “Can you come over and bring me lunch?”