“You’re really not hungry?”
“Really.”
The girl said softly, then lowered her head and continued eating the late-night snack Su Ziyan had made for her.
Su Ziyan simply watched her take bite after bite of the food he had cooked himself, a helpless smile curling at the corner of his mouth.
One year ago, he had sat in the same spot, accompanying a crying girl until she finished her meal.
But unexpectedly, she hadn’t told him any painful stories from her past.
Instead, she ate very quietly and, while Su Ziyan was washing the dishes, told him that he had been hired.
Then, over the entire next year, whenever he had free time, he came to take care of her.
He successfully earned the high salary she offered and even took Xu Duyan on a trip during the holidays.
Xia Zhi was completely different from what he had imagined.
Within just one month, she could have brief conversations with him.
After a year, except for not going outside, she was almost like an ordinary person in front of him.
She never told him any heavy past stories, nor did she cause any trouble.
She simply accepted his care, worked hard to change herself, and became Su Ziyan’s good friend.
Su Ziyan also thought he might have been too presumptuous.
How could he assume that she was also a heavy person?
He and Xu Duyan were indeed heavy people, but that didn’t mean the whole world was like that, right?
Xia Zhi seemed perfectly normal.
Being friends with her was so enjoyable.
It definitely wasn’t that he had gotten used to this easy job with a high salary and couldn’t bear to leave her wallet.
Just as Su Ziyan was thinking this, the girl’s “Ah~” sound reached his ears.
He subconsciously opened his mouth, and a big bite of food was stuffed inside.
“Mm?”
Su Ziyan came back to his senses and looked at the girl in front of him, chewing and making a muffled sound.
“What the hell are you doing?”
In response, the girl let out a light laugh.
Xia Zhi tilted her head, holding empty chopsticks, and smiled at him.
“You were staring at me, so I’m feeding you a bite.”
She said it as if it were the most natural thing, eyes curved as she shook the chopsticks in her hand.
Compared to a year ago, her life had become much healthier.
The world-weariness was gone from her face, replaced by that of a normal, energetic, pretty girl.
If anything, she was like the vibrant, cheerful white moonlight in most people’s memories.
Although from an appreciation standpoint, she had indeed lost her uniqueness, this was undoubtedly much better than her previous deathly appearance.
But no matter how sunny you are, you can’t change the fact that those chopsticks just came out of your mouth…
Su Ziyan looked at Xia Zhi and silently complained in his heart.
‘Never mind boss and employee. This kind of intimate gesture between opposite sexes has long since surpassed the bounds of friendship, hasn’t it?’
‘This is an indirect kiss. It should be something that happens between two people who like each other, after some hesitating back and forth. It’s an ambiguous and wonderful act.’
‘It shouldn’t be so common between friends!’
‘But if we’re talking about ambiguity and wonder, for Su Ziyan, there really is none.’
‘Because although he truly sees her as a good friend, if he tried to see her as a potential romantic partner, sorry, he just couldn’t.’
‘Compared to a woman he could date, Su Ziyan felt she was more like a pet he needed to feed…’
He simply divided her into two forms.
The first was the Turtle Form, which was the state she was in when he first met her.
Back then, Xia Zhi was cold and refused to communicate, so much so that Su Ziyan almost thought she was a Mourning Beauty full of world-weariness.
But after a full year of understanding and observation, Su Ziyan was sure that she was just simply unable to interact with people.
Originally, Su Ziyan wanted to call this form the Hedgehog Form, but after thinking it over, he decided against it.
After all, Xia Zhi’s behavior had absolutely no aggression.
It was good enough if she wasn’t hurt by others, let alone pricking them.
Even though Su Ziyan had almost lost his temper because of her attitude at the beginning.
This form appeared less and less frequently in front of him now.
Su Ziyan estimated that she would only revert to that form when receiving takeout or meeting strangers outside.
The other form was Xia Zhi’s default mode when she was with him, which Su Ziyan called the Puppy Form.
This form originated from the very beginning, when Su Ziyan thought she looked like a pitiful little dog.
And as the year passed, he increasingly felt she was like a puppy.
And it was a puppy with a bit of a raising aspect.
At first, Su Ziyan thought she was just a pitiful little dog.
Then, she gradually opened up her heart, becoming a dog that would lie on its back at home, showing its belly.
As for now…
Wasn’t she just a full-blown golden retriever?
While washing the dishes, Su Ziyan sighed softly.
He was busy with the dishes while Xia Zhi walked around him here and there.
Every time he saw her, he would hallucinate a tail wagging behind her.
So now, he absolutely couldn’t see her as a potential romantic partner.
Even if she was indeed a very attractive girl who had made an ambiguous move like an indirect kiss, still…
‘No feelings are no feelings.’
‘Sometimes, Su Ziyan, who basically had no friends, would wonder if this was what a normal, healthy friendship looked like.’
‘After all, Xia Zhi didn’t seem to have any ambiguous feelings toward him.’
‘She didn’t seem like the kind of heavy and overly sensitive person he was at all.’
‘Damn it, which one of us is actually the depression patient?’
Thinking this, Su Ziyan sighed again.
“What’s wrong? You keep sighing.”
Xia Zhi’s dog head suddenly popped up from the lower right corner of Su Ziyan’s field of vision.
“Is something bothering you?”
Su Ziyan, not startled at all, simply glanced at her and said, “I’m just worried. Now that you look like you’ve fully recovered from your illness, you’re going to lay me off, aren’t you?”
“How could that be? You’re acting like I’m going to abandon you.”
Xia Zhi’s words carried a hint of teasing.
“What’s wrong? Will you miss me?”
“Miss this high salary…”
“You can think that in your head, but saying it out loud is too mean! I’ll get sad.”
Xia Zhi looked at Su Ziyan’s indifferent expression, twitched her nose, and gave a light snort.
“Forget it. Let’s not talk about that. Stay here tonight, and tomorrow come with me to the amusement park, okay?”
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