“Gege’s friends are coming to the house to hang out?”
“Mm.”
“Gege’s friends are coming to the house to hang out!”
“That’s right.”
“Gege’s friends are coming over to hang out!?”
“…I should just send a message telling them not to come.”
“Don’t! Gege! How can you just cancel something this big!”
“They’re only coming to the house to hang out. How does that count as something big?”
Zhong Xinya put her palms together, her face pious.
“This is the first time Gege’s friends have ever come to the house to hang out. It must be Mom and Dad in heaven watching over us.”
Would those two drunks care about something like this?
They were probably dead drunk and unconscious even in heaven.
Although that was what he thought, Zhong Siji did not say it out loud.
Unlike him, Xinya still respected those two sloppy drunks a great deal.
If he said it, it would only make her sad.
But there was one point she had not gotten wrong.
He really had never brought friends home before.
After all, he had never paid much attention to this kind of thing.
He had not expected that after the world changed, he would have this kind of change himself.
It was hard to say whether this change was a good thing or a bad thing…
Probably still a bad thing.
He could not even go shirtless at home anymore.
But it was not as if no good things had happened.
Thinking of Xu Runhui and Yan Yanyan, Zhong Siji could not help laughing softly.
“Gege.”
“Mm?”
“It’s been a long time since Xinya saw you smile this happily. It looks like you made good friends.”
“Mm. They’re good friends. So can you teach me how to get along well with friends?”
Zhong Xinya’s expression grew even brighter.
“Mm! Leave it all to Xinya!”
“By the way, what are Gege’s friends’ names?”
“One is called Xu Runhui, and one is called Yan Yanyan.”
“Eh~~ Xu Runhui and Yan Yanyan? They’re both really nice names.”
Looks like we’ll be holding a boys’ gathering at home…
Good!
For the sake of Gege’s hard-won friendship, Xinya has to work hard too!
As for inquiring with them about Gege’s affairs at school, that can count as the tuition for Professor Xinya’s cooking lessons.
Right, she still has to have them help keep that secret…
“So even a few little intimate gestures are a secret to deepening feelings between friends, you know?”
Zhong Siji recalled Zheng Zipan’s little gestures toward him.
It really did seem that way.
But classmate Runhui and classmate Yanyan were both girls.
Would that be a little inappropriate?
“Is there another method? I feel like it’s a bit unsuitable…”
Zhong Xinya knew her older brother was a little averse to this kind of small physical contact, and immediately said, “Aiyah, Gege, it’s nothing. In today’s society, hugging, taking an arm, putting a hand on a waist—it’s all very normal. Gege also wants to get along more harmoniously with his friends, doesn’t he?”
That was true.
Since Xinya had put it that way, there should be no problem.
Maybe after the world changed, the atmosphere was just like this.
“I see. I got it.”
“And also…”
***
Wu Di cheerfully drained the last few mouthfuls of bottled beer in her hand.
Instant noodles?
What instant noodles?
Barbecue with a little beer was the true love of bitter-season corporate drones like them!
“Nothing’s even wrong. Why do you have to come over? How old am I already? What is there to worry about?”
Wu Di rubbed her head hard.
That neat short hair she always kept meticulously groomed at school quickly became a mess.
“Aaaaaah! This is so damn annoying!”
How could she not know the reason her dad was coming to see her?
Nominally it was that he was worried she was living alone and going off the rails, and insisted on coming to take a look.
In reality, wasn’t it just to pressure her into marriage?
Aah!
Not letting her date in elementary school was a bit too early, true enough.
That did not really count as wrong.
Not letting her date in middle school was not a big problem either.
After all, her mind had not been all that mature yet.
Not letting her date in high school—it was a critical juncture for studying, so if they would not let her, they would not let her.
She had gritted her teeth and gotten through it.
In university they had not said she could not date, but damn it, she had no money.
What was there to date without money?
Then the moment she graduated and started working, it was as if everything had fallen into place by itself, automatically unlocking the max-level dating proficiency skill.
Good men grew like weeds by the roadside.
You only had to give a light cut and you could harvest a considerate, sensible, able-to-appear-in-the-hall-and-the-kitchen, capable-in-both-letters-and-arms top-tier good man who could wait on his father-in-law and mother-in-law and also support his wife’s work.
“As if anything that good exists! Bastard! This old lady here has been single for a full twenty-five years!”
Wu Di hurled the aluminum can in her hand hard toward the trash can not far away, whose position she could already barely make out.
Clang!
Not only did the can not go into the trash can, it bounced off the wall, fell to the floor, and rolled back to her feet.
But Wu Di no longer had the mind to stand up and throw it back into the trash can.
If it was on the floor, it was on the floor.
Someone would come clean tomorrow anyway.
Thinking of that, Wu Di could not help showing a confident smile.
Hmph hmph.
Still thinking of inspecting my room?
I already booked a door-to-door housekeeping service before you even called.
Didn’t expect that, did you?
“Hahahahahahaha!” Hearty laughter instantly filled this small studio apartment.
“In heat! What are you yowling about!” A neighbor’s scolding came from next door at once.
“I’m very sorry!” Although she was almost completely drunk, Wu Di still kept good manners and apologized.
“Men, ah, men. Why are you so hard to deal with?”
She, Wu Di, was a normal woman too.
If she could afford to date, who would not date?
But the requirements of men these days were a bit too high, weren’t they?
They wanted a house and a car, a monthly salary over ten thousand, absolute obedience, a height of 1.8 meters, a well-proportioned figure with no huge breasts.
The salary not only had to be handed over in full, there was no allowance, and at the slightest dissatisfaction they made a fuss about breaking up.
Although she, Wu Di, had never dated, there were bloody examples all around her.
She had a close friend, good-looking and good-natured, with what counted as a high income among young people.
Then the moment she dated she got cheated on and dumped, and her whole person collapsed.
In less than half a year most of her hair fell out.
Among the people who knew her, who did not sigh and wring their wrists?
And her own conditions were far worse than that friend’s.
If all of that landed on her head, what would she become?
Just thinking about it was a little chilling.
Never mind that female teachers in this era were, in some people’s eyes, representatives of people who did not strive and did not fight.
To hell with that!
They could not see how hard it was, and just flapped their mouths saying a woman ought to earn more money, or how else would it be enough for him to manage the household?
By now Wu Di’s drunkenness had fully come up, and she simply lay down on the floor like this, almost falling asleep in the pile of trash.
Yes.
The pile of trash.
A single woman, lately busy as a spinning top—where would she have time to take care of the room’s hygiene?
Her eyelids grew heavier and heavier, and her consciousness grew more and more blurred.
Although the little rationality remaining in her heart told her it was bad to sleep here, and that if she was going to sleep she should go back to the bed, her body would not listen at all, heavy as if it had been poured full of lead.
Good men… where are they all?
That was her last thought before she blacked out.