"How heartless!" Chi Ye said through gritted teeth.
The assistants nearby were already in position, and Shen Zhiyi had no time to keep exchanging nonsense with him. She put on her work clothes and a mask, leaving only her eyes exposed.
The log was huge, so she needed people alongside her to help.
Out of kindness, Shen Zhiyi tossed the remaining set of work clothes at Chi Ye and warned him,
"Sawdust will be flying everywhere. I suggest you keep your distance."
Chi Ye thought dismissively, How could sawdust possibly fly everywhere in such a peaceful courtyard? Before he could think any further, he heard the whir of saw teeth.
Shen Zhiyi picked up the electric saw, walked over to the huge log, and cut straight into it with a clean, decisive motion. In an instant, sawdust flew everywhere, just as she had said.
He hurriedly shut his mouth and backed away to watch from a distance, putting on the work clothes as he watched. No wonder Shen Zhiyi wasn't afraid of that uncle of hers. The ease with which she sawed through things hardly made her look like someone too weak to truss a chicken.
He had underestimated her!
The other workers worked together to turn the log, and before long, the rough shape of a tea table began to emerge.
Her movements were clean and precise; once she started, there was no turning back. With the first table roughed out, she moved on to the second log. This winding-stream design for floating wine cups was more intricate.
She worked a little more slowly this time, but soon finished that too. The rest would require her to work slowly with other small tools.
The electric saw was put away for now. The workers swept up some of the sawdust on the ground, which finished their work. They simply told Shen Zhiyi to call them if she needed any further help.
Shen Zhiyi agreed, then went into the workshop to get her tools.
She needed a lot of tools, so she dragged out the entire box. Then, following the requirements on the design sheet, she sketched the elements Boss Yao wanted onto the wood.
She was so focused and absorbed that she completely forgot anyone else was in the courtyard. Nothing distracted her when she worked. Her mind was quiet, and Chi Ye couldn't hear any of her thoughts.
He found a spot where he could see her without being disturbed, took out his laptop, and started working. He had left on this business trip in such a hurry that he hadn't even had time to pack his luggage; he had only remembered to bring his laptop and tablet.
He worked on his own tasks while she carved intently, occasionally raising her head to ease her neck after keeping it bent for so long.
After replying to all his emails, Chi Ye looked up toward Shen Zhiyi.
She had taken off her mask. The weather was hot, but fortunately, the courtyard was shaded by large trees, leaving only scattered flecks of light to fall on the ground in a dappled pattern.
Her hair was tied up completely, leaving her fair, clean face exposed. She didn't seem to smile. In Chi Ye's memory, she had never smiled.
But she was pretty. A light sheen of sweat had formed on her pearly-white nose, her lips were pressed tightly together, and her eyes stayed fixed on the movements of her hands.
Her lashes were long and thick. Rather than curling upward, they extended outward, making her look even more cool and distant when she looked at someone.
"What the hell? Why do I keep staring at her?" Chi Ye gave his face a light pat, trying to pull his attention back.
But she hadn't wiped the sweat off her face. She seemed not to have noticed it and had no intention of stopping. It was as though something were scratching at Chi Ye's heart, making it itch. Finally, he stood up in irritation and walked over to her.
"Here, wipe your sweat." Frowning and looking rather displeased, he held a tissue out in front of her.
He absolutely wasn't concerned about her. He had simply seen it, and he had obsessive-compulsive disorder. If she didn't wipe it away, he would keep thinking about it and wouldn't be able to do anything else properly.
That was how he reassured himself.
"Tsk, hurry up. The sweat's about to run down your face!"
Shen Zhiyi looked at him for a while with her dark eyes before taking the tissue and wiping the sweat from her face. Chi Ye still didn't leave. He seemed to be looking for something, but after making a circuit, he failed to find it.
He turned to Shen Zhiyi and said,
"Wait here. Don't run off again. What do you want to eat? If there's nothing you particularly want, I'll just buy whatever."
Without waiting for Shen Zhiyi to answer, he took his phone and left the courtyard. Shen Zhiyi merely glanced at his retreating back before returning to her work.
She removed the excess wood with a flat scraper, then began carving along the lines, little by little. Her hands stood out for their fairness, but their calluses were thicker than Chi Ye's.
She didn't mind those calluses. On the contrary, thicker calluses made her tools easier to handle and kept her from getting blisters all the time.
The sunlight slowly shifted, and the shadows of the trees and people gradually went from shortening to lengthening. More than an hour had passed since Chi Ye went out. Shen Zhiyi seemed to have eaten only breakfast that day.
"There's nothing good to eat around here. I had to drive into the city to buy food. Shen Zhiyi, what on earth were you thinking, coming all the way into these mountains?"
His voice arrived before he did. A moment later, Chi Ye appeared in the courtyard in his black jacket. His face was full of impatience, but even so, he hadn't abandoned the huge pile of things in his hands.
There was a stone table beneath a tree in the courtyard, and some sawdust had inevitably sprayed onto it. Suppressing his irritation, Chi Ye cleaned the tabletop, then took the dishes out of the bags one by one.
He looked as though he had brought back every dish there was, yet his expression suggested he still wasn't satisfied.
"Shen Zhiyi, come eat!" Once he had everything ready, he called out behind him.
Shen Zhiyi looked up and saw him with his head lowered, muttering something she couldn't make out. She sighed.
This meal... Those were the only two words in Shen Zhiyi's thoughts. Chi Ye couldn't make out what came after them, so he turned around.
"Hurry up, or the food will get cold."
He stood there with his broad shoulders and long legs, his ear stud flashing briefly in the sunlight. Shen Zhiyi narrowed her eyes, shook her head slightly, and stood up.
Chi Ye felt relieved when he saw her coming. He had worried she would refuse to eat, and feared she might say something shocking again.
As she sat down, he hurriedly placed the soup in front of her, then kept piling food into her bowl.
All the while, he kept talking.
"Boss Yao and I hit it off right away. She's your employer, so I'm looking after you on her behalf. Eat more. This is a major project. I hear it'll take at least ten days or a couple of weeks to finish.
You should've told me you were coming here to work. I thought you'd really run away. Come on, I'm really not that annoying."
As he spoke, he kept an eye on Shen Zhiyi's expression. Seeing that she was somewhat displeased with what he was saying, he promptly stopped and changed the subject.
"The food's pretty good, right? There's nowhere to eat around here, so I bought it in the city. There's also some snacks, water, and things."
He only spoke after swallowing the food in his mouth. He ate elegantly, rather than wolfing his food down, and his side of the table stayed perfectly clean.
Before you continue