The next morning, at nine.
Jiang Nan opened his eyes and felt a little confused when he saw the familiar chandelier overhead.
He remembered being in the living room last night. How had he ended up back in his bedroom?
771 was beside him, secretly playing on his phone. When his eyes met Jiang Nan's, all his fur stood on end.
771 usually liked watching short videos on Douyin or playing Fight the Landlord, and Jiang Nan let him.
Yet now, Jiang Nan was staring motionlessly at him.
The little black ball was badly startled. Only after a long while did he ask, [What's wrong with you?]
"771," Jiang Nan asked, "how did I get back to the second floor?"
So that was what this was about. Relieved, 771 answered with a question of his own. [What do you think?]
Jiang Nan clicked his tongue. "There's only one possibility."
771 pricked up his ears and listened carefully.
Jiang Nan's eyes shone as he reached out to rub him. "771, I never thought you'd treat me so well, considering what a little shit you usually are."
771: [...]
For a moment, he didn't know what to say. After a brief silence, he said, [It wasn't me.]
Jiang Nan muttered, "Then who else could it have been?"
The moment the words left his mouth, he suddenly realized something and jumped out of bed. His newly bought green shark slippers weren't beside it.
His heart suddenly sped up. He ran to the walk-in closet, dug out his old green frog slippers, slipped them on, and raced downstairs.
The housekeeper had already finished cooking, and the smell of food filled the living room.
The sunlight was just right that day, streaming through the windows.
The man sat on the sofa in a plain black shirt, his back straight. He was leafing through a newspaper, and the halo of light made the contours of his profile look almost unreal.
Hearing footsteps, he looked up.
Jiang Nan cleared his throat. "Why are you back?"
Fu Jingzhou answered, "I felt like coming back, so I did."
"Oh," Jiang Nan replied stiffly.
He went back to his bedroom's bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face, then put on a gland patch before coming downstairs.
At the table, Jiang Nan stole several glances at Fu Jingzhou before suddenly asking, "Zhouzhou, what's your zodiac sign?"
Fu Jingzhou said, "I've never checked."
Jiang Nan asked, "Then when's your birthday?"
Fu Jingzhou took a sip of soup, his voice calm. "The fifth day of the twelfth lunar month."
"Then I know what sign you are," Jiang Nan said with a beaming smile.
They hadn't seen each other for days, but his smile was as radiant as ever, his dimples shallow and the standard eight teeth showing.
The hand holding the soup spoon paused. Fu Jingzhou tried his best to sound calm. "What sign?"
Jiang Nan leaned over and met Fu Jingzhou's dark, deep eyes. "A sign you were tailor-made for me."
Fu Jingzhou: "..."
He was quiet for about half a minute, then set down his spoon. His warm hand mercilessly pushed Jiang Nan's face away, his tone cool and even. "Eat. I'll have Uncle He buy you some walnuts from now on."
Jiang Nan bit indignantly into his fried dough stick. "I'm not stupid."
Fu Jingzhou: "I know."
The reply was far too perfunctory. Jiang Nan gave a cold snort and began eating without another word.
Fu Jingzhou's gaze drifted over to the boy's messy pink hair. The words reached his lips, but he swallowed them back.
After breakfast, someone knocked on the door.
Jiang Nan went to open it in his green frog slippers. It was the same familiar young deliveryman from before.
"Hello, here's your package. Please sign for it."
Jiang Nan was puzzled. "But I didn't order anything."
It was even less likely that an old-fashioned cadre like Fu Jingzhou, who didn't even have Douyin on his phone, would have a package.
Wariness crept into Jiang Nan's eyes. "Even if Myanmar would pour its heart out and spill its guts for me, I'm not going."
The deliveryman: "?"
What a strange thing to say. He understood every word, but put together, they made no sense.
"Sorry, sir, I didn't understand." Silently repeating, Money is hard to earn, and shit is hard to swallow, the deliveryman barely maintained his smile. "Sir, please sign here."
Jiang Nan said, "Sorry, this isn't my package."
The deliveryman froze, then looked down at the recipient's name. "So this 'Coffee on the Left Bank of the Seine, Hunks on the Right' really isn't you..."
Before he could finish, the tips of Jiang Nan's ears turned so red they looked ready to bleed. He hurriedly signed, thanked him, and shut the door.
The man sat in his wheelchair, his tone indifferent. "Why are you blushing?"
Jiang Nan stubbornly denied it. "I'm not blushing. You're seeing things."
"True." Fu Jingzhou nodded casually. "Hunks generally don't blush, after all."
Hunk Jiang: "..."
With that, Fu Jingzhou prepared to return to his study and continue working.
Meanwhile, Hunk Jiang silently performed a set of Wing Chun moves at his retreating back.
Finally, Jiang Nan sat down on the sofa, panting. He found the package-opening knife and sliced open the parcel. Inside was actually a book.
The title was excessively long-The Complete Collection of Corny Jokes That Will Make You the Center of Attention.
Jiang Nan: "..."
The corner of his mouth twitched. "What the hell is this?"
771 shyly covered his cheeks. [It's mine.]
Jiang Nan was baffled. "...When did you buy it?"
771's tone held a hint of accusation. [That night when you got cornered at the airport, and I comforted you, but you said my corny jokes were boring. I bought it after you fell asleep.]
771 didn't need to eat, drink, or poop, much less sleep.
Only when Jiang Nan was asleep could he get the phone out of the internet-addicted boy's hands.
Jiang Nan: "You're really something."
While Fu Jingzhou was working, Jiang Nan received a call from Zhu Xia.
"Quite a few variety shows have approached us, and I've narrowed it down to two. One is a dating-show commentary program that wants you as a panelist. The other is a travel show that requires going abroad." Zhu Xia briefly introduced them, then asked, "Which do you prefer?"
Jiang Nan had trouble making choices to begin with. "I think either would work."
Zhu Xia: "I think either would work too."
They both fell silent for a long time before Jiang Nan tentatively suggested, "How about I think it over some more?"
Zhu Xia: "Sure. Give me an answer by tomorrow night so I can let the production team know."
After hanging up, Jiang Nan considered it while playing games.
"771, which one do you think I should choose?"
771 said, [The travel show. Shen Anbai will be on it. Most importantly, it's almost time for the protagonist gong and shou to meet.]
Only after 771 said that did Jiang Nan remember that, in the original novel, Shen Anbai and Fu Jinchuan first met at a bar abroad.
Shen Anbai had been plied with alcohol. Among the crowd of men, he was like a little lamb that had wandered in by mistake. Drunk, he looked pure and beautiful, like a noble, aloof snow lotus.
Fu Jinchuan had practically fallen in love with him at first sight.
Jiang Nan clicked his tongue. "Wouldn't it be pretty shitty of me to go sabotage things?"
[Not at all,] 771 said solemnly. [You don't have much of a moral compass anyway.]
"True." Jiang Nan nodded to himself. "As long as I have no morals, nobody can morally blackmail me."