Chapter 19 — What do you think you should feel if you like someone?
After Xia Wei sent this message, a bit of apprehension rose in her heart. After half an hour, she received a reply from Jiang Zhi Zhou.
「I was in the kitchen just now. When do you want to go eat?」
Asking For Suicide At Eighteen This Year: 「Kitchen? What tasty dish did you make this time?」
Jiang Zhi Zhou: 「…Tian Xia Restaurant’s kitchen, a guest’s dish」
Asking For Suicide at Eighteen This Year: 「Oh… then let’s go eat hotpot tonight :(」
Jiang Zhi Zhou: 「Which restaurant? 」
Asking For Suicide At Eighteen This Year: 「Building 3, Room 1908 :)」
Jiang Zhi Zhou: 「…」
Jiang Zhi Zhou: 「You’re cooking it at home?」
Asking For Suicide At Eighteen This Year: 「Mn, Xia Ming Ming brought hotpot ingredients from home. There’s still some left over.」
Jiang Zhi Zhou: 「I’ll come over at seven. Do I need to bring any ingredients over?」
Asking For Suicide At Eighteen This Year: 「You don’t need to. I can buy some on my way home.」
Jiang Zhi Zhou: 「Okay then. Your name is very long」
Xia Wei: “…”
Asking For Suicide At Eighteen This Year: 「You can change your nickname for me? :)」
Jiang Zhi Zhou: 「Changed」
Xia Wei: 「:)」
Xia Wei: 「Please nickname me “Eighteen Years”」
Jiang Zhi Zhou: 「……」
I think you are three years old.
Xia Wei did not hear Mr. Jiang’s mental ridicule. In reality, however, if someone said she was only three years old, she would feel elated.
She got off earlier than normal at five o’clock. It felt good to be her own boss. After she left the nail salon, she first headed toward Starlight General Merchandise instead of immediately taking the subway home. In the supermarket, she bought a large quantity of ingredients as well as some intentionally-sought-for packs of beer. Because she did not know what Jiang Zhi Zhou liked to eat, she bought everything according to her own preferences.
By the time she carried all the large bags home, it was already six-thirty. Xia Wei first needed to prepare the ingredients. She soaked them in a basin full of water and rolled up her sleeves to begin prepping.
Normally, she rarely cooked, so she was not very practiced at cutting ingredients. Staring at the chopping board covered with potatoes and lotus roots, all nothing special to look at, Xia Wei mused… Whatever, it will be eaten anyway.
At precisely seven o’clock, the doorbell rang. Xia Wei ran over to take a look. Sure enough, it was Jiang Zhi Zhou. “You’re very punctual.”
Jiang Zhi Zhou remarked, “I am always punctual in regards to food.”
Xia Wei: “…”
She saw the bag of fruit in his hands and raised a brow, commenting, “What, do you feel embarrassed coming empty-handed?”
“I just happened to want to eat some fruit salad.”
Xia Wei didn’t reply and moved aside for him to enter. “You can wait on the sofa. I’m still not done.” She ran off to the kitchen after she welcomed him inside. Jiang Zhi Zhou glanced in the direction of the kitchen and walked over.
Xi Wei was in the middle of cutting ingredients. From the doorway, Jiang Zhi Zhou watched her, his brows rising subconsciously. He stepped forward and seized the knife in her hand. “I’ll cut them. With your cutting techniques, we won’t be able to eat until tomorrow morning.”
Xia Wei: “…”
She conceded that her cutting technique was slow in comparison, but she could not concede to this blatant insult. A few seconds later, however, she witnessed Jiang Zhi Zhou’s perfected bladework and was convinced.
“Mn, then since you’re so awesome, I’ll leave the unfinished prepwork to you. I’ll go begin placing these ingredients in the hotpot.”
She took out the hotpot ingredients from the refrigerator and threw them into the pot. The instructions said that it would taste better with chicken stock or bone soup, but she did not have the time to cook soup. She merely used plain water as a base. Carefully, she mixed in the ingredients. Xia Wei turned on the stove and stared at it very attentively with open eyes. Then…they started to burn.
Ke ke— “Heavens, why is it so pungent.” The entire kitchen smelt of chili pepper, enough to cause people to choke. She covered her mouth as she coughed repeatedly, rapidly tearing up.
Their hometown’s chili truly had an unquantifiable strength.
Jiang Zhi Zhou furrowed his brows and stopped, setting down the knife. He went over and turned down the temperature on the stove. “It’s fine if I cook. I’m beseeching an old lady like you to leave the kitchen.”
Xia Wei: “…”
Fine, the kitchen is your home ground.
She coughed yet withdrew like a maid servant.
Although Xia Wei had fouled the kitchen atmosphere, Jiang Zhi Zhou continued to methodically handle the knife with ease. Xia Wei watched him carry the hotpot ingredients over with both hands, arranging them on the table without delay. Only then did he set the electromagnetic stove on top.
“The ingredients have been prepped. Go get bowls and bring them over.” Jiang Zhi Zhou set the pot on the electromagnetic stove and gave the hard-to-mess-up tasks to Xia Wei.
“Okay.” Xia Wei entered the kitchen, picking up and examining the ingredients Jiang Zhi Zhou had prepared. “My god, the thicknesses are all the same, ze ze.” She believed even more that Mr. Jiang was a Virgo.
By the time she re-entered the kitchen, Jiang Zhi Zhou had already mixed a bowl of fruit salad and arranged all the ingredients around the electromagnetic stove. Xia Wei did not forget to take a photo. “Hahaha, too sumptuous. Merely looking at it makes me feel satisfied!”
“Then you look; I’ll eat.”
Xia Wei: “…”
In your dreams!
She seized the condiments from the kitchen and brought them over, saying to Jiang Zhi Zhou, “You can add whatever you want to your own bowl. Oh, that’s right; I also bought beer and yogurt. Which one do you want?”
Jiang Zhi Zhou replied, “Yogurt.”
Xia Wei brought over both beer and yogurt and waited with single-hearted devotion for the ingredients to cook. “Ah, the last time I cooked hotpot at home was a very, very long time ago.” If she was not mistaken, it should have been before Twiggy went abroad, right? The four of them had bought a lot of ingredients and cooked hotpot at Twiggy’s home; that could be considered her practice.
“You don’t care that making hotpot at home will make it smell like hotpot everywhere?” Jiang Zhi Zhou asked.
Xia Wei: “…”
She stood up with lightning speed and opened the windows as wide as possible.
The first ingredients had already begun floating up. Xia Wei’s knife work was not very good, but her chopstick technique was cultivated extensively. With quickness and ease, she plucked them into her bowl. She blew on the beef in her bowl as she asked Jiang Zhi Zhou, “Why didn’t you bring Tangeriney over?”
“Bring it over for what; it cannot eat.”
“Smelling it is also good.”
Jiang Zhi Zhou: “…”
It is still a child. Leave it alone, okay?
He caught a piece of thousand-layer tripe and placed it into his bowl. “Right, I’m about to meet another blind date.”
Xia Wei faintly looked as if her soul left her. She said, “Oh, very good. I said before that you shouldn’t be too pessimistic.” She bit into a piece of beef and then asked, “What’s the other person like?”
Jiang Zhi Zhou stated, “I only just saw her picture yesterday.”
“You can determine a lot of things from simply a face. At least, you can always tell if she’s elegant, pretty, and such.”
“She’s beautiful, very beautiful.” But he had seen many beautiful people. To him, this did not mean much.
“You men all like beautiful things.”
“You’re saying that as if you specialize in liking ugly things.” Jiang Zhi Zhou stared at her. He had seen her previous boyfriends; all of them were pretty good-looking.
Xia Wei: “…”
Jiang Zhi Zhou took out his phone and brought up the picture of his blind date, showing it to her. “This is her.”
Xia Wei glanced down at the screen and nearly swore out loud. “How come all of your blind dates look so pretty? This girl looks very innocent and pure; she definitely has you going head over heels for her.”
“…Not really.”
“Don’t pretend otherwise. If you didn’t, why did you agree to meet her? Though, she has never had a boyfriend despite being so beautiful?”
“Mn, her family is very strict about this.”
Ze. Xia Wei clicked her tongue and frowned. “Then it can be said that you have picked up a gem; nurture it well. If you don’t understand anything, you can ask me.”
Jiang Zhi Zhou: “…”
He had often said this line to fellow classmates with poor grades back when he was attending school.
Xia Wei saw that he remained silent and added, “Are you dissatisfied with this blind date?”
Jiang Zhi Zhou muttered irresolutely to himself, unconsciously knitting his brows lightly, “I’m not dissatisfied, but I also don’t have any particular feelings toward her.”
“What type of special feelings do you want?”
Jiang Zhi Zhou raised his gaze to meet hers. “What do you think you should feel if you like someone?”
“You have asked the right person!” Xia Wei assumed the conduct of a teacher. “When you like someone, you will miss him when he’s not there. You’ll feel nervous again when you do see him, and his words will cause your nervous heart to thump and skip a beat. When he approaches, it will feel like he had sucked away the air, making it simply impossible for you to breathe! Although it will feel torturous, it will also make you unbelievably happy!”
Jiang Zhi Zhou: “…”
“I understand. A straight guy like you will have a difficult time making sense of this.”
Jiang Zhi Zhou: “…”
Xia Wei finished eating the beef in her bowl and glanced at Jiang Zhi Zhou. Her eyes were filled with sadness. “Goudan’er, I really suspect that your blind date will run away with someone else in the end. ”
“…I told you, that name is just something I randomly chose.” Jiang Zhi Zhou looked askance at her.
Xia Wei shrugged, indicating to him that she didn’t care about the particulars. “A straight guy like you, how can you understand a young lady’s heart.”
“But you, a soon-approaching-thirty girl, understand?”
“…Can you not tag on ‘thirty?’”
“I don’t care about the particulars.”
Xia Wei: “…”
Mr. Jiang was worthy of being a boss; he was indeed unwilling to concede even the slightest.
“Forget it. I don’t want to bicker with you. Earlier, I told you I’m a strategist. I will impart upon you a few moves.” Xia Wei curled her hand into a fist and coughed into it before solemnly explaining, “When you see people with a new manicure, it is okay to compliment on how nice it looks, but do not tell others the harmful effects of manicures.”
Jiang Zhi Zhou begged to differ. “But manicures had always been harmful.”
Xia Wei: “…”
“Such a trade-building straight guy, and he still wants a girlfriend!” Xia Wei felt infuriated at him.
Jiang Zhi Zhou’s expression did not change as he countered, “I originally didn’t want to, but didn’t you tell me to not be so pessimistic?”
“…Yeah, and I also told you to compliment the manicures.”
Jiang Zhi Zhou slightly pursed his thin lips and spoke no more. Xia Wei coughed drily and continued, “Furthermore, girls are all very hypocritical human beings. If someone tells you to fuck off, you don’t really do so.”
“…So if she tells me to get lost, I should stay and do what?”
“…Naturally you stay and comfort her, you idiot!”
Jiang Zhi Zhou stared at her. “Since girls are all so hypocritical, then your insults of me being a trade-building straight guy, are those also lies?”
“…No, I am being very serious about that.”
Jiang Zhi Zhou continued staring at her and couldn’t help but smile faintly. Xia Wei saw the slight smile on his face and felt her heart suddenly begin beating slightly faster.
Chapter 19 — What do you think you should feel if you like someone?
After Xia Wei sent this message, a bit of apprehension rose in her heart. After half an hour, she received a reply from Jiang Zhi Zhou.
「I was in the kitchen just now. When do you want to go eat?」
Asking For Suicide At Eighteen This Year: 「Kitchen? What tasty dish did you make this time?」
Jiang Zhi Zhou: 「…Tian Xia Restaurant’s kitchen, a guest’s dish」
Asking For Suicide at Eighteen This Year: 「Oh… then let’s go eat hotpot tonight :(」
Jiang Zhi Zhou: 「Which restaurant? 」
Asking For Suicide At Eighteen This Year: 「Building 3, Room 1908 :)」
Jiang Zhi Zhou: 「…」
Jiang Zhi Zhou: 「You’re cooking it at home?」
Asking For Suicide At Eighteen This Year: 「Mn, Xia Ming Ming brought hotpot ingredients from home. There’s still some left over.」
Jiang Zhi Zhou: 「I’ll come over at seven. Do I need to bring any ingredients over?」
Asking For Suicide At Eighteen This Year: 「You don’t need to. I can buy some on my way home.」
Jiang Zhi Zhou: 「Okay then. Your name is very long」
Xia Wei: “…”
Asking For Suicide At Eighteen This Year: 「You can change your nickname for me? :)」
Jiang Zhi Zhou: 「Changed」
Xia Wei: 「:)」
Xia Wei: 「Please nickname me “Eighteen Years”」
Jiang Zhi Zhou: 「……」
I think you are three years old.
Xia Wei did not hear Mr. Jiang’s mental ridicule. In reality, however, if someone said she was only three years old, she would feel elated.
She got off earlier than normal at five o’clock. It felt good to be her own boss. After she left the nail salon, she first headed toward Starlight General Merchandise instead of immediately taking the subway home. In the supermarket, she bought a large quantity of ingredients as well as some intentionally-sought-for packs of beer. Because she did not know what Jiang Zhi Zhou liked to eat, she bought everything according to her own preferences.
By the time she carried all the large bags home, it was already six-thirty. Xia Wei first needed to prepare the ingredients. She soaked them in a basin full of water and rolled up her sleeves to begin prepping.
Normally, she rarely cooked, so she was not very practiced at cutting ingredients. Staring at the chopping board covered with potatoes and lotus roots, all nothing special to look at, Xia Wei mused… Whatever, it will be eaten anyway.
At precisely seven o’clock, the doorbell rang. Xia Wei ran over to take a look. Sure enough, it was Jiang Zhi Zhou. “You’re very punctual.”
Jiang Zhi Zhou remarked, “I am always punctual in regards to food.”
Xia Wei: “…”
She saw the bag of fruit in his hands and raised a brow, commenting, “What, do you feel embarrassed coming empty-handed?”
“I just happened to want to eat some fruit salad.”
Xia Wei didn’t reply and moved aside for him to enter. “You can wait on the sofa. I’m still not done.” She ran off to the kitchen after she welcomed him inside. Jiang Zhi Zhou glanced in the direction of the kitchen and walked over.
Xi Wei was in the middle of cutting ingredients. From the doorway, Jiang Zhi Zhou watched her, his brows rising subconsciously. He stepped forward and seized the knife in her hand. “I’ll cut them. With your cutting techniques, we won’t be able to eat until tomorrow morning.”
Xia Wei: “…”
She conceded that her cutting technique was slow in comparison, but she could not concede to this blatant insult. A few seconds later, however, she witnessed Jiang Zhi Zhou’s perfected bladework and was convinced.
“Mn, then since you’re so awesome, I’ll leave the unfinished prepwork to you. I’ll go begin placing these ingredients in the hotpot.”
She took out the hotpot ingredients from the refrigerator and threw them into the pot. The instructions said that it would taste better with chicken stock or bone soup, but she did not have the time to cook soup. She merely used plain water as a base. Carefully, she mixed in the ingredients. Xia Wei turned on the stove and stared at it very attentively with open eyes. Then…they started to burn.
Ke ke— “Heavens, why is it so pungent.” The entire kitchen smelt of chili pepper, enough to cause people to choke. She covered her mouth as she coughed repeatedly, rapidly tearing up.
Their hometown’s chili truly had an unquantifiable strength.
Jiang Zhi Zhou furrowed his brows and stopped, setting down the knife. He went over and turned down the temperature on the stove. “It’s fine if I cook. I’m beseeching an old lady like you to leave the kitchen.”
Xia Wei: “…”
Fine, the kitchen is your home ground.
She coughed yet withdrew like a maid servant.
Although Xia Wei had fouled the kitchen atmosphere, Jiang Zhi Zhou continued to methodically handle the knife with ease. Xia Wei watched him carry the hotpot ingredients over with both hands, arranging them on the table without delay. Only then did he set the electromagnetic stove on top.
“The ingredients have been prepped. Go get bowls and bring them over.” Jiang Zhi Zhou set the pot on the electromagnetic stove and gave the hard-to-mess-up tasks to Xia Wei.
“Okay.” Xia Wei entered the kitchen, picking up and examining the ingredients Jiang Zhi Zhou had prepared. “My god, the thicknesses are all the same, ze ze.” She believed even more that Mr. Jiang was a Virgo.
By the time she re-entered the kitchen, Jiang Zhi Zhou had already mixed a bowl of fruit salad and arranged all the ingredients around the electromagnetic stove. Xia Wei did not forget to take a photo. “Hahaha, too sumptuous. Merely looking at it makes me feel satisfied!”
“Then you look; I’ll eat.”
Xia Wei: “…”
In your dreams!
She seized the condiments from the kitchen and brought them over, saying to Jiang Zhi Zhou, “You can add whatever you want to your own bowl. Oh, that’s right; I also bought beer and yogurt. Which one do you want?”
Jiang Zhi Zhou replied, “Yogurt.”
Xia Wei brought over both beer and yogurt and waited with single-hearted devotion for the ingredients to cook. “Ah, the last time I cooked hotpot at home was a very, very long time ago.” If she was not mistaken, it should have been before Twiggy went abroad, right? The four of them had bought a lot of ingredients and cooked hotpot at Twiggy’s home; that could be considered her practice.
“You don’t care that making hotpot at home will make it smell like hotpot everywhere?” Jiang Zhi Zhou asked.
Xia Wei: “…”
She stood up with lightning speed and opened the windows as wide as possible.
The first ingredients had already begun floating up. Xia Wei’s knife work was not very good, but her chopstick technique was cultivated extensively. With quickness and ease, she plucked them into her bowl. She blew on the beef in her bowl as she asked Jiang Zhi Zhou, “Why didn’t you bring Tangeriney over?”
“Bring it over for what; it cannot eat.”
“Smelling it is also good.”
Jiang Zhi Zhou: “…”
It is still a child. Leave it alone, okay?
He caught a piece of thousand-layer tripe and placed it into his bowl. “Right, I’m about to meet another blind date.”
Xia Wei faintly looked as if her soul left her. She said, “Oh, very good. I said before that you shouldn’t be too pessimistic.” She bit into a piece of beef and then asked, “What’s the other person like?”
Jiang Zhi Zhou stated, “I only just saw her picture yesterday.”
“You can determine a lot of things from simply a face. At least, you can always tell if she’s elegant, pretty, and such.”
“She’s beautiful, very beautiful.” But he had seen many beautiful people. To him, this did not mean much.
“You men all like beautiful things.”
“You’re saying that as if you specialize in liking ugly things.” Jiang Zhi Zhou stared at her. He had seen her previous boyfriends; all of them were pretty good-looking.
Xia Wei: “…”
Jiang Zhi Zhou took out his phone and brought up the picture of his blind date, showing it to her. “This is her.”
Xia Wei glanced down at the screen and nearly swore out loud. “How come all of your blind dates look so pretty? This girl looks very innocent and pure; she definitely has you going head over heels for her.”
“…Not really.”
“Don’t pretend otherwise. If you didn’t, why did you agree to meet her? Though, she has never had a boyfriend despite being so beautiful?”
“Mn, her family is very strict about this.”
Ze. Xia Wei clicked her tongue and frowned. “Then it can be said that you have picked up a gem; nurture it well. If you don’t understand anything, you can ask me.”
Jiang Zhi Zhou: “…”
He had often said this line to fellow classmates with poor grades back when he was attending school.
Xia Wei saw that he remained silent and added, “Are you dissatisfied with this blind date?”
Jiang Zhi Zhou muttered irresolutely to himself, unconsciously knitting his brows lightly, “I’m not dissatisfied, but I also don’t have any particular feelings toward her.”
“What type of special feelings do you want?”
Jiang Zhi Zhou raised his gaze to meet hers. “What do you think you should feel if you like someone?”
“You have asked the right person!” Xia Wei assumed the conduct of a teacher. “When you like someone, you will miss him when he’s not there. You’ll feel nervous again when you do see him, and his words will cause your nervous heart to thump and skip a beat. When he approaches, it will feel like he had sucked away the air, making it simply impossible for you to breathe! Although it will feel torturous, it will also make you unbelievably happy!”
Jiang Zhi Zhou: “…”
“I understand. A straight guy like you will have a difficult time making sense of this.”
Jiang Zhi Zhou: “…”
Xia Wei finished eating the beef in her bowl and glanced at Jiang Zhi Zhou. Her eyes were filled with sadness. “Goudan’er, I really suspect that your blind date will run away with someone else in the end. ”
“…I told you, that name is just something I randomly chose.” Jiang Zhi Zhou looked askance at her.
Xia Wei shrugged, indicating to him that she didn’t care about the particulars. “A straight guy like you, how can you understand a young lady’s heart.”
“But you, a soon-approaching-thirty girl, understand?”
“…Can you not tag on ‘thirty?’”
“I don’t care about the particulars.”
Xia Wei: “…”
Mr. Jiang was worthy of being a boss; he was indeed unwilling to concede even the slightest.
“Forget it. I don’t want to bicker with you. Earlier, I told you I’m a strategist. I will impart upon you a few moves.” Xia Wei curled her hand into a fist and coughed into it before solemnly explaining, “When you see people with a new manicure, it is okay to compliment on how nice it looks, but do not tell others the harmful effects of manicures.”
Jiang Zhi Zhou begged to differ. “But manicures had always been harmful.”
Xia Wei: “…”
“Such a trade-building straight guy, and he still wants a girlfriend!” Xia Wei felt infuriated at him.
Jiang Zhi Zhou’s expression did not change as he countered, “I originally didn’t want to, but didn’t you tell me to not be so pessimistic?”
“…Yeah, and I also told you to compliment the manicures.”
Jiang Zhi Zhou slightly pursed his thin lips and spoke no more. Xia Wei coughed drily and continued, “Furthermore, girls are all very hypocritical human beings. If someone tells you to fuck off, you don’t really do so.”
“…So if she tells me to get lost, I should stay and do what?”
“…Naturally you stay and comfort her, you idiot!”
Jiang Zhi Zhou stared at her. “Since girls are all so hypocritical, then your insults of me being a trade-building straight guy, are those also lies?”
“…No, I am being very serious about that.”
Jiang Zhi Zhou continued staring at her and couldn’t help but smile faintly. Xia Wei saw the slight smile on his face and felt her heart suddenly begin beating slightly faster.
