The stop light at the Xinghe intersection was especially long. Xiang Changkong1 waited 96 seconds and saw an airplane cross the sky.
The weather was nice that day. Against the clear skies, a string of white smoke trailed after the plane, almost like it was painting up the sky.
Xiang Changkong watched it fly into the distance, until the light turned green. He stepped on the accelerator and rode off on his motorbike.
He was currently headed to an office building further ahead to deliver takeout orders. It was October, and autumn had arrived in A City. The wind in his face was a bit chilly.
When he arrived at the office building, Xiang Changkong parked his bike and grabbed the delivery from the insulated box. He rang the customer as he headed into the building. The men and women walking in and out of the high-rise were dressed in fashionable and trendy clothes. Xiang Changkong waited for them to exit the elevator before stepping in.
The building wasn’t as busy because it was lunchtime. The elevator headed straight to the 23rd floor, where the doors opened with a ‘ding’.
Xiang Changkong stepped out and walked a familiar route to the company office listed for the delivery. He pushed open the glass doors.
“Hello. Ms Zhou?”
“Over here! Over here!” A short-haired girl popped her head up from her desk and waved to Xiang Changkong.
Xiang Changkong looked over at her and then walked over with the delivery.
“What did you order?” The male colleague next to her stood up excitedly and rapped on her desk curiously. He accidentally dropped the documents in his hand and they fell to the floor.
“Maocai,2” Ms Zhou answered with delight as she dug out a spot on her desk. “Thank you, thank you! Please put it here.”
Xiang Changkong put down the order and told her, “Enjoy,” before turning to leave. The man’s documents had fallen to his feet, so Xiang Changkong bent over to help pick them up. Unexpectedly, the man shouted out in surprise, “Don’t touch that! I’ll get it myself! Don’t get my things dirty!”
Xiang Changkong paused. Without saying anything, he stepped over the folder and left. When he got to the door, he looked down at his fingers. He wiped his hands on his uniform before pushing open the door.
When he got to the elevator, the doors happened to open up. Another delivery guy rushed out. Upon seeing Xiang Changkong in front of him, he consciously greeted him.
The two of them didn’t work for the same company, but because they delivered in the same area, they ran into each other every so often.
Xiang Changkong nodded to him and quickly stepped into the elevator and pressed the button to close the doors.
A moment passed before the delivery guy realized what had happened. Then he looked at the closed doors of the elevator and whistled. “This guy’s suddenly so cool today.”
Paying no more attention to Xiang Changkong, he hurried to make his delivery.
In the elevator, Xiang Changkong watched the numbers change as he descended the building. Then he pulled out his phone to check his next delivery.
He was headed to Starlight Plaza next, to deliver an order to a Ms Xu Lian.3 Recently, he’d been getting a lot of orders from this Ms Xu. In fact, this was the third day that she’d ordered the signature chicken and rice from Hidden Dragon Kitchen.
He got onto his motorbike and made his way to Starlight Plaza.
Ten years ago, there was just and overgrown field where Starlight Plaza now stood. With the government’s support, Starlight Plaza was built a few years ago and had developed at an incredible pace. Today, aside from being home to A City’s largest flower field, it also had a large exhibition hall and various unique shops. It became A City’s new hotspot, attracting many tourists and photography lovers.
There was talk this year of building a Starlight Farm that would allow city dwellers to experience growing food.
Ms Xu Lian, who ordered delivery, opened a moderately-sized shop here in Starlight Plaza.
When Xiang Changkong first started delivering to Starlight Plaza, he had to rely on a map. But after a few visits, he had the map memorized.
He parked his bike in front of Xu Lian’s shop and grabbed her order. At the door, he took a look inside. The girl who usually sat on the first floor wasn’t there today. No wonder the order was just a single portion.
“Hello.” He pushed open the door to the shop and a wind chime rang.
Xu Lian was currently in her studio on the second floor melting wax. Instead of a railing, there were floor-to-ceiling windows in the direction of the front door. She looked downstairs.
A young man in an orange uniform stood there, her takeout in his hands.
“Just a moment,” Xu Lian called down as she turned off her wax melter and wiped her hands with a paper towel.
The crisp click of her heels grew louder and Xiang Changkong grew uneasy without reason.
Two days ago, he saw her dressed in black, leather pants. She looked cool yet sexy, like the gang leader’s woman. Today, she had on a long, black coat with an excessive belt and black high heels. Her straight, black hair was tied up in a high ponytail.
Instead of looking like the gang leader’s woman today, she looked like the gang leader himself.
“Thanks.” Xu Lian had already made her way over to him and taken the delivery from his hands.
Xiang Changkong felt his hands grow lighter. He replied subconsciously, “You’re welcome,” and turned to exit the shop.
As he started his bike, he turned for another look at Xu Lian. She was walking towards the break room on the first floor.
She had a very pretty, oval-shaped face. She didn’t have bangs covering up her bright forehead. She drew her eyebrows darker and thicker than most women did, and her lips were painted very red.
It seemed she really liked this sort of ostentatious appearance. She ran a very elegant, yuppie aroma candle shop, but then she went and named the store ‘Monster’.
Xiang Changkong looked away and hurried off to his next delivery.
Xu Lian finished her meal in ten minutes. At the end of the month, there was a real estate opening event, and the developer put in an order for 200 sets of candles to gift their VIP clients.
The event was for a very well-known developer, so they had solid financial resources. They signed a 100 thousand contract without hesitation. Xu Lian had always completed her orders by herself as she didn’t hire any employees. Firstly, she found it troublesome, and secondly, she didn’t trust others’ handiwork. And so, she ended up rather busy.
She’d opened this shop two years ago, and in the beginning, business wasn’t that great. In fact, the shop was rather unfrequented since the clientele for scented candles wasn’t that big. Then she fired herself up and decided to collaborate with the sweets shop next door, Sweet Heart In Honeyed Desire.
Last Christmas, the owner of the shop asked for her help with making scented candles and Christmas wreaths. Because the owner was very satisfied with the products, they even posted photos online.
Sweet Heart In Honeyed Desire was a very famous shop online. Their Weibo page had more than a million followers. Once they posted about Xu Lian’s shop, it also grew famous. Not only did she gain many customers, many businesses came to her with collaboration proposals.
The shop would be getting too busy for her to handle in the second half of the year, so she hired an employee to help customers and man the register.
After taking a short break, Xu Lian returned to her work studio on the second floor and got back to her orders. Once she started working, time simply flew by. Her alarm rang for more than a minute before she noticed it.
She sighed and turned off the alarm reminding her to order her meal.
She’d setup the alarm a few days ago. Because of how busy she was, she would forget about eating when no one else was in the shop. It couldn’t be helped, so she set an alarm to remind her to eat.
There were tons of meals on the takeout app, but only a few were very tasty. Xu Lian couldn’t be bothered with thinking about what to order, so she just ordered chicken and rice again.
This was the peak delivery period for Xiang Changkong. Before he set out again, he made a call back home.
The phone rang a long time before it was picked up. The other end was also quiet for a long time. Xiang Changkong found it strange, so he said, “Mom, remember to eat. I put all the food in the refrigerator. You just have to heat it up.”
Still, the other end was silent. Only the quiet sound of breathing let on that someone was indeed listening.
Xiang Changkong continued, “I’ll clean up when I get back around 10. Go to bed early.”
He waited a moment, but the other end was quiet as before. He let out a barely audible sigh and then said, “OK, bye,” before hanging up.
After the call ended, Weng Shuli held the phone a few seconds before putting it down. She walked over to the refrigerator and took out the food that Xiang Changkong had left. Just as she put it into the microwave, a pounding came on the door.
Their apartment was relatively old. There wasn’t an entrance hall or anything like that. The front door was right by the kitchen. Wen Shuli checked the door. The person outside hadn’t left and was patiently knocking on the door still. She stood frozen a moment before swallowing and walking over to open the door.
The person outside seemed slightly startled but then she smiled. “Mrs Xiang, I’m Little Liu from next door. Do you recognize me?”
Wen Shuli was quiet and looked at the guest blankly. Little Liu was rather intimidated by her stare. Xiang Changkong and his family moved in two years ago. While she’d often run into the two siblings, this Mrs Xiang rarely made an appearance. Apparently she had some kind of illness.
“I just went to pick up a package and I saw letter for Xiang Changkong, so I brought it up,” Little Liu explained as she handed over the letter. “It’s this one. I’ll take my leave now then.”
After pushing the letter into Wen Shuli’s hands, she turned and fled for her own apartment. Wen Shuli closed the door and looked down at the letter in her hands.
The letter was addressed to Xiang Changkong and was sent from A City’s First Aeronautics Institute.
Wen Shuli stared at the name for a while and then abruptly ripped the letter in two, tossing the pieces into the trash bin.
The stop light at the Xinghe intersection was especially long. Xiang Changkong1 waited 96 seconds and saw an airplane cross the sky.
The weather was nice that day. Against the clear skies, a string of white smoke trailed after the plane, almost like it was painting up the sky.
Xiang Changkong watched it fly into the distance, until the light turned green. He stepped on the accelerator and rode off on his motorbike.
He was currently headed to an office building further ahead to deliver takeout orders. It was October, and autumn had arrived in A City. The wind in his face was a bit chilly.
When he arrived at the office building, Xiang Changkong parked his bike and grabbed the delivery from the insulated box. He rang the customer as he headed into the building. The men and women walking in and out of the high-rise were dressed in fashionable and trendy clothes. Xiang Changkong waited for them to exit the elevator before stepping in.
The building wasn’t as busy because it was lunchtime. The elevator headed straight to the 23rd floor, where the doors opened with a ‘ding’.
Xiang Changkong stepped out and walked a familiar route to the company office listed for the delivery. He pushed open the glass doors.
“Hello. Ms Zhou?”
“Over here! Over here!” A short-haired girl popped her head up from her desk and waved to Xiang Changkong.
Xiang Changkong looked over at her and then walked over with the delivery.
“What did you order?” The male colleague next to her stood up excitedly and rapped on her desk curiously. He accidentally dropped the documents in his hand and they fell to the floor.
“Maocai,2” Ms Zhou answered with delight as she dug out a spot on her desk. “Thank you, thank you! Please put it here.”
Xiang Changkong put down the order and told her, “Enjoy,” before turning to leave. The man’s documents had fallen to his feet, so Xiang Changkong bent over to help pick them up. Unexpectedly, the man shouted out in surprise, “Don’t touch that! I’ll get it myself! Don’t get my things dirty!”
Xiang Changkong paused. Without saying anything, he stepped over the folder and left. When he got to the door, he looked down at his fingers. He wiped his hands on his uniform before pushing open the door.
When he got to the elevator, the doors happened to open up. Another delivery guy rushed out. Upon seeing Xiang Changkong in front of him, he consciously greeted him.
The two of them didn’t work for the same company, but because they delivered in the same area, they ran into each other every so often.
Xiang Changkong nodded to him and quickly stepped into the elevator and pressed the button to close the doors.
A moment passed before the delivery guy realized what had happened. Then he looked at the closed doors of the elevator and whistled. “This guy’s suddenly so cool today.”
Paying no more attention to Xiang Changkong, he hurried to make his delivery.
In the elevator, Xiang Changkong watched the numbers change as he descended the building. Then he pulled out his phone to check his next delivery.
He was headed to Starlight Plaza next, to deliver an order to a Ms Xu Lian.3 Recently, he’d been getting a lot of orders from this Ms Xu. In fact, this was the third day that she’d ordered the signature chicken and rice from Hidden Dragon Kitchen.
He got onto his motorbike and made his way to Starlight Plaza.
Ten years ago, there was just and overgrown field where Starlight Plaza now stood. With the government’s support, Starlight Plaza was built a few years ago and had developed at an incredible pace. Today, aside from being home to A City’s largest flower field, it also had a large exhibition hall and various unique shops. It became A City’s new hotspot, attracting many tourists and photography lovers.
There was talk this year of building a Starlight Farm that would allow city dwellers to experience growing food.
Ms Xu Lian, who ordered delivery, opened a moderately-sized shop here in Starlight Plaza.
When Xiang Changkong first started delivering to Starlight Plaza, he had to rely on a map. But after a few visits, he had the map memorized.
He parked his bike in front of Xu Lian’s shop and grabbed her order. At the door, he took a look inside. The girl who usually sat on the first floor wasn’t there today. No wonder the order was just a single portion.
“Hello.” He pushed open the door to the shop and a wind chime rang.
Xu Lian was currently in her studio on the second floor melting wax. Instead of a railing, there were floor-to-ceiling windows in the direction of the front door. She looked downstairs.
A young man in an orange uniform stood there, her takeout in his hands.
“Just a moment,” Xu Lian called down as she turned off her wax melter and wiped her hands with a paper towel.
The crisp click of her heels grew louder and Xiang Changkong grew uneasy without reason.
Two days ago, he saw her dressed in black, leather pants. She looked cool yet sexy, like the gang leader’s woman. Today, she had on a long, black coat with an excessive belt and black high heels. Her straight, black hair was tied up in a high ponytail.
Instead of looking like the gang leader’s woman today, she looked like the gang leader himself.
“Thanks.” Xu Lian had already made her way over to him and taken the delivery from his hands.
Xiang Changkong felt his hands grow lighter. He replied subconsciously, “You’re welcome,” and turned to exit the shop.
As he started his bike, he turned for another look at Xu Lian. She was walking towards the break room on the first floor.
She had a very pretty, oval-shaped face. She didn’t have bangs covering up her bright forehead. She drew her eyebrows darker and thicker than most women did, and her lips were painted very red.
It seemed she really liked this sort of ostentatious appearance. She ran a very elegant, yuppie aroma candle shop, but then she went and named the store ‘Monster’.
Xiang Changkong looked away and hurried off to his next delivery.
Xu Lian finished her meal in ten minutes. At the end of the month, there was a real estate opening event, and the developer put in an order for 200 sets of candles to gift their VIP clients.
The event was for a very well-known developer, so they had solid financial resources. They signed a 100 thousand contract without hesitation. Xu Lian had always completed her orders by herself as she didn’t hire any employees. Firstly, she found it troublesome, and secondly, she didn’t trust others’ handiwork. And so, she ended up rather busy.
She’d opened this shop two years ago, and in the beginning, business wasn’t that great. In fact, the shop was rather unfrequented since the clientele for scented candles wasn’t that big. Then she fired herself up and decided to collaborate with the sweets shop next door, Sweet Heart In Honeyed Desire.
Last Christmas, the owner of the shop asked for her help with making scented candles and Christmas wreaths. Because the owner was very satisfied with the products, they even posted photos online.
Sweet Heart In Honeyed Desire was a very famous shop online. Their Weibo page had more than a million followers. Once they posted about Xu Lian’s shop, it also grew famous. Not only did she gain many customers, many businesses came to her with collaboration proposals.
The shop would be getting too busy for her to handle in the second half of the year, so she hired an employee to help customers and man the register.
After taking a short break, Xu Lian returned to her work studio on the second floor and got back to her orders. Once she started working, time simply flew by. Her alarm rang for more than a minute before she noticed it.
She sighed and turned off the alarm reminding her to order her meal.
She’d setup the alarm a few days ago. Because of how busy she was, she would forget about eating when no one else was in the shop. It couldn’t be helped, so she set an alarm to remind her to eat.
There were tons of meals on the takeout app, but only a few were very tasty. Xu Lian couldn’t be bothered with thinking about what to order, so she just ordered chicken and rice again.
This was the peak delivery period for Xiang Changkong. Before he set out again, he made a call back home.
The phone rang a long time before it was picked up. The other end was also quiet for a long time. Xiang Changkong found it strange, so he said, “Mom, remember to eat. I put all the food in the refrigerator. You just have to heat it up.”
Still, the other end was silent. Only the quiet sound of breathing let on that someone was indeed listening.
Xiang Changkong continued, “I’ll clean up when I get back around 10. Go to bed early.”
He waited a moment, but the other end was quiet as before. He let out a barely audible sigh and then said, “OK, bye,” before hanging up.
After the call ended, Weng Shuli held the phone a few seconds before putting it down. She walked over to the refrigerator and took out the food that Xiang Changkong had left. Just as she put it into the microwave, a pounding came on the door.
Their apartment was relatively old. There wasn’t an entrance hall or anything like that. The front door was right by the kitchen. Wen Shuli checked the door. The person outside hadn’t left and was patiently knocking on the door still. She stood frozen a moment before swallowing and walking over to open the door.
The person outside seemed slightly startled but then she smiled. “Mrs Xiang, I’m Little Liu from next door. Do you recognize me?”
Wen Shuli was quiet and looked at the guest blankly. Little Liu was rather intimidated by her stare. Xiang Changkong and his family moved in two years ago. While she’d often run into the two siblings, this Mrs Xiang rarely made an appearance. Apparently she had some kind of illness.
“I just went to pick up a package and I saw letter for Xiang Changkong, so I brought it up,” Little Liu explained as she handed over the letter. “It’s this one. I’ll take my leave now then.”
After pushing the letter into Wen Shuli’s hands, she turned and fled for her own apartment. Wen Shuli closed the door and looked down at the letter in her hands.
The letter was addressed to Xiang Changkong and was sent from A City’s First Aeronautics Institute.
Wen Shuli stared at the name for a while and then abruptly ripped the letter in two, tossing the pieces into the trash bin.
