As soon as Ji Chaoxi left, Zhou Chiye sat down in his chair.
His ears were a little red, but his face was full of distress: "I don’t know when she started acting like this. She’s always being cute and flirty with me. I really can’t get used to it."
"If I were to bring it up, she’d definitely feel embarrassed, because she’s thin-skinned."
The guy with the single eyelids looked at Zhou Chiye, who seemed genuinely troubled.
He was silent for a moment, then spoke up: "But I don’t think she’s being flirty. She’s just talking normally."
"Yeh Ge, about those so-called sparkling eyes you mentioned—do they really exist? Do normal people’s eyes suddenly light up like that?"
Zhou Chiye said matter-of-factly, "Of course you wouldn’t know. She’s never shown that to you."
A smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth: "She does it to me all the time."
The single eyelids shut his mouth.
"Did you notice anything else?" Zhou Chiye asked.
"I mean, besides her being all cute and flirty with me, did you observe anything else?"
Zhou Chiye took a few sips of water.
The single eyelids tried to communicate with a man who seemed lost in his own fantasies.
"Yeh Ge, isn’t it possible that she wasn’t actually flirting with you? Maybe you just think she’s cute."
Zhou Chiye frowned deeply, as if he were mulling something over.
The single eyelids thought he’d figured it out, but then Zhou Chiye said calmly,
"I don’t understand."
The single eyelids choked, then broke it down for him: "Yeh Ge, you say her eyes sparkle, but normal people’s eyes don’t sparkle that much, and they don’t burn others."
"You say she flirts with you—couldn’t it be that you just feel like she’s flirting, because you want her to, but she doesn’t mean it?"
"Also, about her voice having a hook to it—maybe your feelings have changed, but her voice itself hasn’t."
The single eyelids stared at Zhou Chiye. Surely he’d get it now.
Zhou Chiye looked equally troubled: "Are you saying I’m hallucinating? But why would my hallucinations only happen with her?"
He couldn’t understand a word the single eyelids was saying.
Sparkling eyes, flirting, a hooked voice—he’d seen and heard them all with his own eyes and ears. How could they be fake?
The single eyelids: ...
Ji Chaoxi had been right earlier: guys with such strong athletic skills like Zhou Chiye really did have simple minds.
Then, in the next second, the single eyelids watched helplessly as Zhou Chiye moved Ji Chaoxi’s check-in photos into a special album and started scrolling through them.
It had been such a short time, and there were already over three hundred pictures.
The single eyelids didn’t know what to say anymore.
He watched Zhou Chiye pause on one photo, then chuckle lightly.
"This is from the day she was on duty and saw a bug. Said it scared her. She’s such a coward, LOL."
The single eyelids had no idea where the joke was...
Zhou Chiye pointed to another picture.
"Last time she didn’t do well on an exam, she was whining to me. I comforted her."
The single eyelids asked: "Yeh Ge, how did you comfort her?"
Since when did Zhou Chiye know how to comfort people?
"Transferred her some money."
The single eyelids: ...
The sky was bathed in orange. The shadows under the big tree grew longer, and the sounds of card games and noise filled the air below.
Just then, the white car parked under the tree again.
As soon as Ji’s father saw the car, he immediately put down his cards: "No more games, I’ve got to buy insurance."
Across from him, a man mocked: "Do you even have the money to buy insurance?"
Ji’s father lifted his chin: "How could I not have money? Buying insurance is just a few thousand yuan."
He’d been pestering Old Wang all week to get the insurance salesman to visit the village, and Wang was so annoyed by him.
That gold necklace and gold earrings? He’d already sold them at the town market.
That wretched woman Ji Fangyun—she took the family’s money to buy gold for her sister, but never once bought him anything.
When the agent saw Ji’s father, he was all smiles, showing no sign of their earlier disagreement.
"Set up the same plan as the family at the west end of the village. I want it. Money’s no issue." Ji’s father stood with his hands behind his back, tapping the table with a nod.
The agent had seen plenty of customers like Ji’s father—annoying, but the kind who still got him commissions.
The agent started to read the contract aloud, but Ji’s father waved him off: "Skip all that nonsense. Just tell me—is it the same contract as theirs or not?"
The agent quickly said: "Yes, yes, it’s exactly the same, but you still need to take a look."
Ji’s father clicked his tongue: "You young people don’t know how to do business. I’m practically begging you to let me sign. Since I called you here, I already know what I’m doing. Come on, sign."
Ji’s father acted as if he were closing a billion-dollar deal.
The other villagers watched him show off.
"Who should I name as the beneficiary? Your wife, or someone else?" the agent asked.
Ji’s father frowned deeply: "Definitely not her. I’m not letting her get anything out of this."
The agent smiled: "Even if you name your wife, she’s still keeping it for the kids. Besides, if you’re fine, nobody touches that money anyway."
The others were still watching. Impatient, Ji’s father nodded: "Fine, fine. Put whatever."
"But if nothing happens to me, it’s still mine, right?" he asked, uneasy.
The agent forced a smile: "Yes."
Ji’s father finally relaxed.
What could possibly happen to him? When he was a kid, he fell into a river and got saved. Once, he went to a barber shop where everyone else got caught, but he didn’t.
Ji’s father pulled out a few thousand yuan from his pocket, the bills trembling slightly in the wind.
The agent counted the money and completed the insurance.
That night, Ji’s father fell asleep hugging the contract.
Night had fully fallen. The barbecue stalls downstairs in the urban village were bustling, full of laughter and shouting from people playing finger-guessing games.
Ji Chaoxi was carefully calculating her accounts. The more she calculated, the brighter her eyes became. She used to worry she’d run out of money before finishing school, but now she’d saved enough for college.
She transferred some money into Ji Fangyun’s card and recorded it in her ledger.
Next door, her brother Ji Huaichuan was doing his homework when the door suddenly burst open. He immediately dove onto his desk, face-down.
"Brother, look at my balance! Check it out!"
Ji Chaoxi shook him vigorously, but Ji Huaichuan stayed sprawled on the desk, motionless.
He didn’t dare look. He really didn’t dare!
Lately, he’d only earned some prize money from a physics competition. He couldn’t make any other money!
He’d tried tutoring people, even endured their criticism—nothing worked...
He couldn’t accept it!
Seeing that she couldn’t show off successfully, Ji Chaoxi sighed and left.
Ji Huaichuan decided to find a part-time job. This kind of easy money just wasn’t happening for him.
He had become the most useless person in the family. Even his good-for-nothing father could occasionally win some money playing cards!
