"Lian Xia, they've switched shifts. Can you cover?"
"Coming!"
The girl quickly set down her work and took a seat at the start of the assembly line, placing boxes. Her hands were fast and precise—not just double the speed, but easily the equal of two workers.
Yet the middle-aged foreman behind her still didn't look satisfied.
Lian Xia was sharp and not much of a talker, efficient at her work. The foreman had hinted several times that he could move her to an office position, but she'd refused every time.
Being transferred to the office meant working side by side with the foreman, shift leaders, and production supervisors day and night.
On the surface, the office work seemed easier, but in reality it was a form of psychological coercion.
Under such intense survival pressure, most of the girls didn't wear makeup and weren't conventionally attractive. A pretty, fresh-faced girl naturally drew the "leaders'" attention.
Once in the office, the "leaders" would insistently invite you to late-night suppers every evening. More than a few young women had been lured in, eating their way straight into a trap.
So she played dumb and just worked relentlessly.
A chubby girl glanced at the foreman's retreating back, scooted next to her, and cheerfully helped with the boxes.
"Old Huang giving you trouble again?"
Lian Xia smiled. "No."
In truth, the backstabbing at the bottom rung was even more brutal. If she really gossiped about the "leaders" with her coworkers, by the next day their conversation would be embellished and passed around as ammunition.
At shift change, she said a quick goodbye and hurried off. Behind her, a few younger girls sniffed dismissively.
"So what if she's a college grad..."
"Thinks she's too good for us."
"Exactly! Won't even go to the office—what a waste of a golden opportunity!"
They were all indignation personified, as though the one who'd lost out on a chance at the top was themselves.
After changing out of her work clothes, Lian Xia went to the factory gate to wait for the bus.
She had a fair, delicate face—not stunning at first glance, but the kind that grew more attractive the longer you looked. Quite a few boys at the stop were staring at her, eyes roving with obvious interest.
A few girls nestled against boyfriends their own age, squirming and laughing, carelessly enjoying their youth.
She remained stone-faced, silently watching the passing vehicles.
...
...
The moment Lian Xia stepped through the door, a blast of cold air hit her and she instinctively shrank back.
She thought autumn rain was coming, unaware that Gu Xichen had already glided to the doorway, watching her like a hawk from where she couldn't see.
Seeing the girl flop onto the bed like a lost soul, he was quite displeased.
It had been a whole day and she still hadn't brought out the offerings?
Fortunately, Lian Xia was also hungry. When she dragged herself up to make noodles, she didn't forget to light his incense.
He noticed with sharp eyes that she set aside a few sticks and put them back.
Only three sticks, no more, no less.
Was she really that stingy?
As Lian Xia slurped her noodles, Gu Xichen naturally took the seat across from her.
One person ate noodles, the other ate ash.
While eating, he watched her flip open a massive tome, sipping thin broth while muttering over the red-inked annotations.
Gu Xichen: "..."
That wasn't the craziest part. That evening, he saw her hang several English vocabulary posters—one in the bedroom, one in the living room, one in the bathroom—and then she recited vocabulary while brushing her teeth...
While stretching, she recited vocabulary...
While soaking her feet, she recited vocabulary...
Meanwhile, he was inhaling incense like it was rocket fuel.
It seemed his Sugar Momma was currently preparing for graduate school entrance exams, specifically aiming for a literature program at a different university. She had discovered this from the dozen-plus hefty tomes piled by her bed—*Chinese Philology*, *Classical Chinese*, and more—each one with dog-eared corners and yellowed covers.
He suddenly recalled those childish words on the back of the photograph.
"Someday I'll become a petrel, soaring over the dark, turbulent sea."
So that was it...
As if a chain of luminous clues had been linked together, his gaze upon her changed.
She was young, and the kind of beauty that grew on you—undeniably the wholesome type that men fell for at first sight.
She was kind and trustworthy, keeping her promise to burn incense for him every day.
More importantly.
She was hardworking.
This girl radiated the brilliance of an idealist. In a novel, she'd be the quintessential spirited heroine. It was just too damn endearing.
But the vengeful ghost was not happy.
The vengeful ghost did not want positive energy.
That night, so as not to disturb his Sugar Momma's sleep, Gu Xichen considerately retreated to the farthest corner of the room—the diagonal opposite from her—and curled up for the night.
He racked his brain all night but couldn't find a reason to kick her out...
Which only made him angrier.
Factory shifts started at 7 a.m. Lian Xia usually woke early to study before leaving.
She opened her phone, and a soulful, melodic female voice poured out—a popular love song with bold, sultry lyrics.
She quickly cut the romantic ballad and dove into her English listening practice.
Love rots the soul—it's poison, it's a pitfall. Absolutely must be avoided!
Gu Xichen: "..."
Spring had arrived, all things were growing, and young men and women's hearts were stirring once more.
In his view, even the Sugar Momma might not withstand the call of those spring hormones. She might abandon her books for a man at any moment—he'd just have to wait and see how long this burst of determination would last!
...
...
After work, Lian Xia kept her head down and worked as usual.
On the production line, several coworkers huddled together chatting, punctuated by occasional giggles. The details were hard to make out, but they were clearly discussing a boy.
On their line, boys were far outnumbered by girls.
Because of the way poor families coddled their sons, the boys who came to work at factories weren't necessarily more hardworking or patient than the girls. They cycled through like flowing water, while the same old female faces remained.
Whenever a cute boy appeared, it was like a bomb went off both inside and outside the factory.
In a workplace overflowing with women, loneliness was the original sin. One boy could juggle multiple girlfriends, and the girls might even know about each other and silently accept the rivalry.
In Lian Xia's view, this cheap love born of hormones was more terrifying than any trap.
At lunch, Lian Xia carried her tray—three dishes and a soup—eating heartily.
She had a few lunch companions, all with the same eat-and-work mentality, so the table was quiet, punctuated only by the soft sounds of soup-slurping.
"Is someone sitting here?"
They looked up to find a boy standing before them.
He had clean features and narrow eyes—good-looking in a modest way, with fair skin and a crisp, boyish charm.
The kind of person it was hard to dislike.
The girl beside Lian Xia quickly shifted her tray to make room, and the boy sat down without a word of thanks, as though it were his right.
"By the way, what's your name?"
He nudged Lian Xia. She frowned slightly and shifted away almost imperceptibly.
Seeing her cold demeanor, the boy introduced himself without missing a beat: "I'm Chen Xi. And you?"
She didn't answer. The girl across the table blushed and chirped, "I'm Ding Xiaoyan—you can call me Xiaoyan!"
The two of them fell into animated conversation and the table quickly grew lively.
Chen Xi seemed popular; quite a few passing girls stared at him. After all, compared to the stocky, dark-skinned boys around with their dyed-blonde village-hustler hair, this clean-cut youth was quite the catch.
That was why Lian Xia was surprised when she found herself on the same bus with him.
She'd always thought of herself as thoroughly unremarkable, without any quality noteworthy enough to attract someone's interest—let alone warrant insistence on walking her home.
Her heart fluttered with unease.
As if sensing her discomfort, the boy's narrow eyes crinkled into a smile. "I just want to walk you home. Is that so wrong?"
"N-no... there's no need."
Having zero experience with men, Lian Xia—a twenty-year-old who'd never been in a relationship—fell into a momentary brain freeze.
Chen Xi reached out and patted her head, his tone gentle. "It's okay, don't be scared."
The head-pat move!
In the cramped space of the bus, pink bubbles seemed to float in the air.
"Could you please not pat my head?"
"?"
She gathered her courage to object. "It makes me—I'll feel nauseous."
The boy: "..."
Fortunately, the bus reached her stop. Lian Xia shot out the door as if something terrifying was chasing her.
Back at the rental, she lit incense and cooked noodles as usual, but her expression was a little distant, almost melancholy.
Gu Xichen watched from the shadows as she took down one of the photographs from the wooden display wall and wrote three lines on its back:
"Stay clear-headed. Push back.
My life is survival mode, a realist's lament.
Not some Mary Sue novel!"
Gu Xichen: ...
Thanks for the motivation boost today.