Xiao Xu could not go to the extent of forcing Qiao Nan to move out because of this matter.

  After a long discussion, Qiao Nan was still unwilling to agree. Thus, Xiao Xu had no other choice but to leave. Earlier, upon knowing that Qiao Nan was still single, Xiao Xu had been afraid that a woman of her age would harbor ulterior motives and try to stick to the chief because of his excellent background.

  Now, not only had that not happened, but Sister Qiao was even trying her best to avoid the chief. She was not even willing to take a step closer. What should he do? The chief really did enjoy eating Sister Qiao’s dishes.

  Qiao Nan thought that Xiao Xu would finally give up now that he had left. She was no professional chef and was capable of cooking some simple dishes at most. It would not be a difficult task for Zhai Sheng to hire someone who could cook authentic Ping Cheng dishes. If one was unsuitable, he could just try another one until he found someone suitable.

  ‘Borrowing’ her to help out was a bad idea. One always needed to return whatever they borrowed.

  Since that was the case, he might as well find someone whom he could accept from the start so that that person would never have to leave. In that way, Xiao Xu would not need to waste so much time and effort.

  Xiao Xu had willingly left and neither had her landlord turned up. Thus, Qiao Nan had thought that that was the end of this matter and that she could lead her own peaceful life from now on. But who would have expected the matter to have been more complicated than that?

  When someone knocked on her door again the next day, Qiao Nan did not think much about it and simply asked who it was. Upon hearing the same answer and learning that it was Xiao Xu once again, Qiao Nan pursed her lips before opening the door. “Xiao Xu, what I suggested was…… Why are you here?”

  \r \r \r

  The person who had answered her earlier had clearly been Xiao Xu, but the moment she opened the door, she realized that the person standing in front of her was not Xiao Xu, but Zhai Sheng. “Where’s Xiao Xu?” Zhai Sheng was sitting in his wheelchair in front of the door. Clearly, Zhai Sheng had still not been able to get rid of his wheelchair in such a short period of time. Otherwise, Zhai Sheng would never have chosen to use his wheelchair outside of his house, given his temper. He would never reveal his weakness in front of outsiders.

  “Xiao Xu is keeping an eye on the car,” Zhai Sheng replied. “Aren’t you going to invite me in for a drink? This is my first time getting out of the house ever since I’ve been in Qingshui Town.”

  Qiao Nan indeed did not want Zhai Sheng to enter her house. It did not seem right for a male and a female to be in an enclosed space together with no third party around. What if something happened and they were unable to explain it in the future?

  But before Qiao Nan could reply and ask Zhai Sheng to have a chat somewhere else, Zhai Sheng had already barged his way into the house. Qiao Nan had no choice but to let go of the door and step aside, allowing Zhai Sheng to enter her house.

  Qiao Nan’s head hurt as she poured a glass of water for Zhai Sheng. “Chief, have some water.”

  Zhai Sheng’s eyes were sharp and he scanned through Qiao Nan’s apartment. Even though she lived alone, he could tell that Qiao Nan was hardworking and maintained her rented apartment well. Moreover, the seasonings in the kitchen had all been opened and were half-empty.

  This meant that Qiao Nan often cooked for herself too. From his observation, this apartment did not seem like Qiao Nan’s rented apartment. Qiao Nan had put in a lot of effort into creating a home for herself.

  “Chief?” Zhai Sheng picked up the glass and took a sip. “I remember that you used to call me Brother Zhai. Why have you suddenly changed your way of addressing me in just a few days’ time?”

  Qiao Nan sighed. “Chief, don’t joke around with me. Even though we used to live in the same quad, we’ve never met before this. I wouldn’t dare to address you as my elder brother.” More importantly, addressing Zhai Sheng as Brother Zhai would only make it seem as though she was still in her dream.

  The words ‘Brother Zhai’ were an affectionate term in her dream. But in reality, these words were like a curse.

  “It’s all right if you don’t have that confidence. I can give you that confidence.” Zhai Sheng’s gaze sank. “Isn’t it just a way of addressing me? Don’t think too much about it.”

  Seeing how stubborn Zhai Sheng was about her addressing him as an elder brother, in order to differentiate her dream from reality, Qiao Nan could only change her tone. “Can I address you as Bro Zhai then?” As long as it was not ‘Brother Zhai’. After all, she had been addressing Zhai Sheng as ‘Brother Zhai’ throughout her marriage in her dream for twenty to thirty years, up until the moment she woke up.

  There was no difference between ‘Brother Zhai’ and ‘husband’ to her.

  “That’s fine too. It’s all up to you.” Although ‘Bro Zhai’ did not sound as pleasing to the ear as ‘Brother Zhai’, Zhai Sheng still accepted it reluctantly. “I heard that you don’t want to come back to help out? Do you treat the Zhai family’s old villa as a ferocious beast? Or do you think I’m a ferocious beast?”

  Qiao Nan had already guessed that Zhai Sheng had come to find her for this matter. “Bro Zhai, I won’t lie to you. I’ve already said earlier that I have a job. Earlier on, I only agreed to help out because I knew that I would only be needed for two days. Because of those two days, I had a lot of backlogs to catch up on and had to work nonstop for twelve hours a day for three days before I finally managed to complete all my work. I’m not young anymore. This kind of work intensity is too straining on me. Spare a thought for me. Now that I’ve finally got a chance to relax a little, I should grab this opportunity by the hand and live a little!”

  “How much do you earn in a month?”

  “.……” It was rather strange for Zhai Sheng to be asking her about this. Could it be that Zhai Sheng was trying to win her over with money? “I make as much as I work. If I work more, then I’ll make more money. I have a few return clients who prefer me to take on their jobs. If I split my workload out well and do a little bit every day, I’m not actually that busy.”

  As such, she really had no time to care for Zhai Sheng’s meals if she wanted to lead a more comfortable life.

  “What’s your job?” It seemed so flexible.

  “Online translations.”

  “Are you good at English?” Zhai Sheng was rather taken aback because he knew that Qiao Nan had not even graduated from junior high school before she had been forced to leave school to work to support Qiao Zijin. Sun Guohong’s investigation report had only said that Qiao Nan had taken on many part-time jobs. He had not seen translating as one of them.

  “It’s okay.” She knew that Zhai Sheng was a soldier, but he was a gifted student too. In her dream, she and her master had taught the triplets foreign languages from a young age. When the triplets spoke foreign languages, Zhai Sheng did not miss a beat and could reply to them fluently too. Even though that was just a dream, it could not be denied that many things that happened in her dream seemed to reflect reality. As such, Qiao Nan dared not look down on Zhai Sheng’s ability in case she made a fool out of herself. “Technology is really advanced nowadays. You don’t have to leave the house to get a job. There are many different kinds of jobs that you can find online. Clients can also make their requests online. On legal sites and with bound accounts, everything is quite safe. There won’t be any problem of information being leaked.”

  “Can I take a look?”