I am not a literary giant

Wang Zixu and Lin Feng agreed to meet in front of "Xin Rong Ji" an hour later. That old restaurant was only two blocks away from the government office building.

Lin Feng was still at work, and he assumed Wang Zixu was too. So they arranged to meet an hour later, close to the end of the workday. In his mind, Wang Zixu was still that well-behaved, honest man. Wang Zixu didn't correct him. He thought it was fine as it was.

So he got up, put on his clothes, and left home.

The West River at around 3 PM on a weekday afternoon was completely unfamiliar to Wang Zixu; it was an untouched virgin territory. He had always been a dutiful worker, while this was a world only those who dared to break the rules could experience.

The sunlight weakened, its rays no longer stinging the skin, but causing a restless heat within. High-rise buildings lined both sides of the road, their stark white light glaring. The color of the ground indicated that a water truck had just passed. The scent of heather mingled with the moisture from the ground, rising and gradually becoming unbearable.

The number of pedestrians on the street was somewhere between "a few scattered" and "none at all." The arrival of summer had loosened the last vestige of coolness. The individual shop owners on the street were all hiding in their shops, their faces shrouded in shadow, watching with nonchalant airs as Wang Zixu walked past in a disheveled state.

The prince tried his best to stay in the shade of a tree. The piercing sound of an electric drill came from a distant high-rise, and the calls of an unknown bird echoed from the trees. A sparrow hopped down, skipped and hopped alongside him for a short distance, then flew away. Sunlight filtered through the leaves, creating dappled patterns that shimmered and danced in the breeze, making it seem as if one were walking on water.

He stopped, looked up, and searched for some strange shapes amidst the bright blue sky and white clouds.

Thirty years of busy life had passed by, and childhood slipped by as easily as a spearhead piercing a smooth stone. What followed was a decade of monotonous, lifeless existence. He couldn't even recall the last time he felt so idle.

Strangely, even though it was the same Xihe River, it appeared more vibrant and colorful today, a feeling he never had when commuting to work. He had grown up in Xihe, and everything here was familiar to him, yet today it presented a sense of strangeness to him. This feeling filled him with inexplicable panic; he wanted to shout and run across the street, as if that would make the panic disappear.

Perhaps the West River has always been so vibrant and colorful, but Wang Zixu sits in his office year after year, repeating the same monotonous life, surrounded by white walls and red desks. It is he himself who has lost his color.

He found a spot away from his workplace and the sun and sat down on a roadside bench. He took out his phone, opened the Wen'ai app, and saw over 999 unread messages, gasping in the sweltering heat.

Ye Lan told him that "many users" were interested in him. He hadn't expected so many at the time.

Most of these messages were order reminders, and a significant portion were greetings. Scrolling through the long message list, he saw all sorts of usernames, trying to get his attention in various tones. Suddenly, he had the experience of "seeing all the flowers of Chang'an in a single day."

Wang Zixu put down his phone and smiled bitterly. He had imagined many ways to become "red," but he never thought that on such a hot day, "red" would hit him in the waist in this way.

Sure enough, as a novelist, his imagination was not exaggerated enough.

Wang Zixu picked up his phone. In some deep corner of his heart, he felt a sense of relief. Because there were so many messages, Qiu Ge's message was buried among them. He always felt a vague sense of guilt towards this girl.

He had said he would only accept her orders. But repeatedly engaging in speech therapy with her felt like a form of deception to him; yet ignoring her order requests made him seem cold-blooded.

It's like his mother explicitly forbade him to keep a dog, yet he brought a sausage to a stray dog ​​on the street every day. When that little dog, who trusted him implicitly, wanted to go home with him, he locked it out. All he could say was sorry.

However, his sense of guilt was quite weak, limited to the act of "seeing." Since he couldn't see it anymore, he felt no guilt.

His finger hovered over the screen, and a message below it caught his attention in an instant amidst the vast sea of ​​information:

"Let's talk one last time. You can see this anytime. I'll always be waiting for you. — Qiu Ge"

Prince Xu's sense of guilt began to resurface.

He clicked "accept".

This time, Qiu Ge didn't reply immediately. The two remained silent in the blank chat box, only the cursor dancing alone.

The prince tentatively sent a message:

【hello.】

As if a starting gun had been fired, several messages quickly came in from the other end:

You finally replied to me!

I sent you seventeen messages, and you haven't replied to any of them.

I thought last time really was the last time; I've been regretting it for the past two days.

The Little Prince: [So, you never even considered that it might be the last time?]

Qiu Ge: [Hehe, you caught me~]

The Little Prince: [Hehe, my foot!]

The Little Prince: [If you don't want to talk to me for the last time, then don't use "the last time" as an excuse. Whether it's the last time or the nth to last time, I'll keep you company as long as you ask.]

The Little Prince: [Because I've discovered I'm not very good at saying no to you.]

A message immediately came back: 【Wait a moment.】

It seemed that Qiu Ge was held up by something, and it took a long time before the message was connected again.

Qiu Ge: [We haven't talked for two days, don't start with something so provocative. I can't take it.]

The Little Prince: [I didn't say anything.]

Qiu Ge: [There are so many people here, a huge crowd. Actually, I was in a meeting, and I even spoke just now. I'm chatting with you now. Wow, this is so exciting!]

Wang Zixu couldn't quite understand what excited her. He felt that there was a lot of corrupt elements in this woman's personality. But he couldn't bring himself to dislike her.

Qiu Ge: [You've been waiting a long time, haven't you? Sorry I didn't warn you. Although that's how I feel inside, outwardly I'm still a very respectable and dignified person. Sending you a message from the podium is a bit inappropriate.]

The Little Prince: [It's alright. While you were speaking, I was thinking about whether there really is a number called "the infiniteth to the reciprocal" in mathematics, and how to express it. Unfortunately, I'm not good at math. So I didn't find it boring at all.]

Qiu Ge: [Yeah, that's right. Talking about math calmed me down. My ears were definitely red the whole time on the stage; I wonder if anyone noticed.]

Wang Zixu couldn't help but smile and typed: 【Is this red person an official? Or a private individual?】

This is a story about Emperor Hui of Jin. Emperor Hui was a fool. When he heard frogs croaking in a pond, he asked, "Are these frogs croaking for officials or for private individuals?" His subordinates told him, "In official land, they croak for officials; in private land, they croak for private individuals."

Qiu Ge gave the standard answer: 【Though I reside in official territory, my fame rests on your shoulders.】