Professor Xie, isn't this a case of forcing customers to buy products that don't match the

The second Thursday afternoon.

When Xie Jing entered the reading room, Shang Song had already arrived.

He sat in his usual spot, with a book of "Shuowen Jiezi" open in front of him and a pen in his hand, writing something on a piece of paper.

Hearing the door open, he turned around, his eyes crinkling with a smile: "Professor Xie!"

Xie Jing nodded, walked over, and sat down opposite him.

He didn't say anything, but simply reached out and pointed to a word on the book.

Shang Song looked down at it, then read it aloud.

correct.

Xie Jing ordered the second one.

correct.

The third.

Shang Song hesitated for a moment, but ultimately read it correctly.

Xie Jing was thinking.

After this young man went back, he must have looked up the correct pronunciations one by one, practiced them until they were memorized, and was waiting to read them to him today.

Xie Jing lowered his eyes and continued speaking.

Time flies.

When Xie Jing stopped talking and looked up at his watch, Shang Song seemed to still have more to say. His eyes darted around, as if he had something to say but was too embarrassed to speak.

Xie Jing looked at him but did not get up and leave immediately.

But he knew he had to go.

The agreed meeting time includes a three-hour silent period.

During these three hours, he can turn off his personal communication devices and be completely offline.

In this way, his meeting with Shang Song would not be disturbed in any way.

However, this also means that if he fails to restore the communication link within the scheduled time, the staff waiting on the perimeter will initiate the confirmation process.

Outside the reading room, there may be unwanted figures.

He didn't want Shang Song to see these unusual things.

They didn't want Shang Song to realize anything because of this.

Therefore, he must leave on time.

But Shang Song seemed to have something to say.

It wasn't until Xie Jing looked up at his watch again that Shang Song seemed to finally make up his mind.

Shang Song asked softly, "...Professor Xie, may I have your contact information?"

Xie Jing looked at his bright red ears and recited a string of numbers.

Shang Song paused for a moment, then quickly pulled out his phone, frantically opened his contacts, and started saving numbers.

Time is up.

Xie Jing stood up. "See you next week."

Shang Song looked up and nodded vigorously: "See you next week!"

However, Xie Jing did not receive any messages or calls from Shang Song before their third meeting.

On the third meeting.

When Xie Jing returned to the third reading room, Shang Song's expression was quite subtle.

The young man, on the verge of tears, said, "Professor Xie... um, the number you gave me last time, I think... I remembered it wrong..."

As he spoke, he almost buried his head in the table, "After I got back, I sent you text messages... a lot of them... and then that person replied... telling me to stop sending them... his surname isn't Xie... his surname is Chen..."

Xie Jing paused for two seconds, then recited the string of numbers again.

This time, the report came out a little slower than last time.

Shang Song quickly picked up his phone and entered the numbers one by one. After finishing, he checked it twice, muttering, "This time I definitely won't make a mistake..."

Xie Jing looked at the string of numbers on his phone screen, nodded, and said, "Mm."

That evening, Xie Jing returned to Xishan. After dinner, he received a message from Shang Song.

It was a text message asking if he had eaten.

After reading it, he replied, "I've already had dinner."

Lin Zhou happened to be reporting on some business nearby. After he finished, he casually mentioned, "Patriarch, nowadays young people are generally more used to communicating via WeChat."

Xie Jing looked at Lin Zhou.

Lin Zhou understood and continued, "If the head of the family needs to maintain daily contact with Mr. Shang, WeChat might be more convenient. You can send pictures and emojis, and you can also see the other party's updates, which is like Moments."

Xie Jing was silent for a moment, then opened the app store and found the green bubble icon.

The registration process was simple, but he stopped at the real-name authentication step.

His personal information cannot be entered into any third-party platform.

This is the principle.

Profile picture: Default gray figure.

Nickname: Xie Jing.

He wasn't very familiar with the process, so he found the number Shang Song had sent him in a text message before and searched for Shang Song's WeChat in the friend list.

The profile picture is a warm, cuddly little orange cat.

Xie Jing stared at the profile picture for a long time before finally pressing the "add friend" button.

The other party accepted the request in less than a minute.

Then, bubbles began to rise one after another.

"Professor Xie!!!"

"You actually have WeChat!"

"I thought you only used email!"

"This profile picture is hilarious."

"No, no, I wasn't mocking your profile picture."

"I'm just so happy!"

"Professor Xie, what did you have for dinner?"

"I reviewed the word you mentioned today carefully!"

……

Xie Jing held his phone, staring at the endless stream of messages, and fell silent, unsure where to begin.

Lin Zhou remained silent to the side, seemingly wanting to say something but holding back.

Xie Jing knew that Lin Zhou was trying to remind him that his work time for restoring ancient books had come to an end tonight.

He glanced at Lin Zhou, then typed a reply: "Send it, I'll reply when I have time."

Then, he put down his phone.

This was his way of communicating with people throughout his life.

He was very busy, and the restoration work required his full concentration.

He has never had the experience of working while keeping his phone nearby for extended real-time communication.

He walked to the restoration room, took the ancient book out of the temperature-controlled cabinet, put on gloves, and began to work.

On the other side of the screen, Shang Song looked at the reply repeatedly, pondered for a long time, and finally decided:

Continue posting.

Anyway, Professor Xie said, "You send it."

Then send it.

But Shang Song soon discovered that Xie Jing did reply to his posts, but only after long intervals.

Sometimes it takes several hours, sometimes it takes until the next day.

Moreover, the patterns in the replies are so easy to summarize.

The reply regarding knowledge of ancient books was the most detailed.

For example, if Shang Song asked whether the interpretation of a certain word was correct, Xie Jing would reply and explain the origin of that word in detail.

When asked about Xie Jing's daily life, Xie Jing's replies were very concise—"Hmm." "Have you eaten?" "Not yet."

Regarding his sharing of amusing anecdotes from his daily life, such as, "Professor Xie, I saw a cat on the street today that looked incredibly cool, like a mafia boss!"

These kinds of messages are often simply ignored.

But Shang Song didn't care.

He continued sending messages.

Occasionally, I'll take a picture of a note or ask a question.

In this way, Xie Jing will definitely reply, and he will never be perfunctory.

In between these serious questions, Shang Song would secretly slip in some amusing anecdotes from his life.

For example, a photo of lunch.

"Professor Xie! The cafeteria has sweet and sour pork ribs today! I managed to snag the last serving!"

For example, a ten-second audio clip might be the sound of the wind on the playground.

"The wind was so strong today, I almost got blown away!"

For example, a photo of a stray cat on the street.

"This cat sleeps so arrogantly!"

Xie Jing never replied to these messages, but he also didn't tell Shang Song to stop sending them.

Shang Song didn't seem to notice that the cafeteria had more sweet and sour pork ribs available than before, and there was no longer a need to queue for twenty minutes to grab the last serving.

When winter came, he unexpectedly received a design scholarship. The amount was neither too big nor too small. His counselor said that the department had added several corporate sponsorship slots this year, and Shangsong was among them after comprehensive evaluation.

Shang Song was overjoyed for days and even sent Xie Jing a message to share the good news: "Professor Xie! I received a scholarship! I can get a new graphics tablet next semester! I'm so happy!!!"

This time, Xie Jing replied faster than usual:

"Congratulations."

"There have been frequent cold waves this year, so you may want to buy some windproof and warm clothing."

At that time, Shang Song was squatting at the newly opened stray cat feeding point in the school, holding a cat treat in his hand, feeding a tortoiseshell cat.

The cat was munching away with its head down when he stared at the message on his phone for a full three seconds. Then, he suddenly sprang up, startling the tortoiseshell cat, which darted away two meters with his cat treat in its mouth.

He glanced at the hawksbill turtle that had darted away, then looked down and read the message twice more. After that, he held his phone and spun around in place.

After he screamed silently for a while, he finally typed a reply:

"Yes! I'll buy a really warm down jacket!"

"Professor Xie, please remember to keep warm!"

The tortoiseshell cat watched him while munching on the plastic bag of the cat treat, then finally grabbed the treat and ran off, ignoring him.