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The heating in the room was turned up high, and one could vaguely see the warm air slowly rising from the radiator. Autumn Wind sat cautiously on a somewhat dirty leather sofa, staring wide-eyed and slightly alert at Li Gu.
Li Gu immediately noticed Autumn Wind's tension. He sat down next to her, trying to get closer but worried that she might misinterpret his intentions. After a brief moment of thought, he stood up, gently picked up Autumn Wind's luggage, walked over to a door, and turned to her, saying, "You can stay in this room. My cousin used to live here, but he probably won't be coming back to Jinan. You can stay here for now!"
Autumn Wind stood up and walked to the doorway, peeking inside. The room was tidy, with white walls that faintly showed a hint of blue. A light fragrance filled the air. As she scanned the room, she increasingly felt it had a feminine touch. "Your cousin? Are you sure? Why does it feel like a girl's room?"
Li Gu shrugged. "If you think it's uncomfortable for a guy's room, you can just imagine it belongs to a girl!" He paused for a moment before changing the subject. "Are you sure you didn't bring anything? Toothbrush? Toothpaste?"
Autumn Wind made a face. "What? Do you think I'm lying to you?" As she spoke, she opened her suitcase, revealing only a laptop inside.
"Wow, you win!" Li Gu exclaimed with a hint of surprise. "Alright then, I'll take you shopping at the supermarket!"
After a brief rest, Autumn Wind sat on the back of Li Gu's motorcycle as he drove slowly, deliberately shouting back at her, "I'm not taking advantage of you!"
Li Gu specifically took Autumn Wind to RT-Mart, which gave her a sense of familiarity. She kept smiling at him foolishly; in truth, she didn’t want any connection between Jinan and Taipei.
Once inside the supermarket, the two pushed a shopping cart around various aisles like a couple. When they reached the deli section, Li Gu suddenly stopped and seriously asked, "Aren't you going to ask about your salary?"
"Salary? You mean your pay!" Autumn Wind replied.
Li Gu first widened his eyes in surprise and then laughed heartily. "You've really changed; you're not acting like someone from Jinan anymore! Alright then, it's salary—how does three thousand a month sound?"
Autumn Wind quickly converted that into New Taiwan Dollars and felt disappointed; this amount was less than half of what she earned in Taipei. She suppressed her emotions and didn’t let her disappointment show. Without saying anything, she lowered her head and pretended to continue shopping.
At that moment, Li Gu casually tossed a few bento boxes into the shopping cart. Autumn Wind leaned over to take a look; such an abundant meal was only five yuan! Converting that into Taipei currency… Autumn Wind’s mind raced with calculations; this was even cheaper than the special price of forty-nine for one bento in Taipei. She quickly recalled her salary as an assistant.
Autumn Wind immediately smiled and responded to Li Gu's offered salary, "Okay! Three thousand! Meals and accommodation included, you can't let me go hungry, and you can't kick me out!"
Li Gu's eyes narrowed into a slit.
The winter heating in Jinan is really strong, even warmer than autumn in Taipei. After returning home from the supermarket, they gathered around the dining table eating takeout. Li Gu didn't like tomatoes, so he picked them out and threw them in the trash. Autumn Wind still wasn't used to eating rice; she cautiously ate her rice while the two occasionally looked up to joke with each other, playfully accusing one another of being picky eaters.
"No wonder you're so skinny! Look at this nice tomato that you just threw away!" Autumn Wind pointed at the tomatoes in the trash, accusing Li Gu.
Li Gu showed a disdainful expression. "Well, look at you, so short! It seems like you haven't grown since fourth grade. Are you not getting enough to eat on the other side of the Strait?" He reached out his hand and patted Autumn Wind's head like an elder.
"Your hands are oily! Don't touch me!"
"I will touch you, what's wrong with that? Hahaha!"
If there were a camera nearby at that moment, they would appear to be a loving couple.
In fact, aside from this meal, most of their dinners were arranged at the Noodle Stall across from the wall covered in Virginia Creeper. Li Gu would deliberately ask Boss to add a lot of chili, while Autumn Wind kept adding vinegar. Occasionally, Noodle Stall's Boss would joke with them and would treat them to a meal because Li Gu helped him print job advertisements for free.
Autumn Wind also heard more information about Li Gu's ex-girlfriend from the shop's Boss, who compared her to him. The Boss secretly glanced at Autumn Wind, saying, "This girl is not bad; she looks more reliable than your previous one."
Li Gu didn't respond but just looked at Autumn Wind, then lowered his head.
Autumn Wind pretended not to hear and continued eating her meal.
Compared to Taiwan, there is much less to eat in Jinan, and even this Noodle Stall is marketed as an out-of-town specialty.
Eating hot flat noodles in winter is not much different from having hot pot. Amid the steam, the two would share their favorite dishes with each other, exchanging bites and saliva.
Several snowfalls occurred in Jinan at night, usually when they finished work and were heading home. Often at this time, Autumn Wind and Li Gu would play a rather silly game.
Li Gu would pull Autumn Wind to run up a long slope as fast as possible. While running, he would suddenly stop, causing Autumn Wind, unable to avoid him, to crash into his back. However, every time, due to Autumn Wind's momentum, Li Gu would end up awkwardly sprawled on the ground. At this moment, Autumn Wind would extend a hand to him, but Li Gu would deliberately act like a girl: "I don't want it!"
Autumn Wind laughed heartily and sat down beside him, reaching out: "Then you pull me!"
Li Gu shook his head helplessly, stood up, and pulled Autumn Wind up. The slope was long and a bit slippery due to the snowflakes; every time Li Gu pulled Autumn Wind, his feet would slip.
So the two ultimately decided to run forward together. However, the snow began to change; it started to pelt down like hailstones into Autumn Wind's collar.
Li Gu then pretended to be a lecherous man: "I envy them so much!"
Autumn Wind couldn't help but laugh at his silly expression. Taking advantage of Li Gu's moment of distraction, she secretly placed her foot in front of him. Less than ten meters from the entrance of the corridor, Li Gu would once again have an intimate encounter with the ground.
After returning home, Autumn Wind stood on the balcony with a cup of hot coffee, looking forward to the scene of being covered in snow the next day.
Autumn Wind hadn't seen snow for so long that her anticipation for winter gradually turned into an expectation for snowflakes. The former dislike for snow transformed into longing.
During her time in the welfare home, Autumn Wind hated snow; this term associated with cold always made her shiver uncontrollably.
In addition, Autumn Wind's deepest impression of winter surprisingly came from a turtle. One year, Autumn Wind was excited to raise a turtle, but one day in winter, the turtle suddenly stopped moving. For several days in a row, it remained still, so with a heavy heart, Autumn Wind buried it in Grandma's vegetable garden and even made an incense stick with smoke. Later, Autumn Wind learned that there is a term called hibernation.
Originally, during the summer when Yao Guanghao and Autumn Wind broke up, they had planned to go to Japan together to see the snow. However, after their breakup, naturally, this plan did not come to fruition.
But this winter, the snowflakes in Jinan also disappointed Autumn Wind. Early in the morning, the snowflakes had vanished, leaving only a tiny bit of snow on the car roof in the parking lot downstairs, which was the only evidence proving that Autumn Wind was not dreaming.
On the afternoon after being teased by the snow for the third time, Autumn Wind received a message from Qiu Feng: "The package has arrived."
Autumn Wind then picked up the phone to call Qiu Feng. As soon as the call connected, Qiu Feng exclaimed loudly, "You sent such a big package!" She emphasized the word "package": "That huge bag almost exhausted me! What a disappointment... I thought you would bring something for my precious daughters!"
Autumn Wind pretended to be dramatic and leaned on the table like a cat with a broken bone. She feigned ignorance: "Did I not? I remember putting something in there. Oh, maybe I missed it! I'll personally deliver it when I get back!" After pausing for a moment, she continued, "By the way, what about Brother Kai?"
Qiu Feng stopped joking and seriously brought up Autumn Wind's resignation again: "Don't take yourself too seriously! He doesn't have much going on; it's just that I don't know if Zhou Ringuo will come back and make trouble for you!"
"It's fine; he let me go!" Upon mentioning Zhou Ringuo, Autumn Wind suddenly remembered the thirty thousand Renminbi. This amount was indeed quite high compared to an assistant's salary. "Otherwise, why would he compensate me?"
"He compensated you? What compensation?"
"It’s just that he compensated me for letting me return to Taiwan early!"
"Oh!" Qiu Feng let out a slight sigh of disbelief. "Compensation? Wait, were you fired? No way!"
"Being fired is being fired!" Autumn Wind suddenly realized. "Exactly! Otherwise, why would he give me so much money?"
"Is it that much? Is it a lot?" Qiu Feng continued to ask.
"No, no! Just a little bit! Why are you so anxious? It's me who got fired!" For some reason, Qiu Feng's tone carried a hint of urgency that sounded quite uncomfortable.
At that moment, Li Gu returned with food. Autumn Wind looked up and smiled slightly at him, then lowered her head to the microphone and said to Qiu Feng, "I need to eat now, let's talk later! Make sure to thank you properly when I get back!" Then she hung up the phone.
Li Gu placed the bento box in front of Autumn Wind casually and said, "Calling a friend?"
"Yeah! My former boss!" Autumn Wind replied while opening the bento box and casually clicking on the mouse.
"What job did you have in Taiwan?" Li Gu also opened his bento box, pulled his chair a bit closer, and looked at Autumn Wind's computer.
"Just an assistant!" Autumn Wind took a bite of rice. At that moment, a news window popped up. She casually clicked to close it but might have clicked the wrong place; the page suddenly enlarged, and the homepage displayed an advertisement for a show hosted by Zhou Ringuo, with the title announcing that the first match of the finals would air tonight.
It turned out she had been in Jinan for almost a month, Autumn Wind thought as she continued to click randomly.
Then she lowered her head to take another bite of rice, but when she looked up again, an unexpected scene appeared on her computer screen: a nearly nude candid photo of Shaolan appeared, with the background showing a woman whose face was covered by hair.
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