The studio was equipped with office furniture and office supplies, and there was no trace of Ding Yinan’s life there.
When Ding Yinan moved to a new house, the first person to visit was Ding Dong.
The two were brought up by their grandparents when they were young. Since the two old people passed away, they seldom returned to their hometown, and they also met at Ding Yinan’s house during festivals.
For Ding Dong, Ding Yinan’s house was her second foothold besides school. Only now, this foothold had become the office of Huo Zhixiao’s studio.
“Isn’t this change too big?” Ding Dong wandered around the room with her shoulder bag on her back, her new look making her appear like she was visiting for the first time.
Ding Yinan hadn’t seen her for half a year. Her shoulder-length short hair could be tied into a ponytail at the back of her head. She wore a simple T-shirt and jeans. At first glance, she looked like a young female college student.
“We will start working here from next week.” Ding Yinan leaned on the desk, folding his arms around his chest. “We have also hired an employee, and the desk next to you is his.”
Ding Dong sat down on the ergonomic chair, pretending to type on the keyboard, and asked, “Then after I graduate next year, can I come directly to work here through the back door?”
“Why would you want to work here?” Ding Yinan found it funny. “Did you enroll in a key university to study finance just to be an accountant for me?”
“That’s not impossible.” Ding Dong put on a troubled look. “For my own brother, I can make a sacrifice.”
“Forget it, I don’t need an accountant.” Ding Yinan said.
Currently, the tax issues involved were straightforward, mainly related to payroll and sorting out invoices. The remaining matters could be handled by the accountants of the accounting company.
Ding Dong didn’t continue talking, stood up, and said, “Brother, where do you live now?”
Ding Yinan looked at the time; it was past eleven o’clock. Ding Dong took the train in the morning, and it took her more than an hour to come from the neighboring city by car. Now it was time for dinner.
“Let me take you there.” Ding Yinan said, “My… partner, he should be cooking.”
He had rehearsed countless times before, but when Ding Yinan said the word “partner,” he still couldn’t help feeling guilty.
“Where did you find your partner?” Ding Dong followed Ding Yinan out and asked curiously, “Why did you suddenly think of starting your own business?”
“It’s my former boss.” Ding Yinan said, “He started his own business, and I think he has more potential, so I decided to join him.”
“That’s it.” Ding Dong nodded thoughtfully and asked again, “Wasn’t your previous position an assistant? Why would he persuade you to become his partner?”
Ding Yinan was not a professional in the construction industry. Normally, if Huo Zhixiao started his own business, he would need to find someone with the same core competencies as a partner. Even if he needed an assistant, he would hire an ordinary employee instead of making his assistant a shareholder.
“It’s not…” Ding Yinan cleared his throat unnaturally, “Ahem, didn’t I use my house as part of investment?”
It was a good way of saying it. But after remembering the play he did with Huo Zhixiao, Ding Yinan felt embarrassed just saying it.
“Understood.” Ding Dong suddenly made a realized expression, “You are investing in fixed assets.”
“Yes.” Ding Yinan hurriedly pressed the elevator button, afraid that Ding Dong would continue to ask.
However, people’s wishes were not fulfilled; as assets were Ding Dong’s major at university, she asked again: “Then how much is your house appraised for? Will it change with the rise and fall of the house price? How many shares did you get?”
Ding Yinan got a headache from the questions, and when the elevator arrived at the floor, he hurriedly pushed Ding Dong inside, saying vaguely, “What are you doing asking so many questions?”
“Am I still a child?” Ding Dong muttered dissatisfiedly, “I know a lot more about this than you.”
The 10-minute journey was very short, and the two soon arrived at Huo Zhixiao’s house.
Ding Yinan opened the password disk on the electronic lock and began to enter the password. He didn’t deliberately cover it up, and the six “1”s happened to be on the top of the password disk. Ding Dong just glanced at it casually, then frowned and asked, “Is his house’s password six 1s?”
“Well, what’s the matter?” Ding Yinan pressed the # button, and the door opened.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Glvc’a sbeg tbwf qjrrkbgv erfv ab yf sbeg ylgatvjs?” Glcu Gbcu rjlv, “Aera cbk P rjk atja sbeg tbwf qjrrkbgv kjr mtjcufv ab rlz hfgbr. P atbeuta sbeg tberf kjr erfv jr jc boolmf, atja’r kts sbe mtjcufv la ab j rlwqif qjrrkbgv.”
Cr rbbc jr atfrf kbgvr kfgf rqbxfc, atf akb ygbatfgr jcv rlrafgr ofii rlifca ragjcufis.
Ding Yinan felt strange why Ding Dong would think of “0” when she saw “1”.
As she said just now, when she saw six 0s, she thought it was a simple password for the office, which was normal thinking.
However, when she saw six 1s, she immediately thought of the six 0s just now, and even expressed some opinions on it, which was a bit weird.
And she said the word “thought,” which means that she had some kind of thinking before, but now she overturned her previous thinking.
In other words, she now thinks that the six 0s just now are not a simple password for the office, but to make a pair with the six 1s.
How could she think so?
Ding Yinan put one hand on the doorknob, many thoughts flashed through his mind.
Looking at Ding Dong on the other side, he blinked and said, “Did he set a simple password for you because he was afraid that you would not be able to remember the password?”
The strange thinking returned to the normal track.
Ding Yinan followed Ding Dong’s words: “Yes.”
At this time, Huo Zhixiao’s voice came from the door: “Are you back?”
Ding Yinan pushed open the door, and saw Huo Zhixiao wearing a rabbit apron, holding a spatula in his hand, standing on the edge of the kitchen and looking towards the entrance.
He opened his mouth and was about to introduce Ding Dong beside Huo Zhixiao, but Ding Dong suddenly took a deep breath and asked, “Brother, is this your former boss?”
“Yes.” Ding Yinan nodded and said, “Huo Zhixiao.”
“Brother,” Ding Dong patted Ding Yinan’s shoulder abruptly, almost making Ding Yinan stagger, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Ding Yinan suddenly felt baffled; he rubbed his painful shoulder and asked, “Tell you what?”
“That… Your former boss is so handsome.”
After saying this, Ding Dong walked up to Huo Zhixiao wearing slippers and greeted him generously, “Hi, I’m Ding Yinan’s younger sister, Ding Dong.”
“Hello.” Huo Zhixiao nodded.
“Are you living with my brother now?” Ding Dong asked.
When Ding Yinan heard this word, he felt that it was not right, and was about to correct it, but Huo Zhixiao said: “Yes.”
“Are you in charge of cooking?” Ding Dong asked again.
“Not really.” Huo Zhixiao said, “I only do it when he’s busy.”
“Then who will buy the groceries?”
“It’s usually him.” Huo Zhixiao said, “All my money is with him.”
“So that’s how it is.” Ding Dong had a sudden realization expression on her face.
Ding Yinan always felt that the conversation was progressing very strangely, but he couldn’t tell what was wrong.
As his younger sister, it was normal for Ding Dong to care about his work and life, but he clearly told Huo Zhixiao that they need to tried to avoid suspicion when chatting with Ding Dong, but after listening for a long time, he didn’t see Huo Zhixiao consciously talk to Ding Dong and disassociated himself.
Ding Dong put down her backpack and went to the bathroom.
Ding Yinan put the bowls and chopsticks on the dining table and said to Huo Zhixiao, “My sister will ask you some questions later, so don’t answer them so honestly.”
Huo Zhixiao stayed in the kitchen to clear the table, while Ding Yinan took Ding Dong to the balcony to feed San Baisui.
San Baisui had a strong temper, very unfriendly to strangers. Ding Yinan was afraid that he would bite, so he didn’t let him come out from the balcony today.
But after getting along for more than ten minutes, San Baisui gradually let go of his wariness towards Ding Dong, and even wagged his tail around Ding Dong after eating the dog food.
“He’s so cute.” Ding Dong touched San Baisui’s head, “Does it know that I’m his aunt?”
Aunt?
Ding Yinan suddenly couldn’t make a turn in his head; what kind of relative is an aunt?
“Where do you want to go to play later?” Ding Yinan asked.
“I’ve been playing outside for the past two days, so I won’t go out today.” Ding Dong said, “I’ll take the high-speed train at 4 o’clock in the afternoon and arrive at school in the evening.”
“OK.”
Ding Yinan went to the kitchen to cut some fruits, then came to the living room and put down the projector screen.
Huo Zhixiao sat cross-legged on the sofa, looked at the laptop in his arms, and asked Ding Dong, “Do you watch suspense movies?”
“I do.”
Ding Dong was sitting next to Huo Zhixiao, and the two were very close. She leaned on Huo Zhixiao’s shoulder, moved the tip of her nose, and said, “Brother Huo, do you use the same shower gel as my brother? It smells so special.”
“It’s agarwood.” Huo Zhixiao said, “I like this smell. Your brother bought it for me from Southeast Asia.”
“Wow, he treats you so well.” Ding Dong said.
“Of course.” Huo Zhixiao’s eyes stayed on the computer screen, but his expression couldn’t hide his complacency, “Every time I go out, he will tie my tie.”
“What?” Ding Dong clenched a fist with one hand and pressed it to her lips; there seemed to be little flames dancing in her eyes. “What else?”
“When I’m tired from work, he will give me a massage.” Huo Zhixiao said in a low voice, “You can never imagine how good your brother’s technique is.”
“What are you guys talking about?”
Ding Yinan closed the balcony curtains, returned to the living room, and drove Ding Dong to another corner of the sofa, preventing them from having any more communication.
Ding Dong seemed to want to say something, but at this moment, the title of the movie sounded from the speakers, so she stopped talking and concentrated on watching the movie.
On the coffee table were Ding Yinan’s cut fruits, which were placed in three small plates.
Since the coffee table was a certain distance from the sofa, every time she ate fruit, Ding Dong had to lean forward, which was unavoidably troublesome. So Huo Zhixiao took a small plate and held it in his hand.
As the movie plot gradually reached its first climax, the thrilling music completely caught Ding Yinan’s attention.
At this time, a piece of watermelon suddenly stretched out from the side, accompanied by Huo Zhixiao’s voice: “Open your mouth.”
Ding Yinan didn’t think much, just took a bite of the sweet watermelon as Huo Zhixiao fed him.
The mouth was filled with icy sweetness, and Ding Yinan suddenly came to his senses. Subconsciously, he looked at Ding Dong on the other side.
Ding Dong’s posture didn’t change at all; her head was still facing the projector screen. But strangely, her black eyeballs slipped to the corners of her eyes, and she was squinting at Ding Yinan in an extremely unnatural way.
That expression seemed to say: Oh my God, what did I see?
Ding Yinan stiffly pulled back his gaze, pretending nothing happened, and continued watching the movie.
When the movie ended, it was past three o’clock in the afternoon, which was just right. Ding Yinan took Huo Zhixiao’s car keys and prepared to send Ding Dong to the train station.
The two came to the underground parking lot on the first floor, and Ding Yinan was explaining things to Ding Dong along the way, such as not meeting netizens casually in the future, to tell him if she didn’t have enough money, and so on.
Until Ding Yinan finally stopped talking, Ding Dong suddenly sighed for no reason.
Ding Yinan stepped on the gas pedal of the off-road vehicle, glanced at Ding Dong inexplicably, and said, “Why are you sighing?”
“I just didn’t expect,” Ding Dong paused, and said old-fashionedly, “You turned out to be the one below.”
The off-road vehicle rushed forward and almost hit a pillar on the side.
Ding Yinan stepped on the brake quickly, and asked in disbelief, “What did you say?”
“Remember when you were a freshman, I went to visit your school?” Ding Dong asked.
Ding Yinan hadn’t been able to keep up with the rhythm of Ding Dong’s speech, so he nodded first.
“You have a very sissy male classmate who has been looking for you all the time. At that time, I thought…” Ding Dong shook her head with emotion, “You should be the little sissy’s husband.”
The little sissy’s husband?
Ding Yinan’s pupils trembled when he heard the words, did this come from his sister?
“But it’s fine now.” Ding Dong said, “Your husband is tall, handsome, and rich.”
Ding Yinan resisted the urge to pinch someone and forced out a sentence: “How did you know…”
“Isn’t that obvious?” Ding Dong said with an expression of ‘you think I’m stupid’, “He looks like a big one at first glance.”
Big one?
Ding Yinan took a deep breath, forced himself to calm down, and asked, “I mean, how did you know there are men who like men?”
“Brother.” Ding Dong patted Ding Yinan’s shoulder earnestly, “What year is this?”
Ding Yinan really didn’t expect that his sister’s mind would be so open, and he didn’t know how to continue the conversation for a while.
“I think Brother Huo is pretty good.” Ding Dong said again, “I always thought that a caring personality like you must be a sacrificial party in a relationship, but I found that he is also very considerate to you, and the look in his eyes seems to say that there is no room for anyone else except you.”
“Really?” Ding Yinan didn’t notice that Huo Zhixiao looked at him with such affectionate eyes, he gradually accepted the fact that Ding Dong’s thinking was avant-garde, and simply chatted with her, “You don’t know, sometimes he is so childish. No, sometimes he is more than just childish.”
“I don’t think he is childish.” Ding Dong said, “He is only childish in front of the one he loves, right?”
Indeed it is.
Ding Yinan’s mouth curled up uncontrollably.
“Tsk.” Ding Dong shook her head in disgust, but soon changed into an old-fashioned tone, and said, “Brother, you must be happy, okay.”
When Ding Yinan was talking to Ding Dong just now, he still felt like an old father. But now in reverse, he never thought that one day Ding Dong would talk to him like an old mother.
“Don’t worry.” Ding Yinan stepped on the accelerator again, looked ahead and said, “I’m very happy now.”
This whole chapter reminds me of when I met my brother’s girlfriend
Thank you for the chapter ଘ(੭ु ˊ꒳ˋ)੭ु .°♡
Ah so wholesome ~ thank you for the chapter !
Really wholesome (^~^)
Thanks for the chapter!
Loved this
Aww, knew the sister would know!
Thanks for the chapter 💞
The sister is great!
I like her personality 😊