Chapter 75: Xie Siheng, Completely Enchanted
Chi Wang didn’t immediately grasp what Xie Siheng meant, but he quickly caught on to the implication behind the salary card.
He had heard that in a typical family, the husband hands over his salary card to the wife; with the wife controlling the finances, the household can be harmonious and happy.
Of course, this wasn’t the case in Chi Wang’s life. His father, Chi Kangnian, used to give a portion of his salary to Qiao Yuzhen each month—about a quarter. For example, if Chi Kangnian earned around 6,000 yuan a month, he’d give about 1,500 yuan for household expenses.
To be honest, that amount wasn’t enough to live on, and later he simply stopped giving any money.
Chi Wang heard his classmates discussing this topic; generally, fathers would give a bit of money to mothers, but rarely did they hand over the entire salary card.
It wasn’t until college that Chi Wang learned about this practice, and apparently, Shu Tingyu’s family operated this way.
Now, when Xie Siheng mentioned including the salary card, Chi Wang understood his underlying meaning.
Chi Wang: “…”
Wait, is Xie Siheng being this aggressive now?
Chi Wang grumbled inwardly, but his cheeks grew warm. He unzipped the down jacket he had put on when going out and tugged at his hoodie to cool down before replying, “Why would I need your salary card?”
As soon as he said this, Chi Wang regretted it. One of the conversational techniques is that if you want to continue the topic, you should throw out bait in the form of question marks or exclamation points to lure the other person into responding.
If you end with a period, the conversation stops with you, and you’d need to start a new topic.
He should have played it cool and ended with a period, instead of tossing out a question mark as bait.
Sure enough, Xie Siheng seized the opportunity and said, “You can do many things with it—for example, you can manage me.”
When he said this, his voice was cold, in his usual indifferent style. His tone was unhurried, as if he were discussing something utterly ordinary.
Chi Wang wanted to fall silent. According to normal logic, one might subconsciously ask, “Why would I want to manage you?”
Then you’d consider what kind of relationship allows one person to manage another.
Chi Wang: Obedient and compliant. [1]
He felt his mouth go dry; he could hardly handle it. Even though the person wasn’t in front of him, just hearing Xie Siheng’s voice made him feel like a shy young girl being cornered by a street thug, with nowhere to retreat.
Both embarrassed and helpless.
Chi Wang almost wavered.
But at the critical moment, he steadied himself.
Chi Wang held his breath for a moment, then exhaled deeply before saying, “I’m heading back now; I’ll hang up.”
He directly skipped over the topic.
Xie Siheng softly replied, “Mm.” The next second, Chi Wang hung up without any hesitation.
Putting down his phone, the corners of Xie Siheng’s lips curved slightly upward.
*
Chi Wang returned to Xie Siheng’s home. The driver carried the nylon bag full of cash into Chi Wang’s room.
Chi Wang took out a stack of banknotes sealed with white paper bands, handed it to the driver, and said, “Here’s a big red envelope for you. Thanks for accompanying me today.”
The driver was surprised by his generosity but accepted it graciously, thanking Chi Wang.
Chi Wang waved his hand, “After work, treat yourself to a big meal. You barely ate anything hot earlier.”
The driver smiled and agreed in a deep voice.
After he left, Chi Wang took another stack and gave Auntie a big red envelope.
Each stack consisted of a hundred bills, so one stack amounted to about 10,000 yuan.
Auntie couldn’t stop smiling. “Oh my, you’re giving me such a big red envelope! So generous! Thank you, boss! Wishing you prosperity and all the best! May wealth come rolling in!”
Chi Wang laughed; he had met his match with Auntie. It was the first time he encountered someone even more sweet-talking than himself. To be honest, it felt pretty great.
Chi Wang took another stack, handed it to Auntie, and generously said, “I won a prize, so I’m spreading the good fortune. Take this extra; we should have a great New Year this year, right?”
Auntie was overjoyed and said to Chi Wang, “This is wonderful news! I’ll cook a few more dishes tonight to celebrate.”
Chi Wang couldn’t eat greasy or even slightly fishy food. Auntie had put in a lot of effort in cooking, even going to her old friend who used to work as an imperial chef in the palace to brush up on her skills, significantly improving her culinary abilities.
Back when she cooked for high school-aged Xie Siheng, she hadn’t worked this hard—Xie Siheng wasn’t picky about food.
Actually, Chi Wang wasn’t picky either, but since he was pregnant, he couldn’t stand any fishy smells, and even slightly greasy food made him uncomfortable. Chi Wang was too polite and courteous; even if he didn’t like the food, he wouldn’t say so. Therefore, Auntie could only judge what was wrong based on how much he ate, and then continue to improve next time.
In short, it was mentally exhausting. Auntie’s hair had turned noticeably whiter, and she truly earned every penny of her salary.
Xie Siheng understood this and usually gave her extra allowances. Her base salary was 30,000 yuan, but with various additions, it totaled sixty or seventy thousand.
Since Xie Siheng and Chi Wang were willing to give, Auntie naturally accepted happily, and then worked even harder to make delicious dishes, ensuring they ate happily and comfortably, living up to this trust.
There was none of that back-and-forth of “Oh no, please don’t give me so much money.”
After seeing Auntie off, Chi Wang took out his phone and sent red envelopes in their group chat.
This lured out Luo Lianyun and Shu Tingyu, who asked, [Where did you strike it rich?]
Chi Wang said, [I won a prize!]
Luo Lianyun asked, [What prize?]
Chi Wang said, [I won the first prize at my company’s annual meeting. Blushing face.jpg]
Chi Wang didn’t mention how much money it was, and Luo Lianyun and Shu Tingyu didn’t ask, both offering their congratulations.
Chi Wang felt happy.
Even though he knew in his heart that it was rigged by Xie Siheng, he still felt happy.
The value of the prize itself was secondary.
It fulfilled a deeper emotional need.
No one had ever put so much thought into him.
In the evening, Xie Siheng returned.
Chi Wang felt a bit tipsy, almost as if he were drunk. He said to Xie Siheng, “I’ve already divided it up. I don’t care—you have to accept it. I always keep my promises.”
He then solemnly added, “Don’t give it back to me.”
Xie Siheng went upstairs to see that Chi Wang had indeed divided up the money, neatly stacking the banknotes in the empty cabinet, filling it to the brim.
Xie Siheng could only accept it for now.
Chi Wang told him how he planned to spend the money. “I plan to donate 500,000 yuan to children in mountainous areas, and save the remaining 300,000-plus yuan for the baby.”
Xie Siheng paused and asked, “What about you?”
Chi Wang laughed, his smile as brilliant as a sapphire shining under the sun. “I don’t have much to spend money on; anyway, you’ll spend it on me.”
This sentence instantly made Xie Siheng feel content, even though he knew Chi Wang was referring to pregnancy and childbirth.
This was the part they had agreed he would be responsible for from the beginning.
As Chi Wang laughed, he suddenly thought of something and said, “Do I need to pay taxes on this money? I don’t think I’ve paid any taxes.”
Xie Siheng said, “The taxes were already paid when the finance department processed it.”
Chi Wang looked at him with bright eyes and asked, “How do you know?”
Xie Siheng replied naturally, “That’s how it works.”
Chi Wang: “Oh…”
Not skilled at probing for information.
Chi Wang picked at his fingers, but after a few moments, he stopped. He clearly felt that he had been making more small movements lately.
Whenever he felt helpless, embarrassed, or ashamed, he would start fiddling with things. This was a habit he had back in elementary school. At that time, when he was nervous or scared, he would unconsciously bite his fingers, and when idle, he liked to suck on his upper lip—all bad habits.
In middle school, he felt these habits were too fidgety, childish, and unbecoming, so he worked hard to get rid of them. But now they were resurfacing.
He put down his hands, trying hard not to pick at his fingers, and directly said to Xie Siheng, “I saw your assistant at the annual meeting.”
Xie Siheng: “…”
He lifted his thin eyelids to look at Chi Wang, seeing his slightly flushed cheeks. His eyes were like autumn waters, shimmering gently.
Xie Siheng’s gaze deepened slightly.
He had always known that Chi Wang was very beautiful.
As the Book of Songs says: “That young man, beautiful as jade.” [2]
Chi Wang was such a person—elegant in his bones, beautiful in spirit, pure and clear like pearls and jade.
He was attracted to Chi Wang not because of his outward appearance.
It was his inner qualities—his bones, his spirit, his form, his soul—and only lastly his physical looks.
Xie Siheng’s Adam’s apple moved slightly; he restrained himself and said, “Is that so?”
Chi Wang: “…”
He hadn’t expected Xie Siheng to not take the opportunity to admit it.
Does someone really do good deeds without leaving their name? [3]
Even though the good luck was manufactured, how could Chi Wang be disappointed when Xie Siheng had put in such effort for him?
His misfortune was the norm, but the momentary good fortune that Xie Siheng created for him was enough to offset all his previous bad luck.
Chi Wang couldn’t help wanting to fiddle with something again, but he held back and said, “Me winning the first prize didn’t take up someone else’s spot, right? Given my luck, it’s actually impossible for me to win.”
“…” Xie Siheng calmly said, “After extreme hardship comes good fortune. [4] You’ve worked hard all year and had a stroke of good luck; it fits the law of conservation of energy.”
Chi Wang: “…”
Chi Wang made the same “Ugh, so annoying” expression as Sun Wukong. [5] “I saw everything! Your assistant wasn’t content working at Haisheng and even went to Dongyue to moonlight as a secretary!! You rigged it! This is a serious matter; I order you to answer properly! Don’t try to dodge the question!”
“Rigging harms the people’s interests; I have the right to ask you about this.”
“Hurry up and answer.”
Xie Siheng: “…”
He lowered his eyes to look at Chi Wang’s face. There was no disappointment on his beautiful face; instead, there was a hint of eagerness and an expectation he couldn’t quite understand.
Xie Siheng’s Adam’s apple moved a few times. He couldn’t see anything else; his eyes were filled only with Chi Wang’s chattering mouth, lips like painted vermilion, radiant.
Xie Siheng leaned down slightly, lowered his head, and kissed him.
Chi Wang’s pupils widened in shock: “…”
Footnotes:
[1] Obedient and compliant. The original text uses an internet meme expressing meekness or submissiveness.
[2] That young man, beautiful as jade. A quote from the ancient Chinese text Book of Songs (Shijing), praising someone’s beauty.
[3] Does someone really do good deeds without leaving their name? meaning to do good deeds anonymously.
[4] After extreme hardship comes good fortune. The phrase means that when things reach an extreme, they can only move in the opposite direction—bad luck turning into good luck.
[5] “Same ‘Ugh, so annoying’ expression as Sun Wukong.” Refers to a popular meme of the Monkey King (Sun Wukong) expressing frustration.
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