As I peeked into Mi Cai’s desk drawer, I saw it was lined with all sorts of cartoon stickers. I bit back a smile, trying not to make too much noise, afraid that Mi Cai would discover me and stop my further exploration.
Pretending to admire the office decor, I cautiously pulled the drawer open bit by bit. Finally, from the corner of my eye, I spotted a Polaroid camera deep inside the drawer, with a small stack of photos beside it.
My heart leaped with joy. I immediately knocked a pile of documents off the desk on purpose, then bent down to pick them up while secretly grabbing the photos. Crouched on the floor, I carefully examined the pictures in my hand.
In the photos, Mi Cai was posing playfully for selfies in various styles—pouting cutely and making the peace sign.
I tried hard not to laugh out loud. These were great finds! I quickly selected a few of the most memorable ones and stealthily slipped them into my pocket. Then, pretending to be focused on gathering the scattered documents, I finally sat back upright in the office chair, resuming a serious demeanor.
Of course, I knew this was one of Mi Cai’s ways to relieve stress, but such a playful side was so different from her usual self. It was precisely this contrast that made these photos so valuable to me.
Unaware of what I had done, Mi Cai continued eating quietly. After a while, she finally said, “I’m done.”
“Okay,” I responded, promptly getting up from her office chair. After all, she was the rightful occupant of this office, and as a person with good manners like me, I would never dream of upstaging the host.
Mi Cai didn’t sit back in her chair. Instead, she said to me, “You can eat too. The food is still warm. You just need to wash the chopsticks and bowl, or I can have my assistant get a set of utensils from the company cafeteria for you.”
I glanced into the food container. It seemed Mi Cai was a bit picky—she hadn’t touched several dishes. Since reheating them later would be inconvenient, I decided to eat there.
I was too lazy to wash the dishes she had used and just loaded my rice directly into the bowl. This somewhat careless behavior caused Mi Cai to stare at me for quite a while.
While eating, I handed her another unopened container and said, “This is the fruit platter I prepared for you. Eating a little fruit after meals helps digestion.”
Mi Cai accepted the container and said softly, “Thank you for being so thoughtful.”
“You even let me stay at your place. This small favor is really nothing,” I replied casually. But in my mind, I thought: If she knew I had just stolen her photos, would she still think I was considerate?
Certainly not. She might even call me “shameless.” Of course, I would never give her the chance to find out, because, well, I really am “shameless.”
…
I finished dinner in half the time it took Mi Cai. After tidying up the food containers, I prepared to say goodbye to her, because I still needed to go to the bar—currently, it hadn’t closed for the night yet.
I said to Mi Cai, who was working at her desk, “I’m leaving now.”
“Wait.”
“What’s wrong?” I asked nervously, thinking she had discovered I had taken her photos.
“I’ll go with you.”
I exhaled in relief and asked, “Have you finished your work?”
“There’s nothing particularly important left. I’ll just tidy up and then leave.” As she spoke, Mi Cai pulled open the drawer and placed the documents inside, making me tense up again.
Luckily, she didn’t notice that I had tampered with the drawer. After arranging the documents, she grabbed her handbag from the shelf and walked toward me.
I exhaled once more, but couldn’t help thinking: People really shouldn’t do anything they’d feel guilty about—it’s just too nerve-wracking.
Walking side by side out of the office, I asked, “Are you going to the bar later?”
“Yeah, to relax a bit,” she replied, surprisingly not refusing.
I nodded. Then she added, “We just had dinner. Let’s walk there. We can enjoy the snow scenery along the way.”
“But it’s too far! Several streets away!” I immediately refused.
“If we get tired, we can take a taxi,” Mi Cai insisted.
“Fine, but I get to decide when we take a taxi. And by the way, the taxi fare has to be on you.”
Mi Cai glanced at me and said, “Do I also have to pay for dinner just now?”
I thought for a moment and said, “Well… that’s not necessary. Cooking for you was my pleasure!”
“I don’t get your logic!” she sighed, quickening her pace toward the exit, as if already tired of the office air.
…
Finally, Mi Cai and I stepped out of the ZHUO MEI building. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Such a simple action, yet because of her graceful posture and beauty, made the entire snowy landscape seem so poetic and beautiful.
I wanted to take out my phone and capture this moment, but Mi Cai had already returned to her usual self, asking coldly, “What are you doing?”
“Don’t you think the snow scenery is beautiful? I just wanted to take a photo.”
“You can take photos, but don’t point the camera at me.”
Her resistance reminded me even more clearly: if she disliked being photographed this much, how furious would she be if she found out I had stolen her photos? She might even trick me again to some remote place near the Shanghai-Nanjing Expressway. I had tasted that bitterness more than enough times already.
The more I got to know her, the more I realized she had a subtle mischievousness—much more sophisticated than my straightforward kind. In short, I really didn’t want to be her opponent.
I smiled awkwardly, put my phone back into my pocket, placed the insulated container into the car, and walked with Mi Cai on the snowy path.
Along the way, Mi Cai took out her point-and-shoot camera, snapping photos as she walked. Whenever she captured something fun, she would show it to me. I finally understood why she insisted on walking to the bar—she was really good at discovering joy along the way and enjoying it. Combined with her act of sticking cartoon stickers in places no one else would see in her drawer, I truly understood how lonely she was, and how she had always been living behind a heavier mask than others.
I sighed softly, feeling pity for her, yet helpless about what I could actually do.
Eventually, Mi Cai put her camera into her handbag. She rolled a small snowball on the ground and kicked it forward as she walked. Her hands, however, had long turned bright red from the cold, and she was blowing warm breath into them.
I asked her, “Are your hands really cold?”
“Mm-hmm,” she replied, then blew into her hands again.
I told myself it was all because of her freezing hands. Finally, I gathered my courage and took her hand in mine.
The moment our hands touched, I felt a rush of warmth surge through my body. Mi Cai froze in place, her face quickly turning red.
I stammered, “I… just wanted to warm your hands… My hands are quite… quite warm.”
She lowered her head without saying a word. My heart grew even more uneasy, as if I had suddenly transformed into a man with absolutely no dating experience. After a while, I forced myself to keep holding her hand and walked forward, but both of us kept our heads down, too shy to look at each other!
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