After a Contract Marriage with a Cold and Older Person - Chapter 22

Chapter 22: Double Insomnia

Song Tingyun was on a phone call by the window when the sudden noise of someone entering the office drew some of his attention away.

He saw Ji Wenxu with his hands behind his back, pretending to be utterly innocent, and the secretary with an expression of distress and apology, and he instantly knew what had happened.

Song Tingyun raised his hand, signaling the secretary to leave first.

Ji Wenxu quickly walked over and sat down in front of Song Tingyun’s desk.

Perhaps because he had been here once before, Ji Wenxu navigated the space with familiarity.

Seeing that Song Tingyun was still on the phone, he put down what he was holding, got up to brew himself a cup of coffee, and then wandered around the bookshelf twice.

Only after he had finished his cup of coffee did Song Tingyun’s call end.

Where were all these work calls coming from so early in the morning? Ji Wenxu thought those people really didn’t know how to pick a time.

He happily scooted over and sat down opposite Song Tingyun, opened the insulated bag he brought, and took out a box of sandwiches.

Then, like a child seeking forgiveness after making a mistake, he obediently leaned on the desk, quietly pushing the sandwich towards Song Tingyun’s hand.

Song Tingyun glanced at it, not giving him a pleasant look, and asked knowingly, “What is this?”

Ji Wenxu blinked, “This is breakfast humbly offered to you by your subordinate. I said the wrong thing this morning. You are a man of great generosity, so don’t be angry with me anymore, okay?”

A flicker of emotion crossed Song Tingyun’s face. He then smiled at Ji Wenxu and asked, “Was I angry?”

Ji Wenxu quickly seized the opportunity: “No, no, no, you weren’t angry. Actually, I have a request for you.”

“Now that I’m working at your company too, I’m going to need you to teach me a lot of things,” Ji Wenxu put his palms together and bowed slightly.

Song Tingyun accepted the sandwich and placed it next to him, “Alright. The secretary is waiting for you outside. Go to HR to complete your onboarding first.”

He paused, then added, “You were parachuted into this position. If you don’t want others to misunderstand our relationship, do not enter my office casually unless it is for work.”

Ji Wenxu said “Aww,” but in Song Tingyun’s view, he didn’t seem to have taken the warning to heart.

…

After leaving the office.

The secretary first looked at him with an exasperated expression and sighed, then quickly composed herself, “Mr. Ji, let’s go. We’ll report to HR first.”

Knowing that the secretary was nearly scolded because of him, Ji Wenxu quickly followed the secretary with long strides, then bent down to stay roughly at her level, smiling, “Miss Secretary, I apologize for just now. I really had something important to tell your boss.”

The secretary admitted she was a little angry.

But with such a handsome and dashing face smiling and apologizing to her, she couldn’t stay angry. She could only say, “Just be careful in the future.”

Ji Wenxu finally relaxed. He straightened his back, “Okay, I promise.”

The onboarding procedures were quickly completed.

Ji Wenxu’s title was something like “Secretary Assistant,” but after seeing his job responsibilities, Ji Wenxu felt there was hardly any challenge involved.

“In the future, relevant work will be personally delivered to you by me. Unless necessary, please do not seek out the boss. He does not like to be interrupted while working. Otherwise, you might face criticism from Mr. Song,” the secretary advised him as a veteran who had worked by Song Tingyun’s side for four years.

Ji Wenxu placed the stack of onboarding documents onto his desk and gave the secretary an expression that clearly said, “Don’t worry, I’ll mess everything up,” “Okay, I’ve noted everything!”

The secretary truly dared not believe a single word.

She took half a step back, saying, “Alright. The details of your work have been sent to your computer. You can call me directly if you need anything.”

Ji Wenxu said yes and sincerely thanked her.

The secretary watched him at the door for a while. Only when Ji Wenxu tidied his desk and started looking at the documents did the secretary close the door and leave, only to immediately knock on the door of Song Tingyun’s office.

…

Perhaps because it was his first day of employment, Ji Wenxu didn’t have much work. And since Song Tingyun had briefly taught him some things before, the tasks weren’t difficult for him.

He processed all the funding data against the spreadsheets.

He learned about some of the company’s partners and collaborative projects.

He seemed absolutely determined to do this job well.

Song Tingyun’s expression was not very good when he heard the secretary’s report, because in his mind, all of Ji Wenxu’s efforts were merely preparations for a smooth divorce.

He raised a hand to dismiss the secretary. After the office door was gently closed, he sighed softly, rubbing his forehead.

Shouldn’t he have guessed that there would be a day of divorce when he first proposed the agreement to Ji Wenxu? Besides, he didn’t have the ability to make Ji Wenxu fall in love with him.

The Ji family’s hopes were probably going to be dashed.

He shifted his gaze to the sandwich placed neatly on the desk beside him.

Song Tingyun thought a lot during that half hour.

He realized he always had trouble understanding Ji Wenxu.

…

In the blink of an eye, Ji Wenxu had been working at the company for a month.

The weather in Beijing was turning cold.

The two continued to get along harmoniously. Every morning, Ji Wenxu would still prepare breakfast before Song Tingyun slowly crawled out of bed.

Ji Wenxu noticed that as the weather got colder, Song Tingyun’s habit of lying in bed became more pronounced.

It seemed unbelievable that such a serious and aloof person would actually like to sleep in.

After breakfast, the two always left one after the other, staggering their commute. Because of Song Tingyun’s tendency to sleep in, Ji Wenxu always arrived at work just in time.

But this didn’t bother Ji Wenxu.

His diligence at work surprised Song Tingyun, which made him realize that the two of them might divorce successfully before their one-year anniversary.

…

Ji Wenxu ate two fruit radishes before bed. Perhaps he ate too much, but he suffered from insomnia that night.

The house had already been supplied with heat.

Ji Wenxu, wearing a thin pajama set, got out of bed, intending to pour himself a glass of water.

However, a sound from downstairs in the living room suddenly drove away his sleepiness. The possibility of a burglar here was minimal. Could some small animal have gotten inside?

It was raining heavily outside now. Maybe some kind of bird flew in by accident.

Ji Wenxu’s attention was drawn by the sound from the living room. He cautiously opened the door and walked out.

The corridor only had dim nightlights, but there was indeed a faint, flickering light coming from the downstairs living room.

He was confused, suspecting he had forgotten to turn off the living room light before going to bed. But the light flickering on and off didn’t look like an unextinguished light; it looked more like the TV was left on?

But Ji Wenxu remembered he hadn’t watched TV.

Driven by curiosity, Ji Wenxu bent down, slipped off his slippers, and carried them as he walked downstairs.

At the entrance to the living room, his attention was first drawn to the flickering TV light, and then to the person sitting in front of the TV.

Song Tingyun??

He saw Song Tingyun wrapped in a cotton blanket, sitting on the plush carpet in front of the coffee table, hugging a steaming cup, and intently watching… a cartoon?

Ji Wenxu’s first thought was that he was dreaming.

So, he genuinely pinched his wrist, determined to wake himself up.

The sharp pain told Ji Wenxu that this was not a dream.

The high and aloof, always serious-faced Song Tingyun was really sitting alone in front of the TV watching cartoons at two or three o’clock in the morning, in the dead of night.

He felt he shouldn’t know this secret that could get him killed.

So, he forgot about the water he was supposed to drink.

He carefully turned to sneak back upstairs.

But the person in the living room knew he had arrived somehow and spoke abruptly, “How long are you going to watch?”

Ji Wenxu froze on the spot like a soldier, his back ramrod straight, his neck stiff.

“I… I was just about to go back…” he stammered without turning around.

Song Tingyun took a sip of the warm milk he was holding and said, “Just pretend I’m not here. Do whatever you were going to do.”

Ji Wenxu blinked a few times, hurried to the kitchen to fetch a cup of warm water, and then walked over and sat down next to him.

“You’re not sleeping in the middle of the night, watching cartoons here?” Ji Wenxu asked.

Song Tingyun stared at the TV screen, his expression calm, “Insomnia.”

Ji Wenxu, “Why insomnia? But didn’t you not eat radish?”

Song Tingyun glanced at him, “What radish?”

Ji Wenxu let out an “Aww,” and explained, “I thought you were like me, unable to sleep because you ate too much radish and felt uncomfortable.”

Song Tingyun was speechless. He picked up the remote and changed the channel to a different cartoon. Ji Wenxu stared at Boonie Bears on the screen, remaining stunned for a long time before asking, “So you get up to watch… cartoons when you have insomnia?”

Song Tingyun took another sip of warm milk and slowly said, “Yes.”

Ji Wenxu chuckled. Song Tingyun immediately gave him a glare, but Ji Wenxu laughed even louder.

Song Tingyun realized glaring at him was useless now, so he just let Ji Wenxu laugh.

Perhaps Ji Wenxu’s laugh was truly infectious. As Song Tingyun listened, he couldn’t help but curve his lips and chuckle a few times as well.

Even though the source of the laughter was himself, he knew the laughter held no malice.

It was raining heavily outside. Raindrops loudly beat against the window. Inside the house, the TV played a childish cartoon. The two quieted down after laughing for quite a while.

Ji Wenxu, “Actually, Song Tingyun, do you know what? I’ve discovered another immature little habit of yours.”

Song Tingyun didn’t say anything, seeming to wait for Ji Wenxu to continue. Ji Wenxu, however, first laid down a condition: “I’ll say it, but promise you won’t get angry.”

Song Tingyun, “Am I that petty?”

Ji Wenxu fell silent, seeming to agree.

Song Tingyun raised his arm and nudged Ji Wenxu’s arm with his elbow, as if venting his frustration. Ji Wenxu threw his head back and laughed heartily, “It’s just, Song Tingyun, do you know what? The colder the weather gets, the more you sleep in, like my cousin’s cat.”

“The temperature warmed up two days ago, and you got up early. Now the temperature in Beijing has dropped again, and you sleep until I have to personally come and wake you up. Sometimes you don’t even have time to eat breakfast, and I have to sneak it to you.” As Ji Wenxu finished, he saw Song Tingyun’s expression souring. He quickly grabbed Song Tingyun’s wrist,

“You promised not to get angry!”

Song Tingyun huffed, his face set in a scowl.

Ji Wenxu wasn’t sleepy anymore either.

He grabbed the remote from the table, manually switched to a new two-player co-op game he had purchased, then took two controllers from the drawer and handed one to Song Tingyun.

“Here, let’s play some games together. It’s the weekend tomorrow anyway,” Ji Wenxu said.

Song Tingyun didn’t refuse and reached out to take the controller. To motivate him, Ji Wenxu added a condition, saying, “How about this: if you manage to get a higher overall score than me even once, I’ll unconditionally grant you one request?”

He saw Song Tingyun briefly fall silent. It seemed this bet was quite tempting.

“Okay,” Song Tingyun nodded.

Ji Wenxu immediately said, “Wow, Song Tingyun, do you really think you can beat me?”

Song Tingyun didn’t refute his confidence, just let out another cold huff.

Ji Wenxu stared at his face. For some reason, he found Song Tingyun’s small, aloof gestures quite cute, feeling he really resembled his cousin’s high-and-mighty cat.

“What are you looking at me for?” Song Tingyun initially didn’t want to engage with Ji Wenxu, but he kept staring.

Ji Wenxu chuckled, then forcefully lifted half of the blanket Song Tingyun was wrapped in and draped it over himself. He scooted closer to Song Tingyun until they were snugly side-by-side and then said, “Move over a bit. I’m cold too.”

Song Tingyun rolled his eyes helplessly: …