After Letting Go, I Ended Up Happily Ever After With My White Moonlight - Chapter 3

November nights fell very quickly. By six or seven o’clock, walking on the streets meant not seeing a single soul anymore.

After dropping Cheng Yao off, Jiang Yu washed her face, made a cup of coffee, and finally picked up a copy of Stray Birds that she had not finished reading a few days ago, flipping through the pages.

She still had to pull an all-nighter today.

There were not many animals boarded at her place, so Jiang Yu currently had no intention of hiring anyone. The back-and-forth between her and Cheng Yao was enough to handle everything.

She propped her chin with one hand and casually flipped through a few pages.

As expected, with her current state of mind, she could not take in a single thing.

The words that had just entered her brain would swiftly dart away before she had a chance to savor their deeper meanings.

There was no help for it. Since she could not read her book, she had no choice but to consider matters related to the system.

Jiang Yu still had not clearly defined what the system meant by “protection” and “publicity.” If publicity meant making the public familiar with her place, what about protection?

Was taking care of animals to prevent illnesses considered protection?

The boundary between these two was far too vague. Over the past two days, she had tried asking the system about it, but in the end, all the questions she threw out sank like stones in the ocean.

It wasn’t that the system gave perfunctory answers; rather, there was simply no reply at all. No matter how she called out, there was no sound, and she had no idea what circumstances would trigger its next appearance.

If she couldn’t hear the animals screeching and howling in the shop, she would have mistaken this for a rather unpleasant dream, believing herself to still be a completely ordinary person, as ordinary as they come.

She pulled her thoughts back.

Jiang Yu’s final settled idea was to make some posters for publicity and test the waters first.

Thinking of this gave Jiang Yu a headache. Her network of acquaintances was fairly broad, but she truly did not know anyone proficient in this kind of work.

Jiang Yu massaged her temples, finally opened WeChat, and edited a Moments post:

Seeking help: Does anyone know graphic design? Looking to commission a poster.

By the time she finished her preparations, it was already close to eight o’clock. Jiang Yu looked out the door; the people on the street were sparser than her neighbor grandfather’s hairs.

It was likely that no one else would come.

She stood up, getting ready to lock the door.

The door of the shop was made of glass, so locking it or not didn’t carry much practical significance. If someone really wanted to break in, it wouldn’t stop them anyway; it was merely going through the motions.

She pushed the door open, stepped outside, and scooped the signboard standing at the entrance back into the room.

The signboard was quite small, and Cheng Yao had plastered it all over with colorful little characters. Jiang Yu bent down slightly, scooped it up, and held it in her arms.

When she raised her head again, someone was standing right in front of her.

What in the world? Someone actually came at this hour.

Startled, Jiang Yu gave a slight jolt and took two steps back. Taking a closer look, she found that this person’s overcoat looked somewhat familiar.

Feeling immensely awkward, she straightened up and stared at Qi Yin, who was standing solidly at her doorway.

“Qi Yin?” Jiang Yu asked tentatively.

“Mhm.” Qi Yin glanced at Jiang Yu’s face, which had turned rosy red from alternating between the cold outside and the warmth inside, and asked, “Closing up?”

Jiang Yu’s smile could barely stay on her face. The midwinter cold wind cut straight to the bone, but inside the shop, the heater made things cozy and warm, so she had taken off her outer jacket and was wearing just a sweater, thinking she would step right back inside. Being delayed by Qi Yin left her feeling both awkward and freezing cold.

Another gust of howling cold wind swept over. She rubbed her arms, hugged the signboard, and pushed the door open for Qi Yin: “Ah, yes. Come inside first, let’s talk indoors.”

Qi Yin didn’t say anything and followed Jiang Yu inside.

Usually, locking the door was done from the inside since someone always had to stay behind to watch the shop. There was no need to lock it from the outside just for Baochai’s brother and Lin Sister, and if it weren’t for retrieving that cursed signboard, she wouldn’t have brought it outside at all.

Now that Qi Yin had followed her in, it wasn’t convenient for her to lock the door anymore.

So she casually propped the signboard against the wall inside and tossed the lock back onto the counter.

The loud thud prompted Qi Yin to glance in that direction.

Qi Yin didn’t start a conversation either. The two of them just stood there staring at each other, which was genuinely awkward.

Qi Yin’s gaze was fixed squarely on her. That sensation was scorching and unbearable, making Jiang Yu feel deeply uncomfortable all over. After bustling about blindly for a moment and finally unable to take it anymore, she asked:

“Senior, is there something you need?”

Qi Yin raised an eyebrow.

Her eye shape was relatively sharp, making her whole person look somewhat cold.

“Thinking you were in the shop, I came to check on Xiaoyu,” Qi Yin said without a trace of apology. “Sorry, I didn’t expect to cut into your closing time.”

Jiang Yu gave a faint smile. No matter how she pondered those words, they felt somewhat off, yet she couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was wrong, so she simply picked up the thread of the conversation.

“Oh, it doesn’t matter. Xiaoyu is very well-behaved. Come with me.”

She led Qi Yin over to Xiaoyu.

Upon seeing its owner, Xiaoyu happily wagged its tail, its expression turning visibly lively and upbeat.

Qi Yin lowered her hand to pet the dog’s head and smiled with rare warmth.

Jiang Yu stared at Qi Yin’s expression, suddenly remembering something.

Wait, that’s not right.

Most boarding clients chose to board their pets because they had personal matters at home and were too busy to manage them. How did Qi Yin have the free time to visit in the middle of the night?

She cast a suspicious glance at Qi Yin, hesitated for a moment, and probed tentatively: “Senior, aren’t you busy? How do you still have time to come here?”

The smile on Qi Yin’s face stiffened for a fraction of a second before she shook her head: “Not too bad.”

Jiang Yu was even more baffled. What kind of situation was this?

“Then…”

She didn’t know whether this question was appropriate for her to ask. If this had happened in the past, she would have probed to the bottom of it and asked directly. Although whether Qi Yin answered was another matter, it definitely wouldn’t have felt this awkward.

Fortunately, Qi Yin had high enough emotional intelligence to throw her a lifeline.

“A relative came to stay at my house for a few days, and they’re allergic to dog hair.”

It was a very brief reply, but it gave Jiang Yu a general understanding.

She nodded.

She hadn’t expected that although Qi Yin usually looked cold, she was actually quite a nice person.

Knowing when to stop while ahead, times were different now, she wasn’t like before when she would stubbornly cling to someone with all her might. Jiang Yu didn’t pursue the matter any further.

In fact, even now, she still held an extremely intense interest in Qi Yin. If possible, being friends would be nice, but she wasn’t content with just that. Yet, if she really let someone keep her in their thoughts when she couldn’t even guarantee completing her task… well, would she just drop dead eventually, leaving the other person with such irresponsibility?

Her eyelids drooped, a touch sorrowful.

“I won’t delay your closing time any longer. I’ll come see her again next time.”

Jiang Yu snapped back to reality.

Qi Yin’s words meant she was about to leave.

After seeing Qi Yin off, Jiang Yu realized belatedly that she had completely overthought things. What on earth was she imagining?

The other person didn’t feel that way about her at all, otherwise how could she have failed to chase her down for four whole years?

Jiang Yu sighed, looked at Xiaoyu before her, and gave the dog’s head a pat as well.

“Xiaoyu, your owner likes you a lot. That’s really nice.”

“Like,” unexpectedly, Xiaoyu didn’t remain silent this time. Perhaps because it was in a good mood after just seeing its owner, it actually replied to Jiang Yu.

“So you weren’t talking before just because you were feeling listless.” Jiang Yu chuckled twice, turned back to retrieve the lock she had tossed onto the counter earlier, twisted and buckled it against the door, and said in a raised voice, “Alright, stop showing off. Of course she likes you, she misses you the second she can’t see you, and even ran over to check on you.”

After saying this, she remembered Snowball, who had spent the entire afternoon in rare silence, contemplating the meaning of life.

“See that? Don’t be so gloomy in your heart; not everyone who gets left at a boarding facility has been abandoned by their owner.”

Snowball cast a displeased glance at Jiang Yu, though unfortunately, humans couldn’t see it.

“Tch,” it was in a bad mood, let out a scoff, and then asked, “When does my stay here expire?”

“Expire? What kind of phrasing is that? Do you think this is rent?” Jiang Yu amusedly pondered the term, flipping through the stack of contracts piled up like a small mountain on the counter. “It should be in the next couple of days… tomorrow or the day after… Ah, the day after tomorrow.”

After checking, she tossed the contract back down: “Congratulations, you can get lost the day after tomorrow.”

Snowball let out an “oh” without showing much reaction, lowered its head, and continued licking its paws.

Jiang Yu propped her legs up on a chair, casually muttered a reminder to sleep quickly, and opened her phone again.

She clicked on her Moments and scrolled down. She hadn’t received any replies from graphic designers, but she did come across Cheng Yao’s drunken, unhinged posts.

Presumably feeling that the beer at the shop hadn’t satisfied her craving, Cheng Yao had gone home and opened two bottles of hard liquor. Right now, she was hugging the toilet bowl and vomiting, treating it as mourning for Jiang Yu’s failure to catch a girlfriend.

Jiang Yu expressionlessly replied with a thumbs-up emoji.

, Aaa: Thanks a lot, but that’s entirely unnecessary.

After replying to the message, Jiang Yu swiped her finger and switched pages to browse Weibo for a while.

The first half of the night passed comfortably enough. She finished binge-watching the variety show she hadn’t finished a couple of days ago, and when she had free time, she even chatted with the cats and dogs in the shop.

The second half of the night grew a bit boring.

Jiang Yu set an alarm for a short nap. When she woke up, most of the small animals in the shop were resting, and there was no one left to talk to. To pass the time, she prepared the posters, checked some information, and gritted her teeth to cobble together an animal protection flyer.

Jiang Yu looked at the pile of information she had listed and felt somewhat emotional.

Some potential really was forced out of you.

This was just like when she wrote research papers in college, when she couldn’t write anything out, she just forced the pieces together.

At least this thing wouldn’t get sent back for revisions.

When daylight finally broke, Jiang Yu could barely hold on any longer. She gave Cheng Yao a few successive phone calls to wake her up and told her to come take over the shift.

“Aiyo, my head still hurts, and your urging makes it hurt even more.” As soon as Cheng Yao stepped through the shop door, before she could finish her sentence properly, Jiang Yu had already hailed a pre-booked taxi and headed home.

Right now, the moment she touched anything soft, she wanted to sleep. Early in the morning, she closed her eyes and fell asleep right inside the taxi.

The driver had to call out to her several times before she opened her eyes. Blinking heavily to lift her eyelids, she scanned her fare payment and climbed upstairs.

Jiang Yu was very glad her place was on the second floor; if it were any higher, crawling home might not have even worked out.

Jiang Yu had a bit of spare cash, so the apartment she bought was quite large, and the renovation was quite grand. The only thing was that there weren’t many items inside, making it feel empty after looking at it for a while.

Still, being a bit empty was quite nice, she could walk with her eyes closed without bumping into things, and if there were more people, they could even play tag.

Jiang Yu felt her way into the bedroom, drew the curtains, and collapsed face-up onto the bed.

To anyone else looking, this was no different from being dead.

She slept all the way until three in the afternoon. When Jiang Yu opened her eyes, the sky was already turning dark.

It was hard to adjust at first upon opening her eyes. Although the curtains blocked out the sunlight, her vision still felt hazy. She curled her fingers to rub her eyes twice and tapped her phone screen to check the time.

Before she could register the time, she noticed Qi Yin’s message first.

It had been sent in the morning.

Jiang Yu skipped a heartbeat and unlocked her phone, clearly still unaccustomed to interacting with her goddess.

Jiang Yu didn’t know if there was something wrong with her, acting just like a mental patient.

Part of it was because of that idiotic system, and the other part was because of Qi Yin, which had driven her mental state into abnormal territory over the past two days.

Resisting the harsh glare of the screen, she looked at Qi Yin’s message, assuming the other person was asking about Xiaoyu. To her surprise, it wasn’t about that at all.

Yu: Are you looking for a graphic designer?

Jiang Yu pondered for a moment, figuring Qi Yin must have seen her Moments post again, though she didn’t know why she was asking.

Aaa: Yes, I was resting during the shift change this morning and just saw it.

The reply from the other side came very quickly.

Yu: What needs to be made?

Aaa: A promotional page, similar to a poster.

Yu: What’s the theme?

Jiang Yu didn’t know what Qi Yin was trying to do, but she replied obediently anyway.

Aaa: Animal protection. Senior, do you know someone who does graphic design on your end?

Yu: I do. Do you have the text?

No matter how foolish Jiang Yu was, she could see that Qi Yin meant to help her. She hurriedly tapped away at the keyboard:

Aaa: I do! I had no idea you could do this too, you’re so talented, Senior. How should we set the price? I’ll transfer it to you.

There was a two-second pause on the other end.

Yu: It’s a hobby. No money needed.

Jiang Yu was just about to say that wouldn’t be appropriate when the next message arrived.

Yu: Just look after Xiaoyu a bit more.

Fine. So it was because of this after all.

Jiang Yu pouted, unsure what kind of feeling she had.

After agreeing, she sent the text over to Qi Yin and turned off her phone screen.

She didn’t sleep properly, so when she woke up, her hair was a tangled mess, truly turning into a bird’s nest.

Jiang Yu picked up a comb from the vanity, painstakingly smoothed her hair, washed her face, changed her clothes, and stepped out feeling refreshed and energized.

“Driver, to the food festival.” She had slept enough, but her stomach was growling with hunger.

She went to the food festival first to grab some snacks, then took a taxi to the shop.

Jiang Yu walked through the shop door carrying a bag of barbecued skewers.

“Yo, you’re finally awake.”

“Mhm. Take my cola out,” Jiang Yu replied.

Seeing Jiang Yu carrying a bag of food, Cheng Yao figured this person had gone out to buy eats again, so she thought she’d freeload some and poured herself a cup of cola as well.

Jiang Yu glanced over: “Not drinking alcohol anymore? I remember there’s still some in the cabinet. Let’s have a bit more, skewers paired with alcohol, how punchy is that!”

“Alright, stop teasing me. I’m not drinking for a short while.” Recalling the scene from yesterday when she hugged the toilet bowl and howled while vomiting like a zombie emerging from the apocalypse, Cheng Yao shook her head in defeat.