A Guide to Wasting Life - Chapter 5

It was the first time she met Zhou Qi, and this moment stayed with her for many, many years, still making her heart flutter.

A breeze swept through the corridor, softly ringing the wind chimes under the eaves.

A few seconds of eye contact stirred up ripples in a pond that had been still for so long.

Xu Nianzhu tried to stand up but found her legs had gone numb from crouching. She didn’t notice the dampness on the ground behind her, and her foot slipped, sending her ungracefully onto the floor with a thud. Still clutching her camera, her first reaction was to hold it tight and hurriedly check if it had been damaged.

When she looked up again, the little orange cat was gone. But through the camera lens, she saw the man slowly approaching. She lowered her gaze and inadvertently noticed their shadows on the stone pavement, drawing closer and closer until they overlapped.

“Are you all right? Did you twist your ankle?”

As the gentle voice fell, a hand appeared in front of her. He, too, wore a string of Eighteen Beads on his wrist. His palm hovered downward in a loose fist, signaling for her to use it for support.

Xu Nianzhu hesitated briefly, attempting to push herself up at first but realized it wasn’t working. Softly saying thank you, she grasped his forearm with her left hand for leverage. The two strings of beads bumped into each other, producing an unpleasantly sharp, grating sound.

“Sorry about that,” she apologized.

Her right hand was still holding the camera, so she instinctively extended her left hand.

“No worries,” the young man replied with a small smile, glancing at the creased fabric of her pant leg. “Did you get any scrapes?”

It was only at this moment that Xu Nianzhu realized they were wearing clothing in the same color scheme-navy tops and light khaki pants. She hadn’t noticed this at all while she had been taking pictures earlier.

She was startled by the coincidence, and a chill ran through her arms, leaving her skin dotted with goosebumps.

Before coming, she’d been lounging in her hotel room scrolling through travel guides. Every so often, the homepage would pop up with posts about meeting someone unexpectedly. The comments section was often topped with the poster’s excited “It worked! Thank you, algorithm!” To which she always responded with a dramatic “Wow!”

Of course, there were also stories where people didn’t find who they were looking for. Sarcastic commenters would respond with lines like, “They were right in front of you, and you didn’t go after them. Now you’re fishing at the bottom of the sea instead. Reel it in, reel it in~”

That day, she’d been completely entertained, marveling at how wonderful life could be, how fate and serendipity worked their way into people’s lives.

And now, she wanted to let out the same kind of wonderstruck exclamation.

It wasn’t until the distant chime of a bell rang out that Xu Nianzhu’s thoughts returned to the present.

The man hadn’t left and was still standing there waiting for her, unhurried and calm.

Xu Nianzhu carefully moved her limbs to test if anything hurt. She patted the dust off her pants. The areas where her skin had been bumped stung slightly, but nothing seemed broken-just some redness and slight swelling. She shook her head lightly to indicate that she was fine.

“Can I add you on WeChat?” The young man pointed to the camera in her hand, speaking straightforwardly. “I think your photos must look amazing, so I’d love to have a photo of myself taken by you.”

“Of… of course!” Xu Nianzhu stammered, her tongue feeling tied. After all, the photos were of him-he’d be entirely justified in asking for them, even to the extent of charging her a portrait fee if the roles were reversed. Pulling herself together, she quickly dug into her bag, took out her phone, and brought up her QR code for him to scan. Once she approved his friend request, she raised her head to meet his eyes directly and said, “The latest I’ll send them to you is tonight.”

“No rush,” the young man replied, tilting his head as he smiled. A shallow dimple appeared on his cheek. His eyes twinkled faintly, like scattered stars, but there was a trace of weariness in them too.

“Are you here alone?” he asked next. “If so, you need to be really careful.”

“Yes, I’m on my own,” Xu Nianzhu replied. She glanced past him to look behind him for a moment, but then turned back and gave him a serious piece of advice: “You need to be careful too. Boys who are out alone should also watch out.”

Especially boys as good-looking as him.

As soon as the words left her mouth, she caught sight of him blushing-a sudden, telltale redness creeping up to the tips of his ears.

That caught her a little off-guard. It was… unusual. It made him unique.

Maybe there really was such a thing as “love at first sight.” Maybe in that fleeting moment, she had suddenly decided to believe in that strange, intricate feeling-so intangible, yet also entirely inescapable.

Talking with him was a source of unexpected joy. But when she turned to leave and casually said, “Maybe I’ll see you again someday,” there was also a faint, inexplicable ache in her chest.

Looking back on it later, she thought perhaps it was a fleeting sense of destiny-a momentary tug at her soul.

Following her initial plan, Xu Nianzhu picked a side trail and began hiking up the mountain.

The signal on the mountain wasn’t great, so it wasn’t until she was close to Fa Xi Temple that her phone started receiving notifications again.

Feeling a series of vibrations in her pocket, she stepped into the shade of a nearby tree and glanced at her screen. There, at the top of her WeChat feed, was a message from an unfamiliar profile picture she hadn’t yet saved as a contact. He had sent his name, two photos, and a short message.

Xu Nianzhu quickly updated the name in her contacts, then opened the photos.

The first was taken in front of the Main Hall of the Great Buddha. In the photo, Xu Nianzhu stood amidst a bustling crowd of devotees. With her eyes softly closed, she appeared lost in silent prayer, her face lit by the sunlight filtering through the air. Behind her, a gust of wind had swept a long red silk ribbon into dramatic motion.

The second photo was from the very spot where they had met earlier. Through a haze of light and mist, the image showed her crouched down, gently playing with a cat.

Both photos seemed imbued with an otherworldly quality, as if taken through a soft filter. They captured little moments of rare serenity, like stolen slivers of peace in a chaotic world.

Xu Nianzhu stared at them in awe, scrolling back and forth between the two images repeatedly, unable to suppress the soft ripples of emotion spreading through her heart. She had no idea when he had taken them.

They felt like fragments of a memory, lingering somewhere between real and surreal.

Xu Nianzhu loved taking photos, but whether in her phone or camera albums, there were very few pictures with her own figure in them; most were landscapes and photos of others. So these two photos were quite precious.

He cleared her doubts, saying it was fate, that he had seen her long before.

That’s right, he had seen her earlier than she had seen him.

Fate, those two words again. Xu Nianzhu saved the photos and was about to ask him, “Do you really believe in fate?” when a new message popped up in the chat.

Zhou Qi: [Look up and ahead.]

-You look up and ahead.

Xu Nianzhu’s heart skipped a beat, like the sound of a soda can opening. She hadn’t noticed whether it had been shaken; the sudden rush of fine bubbles filled her mind with just one thought.

Could it really be this coincidental…

She suddenly looked up and, sure enough, saw that boy named Zhou Qi standing not far away by the memorial wall, waving at her.

Their eyes met, and he gently shot her a glance that felt like a secret.

Warm yet discreet.

In the short distance of just a few meters, Xu Nianzhu found herself not quite knowing how she got there.

When she approached and finally snapped back to reality, she heard his first question clearly. Zhou Qi asked, “Did you hike up here?”

So obvious? Xu Nianzhu widened her eyes, her face burning. She lifted her hand to smooth her bangs and used the black screen of her phone as a mirror. She thought she had overpaid for her waterproof sunscreen.

A few playful children ran past Xu Nianzhu, and Zhou Qi quickly stepped aside to avoid them.

He saw her flustered and laughed, saying, “You look much redder than when you were down the mountain. If you didn’t hike here, we might need to consider if you’re suffering from heatstroke.”

It just so happened that the temperature had risen to 34°C that noon. Xu Nianzhu quickly replied to his first half, half-jokingly, “My face is red because I hiked up here; I’m fine otherwise.”

The two stood shoulder to shoulder, close enough to make Xu Nianzhu feel a mix of panic and disbelief.

She caught him noticing her stealing a glance, and Zhou Qi smiled slightly, revealing a charming single dimple, and gestured towards the wall, “Shall we go touch the words?”

“Let’s do it!” Xu Nianzhu beamed, her gaze scanning for a moment before settling on a character.

Zhou Qi followed her and moved a few steps to the right. Upon seeing the character Xu Nianzhu’s hand was resting on, he couldn’t help but laugh.

The single character read “fish.”

“Touch fish¹, huh? Fits perfectly with my current ambition of wanting to be a salted fish¹,” Xu Nianzhu explained cheerfully to Zhou Qi. “So, if I touch the character ’empty’, wouldn’t that mean I’ve touched nothing?”

Suddenly, she heard a small commotion beside her and turned to see two boys jumping up and down by the wall, stretching their arms to reach the character at the very top. Xu Nianzhu stepped back in confusion and made out that it was the character “one.”

How amusing.

Jokes aside, they eventually both got serious and touched several auspicious characters that had already been polished to a shining sheen due to being touched multiple times.

Fortune, happiness, peace, and luck… Seeking some inner calm.

Later on-

A sudden shiver broke her dream.

Xu Nianzhu squinted sleepily at a spot, her heart feeling empty, yet her mind was a flurry of dancing individuals. She raised her hand to knock on her head to alleviate the headache and drowsily closed her eyes again.

After a few seconds, her hand stilled, and Xu Nianzhu suddenly opened her eyes wide.

A person doesn’t just dream about previous events and people for no reason, especially with such clarity and realism. Even the emotions from that time were perfectly replicated, unless-

The valve of memory had been opened; she uncertainly moved her fingers, lightly pressing her index finger against her lips. The contrasting sensations of cold and heat made her shudder. Her slightly swollen lips confirmed the fleeting images in her mind.

She had kissed Zhou Qi last night, and it seemed that… she had initiated it.

The heavy curtains were drawn tight.

At this moment, the faint light stirred her pounding heart, leaving her disoriented.

The aftereffects of the alcohol were quite strong. Xu Nianzhu pressed her hand against her chest, feeling not only the thumping but also a sense of discomfort.

The alcohol had ignited all her impulses, built upon his words, “I’m leaving tomorrow.” Driven by desire, she had done what she most wanted to do at that moment.

Her boldness and urgency had resulted in a fleeting joy.

Not bad at all.

Xu Nianzhu rolled out of bed. As she reached for her phone on the bedside table, she unexpectedly discovered a sticky note underneath it, alongside a small packet of… honey?

She was momentarily stunned before picking them up together. His handwriting was beautiful, just like him, and even the farewell note felt gentle to her.

-Remember to brew the grapefruit honey when you wake up, to soothe your throat.

Soothe her throat-had she talked a lot last night? Xu Nianzhu tilted her head, trying hard to recall, but to no avail. She forced a smile.

She unlocked her phone, and a red 1% battery flashed on the screen. After digging around in her bag for a charging cable and plugging it in, she realized she had actually slept until after two in the afternoon.

Sitting back on the edge of her bed, she kicked off her slippers, wrapped her arms around her knees, and rested her head on her arm while watching the WeChat notifications in the top right corner rise continuously. She took a moment to calm down before clicking on it.

Zhou Qi had sent her a message an hour ago.

She wasn’t one to say goodbyes; more accurately, she didn’t want to be the one to deliver the closing remarks to this wonderful encounter.

Xu Nianzhu hovered her trembling fingertip above the screen, wanting to avoid it, but her subconscious unwillingness prompted her to type: [Yeah, just woke up.]

Then, her actions preceded her thoughts, and like an ostrich hiding from danger, she quickly added: [I’m going to wash up first!]

Without waiting a second longer, Xu Nianzhu swiftly silenced her phone, turned off the screen, and laid it face down on the bedside table.

Footnote:

1. Touch Fish:(摸鱼):It’s a popular Chinese internet slang used to describe the behavior of slacking off during work or study time.
2. Salted Fish(咸鱼):A colloquial term in Chinese used to describe someone who is lazy, unambitious, or content with doing nothing.