When A Snail Falls in Love

The next day when Xu Xu went to work, she felt as though she had been struck by lightning.

This was because there was a big bouquet of red and white roses greeting her when she returned to her desk after a short trip to the washroom. It was wrapped in light yellow crepe paper, which made the package look beautiful and striking.

On top of it was a small card with flamboyant handwriting scribbled across it, “You’re right, one’s preferences can’t be controlled. Have a nice day, Xu Xu.”

Xu Xu fell silent for a moment, then she carried the big bouquet with some effort to look for a place to dump it. Yao Meng, who was sitting opposite her, poked her head over with her chin buried in her hands. “Tell me honestly, do you have a boyfriend now?”

Once she asked this, everyone else in the office looked at her with smiling faces too.

Xu Xu quickly replied, “No.”

Nonetheless, they could not believe her with such obvious proof sitting right there in her hands. As such, they heckled at her non-stop, trying to convince her to divulge the identity of this possible son-in-law of the Criminal Police Unit. After a while, Xu Xu was forced to tell them the truth. “I went for a blind date last week, it wasn’t successful, but the other party is quite stubborn.”

Everyone was startled. That was because Xu Xu gave off the impression that she was very introverted and virtuous, but it turns out that even she was thinking about getting a boyfriend.

In the police station, where the men far outnumbered the women, the attention towards the very decent-looking and single Xu Xu was naturally higher. By noon, the news had spread throughout the police station that a certain heir of a wealthy family was madly pursuing Xu Xu. When the morning meeting ended, even the station chief asked Ji Bai, “I heard that Xu Xu from your unit is going to marry an heir of a wealthy family? You better look into it, we’re the unofficial parental guardians to that lady.”

Ji Bai nodded with a faint smile. “I understand.”

Xu Xu had been busy that whole morning, such that she could not be bothered to have lunch. She merely took her phone and looked for a dark, unoccupied corner to call Ye Zixiao. After five calls, she got quite angry as he did not pick up the phone. She then ran to the reception office in the police station and told the uncle stationed there to reject any flowers addressed to her in the future.

Nonetheless, the uncle had been preemptively offered some benefits, and since it was not an evil deed, he played dumb. “Ah? I don’t know. I don’t have the right to reject them…”

At that time, Ye Zixiao was looking at all the missed calls on his phone and imagined Xu Xu’s outraged, frustrated look. He knew that she would be mad and he also knew that what he was doing might not make her too fond of him. Despite this, he was still feeling discontented about the other night, so he intentionally sent her flowers in a high-profile way to provoke her. He did not care about how she felt, his sole purpose at the moment was to rile her up.

Even though Xu Xu did not join them for lunch, the topic in the Criminal Police Unit still revolved around her. One person said, “I can’t believe it, that young lady is actually quite charming,” to which another person replied, “We have so many single men in the police unit that are both old and young, so we should do our best to keep the good things for ourselves, right, Captain Ji?”

Ji Bai lit a cigarette and leaned against his chair. Upon hearing this, he laughed. “They won’t get together.

“Her brain works differently from a normal person. I have no doubt that a normal man won’t be able to connect to her.”

Ji Bai had always foretold things accurately and was rightfully given the name the “King of Prophecies” in the police station. After hearing what he said, everyone prompted him for an explanation, but Ji Bai did not answer and quickly went to pay the bill.

After work hours, Ye Zixi called and invited Xu Xu out for a meal on Saturday.

After the razor blade case, Ye Zixi had kept in contact with her and called from time to time; they even had tea together before. In all honesty, Xu Xu quite liked Ye Zixi, she was generous, farsighted, gentle and had her own views, which made her feel comfortable around her.

Xu Xu agreed to it, but just as Zixi was going to hang up, Xu Xu suddenly remembered something and asked, “Ye Zixiao won’t be there, right?”

Zixi could not help but laugh. “What did he do to you that you’re now avoiding him as though he’s a viper?”

Xu Xu sighed. “He disguised himself as an IT engineer to go on a blind date with me and has been troubling me ever since.”

Zixi laughed out loud but in the end replied, “Alright, don’t worry, it’s a ladies only date. I won’t let him join us.”

After they hung up, Zixi immediately called Ye Zixiao. “You’re not good at this, you’ve met your Waterloo in Xu Xu, haven’t you?”

Ye Zixiao grunted dismissively. “It’s still too early to say that. I’ve only been chasing her for a few days.”

Zixi laughed. “You even went so low to disguise yourself as an IT engineer. What other tricks do you have up your sleeve?”

Ye Zixiao laughed as well. “I’ve asked about her and learned that she runs every day at the police station’s sports field. I’ll go and visit her during weekends too.”

“Wow, you’re planning to show off your muscles?”

“Of course. What do you think I trained these muscles every day for? I’ll soon show her a different side of me.”

Zixi chuckled then slowed down as she said, “Actually, the more I get to know Xu Xu, the more interesting she becomes. Perhaps the two of you really are quite compatible since you complement each other well.”

Ye Zixiao sighed. “Sis, what’s the point of telling me that? You should tell her that instead. Obviously, I know that I’m a suitable man for her.”

As the week wore on, Xu Xu grew tired of receiving flowers, but Ye Zixiao never showed up and never picked up her calls. After this, she decided to simply ignore him.

That weekend, the weather was good as it was already deep into spring. This made the sky turn bright earlier than it did before. When Xu Xu arrived at the sports field, the sky was already white with a hint of blue.

As she jogged inside, she saw Ji Bai sitting on a training machine whilst was drinking from a bottle. Yao Meng was wearing light blue sportswear, had her long hair down, and was standing in front of him. She wondered what they were talking about as Ji Bai wore an indistinct look and seemed to be smiling from the corner of his lips.

Xu Xu ran over. “Morning.”

Yao Meng smiled sweetly. “Morning.”

Ji Bai took a look at his watch. “Trying to get a head start today? You’re three minutes late.”

Xu Xu went silent. She forgot to bring her purse out in the morning, so she returned to pick it up.

Because of her tardiness, she was forced to run an extra round

Quickly, Xu Xu turned and hit the track.

Even with Yao Meng who was always so lively beside her, the run was still quiet. Yao Meng had acquired excellent physical results in the police academy so the three of them took to the track in a distinct order with Ji Bai far ahead, then Yao Meng, and lastly Xu Xu.

Xu Xu noticed that when Yao Meng ran, she liked to compete with Ji Bai. Since Ji Bai had lapped them twice, he always brushed past them. Every time this happened, Yao Meng would accelerate, as if she wanted to run side by side with Ji Bai. However, after maintaining her speed for a while, she would eventually slow down. Then, she would turn to smile at Xu Xu with an upset yet excited look on her flushed face.

While this happened, Ji Bai only smiled faintly as he surged on ahead.

Despite the fact that Xu Xu was normally insensitive to these things, she could not help but feel lonely as she watched the two of them from behind.

This was because Yao Meng seemed to be so full of life while Ji Bai was also extremely energetic.

On the other hand, she was just like a snail, slowly crawling and crawling…

When Ji Bai passed her yet another time, she subconsciously took after Yao Meng and tried to accelerate. Just as she sped up, however, Ji Bai turned to look at her with a look of disdain. “You have more strength?”

Xu Xu immediately paused and slowed down.

After their run, Yao Meng suggested having breakfast at a Cantonese shop on Lin Street. “Captain, you like Cantonese dim sum, don’t you? Hmm, how about crystal shrimp dumpling, red bean porridge, and radish cake? I heard that this shop is not bad. Allow me to treat you today and be the host.”

Ji Bai nodded. “It’s really quite good, I often go there.”

Xu Xu remained silent as she thought to herself, ‘I like to eat those things too.’

As expected, the shop was not bad. It was clean and warm, and there was the faint smell of food in the air. As it was still early, the shop was not yet crowded when the three of them sat down at a table.

When the food arrived, the three of them conversed lazily. Most of the time it was Yao Meng and Ji Bai who were talking while Xu Xu remained silent.

When he spoke to Yao Meng, Ji Bai put on a casual and leisurely look, his eyes glowing eyes repeatedly verifying his amusement. He did not sound strict either, such that he even cracked a few jokes which made Yao Meng smile happily with her mouth covered.

During the odd occasions that he spoke to Xu Xu, his tone was cold, which made the conversation sound more like he was giving orders.

“What are you daydreaming about?”

“Pass me the menu.”

Xu Xu noticed this and felt rather dispirited, but she was already used to this by now.

Little did she know that Ji Bai had been harsh and stern to her from the first day they met so as to temper her haughtiness. Later on, when he got used to it, it also felt quite good to see her blank and simple-minded face.

After eating for a while, Yao Meng stood up and said, “I’ll go next door to buy some bubble tea – theirs is especially rich.”

It was just the two of them left. Ji Bai was once again reading the newspaper provided by the shop and they did not talk even though they were seated opposite each other. Xu Xu had nothing else to do so she grabbed another copy and did the same.

A while later, Xu Xu suddenly felt that something was amiss and looked up. She saw that Ji Bai had already placed his newspaper down and was looking behind her with his eyes squinted.

When Xu Xu turned, she saw standing Ye Zixiao there in a white sportswear, his hands tucked into his pockets and his face looking absolutely horrified.

That morning, Ye Zixiao had purposely woken up early and arrived at the sports field before eight. Yet, he could not spot Xu Xu amidst the vast army of people who were simultaneously having their morning exercises. He missed what he had come for and was a little bored, so he decided to stroll around the area. This was when he had unexpectedly come across Xu Xu having breakfast with a man.

As he got closer, he noticed that they were having the same breakfast and even reading the same newspaper. Whenever the man finished his food, Xu Xu even took the initiative to bring him more, yet the man did not look at her in the eye and just continued eating.

At that moment, when Xu Xu turned to look at him, she immediately frowned. The unhappiness in her eyes was obvious.

Ye Zixiao smiled then walked over and sat down. He did not look at Ji Bai and only looked at Xu Xu with a smile on his face. “If you have a boyfriend, you should’ve just told me straight. Although I tend to pester you, I won’t go so far as to become a third party.”

Xu Xu was startled. “Boyfriend?”

Ye Zixiao looked at Ji Bai, who looked back at him with an imperceptible expression. The way Ye Zixiao saw it, Ji Bai clearly looked arrogant and also seemed to be slightly provoked.

If Xu Xu had been sitting with a short, ugly man at that moment, then Ye Zixiao might not have been as angry and he might not have thought of them as a couple.

He had always been very certain that among Xu Xu’s admirers, there was not a single one who was more outstanding than himself. Hence, even if Xu Xu rejected him, he was still very confident in himself.

However, he was not so certain when it came to Ji Bai. The man before him was both tall and handsome, whilst his clothing and temperament seemed unusual; not to mention, he looked mature and experienced too. Judging from the way Xu Xu and the man got along, they were very clearly in sync. Besides, why would Xu Xu even personally pour him tea if they were not very close?

The thought hurt him a little as he bit his tongue. ‘You’re so cold towards me, but you’re acting so gentle in front of another man.’

Nevertheless, when Xu Xu saw his expression, she immediately understood the situation. “He’s my superior.”

“So, he’s the police station’s station chief?” Ye Zixiao slowly asked. He did not believe her at all. How could such a young, handsome man be a policeman? More so her superior?

Xu Xu furrowed her brows.

Ye Zixiao folded his hands and leaned backward as he stared at Xu Xu and did not say a word. Ji Bai, on the other hand, put the newspaper away and looked up calmly.

The newly arrived customers and the workers looked at them from time to time, probably due to their strange combination as well as their intense aura.

Xu Xu absolutely hated the feeling of being the center of attention. She was not willing to quarrel with Ye Zixiao in the public as well due to her anxiousness and so simply said, “You misunderstand, he’s not my boyfriend. I’m not compatible with you, and I’m not compatible with him either. Your emotions right now are completely unfounded.”

After she said this, Ye Zixiao was taken aback. Even Ji Bai looked up at her with ghastly eyes.