"Mr. Gu, have your water pipes been repaired?"
When Lin Xiaotang knocked on the neighbor's door upstairs for the third time, his wrists were still stained with unwiped wall paint. The new man who moved in three days ago opened the door, and the scent of pine wood mixed with water vapor hit his face. Water dripped from his hair, leaving translucent traces on his white shirt.
"Sorry, I may miss it for a few days." Gu Chen lowered his eyes and looked at the wall paint on the tip of the girl's nose, his Adam's apple twitching slightly. He unscrewed the water pipe valve with his own hands half an hour ago - just like he deliberately selected this old house facing bedroom 602 three days ago.
The water leakage incident ended with Lin Xiaotang's kitchen turning into a water curtain hole. She hugged the soaked pillow and curled up on Gu Chen's sofa, watching the man kneeling on one knee and wiping the paws of her ragdoll cat. "Ah Ju spilled my coffee," he raised the cuffs of his suit that were dyed light brown, "as compensation, can you take me in as a temporary roommate?"
When the rainy season came, Lin Xiaotang discovered that Gu Chen could always pass by the subway entrance "just in time" when she forgot to bring her umbrella. He remembered all her taboos, but allowed Ah Ju to make the sofa into a tassel style. It wasn't until her fever reached 38.5°C that she saw a man who had always been calm rushing into the rain with bare feet to buy medicine. When he came back, his white shirt was stuck to his waistline, and his arms were holding some wet anti-fever patches.
"Gu Chen, are you..." Lin Xiaotang was so feverish that she grabbed the corner of his clothes.
"Yes." He cut off the words and put the sugar-coated pill against the tip of her tongue, "Since the day you moved in, I've been waiting for the wall paint to dry."
