Chapter 61: Typhoon Ginko

Having exhausted too much stamina inside the Wailing Hive that day, I fell fast asleep before Lin Qingying came home from work.

In my dream, I vaguely heard the sound of the door opening.

It must have been Lin Qingying returning, so I continued sleeping soundly.

……

When I woke up, it was already the following morning. Outside, the howling wind and driving rain were intense. Xicheng was a coastal city, yet it was being struck by this typhoon named "Ginkgo" right in the middle of winter.

I got up, washed up, and intended to go downstairs to buy some breakfast, only to find that all the breakfast shops were closed, refusing to operate in such typhoon weather.

I glanced outside. The wind and rain were far too violent; using an umbrella to go to work was out of the question. Fortunately, there was a raincoat upstairs in my room.

I went back upstairs, cooked a bowl of egg noodles, and ate.

Just then, the door to the adjacent room opened. Lin Qingying walked out wearing home loungewear, looking at me in surprise: "Do you still have to go to work in this kind of typhoon weather?"

"Yeah."

I nodded. "The internet café can't be left unattended."

Actually, my primary concern was that Lu Xiaobei wouldn't be able to handle such a massive situation all by herself. After all, she was just a young woman, and facing this kind of severe weather without anyone to help her would genuinely be too difficult.

"You don't have to go to work today, right?" I asked.

"Yeah."

Lin Qingying nodded slightly. "I'm not going to the company today. I'll just work from home via conference calls."

I said nothing more, merely putting on my raincoat.

……

Along the way, fierce gales raged, driving raindrops relentlessly against my face with an exceptional chill.

When I rushed to the internet café, I discovered that our exterior projecting lightbox sign had been blown to pieces, and the lights inside were buzzing, seemingly short-circuiting.

"Ding Han."

Zhao Yihang frowned as he looked at the continuously shaking glass doors. "Shouldn't we just close for the day?"

"How can we close..."

I swept my gaze across the internet café and saw that there were still over a dozen people browsing online, mostly veteran internet addicts. It wouldn't really be appropriate to chase them away in such stormy weather.

"Forget it, I'm heading out first. You suffer through it."

Zhao Yihang yawned, put on a raincoat, and took three steps forward for every two steps back against the gale, staggering back toward the school.

At that moment, Lu Xiaobei walked down from upstairs, wearing a sweater and sporting a hair bun. Looking at the scene outside, she said with some worry, "Do you think our doors are going to get blown in?"

"Don't jinx it."

I coughed. "The lightbox outside is broken, but there's definitely no way to fix it today. I'm going to cut off the power to the lightbox to prevent any electrical leaks."

"Okay!"

Sure enough, during the morning, there were still fearless warriors who braved the elements to come online, treating the internet café as a sanctuary to escape reality. Upon entering, their eyes lit up immediately as they lingered a few extra stares on the beautiful female boss.

With fewer patrons online, my workload was correspondingly light, so I grabbed a computer mainframe and began constantly dismantling and reassembling it to gain a substantial amount of experience points.

Before long, it was noon. Lu Xiaobei stood up from her machine and asked, "How are we sorting out lunch?"

"Instant noodles, I suppose. It's not like you can cook."

"I..."

The corners of her mouth twitched, and in the end, she didn't refute me, given that she indeed couldn't cook.

In the afternoon, the wind grew stronger still.

Around two o'clock, two police officers walked into the internet café, issuing a notice to immediately suspend operations and telling the customers to go home and take shelter from the typhoon. In an instant, the internet café emptied out completely, leaving only Lu Xiaobei and me staring at each other in dismay.

"Well... should I head back too?" I looked at her.

"Alright then."

Lu Xiaobei pouted. "Then I'm going upstairs to sleep. Make sure you lock the front door securely and be extremely careful on your way. The wind outside is immense right now, and I heard someone's pet dog actually got blown away."

"I know, don't worry."

Afterwards, I locked the door, put on my raincoat, and headed back to my living quarters.

There were still a few pedestrians on the road—some riding tricycles, others on electric bikes—all of them struggling bitterly just to make a living. I had originally intended to swing by the vegetable market to buy some groceries and cook a decent meal; otherwise, with Lin Qingying and me, two living breathing adults, trapped at home, we couldn't possibly survive indefinitely on instant noodles.

Unfortunately, the market was closed, its main gates tightly bolted.

With no other choice, I had to visit a neighborhood supermarket, buying some chicken, ribs, leafy greens, and other ingredients. While the freshness certainly couldn't compare to the market, in weather like this, there was no room to be picky.

……

Inside the old, run-down apartment, Lin Qingying was sitting on the sofa with a laptop before her, seemingly in the middle of a conference call. The moment she saw me step into the room, she pressed her index finger against her lips to signal for quiet.

I nodded and sat down across from her.

The conference call transmitted the voice of a middle-aged man who appeared to be giving a work report. Lin Qingying sat with poised dignity on the sofa, listening with utmost concentration.

It was only then that I noticed she had changed into a set of professional attire at home: a black blazer and a white shirt, making her look poised, graceful, and thoroughly imbued with a sharp, capable corporate vibe.

Thus, I took out my phone and typed a line of text: "What time does your meeting finish? I can stir-fry a few dishes in a bit, let's have dinner together?"

Afterward, I flashed my phone screen toward Lin Qingying.

"..."

She hesitated for a moment, appearing as though she wanted to refuse.

I quickly typed another line: "I have to cook for myself anyway, if you eat too it's just adding an extra pair of chopsticks."

Only then did she reveal a faint smile toward me and gently nodded her head.

How rare; this iceberg beauty was finally smiling. This felt like the first time I had ever seen her smile.

……

Around five o'clock.

I shut myself inside the kitchen and, after a flurry of activity, produced four dishes and one soup. While hardly lavish, they were comforting homestyle meals: a plate of stewed chicken with mushrooms, a fish, along with braised pork ribs, stir-fried greens, and a bowl of tomato and egg drop soup.

As for why I knew how to cook, the reason was simple.

My mother was a teacher who left early and returned late every single day. If I didn't know how to cook, I probably would have starved to death long ago.

Lin Qingying had also concluded her conference call, lazily packing away her laptop. Glancing at the dishes I had served one by one, she couldn't help but say in surprise, "Your culinary skills look quite decent."

"It's not too late to praise them once you've tasted them."

"Mhm, what you said is very true."

Watching her speak these words with such earnestness left me somewhat speechless.

Picking up her chopsticks, Lin Qingying tasted her first piece of chicken, then immediately raised her head to look at me in astonishment, as if she hadn't expected the food I cooked to be this delicious.

By then, I was already starving with my stomach pressed against my back, so I didn't care about much else, holding my rice bowl and devouring my food ravenously.

"Ding Han."

Lin Qingying finished eating quickly, put down her bowl and chopsticks, and said, "The weather is bad lately, so don't go out looking for a place to rent for now. Wait until the weather clears up. As for the ten-day deadline, we can push it back a bit."

"Okay."

A trace of joy rippled through my heart.

……

After dinner, Lin Qingying turned on the television, but instead of watching variety shows, she tuned into the financial channel.

I accompanied her for a while, but being utterly incapable of understanding it, I stood up and said, "I woke up too early this morning, so I'm going back to my room for a nap."

"Mhm."

She didn't even turn her head to look at me.

Time ticked away drop by drop until around ten o'clock at night.

"Beep, beep~~~"

Suddenly, a phone call came in. To my surprise, it was from Lu Xiaobei. The moment I answered, I heard her heartbreaking, tear-soaked voice: "Ding Han, hurry over here, my house has been blown away..."

"Huh?"

A head full of question marks, I failed to comprehend what she meant at the first instance: "What do you mean your house was blown away?"

"I mean it literally! My house was blown away!"

The sounds of howling wind and torrential rain echoed from Lu Xiaobei's end as she wept bitterly in the storm.

"Damn it..."

I immediately rolled out of bed: "Get inside the internet café stairwell right now, don't stay outside! I'm coming over immediately!"

"Okay, I'll wait for you..."

Without delay, I quickly dressed, grabbed the raincoat draped over the hanger, and put it on.

"Going out so late?"

Lin Qingying, who was currently reviewing documents, glanced up at me.

"Yeah, a friend is having some trouble over there. I'm going to go check it out."

"Be careful."

She said nothing more and lowered her head to resume reading her files.

……

Stepping out of the old building, the fierce gale raged wildly, and the cold, unyielding rain lashed haphazardly across my face.

At this hour, the streets were entirely deserted, lacking even a single vehicle. Trees along both sides of the road lay scattered in disarray, while my raincoat had been whipped tightly against my body like a second skin. The windows of the residential buildings on both sides rattled incessantly, frequently accompanied by the sound of flowerpots plunging from great heights.

I frowned, tucked in the edges of my raincoat, and pressed forward against the wind.

Fortunately, I was a player boasting over 330 points of Strength, yet walking through the gale was by no means simple; my feet had to be firmly rooted to the ground, or else I might have suffered the comical fate of clinging desperately to a tree while my body was blown right into the air.

Ten minutes later, I arrived at Feiyang Internet Café.

The exterior lightbox sign was gone, having run away from home to parts unknown. Just as I looked up, I discovered that on the second-floor loft of the internet café, the aluminum panels and plywood had all been blown away. Lu Xiaobei's room was completely exposed to the elements; her bedding had long since been swept away, leaving only a bed, alongside a refrigerator and a washing machine howling desolately in the fierce wind.

Good grief, how utterly tragic...

I hurriedly unlocked the rolling shutter door, slipping inside with a bent crouch the moment it was open just a third of the way, before slamming the shutter back down. Rushing up the stairs in a single bound, I found Lu Xiaobei drenched to the bone, sitting pitifully on the steps waiting for me.

"Ding Han..."

Her eyes instantly reddened as she lunged down the stairs into my arms, bursting into heavy sobs.

"Xiaobei."

I gently patted her shoulder and said, "Stop crying for a moment, calm down. Go inside the internet café; it's warmer in there. I'll salvage your place a bit."

"Okay, be careful..."

"Don't worry."

After settling Lu Xiaobei inside the internet café, I first cut off the power supply to the upper floor, then scurried back and forth wearing my raincoat. First, I retrieved her bedding from the exposed flooring, then carried her beloved wardrobe and bedside table into the internet café, laying the refrigerator on its side to prevent it from blowing away. As for the washing machine, I left it alone; letting an appliance like that take a beating from the wind wouldn't hurt.

……

After a flurry of activity, I locked the door leading to the second floor and returned to the interior of the internet café.

Lu Xiaobei was shivering uncontrollably.

I fetched a raincoat and draped it over her shoulders, then packed some of her clothes into a plastic bag, saying, "You need to take a hot shower immediately to shake off the chill. Do you want to check into a hotel room, or come to my place?"

"I don't like staying in hotels, let's go to your place."

"That works too."

With that, the two of us left the internet café. The wind and rain outside grew increasingly fierce, leaving me with no choice but to shelter Lu Xiaobei beneath my arm as we stumbled toward my living quarters.

The cold, biting rain relentlessly battered against both of our faces.