Chapter 7 - The Seventh Sentence

Translator: tarararawr

PR: soi bean

The Seventh Sentence

Pu Tao stayed in the company for a while, and Cloud Dweller’s response didn’t come through.

Maybe he’s still busy.

Thinking this way, she took off her hairband, grabbed her small purse, and walked out of the office building.

The subway station was noisy. Both walls were flashing with advertisements, like magic cards lined up in the city that never slept.

Pu Tao was swept into the carriage by the people flowing in. She looked around and there were no seats available.

The passengers around her had varying expressions, from tired to chirpy. A parent was mercilessly covering the demonic screams of her child and used dialect to scold him for talking too much.

Pu Tao’s lips curved downwards and stood in front of the mother and son.

She held a ring handle with one hand and took out her cell phone with the other hand to see if Cloud Dweller had accepted her request.

In the next second, Pu Tao’s fingers slightly tightened.

She definitely had a deep connection with him. Otherwise, the moment she clicked on Wechat, why did the notification of him accepting her request pop into her eyes?

Her surroundings were no longer as stuffy as a can of fish roe. She had been isolated in a free oxygen tank.

Pu Tao, using one hand to type, asked: “Done being busy?”

Cloud Dweller: “Yeah.”

Just one word was like a click coming from the keyhole. Its meaning had a touch of politeness to the visitor behind closed doors.

It was akin to pulling off the door bolt, just waiting for her to push the door and walk in. Pu Tao was a little uncertain for the moment.

She seized the moment to visit Cloud Dweller’s back garden—his Moments.

She found that this guy, from head to toe, was a cat guy. In this month, 4 of his 5 pictures were the cat’s “daily portraits”. Yes, it was the same one in his profile picture, which was also well photographed. He must have used a good camera since the focus was beyond what a cell phone camera could produce.

The cat’s name was Da Tiao.

Pu Tao declared: “I am off work.”

Pu Tao asked: “What about you?”

Cloud Dweller didn’t reply.

Pu Tao waited anxiously for a moment and chose to send a “poke you” 1 sticker.

She saved this from Xintian, QQ had this function, but Wechat did not. She usually used it when her friend did not reply in time. She would flood the screen with the sticker, and called it a series of deadly serial killings over thousands of years.

But with Cloud Dweller, she only sent one.

She felt that it had the intended effect of being a little cautious and bashfully asking for a reply.

After a while, she was caught off guard from an audio message that came from the other side.

Pu Tao’s blood was immediately racing, screaming in her heart. In distress, she said: “I am on the subway.”

Cloud Dweller went straight to the point: “Turn to text.”

Pu Tao: “There will be retribution for being reckless. I will need to abstain from meat, pray to Buddha, take a bath, burn incense, put my hands together, be in solitude, and then click on your audio message.”

Unfortunately, another one came from Cloud Dweller.

It was still a voice message.

It was somewhat provocative, but also like a seduction.

Huh???

The warm water rose to her face. In a flash, Pu Tao’s entire body was brought to the edge of a boiling pot and was set on fire. Does the way home today require crossing the Atlantic? It was so long, and the most excruciating part was that she had left her headphones in the apartment.

She could only reply: “I’ll listen to it when I get home.”

There was no movement in the chat box again.

Dog man. 2 When she finally reached her stop, Pu Tao’s mind spat these words. She stepped on it and jogged back to the apartment the entire way.

She was gasping for air by the time she stopped at her desk. She took out her headphones and stuffed them into her ears.

She slowly sat down, holding her cell phone with both hands. The mystical ceremony before worshiping her treasure was about to begin.

Pu Tao took a deep breath, steadily let it out, and then let a finger click on Cloud Dweller’s audio message.

The first one: “I am driving.”

The second one that followed: “I can’t type.”

Ooh.

Gosh!

I’m dizzy!

It’s fatal!

It’s his normal voice!

It was very casual and ordinary, but it sounded so extremely good.

Pu Tao suddenly covered her mouth. Her body swayed back and forth into a malfunctioning pendulum clock.

Many languages were burning in her head: Omo omo, sugoi, oh my god. Mom, mom, I have fallen in love! 3 She also had to arrange a room in her ear so that she could frame the sound, hang it on the wall, and hoard it until her death. This was a priceless cosmic painting in the sound world.

After reviewing it for an innumerable amount of times, she calmed down a little bit and was able to stabilize herself to reply to his message.

Pu Tao: “I’m home.”

She glanced at the message above and felt like she was an AI reporting her journey.

She quickly added: “I finished listening to your message. It was like listening to the words of a wise man, which is better than studying for ten years.”

And tap-tap to ask: “Are you still driving?”

Cloud Dweller replied back quite swiftly this time: “I just got home.”

Pu Tao said: “Can you pretend to be still driving?”

Cloud Dweller: “…”

Pu Tao moved forward with a justification “It is easy to go from frugal to extravagant, but it is hard to go from extravagant to frugal.”

Cloud Dweller: “It’s also dangerous to drive and send voice messages.”

Pu Tao swiftly said: “Right, it’s better not to do that.”

Out of fear of chatting to the heavens until its death, she looked for another topic: “Did you just get off work, too?”

Cloud Dweller: “I went to the supermarket.”

Pu Tao didn’t want to be an interrogation machine: “I also wanted to go to the supermarket, but I was rushing to listen to your voice, so I went home first.”

Cloud Dweller: “What do you want to buy?”

Pu Tao: “I’m just walking around.”

Cloud Dweller: “Will you buy tea?”

Pu Tao: “Huh?”

Cloud Dweller pointed out: “Your name.”

Pu Tao realized it was about her Wechat name: Master in the Art of Tea

Her heart shook like an earthquake again.

This was the screen name she had just changed last month because she complained to Xin Tian about why she couldn’t find a boyfriend. Xin Tian said, “It’s because you are not green tea 4 enough.”

Thus, she changed the name on Wechat to Master in the Art of Tea, and sure enough, someone had to ask her if she was going to buy tea…

But she didn’t know if Cloud Dweller knew the meaning behind her name.

She decided to admit the truth: “This is what I dream of becoming. Before, I was called Wealthy Woman for half a year, but it didn’t come true.”

Cloud Dweller: “Ha ha.”

He actually laughed.

Ha. Ha. Sigh.

Two words seemed to be ringing, like the sound of jades striking each other. It was fleeting, clear, and heavy as she automatically imagined his voice.

Pu Tao went on with the conversation and carefully asked: “Do you want to buy tea?”

Cloud Dweller turned her down decisively: “No thanks.”

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Pu Tao immediately started chatting: “My father wants me to inherit the family business, but after coming to my grandfather’s tea garden during my vacation, I realized that I love picking and drying tea more. Between reality or dream, I don’t know how to choose. Dad said, ‘If you can perform well in selling tea, then I won’t force you to inherit the family company’. My tea is the cheapest in the market right now. If you can, I hope you can help me fulfill my dream and let me prove myself. Okay, brother?”

“…”

After reading this short essay, Cheng Su smiled even more.

He even wanted to ask how much it was.

But he stopped this kind of thought in time.

At this moment, he realized that after he had changed into slippers, he had put the bag down on the counter next to the entrance and had been standing there chatting with her.

Cheng Su touched the cat that sniffed the shopping bag. Then, he took out a pouch of cat food from inside. He tore it open and fed his cat.

He looked down and slowly squeezed it out, bit by bit.

The shiny short-haired cat became delighted and rubbed hard against the back of his fair hand.

After playing with Da Tiao for a while, Cheng Su picked up his cell phone again. The other side seemed impatient to wait for his reply, and she anxiously asked, “Are you busy again?”

The man concentrated and noticed a change in her personal information.

He paused and sent a question mark.

The other side pretended to understand when she really didn’t: “What’s the matter?”

Cheng Su’s eyebrow slightly rose: “Your profile picture and name, that’s what the matter is.”

Pu Tao: “Isn’t it cute?”

Cheng Su: “What can I say?”

Yes, the profile picture was his cat, and the screen name imitated his cat’s name. What could he say? Go against his conscience and say that his cat was not cute?

Unexpectedly, the other side began to regret it: “I saw this cat while going through Moments. I thought it was so cute and its name was so cute, so I used it as a profile picture. Now that the owner has come to hold me accountable, I won’t use it. I’m sorry.”

She updated it to an all white profile picture in seconds, and even changed her name to a blank space.

Pu Tao: “Is this all right? Your cat is so cute… I don’t know what I can use. It doesn’t feel as good as it used to. I might as well be a whiteboard.”

Pu Tao: [Sad].

Cheng Su was silent.

On the other side, Pu Tao was too worried and tense. Was she too aggressive? Too shameless? Did the other person feel offended?

After a long silence…

Cloud Dweller: “Use it, Master in the Art of Tea.”

The author has something to say:

The master is fighting.

Oh, by the way, our female lead is a typical flirt when she’s online.

In the future, you will see that she is as quiet as a touch-me-not 5 when she’s offline.

Footnotes

Poke poke poke 狗男人 (gǒunánrén) – Dog man is sort of like a joke to compare a person to a dog, like only having a single thought such as when a dog chases after a squirrel I think this might be some pop culture reference that I don’t get. My searches only lead me to Reply 1988 fanmade videos of Duk-seon falling in love. 绿茶 (lǜchá) – slang for a girl who seems innocent but is actually calculating and manipulative A Mimosa pudica is a plant that is also known as touch-me-not. Its leaves will fold inward and droop if touched. Wikipedia