When A Snail Falls in Love

Four months later.

Autumn surpassed summer and soon, Lin City was mostly enveloped in thin mist, making the whole city cool, refreshing and evergreen.

It was night time, and the full moon was hanging bright in the sky, furthering the strong sense of autumn. Xu Xu wore a loose t-shirt as she sat in front of a laptop typing away. Beside her was a cup of aromatic coffee, and she was wearing earplugs as usual, such that she did not hear anything even when somebody opened the door.

Ji Bai had been transferred outstation for work by the Provincial Department for two weeks already, but he had rushed back home this night. He thought that he was going to see the little one sleeping soundly, but unexpectedly, she was actually enjoying herself despite him being not around.

After he placed his luggage down, he paced forward sneakily. She was wearing his t-shirt, which was on the brink of swallowing her whole; only her silky smooth, snowy white legs were exposed… Ji Bai bent over and picked her up from the stool. “Wifey…”

Xu Xu was completely focused on the laptop, so at first, she was so shocked that she started trembling, but when she felt his familiar warmth and breath, she immediately smiled.

There was still a hint of cold from the biting winds on his body as he pressed his cold lips against hers. After a few minutes of passionate engagement, his breathing became a little unsteady and he carried her towards the bedroom.

“Wait a minute.” Xu Xu pushed him away, looking at his coat. “Go take a shower first.” Then she jumped down from his arms then returned to her chair.

Ji Bai’s arms now empty, he looked at her slim figure and leaned forward to wrap her in his arms again. “What are you busy with?”

Xu Xu bit her pen as she stared at the screen and replied, “I’m writing a column for Yao Meng’s magazine. Her magazine focuses on women’s lives, and psychological health is a part of that too.”

Ji Bai looked at her laptop screen. “Why are you doing this?”

Xu Xu pulled her drawer open and passed him two shiny tickets. “I didn’t do it for her money. Her reward was two VIP tickets for this concert, you like this band right? I won’t take any gifts if it’s undeserved, which is why I’m writing this for her.”

Ji Bai took the tickets, he looked at them for a while then placed them on the table, then turned to kiss her passionately.

After he left to shower, Xu Xu’s attention turned back to the screen again but just as she began typing on the keyboard, she suddenly heard him calling out from the shower. “Wifey, I forgot my towel.”

Xu Xu stood up and walked over with a towel in hand. There was a slit at the door, whereby the sound of flowing water could be heard. When Xu Xu looked up, she thought to herself, ‘Eh, isn’t his towel on the rack inside?’ Before she could realize what was going on, a firm bronze arm appeared in front of her, pulling her inside in seconds.

Xu Xu chuckled then pushed him away. “I’m not done with my work yet.”

Nonetheless, how could Ji Bai just let her be. He pulled her into the shower with her clothes still on, then closed the shower room’s door behind him.

The room was soon filled with unbridled passion.

By the time they finished, cuddled on the bed, a few hours had passed.

Over the past few days, Ji Bai had been continuously pleasuring himself to keep himself sane, plus he was rather desperate for it just now, hence he was now both completely satisfied and exhausted. However, Xu Xu could not fall asleep even after closing her eyes for some time since she had too much coffee, so she simply sat up. “Go to sleep first, I’ll finish my work.”

Ji Bai peeped at the clock on the wall and saw it was already two in the morning. When he saw her really turn on her laptop looking like she was determined to pull an all-nighter, he could not help but frown. “Come over here and sleep.”

Xu Xu waved her hand dismissively. “Leave me.”

Ji Bai stood up and walked over, then he closed her laptop screen. “What time is it?”

At that moment Xu Xu was still thinking so when he cut her off abruptly, she furrowed her brow and looked at him. Ji Bai stared at her, his eyes dark and stern.

Xu Xu gazed at him then opened up her screen again. “You forgot the rules of living together? We’re not supposed to interfere in one another’s work.”

Ji Bai looked at her, a small flame burning in his heart.

It was not that he actually wanted to interfere with Xu Xu’s work, but because he had been working tirelessly for half a month and had yet to have a good night’s sleep. Once the case ended, he did not even want to stay over outside so he immediately rushed back so that he could feel her warmth. He was actually absolutely worn out, so he only hoped that he could feel her soft and warm body in his arms as they slept together, but Xu Xu was having none of it.

Furthermore, it was very late into the night, he was unwilling to see her neglecting her own health.

After a brief moment of silence, he managed to restrain himself from forcefully carrying her back to the bed. He dragged a chair over and sat beside her. “Alright, I won’t disturb you. I’ll just sit here by myself.”

Xu Xu looked at him and ignored him as she continued typing on her keyboard, on the other hand, Ji Bai simply folded his hands and watched her. As he looked at her fair-skinned, quiet face, he calmed down. After all, she was always such an absent-minded character, what was there to be angry about?

Because Ji Bai was watching her, Xu Xu felt that she could not concentrate on her work. She thought, ‘He just got home from a business trip – what time is it, isn’t he going to sleep? Will his body be able to take it?’

Sometime later, she decided to compromise. When she turned to look, she saw that his head was already tilted downward and his eyes were shut, he had fallen asleep on the chair.

Xu Xu pushed her laptop away and crouched in front of him. As she looked closer, she noticed that his eye were sunken and his brows were furrowed slightly.

Instantly, Xu Xu felt sorry for him, and so she reached her hand out and nudged him softly. “Third brother, third brother… I’m sorry, I’ll stop working, let’s go sleep on the bed.”

Without opening his eyes, Ji Bai’s lips curled up slightly. Xu Xu was stunned, then she suddenly realized that he was merely pretending to sleep to gain her sympathy.

But it was too late, before she knew it, Ji Bai had already picked her up and was no carrying her to the bed. He looked down at her with a mischievous grin on his face. “Third brother accepts your apology, be a good girl, go to sleep.”

From the very beginning, Xu Xu was not keen on living together. For one, she was accustomed to doing things her own way and was not used to having another person in her life; secondly, the two of them were already colleagues and should they live together, they would be together for almost 24 hours every single day.

Xu Xu believed that some distance would improve the depth of their love, whereas getting bored with each other might actually cause the opposite effect.

That being said, these were not issues to Ji Bai. After all, how could he ever grow tired of her? Due to their hectic job schedules, they basically had no time together.

His goal was to live together as soon as possible so that he could wholly integrate this little person into his life, after which they could steadily cultivate their relationship. Since Xu Xu was simple-minded, and Ji Bai had an unswerving persistence to get his way one step at a time, one could naturally picture the result.

He had nobody to cook supper for him when he was hungry at night, he wanted her to take care of him during weekends as he was fatigued from work, in the morning he needed her to supervise him because his addiction to smoking was relapsing, he would suddenly drive to her house to pick her up – with the various excuses, Xu Xu’s clothes were progressively shifted to his house. Sometimes, she stayed over his place for days at a time, then it became more convenient for her to stay at Ji Bai’s house instead of her own. Before she knew it, they were living together.

Afterwards, Xu Xu noticed Ji Bai had actually put some thought into this plan of his, but by then, she was didn’t to reject him.

What made Xu Xu glad was that even though they had already been living together for three months, the two of them almost never argued. While there were conflicts between them, they were mostly just tiny quarrels like the one that just occurred, and they always managed to reconcile very quickly.

Occasionally when they had bigger arguments, Ji Bai always humored her, regardless of who was in the wrong, and he always took his time to sweet-talk her. Because of this, Xu Xu would feel tremendously warm. At times when she mentioned these to Xu Juan, even he would remark, “Ji Bai looks like he’s an arrogant man, but he has a big heart, and is truly manly.”

The concert was held on a Saturday night at a theatre located in the heart of the city. When Ji Bai and Xu Xu arrived, most of the seats were occupied as the enormous theatre was lit with dazzling lights. And of course, everyone was well-dressed.

Their seats were in the middle, close to the front. Once they sat down, they saw Yao Mang clinging onto Lin Qingyan’s arm in the front row. When Yao Meng noticed them, they quickly turned to smile. Around them were some young men and women, and upon seeing what Yao Meng did, they turned to look; Xu Xu guessed that they were probably Yao Meng’s colleagues.

Compared to a few months ago, Yao Meng now seemed more mature and pretty. Dressed in a fine delicate evening gown, her silky hair, light makeup with shimmering eyes made her stand out from the crowd. Like a brilliant diamond that had finally emerged from a layer of dust and now shining. As for Lin Qingyan, he looked tall, slender, elegant and charming, such that when the two of them sat together, they looked like the perfect couple.

Although they had not dated for a long time, Ji Bai and Xu Xu had good impressions of Lin Qingyan. After the two men smiled and greeted each other, Lin Qingyan complimented Xu Xu politely. “You look very beautiful today.”

Ji Bai looked at his woman who wore a cream colored V-neck sweater and a short skirt. Even though she did not look as brilliant as other women, she looked refreshing and cute like a soft animal. She was indeed the most beautiful one to him.

Xu Xu laughed and replied, “The most beautiful one is right beside you.”

The four of them laughed as Lin Qingyan looked at Yao Meng who was beside him. When the lights dimmed, he shifted his head sideways to kiss her face while Ji Bai held Xu Xu’s hand up as well and planted a kiss on it.

Every twinkle and smile of hers would cause his heart to tremble – this was probably what being lovers felt like.

When the concert ended, the night sky was almost completely dark as the bright lights were seen reflected on the fountains outside the theatre. The exit was packed with people so Ji Bai did not bring Xu Xu home immediately and instead they walked into the nearby park and strolled slowly.

A few steps in, his phone rang. When he looked at it, he smiled and picked up the call. “Mother.”

Usually, Ji Bai rarely contacted his family members, and because of this Xu Xu never had direct contact with his parents as well. She was quietly standing beside him while he took the call.

Upon hearing her son’s clear voice, Mother Ji laughed and said, “It’s almost November and the mid-autumn festival is here, are you coming home?”

Ji Bai glanced at Xu Xu. “I am. I’m bring Xu Xu along too.”

On the other end on the phone, his mother paused for a while before continuing, “Let us know when you’ve booked your flight, I’ll send a driver to pick you up.”

“Alright.” Ji Bai smiled faintly.

Later when they returned home, Xu Xu shower alone while Ji Bai went to the balcony and snacked on some dates.

Under the supervision of his wife, he had successfully quit smoking. Whenever he felt like smoking again, Xu Xu would quickly hand him date slices, claiming that it was a good substitute as it was able to beautify him, provide him nourishment etc. Despite the fact that it was rather odd for a criminal police officer to munch on date slices in public, as soon as he said that it was an order from his wife, everyone else would become envious.

Right then, Ji Bai realized something. ‘Mother will be tough to handle if I bring Xu Xu back to Beijing this time.’

Previously, he had already mentioned Xu Xu to his family a few times, everyone else was fine with it, only his mother seemed to be intentionally avoiding the matter on purpose and would almost never answer to this topic.

They have been having conflicts ever since he had first chosen his career, and the two of them never compromised. It was only because she could not be more stubborn than him that she had slowly accepted reality.

Now that he did not marry a perfect match based on his mother’s criteria, and instead found a lady from outstation who happened to be a criminal police officer to boot, his mother was not happy.

Even so, she was not an immovable object.

Ji Bai took his phone out and started dialing numbers.

The first phone call was to his grandfather who loved him the most.

“Grandfather, I’m returning to Beijing next week. I’ll bring you a surprise, yes, I’m bringing your granddaughter-in-law to meet you. Send a car over to pick us up, she said she wants to meet you… After we meet you, we’ll go meet my parents…”

The second phone call was to his eldest brother.

“Brother, I’m bringing Xu Xu home next week. You must be home on the day we have our family dinner.”

Next, he called Shu Hang.

“I’m bringing your sister-in-law back next week… Mmm, spread it if you’d like to. In fact, do it openly, just say that Third Brother Ji is getting married. My mother’s opinion? Shu Hang, extensive preparations eventually pay off, ask your mother and the others to convince my mother…”

Shu Hang was elated. “How about – I cry and complain to my mother that you’ve found a smart and cute lady with a great family background, and that everyone is envious and jealous of you? Later, I’ll swear to look for someone like her.”

Ji Bai smiled and answered, “That’ll do.”

The night of the day before they returned to Beijing, Xu Xu brought a huge load of stuff home.

Ji Bai opened the suitcases to take a look and saw some emerald earrings that were shaped like water droplets. Xu Xu explained, “You told me that your mother likes emeralds, I asked my brother for help to get this.”

There was also a silk t-shirt that felt amazing. “This is for your grandfather, it’s comfortable for an old man to wear close to his skin. Also, it’s handmade.”

As he revealed each item one by one, though they did not seem to be too valuable, he could tell that she had put a lot of thought into each and every one of them.

Ji Bai looked at her. “I would’ve asked someone to prepare these, you didn’t have to trouble yourself.”

Xu Xu said instead, “They’ll be able to tell at once who was the one who bought them, besides, it’ll carry a different meaning.”

Ji Bai remained silent for a while then said, “Wifey, my mother always had an ill-feeling about me being a police officer, when we return to Beijing this time, she might have think of you badly because of me. Even so, you don’t have to be concerned, she won’t do anything over the top.”

Xu Xu was a bit dumbfounded.

Owing to the face that her mother passed away when she was young, she had little to no experience getting along with female elders. Nevertheless, she could make a deduction that based on Ji Bai’s experience: if he could not fully gain his mother’s support, then his mother most likely had a quite stubborn character and might not be easy to get along with.

After all, they were talking about their elders, so the two of them fell silent. A while later, Xu Xu asked, “Do you mind if I ask you a question?”

“Ask away.”

“Who occupies the highest position in your family hierarchy?”

Ji Bai put on a slight smile. “My grandfather, next is my eldest brother.”

Xu Xu nodded, she pondered for some time with a composed look, then she lifted her head up. “Have you gained their support yet? We should focus on the trivial things and avoid the important ones, so to control the overall situation.”

Ji Bai hugged her at once and laughed aloud.

When this little fellow put her heart into it, she was much more scheming than anyone else. For this Beijing trip, upon learning that she had to face everyone from Ji Family, she just felt that she needed to take appropriate measures depending on the situation, so that the last barrier to her relationship could be dealt with.