On the first day of Su Chen’s business trip, Lin Bei slept until ten in the morning.

Lying in bed and staring at the ceiling, Lin Bei suddenly felt that the apartment was a bit too big and empty.

She picked up her phone and sent Su Chen a message: “Have you arrived yet?”

Three minutes later, Su Chen replied: “I’m here. Just finished a meeting.”

Lin Bei: “How’s the hotel?”

Su Chen: “It’s okay.”

Lin Bei: “Did you take any photos?”

Su Chen sent a picture of the hotel room. The bed sheets were neatly made, the pillows were perfectly centered, and even the folds of the curtains were symmetrical.

Lin Bei: “The first thing you did upon arriving at the hotel was make the bed?”

Su Chen: “The hotel did it.”

Lin Bei: “You’re lying. You arranged the book on the nightstand yourself—it was supposed to be tilted.”

Su Chen didn’t reply.

Lin Bei smiled. She could almost picture Su Chen’s expression on the other end of the screen—his brow slightly furrowed, his lips downturned, probably thinking, “How could she even notice something like this?”

She got up, washed her face, and made herself a bowl of noodles. Standing in the kitchen, she instinctively wiped the stove three times, arranged the spice bottles by height, and even folded the dishcloth into a neat square.

She froze. When had she started picking up Su Chen’s obsession with cleanliness?

Lin Bei shook her head and crumpled the dishcloth, tossing it into the sink. After a moment’s thought, she picked it up again and folded it neatly.

Well, better to be clean than not.

In the morning, she finished writing Tang Tang’s script.

As soon as she sent it over, Tang Tang replied instantly: “Lin Bei, you’re amazing!!! This script is ten times better than what my assistant writes!!!”

Lin Bei: “Your assistant can’t write?”

Tang Tang: “She can, but all she ever writes is ‘check in at trendy internet-famous spots’ or ‘go shopping at the mall,’ which fans are sick of. Your ‘free museum tour’ is so much more practical!”

Lin Bei: “What about this week’s payment then?”

Tang Tang: “It’ll be transferred right away!”

Five hundred yuan landed in her account. Looking at her balance, Lin Bei suddenly felt like she wasn’t such a loser after all.

In the afternoon, she went out to pick up a package. As she reached the ground floor, Aunt Li was dancing in the square. The music had switched to “Moonlight over the Lotus Pond,” and the middle-aged women were wearing matching blue T-shirts, their movements much more synchronized than last week.

“Xiao Lin!” Aunt Li spotted her at a glance. “Come over, come over!”

Lin Bei walked over, and Aunt Li grabbed her hand: “Where’s Su Chen? I haven’t seen him in days.”

“He’s on a business trip.” “A business trip? Where to?”

“Shanghai.”

“How long?”

“Three days.”

Aunt Li let out an “Oh,” then lowered her voice: “So you’re home alone? Aren’t you scared?”

“What’s there to be afraid of?”

“What if there’s a thief? What if there’s a bad guy?”

“Auntie, this is an upscale residential complex—security guards patrol around the clock.”

“But you still have to be careful,” Aunt Li said, pulling a key from her pocket. “This is a spare key to my house. Take it. If anything comes up, just come find me anytime.”

Lin Bei took the key, feeling a warm rush in her heart.

“Thank you, Auntie.”

“No need to thank me. By the way, what are you having for dinner tonight? Come over to my place— I eat alone anyway.”

“No thanks, Auntie. I can cook for myself.”

“Then come over tomorrow at noon. I’ll make braised pork belly—Su Chen’s favorite!”

“Su Chen isn’t here.”

“Then you cook it for him. When he gets back, just heat it up.”

After thinking it over, Lin Bei agreed.

Back upstairs, Lin Bei unpacked the package—a new set of photography props: several beautiful plates, an Instagram-style tablecloth, and two fill lights.

Tang Tang said her videos looked too “plain” and suggested she upgrade the aesthetic. Lin Bei had originally planned to buy the cheapest option, but Wang Tangtang said, “This is an investment, not a expense,” so she gritted her teeth and spent two hundred yuan.

She laid out the tablecloth and plates, used the new lights to add some extra glow, and shot tonight’s ingredients—tomatoes, eggs, green vegetables, and tofu.

The theme of the video was “Eating Alone: Finding Happiness on a Three-Yuan Budget.” She showed everyone how to whip up a comforting dinner using the simplest ingredients: tomato-and-egg fried rice, green vegetable and tofu soup, and pan-fried tofu with soy sauce.

After filming, she spent an hour editing, adding soft background music and subtitles, and posted it at five in the afternoon.

Leaning back on the sofa, she habitually reached for her phone to send Su Chen a message—and found that he’d already messaged her.

End of Chapter 26: Three Days Alone