Kevin, like his name, is a good man. He lives in an obscure northern town, which could barely be considered near the capital if Beijing ever decides to build a twentieth or thirtieth ring road. He is an ordinary little man, and if all the "nice guy" cards in the world were counted based on
homophones, he could barely be considered famous. No one recognizes him on the street, and he has spent over two decades walking around with a plain, somewhat masculine square face. His life goal is to be a good person, and beyond that, he has no distinguishing features. This is him. It is now the beginning of the hot summer months of May and June. Although the weather in the north is cooler, walking on the road under the scorching sun during the day can still make people very irritable. Therefore, in the bustling downtown area, you can see various vehicles rushing everywhere, but not many pedestrians walking outside. And a tall young man wearing a white T-shirt, gray pants, and an ordinary appearance is one of these few pedestrians. Kevin is holding a few pieces of paper and tries to walk in the shade of trees or buildings on both sides. The honking of cars on the road next to him and the buzzing of cicadas on the trees make people restless, but this chaotic noise doesn't seem to affect the young man's mood much. He just keeps walking silently, occasionally flapping his almost soaked shirt due to the weather, and then looks down at what's in his hand—two of them are job advertisements, and one is a promotional leaflet handed out by a student girl when he passed by the square earlier. The promotional leaflet shows a beautiful girl smiling like a flower, with a line of bold text below: Jinrong Obstetrics and Gynecology Specialist Hospital, specializing in treatment... Kevin thinks that students these days are becoming less and less professional. When he was working outside handing out leaflets, he never gave them to men who could obviously be seen as singles. But anyway, this hard leaflet is quite suitable for fanning. "The last two places, if it doesn't work out, then forget it," Kevin muttered while looking at the last two job advertisements in his hand. Fortunately, these two places are next to each other, so he can quickly finish today's "task". One of them is just ahead, an advertising company that definitely doesn't look like it has much strength from the outside, but its signboard at the entrance is loud and clear: Galaxy Media Pan-Cultural Development and Promotion Company. Just hearing the name, it seems like it will go bankrupt within half a year. Kevin came here just because of the name. His main purpose was not to apply for a job, but to see what kind of extraordinary person the boss of a company that could come up with such a magical name would be.
He walked enthusiastically for several hundred meters to bypass the road divider, then ran under the blazing sun to the door of this advertising company with a particularly impressive name, and was surprised to find that the company had indeed gone under. The signboard was still hanging at the entrance, but a notice of closure was pasted on the glass door, dated two days ago, while the job advertisement he held was from four days ago... This is indeed a rapidly changing world. Nowadays, do companies still hire new employees to calm themselves down just two days before going bankrupt? He easily crumpled up the job advertisement of the advertising company and threw it into a trash can on the roadside. Kevin looked down at the last one, and after two seconds, crumpled it up and threw it into the same place, while reflecting on whether he was blind when screening these things a couple of days ago—a bus company was hiring an office clerk, requiring someone aged 25 to 40, able to endure hardships, proficient in computers, work experience preferred, and female. He held this thing and came to the downtown area with enthusiasm, just to see how shiny the glass door of an advertising company that was still busy hiring two days before going under was. It was simply a waste of time. This is really a sad story. He came to the city today to look for a job, but actually, he personally didn't have any urgent needs for a source of income: as mentioned earlier, Kevin lives in an old house left by his parents. Thanks to the family assets left by the older generation, at least the house is quite large—it's a two-story old house that has been converted into a structure similar to a family rental apartment. For several years, Kevin has been making a living by renting out the house. However, due to the extreme remoteness of his residence, it's even remote to the extent that waiting for the old house to be demolished might require several ten-year plans. Therefore, the rental income is just so-so, not little, but definitely not enough to make a fortune. It allows this bachelor to live a quite comfortable life, but that's it. To be honest, with this stable income, Kevin doesn't need to come out and look for a job. But when a person has too much free time, they become a bit overly sensitive and always feel that they should make a little effort to broaden their life path. Plus, an even more important reason—his old house is located in such a remote place, so remote that it's almost detached from human civilization. Since the last migrant worker couple moved out of the rental house, no one has come to rent for almost half a year. Looking at the empty two-story "apartment" for several consecutive months, Kevin sincerely realized one thing: unless the municipal planning leans towards his side, he might really have to come out and look for a job to survive. After studying urban planning at home for three days, Kevin believed that the possibility of his neighborhood becoming a commercial center overnight was really slim. Considering that as a man, he couldn't just waste away like this, he finally decided to find a job first, at least to have an income to support his life. After all, he was once a diligent and good man who worked to earn his tuition fees. Could he really starve to death in such a bright and clear world? However, fate does not go according to one's will. Basically, his first day of running around outside was just... running around aimlessly.
Thinking so much is useless. Kevin stretched his arms and decided to rest on the shaded bench in the small park by the roadside. He planned to wait until the hottest hour of the afternoon had passed before finding a small restaurant to fill his stomach and then taking a bus home. Fortunately, this is a northern small city that can hardly be considered a third-tier city. Even though its economic development is quite rapid, it still maintains the leisureliness and brightness of a small place: at least the urban public land planning is not bad, with trees providing shade, and even in the downtown area, which is as precious as gold, there are many small parks available for rest.
He found a piece of paper to clean the bench and then lay down carelessly, using the leaflet with the logo of a women's hospital and a picture of a pretty girl to cover his face and shield himself from the sunlight. He rested carelessly like this. Of course, he didn't dare to fall asleep either, since there are more and more thieves these days, and there aren't enough good people left to spare. Although there was nothing valuable in his pocket, it wouldn't be good if it got picked. He just planned to close his eyes for a while, at least to dissipate the heat from his body.
But just as he had laid down for what seemed like less than a minute, the sunlight streaming in through the edge of the leaflet had already dimmed, as if someone had come to his side. Kevin slightly unexpectedly uncovered his face and was astonished to find that the sun had already set beyond the horizon. A petite and slender female figure was standing beside him, blocking the setting sun. Due to the backlight, he couldn't see the woman's appearance clearly and could only confirm that she was a slender girl with short hair through a faint outline.
"Hey, are you awake?"
This strange girl seemed very familiar, waving and greeting him carelessly. Kevin suddenly sat up. He first looked around in surprise to confirm that it was indeed sunset. He had only intended to close his eyes for a while, but he had actually slept for half a day. Then he had the chance to carefully observe the stranger in front of him. At this moment, the strange girl seemed to finally realize that her position standing against the light made it difficult for people to see her clearly. So she grinned and slightly turned her body to allow the other person to see her appearance.
A very pretty girl—this was Kevin's first impression.
She was dressed quite coolly, wearing a close-fitting white short-sleeved shirt with a slightly childish plastic dog decoration on the collar. She wore dark shorts and casual shoes, looking like a female college student who had skipped class to go shopping. This familiar girl had shoulder-length short hair. She might like sports very much, as her skin had a slight wheat color, healthy and full of sunshine. Her appearance was beautiful and charming. What attracted the most attention was her pair of lively big eyes, which were more vigorous than any pair of eyes Kevin had ever seen, as if her whole spirit was radiating from these eyes.
Behind her was a large suitcase that looked quite heavy.
Looking at the slightly stunned Kevin, this pretty girl with short hair gave an unprecedentedly bright silly smile (although it might seem a bit inappropriate to say so, but Kevin did think it was a silly smile). That smile was clean and pure, which seemed to be rarely seen on the faces of girls of her age nowadays. She fumbled around in her small bag for a long time and finally pulled out a crumpled piece of paper and handed it to Kevin: "Excuse me, do you know where this place is?"
Kevin patted his face to wake himself up. Regardless of what was going on with this carefree girl, he looked down at the address on the paper... Oh my god, isn't this my own house?!