Paper Lover At Old Town Bookstore Chapter 16
byIs she the Queen of Rants?
The quiet of the office area was constantly being broken by Xu Xingruo’s sudden remarks. Her humor never came with a preamble; it was abstract and caught people off guard, often making me pause my work, my shoulders shaking as I tried to stifle my laughter.
Just like yesterday afternoon, when the Administration Department announced they needed to collect employee height and weight for uniforms. She stared at the “Weight” column on the form, then suddenly leaned close to my ear and whispered in a voice only we could hear: “Qiusheng, do you think Sister Li will hit me if I write ‘Light as a feather, specific number confidential’?”
The water I had just sipped almost sprayed out. I turned to look at her; she was holding back a laugh, her large almond eyes curved into crescents, a hint of mischief on her lips. “Vice Director Zhang will make you stand on the scale right then and there, accurate to two decimal places,” I replied, suppressing my own laughter.
She dramatically widened her eyes and clutched her chest. “Help! Wouldn’t that expose my magical physique of ‘gaining weight from one bite and not losing it after three days of starvation’? That’s my deepest secret!”
Her words were delivered with a straight face, paired with an expression of “the sky is falling,” which made me burst out laughing.
Colleagues in the nearby cubicles looked over at the sound. She immediately shrank her neck, pretending to look down and fill out the form, but her shoulders were still shrugging with suppressed amusement. Her dark ponytail swayed gently with the movement, like a little fox who had successfully stolen a piece of candy.
Another time, we were dealing with a difficult client together. The client repeatedly gave us a hard time during the meeting, first saying the proposal wasn’t innovative enough, then complaining the budget was too high, all delivered with a condescending arrogance.
After the meeting, Xu Xingruo pulled me into the fire escape, mimicking the client’s tone against the wall, pinching her voice to sound passive-aggressive: “‘Young people just don’t understand the market,’ ‘This proposal is too childish.’ Who does he think he is? The Queen Mother of the West descending to select peaches?”
She gestured wildly as she spoke, her body language exaggerated and comical, perfectly imitating the client’s arrogant and picky demeanor. She made me laugh so hard that the frustration from the meeting instantly vanished. “Be careful he doesn’t hear you,” I reminded her, smiling. “Our project will be ruined.”
“What’s there to be afraid of!” She put her hands on her hips, chin up and chest out, looking utterly righteous. “I’m telling the truth! His demands are even more stringent than my mother’s demands for a boyfriend—he has to be handsome and rich, gentle and obedient. Where can you find such a perfect person? Oh wait, where can you find such a perfect proposal either!”
She became increasingly outrageous, eventually failing to contain her own laughter. She laughed until she couldn’t stand straight, leaning against the wall and catching her breath.
Watching her eyes crinkle with laughter and her cheeks flush, my heart softened. It turned out that, setting aside the tragic plotlines, she was such a vibrant and interesting person, like a little sun that could always dispel the surrounding gloom with her abstract and hilarious remarks.
During work breaks, she was a constant source of golden quotes. Seeing a colleague add three spoons of sugar to their milk tea, she would whisper to me, “Does this person treat milk tea like medicine? Or does he think sweetness cures everything? If so, I think he should just eat white granulated sugar directly; the effect would be more pronounced.” Seeing a stray cat downstairs begging for food, she would muse, “Look at that cat, how ambitious! It works harder than some of our colleagues who slack off. It deserves a ‘Best Dedication Award.'”
Her words were always imaginative, carrying a touch of nonsensical abstraction, yet they always hit the funny bone precisely.
I used to be quiet, even a bit dull, but ever since I started sitting next to her, she makes me laugh countless times every day. The office is no longer just filled with the sound of typing and serious discussions, but also her clear laughter and those irresistible rants.
Once, when we were working late into the night, I was so tired my eyelids were drooping. She suddenly patted my arm and said earnestly, “Qiusheng, I’ve discovered a truth.”
I forced myself to look at her. “What truth?”
“Overtime and staying up late are like milk tea and tapioca pearls—they complement each other!” She held up her fingers, gesturing seriously. “Look, overtime inevitably leads to staying up late, staying up late inevitably requires milk tea to survive, and drinking too much milk tea inevitably requires working overtime to earn money to buy more milk tea. It’s a perfect closed loop!”
Her “twisted logic” completely woke me up. I shook my head, laughing. “Only you could come up with something like that.”
“Of course!” She lifted her chin proudly, her eyes full of triumph. “I am the ‘Workplace Abstract Comedy Master,’ specializing in curing unhappiness and drowsiness!”
Looking at her bright eyes and smiling face, a strong sense of happiness suddenly welled up inside me.
For the past year, I had worked desperately, climbing the ladder, believing that success and status could fill the void in my heart. But it wasn’t until I met the real Xu Xingruo, until I was cured daily by her humor and abstraction, that I understood: true happiness is never about external labels, but about having someone nearby who can make you laugh without restraint.
She is like a sweet candy, with a quirky flavor, yet capable of instantly curing all fatigue and unhappiness. I looked at her, thinking silently: Xu Xingruo, thank you for appearing in my life. Thank you for making my life so interesting with your humor and abstraction. This time, I will definitely protect this happiness well, so you can always keep smiling like this.