Chapter 3: Mutual Harm — Do you know the harm manicures do to the human body?
Returning home, Jiang Zhi Zhou studied the business card. Written on it was the salon’s phone number as well as its QR code. He thought for a moment before calling the phone number.
“Hello, Only Love Nail Salon, may I ask if I can help you with something?”
A feminine voice came through the phone, sounding very young. Jiang Zhi Zhou concluded that this shouldn’t be the Miss Xia he wanted to find. “Hello, please help me contact Miss Xia.”
“Miss Xia?” The girl seemed to not react for a moment, stunned, before saying, “Oh, you’re looking for the store manager? She is somewhat busy at the moment. May I ask what matter you have with her?”
“You can tell her that the owner of 1808 is looking for her.”
“Oh…” The girl yelled in Xia Wei’s direction, “Store manager, there’s an owner of 1808 looking for you!”
Xia Wei: “……”
Fuck, how did this guy get a hold of my salon’s number! Is he a detective!?
Xia Wei took a slow breath and said, “I’m in the middle of painting a customer’s nails and cannot get away. Tell him that he can call again in half an hour.”
“Okay.” After the girl repeated Xia Wei’s words to Jiang Zhi Zhou, Jiang Zhi Zhou immediately hung up. He gripped the nail salon business card in his hand. This address… didn’t seem that far from here.
Twenty minutes later, he stood outside a nail salon with the words 『Only Love 』written above it. The shop’s interior decorations and its name were the same as the woman. Jiang Zhi Zhou stood outside, staring for a moment, and then pushed open the glass door to walk inside.
Ding—ling—ling—
Hearing the doorbell ring, Xia Wei automatically raised her head. “Welcome…wel…”
The syllable ‘come’ didn’t even leave her mouth when Xia Wei looked over, stunned. This man…wasn’t he Mr. Jiang, that one who didn’t particularly like her? He also came here… to get a manicure?
Jiang Zhi Zhou also recognized her. He frowned faintly as he walked over to Xia Wei. “You are the owner of 1908?”
“…” Xia Wei’s thoughts turned direction. She felt that it was slightly inconceivable. This Mr. Jiang, he was that guy who lived downstairs? “You are the owner of 1808?”
“Mn.”
“…ke.” Xia Wei dry coughed and said to Jiang Zhi Zhou, “I know what you want to say, but I am currently unable to leave. You can sit on the sofa for a while and wait for me to finish drawing this customer’s nails.”
Jiang Zhi Zhou subconsciously glanced at the female customer sitting in front of Xia Wei. Half of her nails were painted with a strawberry design. He didn’t know how long it would take to finish.
“Do you know the harm manicures do to the human body?” Jiang Zhi Zhou suddenly spoke up. Xia Wei furrowed her eyebrows, still remaining silent. Jiang Zhi Zhou continued to speak. “The phthalates ester in nail polish will increase the risk of women developing breast cancer. The thin layer of cells that protect the nails are stripped and will cause nails to become brittle and grey. If it’s serious, it’ll even become inflamed and infected. The tools used in manicures may also infect hands and feet with ringworm. Furthermore, the nail UV lamp you use can also age the skin of your hands, increasing wrinkles.”
Xia Wei: “………”
She currently had a line of swear words that she very much wanted to voice.
The air was very quiet. Xia Wei restrained the innumerable lines of profanity festering in her heart as she squeezed out a smile at Jiang Zhi Zhou. “Mr. Jiang has a very thorough understanding of manicures. Do you frequently get them?”
“This is common sense.”
“Hehe. Mr Jiang has said some frightening words to scare people. Nail polish certainly contains harmful elements, but as long as the nail polish is chosen wisely, then it will be significantly better. Like the nail polish this customer is using——this is our salon’s best nail polish with practically no odor. As for the manicure tools, we also thoroughly sterilize them and will not use them with customers that have ringworms on their hands and/or feet. After the UV lamp is used, we have our customers wash their hands and use hand cream. Unless it’s used very frequently, it won’t have much of an impact.”
Jiang Zhi Zhou stood in his original spot and watched her silently. Xia Wei took off her apron and said to someone beside her, “Xiao Qiu, you continue this. I’m heading out with this Mr. Jiang for a moment.”
“Got it.”
Xia Wei and Jiang Zhi Zhou walked out of the salon to a small street outside. She looked at him with a very poor complexion. “Mr. Jiang, I have already contacted the developer about the leaking water problem. Is it essential for you to go to my salon and be a disturbance?”
Jiang Zhi Zhou said, “I merely stated the harmful effects of manicures, that’s all. I believe your customers have the right to know these facts.”
“Ah, did you think that people go get manicures without knowing the harmful effects of manicures? Lipstick is also harmful to the body; can you prevent a woman from applying lipstick? Mr. Jiang, you might need to know another common sense fact——even if you are perfectly aware of harmful effects, there is nothing you can do to prevent a woman from loving beautiful things.”
Jiang Zhi Zhou curved his lips as he looked at her, saying, “I didn’t come today to explore this problem with you.”
“Okay, you want to talk about the leaking water. Yesterday, I contacted the developer, but this apartment is my friend’s. The developer said that the owner personally had to contact them for them to do anything. My friend is studying abroad and had a lot of things to do. This morning, she spoke with the developer and is having them dispatch someone to make repairs as soon as possible, which should be two days from now. Satisfied?”
Jiang Zhi Zhou didn’t reply. The bathroom leaking water was a complicated matter. Although the problem was from upstairs, to her, it had no effect, directly dealing damaging to downstairs instead. She could wait several days, but he didn’t want to endure water leaking into his bathroom for even one more second.
Seeing that his expression was still like a ‘this da ye’s mood was poor,’1 Xia Wei wanted to say something else, but her ringtone sounded from her bag. The incoming call was an unknown number. She recalled that she hadn’t done any online shopping recently, so she was slightly hesitant about accepting the call. “Hello.”
“Hello. Excuse me, is this Miss Xia? We received a maintenance application. Is your bathroom leaking water?”
“Ah, yes, yes. When can you come over to fix it?”
“We can come now. Are you at home?”
“It’ll take me ten or so minutes to return home. Approximately how long will you guys take?”
“Over half an hour. We’ll contact you before we get there.”
“Okay, thank you.” Xia Wei hung up the phone and turned to smile at Jiang Zhi Zhou. “The maintenance crew said they’re coming right now. Do you want to supervise their repairs?”
“No need.” Jiang Zhi Zhou dropped these two words before leaving, not turning his head to look back. Xia Wei returned to the salon and retrieved her things.
Xiao Qiu saw her return and asked, “What kind of person was that just now? 2 So aggressive.”
“My neighbor downstairs who says my bathroom is leaking water. The maintenance crew is coming right now. I don’t know how long the repairs will take, so I’m going home first today.”
“Okay.”
After Xia Wei returned home, she didn’t wait for long before the maintenance also arrived. They said they needed to speak with the inhabitant downstairs to take a look and determine where the leak was. Xia Wei didn’t want to see that ‘Mr. Jiang’ again, but she had no choice but to follow after the maintenance crew as they went down a floor.
Jiang Zhi Zhou was planning to make dinner, but after he heard knocking, he walked to the door to see who it was. It was his upstairs neighbor Miss Xia and two repairmen wearing work clothes. He opened the door. When Xia Wei saw him, she stared blankly. Every time she’d seen him, he’d been dressed in formal attire, his hair combed so that not one hair was out of place. At the moment, though, he was wearing stay-at-home clothes, causing his whole aura to soften so that he didn’t resemble that aggressive person in her salon at all.
“What’s the matter?” Jiang Zhi Zhou asked.
“Eh, they said they wanted to take a look at your bathroom to determine where the leak was.” Xia Wei was speechless at herself; just then, she had actually thought that this man looked like a god.
Jiang Zhi Zhou didn’t say anything and just turned to take three pairs of indoor shoes from the shoe cupboard to give to them. Xia Wei stood outside the door, hesitating for a moment before slipping on the shoes and entering. She wanted to see exactly how serious the water leakage was to be able to drive him to pursue her relentlessly all the way to her salon.
Jiang Zhi Zhou’s apartment was decorated with an absolute minimalist style. Furthermore, there wasn’t even a trace of a woman’s influence. It practically screamed in uppercase, bold, block letters: ‘Straight Guy Living Alone Aesthetics.’ The master ensuite bathroom had water leaking down from the floor above. No need to mention that this definitely was related to Xia Wei, but she believed that this was far from being serious enough to cause him to press her twice in one day. Xia Wei concluded that this Mr. Jiang was probably a Virgo.
After the maintenance crew confirmed where the leak was, they returned to Xia Wei’s apartment and lifted up her bathroom floor. By the time they finished, the sky had begun to darken. After Xia Wei finished cleaning the bathroom, she didn’t feel like making dinner, so she headed directly to the refrigerator to grab a case of lazy-person hotpot. She added water to the heating bag and covered it to wait for the hotpot to cook while she sent a message to her chat group of best friends.
「That person downstairs of me came to my salon today and told me of the harmful effects of manicures. EXM??3 I knew he was a steel-straight guy who had never had a girlfriend with one look!」
Eight Treasure Congee Female Hero: 「Hahahahahahaha killing me」
Eight Treasure Congee Female Hero: 「Why on earth was he going to your salon to say this? Is he crazy?」
Asking for Suicide at Eighteen This Year: 「My bathroom is leaking water. There was only a two-day hold up, but he couldn’t endure it anymore.」
Not Losing 5kg Not Changing Name: 「Repaired yet? Where was the problem?」
Asking for Suicide at Eighteen This Year: 「Just repaired, said it was the water pipe leaking water. They replaced the water pipe.」
Eight Treasure Congee Female Hero: 「Your downstairs man is also a very exotic flower.」
Asking for Suicide at Eighteen This Year: 「The key is that I feel my attitude has been very good. He complained to the property management, so I immediately contacted the developer. If he presses me, then he presses. Yet he actually came to my salon to speak about the harmful effects of manicures??」
Eight Treasure Congee Female Hero: 「Hahahahaha Sorry, I think it’s really hilarious. Doesn’t he live downstairs from you? You can go block his keyhole!]
Asking for Suicide at Eighteen This Year: 「Forget about it. We’re neighbors. If I lower my head, then I won’t see his attitude. I’m scared that he’ll beat me if I run across him in the elevator.」
Eight Treasure Congee Female Hero: 「Stop being terrified! If he dares to beat you, you can pull our your forty-meter-long dao sword!」
Asking for Suicide at Eighteen This Year: 「『hehe 』」
Invincible Little Sweetie: 「Bathroom leaking water is truly quite troublesome; I feel him」
Asking for Suicide at Eighteen This Year: 「I’ve decided. I’m going to do some dancing! Mn, yoga later tonight!」
Eight Treasure Congee Female Hero: 「Hahahaha remember to wear high heels. Annoy downstairs guy to death with noise!」
Xia Wei really wanted to try wearing high heels while dancing, but a moment later she felt that this was just self-abuse. She switched her high heels for flip-flops. Seeing that it was 10:00PM, she clicked open the video and began jumping as the instructor directed. Pa—ta. Pa—ta. Her flip-flops slapped against the wooden floor, crisp and sweet-sounding.
After Jiang Zhi Zhou finished bathing and came out, he wrinkled his brows upon hearing the loud pa—ta—rhythm from upstairs. He dialed the property management’s number.
While Xia Wei was jumping vigorously, ling, the telephone rang. She nearly didn’t hear it. Catching sight of the caller ID being the property management’s number, she roughly guessed what this was about.
“Hello, Miss Xia. This is the property management. A resident has complained about you disturbing people. It is already very late. I hope you won’t disturb your neighbors’ rest.”
The property management spoke tactfully, but Xia Wei clearly understood in her heart. Apart from Mr. Jiang downstairs of her, who else would especially complain about her! She gently laughed into the phone. “You can tell him that he has already complained about my apartment leaking water; does he also intend to care about me dancing?!”
After she said this, she hung up the call, her mind very relaxed and bright. She once again began jumping for a quarter of the music bar before the property management called again. “Miss Xia, your downstairs neighbor Mr. Jiang said that if you continue jumping, he will call the police.”
“…Pah!”
The young female receptionist of property management: “……”
This year, it was not easy eating a mixed bowl of rice.
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