2.

  "What's Frost thinking about? Smiling so slyly?" The clear and crisp voice of Liu Qing interrupted her reverie, she raised her head as if waking up from a dream, gazing at the beautifully decorated face in front of her.

  "Just looking at you makes me think of spring." A warm, ambiguous smile floated onto Liu Qing's face. She couldn't help but use the phrase "romantic and charming" to describe him in her heart. Afraid that if she continued to be teased with boring jokes, she stretched out her hand and gently pinched Liu Qing's cheek, saying: "Don't you have any serious thoughts in your head?"

  Liu Qing immediately pretended to be angry and coquettishly said: "Fine, fine, I didn't have any serious business. Originally there was a good thing, now it's all forgotten." A flash of inspiration struck her mind, she grabbed Liu Qing's hand on the office desk and exclaimed: "Is it about the house...?" It was rare to hear her so excited in a loud voice, the other colleagues in the office couldn't help but turn their heads. She stuck out her tongue and asked in a low voice: "Did you find me a house?"

  Liu Qing secretly sighed, thinking she reacted really quickly. Looking at her childlike joyful appearance, he couldn't help but smile: "That's right, you little devil, I see that you have this much affection for me." He opened his other hand, revealing a piece of paper with some numbers and words written on it: "My mom's friend's neighbor is an old lady who rents out houses near our company. You insisted on finding a house near the company, but you know how expensive it is here - even if we find one, you might not be able to afford the rent. I've satisfied your requirements with this location, and as for the price, you'll have to negotiate that yourself."

  "In the company, you're too good to me, Liu Qing, you're really my goddess." She treasured the note as if it were a precious gift: "I'll go talk about moving house and invite you to dinner then."

  Liu Qing smiled brightly, but didn't forget to remind her: "Don't be fooled by the old lady, don't be too soft-hearted, and ruthlessly kill the price." Looking at her clean smile on a face without makeup, Liu Qing sometimes also lost in thought, remembering when she had just left the ivory tower and stepped into the company.

  She didn't call ahead of time like Liu Qing said, instead she just took the address and went there during lunch break. After all, it was just opposite the company, if she got stood up, she could just come back, and think of it as a walk. She thought this way with some excitement, impulsiveness, and unease. In the end, she was still shy.

  This residential area is just across the street from the company's office building. When she crossed the road, she was thinking about how to haggle with the old man. She learned a lot of things in college, but they didn't teach her this. Since childhood, wearing clothes made by her mother, what she was worst at was bargaining with people.

  "If it doesn't work out, I'll just have to rely on her. Can't let my salary for the month go to waste." The words she had secretly decided on slipped out of her mouth. The middle-aged man passing by stared at her in surprise, and her face turned red without looking up.

  It's been a year since she graduated from university and was assigned to this foreign trade company. Her monthly salary of 2,000 yuan is a proud sum for a young woman who doesn't need to buy clothes. She can no longer live in the student dormitory, and her mother won't let her rent a cheap house in the suburbs. Every day, she squeezes onto the crowded bus, and she herself doesn't want to be cheated out of 100 yuan by a real estate agent after searching for apartments through newspaper ads.

  After failing to find an apartment, she turned to Liu Qing for help. Liu Qing, who is three years older than her, was the first colleague she met in this company, and also the first woman to take the initiative to greet her. She remembers that Liu Qing's first words to her were "Xuefeng, your shoes are very beautiful." Not a single word was different.

  Despite their different interests, they became good friends.

  She didn't take the elevator, instead she climbed up the stairs to the fifth floor. Here it was - a 50-meter-long wooden door with a red anti-theft iron gate. In front of the door, there was a black shoe mat. She looked at it fondly, thinking that her own home's entrance also had one. Before ringing the doorbell, she took a deep breath and recited Su Shi's "Everlasting Joy" in her heart. Every time she felt tense, she would silently recite this poem, as if it had magical powers that calmed her down after finishing. It was the same during her high school entrance exams. Her father said her name came from the first line of this poem - "The bright moon is like frost, and the gentle breeze is like water." So for her, it held a special magic.

  The doorbell rang for a long time, but no one answered. Just as she was about to give up and turn around to leave, a slow and dragging footsteps sound came from behind the door. Before the door opened, she lowered her head again to examine her outfit - a white short-sleeved shirt and a black knee-length skirt, which was the company's work uniform. Not bad, not bad, very solemn, won't make the old man dislike her.

  The wooden door opened, and she looked up to see a young man's face through the iron bars of the anti-theft gate. A few strands of hair were carelessly draped over his eyes, and his face was filled with discontent at being woken from deep sleep. It wasn't an unattractive face, if only it didn't have so much impatience written on it. He was too young, at most just a boy.

  She didn't see the old face she had expected, and her feet were in a mess from head to toe. Her face turned red all the way down to her heels, and she was at a loss for what to do with her hands and feet. Subconsciously, she lowered her head to take a look at the note in her hand, mustered up her courage, and lifted her head again to ask: "Excuse me, is this Liu Lianfang's home?"

  As she looked up, the change in the boy's expression inside the iron gate also startled her, causing her heart to beat a few more times. The boy's eyes revealed an ecstatic and disbelieving gaze. She thought she must have walked into the wrong unit and was about to bid farewell and leave when the lock on the iron gate clicked open with a "click".