Right next to the residential complex was the pedestrian street. Since this was temporary work as a stepping stone, there were plenty of jobs available on the pedestrian street.
Chen Jiang had been shut in for too long, hadn't had conversations with people for extended periods, and still thought of Lin Nan as a girl. At this moment, he looked timid and furtive like a thief, stopping every few steps to look around nervously.
He didn't believe what Lin Nan had said. After all, despite the short hair, how could this possibly look like a boy?
Never mind that face—look at the subtle curves at the chest, look at the slight sway of those hips when walking, look at those unconscious hair-touching smiles...
If this counted as a man, then there probably weren't many people in this world who could call themselves girls.
This wasn't some heavily made-up, month-long photoshopped image from the internet—this was reality.
He did believe this wasn't really a blind date though, since he was just a shut-in... Chen Jiang was quite self-deprecating.
The atmosphere between them felt somewhat awkward. Lin Nan didn't know what to say, and Chen Jiang didn't know how to face a girl. Having left his area of expertise, he seemed particularly nervous.
"Speaking of which, if someone bothered you, would you sink them in the Min River?" Lin Nan tried making a cold joke to make the atmosphere between them more harmonious.
"..." Chen Jiang was stunned for a moment. This cold joke wasn't funny at all.
Looks like he hadn't read "Emotional Intelligence."
Due to years of sitting, Chen Jiang's posture clearly had problems—hunched shoulders, rounded back, forward head posture. His spine was probably somewhat deformed too. Combined with his overly thin build, his overall bearing was less than ideal, even appearing cowering.
Lin Nan was different though. Although he also sat for long periods and no one had reminded him about slouching when he was young, Lilith's influence had nicely corrected his posture. Maybe he couldn't compare to celebrities or models, but at least he stood up straight... The problem was that due to some unconscious small movements and his feminized figure, no matter how you looked at it, he appeared to be a girl.
And his pelvis seemed much wider than before, making his hips sway more naturally when walking than a normal male's would.
Headache.
Just thinking about this gave Lin Nan an unbearable headache. He'd be going home in a few days, and he was really afraid his parents wouldn't recognize him at all, or would simply think he had transgender tendencies.
Today's temperature was unusually high, and it was afternoon when the sun was most scorching. There were obviously fewer pedestrians on the walking street than usual.
This allowed Chen Jiang, who hadn't been out for a long time, to relax slightly, but glancing at Lin Nan beside him, he unconsciously became nervous again.
"What kind of work are you looking for? I do part-time work around here and have some connections."
Lin Nan looked up at Chen Jiang, and that pretty appearance made Chen Jiang, who hadn't seen a woman in ages, even more flustered.
If this counted as a man, then it would be the legendary "draw a girl, call it a boy"?
He said in a panic: "Anything is fine."
"Mm, then at least let me find you a flyer distribution job. That's better than doing nothing and continuing to stay home." Lin Nan immediately thought of Yonghui Supermarket where he worked part-time, and he was fairly familiar with the person in charge of hiring part-timers. Maybe he really could find Chen Jiang a simple job.
"No objections." Chen Jiang directed his gaze into the distance, not daring to look directly into Lin Nan's eyes.
"Then follow me."
Now Lin Nan felt confident, happily taking out his phone and pressing the timer function. He'd carelessly forgotten to do this when leaving earlier and had lost a few yuan after walking for ten minutes.
This Chen Jiang guy was easier to handle than Lin Nan had imagined. At least after three years of being shut in, his personality wasn't too antisocial. Plus he'd originally planned to go out anyway, and he'd been doing legitimate work at home. At least when he went job hunting with his portfolio, he'd have some credentials—unlike some shut-ins who really just stayed home doing nothing and couldn't do anything when they came out.
Lin Nan felt this money was practically free, which made him feel a bit guilty.
Arriving at Yonghui Supermarket, Lin Nan navigated expertly to the back office. After some searching, he found Liu Yi working at his desk.
"What are you here for?" Liu Yi was fairly familiar with Lin Nan, so their conversation was casual. "You don't need to distribute flyers today."
"I'm introducing a friend for work." Lin Nan glanced behind him and found Chen Jiang had disappeared. Poking his head outside the office, he saw the guy cowering to one side, not daring to enter.
Without hesitation, he walked forward, grabbed Chen Jiang's wrist and dragged him along. Chen Jiang didn't really resist, following Lin Nan into the room with his head down and face red.
"This person has a rather introverted personality. Brother Liu, is there any work suitable for him?" Lin Nan asked with a smile.
Lin Nan basically called everyone "brother" unless the age difference was really too large.
Liu Yi put down his work and looked up at Chen Jiang. Seeing him hiding behind Lin Nan, he couldn't help frowning.
"We need people for supermarket promotion and moving work, but looking at your friend, he doesn't seem suitable for promotion, and he doesn't have the build for moving..."
"Promotion then?" Lin Nan chose the job for him without hesitation. "Talking to more people can help improve his introverted personality."
The promotion work here probably meant things like being responsible for free samples, or giving simple introductions to customers at discount booths or buy-one-get-one-free stands. It didn't really require much eloquence, mainly just not being too introverted—otherwise if customers came for samples and you said nothing, it would be equivalent to letting people eat and drink for free.
Liu Yi's frown gradually relaxed as he nodded: "Alright then. Come find me here tomorrow morning at 7:30, bring your original ID card and a photocopy."
Did this mean it was settled?
Lin Nan was immediately delighted, feeling he'd done a great deed.
After the two roughly discussed salary and benefits, Lin Nan and Chen Jiang left the supermarket. Lin Nan was quite happy, but Chen Jiang didn't look excited at all—instead, he appeared worried.
"Tomorrow you'll be starting work."
"Mm..." Chen Jiang, who hadn't been in contact with society for too long, was obviously worried about the job.
Lin Nan had seen this kind of thing online too, but people who'd been shut in too long could only overcome the shadow of social anxiety by themselves. Lin Nan had originally wanted to take him to places like amusement parks to walk around more, helping him quickly adapt to life outside the house, but Chen Jiang felt uncomfortable being outside.
After walking a few steps, Lin Nan brought him to the intersection where the traffic control uncle was stationed.
The uncle saw Lin Nan and nodded as a greeting, but then suddenly noticed Chen Jiang behind Lin Nan, looking completely surprised.
"I found him a job while I was at it. The pay isn't much, but he can have more contact with society." Lin Nan felt like Chen Jiang following behind him was just like his younger cousin.
"Good, very good." The traffic control uncle took a deep breath, his face full of relief. "You're really something—you got him out in one go."
"Of course!" Lin Nan was quite proud, but turning around, he saw Chen Jiang clearly harbored resentment toward his father, keeping his head down in silence, not even willing to look at his father.
It was probably because he'd been staying home too long and constantly getting criticized by his father. Chen Jiang felt there was nothing wrong with pursuing his dreams and making a game, while his father only saw him sitting in front of a computer doing nothing all day. So the father-son relationship was probably pretty bad?
Lin Nan inexplicably thought of his own father.
At least Chen Jiang still had a father standing there to criticize him.
His parents—he didn't see them more than a few times a week. When they did meet, there wasn't much communication, and most of their WeChat chat history was red envelope transfers.
Sometimes he really envied kids who could argue with their parents.