When I Meet the Moon - Chapter 14

Chapter 14

At this point, she couldn't very well keep asking for the canvas bag either. Knowing that he meant well, Yun Li could only suppress her heartache, cast a few more lingering glances at the canvas bag, and silently shove the commemorative pens into her bag.

After placing all the VR and AR devices from the box onto the table, Fu Shize pressed the power button beside the VR glasses, and from Yun Li's angle, a flash of light could be seen illuminating the lenses.

Fearing that he might think she was meddling, Yun Li waited several dozen seconds before speaking up: "Do you need my help?"

Fu Shize casually pointed to a spot about a meter away: "Stand over there, I'll calibrate the position."

He then had Fu Zhengchu stand opposite Yun Li, walked between the two of them, and effortlessly put on the VR glasses.

Perhaps adjusting the boundaries of the virtual world, he gripped the controllers with the front ends pointing downward, slowly approaching Yun Li.

The two of them seemed to form a secluded space isolated from the rest of the world, standing on the same narrow path. The man felt like a wandering ascetic, his gloomy aura instantly swallowing up her personal space.

It made her want to step back and escape, yet yearn for him to draw closer still.

Fu Shize stopped a single step away from her, using the controller to trace a virtual circle around her perimeter.

"That's done." Once finished, Fu Shize removed the glasses with one hand. With his hair slightly tousled, he looked at Yun Li and politely said: "Thank you."

Next came checking whether the other equipment was operating normally.

Fu Shize had also brought along an extra small box filled with two thick stacks of promotional brochures. According to EAW's sponsorship terms, the "Climbing High" club was required to help them distribute all of these brochures.

Noticing this, Fu Zhengchu's eyes widened in disbelief: "Do these all need to be handed out today?"

That look of utter disbelief was like a child seeing a bizarre monster for the very first time. Seeing this, Yun Li couldn't help curving the corners of her lips: "Weren't you the one who secured the sponsorship?"

"That's what I said, but this is way too absurd. There's only one of me," Fu Zhengchu said with a bitter expression. "This is too much, EAW only sponsored us a tiny bit."

Fu Zhengchu had completely forgotten that just two minutes ago, he was bragging to Yun Li about how EAW had sponsored a huge sum of funding.

Seeing that Fu Shize didn't chime in, he pressed on: "Little Uncle, don't you think so?"

"I don't."

"Why!!"

Fu Shize glanced at him: "I'm not the one handing them out."

Wailing verbally, Fu Zhengchu still didn't dare slack off in action, picking up half the stack of brochures and heading back. Seeing this, Yun Li figured she didn't have much else to do, so she followed along: "I'll help you hand out some."

Before he could reply, Yun Li picked up the remaining half.

Fu Zhengchu couldn't help staring at Fu Shize as if looking at an alien: "Little Uncle, look at this. This is the gap between you and Sister Lili."

Too lazy to bother, Fu Shize indolently dropped a "Wait a moment."

He took half from Yun Li's stack and placed it on the table.

Fu Zhengchu stammered twice: "Little Uncle, why didn't you take mine?"

"Because..." Fu Shize replied indifferently, "This is the gap between you two."

"......"

Holding the brochures and following behind Fu Zhengchu, Yun Li's right ear suddenly burned hotly once again.

That remark just now...

Although it sounded like he was talking back to Fu Zhengchu, it more or less seemed to imply that she was special.

"Sister Lili, I'll go hand them out on the other side. You stay over here, you don't need to walk far. If you're hot, go hide under the tent," Fu Zhengchu said before heading toward the opposite side of the plaza.

There were still quite a few people around, and Yun Li managed to distribute a good number of brochures before long. Fortunately, standing in her current position allowed her to catch a panoramic view of the roll-up banner area.

EAW sending Fu Shize to promote at the school was undoubtedly the right choice—Fu Shize's physical advantages quickly became apparent.

The vast majority of those waiting in line were female students, many traveling in groups.

This was Yun Li's first time observing Fu Shize at work as an onlooker.

Standing off to the side, he guided students in using the VR and equipment while setting up a temporary safety zone with cardboard to prevent other collisions.

He looked nonchalant, without a trace of a smile. None of his actions showed passionate initiative, yet neither did they display impatience or perfunctoriness.

With thoughts running through her mind, Yun Li occasionally glanced in Fu Shize's direction, then hastily looked away, deliberately handing out brochures to people approaching from the opposite side.

It was like a thief ringing a bell with their own ears covered—pure self-deception.

Yun Li felt a bit vexed. Although she was the owner of these eyes, where she chose to cast them was entirely beyond her control.

At a quarter past four, the crowds had thinned out considerably, and the promotional brochures had all been completely distributed.

Yun Li returned beneath the tent, where several booth-manning members collapsed across the tables in exhaustion, some even covering their eyes with tissues and dozing off with their heads tilted back.

Fu Zhengchu brought over a case of water and, seeing that there was still quite a queue over by Fu Shize, shoved two bottles into Yun Li's hands: "How come there are still so many people at Little Uncle's side? Sister Lili, take a bottle of water over to Little Uncle, I still have to go hand out flyers."

Yun Li walked over to Fu Shize holding the two bottles of water.

He was still working, and a student currently trying out the equipment happened to ask him: "Is it the button on the right?"

Fu Shize: "The bottom-right button. Press and hold it to grab and hold items."

Unsure whether she should interrupt his work, Yun Li stood off to the side and waited quietly.

Within mere seconds, Fu Shize reached out toward her direction with his palm facing upward.

Yun Li froze, then with tacit coordination, handed the water over.

His gaze remained fixed straight ahead, lingering on the students in the experience area with a weary look in his eyes. Using his peripheral vision, Fu Shize took the water, slightly unscrewed the cap, then screwed it back tight and handed it back to her.

He then took the other bottle of water, opened it, took a sip, and set it at the base of the table.

It looked like an almost unconscious action.

Yun Li reacted a beat too slow, only realizing what had just transpired moments ago.

She stared closely at the unscrewed tamper-evident ring around the bottle cap, as if she could still see Fu Shize's hand resting over it.

Returning to the booth, Yun Li remained somewhat dazed. This didn't seem like such a monumental deal, yet it scratched an itch deep inside her heart.

Yun Li had always belonged to the type of person who would turtle up in a corner to hide whenever she encountered setbacks in interpersonal relationships.

Fu Shize's imperviousness on several occasions had made Yun Li resolve to stay far away from this frozen article—probably the kind of year-round frozen cargo with no defrosting instructions attached.

Yet countless small details smoothed away her urge to flee.

She instinctively fixed her gaze on that cold, distant back, feeling like a child who had secretly stolen a candy, a helpless smile spilling uncontrollably from the corners of her mouth.

With only a few people left in line, Fu Shize glanced around. As dusk began to fall, many of the booths had already packed up and organized.

After removing the equipment from the final female student, he lowered his head to adjust the headband's length upon hearing her ask: "Can I take this prize?"

Fu Shize glanced back and scanned the table.

The female student was holding a canvas bag, and only some commemorative pens and notepads remained on the table.

Seeing that he didn't speak, she inexplicably felt a sense of gloom and asked uneasily: "Is it okay?"

Silence hung in the air for a long moment.

Fu Shize proceeded to put the equipment on the next person, his tone calm.

"Sorry, someone already claimed this one. Pick something else."

Yun Li helped Fu Zhengchu close up the tent, roll up the banner, and tidy the corners of the application forms before placing them in the box. Fu Zhengchu said his goodbyes to the others, telling them to move the tables and tent back to the office later.

"Little Uncle, are you done packing?" Fu Zhengchu casually threw an arm over Fu Shize's shoulder. "Hurry up, hurry up, let's go eat."

The remaining prizes were still laid out on the table. Seeing that there was still a single canvas bag left, Yun Li paused. She secretly gauged Fu Shize's expression, then looked at Fu Zhengchu.

Hesitating for a long time, until everything was practically packed up, she finally summoned the courage to ask: "Can I play a round?"

"Sister Lili, didn't you play when you went to EAW before?" Fu Zhengchu asked.

Feeling as though she had been exposed by Fu Zhengchu and unable to tell a lie, Yun Li could only whisper: "Never played... completely identical."

Perhaps due to her guilty conscience, time itself felt like it had slowed down tremendously.

Fu Shize flicked the remaining plastic wrapping on the table with one hand, his lazy eyelids lifting slightly: "The only prize left is the canvas bag."

His meaning was that if she wanted to participate now, there were no other prizes left to choose from.

Yun Li: "I just want to experience it."

She did her utmost to look sincere: "As for prizes, anything is fine, it doesn't matter."

In the crisp air, she seemed to hear a low laugh rumble from the back of Fu Shize's throat, imperceptible to the ear.

Just as Yun Li intended to seek further confirmation, looking up brought her face-to-face with Fu Shize's customary silence.

"Sister Lili, you wanted this canvas bag, right? Just take it directly, it's not like keeping it is of any use." Before Yun Li could delve deeper, Fu Zhengchu finally caught on to Yun Li's hidden intentions and timely shoved the canvas bag right into her arms.

"Consider it—" He scrambled for an exceptional reason, "—a reward for returning players!"

Fu Shize packed the equipment back into its foam bag, fastened the safety lock, and carried it over to put it in the trunk of his car, acting as though none of this had anything to do with him.

The three of them headed to the second-floor internet-famous cafeteria for dinner.

The internet-famous cafeteria had long since made a name for itself outside campus, and the South Wuhu Institute of Technology had once been teased as a breeding ground for internet personalities. Even so, that didn't stop citizens and tourists from Nanhu from flocking there to check it out.

This was Yun Li's very first time visiting this cafeteria. She joined the line at the Xifu Rice Noodles stall, while both Fu Shize and Fu Zhengchu headed toward the Korean cuisine window.

Once Yun Li collected her noodles, Fu Zhengchu waited for her at the exit.

Fu Shize had already secured a table and was standing there waiting for them.

Both of them had ordered kimbap rolls neatly laid out on black-glazed ceramic plates; the only difference was that Fu Zhengchu's portion was double Fu Shize's, and he had additionally ordered a cup of cola.

"Little Uncle, you only grabbed your own chopsticks?" Fu Zhengchu asked in an incredulous tone.

Fu Shize stared speechlessly at the chopsticks resting on Fu Zhengchu's plate.

"It's fine, I forgot to grab mine." Yun Li placed her tray on the table and hurriedly smoothed things over.

The rice noodles on her plate looked plain and desolate, consisting of just a few strands swimming in plain water without a single speck of oil.

Compared to Fu Zhengchu's indignant expression, Fu Shize didn't seem to mind much. Telling her to wait a moment, he got up and went to fetch her a pair of chopsticks and a spoon, even bringing back two small side dishes to place on her tray.

Considering she was the one who hadn't taken any chopsticks simply because her tray was too heavy, Yun Li cast an apologetic glance at Fu Shize and softly muttered a thank-you.

The moment he sat down, Fu Zhengchu asked: "Sister Lili, are you from Xifu?"

People from Xifu were notoriously fond of rice noodles, and Yun Li hadn't eaten them in quite a while, so she couldn't resist ordering a bowl upon seeing them at the cafeteria.

Tossing the noodles in her bowl around a bit, she found them too hot and needed to let them cool for a moment.

Yun Li nodded: "Yeah, I was in Xifu all the way until grad school."

"Are you an elite student from Xifu University of Technology?"

Hearing Xifu University of Technology, Fu Shize's chopsticks paused, and he raised his head to look at them as well.

"I went to a regular tier-one university in Xifu." Yun Li shook her head self-deprecatingly: "Xifu University of Technology is pretty much the best university out there; how could an ordinary person ever test into it?"

"That's true, an abnormal person is sitting right next to me." Fu Zhengchu nodded in wholehearted agreement.

"Oh, oh..." Yun Li feigned ignorance, turning to Fu Shize unnaturally: "You went to Xifu University of Technology?"

Fu Zhengchu looked utterly shocked: "Sister Lili, you actually didn't know Little Uncle went to Xifu University of Technology? He was the top liberal arts/science scorer for the college entrance examination in Nanhu City that year; banners were practically hung all the way up to our front door."

"That's certainly impressive." Her lukewarm reaction caught Fu Zhengchu's attention, prompting Yun Li to immediately squeeze out an exaggerated expression: "That is truly amazing!"

Fu Shize: "......”