When I Meet the Moon - Chapter 15

Chapter 15

The rice noodles had finally cooled down a bit. Yun Li curled a strand onto her spoon, brought it to her lips, and had just taken a bite when—

Fu Zhengchu suddenly slammed his chopsticks down onto the table. The sharp sound startled Yun Li so badly that the rice noodle almost got stuck in her throat. She coughed lightly a couple of times and patted her chest.

"Sister Li, do you have any idea how abnormal Little Uncle is?" he indignantly complained. "Back then, when I refused to go to school, he lied to me and said we'd be at the same school, so I agreed to go. The day before, he even patted his chest and promised we'd always go to school together, but—"

The rice ball that Fu Shize had just brought to his lips was snatched away by Fu Zhengchu, who wolfed it down in one bite as if venting his pent-up frustration. Fu Zhengchu continued, "The son of a bitch kept it up for two whole days before skipping a grade!!"

Yun Li: "......"

Fu Zhengchu: "And he skipped straight to middle school!" After saying that, he cast a glance at Yun Li, his round eyes clearly signaling that she was expected to say something.

Fu Shize didn't even lift his eyelids, propping up his chin as if he hadn't understood a single word spoken.

Enduring Fu Zhengchu's gaze, Yun Li stammered for a long time before managing to speak up: "Well... it sounds like he didn't technically lie? It really did look like you were at the same school, didn't it?"

Silence fell among the three of them.

Seeing that Fu Zhengchu had quieted down and seemed to have actually taken her words in, Yun Li continued with gentle persuasion: "Besides, he didn't really have a choice either. No matter what, being born smart isn't his fault."

By now, Fu Zhengchu's expression was frozen in place, looking rather peculiar. Not sure if she had said something wrong, Yun Li had to ask for confirmation: "Don't you think so?"

Even though the cafeteria was quite noisy, Yun Li felt that the moment her voice trailed off, the three of them fell into absolute silence.

Eager to escape this bizarre circle of conversation as quickly as possible, she rummaged through her rice noodles and took another bite.

Seeing this, Fu Shize also quietly picked up a rice ball. Noticing that Fu Zhengchu was remaining still, he slowly slid it toward himself.

"But," Fu Zhengchu suddenly snatched Fu Shize's rice ball right back, "Little Uncle, you left me with psychological trauma ever since I was a kid. Everyone constantly compared the two of us."

Yun Li almost choked.

"I never expected that all these years later, I'd still be living under Little Uncle's shadow," Fu Zhengchu sighed with a feigned, mournful air.

Fu Shize set his chopsticks down and stared coldly at Fu Zhengchu.

Who would have thought that Fu Zhengchu wouldn't be scared at all? Going all out, he blurted out, "Little Uncle, and you're glaring at me too!!"

Fu Shize: "......"

The second half of the meal consisted entirely of Fu Shize maintaining a dead-fish expression. Figuring that struggling was futile, he silently endured no matter how much Fu Zhengchu "provoked" him.

Once Fu Zhengchu got the ball rolling, he couldn't keep his mouth shut, rambling on and on about a whole bunch of things from Fu Shize's childhood.

The primary events revolved around the chain reaction triggered by Fu Shize skipping grades, which had caused Fu Zhengchu's mother over the past dozen years to firmly believe that her own son and daughter might also carry genius genes and were potential prodigies.

Consequently, Fu Zhengchu had been subjected to all sorts of cram schools because his mother always felt he was being wasted.

The most absurd part was that after entering middle school—while Fu Shize was already in high school and Fu Zhengchu thought he could finally catch a breather—another person named Sang Zhi wound up in the same class.

Someone who solved math problems like she was simply counting numbers.

After chattering nonstop for a long time, the other two simply sat there like audience members, nodding and humming at regular intervals.

"Eventually, even my mom admitted that her son's IQ simply couldn't compare to her cousin's," Fu Zhengchu stated matter-of-factly. "We're a whole generation apart, how could we possibly be the same?"

Even with Yun Li's good temper, she was starting to find Fu Zhengchu's chatter a bit too much to bear. After finishing the last bite of her noodles, she wiped her mouth clean with a handkerchief.

She softly offered: "Don't be sad."

With teary eyes and curved brows, Fu Zhengchu felt as though he had finally dragged Yun Li over to his side, and eagerly awaited her next words of comfort.

Yun Li pursed her lips: "We're all ordinary people; we need to have a realistic sense of self-awareness."

Uncharacteristically, Fu Shize—who had remained silent for so long—finally chimed in: "Accepting yourself isn't scary."

"......"

As they walked downstairs, Yun Li noticed several dessert stalls set up in the center of the plaza, exclusively selling the cookies, biscuits, and pastries they had just seen in the cafeteria.

"Oh, they're selling them today," Fu Zhengchu remarked, somewhat surprised.

Distracted by the new environment, he completely forgot about what had just happened, turned his head, and playfully asked Fu Shize, "Little Uncle, do you want to eat any?"

Fu Shize didn't take the bait and directly exposed him: "If you want to eat, go buy some."

With that, he glanced at Yun Li as well. "You too."

Just as Yun Li was about to refuse, Fu Zhengchu didn't give her any opening at all, pushing her straight into the line.

The two of them grabbed sealed bags and tongs. Every time they reached a new biscuit display case, Fu Zhengchu would analyze its pros and cons, and whenever he spotted something he liked, he would pick up a couple of pieces for Yun Li as well.

Yun Li no longer had the energy to respond; this Fu Zhengchu was simply too talkative. And it wasn't just that he could talk—every little while he would throw a question her way, refusing to let up unless she answered.

Taking advantage of a brief lull in conversation, Yun Li asked: "Fu Zhengchu, did you also use to chat with your little uncle like this all the time?"

"I guess so." Fu Zhengchu tilted his head to think for a moment. "Though Little Uncle used to talk a lot more back then, not like how he is now."

Hearing this, Yun Li felt a flicker of curiosity: "What would he usually say to you?"

"He'd ask me if I was born with two mouths."

Yun Li looked outward.

Fu Shize was standing outside the crowd. Bathed in the enchanting and gorgeous sunset glow, he looked as aloof and detached as a towering building, lowering his head to play with his phone.

Unlike what she had imagined, even though Fu Shize mostly ignored Fu Zhengchu, his attitude toward him could practically be described as "indulgent." He was like a marimo moss ball—swelling up gradually when his emotions fluctuated, but never once exploding in anger.

If Yun Ye acted like that, Yun Li figured she would have already lost her temper long ago.

Once the two of them finished packing their biscuits and went to check out, they realized that in that short span of time, the queue had already stretched into a massive dragon.

"Let's head up front, Sister Li, Little Uncle is up there." Noticing Yun Li's surprised look, he added, "Whenever we went out to play in the past, Little Uncle was always the one who waited in line. Little Uncle is a professional line-stander."

Sure enough, she spotted Fu Shize's figure near the front of the queue.

Yun Li's pace slowed down a bit. She had already troubled him with quite a few things today, and looking hesitantly between their two bags of snacks, she asked, "Shouldn't we grab some for him too?"

She hadn't realized he was standing at the very front of the line earlier. It now felt as though they had sacrificed Fu Shize so the two of them could enjoy themselves alone—after all, while everyone else could freely pick whatever they liked, the person willing to stand in line had given up that right.

Fu Zhengchu didn't care in the slightest: "It's fine, Sister Li. Thanks to our cultivation, Little Uncle has successfully transformed into a service-oriented talent."

Without waiting for Yun Li's reaction, he handed both bags over to Fu Shize.

Fu Shize took them and switched his phone screen to the payment code. Seeing this, Yun Li reacted with lightning speed, pulling her campus ID card straight out of her pocket.

Fu Zhengchu was his nephew, but she wasn't; letting him pay for her things still felt a bit too awkward.

Yun Li: "I... you can just use my campus card to pay."

Fu Shize didn't take it, remaining completely silent.

After waiting for quite a while, her hand even starting to go numb, she still didn't get the expected response.

Yun Li looked up and discovered that both Fu Shize and Fu Zhengchu were staring at the photo on her campus ID card, with Fu Zhengchu pressing his face so close it was practically touching it.

Yun Li: "?"

Yun Li felt she might be overthinking things yet again. Her focus was on the fact that she shouldn't be letting Fu Shize pay for these expenses, while the other two were clearly on a completely different wavelength.

Fu Zhengchu: "Sister Li, this photo is actually quite nice. Is this from your undergraduate days?"

Hesitating for a moment, Yun Li replied, "It's from when I was in high school."

Fu Zhengchu paid no attention to the timeline of the photo, simply letting out a heartfelt sigh of admiration: "Sister Li, I think your hair was much longer and prettier than my sister's."

He looked toward his accomplice in a sense—Fu Shize—seeking resonance: "Little Uncle, don't you think so?"

Fu Shize didn't answer, withdrawing his gaze.

Yun Li instantly felt a bit awkward and flipped her campus ID card over.

When her undergraduate graduation photos were being collected, she happened to have matters to attend to back home, so the information system had directly reused her high school graduation photo instead. Back then, Yun Li still had hair cascading down to her waist, and only later cut it into a shoulder-length bob due to a change of heart.

At that time, a young Yun Ye had even cried for a good while because he couldn't accept it.

"I'll transfer the money to..." Yun Li painfully forced out the final two words, "...Little Uncle..."

Fu Zhengchu stated naturally: "It's fine, Sister Li, we're the juniors, Little Uncle would never let us pay."

Yun Li genuinely felt undeserving of the kindness. As someone of the same generation as Fu Shize, she found it hard to adapt to this "junior" identity.

"I think your little uncle is a really nice person. I feel like you shouldn't always bully him," she said, trying to sound casual before adding, "Besides, he even paid for us."

Fu Zhengchu: "Sister Li, that's not bullying. Anyway, Little Uncle doesn't have a girlfriend, so spending money on his juniors is fine."

"Oh, wait, didn't you say a lot of people wanted his phone number last time..."

"He gave it out a few times at the very beginning." He paused. "But Little Uncle never replied to any of them."

Yun Li fell silent for a brief moment. "He actually gives his number to other people?" Realizing her tone sounded a bit off, she quickly added, "I just meant he didn't seem like the type to do that, like when we had dinner together last time."

"What are you thinking?" Fu Zhengchu said with a proud look. "That's because we were the ones giving it out."

"Why?"

"To find an aunt to keep him in check."

Before long, Fu Shize returned carrying two bags of biscuits. Yun Li shouldered her "hard-earned" half-moon canvas bag, tucking her original small handbag and snacks right inside it.

Perhaps out of sheer satisfaction, she stood on tiptoe, turned sideways, and glanced down at the canvas bag.

Noticing that Yun Li liked EAW's prize, Fu Zhengchu curiously wondered if there was anything special about it: "Sister Li, how does it feel wearing it?"

Yun Li lowered her gaze to look at the bag, smiling shyly. "It's pretty good, it's just..." She lifted the canvas bag upward a bit, "kind of big."

Too embarrassed to strike poses or preen in front of the two of them, Yun Li jogged over to an open space two meters away to take a picture.

Fu Zhengchu unsealed a bag of biscuits out of boredom and ate a couple while watching Yun Li take pictures from afar. Perhaps out of sheer idleness, he inspected the canvas bag she was carrying for a moment, then suddenly let out a long gasp.

"Little Uncle, isn't this your profile picture?"

To substantiate his observation, Fu Zhengchu enlarged Fu Shize's WeChat profile picture and held it right up in front of him.

One was sky-blue, the other pitch-black.

Fu Zhengchu: "Look, the moon on it is identical."

Fu Shize looked at him as if he were mentally disabled.

Pushing his luck, the insatiable Fu Zhengchu leaned in and teased him with childish, suggestive remarks, keeping his voice low enough for only the two of them to hear: "Little Uncle, Sister Li just said you're big."

He was still chewing on a biscuit inside his mouth, making him exceptionally punchable.

Fu Shize: "......"

The sky was growing dark, and the speakers along the campus greenway were broadcasting the evening program. At the moment, a female host was interviewing a senior alumnus who had already graduated and entered the workforce.

"So, Senior Yin, as a former campus celebrity at the South Wuhu Institute of Technology who swept countless awards, your fans—including myself—are all very curious: what do you think is your biggest regret from your college years?"

The man's voice was warm and gentle like the wind, pleasant to the ear even over the static of the speakers. He let out a couple of light laughs and paused for a moment before answering: "That would probably be... not being in a relationship?"

"Over the past few years, my classmates even have kids running around."

Fu Zhengchu asked casually: "Sister Li, did you have this kind of regret during your undergrad years?"

Caught completely off guard, Yun Li instantly ran through a myriad of possible responses. Whichever one she chose, it would be an awkward self-revelation.

Was this Fu Zhengchu doing this on purpose?

Yun Li disliked prying into other people's private matters, largely because she was terrified of others probing into her own. Never having been in a single relationship was also proof in other people's eyes of her poor social skills.

Suddenly, the evening breeze felt a little cool. She rubbed the palms of her hands against her elbows and forced herself to admit: "I... have never been in a relationship."

Desperately seeking a way to pivot the conversation, she asked: "What about you guys?"

"Ah~" Fu Zhengchu tilted his head to think for a good while before answering with absolute certainty and casual nonchalance: "Dated four or five times, I guess, but none of them lasted long."

"Then..." The spotlight of the conversation shifted onto Fu Shize.

Fearing that he might harbor similar thoughts and view never having dated as a flaw, Yun Li weighed her words carefully and feigned ignorance as she asked: "Four or five times as well?"

Fu Shize tilted his head back slightly. His neck was fair, with blood vessels branching out like fine twigs. Just then, they walked past a white incandescent streetlamp, which ignited a candle-flame spark deep within his pupils.

He turned his head to look at her: "You certainly think highly of me."

"Sister Li, what Little Uncle means is..." Fu Zhengchu stepped in to translate, "asking him a question like that is already wildly overestimating him."

He put on a serious face: "After all, in our eyes, he's practically capable of asexual reproduction."

Yun Li: "......"

Fu Shize: "......"

The female host continued questioning the man: "Then, Senior Yin, what advice do you have for the newly arrived freshmen?"

The man muffled a laugh: "Well, I just hope everyone studies hard and doesn't forget to enjoy a wonderful campus romance in their spare time."

The interview concluded with the song Wonderland, which had recently become massively popular overseas, its intro swelling gradually in volume.

Fu Zhengchu couldn't help offering his critique: "They really shouldn't have invited this guy as a guest."

Yun Li: "Theoretically?"

Fu Zhengchu: "Chances are high that by the time Little Uncle's classmates' kids are all in elementary school, he still won't have a girlfriend."

He concluded: "Clearly, Little Uncle is much more qualified to speak on this."

The three of them strolled leisurely along the residential area.

Before they knew it, they arrived near West Street—a row of terraced shops built along the outer perimeter of the residential zone, mostly consisting of cafes meant for student entertainment and self-study.

A few stray cats lay lazily by the roadside, completely unfazed by pedestrians. When someone offered food, they would get up to take a couple of bites before sinking back down, too lazy to make any extra movements.

The streetlamps stretched their shadows long and slender, and from this angle, Yun Li and Fu Shize's silhouettes happened to overlap.

Since West Street practically led outside the school grounds, Fu Zhengchu checked the time and asked her: "Sister Li, we're going to watch a football match tonight over at the Nanhu Gymnasium. Are you coming?"

Yun Li didn't process it for a second. Football?

She was the kind of person who didn't even have the faintest concept of how many players were on a football field.

Yun Li: "I think I'll pass."

Fu Zhengchu: "Why?"

Yun Li: "Um, I don't understand it, and I'm afraid I'll ruin your fun."

Fu Zhengchu said with utmost seriousness: "Sister Li, we're going to watch the match, not play in it."

Seeing her hesitation, Fu Zhengchu made an executive decision and pointed at the convenience store across the street: "Let's go buy some more snacks to eat while we watch the game later."

The chain convenience store stocked all sorts of things—snacks, drinks, and fast food. While Yun Li was picking out milk in front of the open-air refrigerated display case, she inadvertently overheard the conversation between the two men nearby.

"So, Little Uncle, are you still not heading back to school?"

He hadn't graduated yet.

Yun Li, whose brain usually reacted a beat slow, was suddenly enlightened at that moment, instantly grasping the piece of information that Fu Shize was still pursuing his doctorate.

She slowly inspected the expiration date on the milk carton, though the dense block of black characters currently appeared completely low-resolution to her, while her ears remained exceptionally clear and attuned to the conversation over there.

After a moment, Fu Shize replied blandly: "Not returning."

"Then are you even going to graduate?" Fu Zhengchu asked in an astonished tone. "My boss said if I dare take a week off, my graduation will be delayed."

Fu Shize didn't answer, walking straight toward the cash register. Yun Li hurriedly pulled back her gaze, pretending she was still earnestly selecting milk.

"Classmate—" A familiar male voice rang out suddenly. Yun Li looked up to find a curly-haired guy standing beside her. "You've been picking out a bottle of milk for this long?"

Yun Li felt a bit awkward, terrified that Fu Shize and the others might hear: "I didn't pick for that long, I was just looking for a bit."

The guy let out a couple of light chuckles, leaning forward slightly: "But it looked like you took quite a while, huh? First you grabbed a carton of Guangming milk, then switched to Yili, and then switched to Mengniu. I happen to know there's a Yiming Fresh..."

Yun Li stepped back and frowned: "Do we know each other?"

"We don't, but..."

"If you don't know me, why," Yun Li paused, clutching the milk in her arms as she took another step back, "are you staring at me pick out milk?"

Without waiting for his reply, she spun around and hurried back to Fu Shize and Fu Zhengchu. Having been rebuffed, the guy had no choice but to swallow whatever else he wanted to say.

Fu Zhengchu glanced at the person standing by the refrigerated case: "Sister Li, is that a classmate of yours?"

Yun Li shook her head: "I don't know him."

Fu Zhengchu: "Then were you guys just chatting?"

Yun Li was currently turning the barcode of her purchases face up to hand them to Fu Shize. Hearing this, she hesitated for a moment and whispered: "No, he kept staring at me, and I felt like he was kind of..."

Unsure if the description was entirely appropriate, Yun Li lowered her voice even further: "...a creep."

Hearing this, Fu Zhengchu glanced back at the refrigerated case a few times.

Fu Shize accepted the items handed to him by Yun Li, aligned the barcodes with the scanner one by one, and placed them into a nearby bag. When he received the carton of fresh milk, his usual habitual motion paused, and the red laser light from the self-checkout scanner cast a glow across the outer packaging of the milk carton.

Thinking she had taken too many cartons of milk, Yun Li explained: "I grabbed three boxes, figuring you guys could have some too later."

Fu Shize continued scanning the barcodes and asked, "Chocolate flavor?"

Yun Li: "Oh, I couldn't find it when I first looked. If you want to drink some, I can go check the neighboring supermarket."

"Sister Li, there's some right behind you!" Fu Zhengchu reminded her.

Sure enough, Yun Li turned around and discovered that the chocolate milk was placed near the cash register. Because it was room-temperature milk, it hadn't been stored in the refrigerated case. She picked up the milk cartons she had just grabbed: "Then I'll go swap these at the register."

Fu Shize took two cartons from her hand and placed them back into the bag: "Just swap the one you want."

After checking out, they walked toward the direction of the parking lot. Yun Li's phone lit up with a video call from Yun Ye, which she promptly hung up. He instantly fired over a text message: [Is your mood better?]

Though the two of them mostly spent their time trading snarky remarks, when it counted, this younger brother of hers was actually quite reliable.

Yun Li's mood had already been decent, and at this moment it felt like it was soaring into the clouds: [Pretty good. Roamed around outside all day, heading to the next venue now.]

Yun Ye: [...]

Yun Ye: [Stop lying. It's only been two months, and you're already making friends?]

Yun Li's brows tightened, and she increased her typing speed slightly: [Don't be envious, don't worry, your older sister is doing great!!!!]

Yun Ye: [Sure, sure.]

A little while later.

Yun Ye: [A guy?]

Why would this kid ask that question?

Even though nothing had happened, whether due to a guilty conscience or not, Yun Li somehow felt as though answering honestly implied that something had happened.

Stealing a glance at Fu Shize, she replied with zero confidence: [A girl.]

Yun Ye figured she couldn't possibly have made a boyfriend in such a short span of time: [Fine. Where are you off to so late?]

Yun Li: [Watching football.]

Yun Ye: [Since when do you girls invite each other to watch football??]

Unaware of what she was doing, Yun Li kept typing away on her phone and ended up walking faster and faster.

Gradually, she lagged two meters behind the other two men.

Fu Zhengchu vaguely noticed Yun Li staring at an active chat window with several exclamation points, assuming she was complaining to someone about what had just happened earlier. Then, recalling how he had asked her for her WeChat at the airport, he simply concluded that Yun Li was rather inexperienced in this area.

He leaned in close to Fu Shize and whispered: "Can't Sister Li tell that guy was trying to chat her up? Did she actually mistake someone else for a perverted stalker?"

The canned potato chips and drinks inside his bag clinked rhythmically against each other.

Fu Shize asked: "What else would it be?"

Vaguely detecting a hint of disagreement in Fu Shize's tone, Fu Zhengchu didn't think much of it. Perhaps drawing from similar experiences, he defended her with empathetic conviction: "It was just a pure attempt to hit on her!" He sighed. "Right? Sister Li is so pretty, I never expected her to be so inexperienced in this regard."

"I'm inexperienced too," Fu Shize said, turning his head slightly. "Can't compare to you dating four or five times."

"......"

Upon arriving at the Nanhu Gymnasium, the three of them realized they had bought drinks for nothing. The gymnasium was currently filled with roaring noise and a peak atmosphere. Several security guards at the entrance were intercepting crowds carrying outside beverages, with a massive wooden board placed up front reading: "No Outside Food and Drinks Permitted."

Seeing this, Fu Shize walked back to the car to stow the items away. Yun Li and Fu Zhengchu entered the doors and waited in place, noticing that the vast majority of the audience was dressed in either white or black clothing.

The colors of the two competing teams—an obvious deduction.

"Do you guys have a team you're rooting for?"

"I do!" Fu Zhengchu lifted the hem of his shirt and shook it. "Aren't I wearing black?"

"But..."

Both she and Fu Shize were wearing white jackets.

With an expression that said he understood everything, Fu Zhengchu calmly stated: "It's fine, you guys just follow me!"

The spectators inside the stadium were separated by a central aisle, with people in black and white clothing seated on opposite sides.

Under the gaze of the surrounding crowd, the three of them walked straight into the black-clothing section. Almost every time a new person walked past, they would ask the two of them if they had sat in the wrong area.

After a brief moment, even Fu Zhengchu couldn't take the pressure anymore.

"Little Uncle, Sister Li, you guys should probably go to the other side."

Embarrassed, Yun Li picked up her bag and found a spot to sit in the white-clothing section, and Fu Shize followed, taking the seat right beside her.

The seats weren't wide, and whenever their knees accidentally brushed against each other, Yun Li would pull back as if she had been electrocuted.

Yun Li broke the silence first: "Are you rooting for this white team?"

Fu Shize: "No."

"Then do you usually watch matches?"

"I don't."

"Then are you just accompanying Fu Zhengchu today?"

Fu Shize looked back at her: "Aren't you?"

This awkward conversation made Yun Li want to dig a hole and crawl inside.

Fortunately, the match started shortly after, and the atmosphere across the entire stadium surged into life, sparing Yun Li from having to rack her brain to solve her communication problems with Fu Shize.

This was Yun Li's very first time watching a football match live.

In the past, she had browsed through plenty of commentary videos by uploaders, and Fei Shui—whom she had met during her store visit last time—was even somewhat famous for football commentary.

Yet being an observer versus being a direct participant offered completely different experiences.

Right now, Yun Li could truly feel that fervor.

To enhance the entertainment value, the Nanhu Gymnasium was even equipped with live commentary. The impassioned rhythm of the broadcaster's voice matched the roaring cheers of the crowd, pushing the stadium atmosphere to a climax in waves.

When Yun Li entered the gates, she had been handed two clappers, and by now, swept up by the momentum around her, she could clap along at the appropriate moments.

Before she knew it, Yun Li's emotions were also carried away by those around her, and when the white team scored their very first goal, she couldn't help clapping wildly.

Fu Shize: "......"

He had originally wanted to say something, but seeing Yun Li's face blooming with smiles, he closed his mouth again.

He simply pretended not to hear the noise.

With a heavy low-pressure aura lingering right beside her, Yun Li couldn't simply ignore it either.

After thinking for a moment, she held one of the clappers out toward him: "I feel like you can join in a bit more too, it's actually quite fun."

Fu Shize didn't take it.

A few seconds passed.

Yun Li clutched her own white jacket and pulled it upward slightly: "Aren't we on the white team's side?"

Originally neither of them cared about football, but by now Yun Li had completely defected.

Fu Shize could even detect a tiny trace of reproach in the slight pursing of her lips.

"......"

The two of them locked gazes, standing in profound silence against the blazing backdrop. Yun Li felt a flicker of tension, yet stubbornly maintained her gaze.

After a long moment.

"Clap, clap, clap!"

Submissively, Fu Shize took the clapper and wordlessly gave it a few waves.