When I Meet the Moon - Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Yun Li could no longer remember where she had tossed that robot. In her memory, on the day the competition ended, the team captain had told them to take their respective robots home as souvenirs. At the time, Yun Ye had even cradled a controller and played with it for several days straight, absolutely unable to put it down.

On a sudden whim, Yun Li wanted to tinker with that robot again. After getting off work, Yun Li waited dryly in her rented apartment until ten o'clock, and the moment the time struck, she immediately placed a video call to Yun Ye.

Yun Ye: [The recipient declined your call request]

Yun Li: [Why did you hang up on my call]

Yun Li: [？？？]

Over on the other end, Yun Ye was currently rushing toward the school gate with his schoolbag on his back. Knowing all too well the consequences of ignoring Yun Li, he didn't forget to reply on the way: [I'm still at school].

As he swiped his campus ID to head out the gate, his phone vibrated, and a giant red circle appeared on his WeChat interface: [Message sent, but rejected by the recipient.]

Yun Ye: "......"

Taking a deep breath after being thrown onto the blacklist, Yun Ye had no choice but to call back via video chat on another messaging app. The screen was dim, and Yun Li could only see a face half-resembling her own shoved right up against the camera lens, full of grievances: "I'm still at school."

Yun Li complained plaintively: "So answering my calls requires checking the occasion now."

Yun Ye: "......"

Yun Ye: "There are people around."

Yun Li gave him a side-glance, and Yun Ye panicked: "My classmates will think you're my girlfriend."

Yun Li: "?"

After making sure there was nobody around, Yun Ye finally relaxed his entire body: "Spit it out, what is it."

Yun Li cut straight to the point: "Do you remember that robot soccer competition I participated in back in high school? Later on, I brought the robot home, right? Go back and help me look for it, and have Mom find some time to mail it over to me."

Yun Ye: "Oh."

Yun Ye asked again: "When are you coming home?"

To Yun Ye's routine urging for her return, Yun Li chose to ignore it.

Yun Ye was a day student whose walk home took less than ten minutes. Once he arrived home, he headed straight for Yun Li's bedroom and flipped the camera around.

Yun Li saw her familiar bedroom as Yun Ye flipped through the drawers one by one, most of which contained aged, antiquated items with letters and paper yellowed with age. It wasn't until the very bottom drawer that he found the robot.

So many years had passed, and apart from looking a bit loose and rickety, the robot hadn't undergone any other changes.

"Should be this one, right?"

"Mhm."

"Then I'm packing it away." Just as Yun Ye was about to push the drawer shut, Yun Li's sharp eyes caught sight of a gold-foil envelope inside.

"Mail that blue envelope together with it, and also that little soccer ball next to the trophy. Hanging up now."

"Wait!!" Probably not expecting Yun Li to show zero mercy after using him up, Yun Ye failed to control his volume and instantly flipped the camera back to himself.

Yun Li eyed him warily: "I'm not talking to Dad."

Yun Ye wore an expression of speechlessness, uneasily scratching his forehead with his index finger. "No, unblock me from your WeChat blacklist."

He Jiameng had arranged for her to pick up boxed meals together with Fu Shize on Friday.

Arriving at the company bright and early, He Jiameng was scheduled to deliver materials to another city. Before leaving, she pulled Yun Li aside to whisper a complaint: "That Du Gefei from last time actually came to our company. Her parents seem to be elementary school classmates with the boss's parents. I never expected they could climb up a connection from such a distant past."

Yun Li had an ominous premonition.

This premonition was quickly fulfilled. Upon returning to her workstation, Yun Li discovered that her desk had acquired a lot of extra items: not only was a women's leather jacket draped over her chair, but a water cup and a tube of lipstick were scattered messily across the desktop, and a pair of slippers sat beneath the table.

The other colleagues hadn't arrived for work yet, and there were no empty desks left in the office either.

Just as Yun Li was pondering what to do, the door suddenly opened and Du Gefei walked in. Seeing Yun Li, she looked somewhat surprised, but still waved and greeted her with forced familiarity.

They had pretty much drawn battle lines with each other last time. Now that they were in the same department, Yun Li didn't want to make things awkward either, so she gave an unnatural "mhm" in response.

Du Gefei walked straight over and sat down at her desk.

"This seems to be my seat." Yun Li reminded her.

The person sitting in the chair didn't move. Pulling out a pocket mirror to inspect her eyelashes, she replied: "When I came to work yesterday, they said our internship schedules are different, so whoever comes to work gets to sit."

Yun Li swallowed her pride: "What if our schedules overlap?"

"Brother Qin said you're a nice person and wouldn't fight me for the seat."

"......"

"Brother Qin" likely referred to Qin Haifeng, a full-time employee in the same department whom Yun Li had met on her very first day of internship. Convinced she had already resolved the issue, Du Gefei added: "I haven't touched your things, so don't touch mine either."

Yun Li realized that hoping not to make things awkward was entirely her own wishful thinking.

Her face dropped any remaining expression: "Well, aren't you just full of rules."

"Yep." Du Gefei blinked at her. "Right, I remember you interviewed for the technical department that day. How come you ended up in HR just like me?"

She plastered on an exaggerated look of perplexity. "Or did you get rejected?"

Yun Li: "......"

Du Gefei continued: "Don't be too sad either. We're all just wage slaves anyway; if you don't have the capability, you shouldn't eat this bowl of rice."

"......"

Qin Haifeng arrived at that moment. Seeing the two of them, he smiled warmly and said: "Morning. Oh right, Yun Li, Feifei is also interning here. The two of you should only overlap on Fridays, and there are seats in the break room too, so figure out how to split them between yourselves."

"Brother Qin, Lili is much nicer and said she'd give the seat to me." Du Gefei's voice softened considerably as she looked at Yun Li. "Right?"

To her surprise, Yun Li didn't play along at all and stated flatly: "I didn't."

Yun Li wasn't a fool either. Since "Brother Qin" and "Feifei" were already out in the open, she saw no point in wasting her energy here. She picked up her bag and walked right out the door.

The moment the outside air rushed against her face, Yun Li finally felt herself calm down.

She never expected to run into such dog-blood drama on only her second day of internship.

Fortunately, when she reached the doorway of the break room, it was empty inside.

Yun Li found a seat and sat down. For the moment, she had no idea how to handle such a situation; perhaps she would just have to wait for He Jiameng to return and ask her about it.

This was Yun Li's first time encountering someone like Du Gefei.

Staying in the break room for a while, Yun Li's nerves remained in a state of tension, terrified that someone might push the door open at any second.

She never expected the first person to enter would be Fu Shize.

He glanced at Yun Li, walked over to the coffee bar area, scooped a spoonful of coffee beans, and pressed the button. His white shirt paired with suit trousers stretched his long legs into straight, clean lines.

Yun Li heard the sound of coffee beans being ground to pieces.

Once the coffee machine started extraction, Fu Shize made a slight adjustment to the cup's position, then leaned against the counter, lowering his gaze to watch the water spout.

Yun Li stared at Fu Shize's back until the dripping sound stopped and Fu Shize picked up his cup to leave. Only then did she speak up: "Um, that coffee smells really good."

Fu Shize stopped in his tracks, turning his head to look at her: "You want some too?"

Yun Li blinked in a daze.

Fu Shize put the cup back on the bar counter and picked up a disposable paper cup instead. While waiting for the coffee this time, he asked: "Why are you sitting in here?"

Yun Li didn't want Fu Shize to know that her workspace had been stolen—it made her look far too spineless—so she answered vaguely: "I came in here to sit for a few minutes..."

He didn't probe further. Before sliding the coffee over to Yun Li, he placed two packets of granulated sugar and an individually wrapped stirring stick right beside it.

Having managed to muddle through, Yun Li breathed a sigh of relief.

With a bitter ache in her heart, Yun Li picked up the coffee and took a sip. The moment the liquid hit her tongue, Yun Li scrunched her face up tightly.

Did he really like drinking something this bitter?

Gathering her resolve, Yun Li dumped both packets of sugar into the coffee and stirred in circles with the stirring stick.

As it neared ten o'clock, Fu Shize re-entered the break room. Yun Li hadn't expected him to show up twice in a single morning.

Seeing Yun Li, he didn't seem surprised at all, walking straight to the bar to make himself another cup of coffee.

Yun Li felt like someone caught red-handed while committing a bad deed.

This time, Fu Shize showed no intention of leaving. He pulled out a chair for himself, sat down, and leaned back while leisurely sipping his coffee.

The two of them sat diagonally across from each other doing absolutely nothing, and no matter how you looked at it, the atmosphere was bizarre.

After a while, Yun Li genuinely couldn't take it anymore and took the initiative to ask: "Don't you have work to do?"

Fu Shize: "Slack off."

Sitting in the chair, Fu Shize propped his face with one hand, gazing out the blinds. Sunlight spilled over his bony eye sockets. After a moment, he asked Yun Li: "Got a book?"

Yun Li pulled the book How I Found My First Job? out of her bag and handed it over to Fu Shize.

"......"

Though they were supposed to pick up the meals together, Fu Shize hadn't given her a heads-up.

When Yun Li returned from a trip to the restroom, she discovered that the boxed meals had already been placed on the break room table, and the surrounding seats were entirely filled. Yun Li stepped inside for barely a second before backing right out.

Resigned to her fate, she headed back into the office, found an empty chair, and sat down for a while.

Once her colleagues returned, Yun Li felt awkward again and simply fled to find a lounge chair in the Technology City to sit on.

Yun Li felt as though she practically had the word "spineless" tattooed across her face.

After sitting outside for roughly forty-five minutes, Yun Li finally pushed open the door to the break room like a defeated soldier.

Only the very last boxed meal remained in the bag, and it was completely cold through and through.

In low spirits, Yun Li sat in front of her desk and zoned out for a long time, until someone pushed open the break room door.

Both of their gazes landed on the final boxed meal.

Fu Shize spoke first: "Eaten?"

Yun Li hesitated for a moment before saying: "I've eaten. What about you?"

Fu Shize fell silent for a beat before replying: "Eaten."

"......"

The two of them lapsed into silence for dozens of seconds. Yun Li grew somewhat suspicious: "Then you came in... is there something you needed?"

"...To make a cup of coffee."

True to his word, he walked over to the bar, made himself a cup of coffee, and then opened the door and left.

Originally, Yun Li had thought Fu Shize hadn't eaten lunch and wanted to leave this meal for him. Perhaps she also had a lingering, quiet sense that Fu Shize could never have taken this meal away knowing full well she hadn't eaten.

Her stomach was growling with hunger, yet she still had no idea why she insisted on putting up a front.

Staring at the boxed meal on the desk, Yun Li swallowed hard.

Glancing toward the doorway a few times, Yun Li placed the boxed meal into the microwave on the bar counter. The room filled with the humming sound of the microwave cavity at work, and shortly after with a ding, the microwave light went out as well.

When she took the boxed meal back out, the surface was still steaming hot and somewhat burning to the touch. Opening it up, Yun Li saw it was a Western-style simple meal: two long pork ribs, a fried egg, and a side of salad greens.

Acting like a thief, Yun Li cradled the boxed meal, peeked outside the break room first, and only stepped out once she made sure nobody was around.

Worried that Fu Shize might turn back, Yun Li didn't dare stay in the break room to eat. Having already told Fu Shize that she had "eaten," she had zero desire to be caught red-handed opening that exact same box of food and continuing her meal.

She returned to that chair inside Technology City.

"I really have quite a connection with you today."

Muttering to herself, Yun Li sat down, placed the boxed meal on her thighs, opened the lid, and transferred the side dishes onto the separate compartment containing the rice. Unexpectedly, it tasted pretty good.

Halfway through her meal, Yun Li spotted Fu Shize walking over from the corner, holding a paper-bag-wrapped croissant and eating it slowly.

The instant their eyes locked.

"......"

"......"

Yun Li hadn't processed it in time—didn't Fu Shize just say he'd already eaten?

Without any avoidance, Fu Shize walked right over to her side and sat down half a meter away.

Both of them tacitly began acting like masters of riddles.

Fu Shize asked her: "Is the boxed meal good?"

Yun Li: "...Pretty good."

Yun Li: "Is the croissant good?"

Fu Shize: "......"

Fu Shize: "Not bad either."

There was a vending machine along the path back to the company. Passing by it, Fu Shize paused his steps, shoved a few coins into the coin slot, and waited for quite a while until the spiral-shaped storage rack rotated outward a few centimeters and a heavy bottle of beverage collided against the machine with a dull thud.

Fu Shize popped open his sugar-free cola with a hiss, then took a sip.

Yun Li operated the vending machine as well, selecting a bottle of mint soda. Before she could even open her phone to scan the QR code for payment, she heard a few clinking sounds.

Fu Shize tossed a few more coins inside.

The two of them quietly held their breath in anticipation as the storage rack rotated outward with the soda Yun Li had bought, which then dropped straight down vertically. Before Yun Li could utter words of thanks, she saw Fu Shize bend over, retrieve the mint soda from the collection slot, and hand it to her.

"Thank you." Yun Li took the soda, the aluminum can icy enough to feel like an electric shock.

Hooking her finger under the pull-tab, Yun Li popped the soda open and took a sip.

The mint-flavored sparkling water delivered a slight tingling sensation upon entry, but once swallowed, it left a wonderfully refreshing feeling behind.

As if prearranged, the two of them took turns drinking their sodas at a steady, unhurried pace.

After lingering in place for a few minutes, Yun Li heard Fu Shize squeeze his aluminum can flat before tossing it into the nearby trash bin. The dented can clattered against the plastic bin, bouncing like a spring down onto the pile of cans at the bottom.

"Let's head back."

Fu Shize turned and walked back. After hesitating for a moment, Yun Li tossed her soda away and hurried after him to walk side-by-side.

Xu Qingsong happened to be walking back from outside, drinking a cup of coffee while carrying another one in his hand.

"Hey, you two are together." Xu Qingsong greeted Yun Li naturally, then turned his head to tell Fu Shize: "Xiaozhu's wasn't open today, so just drink this one."

He handed the coffee to Fu Shize, paused halfway through the air, and redirected it toward Yun Li: "Here."

Fu Shize: "?"

"I don't need—"

After a few seconds of silence, Yun Li still accepted it under the weight of both their gazes.

If they hadn't run into each other, that would be one thing, but since they had, Xu Qingsong probably felt it wouldn't look good to fail to bring coffee for a subordinate or a lady.

"Thank you," Yun Li said.

Xu Qingsong raised an eyebrow: "Don't mention it." He took another sip of his coffee and said with a clear conscience: "Aze paid for this cup."

"......"

Having spent the entire afternoon holed up in the break room, Yun Li discovered that Fu Shize viewed coffee as his lifeblood. He kept track of his coffee intake using tally marks, and the paper already had two complete characters written out.

She couldn't even begin to imagine how he managed to fall asleep at night.

After returning home that evening, Yun Li collapsed onto her bed, failing to find the energy to complain to Deng Chuqi about today's events before drifting into a deep sleep.

Whether it was due to being riled up into a state of internal depletion by Du Gefei, upon waking up the next day, Yun Li welcomed her very first severe cold in Nanwu.

Through the entire weekend, Yun Li curled herself up inside her blanket, sleeping in pitch darkness.

One moment she dreamed of Fu Shize holding a straight-handled umbrella with a cold smile.

Another moment she dreamed of Fu Shize lifting her straight out of the motorcycle.

Yet another moment she dreamed of Fu Zhengchu crying and demanding that his uncle play house with him.

When Deng Chuqi called her and heard the nasal congestion and disjointed logic in her voice, she didn't even bother cleaning up the leftover mess at home before rushing to the supermarket to buy a mountain of groceries, arriving at Qixiang Capital with bags upon bags to take care of her.

When Yun Li wrapped herself in a blanket to open the door, only her eyes-closed face was exposed, looking dazed and foggy.

"You look so much like Deng Chuqi."

"......"

After opening the door, she retreated like a furry caterpillar back onto the sofa.

Deng Chuqi put the groceries away in the fridge and tidied up the place for a bit.

While cleaning up the trash around the computer desk, she noticed a photo resting by the printer's output tray. Holding it up in shock, she rushed right in front of Yun Li: "Holy crap, you guys even have a photo together?"

With her eyes closed, Yun Li took the photo and shoved it deep into the crevice of the sofa, her breathing rhythm completely unchanged.

"......"

Two days passed, and though Yun Li's fever had dropped slightly, she remained overwhelmingly sleepy.

Right before leaving on Sunday night, Deng Chuqi even specially simmered a large pot of porridge for her and left it in the refrigerator, instructing her to pop it in the microwave for a bit before eating.

"Can't you ever take proper care of yourself?" Deng Chuqi felt a pang of heartache, pressing her forehead against Yun Li's; it wasn't as burning hot as it had been at first.

Yun Li muttered under her breath, and as Deng Chuqi leaned closer, she only caught a few fragments.

"I want to be a mother..."

"......"

Deng Chuqi wore a bizarre expression: "I gave you so many opportunities and you wouldn't cooperate, yet running a fever like this has you thinking about having Fu Shize's babies?"

Tucking the blanket securely around her, Deng Chuqi finally left.

On Monday morning, the alarm clock rang for over ten minutes before Yun Li groggily woke up. The room was dim, and enduring a splitting headache, Yun Li switched on the light.

Checking her temperature with a thermometer, she found it had dropped to 37.5 degrees Celsius.

She hadn't eaten a thing since Deng Chuqi left, and by this point, her stomach was growling audibly.

Lading out a bowl of white porridge to heat up, Yun Li sat down at the table and drank two spoonfuls of warm food before her limbs finally regained a bit of strength.

She still had work today.

Yun Li had discussed it with Fang Yuning: she would go in two and a half days a week, half a day less than a normal intern.

Her graduate program only required a little over twenty credits, and having completed half of them this semester, Yun Li had deliberately concentrated her classes between Tuesday and Thursday, with evening classes stretching until nine o'clock. Consequently, for these three months, her fixed schedule was Monday, Wednesday morning, and Friday at EAW, while Tuesday through Thursday were virtually full days of classes.

"You don't need to go to your internship today, right? Just skip your classes at school too." Deng Chuqi had sent her a voice message.

Having interned at EAW for only two days, Yun Li struggled internally for a moment, but still felt reluctant to ask for leave.

Her fever had subsided, and not wanting to worry Deng Chuqi, Yun Li told a white lie: "Mm-hm, I'm following whatever management says."

Dragging herself through a hazy, muddled day at the company, she caught a slight chill during her lunch break and distinctly felt her cold worsen.

As quitting time approached, Qin Haifeng brought over a few documents and asked her to process them and hand them over to him tonight.

Having heard from He Jiameng that the department generally didn't do overtime, Yun Li racked her brain and figured she hadn't offended him last week either.

At this moment, Yun Li's brain was a complete mess of mush.

She wanted to say something, but her throat felt as though it was tearing apart with pain, leaving her with no choice but to nod and sit down.

The tasks were all petty, trivial assignments that didn't look urgent—asking her to cross-verify whether the purchase orders and warehousing receipts from the past two weeks matched. Obediently clutching a cup of hot water, Yun Li checked them one by one, paying no attention to how much time had slipped by.

Yun Li remembered doing homework with a fever when she was a child, which seemed rather comical; now that she was an adult, she still had to work overtime with a fever.

Qin Haifeng hadn't left either, sitting steadily in front of his desk while staring intently at his screen.

Yun Li thought to herself: At least the colleague is willing to work overtime together...

Later, Qin Haifeng went to the restroom and didn't return for quite a while. When Yun Li went to the break room to get some water, she glanced over and saw his screen flashing with bright, colorful lights—he had a game of Dou Dizhu open.

"......"

Yun Li normally never touched other people's things, but this time she used the mouse to click on the login timestamp within the personal profile page: it read 5:30 PM today, and it was already eight o'clock now.

An indescribable feeling churned in her chest.

Once Qin Haifeng returned, he packed up his things and offered Yun Li a casual parting remark: "Don't work too late either. Just leave the finished stuff on my desk and you can head home."

The door slammed shut with a heavy clank.

The office fell into a desolate, hollow silence.

Sitting at her desk, Yun Li found her nose completely blocked up while her eyes burned with a stinging acidity.