When I Meet the Moon - Chapter 23

Chapter 23

“I was looking for you,” Yun Li didn't deny it, letting out a soft hum. “You drank too much, so I came to pick you up and take you back.”

Fu Shize asked, “You came here all by yourself?”

Yun Li nodded, then added, “The others drank a bit too much and it’s not very convenient for them to move around.”

Fu Shize stated, “I’m smoking right now.”

He hadn't had enough yet.

Hearing the implication in his words, Yun Li didn't move. “Then once you're done smoking, we'll head back?”

Seeing that Fu Shize didn't respond, she looked around, spotted a spot, and said, “Then you go ahead and smoke, I'll wait for you a little further away.”

After walking over, Yun Li played on her phone for a bit until Deng Chuqi messaged her: [Damn, this bar boss is so fucking handsome, where did you go? If you saw him, I guarantee you'd forget Xiaoxia's maternal uncle.]

Yun Li: [I'm very loyal; I only have my old love and no new flings.]

Drowning sorrows with alcohol, drowning sorrows with cigarettes—Fu Shize had tried both tonight. Yun Li was also feeling troubled right now. Before leaving the bar, she hadn't gotten any useful information from Xia Congsheng, and the two of them weren't close enough for her to speak her mind directly.

Speaking of being close—did he call her Yun Lili again just now?

Yun Li spaced out for a good while. Was it because everyone else called her Lili? Then why did he have to add the extra surname "Yun"?

Fu Shize walked back into the shadows and took out a cigarette. Just as he pulled out his lighter, his peripheral vision caught sight of Yun Li standing by the bridge, wrapping her light blue little jacket tightly around herself.

He looked back at the direction she had come from. He hadn't paid much attention when he arrived himself, but both sides were lined with early-built relocation housing. Low-wattage lights crawled with the remains of dead mosquitoes, and a few heavily intoxicated figures crouched in the dark.

With her timid personality, walking through this dark alleyway all by herself was something he found hard to imagine.

Putting the cigarette away, he walked over to Yun Li’s side. “Let’s head back.”

Unsure how Fu Shize had suddenly changed his mind and decided to head back directly, Yun Li deliberated for a moment and said, “I heard drinking sweet soup can help sober you up. I just checked and there’s a sweet soup shop nearby.”

Whenever Yun Yongchang drank too much alcohol in the past, he would always want something sweet afterward, claiming that too much alcohol made his stomach uncomfortable. Yun Li had temporarily searched on her phone and found an old shop just four hundred meters away.

Fu Shize didn't accept the offer: “No need, I didn't drink that much.”

Undeterred by his refusal, Yun Li said, “Actually, it’s because I had a bit to drink myself, and I won't be able to order delivery once I get back tonight. Could you please accompany me?”

She turned toward the dark path. “It’s not far either, just a few minutes' walk.”

Following the direction she pointed, the roads on both sides were pitch black.

Fu Shize said, “Let me see the map.”

Yun Li zoomed in on the map and handed her phone to him. He only glanced at it briefly before handing the phone right back.

Along the way, it was just the two of them. Yun Li kept some distance from Fu Shize; she had assumed he drank quite a bit, but watching him, his stride was very steady.

Yun Li had never been to this area before. The path was full of potholes the whole way, with hidden little corners everywhere. Looking closely, she could make out pairs of men and women hugging and kissing.

Just then, a few unsteady figures wandered into a secluded spot, their speech slurred as they struggled for a long time without managing to undo a metal belt buckle.

Suddenly, Fu Shize stopped, turned around, and looked at her: “Walk right next to me.”

“Oh...” Yun Li trotted over to his side.

The sweet soup shop was located in a small alley opposite 'Overtime'. The storefront was small, set up with six or seven small round tables. The entire shop only had the owner working in the open kitchen.

The available food items were written on a small blackboard.

“Take a look and see what you want to eat.”

Fu Shize had already found a seat and sat down. Only under the clear lighting did Yun Li notice that his pupils were suffused with a layer of mist. Without looking at the menu, he simply said, “Cola.”

“...”

Calling it sweet soup wasn't entirely wrong, strictly speaking.

Yun Li ordered a skewer of glutinous rice balls and a cup of mung bean ice, then sat down beside him.

The food was served quickly, placed on a small plate. Just as Yun Li picked up a glutinous rice ball, she paused for a moment and placed it in front of Fu Shize.

“Do you want to try this? I can share half with you.”

Fu Shize didn't refuse, using his chopsticks to slide one into his own bowl.

“This drink...”

Yun Li was drinking her mung bean ice. It was so watery it tasted no different from plain water, with dark brown sugar added to boost the sweetness. The bizarre texture left her momentarily at a loss for words to describe it.

On the other side, after waiting a good while without her continuing, Fu Shize asked slowly, “Want to share half of this with me too?”

“...”

After a brief internal struggle, Yun Li pushed the mung bean shake she had already been drinking straight across to him, facing the straw in his direction.

As someone trying to flirt directly for the very first time, Yun Li kept her expression completely composed while a stampede of wild horses raged in her heart.

What if he noticed?

What if he didn't notice?

Switching back and forth between these two thoughts, she carefully observed Fu Shize’s expression. He didn't seem to notice anything, pushing the mung bean ice back to Yun Li’s side instead. “Never mind.”

“Should we order some more?” Having eaten nothing all evening, Yun Li was also feeling a bit hungry. Seeing a small stall selling stir-fried rice noodles outside the sweet soup shop, she asked Fu Shize to wait a moment while she went to buy a portion.

When she returned carrying the stir-fried rice noodles, she saw two small stray dogs wagging their tails as they sat by the shop entrance. Fu Shize was sitting on a roadside stone block, holding a bowl of fishballs and poking them with a bamboo skewer.

Every time he poked a new one, the puppies would lean against his legs. Fu Shize would shake it twice to tease them before handing over the fishball.

It was a rare sight—such a warm and tender feeling emanating from him.

Seeing her return, Fu Shize set the bowl down on the ground and retreated back into the shop. “Let's finish eating before heading back.”

Yun Li said, “Qiqi just told me she and Xiaoxia went back first. I can just take this back to eat.”

Fu Shize looked at her and said, “I want to eat a little.”

After the two of them sat down again, Yun Li realized that Fu Shize hadn't had any other motive for saying that. He spooned some rice noodles into his own bowl, broke apart a pair of new chopsticks, and mixed in some braised food she had bought along the way.

Fu Shize looked half-sober and half-dazed. His movements were steady, but his gaze felt a bit off—calm like a pool of stagnant water.

It could also be interpreted as gentle like the spring waters of a river.

Unable to eat while facing that kind of gaze, Yun Li had no choice but to edge her chair closer to his direction so the two of them didn't have to face each other directly.

He broke apart another pair of new chopsticks.

“...”

Yun Li realized this abnormal state wasn't just her imagination. “Um, you seem a bit too drunk. Do you want to go back and rest early?”

Fu Shize stared at the rice noodles: “...Staying outside a bit longer.”

Yun Li: “?”

Fu Shize: “Difficulty falling asleep.”

With that said, he didn't say anything else for the rest of the meal, quietly eating his rice noodles. Sitting beside him, Yun Li tried her best to say sentence after sentence, but Fu Shize didn't react much to any of them.

When Xu Qingsong arrived to pick them up, the two of them had already finished eating. His family had sent a car, and he had the driver take Yun Li and Fu Zhengchu back.

Fu Shize got into the car by himself while Xu Qingsong sat beside him and handed him a wet wipe.

“Still awake?”

“Mhm.”

“Where to? Beishan Maple Woods?”

“No, go to Jiangnan Garden.”

Xu Qingsong fell silent for a moment before teasingly remarking, “How can you let a little girl take care of you, old drunkard?”

Fu Shize pressed his temples. “Is that so?” His head felt painfully throbbing. He rolled down the car window, letting the cold wind rush in alongside the roaring engine sound, which cleared his head by half.

He suddenly remembered what Yun Li had said right before parting ways.

“If you have something on your mind that you want someone to listen to, but don't want anyone to know—”

“...You can say it to my left ear.”

Back home, Fu Shize fumbled in the dark to turn on the lights. The massive house was dead silent, furnished with only basic pieces that bore no trace of human habitation. He grabbed a bottle of ice-cold water from the fridge and pressed it against his forehead, trying to relax his tense nerves.

Glancing at his phone, he saw one or two missed calls from his parents. Fu Shize ignored them, tossing the phone aside as he splashed cold water on his face to shake off the alcohol buzz that had accumulated all evening.

Retrieving a black-packaged box from his bag, he unwrapped it, took out the drone inside, and placed it on the coffee table.

After a long silence.

In the empty house, his soft voice broke the quiet: “Happy birthday.”

The next day, Monday, Yun Li arrived at EAW early.

There weren't many people in the company yet. After clocking in, Yun Li first checked the group chat logs to make sure there were no tasks assigned to her, then grabbed the bread and milk she had bought on the way to eat breakfast in the break room.

The break room was empty, with a stack of flyers scattered loosely across the long table. She picked one up at random to take a look; it announced EAW Tech City's Halloween event for tonight, which would feature a plaza market.

Uninterested, Yun Li put it back down and settled into a lazy beanbag chair.

As she scrolled through her phone, the dream from the previous night surfaced in her mind, playing back frame by slow frame. Several scenes made her heart race, only to stop finally in the sweet soup shop, where he sat in absolute silence.

Like a decadent, fragile porcelain doll.

Not long after, the break room door opened. Yun Li looked up and saw Fu Shize walking in with a mug. He had changed into a different outfit, shedding last night's drunken air entirely as his eyes were clear, sharp, and cold.

Yun Li hadn't expected him to arrive so early. “Good morning.”

Fu Shize gave a polite nod and turned toward the coffee machine.

“...”

“?”

Although Yun Li didn't harbor huge expectations for Fu Shize's responses, this stranger-like dynamic was definitely not within her anticipated range.

Fu Shize took a bag of coffee beans from the upper cabinet, weighed it in his hand, and frowned slightly.

Opening it up, he confirmed there were barely any beans left inside. Pouring the scant remaining coffee beans into the hopper, he folded the packaging bag into a small ball and tossed it into the trash can.

Watching his sequence of actions, Yun Li asked softly, “What's wrong?”

Fu Shize: “Out of coffee beans.”

Yun Li leaned in to take a look; indeed, there didn't seem to be many left. “Can this still be brewed?”

“Just about enough for one cup.”

Seeing Yun Li standing there without moving, Fu Shize looked at her: “Do you want it?”

It made her look like a bully who saw there were only a few beans left and specifically came to snatch the very last cup.

Yun Li shook her head: “No.”

Suddenly remembering the well-known coffee roastery mentioned among the market stalls on the flyer, Yun Li handed the flyer to him: “There's a Halloween event inside Hantian Mall tonight with lots of small stalls set up. One of them sells coffee beans.”

“Mhm.”

Yun Li: “...”

Yun Li got more direct: “I also want to buy some coffee beans, but I'm not very good at picking them.”

“Can you accompany me there?”

Fu Shize stared at the extracted coffee liquid and asked, “What time tonight?”

Yun Li was stunned for a second: “Eight o'clock.”

“Mhm.”

Unable to suppress the corners of her lips curling upward, Yun Li hurried to say, “I'm going to work first,” fearing Fu Shize would catch on.