When I Meet the Moon - Chapter 39

Chapter 39

The wind died down, leaving only the decorative light strings to flicker occasionally. Holding her breath, Yun Li stared in sheer disbelief at Fu Shize.

It wasn't because of what he had said, but rather his tone of voice.

It carried a hint of willing vulnerability, tinged with a grievance akin to coquettish spoiledness.

With her body stiff and her gaze fixed straight ahead, Yun Li didn't dare make eye contact with him in the slightest, her fingers tightening unconsciously around the hand warmer.

"..."

Seeing that she offered no response, Fu Shize urged her again with a soft, coaxing murmur, "Hmm?"

Yun Li's mind had gone completely and utterly blank.

The breath washing over her right ear carried a non-threatening sort of aggression, as if pouring all the warmth of this chilly night into those few steady breaths.

An illusion unwittingly took hold of her; he looked like a down-and-out, dejected large dog, whimpering and begging for affection.

In an instant, all of Yun Li's psychological defenses were thoroughly breached.

She answered uncontrollably, "No..."

The moment the word slipped out, Yun Li wanted to give herself a heavy blow to the head.

Ahhhhhhhhh, what on earth did she just answer?!

She had clearly already given up!!

Hearing her reply, the person beside her remained silent, gently releasing his grip on Yun Li's wrist.

The distance between their faces, which had been so close just moments before, suddenly widened, and the human heat source receded.

Before Yun Li could recover from the shock and remorse of her tongue betraying her mind, she began to wonder if her answer had been inappropriate, and lifted her eyes to look at him.

"What is it?"

Fu Shize averted his gaze unnaturally, his expression obscured and unreadable: "I might just be a bit nervous."

"..."

Yun Li lost all composure, yet she also realized that she was entirely powerless to resist in front of Fu Shize. Accepting her fate, she lowered her head and asked softly, "Why did you ask me that..."

Fu Shize didn't answer right away. Keeping hold of her wrist, he traced the pad of his thumb gently across her pulse point. With his eyelids lowered, half of his gaze was concealed: "Still don't understand?"

His touch was entirely natural, as if the intimacy between them was how things were always meant to be.

The skin at her fingertips was delicate, and even though it was chilled, it scratched a tickling itch deep into her heart.

Fu Shize said nothing further, waiting quietly as the person before him battled through her inner struggle.

After her heart fluttered like a startled deer, Yun Li sank into a profound state of bewilderment.

The newly sprouted possibilities dredged up a thousand threads of hope from the deepest recesses of her heart, yet she simultaneously could not forget the heartbreak of that moment she gave up, nor the hidden, grueling agony behind each rejection. On the flip side of continuing to chase her dream was the desperate gasping for breath of her hanging-by-a-thread endurance.

Yet, this was the person she had yearned for day and night.

She feared that her retreat would extinguish the final flickering flame of the candle, bringing about his permanent withdrawal.

Yun Li spoke with difficulty: "Then... that person they said you were planning to date..."

Without a moment of hesitation, Fu Shize replied: "It was you."

Yun Li froze.

Fu Shize: "The person I wanted to date was you."

His tone was calm and resolute.

It had always been her.

There had never been anyone else.

"Clatter."

A crisp sound rang out as Fu Shize accidentally brushed against the glass tumbler, causing its rim to knock sharply against the liquor bottle. In the grip of heightened emotional fluctuation, Yun Li clutched at this sound like a drowning person grabbing a straw, and hastily blurted out: "You're drunk."

Fu Shize glanced at her sideways: "I'm not."

Yun Li insisted instinctively: "No, no, you are drunk."

"..."

"Fine." Fu Shize chuckled, abandoning any further rebuttal as he leaned back against the hammock and watched her. "Then I'll wait until I sober up."

Looking at the upward curve of his lips, Yun Li found it surreal; this was the very first time she had ever witnessed him smile.

She could not ignore the unnamed, profound sentiment swirling in his brows and eyes.

Leaning against the hammock with the back of his head resting directly against the ropes, the man showed no fear of its swaying motion as he watched her with patient tranquility.

Unable to bear the heart-bursting intensity pulsing through her chest at that moment, Yun Li shoved the hand warmer directly into Fu Shize's arms and scrambled up in a flurry: "I'm heading back now. Can you head back too, please?"

Fu Shize: "Mm."

Just as he was about to stand up, Yun Li added: "Could you wait another minute or two? Because I came out by myself."

"..."

Fu Shize lay back down, wearing a deadpan expression as he uttered a single affirmative hum.

After taking only a few steps, Yun Li turned around and hurried back.

Ever since she had turned to leave, Fu Shize's gaze had remained fixed on her. As their eyes locked once more, Yun Li asked with a trace of insecure doubt: "When you sober up, will what you said tonight still count?"

Her words carried a cautious, self-doubting fragility.

Fu Shize answered concisely and directly: "It counts."

Yun Li bit her lip: "Then don't drink the rest of that half-bottle."

That way he could sober up sooner.

Fu Shize let out a soft sound of agreement deep in his throat.

Still feeling uneasy, Yun Li said: "I'm taking it with me."

"..."

On the walk back, the biting wind helped Yun Li reclaim a shred of rationality. The deeply buried thoughts in her mind found validation tonight—those subtle details she had once doubted might not have been illusions after all.

The base-layer sweater he wore today was pure black, a piece she hadn't seen him wear yesterday.

It wasn't that he lacked a change of clothes. He had simply tried something he normally never would because she liked how it looked.

He was wearing it for her to see.

Throughout this emotional tug-of-war, Yun Li had been the vulnerable party, feeling too humble and small to dare guess the motivations behind his actions.

What he had said just now... did it count as an admission?

Unable to curb the upward tug of her lips, Yun Li felt as though a jar of honey had overturned inside her chest. Pulling her coat tighter around herself, she glanced back as she neared the house and saw that Fu Shize, standing a hundred meters away, had also come to a halt.

Fidgeting with her hands in her pockets for a moment, Yun Li couldn't help walking back toward him: "How about... we just walk back together? If anyone asks, we can just say we ran into each other along the path."

Fu Shize nodded and fell into step beside her.

The sound of boisterous shouting drifted from inside the villa as they approached the doorway. When Yun Li opened the door and stepped inside, she saw that Chen Renran's face was flushed a brilliant red all the way up past his collar, suggesting he had consumed a fair amount of alcohol. The moment the group spotted the two of them coming in, conversation ground to an abrupt, simultaneous halt.

Yun Li offered them a brief greeting. Fu Zhengchu intercepted Fu Shize to say something, and after a moment of hesitation, Yun Li didn't linger; she headed straight upstairs and left the liquor bottle right outside the door of Fu Shize's room. Soft music was still drifting from within.

Once inside her own room, Yun Li pressed her back against the door, waiting quite a while until she heard the sound of the adjacent door clicking shut.

He was back in his room, too.

Hiding behind the door, she could almost picture his unhurried silhouette walking down the hall, a single imagined image powerful enough to send her heart racing. In the span of just those past thirty minutes, all of Yun Li's gloomy anxiety from the preceding two weeks had instantly vanished into thin air.

Yun Li had never imagined that this pursuit, which even she herself had given up on, might ultimately end in fulfillment.

Like a sailboat drifting aimlessly across the deep sea for over a month, she had finally caught sight of the reefs near the shore.

She dashed over to her bed and flung herself flat across it in a sprawling star shape, still finding the reality of it all hard to believe.

...

Staring at Yun Li's closed door, Fu Shize waited quietly for a beat before swiping his keycard to enter his own room.

The interior was warmly lit, and the wooden vintage audio system on the desk was playing folk music from the previous century. Xu Qingsong was lounging against the bay window, flipping through an old, paper-yellowed English original novel.

Fu Shize casually set the liquor bottle and tumbler down on the entryway shelf. Xu Qingsong glanced over—the bottle was less than half empty, showing far more restraint than usual.

Before reading two lines of text, he looked up again. It had been over a year since he had last seen Fu Shize wear such a relaxed expression.

Shifting his gaze back to his book, Xu Qingsong smiled and asked, "Where did you run off to?"

Sinking into the sofa while scrolling through his phone, Fu Shize answered, "Confessing my feelings."

Thinking he must have misheard, Xu Qingsong paused mid-page-turn, tilted his head, and asked, "Confessing?"

After a brief mental computation, Xu Qingsong guessed, "Yun Li?"

Fu Shize didn't deny it.

"I only just figured out why you insisted on wearing my clothes yesterday."

Xu Qingsong had noticed the signs much earlier, though he had dismissed the possibility with entirely logical reasoning. Smiling, he asked, "Did I end up messing things up between you two?"

Fu Shize lowered his head to ponder for a moment before replying calmly, "It's fine this way."

Xu Qingsong: "?"

She didn't seek him out. If he wanted to see her, he had to take the initiative himself.

Fu Shize had always considered himself someone incapable of taking the initiative.

Turns out, he was capable of it after all.

With no further comment from him, Xu Qingsong's eyes drifted to the fluffy plush sphere clutched in Fu Shize's hand: "Is that thing in your hand a token of love?"

Fu Shize hummed an assent.

Closing his book, Xu Qingsong stood up and asked with growing curiosity, "Let me see?"

Shooting him a dismissive glance, Fu Shize ignored the request and tucked the hand warmer further down against his abdomen.

Seeing that he had no intention of sharing, Xu Qingsong dropped the subject and instead transferred two zoo admission tickets to him: "Tomorrow is Christmas Day, you can take her out to the zoo for a stroll."

Fu Shize didn't refuse.

Not forgetting to add a reminder, Xu Qingsong instructed, "Remember to prepare a small gift."

Fu Shize offered a quiet hum of acknowledgment.

Opening his chat interface with Yun Li—where their last message history was already over two weeks old—he typed out: [Want to go to the zoo tomorrow?] and hit send directly.

"That revolving restaurant I mentioned to you last time—I've already made the call, I'll cover the bill when the time comes."

Xu Qingsong was naturally spontaneous by nature, and upon hearing last night that He Jiameng had leaked the news of Fu Shize's date, this laid-back, free-spirited man had unexpectedly been pricked by a rare pang of guilt.

"Yeah, I know." Distracted and half-attentive, Fu Shize kept his head down, waiting for Yun Li's reply.

Instead of a reply, a bright red exclamation mark sat right before the message box he had just sent. Fu Shize scrolled down.

[clouds has enabled friend verification, and you are not his (her) friend yet. Please send a friend verification request first; you can chat only after the other party accepts it.]

"..."

Stunned, Fu Shize didn't process it for a second.

He had been deleted?

It was the first time in his life that someone had ever deleted him from their friends list. He blinked twice, reading the sentence from start to finish to ensure he hadn't misunderstood.

Noticing the cracks forming in Fu Shize's usual facade of indifference as he sat frozen like a wooden puppet on the sofa, Xu Qingsong watched with amusement.

A moment later, Xu Qingsong heard Fu Shize let out a helpless chuckle, tap his phone a few times, and place a call to Yun Li.

Fu Shize: "It's me."

Yun Li asked nervously, "What's wrong?"

Abandoning his usual questioning tone, Fu Shize stated simply: "We're going to the zoo tomorrow."

After a long pause, Yun Li stammered out, "Oh... oh, are we going together?"

Fu Shize: "Mm."

Yun Li: "Okay."

The two of them exchanged nothing further. Yun Li said softly, "Get some rest early, good night."

Fu Shize lowered his gaze: "Get some rest early."

When Fu Shize hung up the phone, Xu Qingsong was standing nearby holding a transparent ceramic teapot, slowly pouring himself a cup of hot tea with an inexplicable smile plastered across his face.

Confused, Fu Shize asked, "What?"

Arching an eyebrow, Xu Qingsong replied in a teasing tone, "It's too sickeningly sweet, I need a sip of tea to wash away the grease."

"..."-

After finishing her call with Fu Shize, Yun Li remained in a state of suspended agitation before several consecutive messages popped up on her WeChat.

Fu Zhengchu: [Sister Lili, things got a bit awkward back there at the table. Sister Qi's colleague seemed a bit unhappy, and they've all been drinking heavily.]

Fu Zhengchu: [They were talking about you guys going to breakfast together]

Fu Zhengchu: [Saying you and the Little Uncle have nothing going on at all...]

Fu Zhengchu: [My cousin is trying to help Sister Qi out too, and I couldn't find an opening to jump in qaq]

Yun Li: [......]

Yun Li: [It's fine.]

This was Deng Chuqi's first time trying to play matchmaker for her, and since Deng Chuqi didn't seem to take her rejections seriously either, Yun Li felt a mild wave of discomfort. Moreover, given Chen Renran's pushy and aggressive demeanor, she had no desire to deal with him anymore.

Turning back to WeChat, Yun Li sent Deng Chuqi a message: [Qiqi, your colleague and I aren't a good match. Could you have a quiet word with him on the side?]

Letting it go at that.

They were probably just celebrating Deng Chuqi casting off the shackles of corporate slavery to regain her freedom over these past few days, and Yun Li didn't want to ruin her mood.

Puttings on her earphones, Yun Li replayed Fu Shize's invitation in her mind, causing her cheeks to burn red once more. Burying her face deep into her pillow, she suddenly remembered something—

She... had deleted him.

Moving with lightning-fast speed, Yun Li bolted straight upright from the bed, fumbled frantically with her phone to search everywhere, but couldn't find any way to re-add him on WeChat. Amidst the chaotic scramble, she suddenly remembered the phone call Fu Shize had just made.

Copying that phone number into WeChat's friend-addition bar.

There was the familiar profile picture, and the nickname was a capitalized F.

Once added, no verification was required, and the two of them were instantly friends again.

Staring at the chat interface.

Yun Li felt a sense of miraculous survival against the odds.

Just to be safe, Yun Li tentatively sent a message.

[What time tomorrow ^^]

Fu Shize: [You decide]

Yun Li: [Should we grab breakfast together then?]

Fu Shize: [Mm]

Seeing his completely normal, unperturbed reply, Yun Li let out a massive sigh of relief.

A knock sounded at her door. Snapped out of her daze while still sprawled across the bed, Yun Li instinctively guessed it might be Fu Shize. She jumped to her feet and rushed over to the vanity mirror to straighten out her clothes and hair.

Pulling the door open, she found Chen Renran standing outside holding a fruit platter, his face flushed a deep, alcohol-induced red.

"Today is Christmas Eve, so I brought you some apples. We've been hanging out playing games downstairs for ages, and now that you're done taking photos, do you want to come down and join us?" Chen Renran's attitude was mild and polite, a stark contrast to how he had acted that morning.

"No thanks." Yun Li said slowly: "Thank you. It's getting late, and I want to get some rest early."

Chen Renran seemed to have already braced himself for rejection, showing no signs of negative emotion as he pushed the fruit platter slightly closer toward her: "That's fine, too. Your sleep schedule is really healthy, I should learn from you. Would you like to take these back to snack on?"

Yun Li shook her head: "I've already brushed my teeth, thank you. Why don't you take them back downstairs and share them with everyone?"

Yun Li wanted to draw a clear line between them, but since she wasn't skilled at explanations, she paused to think before saying: "There's something I want to tell you..."

Chen Renran interrupted her: "I actually wanted to tell you something, too. When it comes to these things, guys should take the initiative."

Yun Li: "..."

He flashed an apologetic smile: "I want to apologize to you. My tone was out of line this morning. It was probably because I have a crush on you that I got a bit overly sensitive; seeing little He's uncle look after you a little bit just made me overthink things."

Yun Li: "..."

That wasn't what Yun Li had wanted to bring up at all, but at this point, she had no choice but to roll with his topic: "It's fine. What I actually wanted to say was..."

Chen Renran stated with an air of absolute certainty: "So you guys really aren't in an ambiguous phase, right?"

Yun Li: "..."

Since she wasn't close with this person, Yun Li had no wish for him to meddle in her life, nor did she want him running off downstairs to gossip about it. After a moment of consideration, she answered: "No."

The moment the word left her mouth, the adjacent door clicked open abruptly.

Fu Shize was wearing the very same black sweater she had seen earlier, while Xu Qingsong wore a lake-blue sweater, leaning against the entryway shelf with a smile on his face.

The timing of that door opening left Yun Li feeling utterly guilty.

Nodding briefly toward Chen Renran, Fu Shize looked past him straight at Yun Li: "Want to watch a movie?”