When I Meet the Moon - Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"My a—" The blue-haired man wanted to blow up, but after catching sight of his expression, his momentum deflated. "I—I ap… apologize, okay, bro, why did you push me..."

Unwilling and reluctant, he didn't even look at Yun Li as he blurted out at top speed: "Sorry."

As if terrified of being heard clearly.

Fu Shize didn't let him off with a half-hearted mumble: "Say it again."

The blue-haired man had no choice but to say it syllable by syllable: "I'm sorry."

Fu Shize chuckled lowly: "What's there to be embarrassed about when apologizing?"

"..." The blue-haired man's lips tightened into a straight line as he stared right at him: "I'm sorry."

"Are your eyes grown on me?"

"I…" The blue-haired man took a deep breath, having no desire to drag out the apology indefinitely, and addressed Yun Li honestly: "I'm sorry. My head wasn't quite clear just now, and I have no idea why I did something like that. Please don't take it to heart."

With lingering fear still gripping her heart, Yun Li offered a vague, noncommittal acknowledgment.

"Brother Ze, why haven't you headed back yet?" The bulky guy stepped in to smooth things over. "Stop smoking, didn't your cold clear up yet?"

"Mn."

The bulky guy added, "The kid was just drunk. Once he sleeps it off, he'll realize he was wrong."

The blue-haired man protested unhappily: "When am I ever drunk?"

Fu Shize ignored him: "Go back."

Convinced that the whole world was conspiring against him, the blue-haired man muttered aggrievedly under his breath: "It was literally because this girl just said that if I let her come over—"

Before he could finish, his mouth was clamped shut by the bulky guy, leaving him capable of only making muffled, weird groans. The bulky guy effortlessly dragged him back into the narrow alley: "Bro, we'll head out first then. I'll go get him sobered up."

Once those two left, the already secluded spot felt all the more desolate.

Yun Li wanted to ask what kind of relationship he had with them, yet felt it would be overly presumptuous. Standing frozen for a moment, she tightened her grip on her bag and took the initiative to say: "Thank you."

Receiving no response, Yun Li found herself caught between advancing and retreating, hesitating over whether to say goodbye.

Fu Shize suddenly asked: "What did you call me just now?"

"Huh?" Failing to catch his meaning, Yun Li didn't dare not answer: "Fu Shize?"

"Ze."

"What?"

"Fu Shize."

"..." Still missing the point, Yun Li repeated after him: "Uh, Fu Shize."

Fu Shize stubbed out his cigarette: "Untangle your tongue and say it again."

Yun Li abruptly understood, her face flushing crimson.

The locals of Xifu had trouble distinguishing between retroflex and alveolar initials, a flaw her fans frequently pointed out in her videos. Though she had consciously tried to correct it later on, certain words remained impossible for her to sort out, to the point where she couldn't even hear the difference between them.

Her mouth moved, and she started off in a voice no louder than a mosquito's, lacking the courage to finish.

However, Fu Shize merely pointed out her error without lingering on it the way he had with the blue-haired man. Then, with a contemplative tone, he asked: "How did you know what my name is?"

"..." Struck by the question, Yun Li frantically rummaged through her mind over the span of a few short seconds, one million percent certain that he hadn't introduced himself during their previous meetings.

It was impossible for Yun Li to honestly confess, I specifically searched for you online and got this information that way.

Wouldn't that make her sound like an absolute creep?

Stammering through an explanation, she offered: "I hea— heard people from EAW mention it, saying you're their new colleague."

The excuse sounded logical and sound, prompting Fu Shize to nod. Glancing briefly at the time, he asked casually: "What brings you over to this side?"

Yun Li murmured softly: "I wanted to buy some stir-fried rice noodles."

Fu Shize didn't probe further: "Mn."

"Forget it though," despite nothing going wrong earlier, Yun Li still felt a twinge of unease now, "it seems a bit too out of the way. I'll just head back and order takeout instead."

Pausing for two seconds, Fu Shize asked: "Where is it?"

Yun Li instinctively pointed in a direction.

Fu Shize: "Let's go."

"..."

Without waiting for her reply after dropping those words, he turned on his heel and walked forward.

Watching Fu Shize's retreating back, Yun Li felt her heart rate inexplicably accelerate. After lingering for a brief second, she broke into a light jog to catch up.

The stir-fried rice noodle shop was tucked away inside one of the smaller alleyways.

Despite its out-of-the-way location, at this hour, customers still crowded the shop, appearing to be nearby university students. The bubble tea shop remained open as well, though with the initial craze fading, the business in front of its doors no longer matched its former glory.

Neither of them spoke much, leaving the wait devoid of any superfluous conversation.

Ten minutes later, Yun Li accepted the takeout bag.

The two of them walked out together.

Following this street all the way forward brought them right to the edge of the main road. Across the street lay the plaza Yun Li had passed earlier, where people were still dancing to square-dance music and skateboarding, completely devoid of any desolate atmosphere.

Fu Shize stopped right there and said: "Head home early."

"Huh?" Yun Li lagged a beat behind. "…Oh, right. I'll head back first then."

After taking a few steps, Yun Li couldn't suppress the urge to look back.

He was still standing right where she had left him.

The man's brow and eyes were dark, his skin pale, radiating a faint chill. Standing tall, he wore a short-sleeved white tee. His slender frame resembled a towering, solitary pine, yet without looking fragile.

At that exact moment, something shattered through its cage.

A flower that had stubbornly refused to sprout broke through the soil in a place where no one was watching. Timid and insignificant, yet yielding to the temptation of the moonlight, it chose to step down into the mortal world to catch a glimpse of the truth.

Yun Li forgot her dread of socialization, forgot her habitual instinct to keep strangers at arm's length. At this moment, a single thought consumed her mind.

If she didn't take a step forward right now.

This might very well be the last time they ever crossed paths.

Yet she hoped.

There would still be a next time.

Swallowing hard, Yun Li slowly curled her palms inward: "Um, I—can I get your contact information?"

Fu Shize lifted his eyes.

Doing something like this for the very first time, Yun Li flailed in a panic to explain: "I heard them say you caught a cold. I know a brand of cold medicine that's actually quite effective, and I wanted to recommend it to you..."

He didn't answer immediately, as if waiting for her to finish speaking.

After a moment, Fu Shize replied flatly: "Thanks, no need." Then, pausing thoughtfully for a second, he added: "I forgot to mention, I hope my friend's behavior didn't cause you any trouble."

A very simple sentence, instantly shattering Yun Li's wild fantasies and misinterpretations.

She didn't need to dig deep to understand the subtext behind his words.

His previous actions hadn't stemmed from harboring any hidden intentions toward her.

It was simply because his friend had committed an offense against her tonight. Since an apology had been exacted, it should suffice as a resolution.

He didn't want his presence to disrupt her original plans.

The boundless, endless night; the bustling yet desolate street; the asphalt road splitting the world cleanly in two. Her ears felt severed from the surrounding noise, echoing with sharp, successive collapses of sound.

An uncontrollable wave of humiliation surged straight to her heart.

Forcing a weak smile, Yun Li muttered softly: "It's fine, forget it then… Hope your cold gets better soon."

Dropping those words, Yun Li forgot even to say goodbye, wishing only to flee this place as fast as humanly possible. The instant she turned around, her nose stung. Catching sight of an oncoming car in the distance, she hurried across the street.

Back at home, Yun Li kicked off her shoes and dumped the bag onto the dining table. Striding into the living room in two steps, she collapsed onto the couch, letting her entire body sink downward into the cushions.

Desperately wishing she could pretend none of this had ever happened, Fu Shize's expression replayed itself in her mind on an endless loop.

There hadn't been a single ripple of fluctuation from start to finish.

As though her recklessness and retreat born of him tonight concerned her and her alone. Even when delivering a rejection, he couldn't muster the slightest hint of apology for fear of hurting her.

Because he simply didn't care at all.

Covering her face with a throw pillow, Yun Li bit down hard on her lower lip.

How humiliating.

How pathetic.

Why on earth had she done something so foolish?

Desperately needing someone to vent to, someone who could empathize with her misery, yet unwilling to breathe a word of this to a single soul, Yun Li eventually picked up her phone, opened a web browser, and typed into the search bar— "Getting rejected when asking a guy for his WeChat."

Plenty of people shared similar experiences.

It seemed like a common, trivial, and ultimately insignificant little mishap.

Even so, the vast majority of people would still doubt whether they were truly that inadequate just because the other person showed zero interest in getting to know them further.

After scrolling through other people's stories for a long time, Yun Li finally managed to pull herself together. Pushing aside her melancholic lamentations, she slumped dejectedly over to the dining table and unsealed the box of stir-fried rice noodles she had neglected for so long.

She took a bite.

They had already gone completely cold.

Swallowing it down, Yun Li muttered despondently: "Even my heart isn't this cold."

Placing the takeout container into the microwave, Yun Li opened Bilibili while waiting. Between having too much on her plate lately and taking a temporary leave of absence, she hadn't posted a video in weeks.

The comments below were howling for content, begging the missing person to return, while others had taken to calling her various nicknames.

Amused by a few of the comments, Yun Li mulled it over before typing out a new dynamic post.

LeisurelyTickingJiang: Stop calling me Salted Fish Ticking Jiang, I'm begging you all on my knees. Uploading this Saturday night.

Hardly had she hit publish when hundreds of comments flooded in.

Flipping through them, Yun Li discovered that aside from people badgering her for updates, others were reminding her about the overdue reward for hitting 500,000 followers. She had previously solicited suggestions for various video themes, and the sheer variety had made her head spin.

Yet the option with the highest demand was for her to host a live stream.

Yun Li rarely ever did live streams. The first time had been out of sheer curiosity, and after broadcasting for all of five minutes, she had hurriedly logged off. Feeling like her on-the-spot reactions were terrible and the resulting broadcast would be painfully boring, she had always been reluctant to try it again.

The few times she had caved were purely due to her fans egging her on.

Yet for some reason, they seemed to thoroughly enjoy it.

Noticing the late hour, viewer numbers shouldn't be too high. Besides, Yun Li's mood was currently in the dumps, and she genuinely wanted someone to talk to. Hesitating briefly, she retreated to the living room couch, checked her clothing and camera angle, and once she was certain everything was in order, launched the stream.

In the next second, users flooded the room en masse.

Adjusting her mindset, Yun Li offered a greeting. Staring into the screen, she began reading out and responding to the barrage of comments: "Why are you streaming out of nowhere? —Well, this counts as one of the perks for hitting a million followers, so I'm doing a dry run early."

"Why did you change the background? —I moved houses," Yun Li opened her food container, deciding to lean into the mukbang vibe as she ate her rice noodles, "and I haven't finished organizing yet. I'll set up a nicer background later."

"What are you eating? —Stir-fried rice noodles."

"This is so boring, why don't you show off some talent or something, otherwise what's the point of streaming." Unbothered, Yun Li replied flatly: "I don't have any, go find another streaming room."

"Why does Salted Fish feel so autistic today? —You feel wrong."

As soon as those words left her mouth, the comment section swarmed with viewers spamming memes and running with the joke: [It's autistic (zìbì), not "closed-mind" (zhìbì).]

"..." Yun Li immediately connected it to Fu Shize's correction earlier today, took a deep breath, and felt ten thousand percent certain that she couldn't possibly be mixing up the retroflex and alveolar initials for this particular word. "Stop trying to distort the truth, I said it right."

Next, the chat began bombarding her with difficult words and tongue twisters, as though intent on subjecting her Mandarin to a demonic boot camp.

Perhaps wishing to humor her fans, or perhaps simply wanting to salvage her dignity, Yun Li carefully pronounced every single word. For certain phrases, she even improvised on the spot, stringing together nonsensical sentences.

Ten minutes or so drifted by just like that.

Finishing her noodles, Yun Li glanced up at the screen and caught a specific word floating past in the endless sea of comments.

—Shize (Actually / Fu Shize's name)-

Stepping out of the dessert shop, the phone in Fu Shize's pocket began to ring.

Pulling it out, he glanced at the caller ID and hit answer. Xu Qingsong's voice came through the speaker: "Where are you? I've already picked up the car."

Fu Shize: "Coming out."

"Alright, head over to the station."

"Mn."

Hanging up the phone, Fu Shize clutched the bag and stepped back out onto the street. Locating Xu Qingsong's car, he climbed into the passenger seat and set the bag down beside him.

Driving while glancing sideways, Xu Qingsong asked: "Who'd you buy this for?"

"My dad."

"The old man isn't asleep at this hour?" Xu Qingsong remarked casually. "Then are you heading back to Beishan Maple Woods now? Or coming with me somewhere else?"

Drooping his eyelids, Fu Shize looked utterly exhausted: "Not going."

Xu Qingsong shook his head, sighing: "For someone with your personality, you sure manage to attract girls. I've gotten several messages these past few days from people asking for your WeChat."

Fu Shize acted as though he hadn't heard a thing.

Seeing him listless and drained, Xu Qingsong didn't press further, reaching over to turn off the phone's GPS navigation. At the exact same time, a push notification from Bilibili popped up at the top of the screen: @LeisurelyTickingJiang, whom you follow, has started a live stream 15 minutes ago.

Xu Qingsong accidentally tapped it with his thumb.

Unaware of what he'd done, he didn't notice until a burst of unexpected audio broke the silence of the enclosed, quiet cabin. Glancing instinctively at the phone, Xu Qingsong realized a rather familiar-looking girl had appeared on the screen.

He Jiameng had previously run through the list of promotional candidates for EAW with Xu Qingsong, even giving him an account whose following list consisted entirely of the visiting up-and-comers.

To demonstrate diligence, Xu Qingsong had logged into the account. Yet being too lazy to browse, he had only glanced at it a few times. Even so, the app pushed notifications from time to time, and he had accidentally clicked them a few times recently.

Just as Xu Qingsong was about to close it, he paused, suddenly realizing: "A-Ze, isn't this the girl who sat next to you the other day?"

Hearing the commotion, Fu Shize lifted his eyelids.

He saw the girl he had seen not long ago reappearing on Xu Qingsong's phone screen. She was sitting on the couch, still wearing the same outfit from earlier. Her face was small and her skin fair, looking no different on camera than she did in reality.

The girl's eyes were large and bright, staring straight into the lens, carrying a bit less restraint than she had when standing in front of him.

Immediately afterward, the girl spoke, repeating a word with opaque intent: "Shize, Shize..."

The middle of the night, the Ghost Festival, the calm and desolate street, the live stream room accidentally opened by a slip of the finger, and echoing in his ears, the stream host calling out like a soul-summoning chant, repeatedly reciting a phrase homophonous with the name of the person sitting right beside him.

"..."

The scene felt vaguely bizarre.

Xu Qingsong fell silent for a second. "Why does it sound like she's calling your name?"

Before Fu Shize could reply, the girl brought her "repeater" phase to an end. Staring intently into the lens, she blurted out: "He might look like a wolf."

Pausing, she slowly squeezed out the remaining words: "—but actually, he's just a dog."

Silence descended inside the car.

Three seconds later, Xu Qingsong processed what had happened. Catching only the second half of the sentence, he turned his head to ask: "Did you just get chewed out?"

Fu Shize didn't follow: "What?"

"She said you're a dog."

"...”