When I Meet the Moon - Chapter 8

Chapter 8

As soon as the words left her mouth, Yun Li realized their impropriety.

Because she hadn't been able to pronounce the word correctly all day, and feeling uncertain about her pronunciation accuracy during practice, she had ended up repeating it several times. The subsequent sentence building had simply followed the flow of that pre-established routine.

She hadn't expected to blurt out that specific sentence.

While her fans wouldn't suspect anything amiss, her own guilty conscience made her feel as though the subtext behind the words was glaringly obvious.

After all, whether Fu Shize accepted or rejected her, it was entirely his choice, and no one had the right to point fingers.

Yet her behavior made her look petty, vindictive, and sore over a rejection.

Filled with shame and attempting a clumsy cover-up, Yun Li added: "That phrase doesn't mean anything, I was just making up a sentence."

She broadcasted for a few more minutes before hastily signing off.

The room remained dead quiet, save for the hum of the air conditioner.

Following this minor interlude, Yun Li inevitably felt a wave of panic over having "cursed" someone behind their back, though it lasted only a brief moment. She soon talked herself through it, and her racing heart finally settled.

Because Yun Li was entirely certain of one thing.

A man who clearly had zero interest in her was hardly likely to have the leisure time to tune into her live stream.

Having suffered what essentially amounted to a "love wound," Yun Li remained listless for several consecutive days. It wasn't until she received a message from He Jiameng that she remembered today marked the official grand opening of EAW.

During this period, the only productive thing Yun Li had managed to accomplish was fulfilling her promised update by posting the video exploring the EAW club. Judging by He Jiameng's reaction, the promotional response to the video seemed exceptionally strong.

Her mood improved quite a bit as a result.

Amidst their chat, He Jiameng even sent over a few photos from the opening ceremony.

He Jiameng had invited Yun Li a few days prior, but lacking any real desire to attend, she had invented an excuse to decline.

Scrolling through the pictures, Yun Li spotted one that accidentally included Fu Shize.

He was wearing the black EAW shirt uniform, seated at one of the office desks with his head back and eyes closed in repose. It looked like a candid, somewhat blurry snapshot.

He Jiameng: [There was a blurry photo I accidentally sent out qvq.]

He Jiameng: [He is genuinely so handsome!]

He Jiameng: [Though he looks so arrogant, gloomy, and ice-cold that I wouldn't dare approach him either.]

The mere mention of him threatened to dredge up memories of that day's events, prompting Yun Li to rapidly pivot the conversation before depression could set in: [Are you guys super busy today then?]

He Jiameng: [Yeah, there's still a huge line waiting outside.]

He Jiameng: [I'm dying of exhaustion! They even dragged me downstairs to help out just a minute ago!!]

Without lingering long, He Jiameng returned to work.

Feeling listless and uninspired, and seeing how hard everyone else was working, Yun Li decided she couldn't afford to wallow in lethargy any longer. Remembering that school registration was coming up in a couple of days, she wanted to knock out next week's video beforehand.

Stumbling across a tutorial for crepe cakes that looked mouth-wateringly delicious, Yun Li decisively chose a crepe cake feast as her theme. With the kitchen fully stocked with ingredients, she wasted no time getting straight to work.

Following the tutorial and adjusting the recipe to suit her own palate, she set up her camera and began production.

She genuinely adored the culinary process, having previously produced numerous food videos. Though time-consuming and labor-intensive, the completion of a finished product always brought an extraordinary sense of accomplishment.

This hustle and bustle consumed several hours.

It wasn't until she achieved what she considered the perfect flavor and appearance that Yun Li deemed the task complete. Glancing sideways out the window, she saw the sky was already growing bright. Stowing the finished creation into the refrigerator, she tidied up the kitchen in a rush and took a hurried shower before falling asleep.—

The next day, Yun Li had barely woken up when her phone rang with a call from Deng Chuqi.

Today being Friday, Deng Chuqi had come to the EAW Science and Technology City to hang out with her roommate. Having just finished up and rarely venturing over to the West District, she decided to invite Yun Li along for dinner.

With strangers present, Yun Li felt rather reluctant to go, but she couldn't withstand Deng Chuqi's relentless badgering.

Getting out of bed, Yun Li washed up and swiftly applied a light layer of makeup. Remembering the crepe cakes she made last night, she kept only one of each flavor and stuffed the rest into an insulated bag lined with dry ice, intending to bring them over for Deng Chuqi and her roommate to sample.

Afterward, she headed out.

Their dinner destination was a chain hot pot restaurant located inside Haitian Mall, and business was booming. By the time Yun Li arrived, a long queue still snaked outside the entrance.

Yun Li: [I'm here. Which table are you guys at?]

Deng Chuqi: [So fast? We just got our number and walked in. Wait a sec, I'll come out to get you.]

In less than half a minute, Deng Chuqi emerged from the doorway: "Girl!"

Yun Li chuckled: "It's just a few steps away, why bother coming all the way out?"

"I came out specifically to give you an early warning." Deng Chuqi pressed her palms together, looking simultaneously apologetic and entirely unapologetic. "I knew that if I told you over the phone, you absolutely wouldn't have come."

"Huh?"

"My roommate has two relatives with her! And both of them are drop-dead, god-tier gorgeous!" Deng Chuqi said, full of excitement and loyalty. "Yun Li, you're my bestie! How on earth could I possibly forget about you when faced with such prime eye candy!"

"..."

Yun Li felt a chill run down her spine: "Are there a lot of people inside?"

Deng Chuqi: "Not a lot! Including me, there's only four of them!"

Yun Li shrank back in resistance: "Nope, I'm leaving. Let's hang out another time."

"You'll regret it if you don't look, they're seriously handsome!" Deng Chuqi grabbed her firmly by the arm, dragging her inside. "If you don't feel like talking, just treat it like going flower viewing! Would I ever put you in an awkward spot? Besides, what if you happen to run into someone you're interested in!"

"As if!"

"Why is that impossible!"

"..."

Unable to win the argument, Yun Li had no choice but to follow her inside.

Whatever.

There were only three people, far fewer than the crowd at the EAW gathering last time.

Since she didn't know them anyway, she could just play dead, eat her meal, and leave.

The restaurant interior was wreathed in rising steam and rich, savory aromas. Every single table was completely occupied, without a single seat to spare.

During the short walk from the entrance, Deng Chuqi continued filling her in on the situation: "I'm hanging out with my roommate and my roommate's younger cousin today."

Too distracted to pay attention, Yun Li nodded perfunctorily.

Deng Chuqi: "My roommate's uncle happens to work at EAW, seems he's some kind of equipment engineer. Later on, they called her uncle to join us..."

Before she could finish, they had already reached the table.

The hot pot restaurant had seated them at a large table featuring a U-shaped booth tucked away in a corner of the restaurant, making it considerably quieter. Approaching from this angle, Yun Li could only see a very pretty woman sitting there and laughing as she spoke.

The other two occupants were blocked from view by the high-backed seating.

Deng Chuqi cut off her sentence and pulled Yun Li in from the side: "I've brought my precious!"

The woman turned her head, fixing her gaze on Yun Li with curved, smiling eyes: "Must be Lili, right? I hear Chuqi talk about you all the time."

Feeling rather shy, Yun Li prepared to offer a greeting when her gaze swept forward, catching sight of the two figures sitting opposite. She froze mid-movement, staring as her smile instantly stiffened on her face.

"..."

Will someone.

Please tell her.

What on earth is going on here.

Leaving Fu Shize aside for the moment.

Why is the boy she ran into at the airport also sitting right here?

Fu Zhengchu's eyes widened in matching incomprehension as he stared back, completely dumbfounded.

Unaware of anything amiss and assuming Yun Li was simply being shy around strangers, Deng Chuqi took the initiative to introduce them: "Lili, this is my roommate, senior schoolmate, and colleague, Xia Congsheng."

"Holy crap!" Recovering his wits, Fu Zhengchu stared incredulously at Yun Li. "You still remember me, right? You definitely remember me, don't you?"

Forcing a stiff expression, Yun Li managed to squeeze out a muffled "Yeah."

Xia Congsheng looked bewildered: "What's wrong? Do you guys know each other?"

Omitting the detail about asking for his WeChat, Fu Zhengchu briefly recounted what had happened that day, heavily emphasizing his claim that EAW belonged to his older cousin, which Yun Li hadn't believed.

Deng Chuqi was highly amused: "What a massive coincidence!"

The puzzle pieces finally clicked in Yun Li's head: "Your cousin is Xu Qingsong?"

"We're sort of related," Xia Congsheng explained. "My maternal grandmother is Xu Qingsong's mother's godmother."

Fu Zhengchu nodded: "After I got back that day, I dropped Xu Qingsong a WeChat message asking if their shop was running some promotional event, mentioning how some person waited forever at the airport for a pickup. Later on, he told me to get my little uncle to go pick her up instead."

Finding it all increasingly bizarre, Yun Li couldn't help asking: "Pardon me for asking, but your little uncle is..."

Fu Zhengchu pointed a finger toward Fu Shize sitting right beside him.

"..."

Yun Li nearly failed to keep her facial expression intact.

Aren't these people supposed to be roughly the same age?

How on earth did they end up being uncle and nephew???

Realization dawning, Fu Zhengchu blurted out: "So the two of you must have already met then?"

"Huh?" Not daring to even glance at Fu Shize, Yun Li tugged frantically at the hem of Deng Chuqi's shirt under the table. "Yeah."

Catching the signal, Deng Chuqi gave a light cough and promptly steered the conversation elsewhere: "Speaking of which, it really is quite a coincidence. If I recall correctly, the little bro is also a student at Nanwu Tech, right?"

Fu Zhengchu: "Yep, are any of you guys from there too?"

Hearing this, Yun Li felt a flicker of surprise and instinctively glanced at Fu Zhengchu.

He attended Nanwu Tech as well?

Thinking back, when she ran into Fu Zhengchu at the airport, he had mentioned that EAW was located near his university.

Yet she hadn't connected the dots at the time.

"Oh," Xia Congsheng recalled, "you mentioned to me before that Lili got accepted into Nanwu Tech for her graduate studies, right?"

Yun Li nodded.

Fu Zhengchu looked astonished, his eyes widening: "Does that mean we're alumni?"

Xia Congsheng chided him playfully: "You should be addressing her as Senior Sister."

"Oh, oh," willing to bend the knee when outmatched, Fu Zhengchu seized upon the connection with enthusiasm. "I'm heading back to campus the day after tomorrow, so Senior Sister, are you checking in that day too? Our school seems to have a unified registration date."

"Yes," Yun Li replied.

"Huh? You're registering the day after tomorrow?" Deng Chuqi looked blank. "I was originally planning to accompany you, but I misremembered and thought it was next week... I already promised my coworker we'd go shopping that day."

"It's fine," Yun Li said. "I'm just going to handle the registration."

"Didn't you say you have a ton of luggage?"

"No worries, my little uncle is driving my cousin down the day after tomorrow anyway," Xia Congsheng offered proactively. "They'll be passing right by here anyway, Lili. Why don't you just catch a ride with them, and you can get them to help haul your luggage while you're at it."

"..."

Having just been rejected not long ago, Yun Li's sole aspiration right now was for this dinner to end immediately so the two of them could part ways and never lay eyes on each other again.

Where would she find the courage to impose on Fu Shize?

And how could she possibly summon the mental stamina to face another encounter?

She waved her hands frantically to refuse, but before she could get the words out, Fu Zhengchu chimed in cheerfully: "Yeah, besides, little uncle has nothing better to do anyway, consider it a workout for him."

Having unilaterally made the decision on everyone's behalf, he cast a gaze of feigned deference toward Fu Shize: "That cool with you, little uncle?"

Fu Shize slowly lifted his eyes and offered an indifferent, offhanded "Mn."

Deng Chuqi let out a breath of relief: "That works out well, then. Sorry to bother you guys."

"..."

Without uttering a single syllable of consent, Yun Li found her entire arrangement locked down by the other three.

The remaining participant at the dinner table shared the exact same fate yet showed not a single ripple of emotional fluctuation. He looked completely unconcerned, as though the matter had nothing to do with him whatsoever.

Yun Li's thoughts were entirely consumed by the impending arrival of tomorrow and her imminent status as an unwanted deadweight.

She endured this meal in sheer agony, completely devoid of appetite.

During the latter half of the dinner party, Deng Chuqi's phone buzzed with a few notifications, and she curved her lips as she replied to the message.

Noticing this, Xia Congsheng teased: "Who are you texting to make you smile so brightly?"

"I ran into a guy in the subway a few days ago who's totally my type, so I asked for his WeChat," Deng Chuqi shared happily. "We've been chatting for a few days, and he just asked me out to the movies next week."

"Must be nice," Xia Congsheng sighed. "The one and only time I ever asked a guy for his contact info, I ended up running into a total jerk."

"Oh? Do tell."

Xia Congsheng poked at a piece of meat with her chopsticks: "Back in college, I went to my younger cousin's school once, and both he and a classmate of his got called in to see teachers. That classmate's older brother came to pick him up, and he was so ridiculously handsome that I couldn't help asking for his contact info."

Fu Zhengchu instantly guessed: "Sang Zhi's older brother?"

"Yup. That guy was outrageous, I still remember what he told me. He said," Xia Congsheng complained, "that he changes girlfriends every single day, and since he happened to be missing one for this month, I could have the spot if I wanted it."

"No way, seriously?"

"Why would I make that up?"

"Unbelievable." Fu Zhengchu chuckled. "During a class reunion not long ago, I even heard Sang Zhi talking about how her older brother had been single for over twenty years and finally got himself a girlfriend, bragging to the entire world that the girl was the one who chased him."

"..."

The topic naturally drifted toward the subject of "asking people for their WeChat."

Before long, it became an unwritten rule that everyone at the table had to share a personal anecdote.

Prompted by this, Fu Zhengchu glanced over at Yun Li with a look of awkward embarrassment, likely remembering that he had accidentally misidentified her earlier. Seeing that she showed no intention of bringing up that day's incident, he visibly relaxed and rattled off a quick story to skip his turn.

When the spotlight finally landed on Yun Li.

With the actual party involved sitting right in front of her, she lacked the face to lie and had no choice but to bite the bullet and confess: "I've done it."

Deng Chuqi had initially assumed it was impossible. After all, let alone asking for someone's WeChat, getting Yun Li to willingly interact with a stranger was already a monumental task. Hearing this confirmation, she asked in sheer astonishment: "When?"

Yun Li: "Just recently."

Deng Chuqi: "How'd it go?!"

Yun Li answered vaguely: "He didn't give it to me..."

Thinking she must have misheard, Deng Chuqi reacted with utter disbelief: "Huh?"

Yun Li had no choice but to state it clearly: "Mm, he didn't give it to me."

Aside from Fu Shize, who remained silent, everyone else either had successfully obtained the contact information they wanted or didn't care enough to dwell on it, treating the whole thing as a lighthearted joke. Yet Yun Li clearly still cared quite a bit, causing the atmosphere at the table to grow somewhat heavy.

Sensing her sensitivity, Xia Congsheng hurriedly jumped in to offer comfort: "Chances are that guy was just seeing a pretty girl ask for his WeChat for the very first time in his life, tried to act all cool on the spot, and went home to beat his chest and cry rivers of regret."

With that, she glanced toward Fu Zhengchu.

Fu Zhengchu played along eagerly: "Or maybe he already had a girlfriend."

As if treating it like a round of storytelling, he nudged Fu Shize's shoulder and waggled his eyebrows: "Little uncle, your turn. Toss out some comforting words too. How can you act like such a slacker when you're the elder here!"

"..."

An utterly unexpected turn of events.

Yun Li felt like she was suffocating.

Why were these people so considerate that they were starting to flog a dead horse right in front of the executioner?

Fu Shize wore a blank expression: "Say what."

Never expecting him to draw a complete blank, Fu Zhengchu shook his head in exasperation before leaning over to whisper a suggestion in his ear: "Just say—"

"?"

"—maybe he's gay."

"...”