When I Meet the Moon - Chapter 58

Chapter 58

Emerging from the underground parking lot, the long tunnel gave way to the dazzling, mottled lights of the festival, and vendors could be seen along the roadside selling roses out of baskets.

Fu Shize came to a halt and picked one out from a vendor's basket.

The young girl stated decisively, "One hundred."

Yun Li: "..."

Before she even had a chance to stop him, Fu Shize had already paid for it directly.

It was a style designed to be tied around the wrist.

He lifted her wrist, slipping her hand through the silk ribbon loop.

"It is pretty, I suppose," Yun Li muttered as she lifted her hand to examine it. Although it wasn't her money, knowing it came out of Fu Shize's wallet still made her heart ache a little.

She pressed her lips together and continued, "It just feels like a tax on people with low IQs."

"..."

As soon as those words left her mouth, Yun Li felt more or less ungrateful, so she quickly scrambled for a reasonable excuse: "When you're in a relationship, your IQ drops to zero, and even top science majors aren't exempt."

Fu Shize: "..."

With that single remark, Yun Li had shattered his tiny shred of romance into pieces. Fu Shize didn't say a word and simply continued walking forward.

After entering the shopping mall, Fu Shize stepped away to use the restroom. When he came out, he found Yun Li holding an extra rose.

Yun Li tied it onto his wrist. He didn't put up any resistance, wearing a half-smile as he remarked, "Someone was just saying this was a tax on low IQs." He paused, then added, "And that my IQ is zero."

"You're way too petty," Yun Li evaluated. "That was a whole five minutes ago."

"..."

Fu Shize kept quiet, lightly taking her hand as he led her upstairs.

The two roses brushed against each other every now and then as they moved.

After dinner, the two of them returned to Jiangnan Garden, and Fu Shize headed off to shower first.

Yun Li retreated to her own room, sitting cross-legged on the bed with her back pressed against the wall.

Everything should be... completely normal, right?

Yun Li zoned out for a while, her thoughts drifting back to that photo album from the afternoon.

Unwilling to sink any deeper into that heavy mood, she flopped onto her stomach and called Yun Ye.

The teenager answered instantly, looking quite smug as he showed off a newly received postcard.

Yun Ye: "I'm sending a message to Waiwai."

Waiwai—Yun Li automatically connected it to the initials of Yin Yunyi's name. She frowned in confusion: "Doesn't she not have a phone?"

Yun Ye: "Her older brother hooked her up with an old-school burner phone, the kind that can only make calls and send text messages."

Seeing him stroke his chin in deep thought for ages without finishing his text, Yun Li couldn't help asking, "What did you even send?"

Yun Ye: "One."

Yun Li: "What?"

Yun Ye explained, "So her parents don't check her phone, I just send a 'one' morning and night to represent good morning and good night."

Yun Li let out a laugh. "Aren't you a genius."

She ruthlessly mocked him: "It takes you that long just to send a single number."

Yun Li: "Don't you feel an inferiority complex hanging around Yin Yunyi?"

Yun Ye gave the camera a puzzled look.

Yun Li delivered a follow-up blow: "She's so much better-looking than you."

"If I felt inferior, I wouldn't have bothered chasing her in the first place. Why would I ask for that kind of self-inflicted torture?" Yun Ye retorted impatiently. He ruffled his hair and pulled the camera further back. "Look at me yourself. I'm totally out of her league, right?"

"..."

Yun Ye's reply struck right at Yun Li's own insecurities.

Noticing her depressed expression, Yun Ye paused for a second. "Did brother-in-law bully you?"

Yun Li let out a heavy sigh. "There's a sense of distance between your brother-in-law and me. There are so many things he just never tells me."

"Huh?" Hearing this, Yun Ye got up and walked toward the bathroom, brushing the comment aside. "Why don't you just go ahead and ask him, then?"

"I've asked..." Yun Li's face was painted with pure anguish. "I don't even know how to put it into words. Your older sister feels like she's developing learned helplessness."

"No way, right?" Yun Ye glanced at the camera, offering a sarcastic chuckle that sounded almost angry. "Yun Li, don't go showing backbone at home while letting yourself get pushed around outside."

Drooping his eyelids, looking entirely unbothered by her reaction and utterly punchable, he added, "If that's how it's gonna be, I'm siding with the old man."

"..."

Yun Ye was already brushing his teeth by then, the toothbrush puffing out one of his cheeks to twice its normal size as he mumbled, "The braised pork you left frozen for me before you crossed back must have been poisoned. My stomach's felt sick ever since I ate it."

Spitting out the foam, he grumbled, "Something feels seriously off."

With her mind in absolute chaos, Yun Li snapped back defensively, "That's just because you're not getting enough rest. Stop staying up late writing postcards to Yin Yunyi."

Guessing she was in a foul mood, Yun Ye stayed on the phone with her chatting until it was time for him to sleep.

After hanging up, Yun Li switched on her livestream. Events proved that she shouldn't have forced herself; her fans quickly noticed she was out of sorts and deeply depressed, leaving her with no choice but to cut the broadcast short.

With her mood weighing her down, she slept extremely restlessly.

In the hazy space between wakefulness and sleep, a sliver of ambient night light drifted into the room.

Yun Li lay with her back to the door, eyes shut as she pretended to be asleep.

After waiting quite a while, she drifted back into a semi-conscious state.

A cool yet soft touch brushed against the back of her hand, traveling all the way up before pausing right at the rose—which she hadn't had the heart to take off.

She drifted off into a muddled sleep, completely unaware of how late he had stayed by her side.

The semester started early at Nanwu University, and Yun Li, representing EAW, took charge of conducting the spring recruitment presentations on campus.

Having to speak in front of such a public audience for the very first time left Yun Li nervous for days, though thankfully Fu Shize had accompanied her through two or three nights of rehearsals.

By the time the presentation finally wrapped up, it was already past three in the afternoon.

Her phone displayed several missed calls, all of them from Yun Yongchang.

Yun Li stared at the screen for a long while before finally calling him back.

Yun Yongchang didn't scold her for missing his calls; his voice sounded remarkably calm: "I brought you a spring quilt. It's sitting right outside the door of your rental apartment."

"..."

The ambush caught her completely off guard; Yun Li hadn't even received a heads-up warning from Yun Ye.

"Oh... I just got off work. I can grab a taxi and be there in twenty minutes." Yun Li sent an anxious text message to Fu Shize.

The meeting between father and daughter wasn't nearly as explosive as she had imagined.

Yun Yongchang was lugging a large bag containing two quilts.

Yun Li muttered under her breath, "It's not like I'm short on quilts..."

"A spring quilt and a winter quilt. Nanwu is colder than Xifu," Yun Yongchang declared with a stern face. Noticing Yun Li spacing out, he barked unceremoniously, "What are you just standing there for? Open the door!"

Her touch of paternal warmth lasted all of a few seconds. Once Yun Li had switched on the lights and poured Yun Yongchang a glass of water, his tone turned stiff again: "Still seeing that guy?"

Yun Li gave a silent nod.

Yun Yongchang clenched his fist, his tone brooking zero argument: "Have him come over tonight. We're going out to eat."

Yun Yongchang insisted on hailing his own taxi to get around, acting as though accepting a ride in Fu Shize's car would mean taking advantage of him.

He said coldly, "It's not like I lack cars back in Xifu."

Yun Li knew he simply couldn't stomach the fact that Fu Shize was from Nanwu.

Inside the taxi, Yun Li's mind was an absolute mess. Over and over again, she edited the text messages she drafted for Fu Shize, wanting to ask him to consider working in Xifu eventually, yet immediately feeling like that was inappropriate.

Yun Li: [My dad would prefer it if I went back to Xifu.]

A faint, unspeakable shame washed over her.

She didn't want Fu Shize to think of Yun Yongchang as an unreasonable person.

The moment those considerations took root, every single word and action she took became bogged down by hesitation.

Fu Shize had booked a private dining room at a renowned restaurant in Nanwu.

The moment Yun Li stepped out of the taxi, she saw Fu Shize waiting for them right outside the entrance instead of inside the private room.

His expression was calm and collected.

She relaxed just a fraction.

Yun Yongchang maintained a blank expression from start to finish, asking Fu Shize polite, perfunctory questions.

The atmosphere across the dining table remained relatively harmonious until Yun Yongchang suddenly pivoted and asked, "You're not in school anymore? What's your educational background?"

Yun Li put down her chopsticks and jumped in to answer first, "He got his bachelor's degree at Xike University."

Yun Yongchang gave a noncommittal "oh," and pressed on, "Not continuing your studies?"

Fu Shize replied calmly, "I'm pursuing my Ph.D. at Xike University."

Hearing that he was a doctoral student at Xike University visibly improved Yun Yongchang's expression; after all, more than half of Xike University's graduates stayed right in Xifu.

Refusing to be brushed off so easily, Yun Yongchang zeroed in on the oddest detail: "You're the same age as my daughter, and you haven't graduated yet? Why aren't you at school?"

"..."

"I took a leave of absence."

His tone was flat, completely devoid of any defensive undertone.

Yun Li could distinctly feel Yun Yongchang's expression freeze the moment those words—leave of absence—left his mouth.

A wave of suffocation washed over her.

Yun Yongchang flatly rejected Fu Shize's offer to drive them back, and refused his gifts as well, making his stance crystal clear.

On the drive back, Yun Yongchang said coldly, "What kind of boyfriend have you dug up? The guy can't even finish school."

"Did you only fall for his face?"

Seeing Yun Li keep her mouth shut, he took two deep breaths: "His parents are professors. I might not have much, but at least the kids I raised finished their education."

Yun Li couldn't stand hearing him denigrate Fu Shize like that, yet she didn't want to get into a shouting match with him out in public, so she simply bit her lip and stayed silent.

"I've eaten more salt than you've eaten rice, and I can tell that boy's got psychological issues," Yun Yongchang nagged the entire way back. "Never mind his family background or what he looks like—he couldn't even finish university."

In the eyes of Yun Yongchang's generation, life was divided strictly into hardship and sweetness, and no matter what, you just pushed through.

He simply couldn't fathom what kind of problem could possibly force a person to take a leave of absence from school.

Unable to take it any longer, Yun Li finally snapped, "Dad, can you please just give it a rest when we're outside?" Only then did Yun Yongchang finally shut his mouth.

The driver had listened to the entire exchange along the way, and as she stepped out of the car, he couldn't help offering a parting piece of advice: "Young lady, sometimes you really ought to listen to your elders' advice on these matters. Don't let romance blind you."

Back at the apartment, Yun Li didn't argue with Yun Yongchang. No matter what he said, she stuck stubbornly to just two refrains—

"It's my freedom to date him, so stay out of it."

"Whether he takes a leave of absence, or stays in Nanwu or Xifu, that's his freedom, so stay out of it."

She put up an unyielding, impenetrable front for once. After tossing out a few more furious remarks, Yun Yongchang booked a flight back that very evening and stormed off in a rage.

He came and went in a flash, yet left utter chaos in his wake.

The moment the front door clicked shut, Yun Li finally let out a breath.

She felt a strange sense of having survived a catastrophe.

Yun Li wasn't afraid of Yun Yongchang's opposition, nor did she care whether Fu Shize had taken a leave of absence or not.

The worst-case scenario was that Yun Yongchang disliked Fu Shize; she would just tough it out for a few years until Yun Yongchang had no choice but to give in.

Sitting on the sofa, a slow wave of sorrow gradually enveloped Yun Li.

She checked her phone; ever since dinner, Fu Shize hadn't sent her a single message. She typed out a few words, then deleted them one by one.

She ended up just sending a brief text letting him know Yun Yongchang had left.

The clock ticked at a sluggish crawl. As it neared ten o'clock, she finally heard the sound of the front door opening.

Their eyes met, and Fu Shize stood in the doorway for a brief moment.

He walked slowly over to her side, bent down, and slid a hand beneath the back of her head, drawing her straight into his embrace.