When I Meet the Moon - Chapter 62

Chapter 62

Yun Li collected herself. After spending ages foolishly wrestling with the thought, it wasn't as though Fu Shize didn't know Yun Ye's name.

Rolling down the car window, Yun Li wanted to let the breeze cool her down, but the oncoming waves of heat reminded her that it was still summer.

When they parted ways, it was early spring, and the temperature that day was still below freezing.

Their final meeting had been extremely unpleasant.

With a single phone call, the two of them had completely broken up.

Yun Li's first instinct was to make excuses. She stared at the screen for a long time, typing and deleting refusals back and forth—

[Sorry, my car broke down.]

[Sorry, I forgot to bring the books. Yun Ye said he'll pick them up at home next time.]

As she repeatedly hammered out rejections on the screen, Yun Li remembered how, up until she left Nanwu last year, a part of her heart had faintly fantasized about a certain day.

A day when Fu Shize would reappear.

He would pull her into his arms just like before and say softly, "Lili, stop being upset."

Back then, she had desperately hoped to see him again.

Yet fantasies were, after all, just fantasies.

Her phone vibrated.

F: [I'm at the entrance of the School of Control.]

Yun Li deleted the rejection message and cast aside the chaotic thoughts running through her head.

They were both adults now.

Those past events—they were simply two people in this world who had shared a entangling fate for a very brief period of time.

She had no reason to care so much.

She took a deep breath, telling herself that she didn't care anymore.

Yun Li drove in the direction of the School of Control, finding a spot to park just before reaching the final corner.

She lowered her gaze to check her outfit, tugged her shirt straight, and smoothed out the wrinkles.

Pulling down the vanity mirror above, she carefully tidied her hairstyle and swiped on a layer of everyday milk-tea-colored lipstick.

The car moved smoothly and steadily as it approached the School of Control. In the distance, a cluster of dark silhouettes stood by the roadside, and as she slowly drew closer, the light grew increasingly bright.

Fu Shize was leaning sideways against a lamppost, wearing a short-sleeved white shirt and navy blue casual suit shorts.

Her driving speed slowed down even further.

Noticing the arrival of the car, he turned his head sideways.

After a year and a half apart, the person before her felt entirely unfamiliar.

Fu Shize let out a faint smile, his hands in his pockets, and walked slowly toward the driver's side. From inside the car, she could see his torso standing there at ease.

Yun Li rolled down the window, momentarily blinded by the glare of an oncoming car's headlights. She closed her eyes for a split second, and when she opened them again, she locked eyes with his gaze.

The corners of his eyes curved slightly downward, carrying a hint of a smile and a dash of swagger. His pupils possessed the clear, unclouded quality of a grown-up boy. Lowering his head, he called out, "Lili."

The softness in his voice was similar to how it used to be, yet something about it was fundamentally different.

Yun Li froze for a moment, then handed the books from the passenger seat over to him. "Sorry to trouble you."

"Mm." Fu Shize took them casually and asked, "How have you been?"

Yun Li was startled, momentarily unable to tell what he was referring to. She pressed her lips together. "I'm doing pretty well. I'm interning now."

"Mm." His gaze shifted to the small coffee shop nearby. "Want to grab a drink?"

Yun Li sensed that he wanted to talk things through.

From the moment she deleted him and cast all ties between them to the back of her mind, he had existed in her mental framework as an absolute stranger.

Yun Li had no desire for any further contact.

Politely and coldly, she refused, "No thanks, I still have things to take care of."

Fu Shize's hand holding the books paused for a second. There was no displeasure at being rejected as he quietly nodded.

He had originally taken a step back, but then he spoke up again: "The teaching building is a bit far from here. Can you give me a ride?"

He raised the books in his hand. "I need to give these to Yun Ye right when the first recess starts."

"..."

Looking into his clear eyes, Yun Li found herself unable to utter a refusal.

They really had inconvenienced him, after all.

Hearing the sound of the car doors unlocking, Fu Shize naturally slid into the passenger seat, fastened his seatbelt, and said politely, "Thank you."

Yun Li started the car and drove aimlessly through the campus for a few hundred meters. After getting in, the person beside her leaned back against the seat, looking ahead with a relaxed and leisurely expression.

He looked entirely unconcerned with whatever route she chose to drive.

"..."

She hadn't originally intended to speak, but because she didn't know the way, Yun Li had no choice but to say, "Can you give me directions?"

"Turn right at the end."

"Turn left at the first intersection."

"Turn left at the end."

"Turn right at the second intersection."

...

Yun Li hadn't realized before that Xifu Tech was this massive.

Following Fu Shize's guidance, she drove for quite a few long stretches of road.

Every once in a while, Fu Shize would calmly instruct her how to drive. His tone was lazy, and there was no trace of deception to be heard in it.

Ten minutes passed, and they still hadn't reached the teaching building.

Yun Li couldn't help asking, "How much longer?"

He turned his head to glance at her. "We're here."

Outside was a long corridor lined entirely with buildings.

Yun Li parked the car and waited for quite a while, but he made no move to get out.

Unsure why he was still lingering in the car, she reminded him, "We've arrived."

Like a rebellious youth, Fu Shize completely ignored the hint hidden in her words.

"It's been so long since we last saw each other." He toyed with the books in his hands, lifting his gaze to look at her. "Don't you want to chat?"

"..."

Seeing that she remained silent, he smiled. "If you don't want to, then forget it."

Yun Li paused, hesitated for a moment, and asked him, "What is there to talk about..."

The question bounced right back to Fu Shize. His fingers tapped against the books as if he were seriously pondering the matter.

Time ticked away second by second.

The campus loudspeaker played the bell signaling the end of class.

Hearing the bell, Fu Shize casually remarked, "I haven't figured it out yet either. Let's catch up another time; I'll go get these books to Yun Ye first."

With that, Fu Shize pushed open the car door directly, exchanged a final glance with her, and walked off toward the teaching building.

Watching that retreating figure, Yun Li felt her stiffened spine collapse as she slumped against the headrest as if granted a new lease on life.

A moment later, she exhaled a breath. Fu Shize hadn't shown an ounce of awkwardness; he had treated her entirely like an old friend he hadn't seen in a long time.

He really had let go.

After sitting dazed in the car for a long time, Yun Li finally remembered that today was Friday, so she sent a text message to Yun Ye: [I gave the books to your teaching assistant. Are you coming home today?]

Yun Ye: [Yeah, I'll be back.]

Yun Ye: [My class doesn't end for another forty minutes. Are you waiting for me to go back together? If it's just me, I'll take the bus back tomorrow.]

Yun Li: [Fine.]

With nothing to do on campus, Yun Li glanced in the direction where Fu Shize had disappeared, turned on the navigation system, and drove back toward the School of Control.

She found a spot to park.

Following the route she remembered from before, Yun Li walked toward the building, then abruptly stopped in her tracks.

Just as she expected, the screens and posters at the entrance bore traces of Fu Shize. The only difference from last time was that these were all recent achievements.

They included the Unique team winning first prize in the drone design competition, alongside several of his key recent scientific research results and patents.

Looking at the person on the poster and recalling the sight of him just moments earlier, she felt a profound sense of unreality.

"Damn, that Fu Shize from the lab next door published in another top journal."

"I heard he was the top scorer of the college entrance examination and won national scholarships every single year from undergrad all the way through his PhD. He comes from a high-achieving family background too, you just can't compete with that."

"Well, it's not something you can envy either. His junior lab mates say he's an absolute grind machine who arrives at the lab at 6:30 sharp every morning, doesn't leave until midnight, and comes in on weekends too. If I had that kind of self-discipline, I would've won a national scholarship ages ago."

"Word is he's single. The junior girls in our lab want to make a move."

"Oh, the senior guys in my lab want to make a move too..."

Some people were chatting near the stairwell. Not wanting to listen any longer, Yun Li turned around and left the department building.

Both what she had seen and what she had heard acted like catalysts, dragging her memories back to the days they had spent side by side—back to the person who used to hold her, kiss her, and whisper sweet words of affection.

A stifled ache gripped Yun Li's chest.

Parking in a quiet corner outside the teaching building, Yun Li called Deng Chuqi and poured out everything about running into Fu Shize recently in one go.

"It just feels so surreal, like he's a completely different person," Yun Li murmured. "Rather than saying the current him feels unreal, it's more like those six or seven months we spent together were the unreal part."

She had merely been lucky enough to steal away a fragment of his time.

Far away in another country, Deng Chuqi was eating lunch, her tone rising in pitch. "You make it sound like his soul was swapped out. He's doing pretty well for himself now, though—haven't you thought about getting back together?"

"..." Yun Li stated flatly, "No, I don't like him anymore."

Deng Chuqi let out a long, drawn-out "Oh."

"..."

Catching the skepticism in her tone, Yun Li explained, "He and I aren't suited for each other anyway. Besides, if I suggested getting back together now, he'd probably think I was trying to cozy up to him or climb the social ladder."

Yun Li wanted to say more, but when she raised her eyes, she saw Fu Shize walking down from upstairs.

She exchanged a few brief words with Deng Chuqi and hung up the phone.

Her car was hidden behind a patch of bushes, but from her angle, she could see both sides of the teaching building's corner: one side looked out over the campus lake along the perimeter, while the other led out toward the campus roadway.

Fu Shize reached the first floor, glanced indifferently toward the side, and then walked to the end of the corridor, where he folded his arms across his chest and leaned against a stone pillar, silently watching the lake water ahead.

Yun Li immediately caught sight of the pale skin at his elbow.

Shifting her gaze to his profile, she saw his ink-dark pupils looking cold and sharp, his lips carrying a faint trace of color as they pressed lightly together, his lean frame draped inside a white shirt.

From head to toe, he exuded an aura completely cut off from the rest of the world.

Fu Shize stayed there for over twenty minutes.

When the class-ending bell rang, students poured noisily down from another corridor in a continuous stream. No one paid any attention to the solitary figure standing just around the corner.

He seemed completely deaf to the outside world, his eyelids lowered as he fished a few small pebbles from his pocket and tossed them into the lake.

She could still vividly recall the casual, easygoing smile he had flashed when getting out of the car earlier—a smile that felt entirely out of place with the scene before her now.

Yun Ye called to hurry her up, leaving Yun Li no time for further thought as she started the car and pulled out onto the road.

Yun Ye stood out prominently in the crowd. After his second year of high school, his frame had shot up abruptly to 182 centimeters, and much like Yun Li, the outer corners of his eyes held a hint of bold assertiveness that made him look rebellious and untamed when he wasn't smiling. He tossed his backpack into the back seat and climbed into the passenger side.

Several girls in the crowd were still staring fixedly at their car.

"You're quite popular, aren't you?" Yun Li remarked casually.

"Yeah, I've received quite a few love letters." Yun Ye looked at Yun Li and said with exaggerated tone, "Would you believe some of them are your old hardcore fans?"

"..."

"They say they watched me grow up over the past five years." The mere thought made Yun Ye's scalp tingle, and he poked Yun Li on the arm. "Can you delete the videos that have me in them?"

"Why should I delete them?" Yun Li didn't understand.

"I don't want to become a victim of domestic violence."

"..."

It took Yun Li a good moment to realize that Yun Ye was talking about Yin Yunyi. This was already the umpteenth time she had asked this question: "Are you two together yet?"

"Not yet. I want to give her a more formal confession. We have heavy workloads right now, and neither of us wants our studies to slip. We don't have time to prepare, so I discussed it with her and we decided to hold off on the confession a bit."

"..."

No wonder these two managed to get into Xifu Tech.

"Do you two discuss everything with each other?" Yun Li asked suddenly.

"Yeah." Yun Ye drooped his eyelids and let out a yawn. "Why?"

"Nothing."

As the car rolled out of Xifu Tech, Yun Ye closed his eyes to catch some sleep. All the way home, she found her mind wandering back to the figure she had seen earlier, feeling entirely restless. Just as they were nearing the house, Yun Ye woke up and pulled a waffle out of the middle console.

Yun Li asked him, "Do you even know who your teaching assistant is?"

Yun Ye looked blank. "Who?"

Yun Li: "My ex-boyfriend."

Yun Ye: "Which one?"

"..."

Anger flared up in Yun Li, and she pressed her lips together without a word.

Yun Ye thought about it carefully, froze, and momentarily stopped chewing the waffle in his hand. Turning his head, he asked, "Is it really that guy?"

"..."

"He was only listed as the teaching assistant in the group chat, and I didn't see him today—he just left my books at the back of the classroom for me. If I'd actually known it was him, I definitely wouldn't have..." Yun Ye turned to argue his case, but halfway through, realizing it was pointless, he changed tack and asked Yun Li, "Sis, you two broke up so long ago, is it really that weird if you run into each other again?"

"No." Yun Li answered instinctively.

"Oh. Well, isn't that great then?" Thank goodness he hadn't completely set Yun Li off; Yun Ye breathed a sigh of relief.

Silence descended inside the car. Yun Ye was right—they had broken up quite a while ago, after all.

Yun Li didn't dwell on thoughts of Fu Shize anymore.

After getting home, she browsed Bilibili for a bit and worked on some copywriting.

Right up until she went to sleep, she forced herself not to think about it—not to think about it at all.

The white bear effect: the moment you tell someone not to picture a white bear, the harder it becomes for that person to keep the white bear out of their mind.

Waking up the next day, Yun Li rushed to the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face. Looking at her flushed cheeks in the mirror, she thought it was completely absurd.

The sensation of their lips tangling together in her dream had been abnormally vivid.

She comforted herself.

It was just a dream.

It didn't mean anything.

Retrieving two slices of toast from the refrigerator, Yun Li finally noticed the message Fu Shize had sent her shortly past six o'clock.

F: [Sorry to bother you.]

F: [My keys seem to have fallen in the car. They have a blue round fob—could you check if they're there?]

Ultimately, Yun Li tossed the toast back onto the plate, grabbed a light jacket, and headed downstairs.

She searched the passenger side for quite a while before finding them.

It was only after sliding the car seat all the way back that she spotted the two-centimeter-wide round-fobbed keys; they must have accidentally slipped out of his pocket.

Yun Li: [They're in the car. Want me to have Yun Ye bring them to you on Monday?]

F: [I have machinery running in the lab. If it's convenient, can I come pick them up from you?]

Without overthinking it, Yun Li replied directly: [Then I'll bring them over to you. Where are you?]

After washing up and grabbing a quick bite, Yun Li grabbed her car keys and headed out.

Fu Shize was waiting at the exact same spot where they had crossed paths yesterday. He had changed his style of clothing: a light blue shirt, white casual trousers, and flat leather loafers.

The daylight was fierce, and Fu Shize raised a hand to shade his forehead. Even so, the blinding sunlight forced his eyes into a slight squint.

Yun Li handed the keys over to him.

"Thanks." Fu Shize slipped the keys into his pocket and asked naturally, "Working today?"

Yun Li shook her head. "Today's the weekend."

"What are you planning to do then?" He raised his brows slightly and asked casually.

Yun Li answered truthfully, "Haven't figured it out yet."

Hearing her reply, Fu Shize continued, "Since you helped bring my keys over, let me treat you to something to drink."

"No thanks, I have things to take care of." Having completely forgotten the two-part preamble Fu Shize had just laid down, Yun Li blurted out a refusal.

Fu Shize smiled unconcernedly. "Didn't you just say you hadn't figured out what to do?"

"..."

Caught red-handed in front of him, Yun Li felt a twinge of awkwardness. Fu Shize's mood was completely different from hers; his expression carried a hint of a smile and gentle banter as he let out a soft hum in his throat, seemingly urging her for an answer.

Maintaining a straight face, Yun Li rolled the car window up and parked properly. Once she stepped out of the vehicle, her demeanor was composed. "Where are we going?"

The moment her legs stepped out the door, Fu Shize had already noticed her silver-gold mini skirt, paired with a denim halter top and canvas shoes—an outfit that was both sexy and bursting with youthful vitality.

Fu Shize merely swept a glance over her before walking forward.

Yun Li walked right beside him, though she consciously kept a distance between them. Outwardly calm, her mind was already a tangled mess as she simply followed the flash of light blue moving in her peripheral vision.

Suddenly, she felt a cool touch wrap around her wrist, and he pulled her over to his side.

The two of them were standing extremely close, and she could catch the faint scent of fresh green orange emanating from him.

The exact spot where she had been standing just a second prior was now crossed by several small scooters—the ubiquitous electric mopeds popular around Xifu.

It took two seconds before Fu Shize let go of her wrist.

He lowered his gaze, and just as Yun Li looked up to meet his eyes, she dizzily muttered, "Thanks."

Fu Shize tilted his head slightly to acknowledge it and continued walking toward the right.