When I Meet the Moon - Chapter 78

Chapter 78

Zhang Xinyi, the colleague she had messaged the day before, still hadn't replied.

Yun Li wanted to contact Jiang Yuan's parents through Zhou Tuo. For all these years, they had never responded to Fu Shize. To a certain degree, Yun Li could understand their methods and motivations.

Yet as the other party who was also injured, Fu Shize shouldn't have to carry guilt and live his life burdened by it forever.

Tossing and turning, Yun Li stopped waiting for the other person's reply and instead did something she had never done before.

She added everyone in that dinner group chat and introduced herself: [Hello, I am Yun Li, a new employee starting next year.]

During the process of adding them, someone had already accepted her friend request and replied.

Having to deal with more than ten people all at once caused Yun Li's anxiety levels to skyrocket.

After adding everyone in one go, she sat down on the sofa, thought of her utility man Yunye, and directly dialed a call: "Yunye, log into my WeChat."

Yunye: "Why..." Although he asked that, Yunye still took a photo of the QR code on the login screen and sent it to her.

Yun Li: "Can you see the recent messages?"

Yunye glanced at the profile picture: "The one your brother-in-law sent you?"

Yun Li hurriedly said, "Don't peek at my messages."

"..."

Wanting someone to help while also telling them not to look—Yunye felt her brain must truly be broken.

Yun Li: "Take a look, I added over a dozen friends, all my colleagues. Help me reply to them. Except for the one named Zhou Tuo."

Yunye: "..."

This wasn't the first time Yunye had helped Yun Li with such tasks. Whenever Yun Li had reservations or anxiety about replying to messages from strangers or answering phone calls from strangers, she would simply have him handle it. Lowering his eyes, he skillfully and effortlessly replied to the messages one by one.

Because there were too many people, he used a shortcut key to directly pop up the latest message, and accidentally opened Fu Shize's chat window.

Aside from the profile picture, Yunye couldn't find any other way to recognize that this was Fu Shize.

The nickname was Wife.

He broke out in goosebumps all over as the other party sent an emoji: [Thinking of you]

Yunye felt his spirit suffer ten thousand points of critical damage, and he only wanted to close the computer.

With a blank expression, he typed a single character: [Oh.]

Looking at the message right above that, Yun Li had written: [I made Hokkaido milk toast for you. It's just fermenting now, and I'll bring it over to you tomorrow. It should be enough for three days of breakfast.]

It was even paired with a little bear heart-shaped emoji.

While Yunye was still working tirelessly to reply to messages for her, his end of the line began to feel a sense of psychological imbalance, and he asked her over the phone: "Sis, I want to eat toast."

Yun Li answered without missing a beat: "Go buy it at the supermarket, 5 yuan a bag. It takes me a really long time to make one."

Yunye: "..."

Yun Li: "If you don't have money, I'll send you a red packet."

Yunye: "..."

Feeling depressed, Yunye chatted on her behalf for about an hour. After hanging up the phone, he saw that Yun Li had indeed sent him a red packet.

He clicked on it.

It was indeed 5 yuan.

...

Zhou Tuo was the last person to accept her friend request.

Weighing her phrasing carefully, Yun Li sent a message explaining that she was Fu Shize's girlfriend and wanted to meet with him to talk about some matters. The two of them scheduled dinner for two days later.

Early the next morning, Yun Li sliced the toast and packed it into a bag.

The car was parked inside the School of Control Science and Engineering. The moment Yun Li stepped out of the car, she saw Fu Shize standing under the tree in front of the building. She trotted over: "Why did you come down?"

Fu Shize lowered his gaze. Today she was wearing a beige dress, her waist-length hair draped over her shoulders, and her crystal-white face carried a delicate pink blush.

His tone was gentle: "To pick you up."

Directly taking the things from Yun Li's hands, he opened his other hand and looked at her.

The two of them had repeated this action many times, but every time she saw him quietly waiting for her to extend her hand, no matter how long it took, he would always wait for her.

Yun Li's heart would still race uncontrollably.

Slipping her hand into his cool palms, his temperature gradually rose in response. He completely enveloped her small hand and gently squeezed it.

It was now 7:30 in the morning, and most other people in the office wouldn't arrive until after 10 o'clock.

Fu Shize placed the toast on the desk. On the computer screen was a half-written thesis, and some notes were spread out on the desk, making it clear that he had been working for a while.

Catching the rich aroma of coffee in the air, Yun Li asked sharply: "Where is your breakfast?"

Fu Shize's gaze shifted downward to the bag of toast she brought: "Here."

Yun Li sniffed, furrowing her brow as she asked him: "Did you drink coffee?"

Seeing the furrow between her brows, Fu Shize tilted his head, hesitating for a long time over whether to tell the truth. Seeing Yun Li press her lips tightly together, he slowly let out an "Mn."

Yun Li reined in her smile: "On an empty stomach?"

Anyone with normal sense knew that drinking coffee on an empty stomach was extremely harsh on the stomach.

Fu Shize didn't make a sound.

"The surgery was a year and a half ago. It's already healed." He calmly put up a desperate struggle while observing Yun Li's expression. She didn't believe it at all: "You couldn't eat even a single bite of the mille-crepe cake last time, but now you can drink coffee on an empty stomach?"

Fu Shize pulled her hand, going along with her words: "I can't."

"..."

Fu Shize picked up her words smoothly, but it felt like it had merely passed through his lips.

Yun Li's punch had landed on cotton; this response felt more like adding fuel to the fire. Smoldering with secret anger and wearing a stiff expression on her face, she still opened the bag and took out two slices of toast for him.

Fu Shize didn't touch the toast in front of him, choosing to look at Yun Li instead.

This seemed to be the first time Yun Li had ever gotten angry.

In his impression, this was indeed the first time.

The two of them locked eyes, looking just like a head of student affairs and a student sitting up straight.

Generally speaking, Yun Li wouldn't voice her unhappiness; instead, she would repeatedly bottle up her emotions inside. The only time she had ever thrown a temper tantrum at Fu Shize up until now was after letting things build up to a single explosive burst, which ended in a breakup.

Yun Li didn't want to leave a lingering knot in her heart. With a tone that was half-sulky and half-consultative, she asked him: "Tell me, if I'm mad at you, how should I throw a temper tantrum?"

When she was angry, the spirited edge around her eyes became heavier, making her appear aggressive, but her half-consultative tone diluted this aggressiveness. Fu Shize looked at her and asked: "Should I decide?"

Yun Li: "Let's take your opinion as a reference."

It was actually quite bizarre.

Yun Li considered herself rather inept at handling conflicts.

She could only resort to seeking help from the person with the highest emotional intelligence on the scene, yet this person happened to be the very one who had angered her.

Fu Shize leaned forward, proactively bringing his face close to her lips: "Give me a kiss. Then the anger will go away."

"..."

Yun Li glared at him: "You made me mad, and you still want me to kiss you? Aren't you going too far?"

Fu Shize smiled: "Then I can kiss you instead."

"..."

With those two sentences, Yun Li's mood had already improved significantly. She pointed at her cheek: "Kiss right here."

"Mn." Fu Shize pressed close to her, his thin lips brushing against her lips like a dragonfly skimming the water: "You looked at the wrong spot."

"..."

Before Yun Li could react, he gently kissed her cheek once more: "Got it right this time."

Yun Li's expression had already relaxed, though her chin remained tucked in. Seeing this, Fu Shize continued: "Stop being mad. My bad."

He admitted his wrongs quite promptly.

Yun Li felt that whenever moments like this arose, Fu Shize would soften up as if he had no bones at all. By now, she couldn't summon any more real anger, and nagged: "Your stomach isn't good. Don't drink coffee on an empty stomach."

Fu Shize nodded.

"Don't just nod your head. You have to keep it in your heart."

No matter what she said, Fu Shize simply nodded.

Seeing Fu Shize's good attitude, Yun Li felt that she had been a bit too fierce just now. After holding back for a long time, she muttered: "Actually, I shouldn't have gotten mad just now either."

Thinking that Fu Shize was a soft pushover, she paused for a moment and instructed: "You need to have some baseline; don't just apologize so easily."

After thinking for a bit, she felt that wasn't quite right either: "But you really were in the wrong."

Fu Shize picked up a slice of toast, tore off two pieces, and put them into his mouth to chew slowly. Only after Yun Li finished speaking did he open his mouth to say: "I only apologize to you."

Yun Li's temper vanished completely now, and she sat quietly beside him to keep him company.

Thinking of matters concerning the company, she casually brought it up: "A colleague at the company asked me last night if I wanted to check in early and start working. They said they recently opened a VR game project team, which seems to be collaborating with President Xu's side. Seeing that I had relevant internship experience, they specifically came to ask me."

Since Fu Shize knew that Yun Li was going to that company, he had already inquired about it with Xu Qingsong, so he was aware of this news as well.

"Do you want to go?"

"Mn, because we both worked at EAW before."

Yun Li chose this job simply because of its nine-to-five hours and relatively interesting work content, but upon hearing that it had a collaboration with EAW, she suddenly felt a strong desire to join this project team.

Because it was connected to them.

Yun Li continued: "But I'm a bit worried about the progress of my master's thesis. I don't want to write it when I'm all by myself." She glanced at Fu Shize. "So I want to study for self-study sessions together with you."

She continued talking to herself: "But I'm also worried that when there are two of us, I won't be able to get any writing done."

Fu Shize asked a question he already knew the answer to: "Why wouldn't you be able to get it done?"

"..."

Sometimes, his words would leave her so choked up that she couldn't say a single thing in response.

Fu Shize seemed to genuinely enjoy letting her bare those emotions right before his eyes, or perhaps he liked watching her look distressed and embarrassed out of shyness.

As if ignoring Yun Li's speechlessness, he raised his eyelids and asked her: "Is it because of you, or because of me?"

Admitting it was because of her wasn't that the same as saying that her beauty was right in front of him and making it impossible for her to settle her mind?

Yun Li muttered: "Because of you."

Fu Shize smiled: "What did I do?"

Yun Li was supremely calm and righteous: "You sitting right there—every single second you're deliberately seducing me. Because you're sitting there, I can't keep my eyes and my brain under control."

Yun Li went on: "You probably belong to the category where your mere existence is a mistake."

Spouting a bunch of crooked logic, she waited for Fu Shize to strike her down, but he showed zero desire to argue with her, tilting his head to ask: "How are you failing to keep them under control?"

"..."

When she could see him, she wanted to look at him.

When she couldn't see him, she would miss him.

She couldn't be apart from him for even a single moment.

Fu Shize pondered for a bit: "It seems like you haven't really had to do anything."

The way he phrased it—it sounded as though she ought to do something to corroborate the fact that she was being seduced by him and couldn't control herself.

Seeing Yun Li remain silent, Fu Shize gradually closed the distance to her face, the bridge of his nose lightly grazing hers, watching as her eyes shone bright with every single eyelash distinct, staring straight at him.

Fu Shize asked her: "Aside from your eyes and your brain, can you keep every other part under control?"

The room had no lights on, and the translucent brown curtains were all drawn open. Surrounding them were office desks arranged with various textbooks. In these final months before graduating and leaving school, immersed in this setting, Yun Li felt that the person before her was simply the teenage boy who used to sit in the spectator stands back in high school.

Fu Shize seemed to have recalled the same memory as her, his fingertip brushing against her hairline; back in high school, she had worn her hair long too.

With no one else around, the quietness between the two of them felt excessively profound.

The next instant, Yun Li broke her silence and directly hooked her arms around his neck.

The forward momentum of her lean pressed Fu Shize back against the iron cabinet.

The door lock rattled loudly, a sound that distracted Yun Li slightly.

Yet the eyes before her remained motionless, unfailingly reflecting her face from start to finish.

Yun Li curved her lips into a smile, and as she leaned in to kiss him, a few words slipped through her teeth—"I can't keep any part under control."