CH 7

“I’ll be damned…” Lan Mao wanted to make a fuss, but when he looked at him, he lost his temper, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry… then just apologize, this brother, why are you pushing me…?”

He was willing yet unwilling. He didn’t even look at Yun Li and spoke quickly, “Sorry.”

As if he was afraid of being overheard.

Fu Shi Ze did not let her slip away unpunished, “Say it again.”

Lan Mao could only say one word at a time, “Excuse me.”

Fu Shi Ze said, “What are you sorry for?”

“…” Lan Mao’s lips gradually straightened as he stared at him, “I’m sorry.”

“Do you have your eyes on me?”

“I…” Lan Mao took a deep breath and didn’t want to apologize endlessly, so he said honestly to Yun Li, “I’m sorry, I’m not too clear-headed at the moment, and I don’t know why I did such a thing. Don’t take it personally.”

Yun Li’s heart had a lingering fear and she replied vaguely,

“Brother Ze, why haven’t you returned back yet?” The big guy came out to smooth things over, “You don’t smoke anymore, you haven’t recovered from your cold yet, have you?”

“Hn.”

The big guy added, “This guy is drunk already, he’ll know his mistake when he sobers up.”

Lan Mao was annoyed: “Where am I drunk?”

Fu Shi Ze ignored him, “Go back ba!”

Feeling that the whole world was against him, Lan Mao said in an aggrieved voice, “It was this woman who said that I would let her come over and——”

Before he could finish his sentence, his mouth was covered by the big man and he could only let out a strangled cry. The big guy easily dragged him back into the alleyway, “Brother, we’ll leave you to it then. I’ll take him to sober up.”

With these two gone, the already remote location became even more deserted.

Yun Li wanted to ask him what his relationship with them, but he felt it was too presumptuous. After standing for a moment, she clutched the bag and said, “Thank you.”

Not receiving a response, Yun Li was in a dilemma or without having a way out, hesitating to say goodbye.

Then Fu Shi Ze suddenly asked, “What did you just call me?”

“Huh?” Unsure of the meaning, Yun Li dared not not answer, “Fu Shi Zhe?”

“Ze.”

“What?”

“Fu Shi Ze.”

“….” Yun Li still didn’t get it and read along, “Uh, Fu Shi Ze.”

Fu Shi Ze put out his cigarette, “Straighten your tongue and say it again.”

Yun Li suddenly understood and her face turned red.

Yun Li’s video was often pointed out by fans for her indistinguishable flat tongue. Later, she deliberately tried to adjust it, but some of the words were always indistinguishable, and she couldn’t even hear the difference.

Her mouth moved and she began with a mosquito-like voice, but she didn’t have the heart to continue.

But Fu Shi Ze only brought up her mistakes, not holding on to them like he did to Lan Mao. Then he asked thoughtfully, “How do you know my name?”

“…” He said and in a few seconds, Yun Li searched her brain and was one million percent sure that she did not introduce herself the last few times she had met him.

There was no way Yun Li could have told the truth. She had specifically searched for the internet and got the information through this.

Isn’t this a fucking pervert?

She stumbled and explained, “I heard, I heard from the EAW people, that you were their new colleague.”

This was a reasonable excuse, and Fu Shi Ze nodded. Glancing at the clock, he said casually, “What are you doing here?”

Yun Li whispered, “I want to buy a fried noodle.”

Fu Shi Ze didn’t ask too much and said, “Yes.”

“But forget it,” Although nothing happened earlier, Yun Li was still a bit uneasy at the moment, “It seems a bit out of the way, I’d better go back and order a takeaway.”

After two seconds of silence, Fu Zhi Ze asked, “Where?”

Yun Li subconsciously pointed to one direction.

Fu Zhi Ze: “Let’s go.”

“…”

After saying that, without waiting for her response, he lifted his feet and walked forward.

The heart rate of Yun Li inexplicably increased as she watched the back of Fu Shi Ze. After a moment’s pause, she catched up with him.

The dried fried noodle shop was located in one of the alleys.

Although the location was remote, there were still a lot of customers at this hour, and they looked like university students from the neighborhood. The milk tea shop is still open, but after the trend of the moment, the business in front of the shop is not as good as before.

They don’t say much and there is no more conversation while they wait.

After ten minutes, Yun Li took the bags.

The two of them walked out.

They walked along the street, all the way to the road. Across the street was the square where Yun Li had come from, where people were still dancing and skateboarding.

Fu Shi Ze stopped here and said, “Go home early.”

“Huh?” Yun Li slowed down a little, “…Oh, okay. Then I’ll go back first.”

After walking a few steps, Yun Li couldn’t resist looking back.

He was still standing in the same place.

The man’s eyebrows were dark, his skin pale and cold. He was tall and wore a white short sleeve. His body is thin, like a lonely pine, but not too thin.

For a moment, something broke through the cage.

A flower, reluctant to sprout, breaks out of the ground where no one is aware of it. Timid and small, it is tempted by the moonlight to step out into the world and take a peek.

Yun Li had forgotten her fear of socializing, her long-standing avoidance of strangers. At this moment, there is only one thought in her mind.

If she didn’t take a step forward now.

This could be the last meeting between the two of them.

But she wanted it to be.

There will be another time for them to meet. 

Yun Li swallowed and slowly closed her palm: “That, I… can I ask you for a way to get in contact?”

Fu Shi Ze raised his eyes.

The first time to do this kind of thing, Yun Li was at loss to explain: “I heard them say you have a cold, I know a brand of cold medicine is still quite effective, I want to recommend it to you…”

He did not answer immediately, as if waiting for her to finish.

A few moments later, Fu Shi Ze said flatly, “Thank you, no need.” Then, after a moment of silence, he added, “I forgot to mention that I hope my friend’s behavior will not affect you.”

A very simple statement that instantly shattered Yun Li’s reverie and misinterpretation.

She didn’t need to think deeply to understand what he meant.

It was not that he was thinking of her in a different way.

It was simply because his friend had done something to offend her tonight. And since he had apologized, it should have been an effective apology.

He did not want it to affect her original plans.

The long, endless night, the busy, deserted streets, the roads that cut the world in half. There was a sharp chirping in the ears, as if cut off from the surroundings, collapsing one after another.

An uncontrollable embarrassment washed over her heart. 

Yun Li smiled reluctantly and whispered, “It’s okay, forget it then…Hope you get over your cold soon.”

With that, Yun Li forgot to even say goodbye and just wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible. The moment she turned her head, her nose turned sour, she looked at the direction of the incoming car and quickly crossed the road.

……

When she got home, Yun Li kicked off her shoes and threw the bag on the dining table. She took three steps to the living room and slumped onto the couch, sinking down.

He wanted to pretend that nothing had happened, but the look on Fu Shi Ze’s face replayed before her eyes.

There was no hint of fluctuation from the beginning to the end.

It was as if the recklessness and retreat that had occurred tonight because of him had only been about her. Even when he refused, he didn’t even apologize for the possibility of hurting her.

Because he didn’t care at all.

Covering her face with a pillow, Yun Li pursed her lips hard.

So humiliating.

In such a sorry state.

Why would she do such a thing?

Yun Li desperately needed someone to talk to, someone she could empathize with, but didn’t want to mention it to anyone. After a long time, she picked up her mobile phone, opened the webpage and started searching, “I asked someone for a WeChat and was rejected.”

Many people have had the same experience.

It seemed to be a commonplace, trivial, unimportant thing.

But no matter what, most people wonder if they were really that bad because the other person wasn’t even interested in getting to know them better. Most people wonder if they were really that bad.

It took a long time to recover from reading other people’s stories. No longer sad, she sat down at the table and opened the dried fried noodles that she had put on hold for so long. 

She took a bite.

It was already cold.

Yun Li swallowed it and muttered in frustration, “My heart is not as cold as yours.”

She took the lunchbox to the microwave to heat it up, and while she waited, she turned on her E-site. She had taken a leave of absence and hadn’t posted a video for a few weeks.

The comments at the bottom of the page were all wailing, pleading for the return of the missing person, and some had even given her a nickname.

Yun Li was amused by a few of the comments, so after thinking about it, she typed and posted a message.

Tik-Tok sauce: Stop calling me salted fish Tik-Tok sauce and thank you all on your knees, update it on Saturday night.

The first time she posted it, hundreds of comments were scrolled down. 

When she looked through them, she found that apart from urging her to update, there was also a reminder that the 500,000 fans she owed hadn’t been paid. She had been asked to make videos on various topics, and they were so diverse that they were dazzling.

But the one that got the most response was for her to go live.

The first time she did it was a novelty, so she went offline after a few minutes. I felt that I was not very responsive to the scene and that the live broadcast would be boring, so I have been reluctant to play this game.

The only times she played it because he had been encouraged by fans.

But for some reason, they all seem to like it.

She noticed that it was late and there shouldn’t have been many people there. Besides, Yun Li was in a bad mood and wanted to talk to someone. Hesitantly, she returned to the living room sofa, looked at the camera to see what she was wearing and the angle, made sure it was right, and then clicked on the live feed.

The next second, users swarmed in.

Yun Li adjusted herself and said hello. Staring at the screen, he began to read out the pop-ups and replied, “Why are you ‘live’ all of a sudden? –Oh, it’s one of the perks of being a million fans, I’m rehearsing in advance.”

“Why did the background change?” Yun Li opened his lunchbox and simply started eating, eating dried fried noodles as she said, “I’ve moved and I haven’t sorted it out yet. I’ll get a better background later.”

“What are you eating? –Dried fried noodles.”

“It’s so boring, put on a talent show, otherwise live broadcast for what?” Yun Li also didn’t care, she said indifferently, “No, you can change the studio.”

“Why do I feel like Salty Fish is so shut in today? ——You got it wrong.”

As soon as this comment was made, the pop-ups were swarming with people playing:【It’s autism, not autism.】 

“…” Yun Li immediately thought of today’s correction of Fu Zhi Ze, deep breath, very sure that she did not allow the words to become warped and rightly dividing, “You do not confuse between right and wrong, I said there is nothing wrong.”

Next, the screen gave her words and tongue twisters, as if to give Yun Li’s standard Chinese a training session.

Perhaps she was trying to play along with her fans, or maybe she was trying to make a statement for herself, and Yun Li read every word properly. Some of the words were even improvised and made into nonsensical sentences.

And so it went on for about 10 minutes.

After eating the dried fried noodles, Yun Li scanned the screen and caught a word in the constant stream of pop-ups.

——Shi Ze. 

As he exits the sweet soup water shop, the mobile phone in Fu Shi Ze’s pocket rings.

Taking it out, he glanced at the caller ID and pressed the answer button. On the other end came Xu Qing Song’s voice: “Where is he? I’ve finished picking up the car.”

Fu Shi Ze: “They’re out.”

“Okay, come to the station.”

“Hn.”

Fu Shi Ze hung up the phone and walked out of the street again with a bag in his hand. He found Xu Qing Song’s car, got into the passenger seat and put the bag aside.

Xu Qing Song looked at it as he drove: “This, who are you going to buy it for?”

“My dad.”

“Is the old man still awake?” Xu Qing Song said casually, “So are you going back to the maple forest in the northern mountains now? Or are you going somewhere with me?”

Fu Shi Ze’s eyes drooped, looking extremely sleepy: “Not coming.”

Xu Qing Song shook his head and sighed, “You’re quite attractive to girls with your character. I’ve received several messages in the past few days, all asking me for your WeChat.”

Fu Shi Ze acted as if he hadn’t heard.

When he was weak, dejected and weary, Xu Qing Song didn’t say anything more and reached out to turn off his mobile navigation. At the same time, a tweet from the E website popped up at the top of the screen: Your followers @閑雲嘀嗒醬 started their live broadcast 15 minutes ago.

Xu Qing Song clicked the wrong button. 

He didn’t notice until there was suddenly some noise in the closed and quiet space, and Xu Qing Song unconsciously looked at his phone, only to find a girl who looked familiar on the screen.

He also gave him an account number, and the list of followers were all the upkeepers who had arrived this time.

To show that he was responsible, Xu Qing Song went to his account. However, he didn’t bother to look at it and only scanned it a few times. However, the software pushed him from time to time, and he had already clicked on it by mistake a few times during this period.

Xu Qing Song was just about to turn it off when he suddenly realized, “Ah Ze, isn’t this the girl who sat next to you the other day?”

When he heard the movement, Fu Shi Ze’s eyes lifted.

He saw the girl he had met only a short while ago appearing on Xu Qing Song’s mobile phone screen. She was sitting on the sofa, still wearing her fresh clothes. Her face was small and white. Her face was not much different from reality.

Her eyes are big and bright. She looked straight into the camera, less restrained than in front of his face.

Then, the girl spoke out, repeating a word: “Shi Ze, Shi Ze…”

In the middle of the night, in ghostly festival, in the cold and empty streets, in the live broadcast room that he accidentally clicked into and as the words that echoed in his ears, as soon as he entered the live broadcast room, the anchor repeated the words that sounded the same as the names of the people he was talking to.

“…”

It was a slightly bizarre scene.

Xu Qing Song was silent: “Why does it look like she’s calling you by your name?”

Without waiting for a reply from Fu Shi Ze, the girl ended her “Repeater” mode. Then, staring at the camera, she said quickly, “He looks like a wolf.”

After a pause, she slowly stifled a few more words: “—— but he’s a dog.”

A silence fell over the car, 

Three seconds later, Xu Qing Song reacted. He only caught the last half of the sentence and asked sideways, “You were scolded?”

Fu Shi Ze did not understand: “What?”

“She said you are a dog.”

“….”