I Missed You Today

Shanghai.

Inside a villa in an upscale residential neighborhood, Wang Siyi looked at the dishes on the dining table.

A thought suddenly popped into her head: she wondered whether this food or the food Li Changle cooked tasted better.

Chen Baozhu was in a good mood today, so she'd made a rare trip into the kitchen. Even Xiuxiu hadn't known that Chen Baozhu was such a good cook.

She was so busy, and she looked so polished and refined. She seemed like the sort of person who never lifted a finger around the house, yet she'd managed to prepare a whole table of food.

Xiuxiu had already started eating and couldn't stop, shoveling food into her mouth.

Wang Siyi picked up her chopsticks and put a bite of food in her mouth too. It tasted good, but it wasn't the sort of food she liked.

Without thinking, she found herself wondering if Li Changle's cooking would suit her tastes better.

At the thought of Li Changle, she frowned and pursed her lips. She wondered what that guy was doing. It had been three hours, and he still hadn't replied to her on WeChat.

Was he really as nice to every girl as Xiuxiu had said?

She was a little annoyed that Li Changle hadn't replied, so she didn't want to look at her phone.

She couldn't remember where she'd tossed it. Then she thought of it and hurried to get up and look for it. What if he really had something going on?

Xiuxiu and Chen Baozhu were eating when they suddenly saw Wang Siyi stand up.

They had no idea what she was up to. Xiuxiu hurriedly swallowed the braised pork in her mouth and asked,

"What are you looking for, Sister Wanjun? We're eating."

"Have either of you seen my phone?"

Wang Siyi asked.

"I think your phone's over by the sofa. I saw it there a while ago."

Xiuxiu answered quickly. Wang Siyi had always been like this. She wasn't someone who liked looking at her phone, and Xiuxiu often found it lying in some corner of the house.

After hearing that, Wang Siyi went to the sofa and rummaged around until she found her phone. She opened WeChat and took a look.

Her heart lifted. He'd replied an hour ago. So he'd been asleep. What a jerk—he'd made her worry for so long. She wouldn't reply just yet.

The corners of her mouth lifted slightly, and she went back to eat, happy.

Chen Baozhu and Xiuxiu both found it strange. A moment ago, she'd had a blank expression, but after coming back with her phone, her face was full of smiles. They had no idea what happy news she'd seen.

"What's got you so happy, Sister Wanjun?"

Xiuxiu couldn't help asking.

"Nothing. I just thought of something that made me happy."

Wang Siyi realized she was showing too much, so she quickly composed herself, her expression turning serious in an instant.

"What happy thing?"

"Why do you ask so many questions? Eat your food."

Wang Siyi rolled her eyes at her and put a chicken leg in her bowl.

"Oh."

Xiuxiu felt a little aggrieved and confused, but the chicken leg was more important right now. She said nothing more and went back to eating, focusing on the chicken leg in her bowl.

Wang Siyi happily ate her meal. The food that hadn't tasted quite right before seemed much better now.

But every minute or two, she checked her phone. She wanted to see if he would message her first if she didn't reply.

The meal lasted fifteen minutes. Wang Siyi checked her phone every two minutes, and her smile gradually faded. The food seemed to taste worse and worse.

In the end, she simply stopped eating, took her phone to the sofa, and stared at it without even blinking.

Chen Baozhu watched Wang Siyi, puzzled. She couldn't figure out what was going on, but she could tell Wang Siyi had changed completely.

She used to be someone who never looked at her phone, but now she checked it every two minutes. Her expression kept shifting—smiling one moment, frowning the next, then looking sulky.

Chen Baozhu was baffled. She'd known Wang Siyi for three years, and had spent most of those years by her side. She'd thought she knew her well, but even she couldn't explain it.

Wang Siyi had come back from Yangcheng a different person. She looked the same, but her whole personality seemed to have changed. It was strange.

Chen Baozhu wasn't the only one who found Wang Siyi's change odd. Her assistant, Xiuxiu, had noticed something unusual too.

But Xiuxiu knew much more about this sort of thing than Chen Baozhu did. She hadn't spent all those years reading sweet romances and angsty love stories for nothing.

Why did Sister Wanjun's current behavior sound so much like the way a novel described its heroine when she was dating the male lead?

There was no way Sister Wanjun would date anyone. She was going to become a diva. Xiuxiu couldn't help laughing at the thought.

For three years, Sister Wanjun had been working toward that goal. No matter how hard or exhausting things got, she'd never complained.

How could someone like that throw away her path to stardom just to date someone?

Female celebrities, especially young and beautiful ones who were already famous, naturally attracted attention.

That attention would disappear once they were no longer single. In the worst cases, their public image would collapse, and they'd go straight from being popular to washed-up.

Fans couldn't accept it when the person of their dreams got into a relationship. If she did, they'd lose fans and popularity.

It wasn't that dating was wrong, but Wang Siyi was currently one of the most popular second-tier celebrities. Her standing came not only from her own talent.

Another reason was her looks. She'd attracted plenty of fans, both men and women. She had the kind of beauty that even female fans couldn't resist, and it was rare in the entertainment industry.

If Wang Siyi had enough work under her belt and proven herself, and if the man's status or position could win over her fans, then she could do as she pleased.

But it was clearly too soon for that.

Wang Siyi had considered this too, so she hadn't rushed to tell Li Changle how she felt.

She wasn't sure whether he liked her, and she was also troubled by her current situation.

But once her new album came out, she'd have a better chance of becoming a first-tier singer, and if she had a hit like Red Bean to her name, things would be much better than they were now.

Even if they still couldn't hold hands in public, they could secretly date in private.

Then, when the time was right, she could be honest with Sister Baozhu. That could be discussed.

Wang Siyi was an independent person. Ever since she was young, she'd known that freedom was what she wanted.

So she planned everything carefully. She was smart about everything, except when it came to Li Changle.

Whenever there was something she wanted, she did her best to get it. Even if she didn't succeed in the end, she wouldn't regret it, because at least she'd tried.

She looked at her phone again. That guy still hadn't replied, and she grew furious.

She picked up her phone, opened their chat, and sent him a message:

"What are you doing?"

Li Changle was typing away with great enthusiasm. Since he'd decided to publish his book tomorrow, he needed to build up a stockpile of chapters.

Li Changle's habit was to play it safe. He wasn't comfortable unless he had three to five hundred thousand words saved up, even though the book he was about to publish was only a little over a million words long.

Li Changle had decided to use the chapter titles and word counts from the work by the great Jin Yong. The whole book would have only around forty chapters.

He planned to publish about one chapter a day, finish it in roughly a month, and then go back to taking a break.

Being a slacker was his ultimate goal.

The only thing he had to do was change the setting into an alternate history, since this world's ancient past was different from Earth's, and explain how the different countries were arranged.

He had no intention of changing anything else in the classic work by the great Jin Yong.

He simply couldn't improve it. It was too classic. He'd read Jin Yong's books countless times.

Even without his current extraordinary memory, he could have written the story from memory, but his prose couldn't compare with Jin Yong's.

So he might as well leave every word as it was and just add a little background information.

Suddenly, WeChat chimed on his phone. He opened it and saw a message from Wang Siyi. He casually snapped a photo and sent it to her.

When Wang Siyi saw that he was writing a novel, she felt relieved. So he hadn't been looking at his phone.

But she was still unhappy. He'd ignored her for so long.

She didn't know what to say to him, though. Wang Siyi wasn't good at chatting, and it was obvious that Li Changle was the same.

"Why didn't you message me first?"

Wang Siyi sent him a slightly petulant message. Two minutes later, she regretted it and wanted to take it back, but it was too late. She felt annoyed with herself.

Li Changle looked at the message Wang Siyi had sent. He thought of the hug that morning and the gentle words she'd spoken.

He felt his heart growing restless again, and the Demon Slaying Saber in his heart began to stir.

But Li Changle held the Demon Slaying Saber down. He missed that hug and her gentle voice.

For some reason, he wasn't used to it when he couldn't hear Wang Siyi's voice or see her face.

"I replied when I woke up, but when you didn't answer, I went to write my novel."

"Then why haven't you messaged me first all this time? What did I tell you this morning?"

Wang Siyi gave up trying to keep up appearances. She was upset anyway, so what was wrong with acting a little spoiled?

"I missed you today."

Li Changle replied to Wang Siyi without hesitation. He'd thought of her while he was getting ready to eat. That should count as missing her, right?

When Wang Siyi saw the message, her heart gave a few unsteady thumps, as if a little deer inside her were frantically crashing against her chest.

Her cheeks flushed, and a smile spread across her face, impossible to suppress.

Several minutes passed before she finally came back to her senses.

"What about me did you miss?"

"Oh, I thought of you while I was eating. I even called out to you in the living room, then realized you weren't home."

Wang Siyi saw the message and tossed her phone aside in anger. She didn't want to talk to him.

Xiuxiu had been watching Wang Siyi for more than ten minutes. To her horror, Sister Wanjun was looking more and more like a female lead in a novel who'd fallen in love.

She could hold her phone for ages without looking up. Whenever a WeChat message came in, she'd be overjoyed to see the reply.

Sometimes she'd stare at her phone with flushed cheeks and grin like an idiot. Other times, she'd furrow her brows without saying a word. And that last phone toss looked exactly like a couple having an argument and storming off...

Could Sister Wanjun really be dating someone? No way. No way!

Wait! The last time Sister Wanjun asked her about relationship troubles, she'd been hesitant and evasive too.

Could it be that the person with relationship troubles hadn't been Sister Wanjun's so-called friend at all? Had it been Sister Wanjun herself?

Had Sister Wanjun really fallen for a guy?

And did she still not know whether he liked her?

No wonder she'd looked so conflicted when Xiuxiu said her friend should stay away from that guy for a while. She couldn't bear to do it!

Sister Wanjun had only been in Yangcheng for less than two months. This was unbelievable.

No wonder Sister Wanjun had decided to come to Shanghai a few days after calling Xiuxiu, according to Sister Baozhu.

Then Sister Wanjun had put it off for a whole week. Maybe she couldn't bear to leave that guy, so she'd dragged her feet again and again.

Oh my god!

Xiuxiu felt her guess was almost certainly right. Everything fit together. What kind of man could make Sister Wanjun so lovesick?

Xiuxiu was completely at a loss.

Xiuxiu was starting to believe in love. Even someone like Sister Wanjun could secretly love a guy. If that could happen, what couldn't?

Xiuxiu had always thought that someone like Wang Siyi only existed in novels.

She was beautiful and aloof, and seemed hard to approach. But once you got to know her, you realized she was genuinely kind. There was nothing more wonderful in the world.

It had taken Xiuxiu more than half a year to get close to Wang Siyi. At first, she'd thought Wang Siyi was the typical arrogant celebrity.

But after spending some time with her, she'd discovered that although she seemed distant, she was always polite and considerate. She was completely different from other celebrities.

That was why Xiuxiu had stayed by Wang Siyi's side all this time. Even when Wang Siyi had thought about leaving the entertainment industry, Xiuxiu had kept going, hoping she might come back.

If it weren't for Wang Siyi, Xiuxiu might have left the industry long ago and found a job in another field.

She wondered what the guy looked like, who he was, and what he did for a living. What if he was a scammer? That would be terrible...

Sister Wanjun seemed innocent, even if she was hard to approach. But once someone found their way into her heart, she might be devoted to them for the rest of her life.

If he was a scammer...

Xiuxiu couldn't even imagine what Sister Wanjun would be like, or how heartbroken she'd be. No, she couldn't let Sister Wanjun get fooled.

Sister Wanjun's happiness was something she, Zeng Xiuxiu, would protect!

Xiuxiu swore to herself.

Then, looking conflicted, she sat down beside Wang Siyi. She hesitated, but finally decided to ask her tactfully:

"Sister Wanjun, how far have you and that guy... I mean, how far have your friend and that guy gotten?"

Wang Siyi stared at Xiuxiu in shock. Then her face turned bright red. Sitting on the sofa, she pulled her knees up and buried her face in them like an ostrich.

Her ears were fine, of course. She knew Xiuxiu had let something slip. If she was right, Xiuxiu had figured out that she had a crush on a guy.