Meeting the Parents?

After Li Changle answered, the first thing he saw was a beautiful woman with lovely features. But right now, she wasn't looking her best.

She'd just been crying, so her makeup was smudged and her eyes were red.

Seeing her like that, Li Changle immediately grew anxious. The words slipped out before he could stop himself.

"I... I wasn't. I was crying because I was happy..."

Wang Siyi said weakly. She'd been so happy that she'd forgotten she was crying. Her makeup was smudged, too. Did she look awful right now?

She felt a pang of regret. She really had been too impulsive. How could she have let herself forget what she looked like just because she missed him so much?

She asked carefully, "Do I... look really ugly right now?"

"Not ugly, exactly. You just look like a little kitten with a smudged face. It's pretty cute."

Seeing Wang Siyi made Li Changle happy, too, and he couldn't help joking with her.

"You're the kitten!"

Wang Siyi gave an irritated little huff. She really wasn't in any state to be on video right now.

"I'm hanging up. I need to wash my face. It feels awful with my makeup all smudged..."

Then she ended the video call.

"Hey...?"

Li Changle stared at the screen, where Wang Siyi had disappeared, and felt a little disappointed.

But when he saw that his WeChat background was the selfie she'd sent him last time while doing her makeup, his spirits lifted again.

It seemed she really wasn't upset. He remembered her saying before that the biggest promotion for their album would be director Huang Wenchuan's new film.

How had he forgotten about that? He patted himself on the head. At least he'd done his part to help her.

But that raised another question. If she wasn't upset about promoting the new album, why hadn't she answered him all morning? And why had she been crying just now?

Li Changle was puzzled. After thinking it over for a while, he decided to ask Wang Siyi. They were close enough by now, so it shouldn't be inappropriate to bring it up, right?

He picked up his phone and messaged Wang Siyi.

"Why didn't you answer me this morning?"

"And why were you crying just now?"

A while later, Wang Siyi had finished removing her makeup. She read Li Changle's two messages and felt warm inside. He really did care about her.

"Dummy!"

Wang Siyi sent him those two words. Li Changle stared at the message, baffled, then sent her a question mark.

"You promised last time you wouldn't send question marks, and you did it again!"

"Why are you insulting me?"

"I'm not insulting you, dummy!"

Li Changle saw Wang Siyi calling him a dummy over and over, and a few black lines appeared on his forehead. Was "dummy" supposed to be a compliment? Since when?

Unconvinced, Li Changle went to Baidu Baike and searched for the meaning of "dummy."

1. A fool; someone slow-witted. Generally, the word "dummy" is derogatory.

2. It can also mean an idiot; someone clumsy at everything they do.

3. Someone who can only do one particular thing, often used disparagingly.

4. Someone who is obsessed with something.

Li Changle stared at the definitions on the screen, deep in thought. Not one of the four meanings seemed complimentary.

After a moment's silence, he sent Wang Siyi a screenshot. He wanted to see how she'd explain herself now!

Wang Siyi was dumbfounded when she saw that Li Changle had actually looked up the meaning of "dummy" on Baidu Baike and sent it to her.

And that wasn't all. Li Changle added, "You say you're not insulting me, but hardly any of these meanings are complimentary!"

Wang Siyi's brief moment of feeling touched vanished. He didn't seem stupid, so how could he be this dense when it came to romance?

"Dummy, dummy, dummy!"

Wang Siyi sent him three more "dummy"s, followed by a reaction image.

"Keep calling me that! Go on, keep it up!"

Li Changle was getting annoyed. This woman was really pushing it.

Their WeChat chat turned into a battle of reaction images. In the end, Li Changle's supply ran low, and he narrowly lost.

Li Changle was dumbfounded. Where had this woman gotten so many reaction images? It was ridiculous.

Where had the aloof superstar from before gone? Why had she turned into a homebody who only knew how to trade reaction images?

"What are you grinning about, Wan Jun?"

Chen Baozhu looked at Wang Siyi in surprise. These past few days, Wang Siyi had been glued to her phone and would occasionally grin at it. Chen Baozhu had no idea what had her so happy.

But Chen Baozhu clearly had something urgent to discuss with Wang Siyi.

"Wan Jun, director Huang Wenchuan's team has confirmed that the preview screening will be in a month. They need your friend's permission to use the theme song. Can you see if he can come to Shanghai in a week?"

"Director Huang also wants to meet him, so you can introduce them when he comes."

"Oh, right, Yang Caiqian also said he hopes to meet your friend. We promised him before, so we can't go back on our word. Lately, Yang Caiqian's been messaging me every day about it..."

Chen Baozhu went on and on. Wang Siyi was used to it, so she listened quietly before finally replying.

"Okay, I understand, Sister Baozhu. I'll ask him and see if he can come to Shanghai next week."

"Ask him when he's free, so we can make arrangements..."

Chen Baozhu was clearly taking this very seriously. Both Huang Wenchuan and Yang Caiqian were major figures in the industry.

Huang Wenchuan especially—she couldn't let this chance to get to know him slip by. Having a director whose films grossed five billion yuan owe someone a favor was an opportunity with unimaginable benefits.

Wang Siyi nodded, planning to discuss it with Li Changle that evening. Thinking that she'd get to see him soon, she couldn't help smiling.

After narrowly losing the reaction-image battle, Li Changle declared a truce with Wang Siyi and decided to write for a while to clear his head.

He'd only just gotten into the flow when his phone rang. It was Wang Weimin.

"Changle, my teacher will be coming to Jinling next week. Come by then and meet your Aunt He..."

"Okay, Uncle Wang."

Li Changle had no objections. He already needed to go to Shanghai, and Jinling was close by, so he could stop there on the way.

But why had Uncle Wang specifically mentioned meeting Aunt He?

Aunt He had to be Wang Siyi's mother. Was this a meeting-the-parents situation?

Li Changle couldn't help grumbling to himself. Still, he was very happy that his poem, "Longing," had been selected for primary and secondary school textbooks.

If Li Changle weren't in a different line of work from literature, he'd make sure the schoolchildren of this world knew:

How many ways there were to write the "hui" in "fennel-bean."

What it meant to say, "In front of my house there are two trees. One is a jujube tree, and the other is also a jujube tree."

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