Those always-dark eyes glanced at Chu Ziyu, then, as if it were an illusion, quickly looked away.
The middle-aged man continued cursing, "Are you going to pay me or not?!"
Passersby either avoided the trouble or secretly observed Shen Huaiyu, while Shen Huaiyu stood there quietly, without any expression.
Chu Ziyu felt all the blood rush to his head. He stepped forward and kicked the middle-aged man hard in the waist. Caught off guard, the middle-aged man fell to the ground, clutching his waist and gasping for breath. Just as he was about to see who had kicked him, Chu Ziyu grabbed Shen Huaiyu's hand and ran forward.
Chu Ziyu gripped his cold hands tightly, his heart pounding faster than the "Merry Christmas" playing on the street. Disoriented, he wandered aimlessly through the crowd like a headless fly. After what seemed like an eternity, a voice sounded behind him, "Turn left."
Chu Ziyu immediately turned left.
Turn right at the third fork in the road.
Chu Ziyu counted, and when he got to the third one, he turned right and went inside. Instantly, everyone was gone. He could hear singing coming from upstairs. Looking up, Chu Ziyu realized there was a bar next door, and this was the alley behind it. He breathed a sigh of relief and turned back to ask Shen Huaiyu, "Are you alright?!"
It was at this moment that Chu Ziyu realized that Shen Huaiyu seemed to have grown even taller.
Normally, the distance between them wasn't noticeable at the checkout counter, but now there was only a fist's width between them. He only reached the tip of Shen Huaiyu's nose, even though he was clearly 181 cm tall...
As Chu Ziyu was feeling frustrated, Shen Huaiyu withdrew his hand, saying, "It's alright."
This was the first real conversation between the two. Chu Ziyu rubbed the back of her hand against her coat. "You probably don't know me. My name is..."
" Chu Ziyu."
Chu Ziyu's eyes widened. "How did you know!"
"Once you had your student ID hanging on your backpack."
Chu Ziyu's face flushed instantly, overjoyed. He stammered, "You... you remember me..."
Shen Huaiyu asked casually, "Have you eaten?"
"Eat..." Chu Ziyu was about to say that she had already eaten, but then bit her tongue and changed her mind, "I haven't eaten!"
Shen Huaiyu then took him to an unbelievable hot pot restaurant, where all meat was only ten yuan a plate, and rice and vegetables were free—it was unbelievably cheap.
The taste was more delicious than ever before. Chu Ziyu ate three bowls of rice and asked for more soup twice.
When Shen Huaiyu, Chu Ziyu finally opened his schoolbag and handed him a bag full of gifts. "It's Christmas today, you..." He didn't dare reveal that he knew it was Shen Huaiyu's birthday today, "Just pick something as a Christmas present!"
Shen Huaiyu took a piece of white chocolate.
Chu Ziyu's cheeks flushed again; he also loved white chocolate the most.
Chu Ziyu returned home in high spirits, but shortly after arriving, he experienced severe stomach pain and vomiting, and was taken to the hospital.
The doctor diagnosed it as acute enteritis.
His mom, dad, and brother were all there, and his mom burst into tears, saying, "I told you not to eat out, it's so unsanitary..."
Chu Ziyu just laughed, "Hehe, a little dirt won't hurt!"
--
Thinking of the past, Chu Ziyu chuckled. He looked up at the opposite side of the street, where the shop's floor-to-ceiling windows were decorated with Santa Claus and Christmas trees.
Tomorrow is Shen Huaiyu's birthday.
Chu Ziyu twisted the plastic bag tightly with her fingers, and when she came to her senses, she was already downstairs at Yan Heqing and Lu Lin's house.
"I was just passing by..." Chu Ziyu's eyes darted around, "So I thought I'd stop by."
Yan Heqing smiled gently, "Come in."
Chu Ziyu changed his shoes and entered the living room. Not seeing Lu Lin, he turned around and asked, "Where's A-Lin?"
Lu Lin had gone to the company, but Yan Heqing knew why Chu Ziyu had come, so he skipped Chu Ziyu's roundabout approach and said directly, "My teacher needs to see him, so he's out."
Chu Ziyu quietly pricked up her ears, pretending to be nonchalant as she asked, " Professor Shen from that dinner the other day? What does he want with A-Lin?"
" Professor Shen's birthday is tomorrow, and he's having a birthday party tomorrow night at a bar called Mirror—" Yan Heqing said calmly.
He was unaware of Chu Ziyu and Shen Huaiyu's story. Now that he had told Chu Ziyu Chu Ziyu location, the choice of whether to go or not was up to her.
Chu Ziyu's eyelids twitched, and he changed the subject, "Are the roses blooming again?"
The last time he visited was in early winter, when blue rain was falling intermittently. I didn't expect that when he came today, a few more flowers had sprouted. Although they weren't in full bloom and covered the entire balcony, they were still pleasing to the eye in the dead of winter.
Yan Heqing echoed his sentiment, "Blue is rainy and cold-resistant."
Chu Ziyu smiled and sat down on the sofa. "If someone had told me on this day last year that A-Lin would have planted a whole balcony of flowers for someone, I definitely wouldn't have believed it."
There was a pile of documents on the coffee table. Chu Ziyu glanced at them and saw that they were all written in strange characters, like tadpoles, and he couldn't understand them at all.
People with good grades do indeed like other people with good grades.
Unlike him... not to mention tadpole script, he's long forgotten all the English he learned in elementary school.
Chu Ziyu ate a meal of fresh meat wontons cooked by Yan Heqing and then went home.
He breathed a sigh of relief when his brother wasn't home, took a shower, and went straight to bed.
He closed his eyes and slept for a while, then opened them again, picked up his phone, and stared at the time.
11:56.
There are only 4 minutes left until Shen Huaiyu's birthday.
Why not go and join the birthday party?
The thought had barely crossed Chu Ziyu when she tossed her phone aside and fell back onto her pillow.
I'm not going!
He and Shen Huaiyu weren't friends, nor were they lovers. At most, they were in a pursuer-successor relationship where they'd shared a kiss once. There was no need for him to go!
Chu Ziyu snapped the light off and forced herself to sleep.
A few seconds later, he fumbled for his phone in the dark and created a group chat with about a dozen celebrities.
[Holiday at Mirror Bar tomorrow night, it's all on me!]
Chapter 143 [ Chu Ziyu's Memories] 5
7 PM, Mirror Bar.
Chu Ziyu stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, her eyes searching intently.
The atmosphere in the private room was very lively. Qin Chengcheng had recently become famous for an idol drama, and the singer who sang the theme song was also there. Everyone cheered for the singer to sing a song. The singer requested a song and invited Qin Chengcheng to sing a duet, Qin Chengcheng refused and walked to Chu Ziyu's side instead.