Chapter 20

Jiang Wan had indeed considered whether or not to go fishing. After the college entrance exam, there was a long summer vacation, and she was someone who couldn't afford to sit still. In the past, every summer and winter break, she would either be busy in various competition training classes or just randomly sign up for a class to learn a skill.

During last winter break, she suddenly wanted to take the Advanced Interpretation exam. Her foundation was already pretty good, and she enrolled in a class taught by a renowned teacher. Sure enough, she passed. Before that, she had also learned to play instruments, from guitar to piano. Unfortunately, her talent for instruments was robbed by fate, and no matter what she chose, she was still lacking. So, she stopped.

The fishing idea was primarily inspired by Jiang Huainan, who had been talking about buying fishing gear even before he went on a trip. But after all that talk, he didn't seem to make any moves, so Jiang Wan was convinced. She had never fished before, but she thought it was a philosophical pursuit, a good way to gain insights into life. Of course, the most important thing was that fish prices at the market had been skyrocketing recently, and she loved fish.

Lu Jiyu and Zhou Zifang seemed to be quite good at attracting wealth. Jiang Wan felt that the deserted tea restaurant suddenly became lively after they sat down. Customers came in wave after wave, and the sound of clattering and clanging came and went. The waiter who had just dozed against the tea cabinet was now busy as if he could fly.

Zhou Zifang and Chen Meiyu were still inexplicably angry, and Jiang Wan probably thought it was because of the quarrel they had in the barbecue restaurant. At first, she tried to mediate a few words, but it only added fuel to the fire, and the more she tried to persuade them, the more they dispersed. She was not good at this anyway, so she just let them go. Lu Jiyu was very calm from beginning to end. He sat down, drank two sips of tea, and then started to eat seriously. Jiang Wan was a little full, holding the chopsticks without moving, and wanted to talk to someone. Seeing that he was eating very attentively, she did not speak directly. Instead, she took the small teapot in front of Lu Jiyu and symbolically poured some water into his almost full teacup.

Lu Jiyu was drinking porridge with his head down, one hand holding the small bowl with a gold rim, the other holding the spoon, drinking very slowly. Jiang Wan thought he was quite amazing, he looked like a very arrogant person, but when he ate, he was very polite.

The gentleman raised his eyebrows and glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes: What's the matter?

Jiang Wan didn't say anything. He picked up his phone, typed a line of words, and clicked send.

The next second, Lu Jiyu's phone, which he had casually placed on the table, vibrated. He put down his spoon, wiped his mouth with a tissue, and then slowly picked up the phone.

Jiang Wan, holding her phone, turned to look out the French window. A new line had formed outside the Japanese restaurant. She recognized the dress one of the girls was wearing; it had immediately caught her eye, but unfortunately, it was so popular that she couldn't find it despite searching through numerous purchasing agents. It had all happened last year, and the longing she'd had for it had faded considerably. But now that she saw it in person, she still felt it was truly beautiful and loved it. Unfortunately, this was all she could do.

Lu Jiyu had just placed his order when his phone screen returned to the text message interface where he was chatting with Jiang Wan.

[Can we chat?]

No. There are four people sitting at the table, and you just have to talk to me, right? Weren't you just concerned about Zhou Zifang's well-being? Why don't you ask him to chat with you?

Lu Jiyu picked up his phone, neatly placed the half-eaten barbecued pork puff pastry back on the plate, and with his eyelids half-closed, he replied perfunctorily, "Okay, text chat? I'm drinking porridge, so I won't talk while I'm eating."

…

Mr. Lu’s classic philosophy: You can be shameless, but you need to be a little proud.

Jiang Wan types very quickly. As soon as he finished sending a message, the other party immediately replied. Lu Jiyu sighed and opened his phone while thinking that her typing speed was really suitable for raising fish and becoming a sea king.

[Let’s stop chatting. I’ve used up my text message plan for this month.]

So, did the young lady really not know there was an app called WeChat? Lu Jiyu's phone returned to WeChat and clicked on the friend search bar. He barely had to memorize the eleven-digit number; he typed it out on the keyboard. But he quickly deleted it. What's the point of adding WeChat? Why not try something else?

He put down his spoon, pushed the half-empty bowl of porridge forward, then picked up the cup of tea Jiang Wan had just ordered and took two sips. Jiang Wan looked up at him, and he looked at her. Jiang Wan thought he had finished eating and was about to say a few words. But before she could open her mouth, he turned his head away coldly, as if they were strangers.

alright.

Now she finally felt that he seemed to be a little at odds with her today.

Jiang Wan thought about it briefly; it seemed she hadn't done anything to make him suspenseful. Was he just too sensitive? Had she made some unintentional mistake, like when she ordered the food just now, that had inadvertently hurt him? Although Jiang Huainan always told her not to judge people by appearances, Jiang Wan felt that the handsome man in front of her was definitely not a sensitive person. He was more like someone who could play tricks on others by playing tricks on them.

As she was thinking, the long legs of the person next to her stretched under the table moved, and his shoes knocked against the iron table legs. He leaned back and lazily slumped in the sofa. A silver chain was faintly visible under the open collar of his shirt, extending all the way down along his delicate collarbone. Jiang Wan had recently wanted to buy a silver necklace like this, and she thought Lu Jiyu had good taste, so she was even more curious to see what his necklace looked like. She stared at the necklace for a while, trying to see through the layer of shirt fabric to see the shape of the necklace directly, until the other party gave her a killing look. She withdrew her gaze in disappointment.

Jiang Wan saw Lu Jiyu raise his cell phone and quickly scan the TV on the wall.

She was curious and took a closer look. She saw him scanning a QR code.

Jiang Wan had actually noticed the TV screen when she first entered, but since there was nothing on, she'd glanced at it and ignored it. Now, after a closer look, she realized there was something else going on. She'd attended a relative's wedding before, and usually, before the ceremony began, a QR code would be displayed on the big screen at the venue. Friends and family in attendance could scan the code to access a mini-program and send their best wishes to the newlyweds.

She hadn't realized why a TV screen in a tea restaurant would have this feature. Perhaps it was for confessions or something else? But perhaps everyone was so focused on eating that only a few messages were visible.

One of them is:

[gazer:chat]

So cool.

Chen Meiyun, who was sitting opposite, looked up from her phone and said to Jiang Wan, "I just saw on my phone that there's a book signing event going on at the Financial Building this afternoon. Do you want to go?"

Jiang Wan was typing with his head down: "What traffic? Who is it?"

Chen Meiyu mentioned a name.

Jiang Wan looked up and took a quick look at the screen to see if his message had been sent successfully.

[Jiang Ziya: Are you full? Do you think the durian pastry here is delicious, but the barbecue pork pastry is just average?]

Zhou Zifang frowned and thought about the name Chen Meiyun mentioned. It sounded familiar, but he couldn't place it for a moment. He wasn't usually a fan of celebrities, but to solidify his position as a friend of women at school, he would take the initiative to stay up-to-date on the latest trends among popular stars.

…

The tea restaurant had been playing Cantonese songs for a long time, and suddenly it changed to a Mandarin song.

Because it is so classic, you can tell it is Eason Chan's "Ten Years" just by listening to the opening tune.

"I remember now." Jiang Wan put down his phone: "He recently endorsed a sanitary napkin brand that I like."

"Why do sanitary napkins need male celebrities to endorse them?" She was really curious.

…

Zhou Zifang couldn't help but sigh. This girl really had no taboos, saying anything. Chen Meiyun, who was standing next to him, noticed he had something on his mind and confronted him directly, "What's with that expression? Hearing the word 'sanitary napkin' got you so excited? If you guys were to talk about all those dirty jokes you usually make when you get together, wouldn't you be so excited you'd have a heart attack and die instantly?"

"No, I didn't say anything. Aren't you being too targeted?" Zhou Zifang thought that he and Chen Meiyu were really incompatible, and they would rush at each other whether they said anything or not.

Chen Meiyu gave him a look that said "you'd better not have that."

Zhou Zifang speechlessly kicked Lu Jiyu opposite him. Why was this guy a little abnormal today? When he first came in, he was as coquettish as a peacock spreading its tail tail, but now he was sitting there with one hand on his shoulder and not saying a word, but there was an indescribable sense of satisfaction lingering in his dog-like eyebrows and eyes.

But he was satisfying something.

Zhou Zifang had been staring since he sat down. Aside from pouring water for Jiang Wan twice, taking three sheets of paper, and kindly reminding her twice, "This one's a little hot," and "That one's a little salty," he hadn't done anything else. Could this satisfy him?

"Say something."

What? Her favorite brand of sanitary napkins? Although Lu Jiyu knew Jiang Wan would be willing to tell him everything, from the functions to the length, he would explain everything to him. But he forgave him for not being that curious yet.

"Yeah." He nodded very condescendingly as a response, while his other hand, which was stretched under the table, was tumbling at an angle that only the people next to him could see.

New news appeared on the screen.

[Gazer: I'm fine with it. Since you like it so much, I'll pack a few to take home later. What are you doing this afternoon?]

Jiang Wan stared at the short sentence on the screen, complete with words and punctuation. If she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, she would have found it hard to believe that Lu Jiyu had typed it out purely blindly, without a single typo. It was truly impressive.

"What does 'hmm' mean?" Zhou Zifang shouted unsatisfiedly.

Lu Jiyu lazily lifted his shirt collar and looked up at Zhou Zifang, glancing at the screen behind him from the corner of his eye. Zhou Zifang was, after all, close enough to him that he could sense something was amiss with just one movement from Lu Jiyu.

"What are you looking at behind you?" He turned around and looked behind him, but Lu Jiyu was looking at the wall behind him, while he was looking at the beautiful sister eating at the table behind him.

Shit—could it be that this dog has a new target?

"Didn't you ask me to say something?" He shamelessly quibbled with others. Zhou Zifang really had no idea what to do with him.

Chen Meiyu was still happily introducing the young man's life experience, such as playing the suona at the age of three, breaking a stone with his chest at the age of eight, diving 50 meters into the deep sea and fighting sharks with his bare hands at the age of eighteen, and discovering the eighth wonder of the world at the age of twenty-one.

Jiang Wan: "Is this still a human being?"

Chen Meiyu laughed non-stop, drinking water and laughing: "No, I was just reading the life experience made up by his haters."

Zhou Zifang pulled out two pieces of paper and threw them at him: "You're still talking about me, why don't you wipe it yourself? I advise you to stop following certain low-traffic celebrities, because they can't even run away as fast as their reputations collapse. My mother's law firm has a client who is in the entertainment industry, and she told me a lot of gossip. Of course, don't ask me, I won't tell you."

Chen Meiyun: "Does your family run a law firm?"

Zhou Zifang: "Yeah? Why do you want to sue? If you want a lawsuit, come to me, I'll give you a 10% discount. Don't come to me for an internship certificate, our minimum requirement is to only recruit students from C University."

When Chen Meiyun heard what he said, she was like she had discovered a new world. She quickly pulled out a photo from her phone and showed it to him. Her attitude and tone immediately changed 180 degrees: "Have you seen this person?"

[Jiang Ziya: I plan to study at the library this afternoon and go out for dinner tonight. How about you?]

[Gazer: I'm going to play billiards with some friends on the eighth floor of the Financial Building.]

[Jiang Ziya: You can play billiards? Do you think I should learn to fish or play billiards?]

[Gazer: ...Do you still need to learn how to fish?] You've already mastered it.

[Jiang Ziya: Then I should learn to play billiards?]

Lu Jiyu stared at the words on the screen for a long time, then rubbed his neck with his backhand.

You're messing with me again, right?

Gazer: Looking for someone to teach you?

[Jiang Ziya: Do you still need a coach? Do you know anyone?]

Sometimes Lu Jiyu really couldn't understand whether she was truly innocent or just pretending. He kept looking up at the words, his phone lying in his open palm, silently sensing his now-ragged pulse. Only when the words completely disappeared from the screen did Lu Jiyu turn his head away, a cold smile curling his lips as he casually typed a few words and sent them off.

Gazer: Let me ask you.

[Jiang Ziya: Then can I come to you? After the college entrance examination, if you have time, can you teach me how to play billiards? I'll pay you.]

It turns out to be a boomerang.

It turns out you were waiting for me here.

Lu Jiyu's Adam's apple rolled in suppression, and then he continued to lower his head and knocked in a pretentious tone at a speed half as slow as usual.

Gazer: Let me think about it.

Gazer: Mainly because I’m usually pretty busy.

Jiang Wan’s reply speed is still very fast.

[Jiang Ziya: It's okay. If you're really busy, I can find someone else. There's no need to force it.]

Lu Jiyu...

At that moment, Eason Chan's song "Ten Years" was reaching its climax, and a few voices could be heard singing along faintly in the restaurant. Then two new messages popped up on the TV screen.

[Jiang Ziya: Where do you think we will be in ten years?]

[Gazer: Just follow me.]

Lu Jiyu typed too quickly this time and missed a word in the sentence. [Just follow me and learn.] He missed the character for “学” (learn).

The two sentences were spoken almost simultaneously, overlapping one above the other when displayed on the screen. By some strange coincidence, they formed a perfect question and answer.

"Mom, look? Someone is confessing their love on TV!" A little girl pointed at the screen excitedly.

Perhaps it's a ghost's infatuation, or perhaps it's the wine itself that intoxicates, but in life, we encounter many coincidences, even countless like the fish swimming across the river. But there are only a few that truly make you stop and even want to reach out and grasp them firmly.

Lu Jiyu rarely acts impulsively, and rarely experiences moments in this world that he desperately wants to seize. He considers himself a hedonist, savoring the present moment and being himself.

But this moment, this moment, was different. There was no sense of destiny that gnawed at my heart, nor was there the desperate feeling of being the only one waiting in the dimly lit area.

It's just like there's something fleeting, and you don't know what it is yet, but you have to grasp it immediately.

So Lu Jiyu almost did not hesitate and quickly turned on the camera function to capture this "coincidence" when the words on the screen were about to disappear.

With a "click".

Zhou Zifang, who was chatting enthusiastically with someone opposite, heard the voice and slowly raised his head to look at Lu Jiyu who was holding the phone, his eyes full of disbelief.

"Are you secretly filming me?"

Lu Jiyu put down his phone and could only bite the bullet and say politely: "I haven't seen you for a few seconds, and I suddenly feel that Mr. Zhou is so handsome——"