Chapter 79

Guan Nan's voice was hoarse: "You replied to him?"

“Hmm,” Zhang Hong replied, then looked up at Guan Nan and scratched his head suspiciously. “He said his car was almost out of gas and asked me where the nearest gas station was.”

At this moment, Zhang Hong's car is charging at a charging station.

After some time, Guan Nan casually mentioned that she seemed to have seen it on the way here. Just then, Zhang Hong turned the navigation on and off, asking her for the exact location.

"His mom and the others went to a beauty salon, and he just happened to go out to refuel." Zhang Hong sent a message to Jiang Li, giving him vague directions, and then said to Guan Nan.

It turned out that it really was his mother, looking as youthful as ever.

“He didn’t seem to understand…” Zhang Hong saw her frowning and staring at her phone, then asked in a very low voice, “Sis, did you hear that?”

Guan Nan locked the screen and gave a muffled "hmm," which sounded slightly nasal.

Zhang Hong wanted to ask something more, but noticing that Guan Nan seemed a bit off, he didn't say anything more and simply repeated the story to Jiang Li with his head down.

After sending the message, a notification sound came from behind.

The man took out his phone, glanced at the reply briefly, and said calmly, "I don't understand."

"How could I not understand? It was explained so clearly..." Reflecting on his own ability to express himself, Zhang Hong replied instinctively, but when he looked up and saw the person on the other side of the screen standing in front of him, he couldn't help but be speechless for a moment.

Jiang Li put away his phone and asked very politely, "Would it be convenient for you to take me there?"

"My car is still charging," Zhang Hong said somewhat embarrassedly.

"Oh." After a few seconds of pause, Jiang Li asked earnestly, "Would you mind repeating it to me again?"

“Uh…” Zhang Hong glanced at the chat history and realized that even though he had explained it so clearly, the other person still didn’t understand. He thought that even if he repeated it again, the other person might still not understand. He pointed to the other side and said, “Let my sister take you there. She knows where it is.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Guan Nan, who hadn't said a word, looked at Zhang Hong with a surprised expression.

Jiang Li turned his head, tapped his finger lightly on the table, and said very politely, "Then..."

I thought I would hear the words "Forget it" when I left.

Guan Nan breathed a sigh of relief.

After only half a bite, she saw Jiang Li raise an eyebrow slightly and say slowly, "Thank you for your hard work."

The remaining half-empty mouth was stuck right in his throat.

Neither up nor down.

Now that they've come this far, it wouldn't be appropriate to say no, since they're still "old classmates" and "deskmates."

Guan Nan wanted to say something more, but in the end, all she could manage was a simple "hmm".

Upon hearing this, Jiang Li's eyes flickered for a moment before returning to normal.

The gas station was quite a distance from the shopping mall. After passing several intersections and turning several corners, Guan Nan sat in the car with a heavy heart, afraid that the car would run out of gas and stall, leaving her stranded halfway.

Fortunately, nothing happened after driving for a while, until we drove in the wrong direction.

Jiang Li responded to her reminder nonchalantly, "Oh, I misheard."

"..." The words on the left and right were different and had different pronunciations. Guan Nan didn't know how he had misheard, and not knowing what to say, he said in a muffled voice, "Everyone has switched to trams now, why don't you switch?"

Jiang Li lifted his eyelids, glanced at her slowly, and said lazily, "I'm nostalgic."

What does being nostalgic have to do with changing cars?

Guan Nan didn't quite understand, and didn't know what to say about other people's quirks, so she gave a formulaic reply: "Oh, that's fine."

The air seemed to freeze for a moment after those words were spoken.

Then, a soft, extremely jarring sneer rang out in the quiet carriage.

Guan Nan's face stiffened, wondering what she had done to offend this arrogant young master.

Just as she was about to say something, she suddenly turned the steering wheel and the car surged forward.

Looking up, the car was parked steadily in front of the fuel tank. A staff member came up with a fuel nozzle and asked Jiang Li, the driver, how much he wanted to fill up. He said to fill it up completely.

During this break, the two got out of the car and waited on the side, and then booked a car wash service.

After it's healed.

Jiang Li tossed her a sentence: "I'm going... to buy something."

Let me have a smoke.

Automatically filling in the blanks he hadn't said, Guan Nan nodded, washed her hands, and prepared to stand by and watch him, but noticed that he was walking in the wrong direction.

Guan Nan pointed over there: "The smoking area is over there."

Jiang Li paused, turned his head, and frowned: "Smoking turns your teeth yellow."

I don't know why he suddenly said that.

Guan Nan nodded in agreement.

"Are my teeth yellow?" Jiang Li stopped walking, as if he was determined to challenge her.

Guan Nan didn't notice, hesitatingly nodding and then shaking her head.

Immediately afterwards, Jiang Li grinned, proving his teeth were white.

"..." Guan Nan was stunned.

Jiang Li kept a straight face, as if he wasn't the one who had made that uncharacteristic gesture a second ago, and said in a cold and indifferent tone: "I never smoke."

After saying that, he left Guan Nan standing there, stunned.

After waiting until he was far away, Guan Nan touched her forehead with the back of her hand and couldn't help but squat down and laugh.

what to do?

Jiang Li, who tries to appear serious but also reveals a childlike side.

How could she bear to part with it?

But how can someone date while keeping the same nickname and profile picture for so many years?

What does it matter that he's used her photo as his profile picture for so many years?

Guan Nan was conflicted, depressed, and confused.

After a long while, when Jiang Li returned with the drinks, he saw her squatting on the ground staring at her phone for a long time.

“You really are,” Jiang Li mocked, “can’t live without your phone now.”

Guan Nan looked up at him.

I didn't take his sarcastic remarks to heart at all.

At that moment, Guan Nan suddenly called out his name: "Jiang Li".

Jiang Li was visibly taken aback: "Hmm."

Then, he preemptively uttered the sharp and sarcastic remark: "What, are you reminding me again that I have a girlfriend? Don't worry, I always keep that in mind."

“No,” Guan Nan shook her head and said very seriously, “You’re so cute.”

"..." Jiang Li almost couldn't keep up with the question, and handed her the milk with a straight face, "Why are you cute again?"

Guan Nan nodded: "Yes, cute."

"Enough with the nonsense, just drink it anyway." Jiang Li's ears were tinged with a suspicious red.

Guan Nan inserted a straw and took a sip of the yogurt drink.

A moment later.

Guan Nan called him again: "Jiang Li".

"What are you doing?" Jiang Li asked idly, scrolling through his phone, his impatient tone softening slightly.

Guan Nan said, "Could you... give me a hand?"

The air paused.

Jiang Li lowered his eyes and stared at her scrutinizingly.

"I," Guan Nan said, completely unaware, "my legs went numb."

"······"

Jiang Li reached out and pulled her up, but she didn't let go after she got up; instead, she gripped him tightly. His brow twitched, and he supported her as she lost her strength. "What's wrong now?"

"I think I'm a little," Guan Nan said, her voice hoarse and full of bitterness, unsure whether she was showing weakness or not. "Anemia."

Jiang Li helped her up and said irritably, "You're anemic and you're still squatting? Don't you have a brain?!"

Guan Nan leaned against him without saying a word.

"All these years, you've only grown in size but not in brains, haven't you?" Just then, the car was washed, and Jiang Li helped the person back into the car. On the way back, they saw a convenience store and bought some chocolates and candies.

While munching on chocolate, Guan Nan suddenly realized the emptiness in her heart.

It filled me up completely once again.

Before getting off the bus, Guan Nan couldn't help but ask, though she didn't directly, "Jiang Li, I've heard that many people like you?"

"What do you think?" Jiang Li glanced at her.

As he approached the mall entrance, Sister Wen, who had just finished her beauty treatment, called to ask where he was. She said they were almost done, and after buying some more things and having a meal, they could head back.

The two parted ways, and Guan Nan's idea became more complete. After speaking with Zhang Hong, she headed back home.

As soon as she got home, Guan Nan wrote a short script.

Then I broke them down into storyboards, meticulously subdivided them, determined the duration, shot size, composition, camera position, and dialogue, and finally simulated the visuals presented by the shots in my mind, matching the sound effects and background music.

After finishing all her work, it was already 2 a.m. when she turned on her phone.

He replied to her WeChat message after finding that "reasoning was hard to explain."

The time was six hours ago.

It's hard to explain logically: [?]

Maintaining the same posture for too long made her neck tired and uncomfortable. Guan Nan rubbed her neck and got up, casually clicking on the content to find out the origin of the question mark.

However, as soon as she opened it, her head went "buzz".

Before he could even steady himself, he naturally stumbled.

She closed her eyes tightly and then opened them again.

Extremely unbelievable.

Finally, the friendly ending emoji somehow turned into the one with the bell that was bewilderingly asking "Be my dog" when it was sent out again, leaving Guan Nan looking utterly hopeless.

She didn't know how to explain herself to prove that she hadn't sent the message intentionally.

After pondering for a while, Guan Nan replied dryly: 【Sorry, I clicked the wrong thing.】

The reply came quickly, visibly mocking: "Quite a few tricks up your sleeve."

Guan Nan was unable to argue. She typed and deleted several times, and finally stopped replying altogether, pretending nothing had happened. But lying in bed, she tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.

She picked up her phone again and clicked into the chat box for "It's Hard to Explain".

I tried to revert the corrected notes several times, but ended up changing them all over again.

She wasn't sure if Jiang Li knew that she was on the other end of the WeChat conversation, since her Moments were mostly filled with reposts of studio content and everyday snippets of life, with the exception of any messages about herself.

Perhaps I did, but I deleted it the next day and never kept it for long.

But right now, at this very moment.