Chapter 45 This area doesn't count...

This area is not densely populated; the houses are scattered, and only a few have their lights on late at night.

Li Li clung to the car window and peered back, startling Li Zhizi.

She reached out and pulled him back: "What are you doing?"

Li Li reassured her, "Don't panic, don't panic, it's someone I know."

As soon as the car came to a stop, she didn't wait for Li Zhizi to stop her. She pushed open the door, got out, and ran straight to the other side of the road, right in front of Tan Su.

A suitcase stood at his feet. He had abandoned his usual formal attire and was wearing a very casual and loose jacket with jeans, looking like he was on vacation.

Li Li felt a bit strange, but admitted that he looked somewhat good dressed, and asked him awkwardly, "Why did you come here?"

Tan Su didn't answer, but instead asked, "Do you stay up this late every day?"

Li Li said, "Often."

"So busy?" Tan Su laughed. "No wonder you didn't reply to my messages."

Li Li thought speechlessly, "Why don't you guess why I didn't reply to you?"

She threatened, "Tan Su, you're a foreigner wandering around in the middle of the night. Be careful you don't get hit on the head by those white old men around here."

She was referring to hitting someone on the head in a physical sense.

Tan Su nodded, looking like he understood, and asked her, "It sounds very dangerous. Would it be convenient for me to stay here for the night?"

He raised his eyes and looked at Li Zhizi, who was standing across the street looking wary.

Li Li thought for a moment and said, "Wait a minute."

It's really hard to get a taxi around here, and it's not safe in the middle of the night. She thought that since Tan Su gave her such an expensive gift, it shouldn't be that she couldn't even stay overnight.

He then went to discuss with Li Zhizi the possibility of letting him stay overnight.

Li Zhizi looked very serious. She said, "We can't let adult, strange men into the house."

Knowing that she often whispered with Wenxi and Li Zhoudu, Li Li deliberately concealed Tan Su's identity and lied, saying, "He's a senior from my high school who came to visit me. He's staying here temporarily for one night. He's a good person."

Li Zhizi still resisted, but after all, it was Li Li's house, and her opinion didn't count.

Meeting an old friend in a foreign land, Tan Su traveled a long way to stay here, which Li Li found quite novel.

She arranged a room for Tan Su downstairs, and worried that he might not have everything he needed, so she ran up and down the stairs to get him things and pour him water. Finally, she threw a clean pink towel at Tan Su.

Then he closed the door and ran away quickly.

Li Zhizi didn't get a good night's rest that night. The door to Li Li's room was wide open, and the pistol was tucked under her pillow.

The next morning, I heard noises coming from the kitchen downstairs, so I changed my clothes and went down.

She thought it was her aunt coming to make breakfast, but she saw Tan Su wearing a casual T-shirt, making coffee and frying eggs in the kitchen by himself.

"Hello," Tan Su said casually, without introducing himself.

Li Zhizi said, "I think I've heard your voice before. Did you call me before?"

Tan Su glanced at her, offering no comment.

"Why did you come here?" This area isn't exactly a must-visit tourist destination, and Li Zhizi still suspected his motives.

Tan Su chuckled and replied, "My mother once came here to study."

Their conversation ended there. About twenty minutes later, Li Li came running downstairs, saying, "Oh no, oh no, oh no! I made plans to go with them early yesterday!"

She grabbed a sandwich made by Tan Su and stuffed it into her mouth, then hopped on one leg at the door to change her shoes.

Li Zhizi got up, and Tan Su had already taken the unusually heavy bag from Li Li and picked up the car keys from the door.

"you,"

Just as Li Zhizi was about to speak, Li Li called out, "I'm leaving, Zhizi! I have a package coming soon, remember to pick it up."

Li Li got into the car, pointing to the manuscript in her bag. Tan Su followed the navigation and drove there, arriving in about fifteen minutes.

She hurriedly got out of the car, ignoring Tan Su, and ran upstairs by herself.

Around noon, when her stomach was growling with hunger and it was time to eat lunch, Li Li realized that she seemed to have forgotten someone.

Fortunately, the college wasn't very big. As soon as she ran downstairs, she saw Tan Su sitting not far away.

He leaned back on the bench, scrolling through his phone replying to messages, exuding a youthful, campus vibe. (Just kidding!)

Li Li, with a small bag slung across her shoulder, stepped forward and said, "I thought you had left!"

Tan Su casually put away his phone and said, "My flight is tonight, so there's no rush."

Li Li then invited him to have lunch nearby, ordering pizza and fried squid, but the coffee was just average.

Tan Su held his coffee and watched her eat with relish, no longer being picky about food as before. He thought that environment and experience would eventually mold a person.

After finishing their lunch, the two walked side by side on campus.

This is a very old and small university, and the surrounding area is like a small village, but it has a strong artistic atmosphere, and the students all have their own distinct personal characteristics.

Li Li, standing nearby, suddenly muttered, "Tan Su, stop following me around all the time."

Tan Su wasn't angry. He asked, "If you keep hiding like this, we'll only see you once a year. Is that what you call following you?"

Li Li remained silent.

Tan Su held her wrist, brought her to a stop, and lowered his eyes to ask, "Is it too much to kiss once a year?"

As he spoke, he leaned down and kissed him.

Li Li stood there, thinking that she might have been lonely because she had been single for too long, which was why she hadn't rejected Tan Su.

Because they were often seen together, their friends spread rumors that they were a couple.

Some classmates even asked Li Li curiously because of her short hair, wondering if she was the "tomboy" in their relationship. She didn't seem like it. ①

Li Li was speechless, but this also had its advantages; at least it saved her from some boring attempts to strike up a conversation, and she acquiesced to this.

Ten months later, they kissed on a foreign campus. Her eyes were closed, and the tip of her nose smelled of lingering wind and rain, old ink, the bland coffee from the restaurant, and also the scent of Tan Su in front of her.

Li Li comforted herself by thinking that perhaps this could be understood as some kind of fixed etiquette between them.

During this period, Tan Su didn't message her very frequently, but he would ask about her situation a few times every month.

Li Li really wanted to ask, so she actually asked, "Why do you have to keep me waiting?"

She didn't understand: "You're not young anymore. Do you really find this kind of relationship interesting?"

“Very interesting,” Tan Su said.

He is not the type of person with high emotional needs. In the past thirty years of his life, apart from Li Li, he has never sought to establish any long-term and stable intimate relationships with others.

His current expectations weren't high, and he could wait for a girl to grow up. Looking at Li Li's confusion, he asked, "Don't you believe me?"

Li Li said, "Yes, I don't believe it."

Life is long, and her new life here has just begun.

She has two years left before graduation.

During the six years she and Tan Yi were in a long-distance relationship, she felt that two years was nothing, just a blink of an eye.

But the slap in the face was too painful; she no longer believes in humanity, and perhaps won't believe in it for another two weeks.

With a thirteen-hour time difference and a distance of 7,000 kilometers, moral constraints are merely empty shackles.

Like a guy in the studio who argues with his girlfriend across the ocean almost every day. Occasionally, a couple of emotionally charged words drift over in the hallway. The two of them are always acting out a melodramatic love story.

He did indeed, as he himself said, work day and night in the art studio, and he was indeed simultaneously having an ambiguous relationship with an Asian girl.

Even a busy schedule of schoolwork can't stop a restless heart.

Li Li didn't understand why this boy was dragging his feet on breaking up with her. His way of dealing with his girlfriend's emotions was to send her gold coins, transfer money, or buy her a bag.

Occasionally, I don't know what my mindset was, I would ask Li Li: "Is there any style you want recently? I can get one for you?"

The girlfriend might turn a blind eye out of love or to appease him with money.

But Li Li felt disgusted. She guessed that the betrayal she had encountered was nothing more than the same process, and she firmly believed that she could not fall into the same situation as before.

She calmed herself down and said, "I don't care, Tan Su. I can kiss you today and someone else tomorrow. You have no power over me."

Tan Su said, "It's alright."

He raised his finger and stroked Li Li's cheek: "I will come to see you often in the future."

——

Almost the same day Tan Su left, Li Zhoudu called to ask, "Who stayed overnight at our house?"

Li Li rambled on and on about the lies she had told Li Zhizi.

The veins on Li Zhoudu's forehead were throbbing. He said, "Are you an idiot? Li Li."

"They dare to put just anyone in the house? Don't they have a death wish?"

Li Li knew, of course, that Tan Su wouldn't harm her after traveling so far, but she couldn't explain it to Li Zhoudu, nor could she make it clear to him.

Taking advantage of the fact that the emperor was far away, they boldly hung up his phone.

——

Shortly after Tan Su's arrival, Chen Ya brought news that Tan Congxu and his son's Hong Kong company had completed a merger with a financial services company, officially achieving a backdoor listing.

At this age, he finally achieved his wish and owned a listed company under his absolute control.

Tan Yi recently discovered that his memory seems to have become very poor.

That day, after a long drive home from get off work, I returned to my old apartment. When I was stopped at the gate, I suddenly remembered that the apartment had already been sold.

One day, he was in a great hurry to contact Dai Zhe to arrange a trip for a client in Indonesia. He was furious because the client did not reply in time. As a result, Dai Zhe silently sent him a screenshot. He had just arranged this matter yesterday afternoon.

But Tan Yi really doesn't remember anything at all. He has absolutely no recollection of it.

He wondered if his memory decline was due to chronic sleep deprivation.

He finally couldn't withstand the side effects of long-term sleep deprivation, so he went to the pharmacy and got some medicine. He slept with the medication at night, feeling like he was trapped in some kind of seal, which was very uncomfortable.

In a daze, Tan Yi felt something soft touching his face.

He thought it was a little fleshy pad of corn, so he put his finger on it and pressed it against his face, but then he came to his senses in a second and quickly shook it off.

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Author's Note: [Sprinkling flowers] Update!

①: Male roles in lesbian relationships