Chapter 7

It was very rare for Li Ye to go out to eat with friends without makeup. However, when she gently touched her smooth face, it was so tender that it seemed like she could squeeze water out of it. Although she was still young, she would have to go back a few years to get this kind of condition.

This is because Li Ye's daily routine is relatively healthy and normal. She is the type of person who only goes out when she has something to do, and she always puts on makeup before going out. The frequency of makeup application determines the frequency of her facial skin care. As for body care, she applies body lotion more frequently in winter and summer, based on actual needs, while she applies it more casually in spring and autumn, only when she notices it.

For Li Ye, having her entire body so moisturized and smooth like this is even rarer than going out without makeup.

"How much longer are you going to touch her? She's already left the beauty salon."

Zeng Yuan, who also looked radiant, was quite used to this change in appearance. After her parents started their business, it became a regular practice for the whole family to go to beauty salons to maintain their appearance, and they already had a bunch of membership cards from different beauty salons.

"If you really like it, you can go often. I can recommend different beauty salons that specialize in different services. If you don't want to buy a membership card, you can make an appointment to go out together, and you can meet up and chat."

Reluctantly removing his hand from his face, Li Ye began to carefully peruse the menu on the table.

After leaving the beauty salon, Zeng Yuan took Li Ye out for afternoon tea. The two well-behaved girls, who were quite obedient and knew they would follow the curfew, didn't plan to have dinner together. Zeng Yuan wanted to appease her husband, who was only a few months old and would start acting pitiful if he was away from her for three hours.

Li Ye was thinking of his wife, Ms. Li, and his teacher, Ms. Li. Usually, Ms. Li was in charge of dinner, and if the food at this restaurant was good, he could pack dinner to take home.

"I'll order a chocolate mille-feuille and a strawberry mille-feuille, plus a cup of hot milk."

Li Ye never hesitated when ordering, and Zeng Yuan didn't hesitate much either, quickly ordering along with him.

"Please give me a creamy pasta, a ham sandwich, and a hot chocolate. And two extra cups, please."

The waiter left the private room with the order menu. The semi-open, private space was perfect for conversation, and the people sitting opposite each other at the table fell silent as the waiter left.

"You won't be able to talk while we're eating, so I'm bringing this up now. You can do whatever you want later."

Li Ye didn't think there was anything wrong with this. Her friends were used to it. They would either stay silent together or talk separately. Zeng Yuan liked to eat and talk to people at the same time, but with Li Ye, they could only have one-way conversations at most.

"The game planning part is planned to last for six months starting from the beginning of the year, including animation that was cut due to technical limitations, a reinterpreted theme song, and live-action recreations of the plot. These are the three things I have in mind so far."

"Of course, this 'six months' refers to the six months from the start of planning to the end of the event. The actual amount of content that is sent out may only be a few minutes or ten minutes long."

"The specific details will be discussed and selected in the group later. There are many things to prepare, especially the physical condition of several of us. We can start adjusting now, and more preparation time may not be as physically demanding as before."

"Then we'll travel together in Shanghai during the National Day holiday. I've already decided to buy a house there after the New Year. If all goes well, I'll rent a place to live first while I work on the renovations. The rental period will depend on the progress of the renovations, so I don't have to worry about not having a place to stay while I'm traveling."

"The group chat was talking about renting a villa, and that's exactly what I was thinking. Buying one is out of the question; I don't have the money and it's not necessary. But I'd also like to try living there for a while, and this is the perfect time to do so."

"And who was in charge of decorating your new house after you got married? I hadn't thought about these things before. Do you have any experience with this?"

Perhaps because the dishes they ordered were convenient, just as Li Ye finished speaking, the waiter pushed a food cart over to deliver the food. After the waiter left the private room again, it was Zeng Yuan's turn to give her a one-way speech.

The two extra cups were with Zeng Yuan. Li Ye took the empty cup from Zeng Yuan, poured in half a cup of hot milk, and then exchanged half a cup of hot milk for half a cup of hot cocoa.

Li Ye first sipped the hot milk, then transferred the strawberry mille-feuille to the same plate as the chocolate mille-feuille. The empty plate was used to hold the cream pasta that Zeng Yuan had divided in half. The two mille-feuille slices were also cut in half with a fork and then pushed to the center of the table.

"It's been a long time since we shared food. We still have a proper meal tonight, so this is perfect. We only tasted it, and we're not too hungry."

"Speaking of renovation, I started planning my new house after graduating from university. We only settled on it last year. After taking possession, we've been renovating ever since. As you know, renovating a villa is even more exhausting. Including the basement, it's three floors that we've been working on back and forth."

“However, my dad owns a decoration company. The design drawings that Li Cheng and I discussed were handed over to my dad, and he personally supervised the construction ever since. My husband and I didn’t have to worry too much about this aspect.”

“If you had bought a house locally, you could have just given it to our family. Why did you choose Shanghai?”

"I'll ask about this when I get back, and try my best to get you the best possible result without wasting money."

The portion of creamy pasta was already small; once it was divided in half, it was gone in just a few bites. Li Ye deliberately slowed down his slurping speed, and only when he saw that Zeng Yuan was almost finished did he put the rest of the pasta into his mouth all at once.

Zeng Yuan, who had emptied her plate first, used her fork to take the large chocolate mille-feuille. Li Ye chose a large piece of strawberry and a small piece of chocolate. At this point, the only drinks left on the table were the untouched hot cocoa on Li Ye's side and the hot milk that Zeng Yuan had taken but hadn't touched.

The two half-cups of drinks had gone lukewarm, and they would really taste bad if they weren't drunk soon. They looked at each other and decided to go and enjoy the one next to them.

"I can accept cream and yogurt, but I always feel that milk has a fishy smell, especially hot milk. I'm very curious about people like you who like to drink hot milk. I can't understand what you mean by the sweetness of milk."

"But you only drank half a cup of hot cocoa, so you shouldn't have trouble sleeping tonight, right? No, there's also the other half of chocolate, which is quite concentrated, so you should be able to sleep, right?"

"You said you're going to rent a place in Shanghai after the New Year and oversee the renovations, which reminds me of something. Zhou Yuan is a senior now, and he'll graduate after the semester ends after the New Year. If he works there, and you two buy a house together, you might live together for a while first."

"To be honest, I'm a senior who's watched you all grow up. And since your only concern is the potential crisis you might face if you're with him, let me give you a heads-up."

"Even if you know each other very well, there will be various frictions when living together. One purpose of living together is for both parties to adjust to each other in daily life. If you encounter something you don't like or are not used to, you should communicate in time. Don't tolerate or endure it. Trust me, this will save you a lot of detours."

Unlike Li Ye, Zeng Yuan loves chocolate but doesn't lose sleep over it. She finishes the mille-feuille in about five bites and then immediately takes the last small piece of strawberry mille-feuille.

Li Ye across the way ate the chocolate first and is now enjoying her favorite strawberry flavor with hot cocoa.

"Based on what you suggested, we need to make an animation and prepare character designs. I'm glad you stopped me back then, so I didn't come up with any amazing costume designs and we had to re-record the theme song."

"There's a lot to do, and it will definitely take half a year to work it out. We're both freelancers, and we might not even have as much free time as those two who have jobs."

"Let me think. You should create the animation and theme song yourself. The live-action storyline will definitely include those dance sequences. Tinglan will help with the choreography and instruction, and I will handle the costume pattern making."

"I learned a little bit when I was helping my mom. If I hadn't seriously studied drawing with a teacher back then, I might be a fashion designer now."

"Once the clothing patterns are ready, go find a tailor near my mom to order it. You can also handle the costumes, including wigs, makeup, and all sorts of accessories."

“We can leave the filming and video editing to Yao Yao, but her work hours are very fixed. Does she have any spare time?”

After finishing the last bite, Li Ye put down the cake fork, pulled out a tissue to wipe his mouth, and finally didn't have to play turn-based communication with Zeng Yuan anymore.

"I feel that Yao Yao is serious about quitting this time. If she really quits, I'll ask her to go on a trip together, take pictures of the scenery, and relax. Is the work pressure at the game company very high?"

"Just think back to the mental state of the four of us when we were making games, and you'll know. It's more surprising that Yao Yao knew this and still applied to a game company."

"You know we only have four people, it's just a small workshop model, I guess they think big companies will be different."

After drinking the last bit of milk, Zeng Yuan frowned noticeably. Then, she picked up the last piece of strawberry pulp with her fork and began to introduce Li Ye to some of the restaurants she had brought that were suitable to take home for dinner.

While waiting for the takeout food, Zeng Yuan remembered something noticeable and asked, "When I pulled you out of the beauty salon, you seemed distracted, as if it wasn't just because of your skin condition."

Still feeling like he'd eaten too much, Li Ye was standing and observing the private room. It took him a while to react when he heard the question.

"He was probably thinking that I didn't seem to have made any friends at school, and that I didn't know anything about the things you mentioned, and Zhou Yuan had never mentioned them to me either."

"The school doesn't have forums or anything like that, so how did those messages and photos spread?"

Zeng Yuan suddenly felt awkward. She felt that something was wrong with the previous conversation. She only realized it after Li Ye reminded her. When she met Li Ye's somewhat aggrieved eyes, she quickly tried to make amends.

“Our school does not have a dedicated forum, but we do have a local university. You should know that our primary, middle, and high schools are all affiliated with the local university.”

"It's not unusual for universities to have their own forums. The student ID number is used to register a forum account. Someone tried it before, and even elementary school students could do it, so... it's not a secret."

"The gifted youth program you're in probably has upperclassmen supervising you, so it's normal that you don't know. I'll give you the address later. Graduates can register too. The forum isn't that closed off; it's mostly just for casual chatting, and there are hardly any active users now."

In the end, Zeng Yuan insisted on paying for the afternoon tea that was originally supposed to be paid for by Li Ye, and Li Ye prepared to go home with the packed steak and cream stew.

After leaving the restaurant, Fang Licheng, as his wife's personal driver, quickly drove over to pick up Zeng Yuan. Just before getting into the car, Zeng Yuan asked one last question.

How do you feel?

Without waiting for a reply, Zeng Yuan closed the car door, and the car, a model that Li Ye couldn't recognize, drove the couple into the distance.

When the car Li Ye had called arrived to pick her up, she sat in the back seat and gave herself two answers.

As for the game, since the project is essentially about playing with friends, doing so can make her happy for half a year, or even a whole year.

When asked about today's date, she said she wanted to see Zeng Yuan's current situation and see that their happy marriage would make her less afraid of building intimate relationships with others.

Someone must have timed it perfectly; the moment she got home, the first thing she did, and the moment she took out her phone, she received a message.