Chapter 31 "Inviting heartless people to dinner."...
The private room fell into a deathly silence for a moment, until Sheng Yu sat down, after which a chorus of cheers erupted.
Everyone knows that Zhou Yiyang is unserious and prone to making jokes, but this is the first time he has ever joked about Sheng Yu.
The crowd stared at Tang Ci, half believing and half doubting.
Tang Ci felt uneasy as she was stared at by pairs of eyes, clutching her backpack strap tightly as she stood stiffly next to Sheng Yu.
Like a child brought by their parents to meet their uncles and aunts.
Sheng Yu raised her hand and gently guided her to a seat closer to her, her tone like that of a parent: "Come sit here."
The sofa and coffee table were close together, and Sheng Yu's legs were so long that they almost touched the edge of the coffee table.
When Tang Ci went in, her calves inevitably pressed against his knees. Even so, when she passed between Sheng Yu's legs, the resistance was too strong, and she stumbled and almost fell. In a panic, she pressed her hands tightly against Sheng Yu's thighs to regain her footing.
The posture was too awkward. Tang Ci lowered her eyes to avoid the subtle gazes around her and gave Sheng Yu a dry smile: "Sorry, I lost my balance."
The classmates exchanged glances upon hearing this. They had been wondering about this since earlier, as there was no indication from the girl's words and actions that she was in a relationship with Sheng Yu. At most, they seemed to know each other.
Seeing Tang Ci's uncomfortable appearance, Sheng Yu smiled and said, "It's alright, do you need my help?"
Tang Ci let go of his hand and stood up straight, asking blankly, "How can I help..."
Sheng Yu casually lifted his eyelids, grasped her waist with both hands through her thick clothes, and with a little force lifted her from between his legs and placed her steadily on the sofa.
He lazily added, "You're welcome."
Tang Ci caught a glimpse of the bulging veins on his withdrawn hands, her cheeks flushed, and she frantically straightened the hem of her coat, stammering, "Thank you, thank you."
The classmates were stunned by this beautiful scene, and their doubts completely disappeared. After all, none of them had ever seen Sheng Yu be so close to any girl.
When they started chatting, the boys called her "sister-in-law" enthusiastically. Because they were afraid of Sheng Yu being there, they didn't ask any sensitive questions and just talked about topics like studying and entertainment. Tang Ci was stiff for a while, but after she got used to it, she started to talk to them smoothly.
After the initial excitement about the newcomers died down, the conversation gradually shifted to old news from junior high school. Tang Ci slowly withdrew from the conversation, secretly relieved, and leaned back on the sofa to sip water.
Sheng Yu chatted casually with her classmates. When she was getting fruit for Tang Ci, she suddenly leaned closer and asked, "Why are you being so well-behaved today? You don't mind being called 'sister-in-law' by them?"
Tang Ci's eyes widened slightly, her expression somewhat bewildered: "Didn't you say we shouldn't pay any attention to them?"
Sheng Yu raised an eyebrow and commented indifferently, "You're quite obedient."
The surroundings were too noisy, so Tang Ci wasn't sure if she had misheard, but she felt that Sheng Yu's voice sounded unhappy.
/
Young men and women gather at bars, where they do nothing but drink, brag, and play games.
There were many of them, so they made up two tables and played blackjack.
At the table with more girls, which wasn't full, Jin Ming invited Sheng Yu and Tang Ci to join the card game.
Sheng Yu was being pulled by his classmates to ask about the performance of various motorcycles when Jin Ming grabbed Tang Ci's arm and joined the card game without saying a word.
"I mainly want to do hill climb races, can you pick one with high torque for me?" After the boy finished speaking, he noticed that Sheng Yu, who had been calm just moments before, had his brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.
The boy quickly asked, "What's wrong, Brother Yu? Are you feeling unwell?"
Sheng Yu shook his head and pointed to a car on his phone screen: "This one will do."
After saying that, he straightened up and stretched his tired shoulders from sitting for so long. He walked straight behind Tang Ci, pulled out a chair, and sat down.
I won't play, I'll just watch.
Blackjack is a simple game. Even Tang Ci, who had never played poker before, was able to pick it up immediately after Jin Ming explained the rules to her once.
Jin Ming distributed chip boxes containing one hundred coins to everyone and suggested, "How about betting twenty coins per round?"
Everyone nodded in agreement. Tang Ci fiddled with the game tokens in the box and whispered to the girl next to her, "How much is one coin worth?"
The girl explained, "It's an equivalent conversion."
Tang Ci was startled and belatedly realized that she had stumbled into a gambling game. She cleared her throat uneasily.
Jin Ming noticed her hesitation and exclaimed, "Are you sure you can handle it? Don't cry if you lose!"
Tang Ci opened her mouth, wanting to take this opportunity to stand up, but as soon as her hands touched the edge of the table, her shoulders suddenly sank.
Sheng Yu remained seated, lightly patted her shoulder with his palm, and said calmly, "Play for me, and if you lose, it's on me."
The crowd immediately started jeering. Tang Ci sat in the middle of the noise and couldn't say anything more. When things calmed down, she said seriously to Sheng Yu, "I won't lose."
Hearing her speak so arrogantly in a soft voice, Jin Ming, a veteran gamer, was spurred into action and chuckled, saying, "Today, I'll show this bookworm the harsh realities of society."
Tang Ci sat up straight and seriously, subconsciously pushing up her glasses. Only after pushing them in did she realize that she hadn't worn glasses in a long time. She awkwardly scratched her earlobe with her fingers before putting them down.
She was thin with delicate skin. Her small ears had almost no flesh on them, and the cartilage stretched them into a graceful, fair shape. If you scratched them hard with your nails, several red marks would immediately appear.
Sheng Yu stroked the stiff cigarette pack in his pocket, pressed down with his fingertips to fold the corner, and then pushed it back up, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down a few times.
Suddenly, a wisp of wind brushed against his eyes. He leaned back an inch and realized it was a strand of Tang Ci's hair that had been blown around as she turned her head.
She turned her head to look at him, her round eyes slightly narrowed, holding a hint of cunning, and showed him the two cards she had received.
A five of spades and an ace of hearts.
Sheng Yu raised an eyebrow and silently moved his lips.
—Very impressive.
When Tang Ci turned her head back, she realized that her behavior was no different from an employee asking the boss for credit, or a primary school student asking the parents for praise. Either way, it made her heart tighten and her face burn.
In that moment of distraction, she almost missed getting her turn.
Seeing her blank expression, Jin Ming assumed she didn't understand the situation and smugly put on a show of power: "Brother Yu, you'd better expect to bleed a lot today."
Sheng Yu remained unmoved, letting out a sneer, quite disdainful.
Everyone was surprised by his expression, thinking that love really does make people blind. Tang Ci even looked clumsy when he picked up the cards, and it seemed like he was bound to lose.
Some of the classmates couldn't help but tease her, saying that Sheng Yu was so protective of her own that she had lost her mind.
Tang Ci wasn't nervous at first, but after listening to their explanation, she started to doubt herself and hesitantly asked Sheng Yu while holding her cards, "It's okay to lose a little bit, right?"
Seeing this, Jin Ming led the boos, shouting that if Tang Ci lost, Sheng Yu would have to treat everyone.
Sheng Yu chuckled, took out his wallet from his pocket, and threw it directly on the card table.
The atmosphere in the room became incredibly lively, with several veteran players eagerly eyeing Tang Ci, clearly determined to get their hands on Sheng Yu's wallet.
After the dealers took turns, the momentum started to change. There were fewer winners and more losers, but the chips in everyone's hands were going back and forth.
Tang Ci held onto his chips, not touching a single one, and then took back forty more.
Blackjack is all about psychological warfare; sometimes, you can push your opponent into a corner just by looking at their expressions.
Tang Ci remained calm throughout, and the timing of her calls and truncations was unpredictable, which actually made her a dark horse among the regulars at the poker table.
Zhou Yiyang retorted to Jin Ming, who had lost half of his chips: "Are you even capable?"
Jin Ming felt embarrassed, rubbed his face hard, slammed his hand on the table and said, "Let's go again, and I'll win it all back in one go!!"
Seeing his high spirits, Tang Ci sincerely encouraged him: "Then keep it up."
"..." Jin Ming blushed amidst his classmates' laughter and said dejectedly, "You don't have to be so sarcastic."
Tang Ci hummed in response, realizing that he had misunderstood her, and waved her hand to explain.
Suddenly, Sheng Yu reached out from behind her, placed his palm on the edge of the table in front of her, and wrapped her up in his arms in a semi-encircling posture. He said to Jin Ming in a low voice, "Be careful not to lose it all in one go."
This naive counterattack stunned Jin Ming, and even Zhou Yiyang was surprised, as he hadn't seen Sheng Yu so relaxed in a long time.
Tang Ci drank a lot of water during her afternoon tutoring session and wanted to go to the bathroom. She wanted Sheng Yu to take her place, but she forgot that they were too close together. When she turned her head, her nose bumped into his chin.
Remembering her previous lesson, Tang Ci immediately leaned back, abruptly creating distance between herself and Sheng Yu: "...Do you want to play for a while?"
Sheng Yu watched as she almost touched the hem of the boy's clothes next to her, his eyes narrowed slightly, and before he could speak, his phone suddenly rang.
When he saw the caller ID on the screen, his straight lips immediately curved into a smile.
"Hello," he said gently the moment he pressed the answer button.
The game was in full swing inside the private room, and the noise was constant. He made a shushing gesture, and after the surroundings quieted down, he said into the receiver, "It's a bit noisy. I'll go outside and talk to you."
After Sheng Yu left, several other people went to the restroom or smoked, including Tang Ci.
The room was dimly lit, and the passageway was winding and strange. Tang Ci wandered around for a while but still couldn't find the right place.
Just as she was feeling lost, she suddenly heard someone call her from behind. She turned around and saw that it was Ren Xue.
She paused, and before she could speak, Ren Xue quickly walked up to her and said with a smile, "Couldn't find the restroom?"
Tang Ci pursed her lips and nodded shyly.
“I’ll take you there,” Ren Xue said, tugging at her sleeve.
"Thank you." Tang Ci followed her, pondering what to say.
Ren Xue glanced at her a few times, her smile becoming slightly shy: "You're not angry because they made jokes about me and Sheng Yu, are you?"
Tang Ci quickly shook her head: "No."
Ren Xue sighed: "That happened eight hundred years ago. I've explained it several times and it's not meant that way anymore, but they still joke about it at class reunions."
Knowing the power of gossip, Tang Ci nodded and said, "It is indeed a bit annoying."
Ren Xue smiled, turned around and backed away to look at her: "You and Sheng Yu look so alike."
Tang Ci was surprised: "How could that be?"
“Their personalities are indeed different,” Ren Xue said, her eyes darting around. “But their calm and composed demeanor is very similar. I noticed it when we were playing cards just now.”
Tang Ci realized that she was being praised, and her face turned slightly red.
Before we knew it, we arrived at the restroom.
The bathroom entrance was right next to the corridor. Sheng Yu was standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window with his back to them, answering a phone call. He chuckled and said, "Don't worry, I'll come pick you up even if I don't sleep."
Two boys emerged from the sink and, overhearing Sheng Yu's phone conversation, chuckled mischievously: "Brother Yu, are you playing this game? You're with a girl by your side, and you're talking to another one on the phone."
Sheng Yu seemed unwilling to waste words with them, and told them to get lost with a laugh.
The two boys scattered amidst laughter, not noticing Tang Ci and Ren Xue standing in the corner.
Tang Ci paused, ignoring Sheng Yu who was still on the phone, and continued walking towards the bathroom.
Ren Xue grabbed her arm and whispered, "Aren't you going to ask him?"
"What do you mean?" Tang Ci asked, puzzled.
"Ask him who he's talking to on the phone!" Ren Xue said with a look of exasperation, "Are you just going to watch Sheng Yu cheat on you and do nothing?"
Ren Xue was in a hurry and raised her voice. Sheng Yu, who had just hung up the phone, heard the noise and turned around.
Seeing the two women struggling, Sheng Yu raised an eyebrow and walked over. "What are you talking about?"
Tang Ci opened her mouth, then awkwardly said, "Some ethical and moral issues..."
Sheng Yu said "Oh?" and asked, "About whose?"
Tang Ci was speechless.
The misunderstanding deepened, and she no longer knew how to explain it to Ren Xue.
Ren Xue mistook her silence for heartbreak and angrily protested, "Sheng Yu, were you on the phone with a woman just now?"
Sheng Yu glanced at the two of them indifferently and nodded without changing his expression.
Ren Xue's cheeks flushed slightly with anger: "You actually cheated on me? How could you be such a person?!"
Tang Ci kept her eyes slightly lowered, the dim and ambiguous light enveloping her narrow face, giving her a pitiful look.
Sheng Yu took out his phone and pulled up the call log. Before he could even lay the phone out, Tang Ci spoke up.
“No, you’ve misunderstood,” Tang Ci finally organized her thoughts and explained seriously to Ren Xue, “Sheng Yu and I are just ordinary classmates. He’s not two-timing me.”
Ren Xue was stunned. Looking at Tang Ci's face, which showed no sadness but only embarrassment, she asked, "You didn't explain why everyone was making such a fuss in the private room just now."
Tang Ci pursed her lips helplessly: "These kinds of things are inherently difficult to explain."
Fearing Ren Xue might not believe her, she added solemnly, "In short, Sheng Yu and I are innocent."
Tang Ci looked up, seeking an ally, and said to Sheng Yu, "Right?"
Sheng Yu narrowed his eyes, turned his phone screen off, and didn't say anything, but his expression was unfriendly.
Ren Xue assumed that her questioning had upset Sheng Yu, so she apologized and left dejectedly.
Only the two of them remained in the corridor; their shadows blurred and intertwined on the floor, yet they felt no warmth.
Tang Ci pinched her palm with her fingertips and asked him softly, "Why don't you tell your classmates that you have a girlfriend?"
Sheng Yu put his phone back in his pocket, casually placing his hands in his pockets as well, and asked her with slightly narrowed eyes, "You care?"
Tang Ci looked away, gazing out the brightly lit window, and shook her head stiffly: "No."
"If you tell them in advance, they won't gossip about our relationship, and you won't be misunderstood."
The gaps in the French windows couldn't hold back the howling north wind, and a series of buzzing vibrations and faint, broken rumbling sounds reached the two people's ears.
After a few seconds, Sheng Yu scoffed coldly, "Since you're so understanding, how about I help you out tomorrow?"
Tang Ci swallowed hard, trying to maintain a normal tone as she said, "Okay."
"You agreed without even asking what kind of help you're doing?" Sheng Yu twitched the corners of his mouth, but there was no smile on his face.
Tang Cihe twitched her nose and said in a muffled voice, as if she had a cold, "Anything is fine."
As she spoke, her long eyelashes fluttered a few times, which might be mistaken by onlookers as a sign of shyness.
But Sheng Yu wasn't fooled this time. He bent down, his dark pupils meeting her gaze: "My girlfriend is grateful for your tutoring and would like to invite you to dinner tomorrow night."
Do you have time?
Tang Ci froze, put her hands behind her back, her fingers twisting painfully, before she could restart her hoarse voice: "Yes."
/
The card game ended abruptly, and the classmates who had driven divided the tasks of taking everyone home.
As Tang Ci followed the others out of the private room, she took out a scarf from her bag and put it on. In the silvery-blue light of the corridor, the red plaid scarf in her hand was exceptionally bright.
She paused for a few seconds, then put the scarf back into her bag. In just a few seconds, she had fallen a short distance behind the crowd.
When they arrived at the parking lot outside the bar, almost all the classmates had gotten into their cars. She looked around and saw that Sheng Yu's car was already full of people.
Seeing this scene, she breathed a sigh of relief and quickly walked down the steps to catch the last subway.
Inside the car.
Sheng Yu tapped the steering wheel with his fingertips, but hesitated to start the engine.
Jin Ming was sitting in the back row chatting animatedly with two female classmates when he realized after a while that the car hadn't moved.
He leaned into the front of the car: "Brother Yu, why aren't we moving?"
Zhou Yiyang was playing games in the passenger seat, leaning back against the seat. Hearing this, he glanced at the bar entrance, then looked at Jin Ming with pity. He then rolled down the window and called out to the thin shadow on the sidewalk not far away, "Tang Ci, come over here."
Tang Ci was startled and hesitated, but Zhou Yiyang continued to wave to her.
She walked silently to the car and took another look at the situation inside.
The sedan was fully occupied by five people, with no extra room available.
Does that mean I should ask her to sit in the trunk?
Thinking this, Tang Ci actually took half a step towards the back of the car. Suddenly, the back door opened with a click, and Jin Ming got out of the car with a resentful look on his face, and ran off to find another empty car.
Zhou Yiyang smiled magnanimously: "Get in the car, Jin Ming just saved a seat for you."
Tang Ci silently exclaimed "Huh?" to herself, and seeing the wide-open car door, she had no choice but to get in.
The other two girls in the back seat lived not far away, so Sheng Yu first took them home.
On the way there, two girls chatted with Tang Ci. As soon as they left, the car became completely silent, with only the navigation system tirelessly broadcasting its directions.
Tang Ci remained seated behind the driver, a tiny figure huddled by the window.
When they encountered a long red light, Sheng Yu stepped on the brakes, and the light from the red light illuminated Sheng Yu's indifferent face.
As if suddenly remembering something, or perhaps just making small talk, Zhou Yiyang asked, "Who were you talking to on the phone at the bar just now?"
Tang Ci's heart clenched suddenly, and her heartbeat throbbed as her nerves twitched.
She took out her phone and pretended to be busy looking at it.
Sheng Yu didn't say anything, but handed the phone on the center console to Zhou Yiyang, saying, "Look for yourself."
Zhou Yiyang opened his call log and his eyes suddenly lit up: "Your aunt called you! Is she coming back to China for the Chinese New Year?"
Upon hearing the word "Auntie," Tang Ci's fingertips, which were scrolling through the webpage, froze, unable to move mechanically any further.
"I'll be back tomorrow," Sheng Yu said.
“Take me with you,” Zhou Yiyang said with interest, raising his chin. “I’ll host a welcome party for her.”
“Another day,” Sheng Yu tapped the steering wheel lightly again, “I have something to do tomorrow.”
Zhou Yiyang was skeptical: "What could possibly happen to someone who just returned to China?"
Sheng Yu suddenly looked up and caught a pair of round eyes peeking at him in the rearview mirror. "Invite the heartless person to dinner."
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