Chapter 24 Citrus Scent "What do you think of me?"
At the night market next to the shopping mall.
Liang Yizhi stood in front of the stall, holding the gun in both hands, her left eye squinting and her right eye aiming at the red dot.
With two loud bangs, the target in front of them instantly fell to the ground.
Four bullets remained out of ten shots; this was her fifth successful shot. Liang Yizhi had never realized she possessed such a skill.
Having fired all her bullets, she carried a bag of spoils to the waiting man and asked, "Not bad, right?"
Gary laughed and clapped, "Awesome! Absolutely awesome! I think even the boss's eyes were a little intimidated by you."
Liang Yizhi raised an eyebrow smugly and asked him, "If I don't share some of these dolls with you, do you see any you like?"
“It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to take this back.” Gary was somewhat inclined to refuse, but then he thought that he was the one who suggested playing this shooting game in the first place, and Liang Yizhi had captured so many items for him. It would seem ungrateful of him to refuse any of them.
He then picked out a teddy bear wearing a bow tie from the bag: "I'll take this one."
“It suits you very well,” Liang Yizhi said with a smile.
This little bear has a stylish design, with a round head topped with an exquisite plaid bow tie. It looks like it pays attention to its image, just like Gary, and their temperaments are quite similar.
Liang Yizhi asked, "Don't you want anything else?"
“The rest is all yours,” Gary said. “After all, you won it, so I can’t just take it all for myself.”
Liang Yizhi politely replied, "You've already treated me to a meal today, what are these little trinkets?"
She hadn't seen Gary in a long time, so she invited him out, but to her surprise, Gary paid the bill first.
Gary: "You treated last time, so it's my turn this time. No problem."
Although she had other motives when she first met Gary, they became friends after spending a short time together.
While she was shooting, Gary carried her bag. Not wanting to trouble him for too long, Liang Yizhi quickly took it from him and took out her phone to check the time.
She tapped the screen, and her phone lit up. The lock screen showed three missed calls, all from Gu Yinyan.
Why would he suddenly call me?
After so many days of cold war, she and Gu Yinyan hadn't spoken at all. Even in their small group chat of four, only Jiang Huai and He Man's messages were flooding the screen; neither of them had tacitly agreed to be the first to back down.
Liang Yizhi opened WeChat, wanting to see if Gu Yinyan had sent her anything, but the message list was quiet.
She even carefully opened the chat group, clicked on his profile picture and Moments, afraid that she might have missed something. But after checking, she still couldn't figure out what Gu Yinyan wanted from her.
Liang Yizhi thought it shouldn't be a big deal. She'd deal with Gary later and then figure out how to handle the awkward distance between her and Gu Yinyan.
When she arrived home, it was already nine o'clock in the evening. Liang Yizhi paid the fare and got out of the car, then walked home alone.
Just as she was about to turn into the apartment building, she saw a very familiar black sedan parked on the side of the road.
With that logo and design, very few people in the neighborhood can afford it; it can only be his.
After thinking for a moment, Liang Yizhi finally stepped forward and knocked on the car window.
Gu Yinyan opened his sleepy, tired eyes, turned his head to look over, and rolled down the car window.
Liang Yizhi bent down slightly, leaned closer to the window, glanced around, and awkwardly asked, "Ahem...you...what are you doing here? Is something the matter?"
Gu Yinyan looked out the window at the people outside, his consciousness slowly returning as he pondered how to reasonably bring up the excuse he had prepared.
Seeing that he didn't speak, Liang Yizhi wondered about the purpose of his visit, and then said to herself, "If you came to apologize, there's no need. I'll just take it as I've already received it."
Seeing that he had been waiting downstairs at her house for so long, Liang Yizhi felt a little soft-hearted, thinking that at least Gu Yinyan's sincerity was quite good.
Her little leather shoes rubbed lightly against the ground as she carefully chose her words: "Actually, I've thought about this for a long time. We shouldn't argue about this, nor should we let an outsider cause unpleasantness. Don't you agree?"
She didn't dare look him in the eye, afraid that Gu Yinyan would reject her or think she was just putting on an act or pretending to be magnanimous.
Gu Yinyan didn't waste any more words and said, "Agreed."
He didn't need to prepare any more excuses; she had already given him a way out.
Hearing his reply, Liang Yizhi finally smiled with relief.
She asked, "Then...would you like to come to my place? I have plans tonight, but since you've waited so long for me, I'll treat you to a cup of tea. Would you do me the honor?"
Gu Yinyan followed Liang Yizhi upstairs.
He looked her over from behind. Liang Yizhi had curled her hair today and was wearing a knitted sweater with a pleated skirt, revealing her long legs, and black leather shoes.
She even wore makeup and dressed so formally, which shows how much she valued meeting him.
Once inside the elevator, Gu Yinyan asked casually, "How was the date tonight?"
"It's pretty good."
Perhaps it was because of dinner tonight, or perhaps it was because she had cleared up the misunderstanding with Gu Yinyan, but Liang Yizhi seemed to be in a very good mood.
She raised her arm, holding up her spoils to show him: "Look."
"He called you?"
"No, that's not true." Liang Yizhi pouted. "I won it all myself, okay?"
The elevator doors opened, and she stepped out, saying to Gu Yinyan behind her as she opened the door:
“After Gary and I finished dinner, we felt it was too early to go back, so we went to the night market next door to kill some time. You know, he's really bad at these kinds of shooting games. I couldn't stand it and said I could try, and before I knew it, I had brought back so many.”
She placed the key on the storage rack by the door and handed Gu Yinyan a pair of slippers: "Here you go."
Liang Yizhi entered the house and saw Gu Yinyan still standing outside the door in a daze. She urged, "What's wrong?"
Gu Yinyan stood there, stunned.
He had always thought that the person Liang Yizhi was going to meet tonight was that curly-haired guy.
So it was Gary?
He rushed to her doorstep in a panic after hearing rumors that she had met someone else, completely losing his composure. And then, finding her not there, he made several phone calls to her.
It's a complete joke.
Gu Yinyan calmed himself down for a while before stepping through the door.
Liang Yizhi poured two glasses of juice, brought them to the living room, and asked Gu Yinyan, "Have you had dinner?"
"have eaten."
Just as Liang Yizhi was about to say that she was quite full, Gu Yinyan added, "But I seem to be a little hungry now."
He asked casually, "Do you have anything to eat at home?"
Liang Yizhi got up and walked to the refrigerator: "...I've been a bit busy these past few days and haven't cooked. There are only some vegetable scraps left at home. If you don't mind, I can make you some noodles?"
"Anything is fine."
Liang Yizhi squatted down and rummaged through the cupboard to find noodles. Gu Yinyan walked to the kitchen doorway and said to her, "Let me do it."
"Are you being polite with me?" Liang Yizhi took out noodles, placed them on the counter, and then opened the refrigerator to take out two eggs.
Gu Yinyan walked to her side and took the things from her hands: "You can understand it as me being afraid of eating something that looks like noodles but isn't."
She wasn't stupid; she could clearly tell that Gu Yinyan was belittling her cooking skills.
Gu Yinyan took out a bowl and chopsticks from the sterilizer and skillfully cracked the eggs.
Liang Yizhi stood to the side, her hands resting on the table, watching with amusement as he prepared a feast for her.
Liang Yizhi said, "You don't know, do you? My cooking skills have improved a lot. Xie Yun has eaten my cooking before and praised my skills."
Gu Yinyan paused, his hand holding the chopsticks faltering, and slowed down his stirring of the egg mixture: "You've made this for him before?"
"Of course. I've even made love-filled bento boxes, just like the ones in Japanese dramas, they look so good."
Gu Yinyan suddenly regretted rushing to do it.
He then asked, "Who is that person in the photo He Man posted in the group chat a couple of days ago?"
"His name is He Xintu. You've met him once before, you should remember him."
"Remember."
“After we argued last time, I was in a bad mood and went to He Man’s place. I didn’t expect him to be the owner.” Liang Yizhi stood next to him, her head twisting with some difficulty. She turned around and rested her lower back on the edge of the counter so that it would be easier for her to look at Gu Yinyan’s face.
Liang Yizhi: "He personally mixed some of the store's new products for us to try, and even drove us home."
Liang Yizhi was actually a little troubled. She wanted to confide in someone, but she was also thinking about how to objectively describe the current situation to Gu Yinyan.
She told him her thoughts frankly and without any concealment.
"And I feel... he probably has some feelings for me."
Gu Yinyan, with his sleeves rolled up, was washing vegetables when water splashed out of the sink and landed on his smooth, strong forearm.
He lowered his eyelashes and asked, "And what about you? What do you think?"
Liang Yizhi replied with a hint of distress, "I feel... it's going too fast, but I can't help but get carried away. Every time he talks to me, I can't help but stare into his eyes. And—"
Liang Yizhi wore an unbuttoned knit sweater today, with the front open, and underneath she was only wearing a tank top that reached her chest.
She placed her hand on her chest, feeling it. The atmosphere was relaxed and comfortable, and her heart was beating rhythmically and slowly.
Liang Yizhi recalled her feelings at the time: "Every time he finished speaking, my heart seemed to beat very fast."
Gu Yinyan remained unmoved after hearing her words.
He straightened up, reached out and turned off the tap, his cool gaze sweeping over them:
"That's because he always says ambiguous things to you, deliberately making people misunderstand."
"Just like in TV dramas, you might fall for a guy just because of a casual remark he makes. But in reality, once you remove the character settings, filters, and background music that create the atmosphere, it's nothing."
He leaned against the edge of the kitchen counter: "Because he just creates those illusions to mislead you."
"Is that so?" Liang Yizhi seemed to understand but not quite. "But I think he's a really nice person. He even reminded us not to drink too much, and he was very tactful when we chatted, without doing anything inappropriate..."
Lost in thought, she didn't notice that the light and shadow in front of her had been blocked, and an arm had blocked her way, bracing itself against her side.
Gu Yinyan leaned over, his broad body enveloping her completely beneath him.
Liang Yizhi hadn't expected this turn of events. With nowhere to retreat, she could only brace herself on the table with her hands behind her back, her waist against the edge, leaning back a few centimeters to form a soft curve.
"And what about me?"
For the first time, Gu Yinyan was so close to her, so close that she could almost count each of his eyelashes. The usual safe distance between them was broken, and she looked helplessly into his eyes, seeing only her reflection in them.
That pleasant citrus scent is his natural trademark.
She heard Gu Yinyan ask her:
What do you think of me?
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