lie
The atmosphere froze for a moment. Yu Xi's gaze lingered between the two men, who were on the verge of exchanging barbs. Just as Meng Chou was about to press further, she stepped forward, stood between them, and handed a large bouquet of hibiscus flowers to Ji Huai'en.
She was a whole head shorter than Ji Huaien, and when she handed him the flowers, she slightly tiptoed to hold the whole bouquet in front of him.
A petal brushed against the tip of his nose for a fleeting moment. Ji Huai'en looked up and heard the girl's gentle voice, "Senior, here's a hibiscus for you."
"And you, senior, you like to collect these plants for dyeing fabrics. Isn't it normal for you to wander around like this? Don't talk about senior like that."
Yu Xi had a sudden inspiration and came up with a good idea to exonerate Ji Huaien and prevent the situation from becoming too embarrassing. At the same time, she pulled Meng Chou toward the barbecue grill.
The burning charcoal occasionally dropped scarlet sparks, crackling and emitting a dazzling red glow in the night before disappearing in an instant.
"Let's go get some barbecue skewers, I'm starving after playing all day."
Meng Chou's expression was indifferent, but he still obediently did as he was told, flipping through the iron skewers. "Is this how Xiaoyu treats me just to help him cover up his lie?"
Yu Xi pretended not to understand and asked in return, "What? Are the skewers ready?"
She tried to change the subject, but Meng Chou persisted, pressing his hands firmly on her shoulders, trapping her in front of him and dispelling her thoughts of escaping.
"Can't the little fish only protect me?"
"Can't you only have eyes for me?"
Yu Xi looked up at him in surprise. His gentle voice echoed in her ears, without a trace of blame. It sounded more like he was being coquettish in front of her.
Since she agreed to be his girlfriend, Yu Xi discovered that Meng Chou was unusually clingy, wanting to see her all the time. She completely abandoned her arrogance in front of him, and Meng Chou's emotions were swayed by her every move.
Yu Xi raised her hand to gesture for him to come over, and as he walked in, she unexpectedly ruffled his fluffy hair. "Alright, you're the only person I love the most, of course I'll protect you and think about you."
With each word she spoke, Meng Chou nodded in agreement. In just a few words and a gentle touch, he completely forgot what he had just been angry about.
'Gurgle~', Yu Xi's stomach made an uncooperative noise. She gave an awkward smile, the aroma emanating from the grill had long been making her itch to eat.
Meng Chou calmly picked up a skewer of grilled meat, blew on it to cool it down, and handed it to her, saying, "Eat this first, and I'll get the rest for you when they're ready."
"Oh, someone who never lifts a finger at home can actually grill skewers?" Meng Yun walked slowly towards them, carrying a white plastic bag.
Meng Chou's expression instantly turned cold, and he watched his every move warily. "I'm not like you, who can't do anything and just waits to rely on others."
Meng Chou's words were loaded with meaning, undoubtedly revealing that his mother had risen to power through her son and lived off men every day. He knew all too well what his good younger brother was up to; Meng Yun would seize anything he possessed.
"I'm here to bring Xiaoyu some food, bro. You don't have to be so pushy, do you?"
"Don't label me like that, I'm just telling the truth." Meng Chou said, pulling Yu Xi close and pinning her against the table. As he leaned closer, he smelled of a pleasant laundry detergent scent.
Meng Chou's face gradually magnified in Yu Xi's pupils. She could even clearly see the lines around his pupils and the expression on his face. The shadow cast by his thick eyelashes almost swept across her cheeks until his breath hit Yu Xi's ear. It was as if his whole body was covering her. Even though there was a gap between them, Yu Xi inexplicably felt hot and bothered.
A surge of scalding heat exploded from her heart, sweeping through her entire body like wildfire. Her hand holding the skewers froze, her fingertips digging into her palm, feeling slightly numb.
Even the slightest touch can stir the heartstrings; the surrounding sounds seem to disappear, and the colors gradually blur, leaving only the person leaning forward as real.
"How could you be so careless?" He pulled out a tissue from the corner of the table and gently wiped away the sauce that Yu Xi had accidentally smeared on her lips, proudly asserting his ownership while glancing at Meng Yun.
The latter clenched his fists, slammed them down with a thud, and placed all the ingredients he was carrying on the table. He turned and left, leaving behind only the words, "I'm leaving. I won't bother Xiaoyu anymore."
"See you during roll call."
"He's like a persistent ghost!" Meng Chou turned and glared at his receding figure. "From high school to university, he's been relentlessly pursuing me."
These words reminded Yu Xi that Meng Yun and she were not in the same major or department. It was a camping trip planned by people from the same department, and she didn't know how Meng Yun, who was from the same school but a different department, managed to get involved in the camping trip.
“I knew he was like a shadow, always following me wherever I went, impossible to shake off.” Meng Chou’s dark eyes concealed an unreadable emotion. “He’s incredibly annoying.”
"Never mind him. Try this, it's delicious."
Meng Chou's words echoed in her ears. Half-asleep, Yu Xi vaguely heard intermittent knocking on the door, which pulled her back to reality.
Yu Xi propped up her heavy head, which was slumped in front of the computer, and casually smoothed down her unruly hair, saying, "Go in!"
Chen Miao rushed into the office before Assistant Liu, and happily placed the lunchbox he had brought on the desk in President Yu Xi's lounge.
Chen Miao ran straight to Yu Xi, "Sister, it's already noon, stop what you're doing, I brought you something delicious."
Seeing this, Assistant Liu took a deep breath and explained, "President Yu, I tried to stop him, but I couldn't."
Yu Xi waved her hand, "It's alright, you go ahead and do your work."
When he left, he thoughtfully closed the office door behind him.
Yu Xi, who is always meticulous, hates people who barge into her office uninvited. Apart from Assistant Liu and Meng Qingze who comes occasionally, very few employees in the company go in or out of her office. She hates being disturbed during work hours.
This time, surprisingly, there was no anger, nor was there any reprimand for the intruder to leave.
Assistant Liu vaguely guessed that this person held a special place in President Yu's heart.
Chen Miao opened the lunchbox without a second thought, and the food instantly filled the entire table. He urged Yu Xi, "Try this, it's delicious."
She was saying the exact same words as Meng Chou in her dream, words that overlapped with what Meng Chou had said in her memory, even the tone of her voice was so similar.
In a daze, Yu Xi seemed to see Meng Chou again, the Meng Chou who had once been by her side and loved her.
Seeing her standing there in a daze, Chen Miao took a few steps forward, took the documents from her hand, and decisively closed them. "Sister, these taste best when they're hot. They won't taste the same when they're cold."
Yu Xi followed him to the table and sat down. She was still immersed in that memory, and although she picked up her chopsticks, she hesitated to make a further move.
Chen Miao said enthusiastically, "Sister, I made all of these. Try them and see if they suit your taste. Aren't they much tastier than what that guy brought you last time?"
"Okay, okay." Yu Xi took a while to come back to her senses, picked up a piece of braised pork with alternating layers of fat and lean meat and stuffed it into her mouth. The familiar taste filled her taste buds. She didn't care about etiquette and elegance. Her cheeks were puffed out. She suddenly moved closer to Chen Miao, grabbed his sleeve, and asked in a tearful voice, "You said you made all of this. Did you make this braised pork too?"
"Yes!" Chen Miao was startled by her sudden action and leaned back. Suddenly he realized that he was used to doing this subconsciously. He had already thought of a way to deal with it.
Yu Xi pressed on, asking, "Did you do this yourself? No one taught you?"
How did you manage to make it taste like this?
"How do you know?"
She fired off a barrage of questions, her hoarse voice revealing her anxiety.
Chen Miao's heart clenched, but he still feigned a bewildered expression. He chuckled dryly, "Speaking of which, didn't someone teach me this? I actually remember now."
He got up and paced around the lounge, and Yu Xi also stood up.
Chen Miao didn't want to see her tearful eyes anymore, but in order to get out of the situation, he had no choice but to go along with what she said.
"Yes, now that you mention it, I do remember. Someone taught me how to make this dish."
Chen Miao touched the tip of his nose, not daring to look at her, and turned to walk towards the open window. From this height, one could overlook the famous lake in City A.
Surrounded by towering buildings and traffic weaving between elevated highways, everything in the world seemed irrelevant to her. In that instant, all she wanted to know was more about him.
"I tasted it and thought it was delicious, so I asked him to teach me how to make it."
Before he could answer, Yu Xi already knew the answer. A tear, unwilling to fall, clung to the corner of her mouth. Although she was so sad that her breathing became slow and weak, she still smiled and said, "The person you're talking about is called Meng Chou, right?"
"Do you know my husband? Why would he ask you to send a message to me?"
Why did he ask you to play the piece "Fairy Tale"?
"And why would he be willing to teach you how to make my favorite braised pork?"
Chen Miao gripped the hem of his clothes tightly. He had promised the Ox-Headed Ghost Messenger that there were certain things he couldn't say, and couldn't possibly say them. This was also the rule that allowed him to stay by Yu Xi's side; it was a red line he couldn't cross.
“Sister, Mr. Meng Chou and I are very good friends in the underworld. He trusts me a lot, which is why he was willing to ask me to do these things.” Chen Miao finally said the lines he had prepared in advance in front of Yu Xi.
It's a bad habit to lie casually, but he was forced to do it because he had no other choice.
“He can’t come in person because he’s missing a heart. In the underworld, a remnant soul like that is incomplete, and many things are restricted, so he…”
As Chen Miao spoke, his voice suddenly lowered, his eyes reddened, and a deep sense of powerlessness turned into the pain of his nails digging into the back of his hand. His fingertips had already turned white, and it felt as if he was about to pinch the bone out of the back of his hand.
However, just like in his previous ghostly state where he had no senses, he couldn't feel pain and kept torturing himself.
"So he could only ask me to come. His wish is to stay by his sister's side forever, and I want to make that wish last as long as possible. I will do everything I can to make it happen."
When the topic of "missing a heart" came up, Yu Xi felt as if she had been stabbed in the heart, then quickly pulled the knife out and stabbed it back in, over and over again, and the suffocating pain swept through her body once more.
It felt just like when I had the illness before, even more intense and painful than the pain itself.
Meng Chou's missing heart is inside her body, beating within her.
As long as she lives, Meng Chou's love lives.
This is the only thing that will never change, and that even God cannot take away.
"I killed him."
With a thud, Yu Xi could no longer hold on and collapsed to her knees.
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