Chapter 13 Shijou-neechan, Dare You Say You Don't Like Me?
He glanced at her phone screen, then his gaze swept over Ah Yu. Ah Yu seemed to be electrocuted and quickly turned her face away, appearing completely unconcerned.
"Okay." —Beep—
The sound of scanning a QR code reached Mouyu's ears, and she quietly pouted in dissatisfaction.
"How can you explain math on WeChat? Do you have time tomorrow?" the boy asked the girl, looking down at his phone.
Yes! Yes!
"Then let's go to that coffee shop in the West City tomorrow afternoon. Bring your textbooks, and I'll teach you in person."
He looked at the girl as he spoke, a sly smile playing on his lips.
"The one in Xicheng? Is it 'Yesterday's Lover'?" The girl's companion adjusted her frameless glasses in surprise. "Isn't that place too expensive?"
Mushui City West District is a government-invested redevelopment project, intended to create a new district. It's inhabited by wealthy people from other places, and the cost of living there is vastly different from that in East District. East District is the old city area, and the cost of living there is still quite low. Huainan Lane is located in East District.
The girl in the baseball cap quickly tugged at her best friend and smiled at the boy, saying, "That's the place. Money isn't a problem. I'll pay for tomorrow's lessons as payment for Teacher Lin's tutoring."
"Then, tomorrow at two o'clock in the afternoon." He deliberately slowed his tone, his eyes looking at the girl in the hat, but it was unclear who he was talking to. "It's okay if you're a little late, I'll wait for you."
"Don't worry, I definitely won't be late!"
As Ah Yu listened to the two of them talking back and forth, her guilt towards the boy vanished. An apology was impossible; she couldn't say a word. A nameless fire slowly rose in her heart.
She even felt a little superfluous, so she took out her tablet to watch cartoons.
"Sister, I'll come again tonight." He walked to the door and tugged at the wind chime.
Xu Zhiyu: "Oh."
"elder sister……"
"What now?" she asked impatiently.
"You're holding the tablet upside down."
"..."
She picked up her tablet, leaned back in her chair, kicked off the chair, turned around, and faced away from the boy at the door: "If you're going to leave, then leave now, don't disturb my binge-watching!"
This time, what Boss Xu said wasn't pleasant either, but he still managed a smirk and made sure to say hello to the other two girls before leaving.
After the boy left, the girl in the baseball cap made a sharp, loud noise in the kitchen, startling Mr. Xu so much that he almost dropped his tablet!
"ah--!!!"
"It's been added! It's been added!!"
"Nono, did you hear that? He asked me to meet him at the coffee shop tomorrow!!" The girl hugged her friend and shook her wildly, then crossed her arms over her chest. "Hmph, I knew I wouldn't get rejected!"
"Haha, look how happy you are. You've succeeded in the first step, so you'd better dress up nicely tomorrow and seduce him."
Every word of these words reached A-Yu's ears, and she couldn't help but gossip: "What's wrong? Little sister, do you like him?"
"Of course, otherwise why would I go to such lengths to get his WeChat?" the girl said matter-of-factly. "Sister, you probably don't know, but there are so many people who like Lin Xingmian! I tried asking his friends for his WeChat before, but I couldn't add them. I've been watching him for a long time, but he doesn't add any girls. He's usually very aloof at school. I could only come up with this excuse to take a gamble, and I didn't expect it to actually work out!"
Xu Zhiyu pouted, "Really? I always see him as a loner, someone you don't want to mess with. Do you young girls really like that kind of person?"
"He's handsome." The girl showed her phone to Ayu. "We even have a group chat, and everyone in it likes him because he gets good grades and doesn't mess around with girls at school. Who wouldn't like someone so outstanding? Look, this girl, she's worked so hard for him, and she went from being at the bottom of our class to being in the middle to upper ranks now."
She pointed to the profile picture of the most active girl in the group and explained it to Boss Xu.
"I love his cool and aloof attitude. Don't let his coldness fool you; the more aloof he is to everyone, the more devoted his partner becomes once they're together! That special affection for his lover really appeals to me, so I'm willing to pay any price or spend any amount of time to achieve it."
Ah Yu was dumbfounded, finding it hard to believe. How did this turn out to be like following a celebrity?
That's a bit crazy.
I never imagined I'd be the one saying this now: kids these days are just incomprehensible...
Wait, wait...
She suddenly realized something: "You said, what's his name?"
“Lin-Xing-Mian, Xing as in stars, Mian as in sleep.”
Ah Yu murmured repeatedly, "Lin Xingmian..."
"Yes, I heard it comes from the ancient poem 'Crescent Moon'—'Delighted to see the dust settle with the rain, I leisurely sleep under the stars, enjoying the cool dew.' Isn't that cultured?"
The wind chimes rang again, and the gentle breeze lifted her hair, as if he had come in again.
Yes, it's a beautiful name.
Beautiful as his eyes.
.
That evening, the civil servant guy that Aunt Wang had introduced to her contacted her online.
She repeatedly compared his WeChat profile picture with the photo that Aunt Wang sent her, and finally confirmed that the cartoon profile picture should be him.
Xu Zhiyu, who had never been in a relationship before, was extra cautious during this chat, worried that her casual personality might make it easy for her to become just friends with the other person again.
Based on this, she specifically searched for many keywords on platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu:
Flirting techniques to make your blind date fall head over heels, sweet nothings that aren't cheesy but are still very charming, how to be coquettish, how to flirt...
After memorizing the knowledge, I plan to put it into practice on my civil servant brother.
This civil servant's surname is Li, and his name is Li Tingyang. After seeing that Boss Xu agreed to be his friend, he took the initiative to send a message:
【Hello. 】
Fish: [Hello.]
Li: [I was introduced by Aunt Wang. I work at the Mushuicheng Talent Center. Just add me as Li Tingyang in your contact information.]
Fish: [Let's get to know each other, Xu Zhiyu, everyone calls me Ayu. Nice to meet you~]
...
After saying those two sentences, the two fell silent.
Ah Yu thought about it carefully and was about to send another message when the other party sent a message:
[I heard you currently work at a supermarket? As a cashier?]
She paused for a moment, then decided to play dumb: "Yeah, it's in the supermarket near Huainan Alley. I'll bring you there next time."
Li: [Uh, I'll look into it when I have time. You're so young, why didn't you plan to take the civil service exam or graduate school after graduation? A job within the system is relatively more stable.]
His words made Ayu a little annoyed. She couldn't understand why he could never get rid of the topic of "staffing".
Not wanting to talk about this, she changed the subject: "Actually, this is the first time I've met a guy this way, and I'm a bit inexperienced. How about we meet up first, become friends, and if we click, we can get to know each other better."
Li: [Haha, sure! Although most of my friends are graduate students or have permanent positions, it's still quite novel to have someone like you.]
Is she like that?
Which kind?
For some reason, what he said made Ah Yu feel really uncomfortable. Was it just her imagination? Why did she feel like this guy looked down on her after confirming her job?
Seeing that there was no reply from the other end for a while, Li Tingyang sent another message:
【Tomorrow's the weekend and I have the day off. Are you free tomorrow? How about we meet up?】
Fish: [Sure, I have flexible hours.]
That's the good thing about running your own business; you can manage your own time. She flipped through the calendar and calculated that her mother was on the day shift tomorrow, so she wouldn't be able to watch the shop. She would go down and ask her father if he could watch the shop tomorrow afternoon. If not, she could ask Aunt Wang to help watch the shop for a while.
Li: [So what time tomorrow? Where are we going?]
Fish: [Do you have a favorite place?]
Li: [There's a Mixue Ice Cream shop downstairs from my apartment. Don't you girls all love milk tea? This shop is quite spacious. Why don't you come down to my building tomorrow?]
After saying that, Li Tingyang sent a location message, but Ayu didn't even want to open it.
What?
Blind date... Mixue Ice Cream?
don't know.
She scratched her head and texted: "[Tomorrow at 2:30 PM, at the 'Yesterday's Lover' café in the West District.]"
Li: [Oh, oh.]
The chat is finally over. Judging from the few words we exchanged tonight, it's completely different from what she imagined!
Not only did she not use any of the flirting techniques she had learned, she also felt that the other person's thought process was a bit strange. She really couldn't understand why this guy would invite her to the Mixue Ice Cream downstairs from his house for their first blind date.
Is this appropriate?
She scrolled back up and clicked on the location information—good heavens, it was thirty kilometers away from her as the crow flies, how could they send such a message!
Maybe the other person is playing a game of abstract reasoning with her. For now, that's the only way Ah Yu can console herself.
Who knows, after getting to know him tomorrow, I might find that he's both handsome and humorous.
She tossed her phone onto the bed and opened the package that had just arrived that day.
Her dad was watching TV in the living room. She had to ask him if he was off tomorrow. Her dad only got two days off a month, and she vaguely remembered that he was off tomorrow.
Ah Yu carried the box into the living room and called out to the person on the sofa:
"Dad, are you taking the day off tomorrow?"
Mr. Xu turned around and looked at the box in her hand with curiosity. He replied, "Yes, but I might go play cards with Uncle Tan and the others this afternoon."
"Then don't go. I have something to do tomorrow afternoon. You can come and watch the store tomorrow afternoon."
Mr. Xu asked suspiciously, "What's wrong? I've never heard you say you wanted to help watch the shop before. Didn't you enjoy curling up on your dog stool like a caterpillar every day?"
She looked away guiltily, saying, "Don't worry about it, it's my private matter."
Quickly change the subject, "Here, this is your payment for minding the shop."
She handed the box to her father.
Mr. Xu was surprised that the box was for him. He smiled, his big eyes shining brightly: "What is this? For me?"
"See for yourself."
When Mr. Xu opened the box, he found a brand-new pair of matte leather shoes. Upon seeing the shoes, he was immediately touched by his daughter's heartwarming gift and his face flushed slightly.
Ah Yu also felt a little embarrassed, feeling awkward about being so sentimental.
"Your leather shoes have been worn for ages, they stink! Change into these, don't worry, they'll definitely be comfortable. I did my research and picked them out, they're guaranteed to be comfortable."
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