Chapter 21
Leaving home in high spirits but returning with a belly full of worries is not an option. Li Ye was shocked by the final bill calculated by Zhou Yuan. He originally thought that the money left over from buying the house, after deducting the renovation budget, would be available for two or three years, but it turned out that it could only support him to live a carefree life for a year at most. A sense of urgency arose spontaneously.
But as she reached into the backpack to touch the contract inside, Li Ye felt she should at least have a small celebration. The lunch didn't count; it was a celebration of surviving her first step into the adult world.
After leaving the music store, Zhou Yuan drove Li Ye back as usual. She got out of the car at a cake shop near the neighborhood, and Zhou Yuan got out of the car as well. The two of them walked into the small shop that was filled with a sweet aroma.
It was nearing the end of the school and work hours, and the cake shop seemed to have just finished stocking up on new products. The staff greeted two customers who appeared to be a couple with smiles. The tall, voluptuous girl had loose braids that reached her waist, while the boy next to her was tall and slender, dressed very elegantly, which made his face look even more delicate.
Li Ye went straight to the cake section upon entering, intending to take some back to share with Yao Yao. Considering their different taste preferences, he chose the taro and purple sweet potato Basque cake, along with two savory sandwiches, and that would be his dinner.
Zhou Yuan asked the clerk to pack the food, but he followed along to pay the bill, only to be caught red-handed by Li Ye.
But they couldn't stop the bank card from being swiped. Zhou Yuan's hand and the shop assistant's hand were faster than Li Ye's. Li Ye stretched out two fingers to restrain Zhou Yuan, who was 21 centimeters taller than her, and threw him from the counter to the entrance of the cake shop. Then she went back to the counter to get the cake and sandwich that the shop assistant had packed quickly.
In the end, Zhou Yuan drove Li Ye to the entrance of the residential area. Only when Li Ye slowed down and unbuckled his seatbelt did Zhou Yuan begin to express his feelings about parting.
Zhou Yuan said, "The earliest we can meet in person is in a month. Even before we parted, I'm already imagining what it will be like when we meet again. Will we go to get that certificate together?"
The ambiguous words made Li Ye instinctively avoid looking at Zhou Yuan's expression as he spoke. At that moment, she was breaking down the action of unbuckling the seatbelt, but her eyes were fixed on the rearview mirror.
But as Li Ye hurriedly got off the car with the cake box in hand, standing in the ascending elevator, what he remembered most clearly was Zhou Yuan's tone when he said those words, a tender feeling that came from reluctance to part.
Recently, he has been talking more and longer. Correspondingly, the subjects that he used to hardly talk about are gradually increasing and becoming clearer. Only his tone of voice is not much different from before, mostly choosing one of three: calm, firm, or shy.
Nearly a week of house hunting almost made Li Ye's attitude towards Zhou Yuan revert to what it was before his confession. Did Zhou Yuan sense this and deliberately remind him?
Li Ye wasn't angry with Zhou Yuan for this, nor did she find Zhou Yuan's actions cute; she just found them a little funny. Of course, she knew that Zhou Yuan's confession and everything that followed were serious.
It's obvious that in this potentially intimate relationship, the one who can't get over that hurdle is Li Ye. Li Ye himself knows this, and Zhou Yuan knows it too, but he just wants to do it.
He just wanted to scare her a little, like a naughty child.
Li Ye also sincerely hopes that when she receives that red certificate a month later, she can try to overcome that hurdle and free her heart along with it.
"bite!"
As the elevator arrived at its destination, Li Ye promptly put away her wandering thoughts. The elevator doors opened, and she brushed past a food delivery worker.
When Li Ye arrived at his doorstep, he belatedly realized that the takeout the deliveryman had just brought might have been ordered by Yao Yao. At this time, she should still be commuting. He checked his chat history with Yao Yao and realized that she had ordered takeout in advance without notifying him.
Li Ye picked up the three large bags that the deliveryman had hung on the doorknob and opened the door with difficulty. He saw that the living room light was on and the sound of the game playing clearly reached the entrance hall. Yao Yao was at home.
Carrying four plastic bags, which were filled with food, Li Ye carefully placed them on the table in the entryway, gently closed the door, tiptoed to change into slippers, and lightly floated through the living room to wash and disinfect his hands in the bathroom before returning to the entryway to collect the four items of food. He did not disturb Yao Yao, who was engrossed in playing games in the living room.
Take out all the takeout boxes; there are still two bowls of rice inside. Now I don't have to go into the kitchen at all tonight. While the takeout is still hot from the delivery, Li Ye still wants to interrupt Yao Yao's game and wait for the right moment to clear the level.
"Yao Yao, the takeout you ordered is at the door. I brought it in when I came in. On the way back, I also bought a Basque, your favorite taro and purple sweet potato dish."
Yao Yao used the controller to exit the current instance, but her body didn't move. She huddled on the sofa, hesitating to take the next step. She could clearly hear everything.
"Shall we eat at the coffee table tonight? I'll go get the takeout and dishes, can you clean the coffee table?"
Not knowing what had happened, Yao Yao seemed very strange, as if she was holding her breath but couldn't let it out. Li Ye could only try to calm her down and prevent her from getting too angry.
Yao Yao went to the dining table, stacked up several hot takeout boxes, and carried them all to the coffee table in one go. She had already cleared a space for them, and the things that were originally on the table moved back to the sofa.
Another trip was made to carry a whole box of sliced cake to the coffee table. The next step was to get the bowls and chopsticks. Yao Yao finally spoke. This was the first time she had spoken since arriving home today. She said, "There are disposable bowls and chopsticks next to the dining table. No one is allowed to do anything in the kitchen today."
Li Ye walked straight to the kitchen cupboard and turned directly to the dining table. He easily found the disposable bowls and chopsticks that Yao Yao had mentioned. They looked like they were leftovers from her previous takeout orders. He took two sets of chopsticks and two sets of spoons.
Yao Yao arranged the boxes neatly and squarely, and now she was sitting on the ground. She took the chopsticks that Li Ye handed her and started eating directly, showing a boldness that surpassed Li Ye's usual hearty eating of meat.
This is completely different from Yao Yao, who was complaining the day before that the food was too good lately and that her clothes for commuting to work were a bit tight, while picking up a piece of grilled pork belly and hesitating about whether to lose weight.
Without asking what happened, Li Ye simply sat down on the ground and ate heartily, just like Yao Yao. Her mood had been fluctuating all day, and eating was a good way for her to vent her emotions.
The dinner was unusually quiet, with only the games that hadn't been quitting playing background music on a loop, which filled the space and made the atmosphere less heavy.
The usual half-hour mealtime was shortened to just twenty minutes before dessert began. Li Ye took out the plastic bag he had used to tidy up the takeout boxes on the coffee table. Only the cake remained, looking rather lonely.
After throwing the trash into the bin and returning to the living room, Li Ye was suddenly grabbed and hugged by Yao Yao. Before he could react, he heard her mumbled accusations, "That idiot team leader, who does he think he is? How dare he?"
Encountering big trouble at work? Lacking experience in this area, Li Ye could only respond to the hug, then gently pat her back like comforting a baby, relaxing her body along her spine until Yao Yao's emotions stabilized.
Her eyes were a little red, but she didn't cry. Yao Yao tidied her messy hair, revealed a gritted-teeth smile, and used one sentence to explain the reason for her loss of composure.
"I was fired today."
Li Ye swallowed his thoughts of using today's experience to comfort Yao Yao. He learned from Zhou Yuan's successful method at noon, took out a slice of cake and shoved it into Yao Yao's hand. His favorite dessert should have a double comforting effect.
Yao Yao carried the cake back to the sofa where she had been playing games. She exited the game mode, found the remote control, switched back to the live TV program, tuned to the variety channel, and lowered her voice to use as background noise.
"It's just unemployment, it's no big deal. I still have savings, so I can just relax. I was saying a while ago that I wanted to travel like you, and here's the opportunity."
After getting to the heart of the matter, Yao Yao immediately went into a self-deprecating phase. Each bite of the cake was small, and she looked fierce with a hint of complaint, "Why didn't I think of buying alcohol? Fruit beer would be fine too. I want to drink, Xiao Ye—I want to drink."
Luckily, we didn't buy any alcohol. Even eating a cake can make someone drunk. Li Ye made Yao Yao a cup of tea. "Here, your wine is here. It's not warm enough yet, so I heated it up. Drink it slowly."
"You're completely fooling me. At least take out some tea leaves to make it look like a prop." Yao Yao couldn't continue acting with the prop that was clearly a mistake. She took a small sip of tea from the cup, which was just right to cut through the sweetness of the cake.
Li Ye brewed himself a cup of tea, watching the tea leaves slowly unfurl in the water, and asked in return, "You haven't been drinking or drunk, have you?"
What are your plans for the future?
Yao Yao began to analyze point by point: "They did settle the three months' salary for the dismissal. The idiot was quite well prepared. It's obvious he's been planning to do this for a long time."
"I went to apply for unemployment insurance this afternoon. I can receive money for a few months, but I didn't pay attention. With my savings from the past few years, I just need to find a new job before the end of the year."
"The main reason is to make it easier to go home for the Chinese New Year, so that I don't have another reason to argue with my family. Just the blind date alone is hard to resist."
"Luckily, the house I'm living in now was introduced by a classmate. Her whole family moved abroad and didn't want to sell their house in China, so the rent was quite low, and there's no landlord hanging around looking for trouble."
Li Ye put down his teacup, placed his hands on Yao Yao's shoulders, made her look directly into his eyes, and said seriously, "Wake up, you're planting a flag for yourself."
"It's unlikely to be that coincidental; those are just plot points from novels and animations." Yao Yao waved her hand dismissively.
No sooner had she finished speaking than a call came in on Yao Yao's phone. Yao Yao looked at the caller ID and was a little confused. Could it really be such a coincidence? She then went to the balcony to answer the phone.
Five minutes later, Yao Yao returned to the living room with a long face after hanging up the phone. She grabbed a cushion and pointed it at Li Ye, saying, "Tell me, between the two of us, who is the one who jinxed us!"
"Huh?" Li Ye was completely confused.
Finally, the cushion was thrown onto the sofa, and Yao Yao also fell onto the sofa. Her head was still buried in the cushion as she spoke, and her voice sounded muffled. She said, "The landlord called. She's going back to China to stay again, probably in about five days."
"Now I've not only lost my job, but I've also lost my place to live."
The little bit of emotion she had managed to build up instantly collapsed to an even lower low than before. Li Ye walked over and patted Yao Yao's head. "Let's go on a trip together in a few days, relax, and start over after we've had a good change of mood."
Yao Yao sat up, hugging a cushion, and asked, "Have you bought a house yet?"
"It will take another month for things to really settle down, and the trip will also last for a month, so I won't have to worry about this every day."
Li Ye's eyes were full of hope. She had never traveled far from home with friends before, and neither had Yao Yao. She agreed without much thought.
"But what about my luggage? I don't have to worry about renting a place while I'm traveling for a month, but I can't bring all this luggage with me."
Li Ye blinked and said in a deliberately playful tone, "Although she's not here right now, you can't forget that she's a permanent resident here."
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