Chapter 3
Li Ye chose to answer Zhou Yuan's voice call. Before figuring out how the two would get along in the future, it would be better for her and Zhou Yuan to see each other as little as possible, at least that would be more conducive to her judgment.
Even when making a voice call in his own bedroom, Li Ye still puts on headphones to answer the call. Feeling that he should keep a distance from the person first, he goes to his desk, pushes the phone with the headphone cord attached deep into the desk, opens his sketchbook, and continues working on his unfinished drafts while talking to the person.
"..."
After the call connected, no one spoke first. Li Ye didn't like wearing headphones, so he was the first to give up the game of being a statue.
"Let me ask you first, are you sure you want to buy a house in Shanghai?"
She seems to have asked this question several times. Doesn't that seem like she's being too concerned?
Zhou Yuan's voice was somewhat distorted by the electronic device, but it was still clear that the person on the other end was answering seriously: "Are you sure you want to buy a house?"
"Li, if you want to have your own house, where would you like it?" she asked Li Ye in return, turning the question around to inquire about Li Ye's plans.
Li Ye, who has a conditioned reflex to this kind of question, said: "My room will always be here with Mom and Dad."
So even though he had saved enough money before, the idea of buying a house had never crossed his mind. Even if he were to say he wanted to buy now, Li Ye would absolutely not choose any property in or around this city.
"Li, what are your impressions of Shanghai?"
"I studied there for seven years. There were many exhibitions and events, and lots of novel things and people. Not having money would make life feel particularly oppressive."
Li Ye tried to summarize from his own perspective: "It's a familiar big city, with places I like and places I don't like, but so far I like more."
"That's why I chose Shanghai," Zhou Yuan answered the other half of the question, "for the same reason you did."
"..." Li Ye chose to end this part and continue to delve deeper into the topic, "You said this preparation was completed in advance, so what about the other preparations?"
A series of sounds came through the headphones, and it sounded like Zhou Yuan got out of bed, put on his clothes and shoes, walked a few steps, stopped, pulled out a chair, sat down, turned on his computer, and opened a file.
"We're still screening housing requirements. We'll go to Shanghai after the New Year to have some real estate agents come and do on-site inspections." Zhou Yuan then tentatively asked, "What are Li's requirements?"
"It sounds like there's a lot of stuff. Send me the files later, and I'll study them myself first."
Not having gotten any useful information he wanted, Li Ye wasn't in a hurry. Hearing that the project would enter its next phase after the New Year, he thought about the large gaps in his future schedule.
"After that year, shall we go to Shanghai together and settle down a place?"
"Okay." A brief and affirmative expression of agreement.
"..."
Once again, only their breathing could be heard during the call, until Zhou Yuan broke the silence first.
“Our conversation last night was interrupted, and I want to know your answer.” Zhou Yuan stared intently at the phone on his desk, which showed a call in progress, his right hand gripping the mouse tightly without him even realizing it.
Last night, after Zhou Yuan uttered those four words, Li Ye opened her mouth slightly, unsure of what she would say. The ambiguous atmosphere that had just begun was interrupted, and the two fathers finally drove their cars out of the parking lot, ready to go home.
Now, that hazy, ambiguous feeling began to hang between the two of them again, separated by several walls and two cell phones. At this moment, Li Ye was choosing colors for the roses. "I...didn't agree."
After a moment of silence, the voice coming through the earphones sounded somewhat composed as he continued, "So, now, can I start pursuing you?"
Huh? What kind of tactic is this? Li Ye was about to suggest at least a few months of cooling-off period, since feelings can be easily swayed. But when he looked down at the whole patch of red roses after they were colored, poor thing, Ms. Li's knitted roses were clearly blue.
Li Ye immediately didn't want to have any more conversation with Zhou Yuan, and simply said, "This is your own business."
She immediately hung up the phone and buried herself in the pile of pillows on the bed, trying to calm her turbulent emotions.
Meanwhile, Zhou's mother knocked on the door to call Zhou Yuan for breakfast and found that her son, unusually, was up before nine o'clock during his rest time, and he seemed... quite happy.
"If you're up, hurry up and come out to eat. Your dad brought your favorite noodle shop."
Zhou Yuan hadn't recovered from the phone call that had been disconnected. He simply followed his body's instincts and drifted out of the bedroom, landing lightly in his designated seat in the dining room. It took him a while to realize what was happening before he picked up his chopsticks and started eating.
The Zhou family's rule at the dinner table is not to talk while eating. After the three of them had finished breakfast and Mr. Zhou cleaned up the mess, Mrs. Zhou finally asked, "You seem so happy today, is it because Xiao Ye agreed to your request last night?"
"No." Zhou Yuan's joy turned to disappointment in an instant, but he quickly cheered up again. "I can officially start pursuing you today."
"?"
Mr. Zhou, who was secretly listening in, was very puzzled but didn't say anything. Mrs. Zhou patted him twice, signaling him to go to the balcony to hang up the clothes, leaving space for the mother and son.
"You and Xiaoye only talked it out yesterday?" Zhou's mother was almost amused by her silly son. "Why didn't you do it earlier? You two grew up together and got along very well. If you had talked it out earlier, the two families would have been discussing marriage at the dinner table last night."
Seeing that her son hadn't quite grasped the concept yet, Zhou's mother used the same patience she had when teaching a student to play the piano, guiding him step by step through the difficulties.
What are your thoughts?
Zhou Yuan was very familiar with his mother's demeanor, and he also switched into student mode, asking and answering questions.
"I want to have a more stable material foundation first. I originally planned to find a stable job after graduation before..."
The volume of the reply grew lower and lower under Zhou's mother's increasingly sharp gaze, and finally it was completely silenced.
"Now you know? It's not like girls will definitely say yes just because you guys confess your feelings. Your Zhou family has good genes, you're tall and handsome, so you still have a chance."
"But why did you decide to start dating after you've started working? When did you fall for her?"
"After graduating from high school." Zhou Yuan felt a little nervous talking about relationship issues in front of his parents and teachers, even though it was no longer considered puppy love.
"Haven't you thought about dating in college? Even though you two aren't going to the same university, you're both studying in Shanghai and are neighbors so you can take care of each other. It's such a great opportunity, why not seize it?"
"The relationship you have during your student days is very different from the relationship you have after you enter the workforce. Yuan Yuan, you've missed out big time."
"Especially since you know the complicated situation between the Li family and Li Ye, Li Ye is a good girl, that's true, but I wouldn't have her if you didn't like her. In short, if you really get together, you need to defuse those time bombs on her beforehand, and it's a bit too late now."
"Alright, alright. Let me tell you something useful while you're still a student. Suppose you said what you said last night, and you put it at the point when you realized you liked her, how would the response be different?"
After saying that, without caring what Zhou Yuan thought, Zhou's mother and father drove to their music store for work in a relatively pleasant manner.
Zhou Yuan was still sitting at the dining table, his mind still echoing his mother's last hypothetical question. The answer was always the same: there was no difference. Li Ye hadn't agreed now, and naturally he wouldn't have agreed before.
Li Ye has too many concerns, and she won't easily establish close relationships with anyone. This is why Zhou Yuan dares to put his confession and pursuit after work. He is confident that Li Ye will always be there for him.
But his mother said that the feelings one can get at different stages of life are not the same. He could have had a pure romantic experience first, but he was too stubborn and easily went down a dead end. Fortunately, it's not too late.
A ringtone sounded; it was Li Ye's lunchtime alarm. This was how it was when they lived at home after graduation. Breakfast was prepared by Ms. Li, and dinner by Li Ye. The couple ate at the cafeteria for lunch, while Li Ye took care of his own meals. On weekends, Teacher Li would pay for the mother and daughter to have lunch.
This leads to a problem: aside from waking up and going to bed, Li Ye rarely pays attention to specific times. And the fact that he takes care of lunch on his own can easily become too flexible in terms of time and format, which is not good for his health. After forgetting lunch once or twice, he came up with this alarm clock.
I opened the refrigerator, estimated that it was only enough for one person for lunch, then closed the refrigerator door again, went back to the bedroom to change my clothes, and planned to eat out for lunch today, and then buy more supplies for the refrigerator at the supermarket downstairs on the way back.
There's been no reply to the message I sent to Zeng Yuan yet. Scrolling back through her posts, she's probably on her way back on a plane. It's too late to help her now.
Li Ye messaged Ye Tinglan again, making an appointment for breakfast at 2 pm. She was a very busy person who had been in and out of several relationships, and was currently single. She said she had plenty of free time to ask her best friend about her love life.
Ignoring the other person's burning gossip spirit, Li Ye had already gone out to find food, completely disregarding the frequent message vibrations that made his phone sound like it was about to explode.
He bumped into Zhou Yuan at the elevator entrance. Zhou Yuan was carrying a trash bag and waiting for the elevator. He greeted Li Ye as he came out, and their interaction seemed no different from before.
"Good afternoon. Are you going out for lunch?"
"That's great! You're up so early on your holiday, are you going to buy groceries later?"
Li Ye thought it would be fine to change the order of the itinerary. They could go grocery shopping together first, and have Zhou Yuan help bring the groceries to his house first, then pick them up later, saving them a lot of effort.
It's strange, really. The two families can eat three meals a day at six different times. In other words, they can't even find a time to eat together. It's quite remarkable that they've been able to maintain a superficially harmonious relationship for so many years.
"Um."
Zhou Yuan seemed to be in a good mood today; Li Ye didn't see any signs that he had been rejected.
The two arrived at the garbage station, where Li Ye noticed the broken mouse being carried along with the garbage bag. It belonged to Zhou Yuan, and he immediately asked, "How did you break the mouse like this? I've never seen you use so much force before."
Zhou Yuan, who seemed to be in a good mood, didn't say anything, but his expression suddenly turned aggrieved as he looked at Li Ye. This reminded Li Ye that he had heard Zhou Yuan turn on his computer that morning. Could it have been around that time?
Now it was Li Ye's turn to remain silent, his mind racing as he tried to figure out how to resolve the situation.
"My problem is that the new one is on its way. It's nothing serious and won't affect anything. I'll send you the documents after lunch."
Zhou Yuan's words successfully calmed Li Ye's frantic heart. For the first time, she realized that Zhou Yuan not only played the violin beautifully, but also had a very pleasant and clear voice.
Whose heart is starting to race again?
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