Chapter 3 It's past six o'clock, and the Shanghai night is slowly falling...
Around 6 p.m., the night sky of Shanghai slowly came into view. Today was Huang Shiyu's birthday. Lu Xiao knew that she was a workaholic, so she specially chose a German restaurant near the company to celebrate her birthday.
When the two arrived, the restaurant was almost full. Fortunately, Lu Xiao had made a reservation in advance, and the waiter quickly brought the food to the table.
The open view from the window made Huang Shiyu, who was initially not very interested, feel a little relaxed.
She could see the World Trade Center in Puxi from the window. She carefully admired the restaurant's design, with a considerable number of light bulbs hanging from the ceiling, arranged in a compact and orderly manner, and the light was wine red.
The colors complement each other perfectly with the sofa, creating a dazzling and luxurious effect.
A set of silver cutlery was placed on the table, engraved with the restaurant's name, and next to it stood a white greeting card with black lettering in gold foil, bright and eye-catching.
It was a birthday greeting handwritten by Lu Xiao.
Huang Shiyu opened the white gift box nestled among the flowers. Six gold bars gleamed under the light, and Huang Shiyu's pupils dilated suddenly.
In her early years, besides stock trading, her only hobby was collecting gold bars and beads. These hard commodities, which are a hedge against inflation, are much more humane than cold, hard paper money.
Just as Huang Shiyu was about to start lovingly caressing her, a deep male voice came: "Sorry, there was a traffic jam on the way. I didn't have to wait too long, did I?"
With the mindset of not flaunting wealth, Huang Shiyu quickly stuffed the gold bars into his bag, causing Lu Xiao across the street to laugh so hard she could barely hold her fork.
"Even eating can't shut you up; your chin is about to show," Huang Shiyu said, thinking he looked fierce.
Lu Xiao burst out laughing: "You're so cute."
She's cute? Huang Shiyu doesn't think she's cute at all.
"You're fifteen minutes late. I don't like people who have no sense of time."
The woman's voice drifted over faintly. Huang Shiyu had no intention of eavesdropping on other people's conversations, especially these kinds of romantic entanglements. Now she knew where the voice was coming from—it was behind her.
Then, for a moment, it seemed as if the air itself went silent, and no one spoke.
Just then, Huang Shiyu's phone vibrated. She put down her knife and fork, clicked on the message, and saw that it was from the anonymous user.
[Anonymous user: Does your boyfriend know that you're secretly creating a couple's social media space with other guys?]
"Cough cough..."
She almost choked on the food she was chewing, which startled Lu Xiao so much that she quickly handed her a glass of water to moisten her mouth.
"Are you alright? Eat slowly. I brought you out to celebrate your birthday, not to contribute to the hospital's revenue," Lu Xiao said with concern.
"I'm fine, I just had a sore throat." Huang Shiyu took a few more sips of water to calm down the discomfort in her throat.
Huang Shiyu opened her phone again, typed quickly, and sent it with one click.
[It's a lucky cat: How does it feel to have an affair?]
She only now realized what the other person had said earlier, and it was no wonder he asked that question. Before, she had only focused on the gold beads and hadn't paid attention to what the other person was saying, which led to the misunderstanding. However, he had just almost caused Huang Shiyu's death at the birthday banquet, and she couldn't help but seek revenge.
Her throat is still uncomfortable, like someone is rubbing her esophagus.
She's the kind of person who holds grudges and seeks revenge on the spot.
Seeing that she still had the leisure to play on her phone, Lu Xiao across from her gradually relaxed and started eating the food on her plate.
After a few minutes, the woman who had spoken earlier, seeing that the other party had no intention of explaining, finally couldn't hold back any longer and asked, "Don't you have anything to say to me? Aren't you going to explain?"
"What's there to explain? What's there to explain? My first words when I came in clearly stated that there was a traffic jam on the way. If you don't think that counts as an explanation, then so be it." The man's cold voice rang out again.
Huang Shiyu originally thought the man would argue that traffic jams were an unavoidable external factor and then frantically make excuses for himself, but the man had no such intention at all.
She found it interesting and was quite curious to see what this person looked like.
Huang Shiyu's phone vibrated with a message notification again.
[Anonymous user: I'm afraid your boyfriend will find out. I don't want to be a male homewrecker.]
[It's a lucky cat: Oh, so would you be the fourth male lead?]
Huang Shiyu almost burst out laughing.
"This arrangement today is your mother's idea, and I'm sure you know and tacitly approve of it. We are a good match in terms of social standing. Once you officially take over the family business, our two families will join forces and hold shares in each other, and the stock market value will multiply several times. After the marriage, I won't interfere in your private life, as long as you don't bring it to my attention. What do you think?"
Upon hearing this, Huang Shiyu slowed down her chewing. She wanted to give this woman a thumbs up, but she couldn't do it herself; she couldn't tolerate even a speck of dust in her eyes.
"I'm sorry, just like I don't like German food, I have no interest in you. I came here today to make things clear to you. The person you were talking to before was my mother, not me. You know I'm very busy with my studies in Germany, how could I possibly have the leisure to talk to you about romantic things every day?"
Huang Shiyu was stunned when she heard the rest. It turned out that there really were parents who helped their sons find girlfriends. This gossip made her tremble with fear.
Huang Shiyu's phone rang again, and she knew without guessing who was sending the message.
[Anonymous user: Not so great, I'd only consider myself the main wife.]
Looking at the message sent by the other party, Huang Shiyu thought that this Chinese person's Chinese was not bad, and he even knew about the main wife.
She didn't know if it was from the gossip she'd heard, but she wasn't in the mood to tease him; she was more interested in seeing who he was.
After the man finished speaking, he clearly didn't leave. Huang Shiyu then heard the woman's slightly restrained voice.
"Don't you like me at all? In terms of family background, looks, and education, I'm not much worse than you. Aren't you going to consider it?"
Huang Shiyu covered half of her face with her hand, and intentionally or unintentionally glanced behind her with one eye. Just then, the man slightly raised his eyelid.
Time froze for two seconds.
Huang Shiyu quickly turned around, buried her head in her food, and stuffed everything on her plate into her mouth, trying to minimize her presence.
Lu Xiao, sitting opposite Huang Shiyu, was baffled by her behavior. She wondered if there was something behind Huang Shiyu. She glanced at her and then looked away. She wasn't sure if it was just her imagination, but she felt that the man at the table behind Huang Shiyu was glancing in their direction from time to time.
However, she also thought it was just her imagination, since they were all sitting by the window and maybe they were looking at the river view outside.
Compared to Lu Xiao's reaction, Huang Shiyu's heart was roaring at this moment.
Damn it, what a socially fatal moment, what a strange coincidence, what bullshit luck!
The person on the blind date behind them is Li Xingzhou.
He probably didn't see me, right? Probably not. The woman opposite him blocked most of her view, and she only showed one eye.
Even if the other party were Sherlock Holmes, it would still be impossible to discern anything.
She wasn't paying attention to what the woman behind her was saying; she was focused entirely on finishing the food on her plate.
After a long silence, Huang Shiyu looked up from his plate and reached for the teapot on the table to pour some tea.
She thought the person should leave.
I don't know if it was because I was too nervous, but I poured it crookedly, and the tea slid down in accordance with the laws of physics.
She was wearing white jeans today, and her thighs were now soaked. Fortunately, the tea was no longer hot; in late autumn, a chill was rising, and it quickly became too cold for her to handle.
The store was crowded and the singing was loud, so no one noticed the little incident happening here.
Lu Xiao quickly wiped up the remaining tea on the table, then handed Huang Shiyu a few sheets of paper and asked with a frown, "Did you get burned?"
"It's nothing." Huang Shiyu took the paper from Lu Xiao and wiped her face casually. Her jeans were soaked through with water, and the teapot contained rose tea. The white pants were stained with large pink marks, as if they had been dyed. She said to Lu Xiao, "I'm going to the restroom."
There weren't many people in the women's restroom at that time. She wet her jeans with warm water, rubbed them for a while, and then dried them with tissues. Several girls were touching up their makeup, and when they saw her like this, they even took out some tissues from their bags for her.
Although the stain on her pants had been treated to make it barely noticeable, the chill on her legs hadn't lessened. She wrung out some paper one last time before going outside.
She stepped outside and saw that the walls were decorated entirely with embedded car parts, and she could also see all kinds of gears.
She looked down along the gears.
A person was standing under the huge car part. From her severely astigmatic eyes, she could see a blurry figure, and she could vaguely tell that the person was looking in her direction. Huang Shiyu assumed that the person was waiting for his girlfriend to come out.
After all, the women's restroom was right behind her.
As she drew closer, the more she looked at the man, the more a sense of foreboding arose in her heart.
Could this person standing here be Li Xingzhou?
Under the huge wine-red lights, the customers chatting in twos and threes in the back were just blurry figures. The gothic metal music in the store was exciting and sexy, and the vocals and music seemed to reach a climax at this moment.
Huang Shiyu's heart was in turmoil.
She kept reassuring herself that six years had passed, and her appearance had changed drastically. Even if she were shown her old ID photo, she wouldn't recognize herself, let alone Li Xingzhou.
Perhaps he's standing here waiting for his blind date.
She pretended to be looking at the road carefully, then lowered her head and forced herself to walk forward.
One step, two steps, three steps.
It was so close.
She had just breathed a sigh of relief and was about to walk past him when...
"haven't seen you for a long time."
Long, straight legs blocked Huang Shiyu's view, and the distance suddenly shortened. A large amount of sweet tea and orange aroma and a deep, teasing voice flooded into Huang Shiyu's nose.
"Aren't you going to say hello, old classmate?"
A note from the author:
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Li Xingzhou: Aren't you going to say hello, old classmate? [Winks wildly]
Huang Shiyu: Don't touch me [lights a cigarette]
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