Fu Shize drooped his eyes and remained silent.
Chen Jinping said, “Your relationship has become quite famous. It’s the talk of the entire faculty. When we met them last time, they mentioned it. You should have told us earlier. Your father was so happy he almost jumped for joy.”
Fu Dongsheng chuckled, “Son, where’s the girl from?” Noticing the milk packet in Fu Shize’s hand, he immediately realized, “The milk was bought by her, wasn’t it?”
Fu Shize didn’t have a habit of drinking milk.
“You’ve met her before and even gave her a gift,” Fu Shize replied.
Fu Dongsheng’s eyes lit up, the fine wrinkles at the corners of his eyes showing his vigor, “Are you back together?”
Fu Shize neither confirmed nor denied.
Despite their repeated inquiries, Fu Shize only gave brief responses. Fu Dongsheng immediately transferred him some money as a dating fund, but Fu Shize showed no joy, merely saying, “Thank you, Dad.”
Fu Shize never acted coy or showed weakness to them, rarely sharing his inner thoughts. He was like other families’ rebellious teenagers, yet he would offer a small comfort when they felt down.
Fu Dongsheng and Chen Jinping had spent too little time with him in his early years and felt guilty, so they didn’t make many demands.
However, both of them approached problems with a solution-oriented mindset.
Nearing retirement age and not close to their son, they could only set their sights on the next generation.
Fu Dongsheng said earnestly, “Son, we’ve been pursuing our freedom for so many years, but there’s one thing we regret.”
He sighed, “We had children too late.”
“…”
Fu Shize probably hadn’t expected to be pressured about having children so soon.
As the two on the other end of the call took turns explaining the benefits of having children early, he stared at them and said directly, “We’re still dating.”
Fu Dongsheng: “Isn’t the next step marriage?”
“…”
Fu Dongsheng: “Son, we need to be responsible when dating. I remember Li Li is graduating this year, right? It’s time to settle down. Don’t wait for the girl to push you.”
“…”
“If it’s inconvenient for you, your mother and I are available. Do you have Li Li’s parents’ contact information? We could meet them for tea.”
“…”
Fu Shize didn’t want to hear anymore: “The signal’s bad. I’m hanging up.”
…
During dinner that night, while Fu Shize was getting condiments, Yun Li asked Zhou Tiao for Jiang Yuan’s parents’ contact information and address.
Zhou Tiao reminded her that Jiang Yuan’s parents still couldn’t accept his passing and harbored resentment towards Fu Shize.
The elderly couple lived in Nanwu City. Yun Li made a call, and a gentle, kind female voice answered. She hesitated for a moment, took a deep breath, and said, “Hello, is this Jiang Yuan’s home?”
Jiang’s mother said softly, “I’m Jiang Yuan’s mother.”
Yun Li: “Hello, Auntie. I’m a junior of Jiang Yuan’s. I recently heard about what happened. Senior Jiang helped me in a competition before, and I’ll be visiting Nanwu soon. I was wondering if I could visit you when I’m there?”
Yun Li heard a steady male voice in the background asking who it was. Jiang Yuan’s mother said, “Yuan Yuan’s classmate, wants to come see us,” then turned back to the phone and said, “Sure, come over. Auntie will cook for you.”
After a brief exchange, they hung up.
She lowered her gaze, thinking that Jiang Yuan’s parents sounded like very kind people.
She hadn’t yet decided what to say to Jiang Yuan’s parents.
Lying in bed, she thought about the events of the night.
Fu Shize wanted to move on from the past.
At the same time, she remembered how Fu Shize had pushed her skirt up to her waist, his usually cold hands burning hot, repeatedly pinching the skin at her waist.
Recalling that scene, her body grew hot again.
They had almost done something.
She couldn’t help feeling a bit of regret. If only they hadn’t been in the dormitory.
While getting ready for bed, Yun Li called Fu Shize. His lights were on, and he looked drowsy as if the call had woken him.
He propped his phone against the wall. In the frame, he was still lying on his side in bed, his fingers slightly curled. His eyes were closed, the blanket covering up to his nose.
Like a well-behaved cat sleeping.
Yun Li smiled, “Are you pretending to sleep?”
“Tired,” Fu Shize didn’t open his eyes. He turned over, lying flat, his forearm across his forehead. “Headache.”
Yun Li: “You’re only allowed to drink like this once.”
Fu Shize didn’t respond.
Yun Li asked with a straight face, “Why aren’t you answering?”
Fu Shize, recalling the conversation with his parents, suddenly asked Yun Li, “Does your father like to drink?”
“…”
Yun Li didn’t know why he suddenly brought up Yun Yongchang. She replied, “He likes to drink.”
Fu Shize: “Then next time I should drink with him.”
“Don’t drink with him,” Yun Li said irritably. “Don’t try to please my dad. He was so harsh to you last time, I don’t even want to talk to him. We’ll have a meal with him after we get our marriage certificate.”
Seeing no reaction from Fu Shize, Yun Li felt a bit dejected. “My dad is quite controlling and unreasonable. I hope you won’t mind. What’s between us only concerns us.”
After explaining at length, she finally said seriously, “I’ll handle things with my dad.”
“Li Li,” Fu Shize called out, opening his eyes and turning to prop up his head. He asked leisurely, “You want to get our marriage certificate?”
“…”
Yun Li was stunned, hurriedly trying to cover up her slip, “I was just thinking about getting the certificate!!”
Fu Shize didn’t dwell on this point.
Seeing his listless appearance, Yun Li asked sheepishly, “Are you feeling very uncomfortable tonight?”
Earlier, when she had returned with the milk, he had changed into loose pajama pants, which made his reaction even more obvious. Thinking back, Yun Li realized it must have been difficult for him to restrain himself.
“At that time, when you were on the bed, I could only sit on top, so I might have lost control a bit…” Her voice grew softer as she spoke. Fu Shize chuckled and asked, “Are you describing that scene to make me feel worse?”
“…”
“It’s fine,” Fu Shize said nonchalantly. “As long as you say no, I won’t continue. I respect your choice.”
After saying this, he deliberately added, “Although it was quite uncomfortable.”
“…”
The person before her spoke without much inflection, but his words and actions represented his upbringing and quality.
Fu Shize had always respected her.
Yun Li felt moved, but still put on a brave front, “Then you should control yourself.”
After all, it wasn’t just him who was uncomfortable.
She was uncomfortable too, and she had controlled herself.
After hanging up, she browsed online shopping for a while. The shopping app seemed to have eavesdropped on her call, recommending some strange boxes to her.
She didn’t want to admit her inner restlessness, feeling somewhat embarrassed.
She could only repeatedly tell herself: Buying this thing is just in case, you need to be responsible for your body and actions, you need to have a clear understanding of the impulses and hormones a 24-year-old might have.
This doesn’t mean she wants to do anything.
Yes, she doesn’t want to do anything.
She instinctively felt that if something were to happen, someone like Fu Shize wouldn’t deliberately prepare such things in advance.
…
Perhaps because too many things had happened in one night, Yun Li had trouble sleeping and woke up at 6:30 AM.
Checking her phone, she saw that Fu Shize hadn’t sent her a message at 6 AM as usual.
Yun Li got up and freshened up. While making breakfast, she remembered that he had mentioned having a headache before hanging up last night, and felt a bit uneasy.
She turned off the stove and left with her keys.
Not being a student at Xi Ke University, Yun Li had to sneak in behind someone else. At Fu Shize’s door, she knocked several times and waited, but it was the neighbor who opened their door.
Yun Li felt awkward. The neighbor looked familiar, with narrow eyes behind thin gold-rimmed glasses, looking at her with ill intent. He lowered his voice and asked, “Are you Fu Shize’s girlfriend?”
She hesitated, then nodded.
The bespectacled man pretended to be profound, adjusting his glasses, “Don’t let him fool you. He’s been bringing women back to his dorm every day recently. Just last night, one left.”
“…”
Yun Li wanted to tell him that it was her last night.
“Their bed was creaking quite loudly last night,” To convince her, the man took out his phone and said, “I even recorded it. Want to listen?”
This sarcastic tone finally made Yun Li remember who this person was, but he didn’t seem to recognize her anymore.
Last night, they hadn’t gone that far. Realizing Chen Lirong was slandering Fu Shize, Yun Li’s expression changed. She knocked on the door forcefully twice more.
Chen Lirong had a strange smile on his face. Yun Li said bluntly, “It was me last night. If you keep saying such things behind his back, I’ll record you and send it to your school principal’s inbox.”
The door opened, and Yun Li walked straight in.
She was full of anger, but seeing Fu Shize’s listless appearance, she temporarily put aside the matter with Chen Lirong.
As soon as she entered, Yun Li grabbed his pajamas and started checking him. Fu Shize’s hair was messed up by her touch. He said with a nasal voice, “Woke up late.”
After saying this, he picked up his phone and looked. It was around 7:30 AM.
Yun Li had sent him several messages on WeChat, probably worried something had happened to him.
He realized and pressed his phone a couple of times.
Yun Li’s phone in her pocket vibrated. She took it out and saw Fu Shize had sent her a message: [Good morning]
Even though she was right in front of him.
Fu Shize: “I owed you that.”
Being fed sweetness so early in the morning, she sat down on the bed contentedly. Fu Shize murmured, “I’ll go freshen up. Help me find some clothes.”
After he left, Yun Li walked to his wardrobe.
She liked Fu Shize in white shirts and tailored casual pants, which made him look youthful. She chose this outfit and placed it on the bed.
When Fu Shize returned, he looked much more alert. His face still had some water on it, looking fresh and clean. He bent down to kiss Yun Li and said softly, “Are you tired?”
She usually wouldn’t get up this early.
Yun Li’s eyes curved, “Seeing you, I’m not tired at all. I don’t want to close my eyes.” She was getting better at this, leaning close to his ear to say, “I just want to keep looking at you.”
Fu Shize chuckled and started unbuttoning his shirt.
Yun Li: “…”
She grabbed his hand, “What are you doing?”
“Changing clothes,” Fu Shize glanced at her. Yun Li realized she had misunderstood. She let out an “Oh” and completely forgot what she had just said about wanting to keep looking at him, instinctively turning around.
She heard the rustling of clothes being removed. His clothes appeared in her vision, casually thrown onto the bed, followed by his pants. The movement behind her stopped. Fu Shize said, “It’s not a complete set.”
Yun Li was stunned for a moment.
Fu Shize handed her the clothes from behind. Yun Li looked down and saw it was indeed a set of clothes and pants. She said, “It’s complete.”
Fu Shize: “It’s not.”
“…”
Yun Li suddenly realized, “Do you mean it’s missing underwear?”
“Mm.”
“…”
Underwear!! That really would be a complete set.
Fu Shize showed no sign of backing down, just standing motionless behind her.
Yun Li: “Are you not wearing anything now?”
Fu Shize lazily hummed in agreement.
Yun Li felt she was just short of calling him a pervert out loud.
Extremely frustrated, she lowered her head, covered her eyes, and moved to the wardrobe.
Fu Shize reminded her it was in the lower left drawer. Yun Li opened it to find neatly folded underwear stored inside.
She didn’t dare look too much and just grabbed one at random.
Fu Shize had teased her enough. Two minutes later, he was mostly dressed. Yun Li suddenly remembered something he had said a long time ago, “Why are you wearing pajamas? Didn’t you say before that you liked to sleep naked?”
Fu Shize lowered his head to button up, casually replying, “It depends on who I’m sleeping with.”
“…”
As they were about to leave, Yun Li finally mentioned the incident with Chen Lirong.
“When I came just now, the guy next door was badmouthing you. It’s that Chen something Rong we met before,” Yun Li felt uncomfortable just thinking about him. “He even said he had recorded audio from your room. Oh… he might have already recorded our conversation now.”
“…”
Hearing Yun Li’s words, Fu Shize’s expression didn’t change much. He went straight to knock on Chen Lirong’s door. The other party seemed to have anticipated this and didn’t dare open the door.
Fu Shize sneered, “Do you want me to kick it open?”
Footsteps sounded from behind the door, and Chen Lirong opened it a crack. Fu Shize’s expression was cold as he asked, “Where’s your phone?”
Chen Lirong looked uncomfortable but still handed his phone to Fu Shize. Fu Shize quickly opened his audio and video storage and deleted the files based on the times he was in the dorm.
He opened the photo album to find many secretly taken photos, not just of him but of others as well.
Chen Lirong seemed to live his life entirely around others, trying to prove himself through numerous romantic experiences in his early years, harassing any female he saw, but no one was interested. Because his own life was so miserable, he always hoped others would become worse off, or he would subjectively slander others to make himself feel better.
Fu Shize had no interest in looking further. He directly cleared the entire photo album, deleted all the backups in the cloud drive, and threw the phone back to him.
Fu Shize didn’t even have the interest to say a word to him.
Yun Li, however, added, “If we find you doing this again, be prepared to go to jail.”
Her tone sounded quite stern.
“…”
As they started walking downstairs, Yun Li noticed Fu Shize’s gaze and felt her previous behavior was too bold. She hesitantly said, “He used to send me many photos of you and your childhood friend. I think this person seems quite perverted.”
This time, secretly recording audio through the walls, Yun Li found it chilling just thinking about it. She felt uncomfortable and stopped to look at Fu Shize.
Fu Shize was completely unafraid, saying calmly, “Don’t worry about it.”
Yun Li: “Mm, it’s not that I’m worried. I want to protect you too. There must be quite a few people like Chen Lirong who resent and slander you just because you’re excellent.”
Unable to achieve themselves, they envy others’ excellence and attack maliciously from behind, trying to bring them down in the worst way possible.
Because of his excellence, Fu Shize had been hurt by jealousy enough.
Fortunately, Fu Shize wasn’t such a fragile person.
At least, he wasn’t anymore since being with her.
She paused, “I just think you’re the best person in the world. Someone like you deserves the love of everyone in the world.”
“I don’t need the whole world to love me,” Fu Shize lowered his gaze. They had reached the ground floor. Kapok tree fluff floated onto her face, tickling her. Through the sparse fluff, she saw him open his mouth.
“I just need you among those who love me.”
“Then I promise you,” Yun Li looked up at him, “I will be among them.”
After saying these words, Yun Li realized that this was what a truly positive romantic relationship should be like. This time, they were honest and trusting with each other, supportive and understanding.
She genuinely felt that he was her armor, and she was his armor too.
…
In a couple of days, it would be Chen Jinping’s birthday. Fu Shize would have lunch with them that day, and after carefully selecting a gift, Yun Li entrusted him to take it over.
After receiving the gift, Fu Shize didn’t say anything further and continued writing his thesis.
Yun Li couldn’t hold back.
“Aren’t you going to ask if I want to come with you to see Auntie?”
Generally speaking, when a couple’s relationship is stable and she specially prepared a birthday gift for Chen Jinping, meeting the parents would be a natural progression.
Fu Shize had his considerations. He looked at her and said, “I’ll meet your parents first.”