Li Li’s mother gave her son a helpless look. “If you don’t want to be with Manman, then see less of her in the future. Don’t give people the wrong idea. Like last time — you drank too much and had Manman drive you home, didn’t you?”

Li Li was speechless. “What kind of logic is that? We have to become strangers just because we’re not dating? We’ve been friends for over a decade. What’s wrong with having her give me a lift when I’ve had too much to drink? And if she ever got drunk, I’d drive her too!”

His mother didn’t argue further with him. She picked up the watering can and walked toward the balcony, muttering to herself: “Anyway, when your father gets back, I’ll have to talk to him about it… we don’t need to pick someone through a blind date necessarily, but at the very least we should make clear where things stand — can’t let the Su family keep misunderstanding…”

Li Li watched his mother’s retreating figure and had no idea what to say.

…Fine. If there’s a blind date, there’s a blind date.

The moment that thought settled in his mind, something inexplicably caught in his chest.

If he went on a blind date…

If Su Man also went on a blind date…

Then between him and her… wouldn’t that just be… the end?

Li Li felt a little dazed.

He couldn’t understand how, over something so trivial, twenty years of… well, counting from kindergarten it was a full twenty years of closeness, could just be severed like that.

Why?

Was maintaining the status quo not an option?

Was not dating each other not an option?

Was a label really that important? If he didn’t give her one, she’d just go on blind dates with someone else? Then fall in love, get married, have children?

What kind of logic was that?!

Couldn’t she wait for him a little longer?! At least until he’d figured out whether the two of them could actually be together!

A nameless rage shot up from somewhere deep inside him, burning his entire face dark. He couldn’t finish the breakfast spread across the table.

He stood and walked out.

Li Li’s mother saw him and called out, “Where are you going? It’s still too early to go to the hospital…”

“Going to the Research Institute. Something came up.” Li Li dropped the words in a cold, flat tone and had already slammed the door shut behind him.

Li Li’s mother sighed. “Ah, this child…”

……

That day, Su Man had gone with Lu Yuwen for Japanese cuisine.

The freshest ingredients paired with the chef’s exceptional culinary skills — the flavor was absolutely superb.

Su Man had never had the habit of eating raw food, yet somehow Lu Yuwen had led her into eating quite a bit of it. She was still thinking about it fondly when she arrived home.

The rideshare stopped at the front gate. She and Lu Yuwen got out together, walking and chatting:

“That sashimi — I’d never eaten it before, but the sashimi at this place was incredible. In your mouth, not fishy at all. Cool and refreshing, and a little sweet…”

She savored the memory and sighed: “Like jelly, but softer than jelly… ah, I know — like flower petals! Soft petals, cool and silky. It was genuinely beyond my imagination. This was the first time I ever knew that fish could have that kind of texture!”

Lu Yuwen watched her and smiled. “Your description is… very vivid and lively.”

Su Man smiled a little shyly. “I rarely eat these things. My family doesn’t like them — especially my grandfather. He’d scold us for worshipping foreign things.”

Lu Yuwen heard this and nodded with genuine understanding. “That’s understandable. The older generation was closer to that period of history than we are. It’s natural that they’d have difficulty accepting it emotionally.”

Su Man smiled. Any other young person might have just said straight out that her grandfather was old-fashioned and rigid in his thinking, but Lu Yuwen had a way of saying things that always felt comfortable.

She asked, “Would you ever open a Japanese restaurant?”

Lu Yuwen shook his head gently. “Creative Western cuisine will remain my focus.”

“No plans for a Chinese restaurant?” Su Man sighed. “Then I’d have a perfectly good reason to take my grandfather to dine at your place.”

Lu Yuwen smiled. “For that dream of yours, I’ll do my best.”

Su Man had only been speaking off the cuff. She hadn’t expected Lu Yuwen to pick it up like that, and her face flushed immediately. “You… you should just stick to your original plan. To open a Chinese restaurant, you’d first need to hire a top Chinese chef. The well-known chefs in Shanghai are almost all working for state-owned restaurants — they’d be very hard to recruit.”

—