Chapter 168: Joke
“Hey, has Su Yu been dating recently?”
Lu Siyuan threw down a few poker cards, just enough to beat the landlord Gu Chuan’s hand. He then played a small card, giving the next player, Chu Feng, a chance to run.
Gu Chuan lost again. He threw down his cards. He was in a bad mood today and had lost several hands, but he didn’t care much about these paper losses. He looked back at Su Yu, who was on the phone on the balcony, and was obviously more interested in what Lu Siyuan had just said. “How can you tell?”
“Anyone can tell, okay? You’ve been out partying every day since school started. Of course you wouldn’t know.” Lu Siyuan pouted and collected the unfinished cards, handing them to Chu Feng to shuffle. “What? Are you going to inherit the family business early?”
“Chu Feng, you can tell too?” Gu Chuan ignored Lu Siyuan’s teasing and looked at Chu Feng, asking.
“It seems so. Su Yu wasn’t like this before. Now it seems he gets a lot of calls, very frequently.” Chu Feng nodded.
Gu Chuan’s heart skipped a beat, and his tone became a little rushed. “Doesn’t Su Yu have a childhood friend? Is he in contact with her? Otherwise, how could he have gotten a girlfriend without a word?”
“His childhood friend is preparing for the gaokao. They haven’t been in contact for who knows how long. And it’s been three weeks since school started. Su Yu has been out for two weekends, and we don’t know what he’s been doing. Anyway… there’s definitely something wrong.” Lu Siyuan said with a confident expression.
The few of them chatted for a while. When they saw Su Yu push open the balcony door, they immediately fell silent and stared at him as if nothing had happened.
Su Yu was confused by their stares. He stood at the entrance of the balcony, hesitating, not daring to go in.
“What’s wrong?”
“Come here…” Lu Siyuan beckoned to him with a gentle smile.
“What is it? So mysterious.”
“Cough cough… are you dating?” Lu Siyuan glanced at the phone in Su Yu’s hand with a suggestive look.
“What nonsense? Are you tired of dating Tang Xin and starting to fantasize about others?”
“Then why have you been on the phone out on the balcony every day lately? That girl’s voice is pretty sweet, but… a bit too sugary.”
Lu Siyuan had accidentally overheard it once. Su Yu had accidentally pressed the speakerphone, and it was a girl’s voice on the other end of the phone. He hadn’t heard anything clearly, just the girl calling him “brother.” That “brother” had clearly reached his ears. The girl’s tone was like a large dollop of smooth cream on top of a cake, both soft and sweet.
But the girl was just the first bite of the cream cake. The sweetness was just right. A little less would be too bland, and a little more would be too cloying. Lu Siyuan had almost thought that Su Yu was in an online relationship, but the online persona was too unnatural, and it really didn’t sound like the voice on the phone.
“I was just talking to the Youth Association about the art festival. As for before…” Su Yu didn’t want to hide these things, but it seemed no one had asked him. “My family found me a stepmother. She has a daughter. My aunt asked me to take care of her.”
“I see. I was wondering why you hadn’t made a move all semester, and then suddenly you did.”
Gu Chuan chimed in and smiled, as if he were relieved. But his face was still as pale as before.
“I have to go to the association tomorrow. After so long, I finally have something to do.”
“My cousin will be back in a few days.” Gu Chuan suddenly said.
The air was quiet. Su Yu paused for a few seconds and said, “Oh, oh. I haven’t seen my sister since school started. Is she busy with family matters?”
“Yeah, she’s busy. I haven’t seen her since the New Year.”
The chat between Su Yu and Gu Zhi in his phone was still stuck on the New Year’s greeting from New Year’s Eve. The two of them had a good relationship, but the barrier that had been built over five or six years had not melted so quickly. He always felt a sense of guilt towards Gu Zhi, like a scar that was hard to remove after a wound had healed. The pain was long gone, but when you looked down and saw the scar, you realized that the painful memory had been etched into your flesh and blood, and you couldn’t forget it.
He couldn’t find a way to erase the scar. All he could do was to cater to it. This was a deep and dark path with no end in sight. The forest was dense, and all he could see was darkness, but he could only walk on numbly.
…
The Youth Association had not had any major activities since the recruitment. They said they wanted everyone to get to know each other first. It was clear that the art festival after the spring was a project that Nie Hong was determined to win. She had sent out several notices in the group chat, recruiting talented people. This time, the Youth Association… would not only provide volunteers, but also a program.
When Su Yu arrived at the association’s activity room, he happened to bump into An Zhi. The activity room was closed. He had just put his hand on the doorknob when the girl’s fair hand also grabbed it. Their fingertips touched Su Yu’s back of the hand, and their cool body temperatures mingled.
“You’re here so early too.”
Su Yu smiled at An Zhi and greeted her.
“Ah… oh, oh, early.”
An Zhi was stunned for a few seconds and subconsciously took a few steps back. He didn’t know if it was his imagination, but the girl seemed to have grown a lot taller after the New Year.
She deliberately kept a distance from Su Yu, a blush on her fair earlobes, which were hidden in her hair. She looked at Su Yu with her moist, deer-like eyes and replied in a flustered voice, “Um… Sister Hong has something to do with me. I’ll be going now.”
“You…” Su Yu looked at An Zhi’s quickly retreating figure, his hand, which was in mid-air, falling. His voice slowly became smaller. “What’s wrong…”
“Su Yu?”
A cold voice, like a very weak electric current, spread along the nerves of his neck to his central nervous system. Su Yu shivered.
He turned his head. Xia Qian Ge was smiling and standing behind him. He didn’t know if it was because it was the weekend, but the girl had her soft black hair down, falling over her shoulders like a waterfall. Her features were fair and elegant. She looked at him with her dark and deep eyes, like a fragrant and elegant blue snowflake, with a lazy and comfortable feeling.
“You’ve made little An Zhi shy…” Xia Qian Ge stared at An Zhi’s disappearing figure at the corner, a faint curve on her thin lips.
“She… what’s wrong?”
Su Yu shrugged helplessly. Not just this time, but An Zhi also seemed to deliberately avoid sitting on his side in class, as if she were hiding from him. The two of them hadn’t spoken much since school started. “I didn’t say anything.”
“Who knows? A girl’s thoughts are very strange.” Xia Qian Ge approached Su Yu with light steps, the rich fragrance of gardenias from her body. Her lips parted, and her voice was soft and low, like a whisper in a dream. “Maybe… she’s fallen for you.”
“Ah…” Su Yu was stunned for a long time, as if his brain had shut down. He thought the other party was joking. “Qian Ge… what kind of joke are you making?”
“Haha… maybe. I’m just kidding.” Xia Qian Ge chuckled and brushed past Su Yu. Her remaining words were clearly a joke.
“Don’t take it to heart…”
