A Promise in a Thought 77

Chapter 77

After that day, Bo Muyu felt that Jiang Chenyin had returned to her usual self, as if she had not rejected Duan Zhiheng, nor had she come home and leaned on her shoulder to tell her she was tired.

Duan Zhiheng no longer appeared at the old Jiang residence. When Lan Yuxin came to see Jiang Chenyin, the man who was a good match for her was no longer in their conversation. It was as if such a man had never appeared in their lives for the past two months. His ending with Jiang Chenyin was the same as Meng Yi’an’s.

But in her free time, Bo Muyu would always have an uneasy guess. Duan Zhiheng was gone, so who was next? Just as Duan Zhiheng had come after Meng Yi’an had failed, the next Zhang Zhiheng, Li Zhiheng, Gao Zhiheng, what if there was someone who could move Jiang Chenyin’s heart from the very beginning?

Every time Bo Muyu thought of this, she didn’t dare to think any further. She always felt as if she were standing on the edge of an abyss. One step forward would be a fall, and the path behind her had already been blocked by herself, with no way to retreat.

In the height of summer, the sun was scorching.

After being away for several months, Bo Mingliang and Ye Xialan returned to Qinzhou. On the weekend they landed, Bo Muyu did not accompany Jiang Chenyin back to the old Jiang residence, but went home to spend the weekend with her parents.

For the past few months, Bo Muyu had mostly been in contact with her parents by phone, and even video calls were rare, because Ye Xialan would get the urge to go out and play after only a short conversation. Now that she was back, her skin was a little darker than in the winter, and she looked a little thinner.

Ye Xialan was not fat. She could be said to have a well-proportioned figure. Usually, you wouldn’t see any problems with her, unless there was a comparison. Compared to Lan Yuxin, it was obvious that she was not as sexy. Compared to Jiang Chenyin, she was neither as sexy nor as strong and beautiful.

In the living room, Ye Xialan was swaying in front of Bo Muyu in a linen long dress. “What do you think? Your mom is still very beautiful, right? I can compare with your Auntie Yin, right? And with the big star Lan, right?”

Actually, Jiang Chenyin was still more beautiful.

But Bo Muyu didn’t say it out loud. The corners of her lips lifted slightly. “Beautiful. You can compare.”

Hearing this, Ye Xialan thought, that’s not right. This child doesn’t seem so straightforward anymore.

She plopped down beside Bo Muyu, put an arm around her, and studied her with a frown. “Why do I feel like you’re not so straightforward anymore… If I had asked you this before, you would have definitely added ‘Auntie Yin is beautiful.’ What’s the situation now? You’re coaxing your mom now?”

Bo Muyu smiled and shook her head, saying in a sincere tone, “You are beautiful. I’m not coaxing you.”

This was also the truth, but just as Ye Xialan had said, she hadn’t said the whole thing. Sometimes, some things were not suitable to be said so directly. Although she had a precedent of hiding things, she was not good at it. But she understood that she couldn’t just say whatever came to her mind.

Just then, Bo Mingliang came out. Ye Xialan quickly waved at him. “Daddy, come here!”

“What’s wrong?” Bo Mingliang said indistinctly, a biscuit in his mouth. “I’m not looking at that dress of yours anymore. You’ve been nagging me about it eight hundred times since you bought it…”

“I’m not talking about that!” Ye Xialan strode over and grabbed her husband, slapping him hard on his broad back. “I’m telling you that your daughter is not a straight man anymore! And look at you!”

Bo Muyu smiled along, watching her parents’ daily bickering with rapt attention.

“What does her not being a straight man have to do with me…” Bo Mingliang said, and only after swallowing his biscuit did he react, his face full of doubt. “She’s not a straight man anymore?”

Ye Xialan was as excited as if she had found a treasure. “That’s right. She didn’t mention Teacher Jiang when she praised me just now!”

“Is that possible?” Bo Mingliang looked over curiously.

Bo Muyu’s expression was composed, a faint smile on her lips. She was in casual clothes, a black and white slim-fit T-shirt and a pair of white hot pants. At 1.7 meters tall, her long legs were fair and alluring.

She was full of youthful energy, her eyes calm.

Bo Mingliang took a closer look. His daughter didn’t seem any different from before, but there seemed to be some indescribable change.

“You wouldn’t understand even if I told you. Now you’re the only straight man in our family,” Ye Xialan said, slapping her husband again in a huff, and then happily went back to sit beside Bo Muyu.

Bo Mingliang scratched his head. “Am I really the only one left?”

Bo Muyu smiled and said, “Dad, it’s almost noon. I’ll cook with you.”

“Sure. Let your mom and dad have a taste of your recent skills,” Bo Mingliang said with a grin as he walked over. “Then I’ll go out and buy some seasoning. We’re almost out at home. You guys can chat.”

Ye Xialan quickly waved her hand in disgust. “Go, go, go!”

As soon as Bo Mingliang left, Ye Xialan pulled Bo Muyu and asked, “Baby, have you met any boys recently? The single kind.”

Bo Muyu’s eyelid twitched. Instead of answering, she asked back, “Mom, why are you asking this?”

Ye Xialan stroked her head and hinted, “You’re almost twenty-three. In two months, it’ll be your twenty-third birthday. Haven’t you taken a fancy to any boy?”

Bo Muyu lowered her eyes and said in a low voice, “Mom, I haven’t had that thought yet.”

“Oh, I’m not asking you to get married right away or anything!” Ye Xialan quickly explained. “To find a husband, your parents definitely have to carefully observe the other person’s character. You have to be with each other for a while. So, you should at least have someone you like, or a type, so that you can develop something.”

Bo Muyu was silent. Ye Xialan became anxious and pressed, “Do you have someone you like or not? If you do, tell your mom. Your mom will teach you how to get him!”

The more she said, the more excited she became. Bo Muyu quickly pulled down Ye Xialan’s hand, which was waving in front of her, and said with a slightly more serious expression, “Mom, I don’t have anyone I like. It’s still too early. My career is more important.”

Ye Xialan didn’t give up and continued to ask, “Then what about a type? What kind do you like? You have to tell me a type.”

“Can’t I not say?” Bo Muyu asked with a difficult expression.

Ye Xialan said with certainty, “No!”

Bo Muyu licked her lips and thought with a frown. A type… should she just say something random? Or should she say something in the opposite direction of Jiang Chenyin? It was just a type. She could just be vague about it.

This time, Ye Xialan really believed that she didn’t have that intention. To think for so long about a type, didn’t that just mean that she didn’t know what she liked at all? But she still had to hear something from Bo Muyu. At least, what she could say would at least represent a little bit of a preference for that type.

Just as Ye Xialan was thinking this, Bo Muyu said softly, “Mature and steady, gentle and not old-fashioned, with his own hobbies and won’t affect his work. Mmm… and also rational and kind, and will make people feel safe, and…”

“Wait a minute!” Ye Xialan interrupted her, her eyes full of understanding as she smiled. “You like a male version of Teacher Jiang?”

“Huh?” Bo Muyu felt as if she had swallowed a block of ice and was so nervous she couldn’t say a word.

“I thought it was something serious,” Ye Xialan laughed so hard she couldn’t close her mouth, then sighed. “You’ve really been poisoned by Teacher Jiang. But that type of man is hard to find. Look, first of all, there’s the mature and steady part. How can a man without a certain age be mature? And if this uncle type doesn’t have a decent job, he won’t have time to maintain his own hobbies. It’s really hard to find…”

“No… Mom… it’s not…” Bo Muyu stammered, wanting to interrupt Ye Xialan’s thoughts, but she didn’t know what to say.

Ye Xialan suddenly had a serious expression. “Let me remind you, Xiaoyu. You’re a screenwriting supervisor now, and you’re meeting more and more people. But when it comes to finding a partner, you absolutely cannot be with someone too old. The limit I’m giving you is that he can’t be more than ten years older than you. At most, it’s the same age gap as your dad and me. Otherwise, no matter how good he is, it’s out of the question.”

Bo Muyu was taken aback for a moment. Her first reaction was that Jiang Chenyin was already thirty-seven. They were not just ten years apart; they were more than a whole cycle apart!

Ye Xialan flicked her forehead with her finger. “Did you hear me?”

“I heard you,” Bo Muyu said, lowering her head and biting her lip, touching the spot on her forehead that Ye Xialan had flicked, her voice low.

Only then was Ye Xialan satisfied. She leaned back on the sofa, and not worrying about her image at home, she flicked the hem of her dress and crossed her legs.

Afraid that Ye Xialan would suddenly think of something else, Bo Muyu went to turn on the TV and tuned in to an entertainment program. Just then, Bo Mingliang came back. She followed him to the kitchen, took an ice cream from the refrigerator, and went back to the living room to eat it.

After such a long blank period, who knew that as soon as Bo Muyu sat down, Ye Xialan would ask, “I heard from the big star Lan that a very amazing director was pursuing Teacher Jiang a while ago? Did it fall through?”

Bo Muyu nodded. “It fell through.”

Ye Xialan’s head immediately shook like a rattle drum, her tone full of disappointment. “When on earth will I be able to eat a meal with her partner? It’s so hard to wait. I heard that that director was a very good match for her. The big star Lan said he was even better than Meng Yi’an, and it still didn’t work out. Sigh…”

Bo Muyu was silent on the side, only taking a hard bite of her ice cream, her front teeth so cold that she shivered.

Fortunately, Ye Xialan didn’t nag for too long. It was soon time for lunch.

In the evening, the official Weibo of God of War released a set of behind-the-scenes videos, with some details from the filming site. The main actors, who were laughing, greeted the netizens and then gave them a brief summary of the plot.

Ye Xialan praised the actors for being good-looking as she ate melon seeds, and Bo Mingliang kept saying “mmm” as he shelled them.

On Monday, Jiang Chenyin had to go to another city for a meeting and could only come back the next day, so Bo Muyu drove to work herself.

She parked her car and left the parking lot with her briefcase. On the way, she ran into colleagues who greeted her, and she returned a smile. But she found that some people who came up from behind her would whisper to the people beside them, and would also glance at her. When she looked over, they would quickly avert their gaze and quicken their pace.

When this happened more than three times, Bo Muyu felt puzzled.

In the elevator, the last person to come in was Yang Qian. He first smiled and said “excuse me” to the others in the elevator, and after seeing Bo Muyu, he was taken aback for a moment, and then a disdainful smile appeared on his face.

“Screenwriting Supervisor, long time no see. Now that you’ve moved into a single office, it’s rare to see you.”

Bo Muyu shot him a look with a blank expression, then lowered her head to look at her watch.

The others in the elevator were silent. Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, and that Bo Muyu was ignoring him, Yang Qian couldn’t help but be furious and continued to be sarcastic, “You don’t know yet, do you? The matter of you plagiarizing has already been exposed on Weibo. I’d like to see how long you can keep your position as supervisor. President Su really has no eye for people, to actually let someone like you, who is outwardly aloof but actually full of bad intentions, be the screenwriting supervisor. I think Hongsheng’s reputation is going to be ruined this time…”

“Watch your mouth!” Bo Muyu suddenly interrupted him sternly. “Sooner or later, you will pay the price for this mouth of yours.”

Yang Qian was as if his sore spot had been stepped on, and he was instantly speechless.

Just then, the elevator doors opened, and the few onlookers left one after another as if nothing had happened.

As Bo Muyu walked past Yang Qian, he suddenly said with a sarcastic laugh, “I’d like to see how President Su is going to protect you this time!”

Bo Muyu’s footsteps paused for a moment, but she ignored him and continued to walk towards the screenwriting department. But the further she walked, the stranger she felt. The people who would usually give her a symbolic smile and greeting were all looking at her with a gloating expression, as if they had all agreed on it.

Thinking back to her experience just now, Bo Muyu’s heart suddenly became uneasy.

When she walked into the screenwriting department, the noise instantly stopped. A few people were gathered together, their eyes glancing in her direction, whispering with their hands over their mouths.

The female colleague who had been sitting next to her and was on relatively good terms with her quickly pulled her and said in a low voice, “Xiaoyu, you should check Weibo. Something has happened!”

Bo Muyu frowned and glanced at the crowd, then nodded at the female colleague. “I know. You can go back to work.”

After she finished, she strode towards her own office. After she went in, she turned on her computer and opened Weibo on her phone. She usually didn’t check Weibo much, and only had a few dozen followers on her account. With her colleague saying so, she was suddenly at a loss.

But just as she was thinking of Yang Qian’s words, the internal phone on her desk rang. She picked it up, and it was Su Man’s serious voice, “Come to my office right away.”