Chapter 28

Zhai Yi treated herself as a mere passerby and silently left the “accident” scene.

She grabbed a few cans of drinks and some fruit from the storeroom, planning to head back to her room to stream.

On the way back, there were no more sounds. It seemed the male lead and female lead had parted on bad terms.

“Zhai Yi?”

Zhai Yi’s steps halted abruptly. She turned to see the male lead with red eyes.

She kept her expression unchanged. “Something wrong?”

Mu Li glanced at the bamboo basket in her hand. “Is there alcohol inside?”

Zhai Yi said, “Do you think I look like someone who drinks excessively?”

“…” Mu Li rubbed his face. “I want to have a drink. Wanna join me?”

The male lead invites you for a heart-to-heart. Do you agree?

No no no.

It should be the male lead inviting the girl he has a crush on for a heart-to-heart. Do you agree?

Someone as wise as Zhai Yi naturally refused. “Nah, I still need to stream tonight to make up my hours.”

Mu Li grabbed Zhai Yi. “I’ll help you make up the hours you wasted tonight.”

“You can keep streaming, I’ll play games for you, you just show your face. It’ll count as your hours.”

Zhai Yi’s eyes lit up. “It works like that?”

Mu Li nodded. “Yeah, the platform will give me some face.”

After all, he was a star player in KPL, with way more popularity and traffic than Zhai Yi.

He had stopped streaming after making up his hours, but Lin Ranjiao had recently told him to stream more when he had time. The platform needed his traffic and popularity to draw people in. Now that he was helping Zhai Yi make up her hours, the platform would be more than happy.

Zhai Yi took a deep breath, as if summoning great courage, looking resolute and fearless like a hero steeling himself.

“Okay.”

Mu Li: “…”

She didn’t look like she was joining him for drinks. She looked more like she was heading to the execution ground.

The two returned to the storeroom and grabbed a few cans of fruit wine and some low-alcohol red wine. After all, this was a variety show shoot. Director Luo wouldn’t stockpile booze in the storeroom for the guests, lest some celebrity got drunk and caused an incident.

They headed to the fourth-floor rooftop. The sky was dim, with only a few stars twinkling through the clouds.

Zhai Yi sat on a lounge chair, watching Mu Li open two fruit wines. He downed one can in one go, then slowly sipped the other.

The atmosphere between them felt awkward to Zhai Yi. She couldn’t bring herself to ask first, so she waited quietly for Mu Li to speak.

Sure enough, after finishing half a can, Mu Li asked, “Do you have someone you like?”

Zhai Yi said flatly, “No.”

Mu Li asked curiously, “You’ve never dated?”

Zhai Yi replied calmly, “Is that weird?”

Mu Li pursed his lips, feeling it would be impolite to pry further. He changed the subject. “Do you think you like guys… or girls?”

Zhai Yi: “….”

Are you even polite?

Mu Li realized his question was even ruder than the last. He quickly explained, “I mean, do you like guys or girls? Like… wondering if you’ll end up liking the same sex or opposite sex or whatever?”

“…” Zhai Yi sighed. “I don’t know. It’s hard to say. No fixed boundaries.”

Mu Li was puzzled. “Boundaries? What boundaries?”

“Guys like girls, girls like guys—isn’t that set from the start?”

Zhai Yi smiled faintly. “Who set those rules for you? Buddha? God?”

Mu Li: “…”

“It’s just because parents are one man and one woman, so you think man and woman together is the righteous path, and same-sex love is deviant and rebellious.”

“There are no sudden rules in this world. It’s all people meddling in the middle.”

Mu Li lowered his gaze and murmured, “So it’s normal for her to like girls too?”

Zhai Yi pretended not to hear and ate a crystal grape.

“Then, do you think a girl who once liked boys could like girls?” Mu Li probed.

Zhai Yi pretended to think. “Sexual orientation isn’t fixed.”

Her answer was vague and abstract, also leaving the male lead some room to maneuver.

Mu Li chugged the rest of his fruit wine. “I just… don’t get why?”

“I apologized, and I tried hard to fix my past mistakes. Why can’t we start over?”

Zhai Yi glanced at Mu Li. “Are you drunk?”

That shouldn’t be, right? Just two cans of fruit wine.

Mu Li shook his head. “I’m not drunk.”

Seeing his dazed eyes, Zhai Yi thought: “….”

Definitely drunk.

Mu Li opened another bottle and kept drinking. Zhai Yi didn’t bother stopping him.

Heartbreak needed time, and alcohol helped ease it.

Mu Li gripped the bottle and muttered to himself, “We were neighbors growing up. We went to kindergarten together, elementary, middle, and high school. We were together every day for school and home. We were super close. Everyone who saw us thought we had a great, inseparable relationship.”

“You know?” Mu Li grinned foolishly. “My mom and her mom even talked about arranging our marriage.”

Zhai Yi played along. “Really?”

Mu Li nodded. “Yeah, they said we’d get married after college graduation, then have a big fat boy for both sets of parents to raise.”

“Why a big fat boy and not a big fat girl? Sexist much?”

Mu Li: “…”

His brain short-circuited for a moment before he waved it off. “No, no, I’m not sexist. Girls are fine too. I like them all. Mainly, whatever she gives birth to, I’ll like.”

“Oh.” Zhai Yi ate another crystal grape. “You really like her, huh.”

Mu Li pouted and nodded emphatically. “Yeah, I really, really like her.”

“But she doesn’t like me anymore.”

Zhai Yi eyed him. “Don’t cry, okay.”

Some words can’t be said, or they’ll hit hard.

Mu Li blinked, and tears streamed down.

“I’m not crying. I’m a big man.”

Zhai Yi: “….”

Wow, this towering man was crying.

Zhai Yi sighed wearily, grabbed a napkin from the table, and handed it over. “Big man, wipe your tears.”

And those big teardrops while you’re at it.

Mu Li pulled out three sheets and wiped his face messily. “Why doesn’t she like me?”

“She really liked me back in high school.”

“Our relationship was so intimate at the start.”

“She was always gentle and caring toward me, following me everywhere.”

“We were the couple everyone envied.”

Zhai Yi cut off his string of “clearlys.” “You keep saying ‘clearly,’ which means the past is the past, and now is now. People change. No one waits in place forever.”

“Even if someone did wait, do you think you’re worthy of making them do it?”

Zhai Yi’s gaze held a hint of sarcasm and detachment.

Mu Li fell silent, head bowed. Just as Zhai Yi thought he had passed out, she heard him sob, “I’m not worthy.”

Surprise flashed in Zhai Yi’s eyes.

Mu Li looked up, grief-stricken. “I’m not worthy of making her wait for me.”

“I used to bully her all the time to get her attention. I teased her so much she cried several times, and I’d just laugh.”

“I’d ditch her to play games, leaving her alone. I remember she was afraid of the dark, but that day I forgot her at school.”

“I thought our relationship would never change, so I took advantage of her liking me, making her tolerate and yield over and over, without noticing her exhaustion.”

“I chased my dreams hard but belittled her, telling her to give up hers and our future so she could come compete with me.”

“I’m not worthy.” Mu Li grew more agitated and slapped himself hard. “I’m really not worthy.”

Zhai Yi watched the solid slap and said quietly, “Your sincerity and reflection are among your few redeeming qualities.”

Mu Li hung his head pitifully. “She… she really doesn’t like me anymore, waa…”

Zhai Yi lay back exhausted in her chair, letting Mu Li drink and cry beside her.

Apologizing and full of guilt.

Angry and in pain.

He went through a whole box of tissues.

Zhai Yi checked the time. Almost midnight.

She looked at Mu Li, still wallowing in self-blame, eyes red from crying, mind foggy from drink.

Zhai Yi stood, cleared the trash, tossed it in the bin, then kicked his leg lightly as he sat head down, either asleep or drunk rambling. “It’s late. Time to rest. We have the variety show tomorrow.”

Mu Li jerked his head up, body swaying, and toppled to the ground.

Zhai Yi: “…”

“How about you just sleep on the rooftop tonight.”

She was done dealing with him. She was exhausted.

Zhai Yi turned to leave the rooftop as she said.

Then thunder boomed in the distance, lightning flashing across the sky.

A vein throbbed on Zhai Yi’s forehead: “…”

Damn it!

She really suffered for that small gain.

Zhai Yi turned back, saw Mu Li muttering on the ground, crouched down, slung his arm over her shoulder, and hauled him up to head downstairs.

A drunk person’s weight was like a mountain.

Zhai Yi’s slight frame bent under Mu Li. She gripped his arm tight, wrapped around his waist, ignoring his pained grumbles and whines, and roughly dragged him to his room door.

Zhai Yi eyed the passcode lock. “What’s your room passcode?”

Mu Li half-squinted, as if deaf. “Huh?”

Zhai Yi’s patience wore thin bit by bit. “I said, what’s your room passcode?”

“Passcode?” Mu Li mumbled groggily. “You… you want my bank… bank card passcode for what?”

Zhai Yi: “…”

She glanced down at the floor below.

Tuantuan chimed in helpfully: [First Sister, falling from the third floor would still kill him.]

Zhai Yi reluctantly looked away, puffed her cheek, and asked again. “I said, what’s your room passcode? You idiot!”

Tuantuan: […]

Look at how mad First Sister got, even swearing.

Mu Li seemed to get it. “It’s… Lan Ting’s birthday.”

Anyone else would ask why it was Yu Lanting’s birthday, but this was Zhai Yi, and she accepted it easily.

Zhai Yi recalled Yu Lanting’s birthday.

0922, Virgo.

Zhai Yi entered the code. Beep—the door opened.

Zhai Yi kicked the door open, tossed Mu Li inside, slammed it shut.

Smooth as flowing water.

Zhai Yi rubbed her shoulder and turned to leave.

Her steps halted abruptly. Zhai Yi saw Yu Lanting suddenly at the stairwell. She inexplicably felt like she’d been caught in the act.

To avoid unnecessary trouble, Zhai Yi planned to explain.

“Mu Li got drunk. I picked him up and brought him back to his room to rest.”

The process was complicated, but she hadn’t even stepped inside. Don’t let some melodramatic misunderstanding happen.

Yu Lanting smelled the lingering alcohol in the hall and knew why Mu Li had been drinking. She just hadn’t expected him to run into Zhai Yi, or for Zhai Yi to bring him back.

A bit worried Mu Li might blurt something wrong, Yu Lanting asked, “He… why did he drink?”

Playing the “I know nothing” routine.

Zhai Yi raised a brow. “He said some things.”

Yu Lanting’s heart jumped. Nervously: “What did he say?”

Zhai Yi thought it over and told the truth. “He said he’s sorry to someone, someone he really likes. He wants to be with that person and hopes they’ll forgive him.”

Yu Lanting pursed her lips. “You know the one he meant… is me, right?”

Zhai Yi said nothing.

Her silence was answer enough for Yu Lanting.

Yu Lanting gave a bitter smile. “He always spouts nonsense when drunk. Don’t take it seriously.”

Zhai Yi hesitated. “But he seemed pretty sincere to me.”

“Although I’m an outsider and shouldn’t get involved in your affairs, I still think you and him could give it another shot.”

“You don’t understand the issues between him and me.” Yu Lanting looked at her and shook her head. “You don’t understand.”

Zhai Yi lowered her gaze and walked over. “It’s late. Get some rest. I’m heading back.”

“Zhai Yi,” Yu Lanting said the moment they brushed shoulders, “I told him I have someone I like now—a girl.”

Zhai Yi didn’t break stride as she descended the stairs. “Oh.”

Yu Lanting watched Zhai Yi’s retreating figure, her eyelids drooping slightly.

Tuantuan sighed: 【First Sister, the Female Lead seems to like you so much?】

The affection in her eyes was plain as day—even it could see it clearly.

Zhai Yi shut her room door, washed up, climbed into bed, and went to sleep, as though she hadn’t heard a word from Tuantuan.

Tuantuan saw Zhai Yi’s utterly calm expression and quietly powered down before leaving.

Zhai Yi opened her eyes and gazed at the faint morning light outside the window, sighing softly. “But I don’t like her.”

A meaningless heart flutter doesn’t count as liking.