Volume 15
Chapter 10: Your Past, and Mine
“You with the surname Lu, stop right there. You have to propose to Little Qiao today!”
“Master, Master, stop chanting. It’s giving me a headache! Didn’t you choose to take a Tai Chi class today? Aren’t you going to go?”
A few days later, in the morning, Lu Li was walking briskly on the campus road, trying to shake off the relentlessly pursuing Zhu Xi. After this bad woman had let go of her airs, her pestering was in no way inferior to An Baili’s. No, she was simply an evil, upgraded version of An Baili! Speaking of which, the reason why Zhu Xi had suddenly become so stubborn had to be blamed on Hupo. After that day, Hupo had started wearing the ring. When the girls gathered, she would always, whether intentionally or not, deliberately show off her finger, waving the bright ring in front of Zhu Xi. Coupled with the little golden-haired cat’s faint, mocking smile, it had made Zhu Xi so angry she couldn’t sleep.
“What’s the point of going? Do they dare not give me credit if I don’t go?” Zhu Xi indeed had the face of a villain. “You scumbag man, can you bear to see Little Qiao cry? After she found out she wasn’t the second one to be proposed to, she squatted in her room and cried all by herself. Did you know?!”
Lu Li’s mouth opened wide in a grin. Did Zhu Xi take him for a fool? Was Little Qiao the type to squat in a corner and cry by herself? That girl was very optimistic, happy all day long, like a baby full of curiosity and love for the world.
“Is that so? I’m so guilty. Let me go and reflect on it. Don’t follow me anymore!” Lu Li had a jurisprudence class soon. The girls at home were more or less just muddling through university, but Lu Li could proudly say that he really wanted to come and learn.
Zhu Xi, from somewhere, found a burst of brute force, pulled Lu Li, and pinned him against the wall. Zhu Xi was extremely tall, and at this moment, standing with Lu Li, she could actually match him in imposing manner. Her face was extremely close to Lu Li’s, the faint, orchid-like fragrance of a woman like smoke, like mist.
“You have to promise me first. The next one has to be Little Qiao. That girl An Baili doesn’t count. Anyway, there’s no difference between her being first or last. Hupo was kind to me and Little Qiao, so it’s fine for her to be second. But… besides them, Little Qiao has to be the third one to be proposed to!”
Lu Li pushed her waist. “We can hug again when we get back. We’re at school, and so many people are watching!”
Zhu Xi’s face turned slightly red, but she was unmoved. “No. You have to promise first!”
“I can’t promise. Is the order really that important? In my heart, you are all equally important.” Lu Li was helpless. He had already tried his best to avoid making the girls conscious of the order, but these girls, who knows what private things they talked about at home every day, were actually seriously calculating the order of the proposals.
“Of course I know you treat them all the same.” Zhu Xi still said “them” and not “us.” It seemed she still had no intention of accepting Lu Li’s proposal. “But they still have to address each other at home, right? Who calls who big sister, and who calls who little sister? There has to be some kind of order, right?”
Lu Li’s eyes opened wide. “Since you know that, then you still want Little Qiao to be third. Little Qiao is the youngest in the family, the one with the least experience. If you have the others call her big sister, Little Qiao herself would die of shame!”
Zhu Xi finally realized that Lu Li was lying to her. “Besides Little Qiao, then who is suitable to be the third person? That little slip of a girl Chen Jianing who can’t even fit into my junior high school uniform? That little girl from the Chu family who revolves around you?… Or…” As she spoke, she closed her mouth.
Lu Li patiently explained to the princess, “First, I can’t propose to Jianing right now because I haven’t gotten her parents’ consent. I’m currently doing my homework for that. Second, Jingyi’s family has a lot of rules. I can’t just rashly go and say, ‘Marry me,’ right? Of course, if you want to be the third, that’s not impossible…”
Zhu Xi huffed and let go of him. “I told you, I won’t marry you! I never plan on getting married in this life. It’s enough for me to just be with Little Qiao!”
Lu Li was a little angry. “Whatever you want. I’m going to class.”
“Hey, don’t go. Let’s go to gym class together…”
“No!”
…
Just as Lu Li had said to Zhu Xi, the time for Jianing and Jingyi had not yet come. The only ones left were Yameng and Little Qiao. Eliminating them one by one, Lu Li’s next proposal target was Yameng. If they had grown up in a healthy environment, he and Zou Yameng probably wouldn’t have been siblings, but more like childhood sweethearts. The pressure of life had forced Zou Yameng to shoulder the responsibilities of a parent, making her neglect her own emotional needs as a childhood sweetheart for a long time.
After resting for a few days, Lu Li began to ponder how to bring it up to Yameng. Hupo had told him that the girls at home didn’t really care how grand the proposal was; they cared more about his intentions. Then how could he show his intentions to Yameng?
Just as Lu Li was thinking, Zou Yameng had already taken the first step.
From a certain day on, Lu Li found that he rarely had any time alone with Yameng. Whenever he wanted to ask her to go for a walk, Yameng would rush back to her room in a panic, saying she had to have a video call with Zhou Wen. When Lu Li tried to sneak into her room in the middle of the night, Zou Yameng would lock the door, shutting him out.
For this reason, Lu Li specifically found Zhou Wen’s contact information and asked this unreliable big sister not to disturb his Yameng for the next few nights. But to his surprise, Zhou Wen said with confusion, “I haven’t been calling Yameng. Little Lizi, have you been tricked by someone?”
So it was Zou Yameng who was deliberately avoiding being alone with him…
Lu Li stroked his chin. He prided himself on having some research into girls’ minds, but at this moment, he couldn’t figure out his sister’s needle at the bottom of the sea.
…
In early April. The Silly Goose, far away in the Capital City, happily told him that she would be coming to Mulan University as an exchange student for a year and a half, and also that that damn girl Long Jing would be coming too. Lu Li rubbed his temples. Why is the little demon lord coming too? Isn’t she in junior high in Chuanhai?
At this time, more than half a month had passed since Lu Li had proposed to Hupo, and Yameng was still avoiding him. To be honest, this was not the first time this had happened. Before, when Lu Li and Yameng had not yet been honest with each other, his sister would deliberately avoid him to alleviate a certain awkward emotion. At that time, he had even bought a bouquet of flowers… what kind of flowers were they?
He couldn’t remember…
In the evening, Lu Li stood on the second floor of the villa, leaning against the railing and watching the sunset. He liked to appreciate grand and quiet distant views. Placing his insignificant self in a vast, magnificent scene would put his mind in a strangely open state. At least this way, he could temporarily forget the troubles brought on by his sister’s deliberate avoidance.
Zhu Xi was still relentlessly fighting for Little Qiao’s “seniority.” After dinner, instead of helping An Baili and the others with the dishes, she came to the second floor to watch the sunset with him. Lu Li glanced at her. “Did you bring cigarettes?”
“No. Didn’t you tell me to quit?”
What a pity. Lu Li actually wanted to try for himself what smoking tasted like.
“When did you become so obedient…”
“I didn’t quit for you. I was thinking of Little Qiao. It’s not good to inhale too much second-hand smoke.”
“Yes, yes, yes…”
