Chapter 15

Having received Chu Ruoyou’s creatively unique follow-up comment, plus a line of “Hurry up and eat, clean up when you’re done,” Yun Huizhi finally dug in.

A whole day without a proper meal, delayed until this hour.

Outside, the moon climbed above the treetops, swaying unsteadily with the wind.

Her appetite had never been better. In the first half of the meal, neither spoke, fully focused on the food. It finally looked like they’d clean all their plates for once.

Yun Huizhi twisted open an iced soda, the fizz crackling. She took a sip. The bubbles, cloaked in low temperature, soothed her whole body. She felt like playing music.

“Do you usually live alone?”

“Mhm.”

“Then can you cook?”

Chu Ruoyou had eaten her fill by now. She put down her chopsticks and drank some herbal tea before having the energy to answer. “I can, but I’m not very skilled, so I rarely cook. I only know a few fixed dishes.”

She then praised Yun Huizhi. “You look like the type who’s very good at cooking.”

Chu Ruoyou’s voice was cool and refreshing, like an iced soda freshly opened, forming the perfect duo with summer.

Yun Huizhi asked, “Why do you say that? Is it because I’m so gentle that I look particularly virtuous and capable?”

Chu Ruoyou shook her head immediately, vehemently denying such a shameless remark. Because the shaking frequency was fast, it even looked a little cute.

“As for whether you’re virtuous and capable, I have no idea,”

She gave Yun Huizhi some face. “But every time we eat, you analyze the ingredients, spices, and methods of the dishes. Seems like you have a lot of life experience. Did I guess wrong?”

“Chu Holmes, huh.”

Happy that she had listened carefully and summarized well, Yun Huizhi immediately said generously, “To reward you for guessing right, I can cook for you tomorrow. The inn has a public kitchen.”

Chu Ruoyou didn’t refuse, but quipped, “You wouldn’t poison it, would you?”

Yun Huizhi talked nonsense. “If there were a lesbian-specific aphrodisiac, I might add a little.”

Wild flights of fancy.

Chu Ruoyou just rolled her eyes, too lazy to bother.

After the eye roll, Yun Huizhi could still keep the conversation going. “But you wouldn’t need it. Your reactions are plenty.”

Chu Ruoyou rapped her knuckles on the table. “After you finish eating, clean the table and take the trash bag outside.”

She ended the explicit conversation with this shameless person.

“Right away, right away. Let’s chat a bit after dinner.”

Yun Huizhi was all willing to work, but didn’t act on it, continuing to chat with her. “You were purely straight before, right?”

A couple of days ago, Chu Ruoyou said she’d tell her if she was in a good mood. Yun Huizhi belatedly realized that was just a brush-off, meaning “no comment.”

Now that she’d deduced it on her own, she just asked directly.

Chu Ruoyou didn’t deny it. She wanted to see what Yun Huizhi planned to say. “Do you have some brilliant insight?”

“So you admit it?”

Yun Huizhi wore a smug smile. “I guessed right.”

“How did you guess?”

“Just by looking at you, you don’t seem gay at all. Like someone who’s not interested in women’s charms. I could tell the very first night.”

Speaking of the first night, Chu Ruoyou was slightly uncomfortable. She had indeed been quite awkward then.

Yun Huizhi continued her analysis. “You know nothing about stuff in the lesbian circle. Sometimes when I chat with you about memes or female stars all the lesbians like, you always look like you don’t get it.

You were also married. Although the ending wasn’t great, it seems you still harbor feelings for your ex-husband. Most importantly…”

She paused. Chu Ruoyou was listening to the nonsense with increasing relish and urged, “Keep going.”

“You’re not interested in me.”

Yun Huizhi, apt student, grinned a wicked, knowing grin.

Chu Ruoyou’s eyes instantly widened. The slightly exaggerated expression made her temperament no longer elegant as an orchid.

She suppressed the retort: If I’m not interested, am I here torturing myself?

Then she saw Yun Huizhi lean back in her old-fashioned wooden chair, arms crossed, chin raised, saying smugly, “I’m very popular with girls, you know.”

How could someone strip naked and tangle with another person, yet that person has no desire to even kiss her body?

“Oh, so if one doesn’t look gay, doesn’t follow the memes and celebrities in the circle, and doesn’t become your lapdog, then they can’t be considered a lesbian.”

So many standards. Women face high demands no matter their sexual orientation.

“Why did you leave out the most important point?”

Why couldn’t she deny still clinging to past feelings?

Chu Ruoyou laughed, amused. “How many girlfriends have you had?”

“Lost count.” Yun Huizhi boasted outrageously.

“Not very old, but quite experienced.”

Yun Huizhi unconsciously scratched the side of her finger. “How many guys have you dated?”

Chu Ruoyou was silent. The cold air conditioning blowing on her back made her want to shiver, but she held it in.

Faintly, she could hear the sound of the night breeze from the south rustling through the orchard trees outside the window.

“Surely you haven’t lost count too.”

Yun Huizhi was afraid she’d brush her off.

“One. I only ever liked that one.”

She lowered her gaze, hiding her feelings, and said this one line softly.

Yun Huizhi was suddenly crestfallen, like someone who’d run home after being caught in the rain, not knowing where to place their wet clothes and shoes.

This answer made her even more at a loss than “I lost count.”

She thought of something she’d read online, that people born in the Year of the Dog were loyal.

She hated people born in the Year of the Dog now.

That night, they weren’t in the mood to go out. Yun Huizhi suggested watching a movie together, but Chu Ruoyou didn’t have the time.

Seemed there were work arrangements. She was seriously editing on her tablet with a stern face.

Yun Huizhi sat on the other end of the room, occupying one side, neither interfering with the other’s territory.

She played games for a while, found it boring, and then opened her group chats.

The post-graduation dorm chat was lively as ever. People scattered across the country were still sharing their daily lives.

Studying or working, all were diligently working towards the future… No, the glamorous exterior was just a facade. In reality, everyone had their own messes to deal with.

“Huizhi, what have you been up to these days? Still in that town?”

In the past, Yun Huizhi would have said, “Yep, and steadfastly leeching off my parents.”

But now she replied, “Earning pocket money. Being a tour guide for someone. Eight hundred a day.”

Her roommates were interested.

“So diligent now?”

“No wonder you seem so busy.”

“Wow, it pays that well? I regret not studying tourism management.”

No need to study, just know how to serve a rich older woman.

She deleted this sentence.

Usually when joking, anything goes, but this sentence somehow didn’t seem like just a joke anymore.

Yun Huizhi felt offended by her own thought, so she chose to shut up.

After chatting, she closed her laptop. Chu Ruoyou over there was still busy, and she didn’t dare to disturb her.

So she flopped onto the bed, buried her head, and let her thoughts wander. Was the person Chu Ruoyou liked really that great?

Why was he the one and only?

Aside from the physical issue that led to divorce, was he an exceptionally perfect person?

He must have been. To make Chu Ruoyou, who was cold to everyone, so devoted—he was very capable.

What Chinese zodiac sign was he?

Which sign was most compatible with the Dog?

The more Yun Huizhi thought, the more irritated she became. Forgetting that she wasn’t alone in the room, she pulled the blanket over her head and let out a howl.

“What are you howling about? Lose a game?”

Chu Ruoyou immediately stopped her.

Yun Huizhi made no sound, but also didn’t move. Even through the blanket, she could still smell the gardenia fragrance in the room.

Afraid she might suffocate, Chu Ruoyou came over and pulled the blanket off.

She sat on the edge of the bed, crossed her legs, and looked down condescendingly. “What’s the fuss?”

Yun Huizhi blinked innocently. “…Just sleepy.”

“What are you, a little kid? Howling when you’re sleepy. Close your mouth and sleep.”

“Chu Ruoyou, will you ever like women in the future?” Yun Huizhi suddenly asked her.

Chu Ruoyou let out a laugh, finding her simply foolish, so stubbornly fixated.

“Why ask that? Don’t tell me you want me to like you?”

She raised her brow, teasing her.

Yun Huizhi’s heartbeat was like a snapped pearl necklace—stopping abruptly, the beads scattering all over the floor in a sorry mess.

She couldn’t utter a single word.