Accidental Love

The reason Xu Yuling found this scene so unbelievable was because of her limited knowledge about Shi Yan. The feeling that he gave off didn't match what her eyes were witnessing.

The last time when she went to his interview, she was actually very nervous and constantly encouraging herself.

But it turned out that Shi Yan didn't care at all who the magazine publisher sent.

There was more that he didn't care about.

Although the whole interview process seemed to have gone smoothly, Xu Yuling could feel an invisible pressure surrounding her the whole time.

She could tell that the person in front of her did not seem to be satisfied with her interview abilities, but his dissatisfaction was only shown on his cold and light attitude, nothing more.

For example, she realized that she made a mistake while asking a question. She was worried as she kept eyeing him, afraid that he would show an expression of extreme disappointment.

Unexpectedly, he didn't mention it at all and just ignored it.

Xu Yuling was a person who could study a person's words and expressions. She knew clearly that Shi Yan didn't dislike her or anything, it was just that he didn't care at all about the interview.

But just now, Xu Yuling stood in the lobby on the first floor and saw Shi Yan driving Zheng Shuyi away.

She saw that the look in Shi Yan's eyes was nothing like what she remembered.

Then she remembered what Zheng Shuyi had said. Xu Yuling suddenly felt a chill on her back.

——

"Achoo!"

In the air-conditioned car, Zheng Shuyi sneezed.

She covered her mouth with her arm and muttered, "Who's cursing me behind my back?"

No one replied, as if Zheng Shuyi was talking to herself.

After she resolved the awkwardness, there was nothing to do again and her senses became sensitive.

In the car, the sweet smell of the egg tarts drifted to the front seats from the back.

Zheng Shuyi slowly turned her head around and glanced at it.

By the time she turned her head back, Shi Yan was looking at her.

The two looked at each other, and neither of them spoke.

A moment later, Shi Yan turned his head and looked at the intersection ahead. "What do you want to eat?" he asked.

Zheng Shuyi smiled, rubbed her scarf, and gently pointed, "Turn right ahead."

——

"Nine Flavors" was a private noodle shop open 24 hours a day.

It was located deep in the alley and was remodeled from an old house. The environment was simple but also clean and elegant.

The signature dish, prawn noodles, was extremely delicious. With one bite, one could feel like their life was filled with flavor.

This taste would often appear in Zheng Shuyi's mind in the middle of the night for no reason, making her feel like even her dreams were tasty.

It was almost eleven o'clock at night already, and there were still seven or eight people in the line.

After they were seated, they waited for a while, and then a bowl of hot noodles was served.

Zheng Shuyi started to stir the noodle, then raised her head and asked, "You sure you don't want any?"

Shi Yan sat right across from her. His glance slowly swept across her face and then glanced at the noodles in the bowl.

"Nope."

"Okay fine. The noodles here are really good, you'll be missing out if you don't want any."

She picked up the peppercorns on the side and said as if she felt regretful for Shi Yan, "Unfortunately, they only have two chefs. Since their business is so good, they don't do deliveries either, so I have to come all the way here if I want to eat their noodles. Otherwise, I would be eating these every day."

After Zheng Shuyi finished speaking, she was about to dig in when she suddenly noticed something and froze in place.

She was sitting right across the door of the shop. In her position, she could see everyone who was coming in.

Her chopsticks in her hand stopped. Without even the need to double-check, she was certain that among the group of three or four people that just came in, one of them was Yue Xingzhou.

Then, she glanced at Shi Yan, who had his back to the door. She suddenly became nervous.

She didn't know whether Shi Yan and Yue Xingzhou knew each other yet, but if they met at this time, nothing good could come out of it.

Therefore, Zheng Shuyi quickly glanced outside and whispered, "I'll go to the restroom real quick."

After speaking, without even giving time for Shi Yan to reply, she placed down her chopsticks and quickly walked towards the shop's restroom.

Shi Yan glanced at her back with a curious and doubtful look.

Immediately after, three or four men walked past the table and lined up at the back of the line.

Hearing the footsteps, Shi Yan didn't even raise his head as he continued to look at his phone.

The line was long, and Yue Xingzhou and the others happened to be not too far away from Shi Yan.

There were a lot of people in the store, and since it was very late at night already, most of the customers were here to enjoy supper after work. Although there were many people, they were also quite exhausted and tired, therefore the shop was relatively quiet.

However, Yue Xingzhou didn't just get off work. Some college students came for a business trip tonight, so he called a few classmates who were still working in Jiang City to come and have dinner together.

After dinner, everyone went to drink for a while, and now they felt empty again, so they came for a snack before going back to the hotel.

As they were chatting, somehow, the topic suddenly turned to Zheng Shuyi.

A man wrapped his hand around Yue Xingzhou's shoulders and asked, "Yue Xingzhou, we've been classmates for so many years, be honest with us, why did you suddenly break up with Zheng Shuyi?"

Hearing the words "Zheng Shuyi", Shi Yan suddenly raised his eyebrows.

His eyes moved away from the phone for a second.

After glancing at those people, he casually started to read what's on his screen again.

Yue Xingzhou was silent for a moment, and replied, "Incompatible personalities."

"Incompatible personalities? What?" the man replied, "I think she's pretty good. You have such a good temper too, where did the incompatible personalities suddenly come from?"

"Yeah," another person interrupted, "I thought you two were very suitable for each other too. I remember when we were still having dinner a while back, my girlfriend said that you two are almost a perfect pair."

Shi Yan's fingertips stopped on the screen and frowned slightly.

"It's true," Yue Xingzhou didn't want to talk about this anymore and felt a little impatient, "It's just incompatible personalities."

Unfortunately, all of them just had wine and their brains probably weren't functioning properly at the moment. They didn't realize the emotional changes happening to Yue Xingzhou.

"Then who asked for the breakup?"

Yue Xingzhou opened his mouth, slightly rolled his eyes, and looked at the ground as he replied, "She did."

Everyone was silent for a moment.

Then, one of them started to laugh.

"It's normal, it's normal. After all, she's associating herself with more people now, it's normal for her to change her test. After seeing so many CEOs and CFOs, why would she care about a bank worker anymore?"

As soon as he said this, Yue Xingzhou's face immediately changed.

Everyone thought that this had offended Yue Xingzhou in some way and immediately tried to fix the scene, "I mean it's okay, who cares about her anyway? You can go find a better one. After all, the old must leave for the new to come right?"

"Yeah, you're so handsome too, you'll have more girlfriends coming. I think the one you have right now is also pretty good."

"Yeah, although she doesn't look as good as Zheng Shuyi, what matters is true love."

"Yes, think on the bright side. Prettiness doesn't last forever, and Zheng Shuyi is too squeamish too. She's just like a little princess. You can do what she wants for now, but how can you serve her forever?"

"Four prawn noodles to-go please!”

Zheng Shuyi hid in the restroom for a long time.

The restroom wasn't actually too dirty and it didn't really smell either. The only thing was that the incense that was lit was too strong, almost causing her to faint.

After she really couldn't stand it anymore, she quietly opened the door a little and peeked outside.

There were no more people in the line anymore and Yue Xingzhou didn't seem to be in the dining area either.

Zheng Shuyi let out a sigh of relief. Just when she was about to push open the door, she heard a notification from her phone.

Shi Yan: Did you fall in love with the toilet?

Zheng Shuyi glared at him in the restroom and then slowly walked out.

"I wasn't feeling very well, sorry to keep you waiting."

She sat down as if she felt very relaxed, but in fact, she was still very worried, as her eyes kept looking around.

When Shi Yan looked up, he easily caught these little movements of hers and quietly sneered.

After confirming that Yue Xingzhou was no longer here, Zheng Shuyi finally felt relieved.

But when she picked up the chopsticks, she found that the noodles in the bowl were already starting to turn mushy.

"Tsk." Due to the appearance of Yue Xingzhou, Zheng Shuyi's mood felt a lot worse, and now even the noodles have gone mushy. She poked it with her chopsticks and instantly lost her appetite.

Shi Yan placed his phone away and didn't urge her either.

Zheng Shuyi took a few bites and then placed his chopsticks down. She didn't speak either.

The atmosphere of the table sank inexplicably.

After a while, Shi Yan suddenly said, "Zheng Shuyi, look up."

Zheng Shuyi raised her head and looked at him confusedly.

"What?"

Shi Yan stared at her closely and didn't reply.

Zheng Shuyi wasn't sure what was going on. She reached out her hand and rubbed her cheek.

"Is there something on my face?"

The lights on top of the tables were mostly lit with warm yellow lights, which gave off a gentle feeling and allowed people to have a better appetite,

But Shi Yan's eyes made Zheng Shuyi panic.

Seeing that Shi Yan was still staring at her, Zheng Shuyi took out her cushion foundation from her bag and opened the mirror to take a look.

Yep, clean and pretty.

"What's the matter?"

"Your eyes are so… big."

He originally wanted to say "Your eyes are so pretty", but he changed his words after seeing her worried expression at the last second.

"How come your vision is so bad?"1SY is inferring how ZSY had such a bad vision that she chose Yue Xingzhou as her boyfriend at first

Zheng Shuyi:?

Why are you attacking me again?

Was it because he thought of something after seeing Yue Xingzhou?

Zheng Shuyi and Shi Yan looked at each other for a moment. She was feeling more and more anxious and could only change the topic.

She smiled and nodded, "Yes, probably my vision was not great back then, but I have improved."

Shi Yan looked down. He thought about something, and then after a moment, he whispered, "Maybe you improved a bit too well."

Zheng Shuyi: "…"

If it wasn't because she had a huge responsibility, she would have thrown the bowl of noodles on his head.

But she couldn't do anything right now.

The noodles in the bowl turned mushier and mushier as she stirred. She stared at her noodles, chuckled, and murmured, "They say some people are like metal balls cooked in a teapot. You must be one of them."2This is from a Beijing saying referring to someone who is a bastard. A teapot cannot cook anything else other than tea, but when you cook a rice dumpling in the teapot, it becomes a messed up ball (混蛋), which means bastard in Chinese. When you cook a metal ball in a teapot, it becomes a messed up ball and breaks the pot.

Shi Yan obviously didn't understand what she meant.

"What did you say?"

"I'm saying you're a bastard," replied Zheng Shuyi.

"…"

Shi Yan took a short breath and said solemnly, "Zheng Shuyi."

"Okay okay okay," Zheng Shuyi said as she nodded, "I'm wrong, I'm wrong."

But she still didn't look at Shi Yan. She buried her head in the noodles and continued to mutter, "You are not only a metal ball cooked inside a teapot but a soccer ball cooked inside a teapot."

Shi Yan raised his eyes, "What are you saying now?"

"I said you're a bastard with a bad temper," replied Zheng Shuyi.

"…"

Dead silence.

"Are you going to keep eating?"

After a long time, Shi Yan looked away and asked.

Zheng Shuyi glanced at the ugly thing in her bowl and shook her head.

"Whatever, I lost my appetite."

Shi Yan didn't say anything. He stood up, grabbed his phone, and walked out.

Zheng Shuyi curled her lips and muttered once more, "He has been a bastard and still pretending that he didn't know."

Then, she picked up her bag and quickly followed.

After coming out of the private noodle shop, it was already really late.

There was dew on the grass, the winter insects were sleeping, and the alley was surprisingly quiet.

Zheng Shuyi stepped on Shi Yan's shadow and followed him step by step to the parking lot.

None of them spoke on the way.

Under the flashing neon lights, the car drove out of the residential area and onto the highway.

Zheng Shuyi didn't eat dinner and was interrupted as well when she wanted to eat. Right now, she was tired and hungry. Just when she was about to fall asleep, she glanced at the center console.

After seeing the numbers, she blinked and looked at Shi Yan.

In the dim light, his face was hidden in the shadows. She couldn't see his face, but the frame of his glasses was shining with light.

Zheng Shuyi felt that he might not be in a good mood.

Why else would he be driving 80 miles per hour in the city?

But even so, her sleepiness took her over and she fell asleep in Shi Yan's car again.

——

After a long time, Zheng Shuyi finally woke up after being squeezed by someone on her cheek.

But when she opened her eyes, Shi Yan was leaning against his seat with his hands on the steering wheel, just looking at her calmly.

"We're here?"

Zheng Shuyi took a deep breath and grabbed her bag. She got her bag and placed her hand on the handle, "Then I'll be going now, be careful on your way back."

Shi Yan let out a soft "Okay".

For some reason, she felt like his words sounded very weird and confusing, but she couldn't really tell.

She glanced at Shi Yan, but didn't say anything more and stepped out of the car.

The street lamp made her shadow look very long.

After walking a few steps, she finally heard Shi Yan calling her.

"Zheng Shuyi."

Zheng Shuyi stopped and looked back, "What's the matter?"

The window of the car had already been lowered down. Shi Yan looked toward him with blurry eyes under the shadowy light.

Zheng Shuyi just stood there, waiting for him to continue.

A moment later, Shi Yan finally said, "Don't eat too much before going to bed."

——

Back home, the first place Zheng Shuyi went to was the kitchen.

In the fridge, there was some fast food, including a self-heating small hot pot. But she wasn't in the mood of eating spicy food at the moment, so she ordered some food online.

After taking a shower, she was already very hungry and collapsed on the bed while waiting for her food.

Soon after, the doorbell rang.

It arrived faster than she thought.

Zheng Shuyi immediately got up to open the door.

It was not from the restaurant that she ordered.

The delivery man was not wearing a food delivery uniform either, and instead, he had a "Nine Flavors" private noodle shop uniform on.

The man handed a food box to Zheng Shuyi and said, "Miss Zheng, your prawn noodles delivery."

• 1SY is inferring how ZSY had such a bad vision that she chose Yue Xingzhou as her boyfriend at first
• 2This is from a Beijing saying referring to someone who is a bastard. A teapot cannot cook anything else other than tea, but when you cook a rice dumpling in the teapot, it becomes a messed up ball (混蛋), which means bastard in Chinese. When you cook a metal ball in a teapot, it becomes a messed up ball and breaks the pot.