Accidental Love

After the call hung up, Zheng Shuyi held the phone with one hand and scratched her hair with the other.

Her head constantly told herself not to be scared, because if so, everything could be exposed. But whenever she saw Shi Yan from the side of her eyes, she couldn't help but be frightened.

"Uh…"

Zheng Shuyi wanted to say something but stopped, busy thinking about how she should start.

Usually, the train in her mouth could run for so long that it could probably reach the top of the Himalayas, but right now, she didn't manage to utter a single word after a long time.

"You have something to do?" asked Shi Yan suddenly.

"Ah, yes yes yes." Zheng Shuyi nodded like a pestle hitting a mortar, "My friend asked me to go, go to the hot springs today."

She scratched her hair on her forehead again, "Uh, I didn't know you would come today."

Shi Yan didn't reply immediately. After studying her face inch by inch, he turned his face to the side and didn't speak.

Zheng Shuyi's eyes rolled around, not knowing where to look for a while.

"Uh… in this area, the night scene is very famous, you should go check it out if you have the time."

"Oh yes, and the grouper1A type of fish here is also very special, you should go try it."

"…"

There were still some other random things she wanted to say, but she stopped. Because she saw Shi Yan's eyes staring into her as if he saw through all her plans.

"You're trying to get away from me?"

I knew it.

He's too smart.

Zheng Shuyi swallowed hard again.

"What, what do you mean? I'm so happy that you came here to visit, why would I get away from you? My friend asked me… me to go to the hot springs, really."

After speaking, she carefully observed Shi Yan's expression.

It seemed that her words were not very convincing.

"Oh?" Shi Yan smiled.

In Zheng Shuyi's eyes at this moment, although he was smiling, it looked very frightening.

"Is it that you're going on a blind date?"

Zheng Shuyi:?

"No no!" She reflexively shook her head, "Blind date? Do I look like I have a lot of time on my hands?!"

Shi Yan nodded.

He didn't speak and just loosened the top button of his shirt.

If a woman's heart was a needle in the ocean, then Zheng Shuyi's heart was probably a paramecium in the vast ocean.

Last night, she was still saying sweet words to him with a soft voice, as if the person was directly in front of him.

Shi Yan didn't know if it was because he drank a little too much last night. Through the phone, he felt that every word from her was scratching him.

After hanging up, he stood by the window and stayed in the wind for a while.

And this morning, he came to this city.

However, when he appeared, the woman in front of him was like a frightened bird and immediately shrank into her shell.

As if, as if in this city, she had some deep secrets that he must not know about.

Shi Yan's silence made the small theater in Zheng Shuyi's heart replay the same performance 800 times. She even planned her last lines before having to walk onto the guillotine.

She didn't know whether he believed what she said and didn't dare to ask either.

Her brain was still in total chaos, leaving no room to worry about what Shi Yan was thinking.

After a long time, Shi yan repressed the impatience in his heart, put his arm against the car window, and didn't even give Zheng Shuyi a look.

His voice was two degrees colder.

"Where to get off."

Zheng Shuyi immediately replied, "Here will be alright."

As soon as she finished speaking, the driver started to cough a few times.

He felt that there was a cannibalistic monster or something in this car, and this girl wanted to slip away like she was caught on fire.

Naturally, Shi Yan's expression didn't look too good either.

He looked in the rearview mirror with some emotions in his eyes.

After a bit, he spoke.

"Sure."

——

The fourth day of the Lunar New Year was the day to welcome the God of Wealth.

Without having to go visit relatives today, Wang Meiru called a few friends to play Mahjong at home. In the living room, there were also two children watching cartoons.

The laughter from the TV and the chatting from the Mahjong table made the place seem very lively and happy.

So when Zheng Shuyi came back, no one noticed her.

She didn't say anything either and just walked straight to her room.

It wasn't until she opened her room door did Wang Meirui turn her head around and ask, "Back?"

Zheng Shuyi didn't answer, she just nodded and locked the door.

The excitement from the living room had nothing to do with Zheng Shuyi.

She kicked off her shoes, fell on the bed with her arms and legs open, and stared at the ceiling.

The quiet room gave her a moment to sort out her thoughts and scenes of what just happened replayed in her mind.

Half an hour later, Zheng Shuyi understood for the first time what it feels like to have something that can't be settled or sorted out.

She sat up cross-legged, curled her hair, and immediately made a voice call to Bi Ruoshan.

It took a long time for her to pick up.

"What what? I'm playing Mahjong!!!"

"Stop for a few minutes, chat with me for a while."

"Let's chat tonight, I'm about to win!"

"I messed up."

"Haha, what messed up?" asked Bi Ruoshan with a laugh, "Did you also lose money?"

"I made the wrong man fall in love with me!!!"

There was silence on the other end of the phone for two seconds.

Then, the sound of a chair being pushed and rapid footsteps came.

"Alright, I'm alone now. Tell me about it, what do you mean you messed up?"

Zheng Shuyi took a deep breath and told Bi Ruoshan about what happened today expressionlessly.

However, what she got was a half-minute of wild laughter.

Bi Ruoshan was laughing in tears.

"No way, sis? Are you joking? Really?"

“I'm not writing a novel, why would I be making stories up?" Zheng Shuyi fell back onto the bed again and her self-esteem slowly disappeared, "Stop laughing, I think I might die soon."

Bi Ruoshan was silent for a while and pulled herself out of the absurd shock. After thinking about it carefully, she fell into deep thoughts like Zheng Shuyi.

"Sorry… I understand how you feel. After all, he's not an ordinary person. His status and wealth are there, if he finds out, things wouldn't end too well for you."

The more Bi Ruoshan talked about it, the more she felt irritated, "Men all want a good reputation, especially a man like him. If he's generous, then the worst that can happen will be ending the relationship with you. If he's a little more small-minded, then the best-case scenario would be you losing your job. If he wants to, he can immediately kick you out of this whole industry with just one sentence, and I'm not trying to scare you, I've seen these kinds of people before."

Zheng Shuyi just looked at the ceiling and didn't reply.

Am I scared?

Of course.

But right now, other than being scared, she had many other emotions, too many to be expressed with just adjectives.

After a while, Bi Ruoshan seemed to have been talking to herself without getting any response and suddenly asked, "Hey, are you listening?"

"Yeah," said Zheng Shuyi with a sigh, "I'm looking at my chat history with him…"

The more she watched, the more frightened she got.

Now that she pulled herself out of the role and looked at all those words she had said…

What have I done!

The phone was quiet for a long time, Bi Ruoshan thought of something, and said with a laugh, "What, you want to kill yourself from all these memories?"

"Go kill myself?" Zheng Shuyi's mouth froze, "Yeah I'd rather die."

Bi Ruoshan laughed for another while, "Okay sis, wipe away your tears and listen to me."

"Ok…"

"Here, about this matter, God knows, Earth knows, you know, and I know. Since no third person knows, wait, does anyone else know?"

Zheng Shu thought for a while, "Actually, yes."

"Who?!"

"It's an intern of mine. I told her about it but I didn't say who it was."

"Oh, then you're good," Bi Ruoshan let out a sigh of relief, "Your intern won't have anything to do with Shi Yan, it's okay."

She cleared her throat and continued, "What I'm trying to say is, since there is no way for Shi Yan to learn the truth, just go with the flow."

Zheng Shuyi:?

"No, wait, what…?"

"My idea's a win-win!" said Bi Ruoshan, "I told you a long time ago already, even if you don't have other plans, just the person himself, it wouldn't be bad at all to date him right? No, not bad, you're gaining so much from this!!!"

Zheng Shuyi's eyes moved slightly and slowly sat upright.

"Here, Yiyi, tell me, forget everything else right now, do you like him as a person? I think that if such a man is placed in front of you, there is no reason for you not to be moved."

"Do I like him?"

Zheng Shuyi remembered that time in the elevator.

A slight kiss from him, which made her lose her mind for a while.

She muttered in a daze, "I don't know…"

"Well, that doesn't matter!" Bi Ruoshan was an impatient person, "All that matters is that he likes you! Here let me give you some hypnosis, just pretend nothing happened today, and continue with the flow. It'd be great for him to love you!"

Zheng Shuyi didn't reply and just scratched her hair hard.

"I know this might be a bit hard to accept, but this is the best way at the moment, you go think about it. My friends are asking me to go play, I have to return to the battlefield now."

The call was quickly hung up, but Zheng Shuyi still held the phone to her and didn't move.

It wasn't until Qin Shiyue called did Zheng Shuyi bring herself back to the real world.

"Sister Shuyi, I'm at the hot spring hotel, come here quickly, I got the rooms already. Oh, don't forget to bring your swimsuit."

——

In fact, Qin Shiyue was supposed to be greeting guests at home today, but on the fourth day of New Year, it was the same group of guests every single year. Every time, it would make her so bored that she wanted to fall asleep. Forcing herself to smile and chat with the guests was torture to both her mind and her body.

However, when she got up this morning, she heard Shi Yan talking to her mom and heard that he was going to Qingan City for something.

Qin Shiyue yawned and the famous Hot Spring Villa Hotel over there appeared in her mind. So she immediately started to beg Shi Yan to bring her.

But Qin Shiyue didn't have the habit of asking what Shi Yan was going to do, she just followed Shi Yan to Qingan.

Only when she arrived at the hotel did she suddenly remember, isn't this Zheng Shuyi's hometown?

At that moment――

Without any evidence or logic, just simply based on the likes that Shi Yan put in Moments, she could tell that things weren't as simple as she thought.

Therefore, she felt that Shi Yan might have come to see Zheng Shuyi, otherwise, what else would he be doing on the fourth day of New Year? Everyone would be sitting at home welcoming the God of Wealth.

So she cautiously and tentatively asked, "Uncle, did you come to Qingan to see a friend?"

Shi Yan let out a "yeah", and he seemed to be in a good mood.

This gave Qin Shiyue some courage to continue asking, "Is it… Zheng Shuyi?"

As if he heard something sensitive, Shi Yan raised his eyebrows and looked at Qin Shiyue, but didn't reply.

He didn't deny it.

Wait! No!

Zheng Shuyi already has someone in her heart!

Qin Shiyue's mind almost collapsed.

So not long after Shi Yan left, Qin Shiyue immediately called Zheng Shuyi to ask her to come to the hot springs and to verify if Shi Yan was with her.

The answer was obvious.

The two weren't together, otherwise, Zheng Shuyi wouldn't have agreed to her so easily.

But although Qin Shiyue's brain wasn't very useful normally, there was a lot of fertile soil accumulated in her head. Once she started having imaginations based on some gossip, it would quickly take root and grow into a towering tree.

——

But seeing Zheng Shuyi herself, Qin Shiyue was a little surprised.

"You don't look very good today."

Zheng Shuyi nodded listlessly and said vaguely, "Busy for New Year."

Qin Shiyue gave her a very understanding look.

"Same same, our age, we can't play like children but also can't talk much to the elders. All we can do is sit as if we are supposed to be meditating."

While she was talking, she led Zheng Shuyi to the hotel's back mountain hot spring area.

Qingan's hot spring was very well-known, and so there were a lot of guests there as well.

Qin Shiyue didn't want to share a hot spring with others, so she spent some money to reserve a private one, located on the mountainside behind the villa. The half-moon-shaped pool was enclosed by a bamboo fence and was pretty far away from all the other hot springs. Voices couldn't be heard from here, and only the sound of the wind blowing through the woods rang beside their ears.

The experience at noon seemed to drain out all Zheng Shuyi's energy.

When she laid against the side of the pool and let the water ripple against her body, she didn't have any time to enjoy this, since there was still an unresolved mess in her mind.

Fortunately, the hot spring helped her calm down.

The sun slowly went down, and it was almost dusk.

When Zheng Shuyi got up from the hot spring for the last time, she felt much better and had the energy to talk and chat with Qin Shiyue.

In the bathroom, behind the screen, Qin Shiyue wiped her body while asking, "Oh by the way, how did your blind date go?"

"Didn't go too far, we're both forced there by our parents."

"Oh……"

Since Zheng Shuyi couldn't see her expression and the gossip was still in her head, she wanted to learn more about it, "Uh what about that… that person you've been pursuing, how is that going?"

Similarly, Qin Shiyue couldn't see Zheng Shuyi's violently collapsed expression at this moment and only heard her dull voice, "I, I stopped."

"What?"

"I gave up, it's too hard."

Qin Shiyue silently agreed in her mind.

It was said that when women pursue men, they would only be a gauze away, but that also depended on what kind of man they were pursuing.

If it was a man like her uncle, then it would be a layer of gauze wrapped in electric nets.

Speaking of uncle…

Qin Shiyue suddenly got an insight.

"Don't be too sad, I can introduce my uncle to you, he's definitely more handsome and richer than that other uncle!"

But when Zheng Shuyi heard the word "uncle", her mind finally calmed down felt nervous again.

"Nono! I don't want to know any more uncles!"

——

Although Zheng Shuyi refused quickly, Qin Shiyue still wanted to explore the relationship between her uncle and Zheng Shuyi.

It was definitely not smart to ask her directly, but she had at least 180 other indirect methods.

For example, she took a photo together with Zheng Shuyi and then quickly sent it to the family group chat.

"At the hot springs with my friend~"

Most relatives all replied, but Shi Yan was still nowhere to be seen.

This made Qin Shiyue feel more irritated.

The power of learning the truth made her go further. She opened the chatbox with Shi Yan and typed frantically in risk of having her source of income cut off.

Qin Shiyue: Sister Shuyi's emotions met some setbacks, it's the perfect opportunity to quietly come in.

Qin Shiyue: Hesitating will lead to defeat, having confidence can't go too wrong.

After sending, she immediately continued to chat with Zheng Shuyi.

"Are you sure? My uncle is a very good person."

Zheng Shuyi shook her head like a pellet drum, but Qin Shiyue kept promoting her uncle like she was a salesperson.

Until the two walked to the lobby of the hotel――

Under the dazzling light, Shi Yan walked forward.

People came and went around him. He was dressed in a suit, just like when she met him for the first time. His gold-framed glasses flickered reflections off them, and the eyes behind those lenses stared at Zheng Shuyi.

An invisible sense of oppression instantly surrounded her.

What, the fuck, is this, kind, of coincidence!

Zheng Shuyi was petrified in place and all the strings in her brain tensed up.

She watched Shi Yan walk closer and closer.

Then, Qin Shiyue called "uncle" with a smile, and Shi Yan gave a short greeting.

Uncle…

Uncle?!

Then.

Zheng Shuyi saw Shi Yan turn around to look at her.

"Your emotions meet some setbacks?"

"…"

At that moment, Zheng Shuyi heard the roaring sound of tens of thousands of strings in her head breaking together.

• 1A type of fish