Chapter 28: A Performance
She was just about to walk over when, unexpectedly, someone moved faster than her.
A petite figure, holding a mop, charged into the boys’ restroom with aggressive momentum.
“Which two idiots were just spewing shit out of their mouths? Let me come in and mop it clean.”
Suddenly, a girl appeared, and the restroom was filled with startled cries of “Fuck!” as a group of boys scrambled in a panic to pull up their pants.
“Was it you?” She waved the mop around at random.
“Or you? You? You?” The ones she pointed at shook their heads like rattles.
“N-no… not me…”
The very group of boys who had just been gossiping so recklessly now didn’t even have the courage to admit it.
The girl gave a cold sneer. “A bunch of cowards, got the guts to spread dirty rumors but no guts to own up, huh?”
“If I hear you making filthy jokes and slandering people again, I’ll beat you all to death with two mops.”
As the girl walked back out carrying the mop, she stepped right into Wen Mukui’s line of sight.
Her hair was tied up in a simple high ponytail. Her features were delicate and radiant, an oval face, but especially striking were her eyes, big, almond-shaped, rippling with watery light, as if brimming with warmth and laughter.
“Hello, Campus Belle Sister, can I be friends with you?” She tossed the mop aside, completely ignoring the shocked and disdainful stares of those around, and leaned in with a beaming smile.
“My name is Shen Zhuying—‘Zhu’ as in jewels, ‘Ying’ as in abundant wood. All my friends call me Zhuzhu.”
The word campus belle had always felt like humiliation to Wen Mukui.
Others tied it to some degrading website tag. But in Shen Zhuying’s eyes, it was simply a word that meant she was very beautiful.
Wen Mukui liked that kind of simplicity.
After Wen Mukui finished speaking, Qi Zhou was silent for a long time.
At last, he tightly clasped her hand, his voice tender and lingering as he called her, “Baby.”
——
Meeting an old friend again after so long, Shen Zhuying was in especially good spirits today.
She happily planned to pick out a movie to watch. But when she opened the snack cupboard, she found that her favorite chips were already gone, eaten by herself.
So she suddenly changed her mind, switched shoes, and decided to head to the nearby supermarket to stock up on snacks.
Fu Sizhuo came out of the study after finishing work. Seeing her standing at the entryway, looking ready to go out, he asked casually, “Where are you going?”
“To the supermarket to buy some snacks.” Shen Zhuying tilted her head up at him, a glimmer of surprise lighting her eyes.
“You’ve finished your work?”
“Mm.” Fu Sizhuo nodded. “Wait for me to go upstairs and change. I’ll come with you.”
“Alright.” Shen Zhuying’s lips curved, and at last she gathered the courage to invite him. “I want to watch a movie later, do you want to join me?”
“Of course.” Fu Sizhuo lowered his lashes, speaking as if it were only natural. “We’ll watch it together.”
At the supermarket, Shen Zhuying grabbed a cart and went straight to the snack aisle. Whatever she liked, she tossed inside without much thought for the quantity. When she suddenly came back to her senses, she realized the cart in front of her was already piled high.
“Looks like it’s a bit too much.” Shen Zhuying quietly put a few packs back, trying to salvage her image. “Actually, I don’t eat snacks that often…” Her voice trailed lower and lower, her confidence fading.
Fu Sizhuo calmly picked up the packs she had just put back and tossed them into the cart again, saying evenly, “I like these. Keep them.”
“Right?!” Shen Zhuying’s eyes lit up. She pulled out a pack of SpongeBob jelly freeze pops from the cart.
“You think these taste great too?”
Fu Sizhuo paused for a moment, then lied without a flicker on his face. “Mm, not bad.”
“Let’s go, we’ll pick out some more things.”
Her brows arched as she smiled, her steps so light she was almost hopping as she walked happily ahead.
Fu Sizhuo pushed the cart, his stride naturally keeping up, soon side by side with her.
“It seems we’re out of body wash at home too.” Shen Zhuying struggled between avocado and rose scents, then asked him, “Which one do you prefer?”
Fu Sizhuo glanced casually. “Avocado.”
“I like avocado more too.” Shen Zhuying put two bottles of avocado body wash into the cart, smiling. “I’m done choosing. Is there anything else you want?”
“No.” The corners of Fu Sizhuo’s lips unconsciously lifted into a smile.
“Let’s go, checkout.”
When they got to the counter and queued up, Shen Zhuying suddenly remembered she had forgotten the popcorn back in the fruit section.
“I’ll go grab the popcorn!”
So Fu Sizhuo stayed in line, and she ran off to fetch it.
Only three to five minutes passed, but when Shen Zhuying came back carrying the popcorn, she found that some girl was already hitting on him.
She looked barely in her twenties. With a shy expression, she said to Fu Sizhuo: “Classmate, do you know what kind of wind is blowing today?”
Fu Sizhuo politely replied, “You should check the weather forecast. Also, I graduated a long time ago.”
“Oh, then senior, you really look so young.” The girl paused, then added, “The wind blowing today is me missing you so much I’m going crazy.”
Fu Sizhuo: “…”
Shen Zhuying: “…”
In this world, such bold, socially fearless creatures actually exist?
Shen Zhuying’s face was full of shock.
Even Fu Sizhuo, for once, was left speechless. After a pause, he finally said calmly, “Is that so? I also really miss my wife.”
As he spoke, he deliberately placed his left hand on the cart, the silver ring on his finger gleaming under the lights.
Then he tilted his chin in Shen Zhuying’s direction. “Luckily my wife came in time. Otherwise, I’d be missing her so much I’d go crazy too.”
The girl froze on the spot, immediately turning around, bowing repeatedly toward Shen Zhuying as she backed away,
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, we were just playing truth or dare with my friend.”
“Wishing you two a hundred years of harmony, may you soon have children, two in three years…”
By the time Shen Zhuying, stifling her laughter, walked over to Fu Sizhuo’s side, she could still hear the girl, flustered and upset, whispering angrily to her companion:
“Didn’t you say all guys fall for those cheesy pickup lines? What kind of terrible idea was that! Wuwuwu, I don’t want to live anymore.”
“Were you hitting on a boy? You were hitting on a f***ing married man!”
“How was I supposed to know? He looked like he hadn’t even graduated college yet. So embarrassing. I’ll just pack up and jump into a river…”
——
“Senior Fu.” Shen Zhuying pulled out the card Fu Sizhuo had given her earlier, fluttered her lashes at him, smiling uncontrollably.
“I’ll use your card to pay. Your wife won’t mind, will she?”
“She won’t. Let’s hurry.” Fu Sizhuo carried the items from the cart to the counter and casually tossed a few boxes of extra-large condoms onto the pile, his tone relaxed.
“Let’s get a hotel this time. Don’t go home. My wife’s flower shop business is light these days, she’ll probably come back early.”
The cashier had originally been staring at Fu Sizhuo’s face with a radiant smile.
Now her expression had soured, tinged with the humiliation of being forced to go against her conscience for a few meager coins.
When they finished paying and walked out, they heard the cashier curse under her breath:
“Looks like a refined gentleman on the surface, but all he does is beastly things!”
“Pfft—”
Out of the supermarket, Shen Zhuying squatted down, shoulders trembling, nearly laughing herself unconscious.
“—Fu Sizhuo, how are you so good at acting…”
Fu Sizhuo, both hands full of shopping bags, looked down at her, smiling helplessly, and raised a brow.
“Not bad. But compared to Mrs. Fu, I’m still a little lacking.”
