Secretly Captivated: Chapter 13 A

MAY THE WORLD TREAT YOU TENDERLY

When Mo Lan arrived home from work today, An Xiaoluo was cleaning the house.

An apron was tied around her waist, on her head a large loose wavy bun, when Mo Lan opened the door and went in, she was puffing and stooping while holding the mop to mop the floor.

En… however you looked at An Xiaoluo, compared to the astute and beautiful but aloof her at work, with the mature and normally easy-going her, they were totally different.

Mo Lan changed her pair of slippers and walked in, while looking around to see if there was anywhere she could help with, she also teased: “You really ought to let Su Shen see you this way, such a capable-at-home An Xiaoluo, he would like all the more.”

An Xiaoluo straightened up, with her hand on the mop she looked at Mo Lan, and said breathlessly: “Forget it, Su Shen didn’t look for me this week again, he should be thanking the heavens that I didn’t make a fuss.”

Mo Lan 囧 for a moment, grabbed the mop from An Xiaoluo’s hands, and comforted her: “Just one look and you know that he’s that sort of elite white-collar worker, he must normally be exceptionally busy at work, you need to be a bit more accomodating ba.”

An Xiaoluo with her empty hands sighed a little helplessly, draped a woolen shawl over herself, drew close to the kitchen and carried in her hand a bag of rubbish that had just been collected, she intended to go out to throw it away: “I know he’s busy, the problem is that I’m also very busy. Since the colloboration project ended, even the chance to meet have also been quite rare, moreover he’s in Shanghai and I’m in Nanjing, it was already very challenging to even meet, how are we going to talk about future.”

Although An Xiaoluo’s expression didn’t look as if she particularly minded, but the deep loneliness in her words could even be seen by a fool.

“En… two different cities is indeed a problem, but…” Mo Lan mopped the floor while secretly peeking at An Xiaoluo’s current expression, and after deliberating she continued speaking, “But, cousin, have you ever thought of… going to Shanghai for Su Shen? Anyway, your work capability is so strong, you would be able to find a good job anywhere.”

As soon as Mo Lan said this, she saw An Xiaoluo’s complexion turned cold all at once. Her brows furrowed and her tone was determined: “Impossible. Let’s not talk first about how I have painstakingly worked for 5 years in order to get my current results, what if when I moved to Shanghai for him, what will happen if we then broke up? When that time comes do I still come back with my tail between my legs, I’m also not some pure and innocent girl, giving up my job for love, as far as I’m concerned that’s basically complete nonsense.”

While An Xiaoluo spoke, she carried the plastic bag to the hallway and changed to a pair of cotton padded boots, she wanted to go out and throw the rubbish away.

Mo Lan sighed softly, she knew very well, that for An Xiaoluo’s character it was impossible for her to make such a sacrifice for the other party. But… if this problem forever couldn’t be solved,their relationship would have big problems sooner or later.

With this in mind, Mo Lan decided that since An Xiaoluo couldn’t be moved, then she’ll find a day to talk to Su Shen. Even though… Su Shen doesn’t look like somebody who would give up his job for love.

As Mo Lan was in the midst of wondering, the sound of the door opening sounded, Mo Lan not really caring glanced towards the door, the next second, inside the disposable plastic bag in An Xiaoluo’s hand, she vaguely saw a familiar object.

She looked at it carefully again, Mo Lan was a little nervous.

“Cousin, hold on!”

An Xiaoluo with one foot out of the door was startled by Mo Lan’s yell, she turned back and looked at Mo Lan a little surprisingly: “What’s wrong?”

Mo Lan put the mop aside and hurried over to the door, stammering and mumbling somewhat dodging:”Urm… cousin, this is not rubbish, I didn’t plan on throwing this away.”

Mo Lan spoke while rummaging through the plastic bag, not minding the dirtiness. The thing she was looking for was right on top, fortunately, it wasn’t dirty.

An Xiaoluo frowned and watched Mo Lan hold that thing as if she gained the most precious treasure, she was even more puzzled: “Xiao Lan, you didn’t take the wrong medicine ya? Isn’t this just a leftover milk tea cup, why would you keep it?”

She carefully looked at the paper cup in her hand repeatedly, confirmed that there wasn’t any damage, then Mo Lan finally breathed a sigh of relief. When she heard An Xiaoluo’s words, her face turned red at once, she thought for a while, but she really didn’t know how to explain it to her.

Don’t tell me she ought to tell An Xiaoluo that Gu Ye Mi bought it for her, so after finishing the drink, she purposely rinsed it with water and left it in the bedroom as she was reluctant to throw it away?

That’s also a bit too stupid…

On this side Mo Lan was racking her brains on how to reply An Xiaoluo, on the other side An Xiaoluo thoughtfully looked at her for a long time, and suddenly a sentence came up: “That’s right, I heard Su Shen say, you’ve met Secretly Captivated SAMA? Wait for me to throw away the rubbish then remember to tell me the meetup details!”

An Xiaoluo closed the door with a bang.

Mo Lan finished mopping the last bit of floor, then silently cleaned the paper cup with a wet tissue and put it back on her bedside table.

All right, she also knew this sort of behaviour was also quite stupid.

But… she was really reluctant to throw it away.

After all, this could be considered as the first thing Gu Ye Mi gave her, and perhaps you never know… it could also be the only one.

Just as Mo Lan was somewhat confounded, An Xiaoluo had already returned and opened the door. She went to the kitchen to wash her hands, washed an apple as well, then walked into Mo Lan’s bedroom calmly and unhurriedly.

As soon as An Xiaoluo walked in, she naturally sat on Mo Lan’s small sofa, while nibbling on the apple, she asked unclearly in her mouth: “Tell me, which stage have you two reached?”

Mo Lan instantly had three black lines on her face: “No stage have been reached… we were just a group of people eating a meal together, then he sent me home, that’s it.”

“That’s it?” An Xiaoluo somewhat suspiciously sized Mo Lan up several times, her eyes clearly showed that she was not convinced.

Mo Lan sighed a little helplessly: “That’s really truly it.”

“Okay.” An Xiaoluo took another bite of the apple and continued gossipping, “But I still think he has a good impression towards you, otherwise, there are so many girls who cries for him, disturb him and like him, why would he treat you differently?”

Inexplicably feeling like this topic was a bit embarrassing, Mo Lan silently took out her phone, she planned to lower her head and browsed through Weibo for a while to avoid the topic.

Who would have imagined that when she just opened Weibo, she was stupefied the next second.

What good deed had she done again saving the nation and the people? Why were there suddenly so many people tagging her again?

An Xiaoluo looked at her shocked manner, bite her apple and went over to look at her mobile and join in the fun.

Mo Lan opened the tags, found that most of the tags were from the yellow V gurus from the ancient style circle, moreover all of them only tagged her, this special formation had one baffling sentence.

Mo Lan browsed through her phone, wished a little to cry without tears*, even if she died she needed to understand then only could she die… you guys tagged me and didn’t even say why how would I know what happened…

(欲哭無淚 kū wú lèi le – idiom – so grieved and sorrowful that one is unable to produce tears even though he or she wants to cry)

She browsed and flipped through over and over again, her fingers stiffened for a moment.

Because, she saw a familiar name.

About twenty minutes ago, Secretly Captivated posted a new Weibo post, the original text as follows:

Secretly Captivated: @YeLanShan, can I look for you to ask for a drama?

Consequently, all the reposts below tagged her.

CV-QingShang: @YeLanShan, I don’t know anything.

ShuiShuiRuoEr: @YeLanShan, I don’t know anything. (downstairs formation)

CV-SuQingmo: @YeLanShan, I don’t know anything.

DregsOrganisingRanRan: @YeLanShan, I don’t know anything.

PurpleCeramicGlaze: @YeLanShan, I don’t know anything.

BaiYuLuoBoMeow: @YeLanShan, I don’t know anything.

…

Mo Lan 囧 for a moment, opened the comments with a bit of a given-up-and-not-bothered feeling, as expected it was already a carnage.

“Male god you wouldn’t have really liked somebody, right? Don’t be like that I can’t accept it ah!”

“(Heartbroken) (Heartbroken) (Heartbroken) The wind on the roof is so strong, male god, are you going to come and see me for the last time?”

“Mi Da I know how to write too, look for me look for me look for me, okay! I write so much better than her ah fall!”

…

Of course, there were still some words which were comparatively excessive, Mo Lan simply glanced hurriedly and her fingers continued sliding down.

An Xiaoluo, who was beside her also turned on her phone, while also joining in the fun and tagged her, she also gossiped in high spirits: “I say Xiao Lan, I can see that you’re truly going to be popular. When Secretly Captivated SAMA interacted with you the first and second time, the fans could still possibly comfort themselves that you’re merely just friends, but now there are more and more interactions, I reckon that their* unbreakable* glass hearts would probably quickly break into pieces and turn into residue.”

(female)
(无坚不摧 wú jiān bù cuī – idiom: no stronghold one cannot overcome; to conquer every obstacle/ nothing one can’t do/ to carry everything before one)

Mo Lan customarily nipped her lower lip without a word.

After about half a minute, she took a deep breath, then reposted Secretly Captivated’s widely discussed Weibo post:

YeLanShan: Thank you male god for looking for me, of course can!

After she pressed the post button with her finger, Mo Lan let out a long sigh of relief.

She needed to grasped her own opportunity, if she gave up this opportunity, then she’s a fool you know.

An Xiaoluo browsed through everyone’s comments with keen interest, then glanced up at Mo Lan, discovered that the other person’s expression was not very natural, thus she took another bite of apple and comforted her: “I say Xiao Lan, you don’t need to take those fans’ words to heart. Sooner or later Secretly Captivated will have a girlfriend, even if it’s not with you, he would still be together with somebody else. Actually the fans do understand, once they’ve finished venting by making noise these few days then they’ll be fine. Of course, there would be a few true fans who would already educate them*.”

(female)

“En…” Mo Lan unconsciously responded, she turned her head and saw the still and peaceful paper cup laid out on the bedside table, the most conspicuous position.

After looking at it for a while, she lowered her head again, her long eyelashes dangled in front of her eyes, not knowing what she was thinking about.

An Xiaoluo sighed, took the last bite of the apple and stood up: “Okay, I should go shower and sleep, remember to thoroughly seize the opportunity, good night.”

“Good night.” Mo Lan smiled and watched An Xiaoluo walk out of her bedroom, the other party closed the door on the way out.

After Mo Lan finished washing up, she switched off the lights, hugged the quilt and tossed and turned on the bed for over half an hour, but she was nevertheless distressed to find herself unable to sleep.

Her mind filled with all the many plots and characters that she could possibly think of, she planned out how to write Secretly Captivated’s new drama.

Suddenly, her phone screen lighted up.

Instinctively, she reached for it, unlocked it, as expected it was Gu Ye Mi’s WeChat message.

GYM: Are you asleep?

Momo: Nope!

The other party was silent for a moment, after about a minute or so, Mo Lan received a voice message.

In a flash, she jumped out of the bed suddenly, Mo Lan ran to her desk and combed through for her headphones, she connected the wire into the mobile phone’s headset jack, she then put it on and opened the voice message.

The surrounding wind whistled past, the horns from the vehicles on the road sounded, the sound from conversations of pedestrians passed by, in short it was quite noisy, only his voice broke through all the hubbub, clearly coming through the headphones, just as if it echoed right beside her ears.

Gu Ye Mi should be walking on the road, his voice was very low, relaxed, indolent and gentle: “I just finished an operation and saw your reply to my Weibo, about the new drama… then I’ll trouble you.”

When she heard Gu Ye Mi used these type of tranquiled and tender tone to persuade her “then I’ll trouble you”, Mo Lan practically immediately wanted to shed tears of gratitude and reply, “No trouble, no trouble, my favourite looked for me to ask for a play was simply my good fortune all right T^T”, but this voice message haven’t finished yet, so she just merely held her breath and calmly listened without speaking.

A sudden “boom” came from the headphones, the sound of fireworks bloomed overhead. Gu Ye Mi’s voice also halted with the sound.

The surroundings were still noisy, then he faintly spoke, his tone undoubtedly tender, but also inexplicably made people feel somewhat exhausted, it instantly seized Mo Lan’s heart.

He said: “Chinese New Year Eve is arriving soon… I’ll say something first, Momo, Happy Chinese New Year.”

The voice message ended, altogether 54 seconds.

Mo Lan was stunned for a while, and then she realized afterwards that the day after tomorrow would be Chinese New Year Eve, it was also… she had bought a bullet train ticket beforehand, the day she decided to go home.

Originally, every day, she looked forward to the arrival of this particular day, but now, with Gu Ye Mi’s faint voice that seemed to be still echoing in her ears, she suddenly was incapable to stop herself from feeling somewhat sad.

He’s an anesthesiologist, during the Chinese New Year celebration, would he still be on duty, still busy in the operation room.

Gu Ye Mi’s New Year… how would it be spent?

Nanjing Bullet Train South Station, Mo Lan and An Xiaoluo held their small and big bags in their hand, passed the ticket gate, it was a challenge to move among the crowd. Mo Lan’s height of 165cm wasn’t the slightest bit useful at this very moment, there were people surrounding her left and right, front and back, all around her, the crowd nearly suffocated her.

An Xiaoluo beside her was also unbearably squeezed, passively movED with the crowd, she turned around with difficulty, and ironically said to Mo Lan: “I thought the only benefit of booking the train at 11:30pm was to avoid the peak CNY crowd*, looking at it now as expected I still expected too much.”

(春运 chūn yùn – (increased) passenger transportation around CNY)

Mo Lan sighed and strenuously pulled her luggage’s handle in her hand, and replied: “I now have the illusion that I’m steaming in my own sauna.”

An Xiaoluo opened her mouth and was about to reply, the person next to her couldn’t help but laughed when he heard Mo Lan’s words, Mo Lan couldn’t see his face, she could only hear the other person somewhat teasingly added on, “There’s no choice, we’re all rushing home to celebrate Chinese New Year.”

We’re all rushing home to celebrate Chinese New Year…

This sentence suddenly reminded Mo Lan.

Gu Ye Mi… where are you now, and with whom, what are you doing right now?

Tomorrow’s Chinese New Year Eve, for the moment… has he returned home?

Just a moment of being absent-minded, it immediately triggered the dissatisfaction of the crowd from the back: “Hey, the girl in front, could you walk a little faster? We’re almost dying from being crowded in.”

“Ah…” Mo Lan was pulled back to reality by the complaints of the people behind her, she quickly stepped forward, and apologised repeatedly, “Sorry, sorry.”

Not daring to let her mind wander any further, she and An Xiaoluo challengingly and slowly moved to the train’s door, found the carriage, and then walked in. Although it was also crowded in the carriage, but it was still much better compared to outside. Mo Lan and An Xiaoluo simultaneously took a long breathe of relief.

They put away their suitcase and backpack, found their seats and sat down, and a happy female mechanical voice sounded, reminded them that the train still had three more minutes before it left.

Mo Lan seemed to have suddenly thought of something, she quickly took out her mobile phone, found Gu Ye Mi’s WeChat, she bit her lip and deliberated over and over again, after deleting and subtracting she sent him a WeChat message:

Momo: Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, Happy Chinese New Year ^^, where are you now? Did you go home for New Year?

Before the other party could reply her, the train already started moving.

One of the biggest drawback of taking a bullet train was precisely that the moving train had an enormous effect on the network signal. So normally after the train started moving, the mobile network would connect on and off, or even not at all.

Mo Lan nervously used her mobile to refresh WeChat several times, as expected she was disappointed to find that there was no network.

If Gu Ye Mi didn’t reply her it would still be okay… but if he did reply, and she disappeared, what would he think of her? T^T

Mo Lan bit her fingernails and cried silently.

An Xiaoluo, who was next to her, had already entered her usual mode, just as the train started moving, she already put on her eyeshade and earphones and closed her eyes and went to sleep.

Thus without any better option, Mo Lan who was bored also followed suit and put on her headphones, she browsed through KuGou* for a while, at first she thought to find a radio drama to listen to, yet her finger happened to come across《Alone Under The Blue Skies》, a fansong of Yun Tianqing and Xuan Xiao from Immortals 4. Mo Lan tilted her head and thought about it, and still opened it.

(KuGou is a Chinese music streaming and download service/app.)

Based on her opinion and in fairness, Mo Lan have listened to countless of radio dramas, but if you were to talk about songs it wasn’t that many, even if she did listen, she would only listened to ancient-style songs from her gang, for example this particular《Alone Under The Blue Skies》. But the reason why she downloaded this song, the greater reason was because Secretly Captivated had recorded the song’s monologue.

In her headphones, the music came through, Mo Lan also focused her mind and was engrossed in listening to the song.

“Does senior brother still remember, that year, you considered returning to the valley?” Qing Shang’s clear and sonorous voice resonated, with a hint of anticipation, the character he played was Yun Tianqing.

“Things of the past, I have already forgotten a long time ago.”

Secretly Captivated’s voice was serene and calm, so calm that it was even somewhat indifferent, inexplicably made people feel obscure.

“Senior brother, look, our face is no different to when we were young.”

“No change to our faces? Huh… you evidently know that a flower may blossom again but a person cannot be young again*.”

(花有重開日，人無再少年 huā yǒu chóng kāi rì, rén wú zài shào nián – an idiom)

Secretly Captivated’s final dubbed sentence of Xuan Xiao concluded, the song started, and Mo Lan suddenly felt a little uncomfortable in her heart.

The chuckle from just a moment ago was seemingly still echoing in her headphones, quiet and husky, which wasn’t the same at all as his former distinguished, accomplished and gorgeous voice or even his touching, gentle and charming voice.

It was like a pear flower blown by the wind fluttering and swishing down, it disturbed a pool of spring water, a small ripple appeared.

Serene, husky, directly striked people’s hearts.

A flower may blossom again but a person cannot be young again…

For the past three years, those days when Secretly Captivated disappeared from the Internet Voice Circle, everytime she heard this particular monologue, Mo Lan would enter into a type of things-have-remained-the-same-but-people-have-changed mood. Because Mo Lan at that time, had the same opinion with the majority of people, that he wouldn’t be coming back ever again.

That kind of feeling, for the most part was, when his name moved heavens and earth, you liked him; later when he vanished without a trace, and yet you fell in love with him again.

Ultimately, it was a great pity.

But fortunately… now, he came back again.

As time passed by bit by bit, when Molan’s mobile phone had only 8% of battery left, they finally arrived at Tongxian County. Mo Lan originally wanted to use her portable powerbank to charge her mobile phone, since she would soon arrive home so she thought it wasn’t necessary, after hesitating for a while she also just dropped it.

She woke up An Xiaoluo who was still sleeping, the two continued to painfully squeezed out of the bullet train station. An Xiaoluo’s father, who was Mo Lan’s uncle*, was already waiting for them at the exit.

(舅舅 jiù jiu – mother’s brother/ maternal uncle (informal))

The two of them got into Papa* An’s car, and as soon as they settled down, An Xiaoluo immediately and noisily started being a chatterbox.

(爸爸 bà ba – (informal) father)

“Dad, do you know how many people were going home for Chinese New Year today? Xiao Lan and I were almost squeezed into biscuits.”

“Dad, I’ve told my mom on the phone before, I asked her to cook red braised pork for me, did she make it?”

“Dad, my holiday this year is only five days, boss is simply exploiting us, normal people should have one week then only it’s right.”

…

Over there, An Xiaoluo chattered continously for a long time, but Papa An just attentively drove, with not even a bit of reaction. Hence An Xiaoluo wasn’t happy, she rarely let loose and be all pampered like, hence she grumbled: “Dad, I’m talking to you, why are you ignoring me?”

Upon hearing these words, Papa An seemed to snort rather discontentedly, then definitely opened his mouth neither troubled nor slow: “Haven’t we agreed beforehand that you must bring back a boyfriend this year for Chinese New Year? How come you’ve returned by yourself again?”

Once he said this, An Xiaoluo instantly quieten down.

The atmosphere in the car was quiet and a little weird, she felt that it was time for her to adjust the atmosphere, Mo Lan 囧 for a moment, thought for a bit then cleared her throat: “No ah Uncle, isn’t there still me, cousin didn’t come back alone.”

“…”

An Xiaoluo listened to her and couldn’t help turning her head to look at her, very appalled, “Xiao Lan, this joke is not funny at all okay…”

Hence, Mo Lan had no choice but to shut up.

Papa Ann suddenly seemed to have found a subject, he sat in the driver’s seat, turned back and quickly looked at Mo Lan, he persuaded and advised patiently, “I say Xiao Lan, you are also twenty-four this year, lau da is no longer young, it’s about time for you to settle down and get married, even though your parents are not feeling anxious, but listen to Uncle, if you still keep putting it off, sooner or later you’ll be the same as your cousin, delaying it until she’s managed to be an old* leftover woman*. Look at her, she’s now 28, she doesn’t even have a boyfriend, once her mum and I start thinking about it, we get worried.”

(老大 lǎo dà – old age / eldest child in a family / leader of a group / boss / captain of a boat / leader of a criminal gang – I’m guessing it’s what her uncle calls her father)
(大齡 dà líng – older than average in a group, at school, for marriage etc)
(剩女 shèng nǚ – lit. leftover woman – a successful career woman who has remained single)

Mo Lan, with black lines all over her face, followed and nodded agreeing, “Uncle is right, I will think about it without delay, but…”

She was somewhat puzzled and opened her mouth, as she was about to asked doesn’t An Xiaoluo already have a boyfriend currently, moreover, a boyfriend with an utterly beautiful voice. Suddenly, An Xiaoluo beside her reached out and gave her shoulder a pinch, Mo Lan swallowed her pain and twisted her head, while she saw the other person showed a hush sign, thus she immediately understood tacitly and closed her mouth.

It seemed that… for now An Xiaoluo wasn’t planning on telling her parents about Su Shen yet.

Was it because… she thinks the two of them won’t go far?

Here Mo Lan still struggled with this matter in her mind, and over there, she had already arrived home.

After saying goodbye to Papa An and An Xiaoluo, Mo Lan turned her body around, saw that the front door lit up with a dim yellow light as always, and suddenly felt a sense of relief.

Last time she returned home… it seemed to be on 1st of October*.

(PRC National Day. It’s beginning of February now.)

She walked to the door and easily took her key out to open the door, because the bullet train ticket was late, it was already two three o’clock in the wee hours of the morning. Her parents… should have already slept.

Thinking of this, Mo Lan became more and more cautious, and she softly and quietly walked through the door.

The lady on the sofa knitting a sweater, heard the door opened, immediately dropped the needle and ball of thread in her hands and stood up.

Mo Lan opened the door and went in, with a glance she saw the lady who stood right before her eyes, she was a little startled for a moment, after a bit, her eyes could not help but teared a little: “Mum, it’s already so late, how come you’re still not asleep?”

Mo Lan’s mother’s name was Xie Wan, she was a locally born and bred Jiangnan woman, with a petite figure, delicate and pretty features, a sweet-tempered disposition, skilled in cooking, Mo Lan’s good cooking skills were also nurtured since young through her mother.

“It’s okay, I’m also not sleepy anyway, thought of you coming home, there must be someone waiting at home for you.” Xie Wan looked at her daughter up and down, stretched out her hand and pulled her to sit down on the sofa.

The Chinese New Year couplets could clearly be seen everywhere in the house, and a box of fireworks and a few rolls of firecrackers were stacked in the corner of the living room. Tomorrow, was precisely Chinese New Year Eve.

Sure enough, only when you leave the big city, and returned to your hometown, then would you be able to feel that hint of Chinese New Year festive ambiance.

Mo Lan took a deep sigh of relief and suddenly felt her whole body relaxed.

Picking up the ball of yarn that Xie Wan had just placed on the table, she asked somewhat curiously, “Mom, what are you knitting?”

Xie Wan smiled and looked affectionately: “Knitting the scarf for you, at first I already finished knitting a scarf, your aunt wanted it for Xiaoluo, so I thought to knit a new one for you before you return, it’s almost finished, only a few stitches away, I’ll just knit a few times then I’m done.”

Her nose soured, Mo Lan sniffed, and showed a clear beautiful* smile: “Okay, then you can continue knitting, just so happened that I want to learn how to knit a scarf too.”

(山明水淨 shān míng shuǐ jìng – lit. mountain bright/clear water clean – describing beautiful scenery)

Mo Lan propped her hand under her chin, concentrated all of her attention to watched her mother knitting the scarf, her train of thought wandered about, somehow, suddenly she couldn’t contained herself and the beige coloured scarf right before her eyes draped on Gu Ye Mi’s body.

Suddenly she recalled the scene of the car accident from that night, Gu Ye Mi took off his own scarf to bind up the wound on the old woman.

At that time, his scarf was entirely soaked with blood, but you could still make out a little bit of the original colour.

It was also beige in colour.

Why not… knit a scarf for him.

As soon as this idea appeared, even Mo Lan was taken aback. However, when this idea first arised, yet it was already very difficult to give up. After resisting against her own brain for a long time, Mo Lan was somewhat defeated and found out that she had already unexpectedly thought of how to asked for the remaining ball of yarn from her mother to knit a scarf for Gu Ye Mi. At the same time, she stared at her mother knitting the scarf and increasingly focused all her attention.

Aabout ten minutes later, Xie Wan finished knitting the scarf, Mo Lan was reluctant to let her be tired again, so she refused her mother’s intention to make supper for her, and urged her to go back to bed.

After finished washing her face, Mo Lan returned to her bedroom all drained, the decor and arrangement in the room was exactly the same as the last time she was back, orange curtains, a light scattered floral quilt, and also a Totoro bolster by the headboard. It was still clean and tidy, all cleaned up until it was untainted by even a speck of dust.

Everything was so familiar, Mo Lan looked around her room, inexplicably, it made her recalled her young and inexperienced years of senior high school.

En… after all, after Chinese New Year, the group of old classmates from senior high school should be wanting to gather again.

Without any need to think, Mo Lan suddenly couldn’t help but yawned. After all, today could also be considered to be a tiring and constantly-on-the-move kinda day. Mo Lan rubbed her sour eyes and lazily fell onto the bed not wanting to budge.

Just as she was about to enter the land of dreams, suddenly, her phone which was charging on the desk beside her started vibrating.

Mo Lan blanked, the four limbs of her body and the bones of her body were all clamouring that she was so tired that she did not want to move, she lay on the bed hugged her Totoro bolster and hesitated, at a loss for a minute or two, she had still better resolutely crawled out from bed, got up and grabbed her phone.

It was a WeChat message from Gu Ye Mi.

Once she saw the three letters “GYM”, Mo Lan couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief, immediately began to rejoice that just a moment ago she didn’t just chose to ignore it and continued to lie down and fall asleep.

GYM: Just finished an operation, I’m off work now, you should already be home by now?

He just finished an operation?

Mo Lan couldn’t help but glanced at the current time on her phone, it’s 2:54 in the wee hours.

Only finished work at this time… tomorrow was still going to be Chinese New Year Eve.

With a sigh, Mo Lan typed back:

Momo: I just arrived home not long ago, you… are not going home for Chinese New Year?

The other party replied very quickly, seemed to be somewhat helpless:

GYM: It’s my turn this year to be on duty, no choice. But, it’s almost three o’clock now, still not sleeping?

Momo: I was just learning how to knit a scarf with my mom, am now lying down on my bed.

GYM: Do you know how to knit now?

Mo Lan instantly froze for a moment when she saw the other person’s reply.

So now… how should she answer?

After she racked her brains for a long time, Mo Lan finally replied very courageously:

Momo: I’ve learnt how! Umm, as a thank you for looking for me for the drama, how about I knit a scarf and gift it to you?

As soon as the message was sent out, Mo Lan heard her heartbeat hecticly jumping compared to before, the hecticness made her want to throw away the phone in her hand all at once, and then ignorantly fall asleep under the quilt.

However, before she could throw away her phone, the other party had already responded to her.

Concised and clear, only four words:

GYM: Money can’t buy this.

(求之不得 qiú zhī bù dé – idiom – lit. seek but fail to get – fig, exactly what one’s been looking for, something along the lines of even asking or looking for it but it’s unattainable through any method)

She felt her face started to burn again, Mo Lan at a loss bit her nails and thought about what she should say now. Although she was the one who first suggested it, but reading these four words from Gu Ye Mi, Mo Lan was nevertheless unspeakably a little embarassed.

She bit her lower lip all tangled up for quite a while, Mo Lan’s eyes suddenly lit up, Gu Ye Mi was so familiar with Su Shen, why not… tell him about Su Shen and An Xiaoluo, firstly a new topic was found, secondly, she could also possibly help An Xiaoluo to first scout out for any information.

Momo: Okay, I’ll let you know once I’ve finished knitting ^^.

Momo: There’s something else, well… you know about Su Shen and my cousin?

GYM: Yup, what’s the matter?

All of Mo Lan’s fingertips danced at lightning speed on her phone screen, a whole bunch of words were sent in one stretch:

Momo: It’s also not a big deal, just that my cousin is strong-willed, she thinks that Su Shen values ​​his job more than her, recently we’ve talked, I think… she seemed to be a bit discouraged. Or else, you could find the time to talk to Su Shen?

Somewhat apprehensively she waited for about a minute or two, the other party finally answered her:

GYM: I can go talk to him. But, Momo, everybody’s point of view on love is different, as for Su Shen, he felt that as busy as work is, meeting 2 or 3 times a month is a very normal thing.

Love’s point of view? Outlook on love?

Mo Lan suddenly blanked for a moment.

If it was truly as what Gu Ye Mi said, in that case would An Xiaoluo… be able to accept Su Shen’s type of love?

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This was the second longest chapter of the whole book at 12001 characters which was twice as long as the previous chapter. It was hard trying to decide where to break it off! Don’t worry, the next part starts at a new scene 🙂

Have a blessed week ahead!