SM Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Saying Yes is Saying Yes “When looking for a man, you better open your eyes wide, but…”

This restaurant is very expensive, and it hasn’t been open for long. Tan Zhi Xu took her here to eat during its opening.

It’s no exaggeration to say it’s so expensive that she felt like every step she took after entering the door was being metered and charged.

Zhu Shihao approached him and lowered her voice, “Eating here again? It’s so expensive; it feels like robbery.”

Tan Zhi Xu lowered his ear to listen to her and glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, not commenting, but just asking, “Is it good?”

She hesitated for two seconds, but still couldn’t go against her true feelings and honestly said, “It’s delicious.”

“Then that’s that,” he replied lazily.

After dinner, Tan Zhi Xu drove. “Let’s go to your place first.”

“First? What about after?”

He turned on the turn signal, and even the action of turning the steering wheel seemed casual. “After, we’ll go to my place.”

Driving on the road, the streetlights and car lights came and went, falling into the car, making his face sometimes clear and sometimes blurry in the changing light, vaguely blurring the boundaries.

She had looked at this face countless times, but it could still make her lose her mind for a moment.

“What’s the significance of this ‘first’ and ‘after’?” she asked in confusion, snapping back to reality.

Tan Zhi Xu took the time to glance at her. “If you want me to help you buy underwear, you can. It’s not like I don’t know your size now.”

Zhu Shihao: “…”

There was a moment of silence. She said it wasn’t necessary. “Thank you, I know you recognize the English alphabet, but no need.”

Standing in front of the closet, she took out her underwear and thought she might as well take two sets of clean clothes.

Tan Zhi Xu stood in front of her dressing table and took out his phone to take a picture of her skincare products. Returning to her side, he glanced down at the clothes she was packing and thought about reminding her that she hadn’t brought pajamas. But after thinking about it, it was okay if she didn’t bring them, so he simply didn’t say anything.

At night, Tan Zhi Xu wanted to ask her who that person she used to like was, and did she still like him? But looking at the person beneath him, he wasn’t willing to mention a third person at this time, especially such a character.

Over the years, apart from those three absurd and funny relationships in her junior year of college, Zhu Shihao seemed to have never been in a serious relationship, and he hadn’t even heard of her liking anyone or having a good impression of anyone.

There were many people who liked her and pursued her. Some went silent after a few meals, and when he asked her, she would just say she didn’t have a feeling.

Tan Zhi Xu hadn’t thought much about it before. Zhu Shihao should be picky, right?

But these days, he repeatedly thought about that love letter, wondering with some absurdity, wouldn’t she still be thinking about that rascal?

How could she? Why?

With a heavy heart, Tan Zhi Xu gritted his teeth, and his movements became a little rougher.

Zhu Shihao’s nails dug into his skin, and the glistening in her eyes made the person in them even more erratic. “Zhi Xu, gentler, gentler…”

Tan Zhi Xu’s voice was low and husky. “Who am I, Shihao? Call me, say my name.”

“Zhi Xu, Tan Zhi Xu…”

Her tenderness remained unchanged, but now with a hint of charm. Every sound was like the siren’s song, bewitching the sailors, making them lose their minds and their way, causing Tan Zhi Xu to run aground and sink here with Zhu Shihao.

A sense of aggression arose, but it didn’t outweigh the love and tenderness.

He kissed the corner of her reddened eyes. “Baby, let’s be comfortable and happy together.”

The next day, Zhu Shihao was woken up for breakfast and decided to go out with him to hitch a ride.

At noon, she received a call from Liu Ruoyin.

“Hello, Mom, aren’t you taking a nap?”

Liu Ruoyin glanced at the kitchen and pouted. “Your dad is still washing dishes; how can I take a nap?”

Zhu Shihao laughed. She had seen it since she was little. Her dad loved to stick to her mom.

Zhu Yingqing justified this with righteous words, believing the reason was quite sufficient: “A father must treat everyone equally. I can’t split myself in half to stick to you, can I? So, of course, I stick to your mom.”

Although Zhu Suiyi didn’t remember what it was like when she was an only child, it didn’t stop her and Zhu Shihao from unanimously and firmly believing they were all excuses.

“Why are you calling all of a sudden? Is something wrong?”

Liu Ruoyin hummed, her tone cold. “What? Can’t I call my daughter if I haven’t seen her for two weeks, even if there’s nothing wrong?”

After reflecting, it seemed that she had indeed been with Tan Zhi Xu all weekend except for the time she was taking care of her child.

Zhu Shihao helplessly called out “Mom” and coaxed her. “Then I’ll go home for dinner tonight and sleep with you. It’s fine as long as Dad doesn’t mind.”

“What if your dad minds?” She said this very arrogantly. Liu Ruoyin remembered the matter that she wanted to call about. “Right, come back tonight and tidy up your room. Throw away anything you don’t want; it’s just collecting dust.”

Zhu Shihao thought about it. It was indeed time to tidy up. Some things from many years ago could no longer be kept.

She prepared to get off work early to pick up her parents from school. Tan Zhi Xu had driven her here today, so she could only take a taxi now. Sitting in the car, she thought about him finding people every day these days and sent him a message.

Perhaps he wasn’t busy, and she quickly received a reply.

Zhi Xu: [Okay.]

Concise, and frighteningly cold.

Looking at this word, she vaguely had the illusion that they were still just friends, and everything between them was built on this foundation, as well as the relationship between their families.

The time they spent together these days seemed to be all her imagination. In reality, Tan Zhi Xu didn’t necessarily want to be with her so much.

But after focusing, she felt there was nothing wrong. What if they had such an ambiguous relationship as bed partners? The root of what had happened was sex, not love.

Zhu Shihao pursed her lips, didn’t reply, but pressed the power button, turned her head, and looked out the window, watching the pedestrians and scenery by the road recede.

It was just a fleeting interlude on the journey.

She didn’t rush to tidy up her old things when she got home, but chatted with Liu Ruoyin for a while. While Liu Ruoyin was checking her lesson plans, she went to the kitchen to help Zhu Yingqing.

This was the only person in the family who could be compared with him in terms of cooking skills. Zhu Yingqing also enjoyed the warm time of cooking with his daughter and would occasionally give her some guidance.

Liu Ruoyin could only make things edible. Zhu Suiyi was even more impressive; she could only eat. Her current comfort was all thanks to the son-in-law she had found in the past two years.

Naturally, the family activity of taking a walk after dinner couldn’t take place in the dead of winter. The three of them sat in the living room, chatting casually for a while, but both parents were teachers after all, especially since Liu Ruoyin’s class was in the final year of high school this year. There was endless homework for both students and teachers.

Liu Ruoyin only followed her daughter back to her room, leaning against the door. “Tidy up a bit. Pile anything you don’t want neatly against the wall.” After thinking about it, she added, “Do you still have that box under the bookcase?”

Amusedly looking at her, Zhu Shihao asked in return, “Didn’t you tell me that everyone’s feelings should be cherished and respected?”

So, she had carefully kept all those love letters in the box.

That was indeed what she had said. Liu Ruoyin touched her nose. “Then it’s up to you. I’m leaving; make yourself at home.” She turned around decisively, waving goodbye as she walked.

Seeing her return to her room, Zhu Shihao closed the door, looked around, walked to the bed, and patted the quilt. It was soft and fluffy. The room was clean and tidy, clearly often cleaned.

No matter when she and Suiyi came back, the room was always ready for them to move in at any time.

She opened the bookcase door. Except for the second shelf, it was full of books. There were three such bookcases in her house, and even Zhu Suiyi, the most lively person in the family, could calm down when reading.

The second shelf was filled with some objects: stuffed animals she had won with classmates, prizes she had won at sports meets, and so on. Even more were all kinds of things that Tan Zhi Xu had given her: plastic hair clips in boxes with a strong sense of the times, exquisitely made crystal balls and music boxes that weren’t cheap…

There was also a super cute doll sitting in a glass cover, which Tan Zhi Xu had bought with a year’s worth of his lucky money when he was nine years old. Jia Jia had seen it before and had been asking her for it for a long time, but she hadn’t given it to her. Later, when Tan Zhi Xu found out, he gave Jia Jia another one.

It was much more expensive than hers, and Jia Jia liked it very much and was very happy, but Zhu Shihao thought hers was prettier.

After taking down the odds and ends, only things that Tan Zhi Xu and her family and friends had given her were left.

Remembering the box of love letters that Liu Ruoyin had mentioned, Zhu Shihao opened the closet and took it out. Even though it had been kept in the closet, it had been so many years since she had taken it out that it inevitably had a layer of dust.

Fortunately, the contents inside were well preserved. There were envelopes of all colors and styles, and the ink of the handwriting was still very clear.

She picked up an envelope at random and opened it.

“…I always feel lonely when I miss you. I think I might be lonely forever…”

Bursting out laughing, Zhu Shihao picked up the envelope again and looked at the name. She had a bit of an impression of this person. According to Hao Hao, he had gotten married extremely early, as soon as he reached the legal age, it seemed.

It seemed that he hadn’t been lonely much later.

Putting it back as it was, feeling amused, she sat down and started looking at the others.

She didn’t know how many times she laughed until her phone rang. She picked it up and saw that it was a video call.

She took out her phone stand, put it on, and answered.

A cold-looking face of Tan Zhi Xu appeared on the screen. He must have just finished drying his hair. It was fluffier than usual, adding a bit of boyishness to the mature, tall man.

“Zhi Xu.”

Looking at the smiling person in the phone, he raised his eyebrows. “What are you doing, so happy?”

Reflexively glancing at the love letter with a heart drawn on it in her hand, remembering the thin, cold “Okay” from the day, she hesitated for a moment, then smiled again.

“Looking at love letters.”

Unsure of what she was feeling, she not only told the truth but also quickly took the phone and shined the light on the box.

The small lens couldn’t see the slowed footsteps of Tan Zhi Xu’s pause, nor could it clearly see the sudden darkness in his eyes.

“Slow down, take it back out, let me see who all is there?”

Even though it was just a fleeting scan, he could tell that this box was quite large, and there were many love letters. He could probably guess that it must have been what she hid from him in middle school.

Why did he call them what she hid from him? Because he had said no dating early, so these love letters were clearly sent to her secretly.

Zhu Shihao looked left and right and decisively refused. “No way.”

Pulling back the covers, Tan Zhi Xu sat down. “You went back just to look at love letters?”

“How is that possible? Who has that kind of time? My mom told me to come back and tidy up, to declutter.”

Tan Zhi Xu nodded, his expression unchanged. “Don’t touch this box for now.”

Did she not understand him yet?

Zhu Shihao’s eyes showed vigilance as she asked him, “What do you want to do? Some of them have been married for many years. Don’t mess around.”

“Married for many years? How do you know?” Grabbing the key phrase, Tan Zhi Xu curled his lips into a cold smile. “What, are you still in contact?”

Zhu Shihao glared. “…How could I be? Don’t you know who I’m in contact with?”

Hearing this, he felt slightly satisfied. The sarcasm on the corner of his mouth disappeared, faintly, but with a hidden warning. “Zhu Shihao, when you’re looking for a man, you better open your eyes wide, and don’t eat just anything because you’re hungry.”