SM Chapter 61

Chapter 61: Moon Book Red Thread “One reason isn’t something you repeat like this…”

Tan Zhi Xu gently patted her back and said casually, “Not to that extent, maybe next year.”

Wei Wang raised his chin, looking down his nose at them, “So when are you planning to tell us?”

Zhu Shihao, who had recovered, immediately looked up at the person next to her upon hearing this. With the straw in her mouth, the tapioca pearls slowly rose up, and she didn’t seem to have any intention of answering.

Tan Zhi Xu met her gaze, and the words just came right out, “Planning to send the message as soon as we get in the car.”

Wei Wang: “??”

If you had said you were sending the message when you got home tonight, I could barely find some sincerity to justify you.

Back in the car?

“Do I look stupid?” Wei Wang withdrew his chin, looking at the two people across from him and asking sincerely.

Tan Zhi Xu gave him a bland look, with a hint of approval in his casual expression.

“The fact that you can realize this problem means you’re not completely hopeless.”

The surrounding colleagues laughed.

Wei Wang shot them a fierce glare.

“Good sis, Xu-ge is an exception, he’s not a nice person! But how did you become like this too? You can’t learn from him!” After a heartfelt sigh, he muttered, “If you’re near vermillion, you’ll turn red; if you’re near ink, you’ll turn black. I don’t blame you, I don’t blame you.”

They heard him clearly. Tan Zhi Xu chuckled softly, looking down at Zhu Shihao.

She understood.

Zhu Shihao looked at him innocently.

It was indeed her who didn’t want to make a big announcement, but she wasn’t deliberately hiding it from them either. In the end, it was their problem, so how could they blame her?

But in fact, inexplicably, Tan Zhi Xu took the blame.

She scratched his arm that she was holding and raised her milk tea to his lips, looking well-behaved.

“Thank you, but I don’t want to drink it. This won’t appease me.”

Tan Zhi Xu tilted his head to avoid it, as he had no interest in sweet and greasy things.

Zhu Shihao reluctantly withdrew her hand and slurped up a few tapioca pearls to chew.

This scene made Wei Wang’s teeth ache. In the past, when they had delicious wine, they didn’t really mind sharing a cup, just turning it around to take a sip. They were used to seeing it, but using the same straw was too much, right?

Okay, okay, he got it.

These two were taking the “matter of habit” routine to the extreme, and they didn’t even let them feel that anything was wrong.

To put it bluntly, they were being domesticated.

Wei Wang gritted his teeth. “Enough, please consider my feelings. I can’t take any more stimulation right now.”

“Is that so?” Tan Zhi Xu glanced at him.

Seeing him nod firmly,

he smiled knowingly. In front of everyone, Tan Zhi Xu lowered his head and kissed her. Looking at Wei Wang’s wide eyes,

“I can only stimulate you this much. The rest can’t be made public.”

After grinding his teeth for a while, Wei Wang punched him on the shoulder, jokingly scolding, “Are you even human? That’s too much.”

In all these years, he had rarely seen Tan Zhi Xu so openly happy.

“So smug? Xu-ge, we don’t dare to provoke you, but Shihao-jie is at the top of the food chain. Be careful you don’t get taken care of when you get back.” He earnestly instructed Zhu Shihao, “Good sis, you have to establish the rules early on, starting now, without delay.”

Zhu Shihao gave him a light, ineffectual glare, smiling as she said, “Yeah, you’re right.”

Where was “starting now” even coming from?

The three of them didn’t talk for long, since Wei Wang’s colleagues were still there. They just agreed to get together on the weekend. It was clear that they were planning to tell them then.

As he was leaving, Wei Wang thought for a moment and said solemnly, “Don’t worry, I’ll keep it a secret for you first and give them a surprise later.”

Watching his back as he draped his arm around his colleague’s shoulder and hummed a tune, Zhu Shihao commented, “Wei Wang seems very happy.”

Tan Zhi Xu lifted his eyelids and glanced before withdrawing his gaze, taking her hand and heading toward the parking lot, humming softly.

“He’s smug, probably thinks he’s the only one who’s sober while everyone else is drunk.”

It had to be said that Tan Zhi Xu understood Wei Wang’s psychology very well, accurately guessing his smug, wait-and-see attitude.

On this memorable night, Tan Zhi Xu, with good reason, dragged her into repeated practice, until Zhu Shihao was too exhausted to even actively cooperate, and her voice was slightly hoarse.

“You can’t keep using the same reason like this.”

Tan Zhi Xu wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead and the top of her head. “I only used it once.”

Zhu Shihao bravely raised her eyes and gave him a soft punch. “You want to say that again? How many times?”

He chuckled. “One night.”

Speechless.

Okay, okay, so it’s a word game, just changing the quantifier.

With Saturday not even two days away, no one found it strange that they invited Wei Wang and Ran Cai to hang out on the weekend. After all, they had work during the week, so they usually only got together on weekends. The only strange thing was that this time, the invitation was initiated by Tan Zhi Xu, and he personally announced it in the group chat.

Amidst slight surprise, everyone bubbled up to agree, saying they would definitely be there. Only Wei Wang, who was mixed in and already knew the answer, was shaking his leg smugly at home.

Because of the Saturday appointment, they didn’t go back to Huating after work on Friday, but stayed in Shenyi.

The dinner was scheduled for that night at Rongji. There weren’t many people, so one private room was enough. They gave Tan Zhi Xu’s surname, and someone led them in.

It wasn’t late when Zhu Shihao and Tan Zhi Xu arrived; in fact, it was still about ten minutes before the appointed time.

However, when they arrived, they found that they were still the last to arrive. Fortunately, they were together, so you couldn’t decide who was last.

As the private room door closed, Zhu Shihao, holding Tan Zhi Xu’s arm and meeting everyone’s gaze, didn’t feel nervous.

Zhu Shihao said, “You’re all here so early.”

Hao Hao shrugged. “It’s so rare to get to eat at Rongji thanks to Xu-ge. The key is that it’s still Xu-ge’s personal invitation. I’d have to crawl over here even if I had to climb.”

Tan Zhi Xu pulled out a chair next to Ran Cai, letting her sit down. Midway through, he felt Ran Cai’s meaningful gaze and slowly lifted his eyes to nod at her.

Following the usual routine, the empty seat on Zhu Shihao’s other side was for him. He placed the bag he was carrying behind him, thinking that Wei Wang was about to be disappointed. This table clearly had one more person in the know.

Thinking that way, Ran Cai was indeed smarter than Wei Wang and the others. Not by much, just a little, so she wasn’t too dim-witted.

The thoughts in her heart weren’t very polite, but her expression was calm and indifferent, revealing nothing.

Ran Cai glanced sideways at her friend. Compared to usual, the difference was more than slight. Zhu Shihao certainly felt it and had a faint guess.

She thought about it and opened her mouth, “Are you…”

“Ah, Shihao, my dear, are you hungry? Let’s eat.” Ran Cai immediately changed her expression, interrupting her in a slightly exaggerated tone.

Zhu Shihao looked at the empty table with not even a single dish, and was silent.

If she hadn’t guessed her intention of not wanting to say it now, she would have suspected that she was drunk precisely because there wasn’t even a plate of peanuts.

Swallowing back the rest of her words, Zhu Shihao silently met her gaze.

Tan Zhi Xu chuckled, letting out a soft sigh, “Let them bring the dishes.”

After the eye-battle ended, Ran Cai was satisfied with her sensible response and decided to forgive her slightly, about 40%.

Understanding that Ran Cai knew, although she didn’t know how she knew, it didn’t matter. Now, what was more important was how to reduce her dissatisfaction.

Zhu Shihao’s gaze paused on Tan Zhi Xu for two seconds, feeling that she couldn’t stay put, so her eyes fell on Wei Wang, who had a secretly excited expression.

Feeling apologetic for a second, she took out her phone and sent a message to Ran Cai.

Shihao: 【Wei Wang saw us a few days ago, but he told us not to say anything.】

The phone beeped, and Ran Cai glanced at it. She took up a pose and gracefully clicked it open.

She didn’t reply to the message, but her sharp gaze swiped toward the unsuspecting, grinning Wei Wang.

Zhu Shihao saw it in her eyes and felt slightly relieved.

And so, Wei Wang then discovered that Ran Cai kept going against him, including but not limited to verbal digs, sarcasm, and turning the table when he picked up food.

Unable to bear it any longer, Wei Wang looked at her and sincerely asked, “Where did I offend you?”

Ran Cai replied unhurriedly, “My damned ex-boyfriend had a piece of clothing like yours, and I just want to chop you with a knife when I see it.”

That reason made him feel stifled.

She had even drunk because of that damned ex-boyfriend before, and Wei Wang couldn’t refute it. “Okay, I’ll never wear this piece of clothing when you’re around.”

Zhu Shihao found it funny, knowing that Ran Cai was just finding fault.

Her ex-boyfriend had a literary style. To quote Ran Cai after the breakup, he was “just short of carrying a book of poetry around every day as a fashion accessory,” and he would never wear such casual clothes.

Very good, she had successfully diverted attention.

Raising her cup to take a sip of water, Tan Zhi Xu, on her right, leaned over and whispered, “Shifting the blame?”

As soon as her eyes rolled, he knew what she was up to.

Zhu Shihao moved the water cup away and whispered back, “Not at all. Just telling the truth.”

He curled his lips, raised his hand, and patted her head, neither affirming nor denying it, just finding her endlessly adorable.

Ran Cai, who had been paying attention to the two of them, curled her lip at this, marveling in her heart, and secretly wondering why she had been so blind in the past and hadn’t seen anything wrong with these two.

At this point, she unintentionally started focusing more on the two of them, temporarily relaxing her taunts of Wei Wang.

Tan Zhi Xu ladled a bowl of porridge for her. Seeing her hair falling loose, he asked, “Where’s the hair tie?”

While scooping up porridge, Zhu Shihao raised her left hand. Taking advantage of the space, “It’s here.”

The thin black hair tie loosely encircled her wrist. When she raised her hand, there was a gap underneath, swaying gently.

Reaching out, he removed it. The hair tie, which had been loose and limp, was now held tightly in his palm, taut from his tiger mouth to the center of his hand.

Tan Zhi Xu leaned back slightly, gathered her hair, and brushed it. He tied her a low ponytail, then pinched the hair tie and gently slid it down a notch.

Ran Cai’s chopsticks stopped in mid-air. She turned her head to scan the surroundings and found that even if others saw it, their expressions were normal, and no one thought anything was wrong.

She suddenly understood.

That’s right, back in high school, Tan Zhi Xu climbed over the wall for Zhu Shihao and wrote double the amount of self-criticism essays…

Back then, they had suspected that there was something between the two of them. But in fact, they were just being narrow-minded.

Their kindness to each other had persisted for more than twenty years. They had watched them for more than ten years and had seen them date other people, but they still treated each other with care and importance. Doubting them would have been a kind of blasphemy.

So, after so many years, they weren’t after anything in particular; they were just after each other.

Suddenly feeling relieved, Ran Cai finally stopped reflecting on whether she had been blind.

After dinner, they went to the usual place, Nan Feng.

In the dim corner, Tan Zhi Xu surveyed the people present.

Wei Wang, Hao Hao, and Ran Cai were their high school classmates. Yang Xu had joined a production crew, Li Chennan was his college classmate, and as for Zhang Zi Ang, he was basically written off after the last gathering at Huating.

There weren’t many, but they had been a part of his life for ten-odd years.

But there was still someone who had been with him for even longer.

Being the focus of attention, Tan Zhi Xu acted naturally, took Zhu Shihao’s hand, and kissed it lightly.

Wei Wang’s scream came from the side.

“Damn it, why didn’t you spill the wine on your own pants!”

The culprit, Hao Hao, was completely stunned, staring blankly at the two of them. His expression was dazed, repeatedly switching between self-doubt and disbelief, and he paid no attention to Wei Wang’s words.

Li Chennan was silent for a long time, breaking the delicate silence at the table. “So, you guys?”

Wei Wang couldn’t even be bothered to wipe his wet pants. He laughed loudly and was just about to speak, but was unexpectedly beaten to it.

Seeing that he was done gloating, Ran Cai spoke a split second before he could open his mouth.

“Yeah, they’re together.”

She said it very casually, meeting Wei Wang’s shocked, doubtful, and deeply regretful gaze. She calmly expressed her provocation.

Wow, what should she do? She said it first.