SM Chapter 63

Chapter 63: The Moon Book and Red Thread “It shouldn’t be possible to encounter two of these…”

Of course, Tan Zhi Xu wouldn’t refuse, and the video call continued until he returned to his home in Shenyi.

“Alright, I’m here. Shihao, you can go to sleep now.”

The angle in the screen was already strange, showing a clear jawline and the passing background as he moved.

She glanced at the time; it was almost twelve o’clock. Outside, it was silent, and in the dark winter night, only the biting cold wind swept away the few remaining withered leaves.

But wasn’t this a bit too much like being discarded after use?

Zhu Shihao grumbled with slight dissatisfaction, “Why don’t you usually let me sleep this early?”

Tan Zhi Xu entered the master bedroom’s bathroom to wash his face again, placing the phone on the counter. Hearing her, he glanced at her.

“Because even if I told you to, you wouldn’t sleep this early. Besides, Shihao, you like it too, don’t you?”

Having also just washed her face, changed clothes, and even changed the bedding, Zhu Shihao had only just laid down. She hummed softly, not saying anything.

Seeing this, Tan Zhi Xu teased her, “You don’t like it? Looks like I haven’t been working hard enough.”

He said it with a serious face, as if he was truly reflecting.

How much harder could you work?!

Knowing him too well, she knew he just wanted her to answer.

She turned over and lay on her stomach on the bed, her lower face hidden behind her arm and the pillow. Her voice was as soft as a mosquito’s buzz: “I like it, okay?”

“Huh? What did you say? Working hard?”

Zhu Shihao raised her head and glared at him, “Tan Zhi Xu, you’re so annoying.”

Seeing her flustered and exasperated, Tan Zhi Xu chuckled, “Alright, I’m annoying. If Shihao is good, she’ll go to sleep now.”

He was clearly telling her, but the rising intonation at the end seemed like a question, not to mention that final “hmm,” which made her even less willing to sleep.

“You’ve changed; you just want to hang up on me.”

The camera followed him as he walked, then showed the ceiling. She could hear small rustling sounds. She couldn’t see him, but she guessed he was changing into his pajamas.

A sigh came from the phone.

He hadn’t said anything specific, yet it felt like he had said everything. A simple interjection, but it made her heart race.

Clutching the corner of the blanket, her heart pounded.

When Tan Zhi Xu reappeared in the camera, he was indeed wearing pajamas. His tone was still as helpless and indulgent as that sigh.

“Be good, you know I don’t mean it that way. Be a good girl, and I’ll pick you up tomorrow.”

Zhu Shihao wasn’t a rebellious person; she hadn’t been rebellious in her twenty-seven years of life and rarely deliberately went against people. Relatively speaking, he was the person she was most likely to be willful and argumentative with, but he knew that Zhu Shihao was simply expressing her emotions.

Just like now, she was reluctant to part.

She pouted slightly, looking more like a child than before.

“When I’m not there, there’s no one to coax you to sleep, and you need a long time to fall asleep on your own.”

Yes, she looked listless.

With her chin resting on her arm, she was a little unhappy: “Zhi Xu, I already miss you so much. When are you going to propose to me?”

His breath caught, and even his heartbeat slowed. Tan Zhi Xu, showing none of his usual nonchalance and detachment, smiled and said, “Let me see the light of day first, then we’ll talk.”

Of course, that’s all he said. In reality, he already had plans in the works.

His Shihao was precious and delicate, his treasure. The proposal couldn’t just be a few words.

Zhu Shihao huffed: “Alright, you go to sleep early too. Pick me up tomorrow.”

Tan Zhi Xu nodded, paused, and then his tone carried a hint of warning: “Don’t play on your phone, okay?”

“Okay, okay, good night.”

“Good night.” Afraid it wasn’t enough, he added, “I’ll pick you up tomorrow.”

Zhu Suiyi arrived a little after ten o’clock, while she was comfortably lying in bed.

Then she was awakened by the “Pig Song” beside her ear, which sang: “…pig head, pig brain, pig body, pig tail, never picky about food, good kid, sleeps until the sun is high, never brushes teeth, never fights…”

Clearly, someone had manually moved the progress bar to that part.

Zhu Shihao sat up, covering her ears, and heard Zhu Suiyi take the opportunity to educate the child, “Did you hear that? Only piggies don’t brush their teeth.”

Zhu Shihao: “…”

Seeing her sit up, Zhu Suiyi said in a strange tone, “Oh, you’re up? Paying respects to Miss Zhu Shihao.”

“Are you a child!” she said speechlessly, touching Jia Jia’s face. “Why are you here so early? What time is it?”

Zhu Suiyi pouted: “If it were any later, we could order takeout. If you had any self-awareness, you would know I’m talking about lunch.”

Regarding the latter sentence, she looked down at Jia Jia, feeling indignant: “Early? This little tagalong woke up at exactly 7:30, couldn’t be held down. If we weren’t considering that you were sleeping in, we could have been here at nine.”

“Alright, stop giving people nicknames all day long. Sit down, I’ll go wash up first.”

Giving her a speechless look, Zhu Shihao said as she got out of bed.

Zhu Suiyi rolled her eyes, patted Jia Jia’s head: “Go watch TV outside.”

Hearing this good news, Jia Jia’s eyes lit up, and she hurriedly ran towards the living room.

Zhu Shihao glanced at her and saw her coming over, winking at her in the mirror: “Who is it? Are you really not going to tell me?”

“No, I said I’d bring him home for the New Year at the latest. Why are you in such a hurry?” Zhu Shihao refused decisively.

If her sister knew that the person she liked was Tan Zhi Xu, she would definitely feel sad for her.

So, she would tell her later, giving her time to think about it and prepare.

Zhu Suiyi stood by the door, nagging her, the main point being to tell her that she was extremely discreet and would keep it a secret as if she had amnesia, never mentioning it.

She persisted until Zhu Shihao closed the door to go to the bathroom, still standing at the door chattering non-stop. When she changed her clothes, she stood rooted to the spot, not showing any intention of leaving.

Zhu Shihao pulled up the corner of her shirt, revealing a section of her fair and slender waist. She paused and turned her head to look at her: “You’re not leaving even when I’m changing?”

Zhu Suiyi said plausibly: “What’s there to be afraid of? I’ll just feast my eyes. If you want, I can help you change.”

Releasing one hand to give her a thumbs up, only Zhu Suiyi in the entire Zhu family would say such rogue things.

On second thought, it seemed that wasn’t quite right. It seemed that she herself had also evolved in that direction…

“I don’t want you to. Go away and watch your daughter.” Zhu Shihao urged her to leave.

Shrugging and sighing, Zhu Suiyi was extremely resentful: “Okay, I’m leaving. My sister is no longer the innocent and cute sister she once was.”

Actually, you wanted to say she wasn’t as easy to fool and get information from, right?

Zhu Suiyi, how childish!

As she walked to the living room, the sight of the two of them, one big and one small, came into view. Clearly, Zhu Suiyi was waiting for her, patting Jia Jia, who was sitting with her legs crossed, and gesturing with a “hmm, hmm.”

As a result, Zhu Shihao received two eye-rolls. Comparing them side by side, she suddenly realized that Jia Jia’s eye-rolling was definitely not the same version as her mom’s.

Compared to Zhu Suiyi’s contemptuous expression, Jia Jia was much cuter: “Auntie!”

Zhu Suiyi deflated: “Hey, this kid. Didn’t I tell you to hold it in? What do you want to eat for lunch?”

The last sentence was naturally directed at her.

Sitting down next to them and casually picking Jia Jia up to sit on her lap, Zhu Shihao thought for a moment, “Dry pot, maybe. I haven’t had it in a long time.”

Zhu Suiyi gave an OK sign, not asking which restaurant. Whether it was dry pot, fried chicken, or even Xinjiang spicy rice noodles, they always had fixed choices.

She originally thought that Zhu Suiyi’s main purpose for coming this time was to dig out who her boyfriend was, but unexpectedly, after asking a few questions at the beginning, she didn’t bring it up again. They simply stayed together chatting, gossiping, and sitting quietly like two sisters.

Around four o’clock, Zhu Suiyi prepared to leave with Jia Jia, as she had a dance lesson to attend in the evening.

Standing at the door, waiting for Jia Jia to put on her shoes, Zhu Suiyi inadvertently glanced at the door lock and remembered something: “Oh yeah, let me record my fingerprint. I’m too lazy to enter the password.”

After saying that, she frowned and looked at her: “You don’t still not know how to record fingerprints, do you?”

Zhu Shihao: “…”

She could say she didn’t know, but meeting Zhu Suiyi’s eyes, she swallowed it back.

“Okay.”

Looking at the 004 displayed on the screen, Zhu Suiyi asked with a frown, “004? Who’s 003? It’s not your boyfriend, is it?”

Zhu Shihao didn’t stop changing her shoes, saying calmly, “Mom came over on the weekend before.”

It wasn’t a lie. A month or two ago, Liu Ruoyin had indeed come over on the weekend, bringing her a large bag of dumplings. Later, the bag of dumplings had been taken to Shenyi, and the two of them had finished eating them.

Hmm, she was starting to crave them. It had been a while. She would ask her dad if he was free; she was willing to lend a hand.

“Ah, oh, okay,” Zhu Suiyi responded hesitantly.

Something felt wrong, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. This feeling was so familiar.

“Are you really going to see us out? Aren’t you going to change clothes? Isn’t it too much trouble?”

At first, Zhu Suiyi thought she was just being polite.

Zhu Shihao pushed her: “Alright, I’ve already changed. It would be a loss if I didn’t go out.”

Besides, she was also going out later, and had already told Tan Zhi Xu.

Carrying the trash bag and takeout, the three went downstairs and threw away the trash. The car was parked outside, so Zhu Shihao accompanied them out of the complex. Jia Jia, carrying her bee backpack, walked at the front, chest puffed out.

The two sisters walked arm in arm, a meter or two behind her.

“You’re really not asking? Why are you giving up so easily today?” she asked, puzzled.

Zhu Suiyi glared at her: “Don’t make it sound like I’m domineering and dictatorial. If you want to tell me, tell me. If you don’t want to, forget it. Didn’t you say you’d introduce him for the New Year? It’s just dating, not marriage. Why so serious?”

After a pause of a few seconds, she asked inexplicably: “How good is he to you? He can’t be much worse than Zhi Xu, can he?”

Why compare him to Tan Zhi Xu? Probably because everyone thought that Tan Zhi Xu was too good to her, so good that he had become the standard, yet they subconsciously believed that it would be difficult for anyone to be better to her than Tan Zhi Xu.

Suddenly hearing Tan Zhi Xu’s name in this conversation, Zhu Shihao paused for a moment and smiled softly.

“He’s very good. About the same, neck and neck. And he’s even improved.”

Thinking about it carefully, wasn’t that true? Even during their “unnamed and unranked” time, Tan Zhi Xu’s kindness had grown more intimate and direct as their relationship changed. Not to mention now.

Zhu Suiyi, who had been so calm, was shocked, turning her head sharply to stare at her, looking her up and down, then turning back, muttering in disbelief: “It shouldn’t be possible to encounter two of these, right?”

Zhu Shihao heard everything clearly, pursing her lips and secretly laughing in her heart.

Indeed, it shouldn’t be possible, so it was only one person.

Hearing the honk, Zhu Suiyi was just about to get into the car. Jia Jia had already been strapped into the child seat. The two followed the sound, and a car stopped to the side. The car window lowered, revealing the person in the driver’s seat.

“Oh, Zhi Xu, why are you here?” Zhu Suiyi was confused for a second, then reacted and raised her fist towards Zhu Shihao, gesturing, “I was wondering why you were being so polite and insisted on seeing us off. So, you had a date.”

Zhu Shihao didn’t admit it: “I didn’t know he was coming so early. Besides, don’t talk like I’ve never seen you off before.”

Thinking about it, she reeled off the accusations: “Zhu Suiyi, you have no conscience.”

The words sounded quite familiar. After she finished speaking, she unconsciously looked towards Tan Zhi Xu, and sure enough, met his meaningful gaze.

“Mommy, is that Uncle Zhi Xu? I want to see!” Jia Jia was strapped in and couldn’t see anything at all.

The lazy Zhu Suiyi rejected her without even turning her head: “Let’s go, let’s go. Now that we’re strapped in, it’s better to do less than more. We’ll ask Uncle Zhi Xu to come to Grandma and Grandpa’s to eat next time, okay?”

Not giving her a chance to refute, she opened the driver’s seat door and called to the two, “Taking her now! Zhi Xu, come to our house for dinner next time!”

By the time she said the last sentence, she was already gone. The turn signal lit up, and she left without any hesitation.

Zhu Shihao stood there in place.

Tan Zhi Xu looked at her: “Aren’t you getting in?”

“When did you get here?” she asked, smiling as she got into the car.

“I was already halfway here when you sent the message. What do you want to eat? French food? Hot pot?”

Zhu Shihao said without hesitation: “Barbecue.”

Tan Zhi Xu didn’t say anything, just thinking for a couple of seconds about which restaurant to go to.

She told him about what she did with Zhu Suiyi today, what they ate, what they talked about. There were no ups and downs, and it was so mundane that it was just a soft sofa and those unnutritious, commonplace words. He listened silently, occasionally chiming in.

“Suiyi didn’t chase after me to ask who you were. She just asked me if you were good to me.”

“Am I good to you?” he asked.

“You’re the best to me,” she replied without hesitation, with utmost sincerity.

Tan Zhi Xu gave a soft “hmm,” and the smile at the corner of his mouth widened a little.

Zhu Shihao’s eyes were extremely bright, her voice as gentle as her heart: “Ever since I was little, Suiyi has always been on my side.”

Although her sister, who was four years older, often seemed unreliable, she understood better than their parents how to consider her younger sister’s feelings and choices, and trusted her decisions more. Then, she would stand on her side; she was an ally who would never defect.

Zhu Suiyi was the most reliable sister.

Tan Zhi Xu gave another “hmm,” and this time he said, “Sister Yi is a very good sister, and Shihao is also a very good sister.”