Chapter 80: A Rendezvous
“It’s pretty late, so I’ll give you a ride back to your hotel.”
“Thanks, but no, I have plans with a friend.”
Liu Man didn’t mean anything else, but Tang Tu’s voice suddenly became cold and bold,
“With that vet earlier?”
Liu Man was stunned.
In the minds of her schoolmates, Tang Tu was a godly figure; his face was handsome, his talent was unmatched, and his noble style was always hard to get closer to.
But he seemed like a normal upperclassman in front of Liu Man. He was always caring and always smiling; he was always using a soft voice.
He had never talked to her before with such a strange tone.
Liu Man, raising her head, stared at Tang Tu’s blushing face and said worriedly,
“Are you drunk?”
Tang Tu quickly realized his gaffe. He regained his sense of reason and smiled apologetically. He still looked like that noble upperclassman, “I seem to be a little drunk, sorry.”
After saying “sorry”, he continued to say “apologies”.
“Apologies, I could’ve taken that drink for you just now.”
Tang Tu had felt guilty. He shouldn’t have given up protecting Liu Man just because of Qiu Jing’s obstruction.
“It doesn’t matter; I didn’t drink a drop of wine in the end anyway. To be honest, I’m still a little curious about the taste of the wine,” Liu Man smiled, completely reflecting Tang Tu’s hesitation and retreat at the time.
Tang Tu felt even more guilty when he saw her smile.
If he had been a little braver then and stood up to protect her, he could now ask her out like that veterinarian.
His cowardice makes him have no position to interfere with her now. Where she wanted to go and whom she wanted to go with was her freedom.
“Then, you must pay attention to your safety.”
Tang Tu’s voice sounded very, very low.
Liu Man nodded.
“I’m going back to my room to rest,” he pretended to press his temples to sober up with his hands, but he was covering up the pain in his eyes.
It turned out that if I really like a girl, it would make me so scared and so anxious. I can’t even maintain my original arrogance.
Tang Tu finally realized the feeling Shen Mozhen had, how she loved him but couldn’t conquer his heart.
Liu Man walked out of the restaurant, and everyone was waiting for the elevator outside. An ordinary-looking waiter walked up to her,
“Miss Liu, please follow me.”
Liu Man thought of the owner of Quan Jing Hotel, who was with Yu Zhan, so she followed the waiter without any doubt.
The waiter took her around two corridors, opened a door with a key, and there was an elevator inside, “You can use this elevator.”
The interior of this elevator was luxurious and new. The four walls were all mirrors, the three handrails were carved with exquisite dragon patterns, and there were soft Persian pattern carpets under her feet. It looked different from the ordinary passenger elevator outside.
Liu Man can guess that this was a private elevator for the hotel owner.
The elevator went down to the first floor, the door slowly opened, and Yu Zhan’s refreshing, smiling face slowly appeared in Liu Man’s perspective. Like an ancient knight waiting for the arrival of the princess, Yu Zhan gave her a waiting and greeting sense of ritual.
Liu Man couldn’t help but smile, but then she thought of something and frowned as she asked,
“What did you do with Daylight and Paul, now that you’re here in Shanghai?”
Yu Zhan smiled helplessly, “I know how important Daylight is to you. Do you think I would come over here without any preparation?”
“I have fed Daylight and Paul before I came and prepared enough water for them before I left. I will return by airplane at ten o’clock tomorrow morning. There is no problem with the cat and dog being hungry for just one night.”
“You’re leaving tomorrow, in such a hurry?” Liu Man frowned, “In that case, why did you even come to Shanghai?”
Yu Zhan only looked at her and smiled. In his dark eyes, there seemed to be fine and gentle stars twinkling, “Won’t you feel lonely on New Year’s Eve? I’m here to accompany you, just because I am also alone.”
Liu Man looked at his eyes dumbly, as if there was a deep black hole sucking her in. She fled out of the black hole in a panic and lowered her head in a panic, only to hear her own heart beating extremely fast and extremely loud.
The Liu Man at that moment didn’t understand, that this was how it felt to suddenly fall in love with someone.
“Don’t you have friends? You’re not lonely,” Liu Man had her head lowered, and her voice sounded melancholy.
Yu Zhan laughed. He finally found the courage to say something flirtatious, but she didn’t get it and even analyzed his words to find loopholes. Yu Zhan could only fake a lie, “Their family just told them to go back home.”
Not wanting to entangle this question anymore, but also to ease the embarrassment of his love story failure, Yu Zhan solemnly asked Liu Man, “Are you feeling full right now? Do you want to eat anything else?”
Liu Man felt her stomach and said frankly, “I am full. I drank a lot of sweet juice. Now I want to eat something salty.”
There was no other way. The food at these kinds of occasions were just a few plates to go along with wine. Liu Man didn’t like them, so she could only immerse herself in drinks.
“Then, let’s have some barbecue. On my way here, I saw a barbecue shop next to the road that is still open.”
On the night of New Year’s Eve, 99.9% of the shops and restaurants were closed. On this street, only the restaurant of Quan Jing Hotel was still open at this moment.
Yu Zhan was talking about a shop owned by someone from the Hui ethnic group, and they didn’t take breaks on New Year’s Eve.
The small barbecue shop was in the deep alley behind Quan Jing Hotel. The facilities in the shop were simple: iron tables, iron chairs, peeling white walls. They are all cleaned up, however. When Liu Man and Yu Zhan came in, there were no customers in the shop, and there were only the owner and his wife.
The owner’s wife was a middle-aged woman wearing a headscarf. Seeing them, she enthusiastically handed them an A4 paper covered in plastics, a small, white piece of paper, and a pen. This was their menu, and there were kebabs, Grilled chicken wings, roast beef… They were all barbeque food, and the price was very cheap.
Liu Man looked at these and immediately became hungry. She said, “I want to eat lamb skewers, chicken wings, mmm, grilled fish, too. Grilled mushrooms and grilled leeks sound good…”
There is no heating in the restaurant, and it was a world of difference from the warmth in the Quan Jing Hotel. Liu Man shrank in her seat, rubbed her hands, tried to warm her hands up by overwhelming them with her hot breaths.
As she listed what she wanted, Yu Zhan wrote them down on the paper. His hands were freezing from the cold. It was obvious that the two of them were feeling extremely cold, but their hearts were warm.
Yu Zhan looked up and asked her, “Is there anything else you want to eat?”
Liu Man looked at him with big watery eyes, which were pure and innocent, like Daylight’s, “Don’t you want to get something to eat?”
“I also ordered double for everything, just like you.”
“So, you aren’t full either. Sometimes, just because things are expensive doesn’t mean they’re good, right?”
“Yes. Life is mundane anyways. Even rich people care about daily necessities,” Yu Zhan said as if he was pondering about life.
Credits: Sydney, Puppxteer/Yutong