CH 26

Chapter 26: Scallion Oil Noodles

That night the moonlight was awfully beautiful. The night sky was speckled with many stars, and the bright moon hung limpid in the air. Occasionally, a burst of cool wind blew over. Ruan Zhizhi, who had always had debility, wrapped her arms around her shoulders. She couldn’t help but shiver slightly.

Shi Yan, who was by her side, saw it. Without a second thought, he pulled down the zipper of his sweater and draped it over her.

“Thank you.” Ruan Zhizhi quietly lifted her eyes to look at him. The taciturn man was walking side by side with her at this moment, his face still extremely indifferent. His walking posture was very nice. Even though it appeared lazy, he was also calm, unhurried, and graceful.

She thought that although Shi Yan wasn’t good with words, every time she had even a little discomfort, he would be able to find out immediately.

Was this his special power?

Since they left the bar, they had walked for nearly ten minutes in silence and had already deviated from the track to the parking lot. Ruan Zhizhi thought about it for a long time, not knowing whether to ask him. 

What if he hadn’t parked his car in the parking lot?

She was entangled in her heart when she saw Shi Yan suddenly stop.

“A while ago you threw up, are you hungry now?” When Shi Yan asked her, there was a lively snack street near the bar area across from where he had stopped. 

Ruan Zhizhi, who was finally relaxed at this moment, listened to the peddlers’ clamour from various shops on the snack street. She smelled the rising aroma of all kinds of foods. Before she had time to respond, her stomach groaned very unsatisfactorily.

Shi Yan pursed his lips and smiled: “Let’s go, your body is too weak, you can’t miss a meal.”

Ruan Zhizhi stood in place, shaking her head. She thought to herself that Shi Yan seemed to smile many times this evening. When he smiled, she felt uneasy.

This person truly was a scourge.

To get to the snack street, they needed to cross the street. Currently, it was still a red light. Ruan Zhizhi and Shi Yan stopped with the crowd and waited patiently.

In Ruan Zhizhi’s memory of red lights, sixty seconds was not at all long. But she had never stood together with the opposite sex waiting for the traffic light before. Not to mention, standing beside her currently was a shining body that everyone was focused on.

As expected, there were already girls in groups of two or three whispering about them.

“Look, that man is so tall and handsome. ah. Look at his height, he’s at least 1.85 metres or more.”

“In addition, his facial features look so refined, and his temperament is also good, it’s hard to see someone like this when walking on the road.”

“Do you guys think he’s a model? Or maybe a little fresh meat who just debuted and is not popular yet?”

When Ruan Zhizhi heard this, she couldn’t help but burst into laughter. If an unreasonable and naturally cold person like Shi Yan was a little fresh meat, she guessed that even his most wholehearted fans would also be scared away by him.

“Is the girl standing beside him his girlfriend?”

“Most likely, don’t you see that handsome guy’s clothes on her?”

“Ah…that’s really such a pity. He could totally find a girlfriend as beautiful as a celebrity. Furthermore, this girl’s height is 1.6 metres at most, how can she suit him?”

Ruan Zhizhi: ……

She was clearly 1.65 metres. Moreover, she had already surpassed the average height of Chinese women.

As she was thinking about it, she suddenly saw the green traffic light shining before her eyes. Sixty seconds had passed, and now a vast crowd of people already flocked around her, scrambling to cross the crosswalk.

Quite soon, she was encircled by the tide of people. Ruan Zhizhi wrinkled her brows and tried to brush through the crowd. The next second, her hand was tightly grasped by someone. His body temperature was always low, and she didn’t have to look up to know who the owner of the hand was. 

“Why can’t you even cross the road?”

Relying on his natural height advantage, Shi Yan frowned and brought her out of the mass of people effortlessly, speaking in a tone like a kindergarten teacher educating a child. 

Ruan Zhizhi pouted. Not to be outdone, she retorted: “Of course a tall person like you can’t understand our sadness.” After speaking, she recalled what those girls just now had said and blurted out, “Speaking of which, do you care about a girl’s height when you’re in a relationship? Or her appearance and such?”

“What do you mean?” Shi Yan frowned, as if he didn’t understand the meaning of her words. 

The crowd around them was surging forth. Shi Yan hadn’t let go since he grabbed Ruan Zhizhi’s hand. Afraid that she would be knocked against pedestrians, he walked a little bit behind her to block the passersby for her. 

Ruan Zhizhi was speechless. Unwilling to give up, she continued to question. “That is, do you have a girl’s appearance or height you particularly like? For example, your ideal partner must be about 1.7 metres tall, or she must look innocent and cute.”

The two of them had already crossed the intersection and finally reached the entrance of the snack street from across the road.

Only then did Shi Yan stop. He let go of Ruan Zhizhi’s hand and touched her forehead: “You still aren’t sober yet, asking such a senseless question?”

“Ai, right now I’m asking you a very serious question. I hope you can answer me with the same seriousness.” Ruan Zhizhi raised her face and deliberately made a meticulous expression.

Shi Yan tilted his head and looked at her. His dark eyes finally became serious, and when he spoke, he looked very calm: “Ruan Zhizhi, when I first liked you, I didn’t even know what you looked like.”

He was talking…about the time the power failed in the lab?

Indeed, in the darkness, you couldn’t even see the fingers on your hands, let alone distinguish each others’ appearance.

Wait. Just now, he said he liked her?

Completely uncontrollable, her heartbeat rose to the summit in an instant.

“If I have to say something to make you happy…” Shi Yan pursed his lips and sized her up. “About 165 metres, with a thin figure, long hair, and big eyes.” Having said that, his eyes shifted down to Ruan Zhizhi’s chest, and he added very seriously, “Also, girls with an A cup.”

Ruan Zhizhi was immediately silent. Her face reddened, then turned white, and she finally decided to shut up and end this subject as soon as possible.

The two entered the quaint snack street. The shops on either side of the street were full of crimson lanterns, which looked very lively. For a moment, the shouts of the shop owners, conversations of the pedestrians, and the aroma of various foods engulfed Ruan Zhizhi’s nerves. 

There seemed to be a slight hint of fireworks in the world now. Ruan Zhizhi thought that when she interacted with Shi Yan before, it always gave her a sense of surrealism. He didn’t seem to belong to this world. He had his own domain that no one was allowed to pry into.

As she was thinking about this, she saw Shi Yan stop in front of a shop to buy snacks. She looked up inquisitively, only to discover that it was an oden shop.

The boss was extremely enthusiastic. While greeting them, he carefully tossed all kinds of foods into a container with hot soup.

Ruan Zhizhi recalled that a long time ago, during the trip to Yunnan, Shi Yan had once given her a bowl of oden too. A little curious, she asked, “Shi Yan, how do you know that I like oden?”

“In university, you would rather sit on the bus for more than an hour every week to go to Chinatown to get oden.”

He even knew about this?

Before she could think about it, she heard the boss’s loud voice: “Little girl, do you want ketchup poured in?”

“A little bit, thank you Boss,” Ruan Zhizhi replied absentmindedly. Her mind was still full of thoughts regarding what had happened when she was in university. 

During those years, she had always chased Li Sichen wholeheartedly. Maybe she really had missed all the people and things around her. 

The boss handed the piping hot oden to Ruan Zhizhi. Shi Yan promptly handed over the money of his own initiative. Ruan Zhizhi took the oden, but after thinking about it, she still said to him, “Shi Yan, I have hands and feet and can support myself. I really don’t need you to spend money on me every time.”

Shi Yan looked at her quietly. After a long time, he finally said, “Ruan Zhizhi, you don’t need to be independent and strong forever, someone is willing to spoil you.”

Ruan Zhizhi, who was holding a bamboo stick to dip into the ketchup, suddenly felt a little moved in her chest. 

Her parents had divorced when she was a child. From then on, her father showed no concern for her, and her mother was busy with her work. Apart from giving her money, her mother didn’t care. She had always been used to being independent. She was used to carrying everything by herself, and she was used to appearing invincible in front of others. Even in the days when she was by Li Sichen’s side, Li Sichen only saw her as a brother, thinking of her as strong and self-reliant, someone who could do anything. 

No one had ever genuinely regarded her as a delicate young woman, and no one had ever told her that she didn’t need to be independent and strong forever.

Perturbed, she took a bite of the bamboo shoots in the oden. Ruan Zhizhi licked the sauce. She couldn’t adapt to this kind of tender atmosphere. She opened her mouth and asked a little stiffly, “Do you want to eat some?”

She thought that she would definitely be rejected, but unexpectedly, the other party lowered his head, seized the bamboo stick from her hand, and directly bit off the remaining bamboo shoots.

Caught unprepared, Ruan Zhizhi was petrified.

The two walked all the way down the road. When they passed a noodle restaurant, Shi Yan insisted on taking her in because she was too thin and he was afraid that she wouldn’t be satisfied with only a box of oden.

The shop wasn’t big, but the boss kept it very neat and tidy. Even though it was nearly ten o’clock at night, there were still many customers, mostly couples, and it was estimated that they had come from the bar street like them. 

They walked in and found a wooden table to sit down at. The boss came over and told them apologetically that there were only enough noodles left for one last bowl. Ruan Zhizhi didn’t mind at all and nodded. After all, she was almost full.

It didn’t take long for a steaming hot bowl of scallion oil noodles to be served. Shi Yan wiped his chopsticks clean, then carefully picked the cilantro out of the bowl.

“Eat.” He pushed the bowl of noodles, without cilantro, in front of her.

Ruan Zhizhi pushed it back: “I’ve already eaten oden, so you should eat first.”

Shi Yan stared into her eyes for a while but didn’t refuse. He bowed his head and picked up his chopsticks, eating very gracefully. There was no sound when the chopsticks made contact with the bowl.

Even in a simple and crude place in an alley in the city, surrounded by noisy people, he still looked so calm and elegant. No matter how strong the smoke and fire outside was, he remained unpolluted, noble, and aloof in his own world. 

Watching him eat really warmed the heart and delighted the eye.

“Shi Yan, just now you said you liked me, right?” Finally, unable to hold back the strong wind and waves in her heart, Ruan Zhizhi quietly assessed his expression and cautiously opened her mouth to confirm.

She still had to ask for her peace of mind. Currently, Ruan Zhizhi was a sensitive and insecure hedgehog when it came to love. No matter what, she had to make sure that she wouldn’t be rejected or discarded before she dared to step forward cautiously.

Shi Yan glanced at her, then set down his chopsticks. His tone remained calm, yet he didn’t answer her question directly. “Ruan Zhizhi, from any angle, I am more suitable to be your boyfriend than Li Sichen.”

The subject of conversation had shifted too quickly. But his reply had no doubt tacitly acquiesced to her question.

Ruan Zhizhi’s suspended heart finally fell back into her chest. Her mood also improved. She blinked and deliberately asked, “Really? How do you know?”

“Considering my family circumstances, my parents died early. If you marry me, you won’t need to worry about the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. In terms of my economic circumstances, I have a car and a house, and my income is more than enough to support you. As for my interpersonal relationships, I have a slight phobia of contact with the opposite sex. You don’t need to worry about me being unfaithful to you after marriage. Finally—”

He methodically expounded his advantages one by one, then lowered his eyes and met her gaze accurately, his eyes as bright as a multitude of stars: “I love you more than Li Sichen.”

Ruan Zhizhi thought that she had long passed the age of impulsive love, but when she heard Shi Yan say these words, she still blushed with a pounding heart.

Suppressing her heart’s urge to agree to him, she was silent for a while, trying to keep herself clear-headed. “Shi Yan, I admit that right now I have a good opinion of you. But after all, I once invested four years. I don’t know if I’ve completely let go of my feelings for him, and if I can’t be with you wholeheartedly, then it’s really unfair to you.”

She pursed her lips, then continued to speak. “Can you give me some time to think about it properly? I swear I won’t be too long.”

After saying these words all in one breath, Ruan Zhizhi immediately felt a little regretful. The man before her may be the one person who cared about her most in the world, but it was exactly because of this that she didn’t want to be unworthy of his love even more. 

Shi Yan smiled indifferently: “You don’t need to accept me now, I’ll give you enough time to consider the relationship between us. But Ruan Zhizhi, you need to be clear about one thing: For you, I am determined to win.”

Translator’s Note: Next week my internship is supposed to get really crazy, so updates may be off schedule but I’m hoping to still have 3 chapters out as usual!!! Sorry T^T