Chapter 176: Giving gifts, seducing (Please subscribe!)

What a line, "I won't refuse." The two shared a smile and walked forward side by side.

It was just a post-meal stroll, with no specific destination, intended only to aid digestion.

When they reached the Yan Garden, the two paused for a while. Mai Sui looked at the Red Building not far away and said, "The environment here is truly lovely, very tranquil."

The so-called Red Building was a three-story red brick house. It was said that it had only been merged into Fudan University a few years ago. Further ahead were small bridges and flowing water.

The bridge was a small, flat one. The water was neither wide nor deep, but it meandered elegantly. The setting sun cast golden light through the dense woods, creating an indescribable aesthetic beauty.

At just one glance, it felt incredibly romantic.

Li Heng took a look around and said with a stir of emotion, "I didn't expect Fudan to have such a perfect spot; I've never been here before."

Mai Sui said, "I came here once with my roommate, but we didn't go onto the bridge."

Li Heng asked casually, "Why didn't you go?"

Mai Sui said, "There were a lot of people taking pictures at the time, and it was getting late, so we didn't wait."

So that was it. Li Heng said, "Let's go. There's no one here today; let's go and enjoy it."

Mai Sui smiled and agreed.

Viewed from afar, it looked like a painting; up close, it was like a fairy tale world. Red leaves drifted, birds chirped, and the stream gurgled. The two stood there, looking up at the sunset with its ten thousand rays of red clouds, both momentarily dazed.

At one point, Mai Sui couldn't help but turn her head to look at his profile for a while, then lowered her head in thought, and finally raised her head again to gaze at the setting sun.

Li Heng suddenly teased, "Am I better looking, or is the sunset?"

Mai Sui gave a soft, charming smile, pursed her lips, and played along, "You're the one pursuing Song Yu, so naturally, you're better looking."

Li Heng praised, "Comrade Mai Sui really knows how to talk. I'll reward you with two mooncakes later."

Only then remembering that the day after tomorrow was the Mid-Autumn Festival, Mai Sui asked, "Did you buy mooncakes?"

Li Heng shook his head, "Not yet. I'll take you to buy some in a bit."

It was her first Mid-Autumn Festival at university, and being far from home, Mai Sui cared quite a bit, so she readily agreed.

After saying this, the two tacitly stopped talking, immersing themselves in the birdsong and fragrant flowers.

Unfortunately, there weren't many flowers, just a string of purple morning glories by the stream, but they bloomed quite stunningly, looking just like this scenery and this person.

Suddenly, the two shifted their gazes, attracted by a man and a woman to their right. That couple was hiding behind a tree, occasionally peeking out cautiously to look at the two on the bridge.

Li Heng asked, "Did this pair of lovebirds get here before us?"

Mai Sui looked at him speechlessly, "Probably."

Li Heng grumbled, "What a mood-killer. Can't they hide properly? They had to poke their heads out; otherwise, I wouldn't have even noticed them."

Mai Sui couldn't say anything, because she remembered the story of Li Heng and Chen Zijin in the small woods back in high school. It truly fit the old saying: "The officials are allowed to burn down buildings, but the commoners are not allowed to light lamps."

Leaving the small bridge and flowing water, Li Heng said, "You wait for me at the school gate. I'll go get my bicycle, and we'll go to Wujiao Square to buy mooncakes; they have more variety there."

Mai Sui happily agreed and then waited for him at the entrance of the guardroom.

He left quickly and returned even faster. Before long, Li Heng rode up on his beloved Forever-brand bicycle from downstairs at the dormitory. He didn't even slow down, shouting from a distance, "Comrade Mai Sui, fly up here! I believe in you."

Mai Sui smiled, took a short running start, and landed steadily on the back seat.

Li Heng asked, "Are you sitting steady? I'm going to put on some speed."

Mai Sui said "Mm."

Fudan University wasn't particularly far from Wujiao Square, but the dirt road hadn't changed a damn bit. It was full of small stones, and all the way there, her butt was jolted until it hurt.

Approaching the Mid-Autumn Festival, there were truly many shops and stalls selling mooncakes. After browsing along the way, the two finally stopped in front of a relatively large stall.

Li Heng asked in a low voice, "What do you think of this one?"

Mai Sui said, "This one is quite good. There's a lot of variety, and it's clean and hygienic."

Li Heng looked at her, "Then this one it is?"

Mai Sui reached out to pick up a few mooncakes to compare them and nodded at him.

The two discussed and selected a few varieties. At the end, Li Heng asked the boss, "Boss, how do these mooncakes taste? Are they as good as you bragged?"

The bald boss was a straightforward man. Without a word, he picked up a mooncake, broke off a small piece, and handed it to him, "Try it. If it doesn't taste good, you don't have to pay."

Li Heng took it, broke it again into two halves, put one half in his own mouth, and very naturally held the other half to Mai Sui's lips.

Mai Sui was stunned. She stared at the small piece of mooncake in front of her for two seconds, then slightly opened her mouth and ate it.

After chewing a few times, her eyes lit up, "Mm, delicious. It has that taste from when I was a child and shared mooncakes with my playmates."

Li Heng felt the same way, "The taste of childhood."

Mai Sui praised him charmingly, "Your choice of words is precise."

The two bent down and picked out half a bag. Once weighed, it was 6 jin.

Then they picked out some other varieties and weighed them again—5 jin.

Li Heng said, "That's 11 jin. We won't buy any more here; let's go to the department store and take a look."

Mai Sui understood his idea in a second, "You want to buy some to give away?"

Li Heng nodded and said, "I'll bring a box for Comrade Manning so she can give it to the Vice President. I'll also buy a few boxes to give to others, and you should buy a nice box to take to your dorm to share with your roommates."

Mai Sui looked at his back, feeling that this boy truly possessed a maturity beyond his years, handling everything thoroughly.

Buying mooncakes at the department store was simple: whichever variety was expensive and had exquisite packaging, they bought it. Before long, the two had another 5 boxes of mooncakes in their hands.

On the way back, Li Heng suggested, "How about you ride the bike and I hold the mooncakes? How about that?"

Mai Sui knew he was being considerate of her; after all, sitting sideways on the back made it hard to hold the mooncakes, while as a guy, he was much more casual and could sit straddled, which was steadier.

Mai Sui rode the bike, Li Heng held the mooncakes in the back, and facing the evening breeze, the two dashed toward the school in high spirits.

On the middle stretch, Mai Sui asked him with concern, "Are the ends of my hair whipping into your face?"

The wind was too strong, blowing with a whistling sound. Li Heng shouted in the wind, "It doesn't matter. You washed your hair this afternoon, right? It smells very good."

Mai Sui felt her face heat up a little. She checked her left and right hands and found she didn't have a hair tie on her wrist, so she immediately gave up the thought of stopping to tie her hair. Instead, she put more effort into her feet, pedaling so fast that she overtook one bicycle after another on the dirt road.

When they reached Lushan Village, Li Heng sighed, "Facts prove that your cycling skills are indeed much better than mine. You bypassed the stones all the way, and my butt didn't suffer nearly as much."

Mai Sui just lowered her head and smiled, took the key out of her pocket, opened the door, and entered the small building.

Li Heng followed, put the mooncakes in the room, and then picked up a box to go out, "The light is on next door. You wait for me at home; I'll be right back."

"Mm." Mai Sui watched him go out, then began to check the loose mooncakes one by one to see if any were damaged.

Outside.

Li Heng reached out and knocked on the gate.

Before long, a figure with a rich scholarly aura appeared on the second-floor balcony. Who else could it be but Yu Shuheng?

She poked her head out to look down, then went into the room to walk to the first floor and opened the door from the inside.

Their gazes met inside and outside the door. Li Heng offered his blessings, "Teacher, Happy Mid-Autumn Festival."

Yu Shuheng smiled and nodded, took the mooncakes, and said, "Come in and sit for a while."

In the classroom, she was a gentle and kind teacher. But once they met in private, Li Heng always felt it was strange. He inexplicably didn't want to look into her eyes, fearing that the secret hidden in the depths of his heart would be seen through. She seemed like a wise person.

Although this was just a feeling about her facial features, it truly existed, and its seductive degree was comparable to Mai Sui's inner charm.

It was just that the difference between the two was:

Mai Sui's seduction was captivating, seducing one's desires!

Yu Shuheng's seduction was bottomless, seducing one's inner voice!

Honestly, Li Heng, who had lived two lifetimes, was seeing such a profound woman for the first time. He secretly pondered: what kind of family could cultivate a woman with such a temperament?

He had moved to Lushan Village for over a month now, and had countless times looked at this small courtyard from the attic, even seeing every flower and blade of grass in the yard. But looking from afar was one thing; entering it, he had a completely different experience.

Having just returned from Wujiao Square, Li Heng had a small amount of mud and sand on his shoes, and the ground was too clean, so he instinctively didn't enter the room and just stood in the yard for a while.

Seeing this, Yu Shuheng poured a cup of tea from the room, pointed to the small round stone stool beside it, and said warmly, "Sit. I want to ask you something."

Li Heng took the tea, said thank you, and sat down accordingly.

Seeing him sit down, Yu Shuheng sat elegantly on the other side and asked, "What day are you going to the capital?"

Li Heng said, "I'm leaving tomorrow morning."

Yu Shuheng asked again, "Going to Peking University?"

Li Heng was numb. Did she even know this? Could he have no secrets at all?

He tacitly agreed.

Yu Shuheng said, "The day after tomorrow, I will entrust someone to send the plane ticket to Peking University. Um, if you aren't at school, I'll have it sent to Song Yu's dorm. What do you think?"

Li Heng said thank you again.

After the business was discussed, Yu Shuheng got up and went into the room again. When she came out, there was an ocarina in her hand. She asked, "Do you know how to play this?"

Li Heng shook his head, "Not really. I've only played with this thing a few times."

In this life, he hadn't touched one even once; he was talking about his previous life.

Yu Shuheng put the ocarina on the stone table and said, "The female classmate who came with you should like it. This is an extra one that hasn't been used. You can give it to her."

Li Heng understood; this was Yu Laoshi's return gift.

He gave mooncakes, she returned an ocarina.

The problem was, how did she know Mai Sui would like it?

Seeing the doubt on his face, Yu Shuheng looked up at his attic, "Every time I play the ocarina, she sits in the attic and listens."

So that was it. Li Heng reached out and took the ocarina, played with it in his hand, and said, "Then I'll thank you on behalf of Mai Sui, Teacher."

Yu Shuheng smiled, then stopped talking, sitting dignifiedly on the stone stool. The eyes that had just been as beautiful as a painting seemed to instantly close off their wisdom, losing their charm, and the pupils reflected patches of flowers and grass.

Alright then, this was a hint for him to leave. Li Heng stood up immediately, greeted her a few times, and left the yard.

As soon as he stepped out of the gate, Li Heng felt an inexplicable sense of relief throughout his body. Damn it, the feeling of having no secrets in front of her was truly not good.

It was an indescribable stuffiness, uncomfortable.

Returning to the No. 26 small building, Li Heng found Mai Sui, who was boiling water, and handed the ocarina to her, "Here, Comrade Mai Sui, Yu Laoshi next door gave this to you."

Mai Sui leaned over to look curiously, then took it in her hand and said, "Does an ocarina look like this? It's really pretty. Even if I don't know how to play it, I'm happy just looking at it."

Li Heng was speechless.

Noticing his strange expression, Mai Sui asked, "What's wrong? What's with that expression?"

Li Heng said, "Yu Laoshi said you would like it."

It was Mai Sui's turn to be surprised, "She really said that?"

Li Heng nodded.

Mai Sui looked back at the small building opposite, "I've only listened to the ocarina sound three times from the attic. I haven't seen her in person, so I thought she hadn't noticed. I didn't expect her to be so perceptive."

Li Heng joked, "People who can live in Lushan Village are all high-IQ talents. We should keep a low profile in the future."

Mai Sui laughed along, "I've learned another way to brag about myself."

Then she said, "I won't take the ocarina with me for now; I'll leave it with you first."

Li Heng agreed, "No problem at all. If it stays for too many days, just remember to treat me to a meal then."

Mai Sui smiled at him and went into the kitchen to get the boiling water.

After resting for half an hour, the two set off again with the mooncakes, first going to the No. 9 dormitory building to give the mooncakes to Sun Manning.

Seeing the mooncakes, Sun Manning appeared very happy at first, even saying she was planning to buy some tomorrow, not expecting the two to bring them over. Then came a screen full of complaints:

"No way? What's going on with you two lately? You often don't call me for meals, you always forget me when strolling, and you didn't even call me for something as big as buying mooncakes. Am I still your friend? Are we still a small group?"

Before Mai Sui could speak, Li Heng spoke first, "We're both in the Management School, it's convenient. Sometimes we were in a rush, so we didn't call you."

Sun Manning pointed upstairs, "Bullshit! I saw you strolling from the dorm window before. I deliberately didn't call you, just wanted to see if you still had me in your hearts?"

At this point, she paused and said very unhappily, "I didn't expect, humph, you just passed right under my nose like that. My heart shattered all over the floor."

Li Heng shared a look with Mai Sui and whispered, "This is a lesson. Next time we stroll, we'll stay far away from Building 9 so she doesn't have any leverage."

Mai Sui chuckled and hugged Sun Manning, "It was an oversight today. I'll call you next time."

Li Heng followed up, "Next time for sure! Next time for sure!"

Sun Manning felt a bit better, pulled Mai Sui over, and said with a grin, "Since your bicycles are here, let's go! Come with me to the Vice President's house and give the mooncakes to the old man."

Mai Sui looked back at Li Heng.

Sun Manning pouted, "Don't worry about him. This is school; can a big living person like him get lost? Besides, even if he did get lost, he must have been abducted by some girl, and he'd be happy about it."

The two women rode off on their bicycles, and Li Heng also took the mooncakes to the teaching building and gave a box to his instructor.

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Mai Sui's character card is out...!

Updating before editing, afraid you'll wait.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 177 =====