[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-1987-my-era":3,"chapter-1987-my-era-1987-my-era-chapter-618":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","1987: My Era",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2259778,4409,"Chapter 618","1987-my-era-chapter-618",618,"\u003Cp>Twenty minutes later, Yu Shuheng and Xu Li returned to the hotel’s first-floor lobby.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing her childhood friend sitting motionless on the sofa in the lounge, Xu Li asked, “They’re alone together in a room—aren’t you going up to check? Are you really that calm?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu Shuheng replied generously, “No need.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Li asked, “What if they’re already in bed? Are you still fine with that?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu Shuheng’s eyes held something strange as she countered, “If they really were in bed, would I storm in and tear them apart in anger?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Li was left speechless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a long silence, Xu Li sighed, “Whoever becomes your husband will be very lucky.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu Shuheng smiled faintly: “First, we’ll have to see if anyone even has the qualifications.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the two women chatted, Li Heng appeared in their line of sight, with Zhou Shihe silently following behind him as usual.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this moment, neither Li Heng nor Zhou Shihe showed any sign of disturbance on their faces—as if the kiss had never happened, as if the slap had never been delivered, both acting perfectly normal in front of others.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He walked over and greeted them: “Teacher Yu, Sister Xu.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu Shuheng stood up and said, “We’re not going to Chinatown today—I’ll take you and Shihe out for steak. How’s that?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Heng and Zhou Shihe exchanged a glance and naturally had no objections.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After ordering, while waiting for the food, Yu Shuheng told them, “Xu Li and I visited the venue for this performance—the Royal Concert Hall in Amsterdam. Tomorrow morning we’ll go through the rehearsal process, and perform in the afternoon.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Heng asked, “Is it far?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu Shuheng replied, “Not far—about twenty minutes by car.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Soon after, Li Heng’s steak and spaghetti arrived. He took a bite of steak—it was excellent. Then a bite of spaghetti—oh my god, he suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to fly back home for night-market fried rice noodles.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The entire dinner was quiet, with only Li Heng, Teacher Yu, and Sister Xu speaking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Shihe remained silent unless someone directly addressed her, then she’d smile and reply briefly; otherwise, she acted like an invisible person.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Heng noticed all this, and it worried him deeply. But both Teacher Yu and Zhou Shihe were women of top-tier personal and family backgrounds, each with their own pride; no matter how capable he was, he couldn’t resolve their conflict in a short time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He needed to think of a way, he mused.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After finishing one steak and one plate of spaghetti, he was about seventy percent full.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Among the four, Zhou Shihe’s food arrived last. She glanced at Li Heng, then at her own steak, and fell silent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In that instant their eyes met, Li Heng understood her meaning—he was stunned, almost overwhelmed, unable to believe his own eyes!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Does she think she can’t finish it, and wants to share some steak with me?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Am I hallucinating?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Did I just imagine it?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It must be my imagination—I just slapped myself twice in the room, she couldn’t possibly be sharing food with me this soon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As he hesitated, Zhou Shihe glanced at him again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Oh no! This time he wouldn’t be mistaken—it was real.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So Li Heng cautiously moved his white porcelain plate a few inches over to her right side.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This action immediately drew the attention of Yu Shuheng and Xu Li across the table; both women turned their gazes toward him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Despite being watched by the other three at the table, Zhou Shihe remained calm, acting entirely as she pleased, unaffected by anyone else.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She picked up her fork in her left hand and knife in her right, calmly slicing half her steak onto Li Heng’s white porcelain plate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After finishing, she lowered her head, continued cutting her steak, and ate with perfect composure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Shihe was a woman of great refinement—she never spoke loudly, never swore, rarely gossiped about others behind their backs, and even when eating, she did so with the utmost grace of a refined lady, slowly, daintily, placing each bite into her mouth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Shihe’s calmness made Xu Li secretly anxious for her childhood friend; she couldn’t help thinking: Shuheng has finally met a true rival—I hope she doesn’t lose.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu Shuheng glanced at Zhou Shihe, then at Li Heng returning his porcelain plate, her expression unreadable, but her mind racing:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Is Zhou Shihe stepping into this mess?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Or is she doing this deliberately to show me?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Or is Zhou Shihe genuinely, purely sharing food with Li Heng?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After weighing all possibilities, Yu Shuheng believed the third was most likely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But precisely because it was the third, it was what she feared most. What did this mean?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It meant Zhou Shihe understood Li Heng best, cared for him most deeply—she noticed he hadn’t eaten enough, saw he liked steak, and so gave him half.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though she had known Li Heng for roughly the same length of time, Zhou Shihe understood this man better than she did. At that moment, Yu Shuheng’s heart tightened: this rival was formidable—in beauty, family background, talent, and even the smallest details of daily life, she was flawless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Heng, however, didn’t think any of this—he didn’t want to think.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He only knew that eating half of Zhou’s steak had greatly eased the tension between them caused by the kiss and the slap.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He saw the steak as a signal of goodwill from Zhou.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So he accepted it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And indeed, Zhou Shihe was angry about his kiss—but didn’t place all blame on him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There’s an old saying: flies don’t land on eggs without cracks.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He dared to kiss her so impulsively because, in her view, two reasons existed:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First, her own charm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since childhood, she had absolute confidence in her appearance and demeanor. After years of close contact, she saw clearly that Li Heng would inevitably fall for her—she wasn’t the least surprised.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Second, she herself had shown weakness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Previously, Li Heng had quietly developed feelings for her, but he hid them well, buried them deep—he sometimes deliberately avoided her to suppress his desires.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Back then, even when they shared a room, they always treated each other with respectful distance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But after their trip to Singapore, he suddenly became bold, reckless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reason? Simply the accident during the dance at the Lufus Hotel—he acted on his desire toward her, yet received only a trivial punishment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Following that thread, he may have guessed her feelings, sensed her hidden affection for him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This realization filled him with unexpected delight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It caused him to neglect the boundaries between them, and today, in that specific setting, he dared to embrace her further, to kiss her again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Recalling the past, Zhou Shihe asked herself: did she regret it?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She was uncertain—she didn’t know.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If he were single, if he had no other romantic attachments, Zhou Shihe, though troubled, wouldn’t have…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thinking this, she stole a glance at him, forcibly cut off the thought, refusing to let her mind wander further.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After dinner, the four took a walk outside. During this time, Li Heng tried hard to reconcile the two women, steering conversation toward their common ground.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Shihe and Yu Shuheng may have sensed his sincerity and concern—they spoke a few words, but not many.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Around 9 p.m., Xu Li was picked up by her husband, Xu Sheng.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Heng, Yu Shuheng, and Zhou Shihe returned to the hotel.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After changing shoes and entering the suite’s living room, Zhou Shihe asked Yu Shuheng, “Teacher, what time do we leave tomorrow?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu Shuheng replied, “Eight in the morning.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Shihe nodded, then walked toward her room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Door closed. Door opened. The living room was left with only two people.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Heng sat on the sofa and gestured for Teacher Yu to sit as well.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu Shuheng sat across from him, crossed her legs, and asked with a knowing smile, “Little brother, are you trying to reconcile us so you can have both?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Heng: “….”\u003C\u002Fp>",1332,"2026-06-19T15:27:37.732Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","272d87d70674afd1d8b4fbcb4fc2434f66123d426cf836c1ed822de980462403","1987-my-era-chapter-619","1987-my-era-chapter-617",713,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002F1987-my-era-cover.jpg"]