Chapter 385: Lin Xiuyuan, where are you right now!!

Third floor.

When Park Hyomin heard the sound coming from behind her, she turned her head back almost subconsciously.

And the moment she turned around, she had already adjusted the expression on her face to be just right.

It was neither too surprised, nor would it make anyone think she had been looking at something unpresentable just now; her arms hung naturally at her sides as she looked at Li Juli, who had walked up behind her, and said softly.

"Unnie, no, I don't really like these, you guys can just browse."

At this moment, Li Juli, who had already arrived and stood behind Park Hyomin, let her gaze circle that charming face, and then the corners of her mouth curved slightly.

She didn't answer, just learned from the other's posture a moment ago and took half a step forward, rested her hands on the railing, and leaned her body slightly to look down.

The view from the third floor was excellent; the atrium was open, and one could clearly see the shops on each floor below and the flow of people coming and going.

And her gaze slowly swept across that area on the first floor, then stopped at a window seat at the entrance of a cafe.

There were a few people sitting there.

Although it was a bit far and she couldn't see their specific expressions clearly, as they were people she had just met, she could still recognize them.

Thus, the arc of Li Juli's mouth deepened a little, and she laughed with a tone of sudden realization, "Oh~ so that's how it is."

Then she tilted her head to look at Park Hyomin, her eyes curving into two crescent moons, "How about it, Hyomin, after watching them for so long, did you see anything?"

Park Hyomin, having been seen through, didn't change her expression at all, or one could say it was managed very well; she just glanced at Li Juli indifferently, then shifted her gaze away, her tone equally indifferent.

"What could there be? I wasn't even looking at them."

"Oh, is that so."

Seeing Park Hyomin still being stubborn, Li Juli pursed her lips and smiled; that smile clearly carried a sense of disbelief, but she didn't continue to expose her, just turned her head back to continue looking downstairs.

Park Hyomin stood beside her, not moving.

The two of them just leaned on the railing side by side like this, silent for a few seconds.

The mall's background music changed to another track, a cover version of some old English song, with piano melodies flowing slowly.

Li Juli, whose gaze remained on the group of people downstairs, saw Lin Xiuyuan tilt his head slightly as if saying something to Liu Zhimin—

Suddenly, a thought popped into her mind.

Although she felt the idea was a bit childish herself, she was idle anyway.

So, after sneaking a glance at Park Hyomin beside her, she immediately took her phone out of her bag, unlocked the screen, and found Lin Xiuyuan's name in her contacts.

Then, right in front of the other, she pressed the dial button.

Beside her, when Park Hyomin heard that "beep," she subconsciously turned her head to look at Li Juli, her eyes filled with a bit of confusion.

However, Li Juli didn't look at her, just stared downstairs.

Downstairs at that table, the screen of the phone Lin Xiuyuan had placed on the table lit up.

He lowered his head to glance at the caller ID, and then, almost at the same time, raised his head, his gaze looking straight toward the direction of the third floor.

The two people's gazes met right in mid-air.

Immediately, Li Juli waved at him.

This scene made Lin Xiuyuan freeze for a second, then he answered the phone.

The voice came through the receiver, carrying a bit of helpless amusement, "Hello, Juli, what's wrong?"

Hearing this, Li Juli spoke with a beaming smile, "Xiuyuan, do you have time to come up for a little bit?"

"Hm?"

"We can't make up our minds about a few dolls," Li Juli said, telling a lie with perfect composure, "come up and help us pick."

There was a second of silence on the other end of the line.

"It's not—" Lin Xiuyuan's voice sounded a bit between laughter and tears, "it's just a few new arrivals, can't you guys just pick them yourselves?"

"Oh my, just come up for a little bit," Li Juli dragged out the end of her sentence, her tone carrying a hint of coquettishness, "it's not like you'll be eaten."

Another second of silence.

Then she heard Lin Xiuyuan's laughter, "Got it."

Immediately after, the call was hung up.

Li Juli, who had been holding the phone the whole time, looked downstairs.

At that table, Lin Xiuyuan was tilting his head, leaning in to say a few words into Liu Zhimin's ear.

After hearing him, Liu Zhimin nodded; there was no special expression on her face, she just swept a glance toward the third floor, then withdrew her gaze and continued talking to the two young girls opposite her.

It seemed she didn't dare to be too obvious.

Subsequently, Lin Xiuyuan stood up from his seat, nodded toward Liu Zhimin and the two juniors as if saying goodbye, and only then turned to walk toward the Elevator.

During this process, Li Juli's gaze watched him cross the atrium and step onto the escalator, his figure slowly rising.

Beside her, Park Hyomin had not spoken the whole time.

But she hadn't left either.

Downstairs, in the cafe.

Shin Yuna's gaze followed Lin Xiuyuan's back until he disappeared into the Elevator before slowly withdrawing it.

She picked up the iced Americano in front of her and took a sip; the icy liquid slid down her throat, making her heart, which was still thumping, calm down a little.

Then she looked at Liu Zhimin opposite her.

The other was looking down, stirring the ice cubes in her cup with a straw, her expression indifferent, unable to tell what she was thinking.

So, after hesitating for a moment, Shin Yuna couldn't hold back and spoke up, "Unnie, you guys—what is going on here?"

Upon hearing this, Hwang Yeji also immediately raised her head, looking at Liu Zhimin with bright, piercing eyes.

Only Liu Zhimin's hand movement paused for a moment.

She raised her eyes, her gaze sweeping past Shin Yuna's face, then landing on Hwang Yeji's face, and finally looking toward the direction of the Elevator.

At this moment, Lin Xiuyuan's back had completely disappeared into the crowd.

Only then did she speak slowly, her voice very soft, as if talking to herself, "I don't even know how to put it, it's just as you see it."

Huang Lizhi, not understanding, blinked her eyes and took over the conversation from Shen Yuna to press further, "Then what is your relationship?"

Her tone carried obvious curiosity, and her eyes were even shining brightly.

Relationship?

Liu Zhimin was stunned for a moment.

Only at this moment did she suddenly realize that she and Lin Xiuyuan had seemingly never seriously discussed this issue, and would not even bring up topics in this regard.

When did the relationship between the two begin?

How did it start?

What exactly are they to each other?

Sitting there, Li Juli had several images flash rapidly through her mind:

The time they first met;

The few times they ran into each other later;

The few moments of being alone after those chance encounters, and those unspoken understandings.

Thinking about it, Liu Zhimin fell silent for quite a while.

Then she raised her eyes to look at the two figures opposite waiting for an answer, the corners of her mouth curving into a somewhat vague arc, "I don't know how to say it; if I must name a relationship, it's probably just the relationship between a man and a woman."

After saying this, she lowered her head again and continued stirring the ice cubes in her cup.

Opposite her, Huang Lizhi and Shen Yuna exchanged a knowing look.

That look contained too much information: surprise, sudden realization, and a little bit of hindsight.

Understood.

The two of them silently defined this answer in their hearts.

A friends-with-benefits relationship, then.

No wonder the level of intimacy between the two didn't even seem as close as those seniors from Tara were with him; so the source was here all along.

However, they certainly wouldn't dare to say this out loud, so they could only offer a sheepish smile, then quickly change the subject and chat about other things.

Third floor.

Lin Xiuyuan got off the escalator, passed through the crowd at the entrance of an ice cream shop, and walked toward the direction where Li Juli and Park Hyomin were standing.

From afar, he saw the two still leaning on the railing, one looking downstairs, the other answering a phone call.

When he walked to within a few steps behind Li Juli, she happened to turn her head and met his gaze.

And so she smiled, "So fast?"

——

"The Elevator doesn't require waiting in line." Lin Xiuyuan stood still beside her and glanced downstairs, just in time to see the table he had been sitting at earlier.

Liu Zhimin was talking to Huang Lizhi about something, and they seemed to be chatting quite well.

After a glance, he withdrew his gaze and looked at Li Juli, "Speak, why did you call me up here? Don't give me any excuse about a doll; that excuse is terrible."

Li Juli, being teased by him like this, blinked her eyes with a very innocent expression, then stuck out her tongue and met his gaze for two seconds.

She couldn't hold it in and laughed, "Alright, alright, I just wanted to call you up to chat, is that not allowed?"

Lin Xiuyuan sighed, though the corners of his mouth held a smile, "Allowed, how could it not be."

After saying this, he turned his head to look at Park Hyomin, who had been chatting the whole time, and asked casually, "Whose call is it?"

"It's Shun Gui's call," Li Juli replied.

"Sunny? Why is she calling at this time?"

Hearing the name "Shun Gui," Lin Xiuyuan immediately pictured that little sun from '13 in his mind; she had just been arguing with him not long ago.

Meanwhile, Li Juli continued to answer, "I don't know, but listening to Hyomin's conversation, it seems Shun Gui is also here in Dubai now; she must have seen the photos on her social circle."

Hearing this, Lin Xiuyuan became interested as well, so he leaned forward and came to Park Hyomin's side.

He tilted his head toward the phone by her ear and shouted at a higher volume, "Dear Teacher Shun Gui, long time no see—"

On the other end of the line, Sunny, who was lying on her hotel bed, clearly hadn't expected to hear this voice.

Originally, she had come over for a vacation with friends, and upon discovering in her social circle that Park Hyomin was also here, she had thought to call the person she hadn't been in touch with for a long time to chat and ask how things were lately.

As a result, the call had just connected, and before she had said much, a familiar male voice suddenly popped out of the receiver.

Although she hadn't heard that voice many times, the impression it left was very deep.

So, a stunned Sunny quickly sprang up from the bed with a "whoosh," sat cross-legged, and widened her eyes.

"Lin Xiuyuan???"

She almost shouted this name out.

"Hyomin, I didn't hear the voice wrong, did I? Is that guy Lin Xiuyuan?"

Park Hyomin, listening to the deafening exclamation on the other end of the phone, couldn't help but hold the phone a little further away, then glanced at the figure beside her and shook her head helplessly.

"Mm, it's him." Park Hyomin said to the receiver, then added with some curiosity, "Shun Gui, you still remember him?"

"Don't you know?" Sunny's voice carried a bit of smugness, "I'm the teacher who taught him how to pursue Zhiyan."

Who would have thought that as soon as Park Hyomin heard this, she rolled her eyes directly.

After all, she knew this friend of hers too well.

Everything about her was fine, except that she was too flighty; her words and actions often left people confused, and she was the type who leaned heavily on emotions.

Thinking of this, Park Hyomin was just about to say something else when Lin Xiuyuan leaned in again.

"Hyomin, help me tell my teacher that her student wants to invite her to dinner; I wonder if she would do me the honor."

Facing Lin Xiuyuan's gaze, Park Hyomin looked at him for a second, then handed the phone directly to him, "You tell her yourself."

To this, Lin Xiuyuan didn't stand on ceremony; he took the phone and pressed it to his ear, "Teacher Shun Gui, long time no see; I didn't expect to run into you here."

There was a second of silence on the other end of the line.

"Yo~" Sunny's voice then slowly sounded, though it sounded a bit sarcastic, "I didn't expect Young Master Lin to still remember this little teacher of yours?"

"How can you say that? Of course I remember," Lin Xiuyuan leaned against the railing, his posture relaxed, "A teacher for a day is a father for a lifetime, right? No, wait, a mother for a lifetime?"

"Get lost." Sunny let out a laugh. Lin Xiuyuan, back on this side, laughed along with her.

"Seriously, aren't you also in Dubai? Where are you? Let's go out and grab a meal together, just as a way for me, your student, to repay you for your guidance."

Regarding this answer from Lin Xiuyuan, the other end of the line fell silent for a few more seconds.

Then Sunny's voice came through, her tone lazy, "Forget it. I don't know what's wrong lately, I don't have much of an appetite, I need to lose some weight."

At this, Lin Xiuyuan raised an eyebrow and instinctively looked over at Park Hyomin and Li Juli beside him.

Who would have thought that Park Hyomin was also looking at him, her eyes carrying a very playful smile; this was the first time today she had shown such an expression toward Lin Xiuyuan.

And Li Juli was also pursing her lips in a smile, looking like she was watching a good show.

Lin Xiuyuan, having looked at the two of them, withdrew his gaze and asked back into the receiver, "Lose weight?? Teacher Shun Gui, do you have any stages to perform on lately?"

"No," Sunny's voice sounded a bit confused, "Why?"

"Then that's a bit strange," Lin Xiuyuan said with a frank laugh, "I can understand that Xiaomin and Zhiyan need to control their figures because they have stages. But Teacher Shun Gui, you don't need to go on stage, and there's no need for you to be on camera, so why lose weight?"

After finishing, without even calculating how serious the consequences might be, he blurted out another sentence, "It's fine to be a little chubby; everyone gets like that when they get older anyway."

The moment those words fell, Park Hyomin and Li Juli beside him simultaneously gasped.

They exchanged a look, then looked at Lin Xiuyuan in unison.

Their eyes were filled with four words: You really dare to say that.

At the same time, Sunny on the other end of the line also fell silent.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

Then her voice sounded again, sounding terrifyingly calm.

"Lin Xiuyuan————"

"Hm?"

"Where are you right now!!!"

Having realized his mistake, Lin Xiuyuan looked to the side; Park Hyomin had already stepped back two paces, not even thinking about taking back her phone, just treating it as gone.

Li Juli was also looking at Lin Xiuyuan with an amused face, an expression that said she couldn't help him.

You're courting death yourself, there's nothing we can do.

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