Chapter 30

"...Mu Wei, you'd best not provoke him." Qin Zhixiu looked at He Lele and said softly.

☆, Chapter 35: Please Teach Me

She didn't want to provoke anyone; she never had.

He Lele thought of Qin Zhixiu's well-intentioned advice from that morning and couldn't help but smile bitterly. After finishing breakfast, Qin Zhixiu and Ji Jie had also gone to the company. She had spent the whole morning coordinating with the cleaning company staff to tidy the apartment, and since no one returned at noon, she ate by herself.

Taking advantage of some free time in the afternoon, she went on NG to take a look. L had replied to her message asking about her recent situation, and she could only smile and say everything was fine, just that she was quite busy, though she had been listening to new songs and had learned to sing them for him.

She had known L for three years and had never heard his voice. Even in the chat room, he only typed and wouldn't use a voice changer like some people did. She could understand that, though; after all, as a well-known hacker in the online world, the less information exposed, the better. Yet, a person like this often cared for her, liked listening to her sing, occasionally joked with her, and even... chatted about anime topics she liked.

It wouldn't be a laughing matter to say it out loud, but she... had once had fantasies about L. She imagined his age and appearance, wondering if he might also have... a favorable impression of her. Lingyu said L and Li Yiquan were the two people she admired most in this world—one with peerless hacking skills, the other who held the law in the palm of his hand. She would be satisfied if her future boyfriend had even half of their qualities! If someone with conditions as good as Lingyu's only hoped for "average," how could someone as plain and dull as her dare to hope for anything more? Besides, now, even her body was...

Just like this was fine. Occasional contact, seeing his greetings, singing for him—she was very content.

At dinner time, Qin Zhixiu returned alone, saying Ji Jie would be back later. After they finished eating, Qin Zhixiu asked He Lele to play cards with him for a while. Seeing that Shentu Mo and Ruan Lin hadn't returned yet, He Lele followed Qin Zhixiu upstairs.

They played until ten-thirty. He Lele went downstairs to make a late-night snack, but Shentu Mo and Ruan Lin still hadn't returned. If they didn't come back soon, should she just wash up and go to sleep?

Qin Zhixiu came downstairs for water and found it amusing to see He Lele looking out the window from time to time. He leaned his arms on the back of a chair and watched her, a pure and beautiful smile spreading across his exquisite, ethereal face.

"Uh... is there something on my face?"

Qin Zhixiu smiled and shook his head. "No, it just feels like you're a newlywed wife waiting for her husband to come home in the middle of the night."

"Huh?" What? Wouldn't it be more accurate to say she was like a wronged ghost waiting for the Ox-Head and Horse-Face guards?

"Cough..." Qin Zhixiu's smile deepened as he lowered his head and coughed lightly.

"You really know how to joke." It was a pity it wasn't funny at all.

He Lele had spoken without thinking, but to her surprise, Qin Zhixiu's smile gradually faded. Uh... had she said something wrong?

Qin Zhixiu stood up straight, seemingly lost in thought.

"Mr. Qin?" She hadn't really said the wrong thing and touched a sore spot, had she?

Qin Zhixiu raised his eyes and looked at He Lele very seriously. "I really don't know how to joke, I don't know how to tell funny stories, and I don't understand what to say to make a girl happy..."

"Uh..." He Lele felt a bit awkward. He didn't need to understand; if he were just willing to talk to girls and smile at them, the girls would probably already be crazy with joy.

"Can you teach me?"

"Ah?"

"You are a girl; you should know better what women like to hear, what kind of men they like, what kind of gifts they like. Teach me."

"Me? I, I..." He Lele pointed to her own nose. What could she possibly teach him?

"I can pay tuition. Name your price."

"...This, isn't Mr. Ji able to teach you—"

"His methods don't work."

He had already learned them? "...Why ask me?"

"...Only you will talk to me properly."

"..." She could imagine... a shy girl in front of him would probably just spend the time blushing, while a bolder one would want to take the opportunity to seduce him? Very likely.

"Do you... have a girl you like?" She knew she shouldn't ask, but seeing him so serious, she really wanted to help him if she could.

"Mm."

"If you tell me the type of girl she is, perhaps I can offer some reference suggestions?"

"...Alright, her name is Du Wei..."

The two chatted until past one in the morning, and surprisingly, still no one had returned. Considering it was truly quite late and Qin Zhixiu had to go to the recording studio the next day, they agreed to talk another time.

Looking at the discarded food, He Lele felt a bit uneasy. Although these were reimbursed and didn't cost her money, the constant waste made her very uncomfortable. It wasn't that she felt bad for her own labor, but that "wasting food" itself didn't align with her values.

After returning to her room, He Lele thought for a moment and, for the first time ever, opened the official website of Muse and then went onto Ruan Lin's fan club... Although the administrator rules stated that prying into the owners' privacy was not allowed, she was looking it up online, so that didn't count as prying, right? Among the five, Ruan Lin's schedule was the most transparent. Nowadays, fans were truly everywhere, and there were so-called "sasaeng" fans who followed celebrities every day. If it weren't for the fact that the area around the apartment was private property and off-limits, she would have suspected that fans could use cameras to photograph the inside and outside of the apartment!

It turned out that tonight was the wrap-up party for Ruan Lin's previous drama; he probably drank too much and was resting outside. Shentu Mo's schedule was hard to check; she couldn't even find his photos online. However, the media had been reporting for the past two days that the drama he was producing, "One Life, One Lifetime," was about to start filming, so Shentu Mo was probably working crazy overtime?

Since that was the case, she would go to sleep first.

It felt as if she had just closed her eyes when He Lele felt the bed vibrating slightly. She opened her eyes and checked her phone: 3:30 AM. There was the sound of a car driving by outside. Who had returned?

"Xiao Zhou, you go back. I'm fine." Ruan Lin's voice came from the doorway.

He Lele hurried to the door.