141: Chapter 141 When the Plums Ripen: Childhood Sweetheart Male Lead 19

The night was like water; by the time they returned home, it was already the dead of night.

In Nan Li's apartment bedroom, only a dim, yellow sleeping lamp was left on.

On the large bed, Nan Li wrapped herself in the quilt, leaving only a pair of clear, bright eyes exposed.

On the floor beside the bed, Meng Zhu lay on a makeshift bed, choosing not to sleep in the guest room where he usually stayed.

Nan Li knew very well that Meng Zhu was worried she had been frightened today.

She was indeed unable to sleep at this moment, but it wasn't actually because she was scared.

It was because her thoughts were surging, filled with chaotic distractions.

She felt as if something was closing in.

Or perhaps something was fermenting.

Since she signed up for the music competition, in just a short time, she felt as if she had been drifting in the ocean for months.

Dazed and confused, she felt overwhelmed by a sense of unreality.

She did not know that the arrival of certain things is just that unreasonable, easily taking control of all your emotions.

Nan Li stared blankly for a while.

In the end, she pursed her lips, carefully turned over in the quilt to face the direction of the floor, and whispered in a low voice.

"Brother Courtesy Name… are you asleep?"

In the darkness, there was silence for two seconds.

Then, Meng Zhu's deep, gentle voice came from below.

"No, what is it? Can't Zhaoyu sleep?"

"Mm."

Nan Li responded softly, and after hesitating for a long while, she voiced the doubt in her heart.

"Brother Courtesy Name, today… when you saw me run into my senior, why didn't you come over to find me, and instead went after that villain?"

She paused.

"Weren't you afraid… that the senior might also be a bad person?"

Meng Zhu lay flat in the darkness, his hands folded behind his head.

"I wasn't."

His voice was calm and firm.

"That senior of yours, I've seen him at school before; he's your suitor, isn't he?"

Nan Li felt a sudden, inexplicable panic.

"You… how did you know?"

She blurted out, her tone somewhat flustered.

Meng Zhu chuckled.

"Naturally, I would pay attention to Zhaoyu's love life."

At this point, his voice became even gentler, even carrying a strange tone.

"Don't worry, Zhaoyu has grown up and is at the age to be in a relationship. You don't need to feel shy, and you don't need to hide it from me. I hope you can find someone you like, and I won't interfere with your choices."

Meng Zhu said this very reasonably, but it sounded too much like the words of an elder.

With a "swish"!

Nan Li sat up abruptly from the bed, the quilt sliding down to her waist.

Without even thinking, relying entirely on instinct, she eagerly denied it:

"It's not like that! I don't! I'm not in a relationship!"

Her voice sounded very urgent.

"And I don't like him either. I've only met him a few times in total, and we haven't even spoken more than a few words."

Hearing her rapid-fire denial, Meng Zhu curled his lips in the darkness.

"Alright, alright, I know. You don't have to get so worked up. Why are you being so agitated?"

Nan Li froze.

That's right, why was she so agitated?

"I…"

Nan Li opened her mouth, but found she couldn't come up with a reasonable explanation. After holding it in for a long time, she could only spit out a dry sentence.

"I don't know!"

After saying this.

For some reason, an inexplicable anger suddenly surged from the bottom of her heart.

She suddenly felt very angry.

Subconsciously, she felt that Meng Zhu's words just now had angered her.

But she couldn't figure out which sentence had angered her.

"Go to sleep!"

Nan Li huffily dropped these two words, flopped back down, and violently pulled the quilt over her head.

She even turned over, deliberately facing away from the floor, and refused to say another word.

The bedroom fell into silence once again.

The sound of someone sulking could be clearly heard in the quiet night.

[Big shot, explain, why can I never guess the plot right?]

[Yeah, shouldn't tonight be for heart-to-hearts? Even if he didn't win her over in one go, shouldn't their feelings at least warm up?]

[Where is the class representative? Ever since The Analyst joined the Tea Society, he doesn't play with us anymore.]

A group of light spots changed direction and looked at a small cluster of beings gathered on the desk not far away.

Those were the people from the Tea Society. These people wouldn't easily express opinions; like observing an experiment, they just quietly watched the movie, recording and analyzing the plot.

[Here, the class representative is here. My thought is that Meng Zhu probably doesn't want to take advantage of someone in a vulnerable state.]

[So tonight's plot was meaningless, with no progress at all?]

Meng Zhu watched the comments idly as they let their imaginations run wild.

There was meaning, of course; for instance, he knew that Nan Li's heart had already been stirred.

As far as this movie was concerned.

Nan Li was like a beautiful butterfly.

The original owner had always protected her, and in the original plot, he had always been chasing after her later on.

But the heroine's feelings for the male lead had actually long been extraordinary; there shouldn't have been any need for chasing.

What Meng Zhu was doing now was planting a flower, a flower named "Meng Zhu".

Everything he did was to make the butterfly see him and recognize this beautiful flower.

It's just that even if the butterfly takes a liking to the flower, it might not necessarily stay for it.

In Nan Li's heart, love is unreliable.

It cannot compare to family affection, nor can it compare to friendship.

Tonight was indeed a good opportunity, and Meng Zhu could certainly have taken action.

But the beauty of fast food cannot brew a long-lasting and mellow love.

All of Nan Li's current heart-fluttering moments were forcibly awakened by Meng Zhu in a short time after he laid out his plans.

It was not yet solid enough, and it was not suitable to take steps too quickly.

It needed the brewing of time to distill deep and intense feelings.

The so-called strategy plan had actually ended here.

Schemes are just schemes; what can be calculated is only the human heart, not true sincerity.

From now on, Meng Zhu could only use sincerity to navigate.

On the floor, by the faint light of the sleeping lamp.

Meng Zhu also closed his eyes and went to sleep; he no longer deduced what would happen next.

Instead, he prepared to let nature take its course and let time settle their feelings.

…

The next day.

The two did not stay in Jinling for long and started their return journey straight away, heading back to Qinghe Garden.

It was also from this day on, or even from the journey home.

Nan Li suddenly became strange.

In front of Meng Zhu, she no longer had that lively and willful demeanor.

Instead, she became reserved and taciturn.

If he were truly an elder, he would probably lament that Nan Li had grown up overnight.

But Meng Zhu knew this was a necessary process, and he just waited patiently.

In the blink of an eye, they arrived in Suzhou.

Nan Li did not run off without a trace as soon as she got out of the car; instead, she obediently carried her luggage and returned to Tingyu Pavilion.