151: Chapter 151 When the Plums Ripen: Childhood Sweetheart Male Lead 29

The car parked smoothly downstairs at Nan Li's apartment building.

The car carriage was very quiet; Meng Zhu turned off the engine and turned to look at Nan Li in the passenger seat.

The little girl had been hugging his arm tightly all the way, and at this moment, her eyes were tightly closed, her long eyelashes trembled slightly, and her breathing was very light.

If Nan Li still had some reason left when she first met Meng Zhu, right now the drunkenness had truly gone to her head.

After all, she had drunk a lot of alcohol.

"Zhaoyu, we are home."

Meng Zhu called out softly twice.

He wanted to see if Nan Li was pretending to be drunk or truly drunk at the moment.

As a result, Nan Li let out a hum, and instead of opening her eyes, she took the opportunity to bury her face into the crook of his arm, wrapping her arms around his neck with a cheeky look.

It seemed the after-effects of the alcohol were kicking in.

Meng Zhu helplessly shook his head, the corners of his mouth curving upward.

He got out of the car, walked around to the passenger side, and skillfully carried her out.

Once inside the home, Meng Zhu carried her into the bedroom and cautiously placed her on the bed.

As soon as she touched the bed, Nan Li habitually rolled herself up in the quilt, looking like she was about to turn into a silkworm baby once again.

"Don't move."

Meng Zhu gently held her down, took off her shoes, took off her coat, and got some hangover cure medicine or the like.

It was the same old routine, and Meng Zhu was very practiced at it.

Just as he was getting ready to wash up, a slightly cool little hand reached out from under the covers and grabbed his wrist.

Meng Zhu's movements paused, and he lowered his gaze to look.

He saw that Nan Li's eyes were half-open, her gaze hazy, and her cheeks still tinged with a rosy blush.

Perhaps taking advantage of this drunkenness, she dazedly asked the question that had lingered in the depths of her heart for a long time.

"Courtesy Name Brother…"

Her voice was soft and glutinous, carrying a slight tremor.

"Zhaoyu... can she not get married for a lifetime?"

This was a thought that had crossed her mind more than once.

If love was destined to be poison, and marrying someone unloved was likewise a torment, could she just stay like this all the time, living carefree forever in Qinghe Garden?

The bedroom fell silent for a moment.

Meng Zhu looked at her, emotions surging in the depths of his eyes.

He did not answer immediately, nor did he pull his hand free from her grasp.

After a moment, he slowly leaned down, narrowing the distance between the two of them, and pressed gently against Nan Li's ear.

"Zhaoyu..."

His voice was very low and very light, carrying a soul-stirring magnetism.

"Then can you watch Older Brother marry someone else?"

This sentence was spoken with extreme ambiguity.

What did it mean to watch him marry someone else?

It sounded as if the two of them were boyfriend and girlfriend, or a man and woman flirting in an ambiguous relationship.

The very last shred of reason in her mind was still functioning.

A flash of clarity darted through Nan Li's hazy mind.

Could it be that Courtesy Name Brother was testing her?

He had always been meticulous; perhaps he had already seen through her feelings of liking him.

Since he asked like that, was there another possibility?

Did Courtesy Name Brother also like her just a little bit?

Not liking as family, but liking as a lover?

As soon as this thought popped up, Nan Li's heartbeat began to accelerate.

She both wanted to ask clearly and was somewhat afraid.

For a moment, she had completely no idea how to continue the conversation.

After thinking about it, in her panic, she ultimately closed her eyes and continued playing dead.

Seeing her in this posture, Meng Zhu was not angry.

He only got up, walked into the bathroom, and fetched a hot towel.

He helped wipe her cheeks and hands; it felt extremely comfortable, and Nan Li's body gradually relaxed.

"Go to sleep, good night."

Meng Zhu tucked in the corners of the quilt for her, and took out his bedding for sleeping on the floor from the closet.

But just as he turned around, the girl's mosquito-like faint voice came from behind him once again.

"Courtesy Name Brother…"

Nan Li was both drunk and sleepy at this moment, but after all, she couldn't hold back and asked one final question.

"Do you... do you have someone you like?"

Meng Zhu's footsteps paused.

With his back to the bed, the fingers at his sides curled slightly.

After a very, very long time.

A very faint yet incomparably clear response finally came through the air.

"Yes."

The expected follow-up question about who he liked did not ring out.

Meng Zhu turned around, his gaze looking toward the large bed.

However, he saw that the girl on the bed had at some point loosened her grip on the corner of the quilt, and her breathing had become even and long.

She had actually fallen asleep.

When preparing to turn off the lights, Meng Zhu, acting on a sudden impulse, sat back down by the bedside and used his hand to tidy up Nan Li's scattered hair.

Under the yellowish bedside lamp, the man's gaze was so affectionate it seemed about to overflow with water.

He leaned down slightly, his thin lips parting slightly as he murmured softly.

"I have long admired your beauty, hiding it in my heart; the gentle breeze speaks of my deep affection on my behalf. Willing to follow you day and night in constant companionship, traveling together through the four seasons of spring in this mortal world."

The wildly teasing bullet comments completely exploded at this moment.

[Ahhhhhh, Nan Li, you little dummy! How could you fall asleep right at this moment! It's making me so mad!]

[Good news: he confessed. Bad news: she didn't hear it.]

[I don't care about that; it's just that this man is too smooth, reciting love poems right off the cuff?]

Meng Zhu naturally saw the carnival of bullet comments crystal clear.

However, he did not have any regrets.

He knew in his heart that even if Nan Li had heard it clearly, she wouldn't give him a response right now.

Slightly curving the corners of his lips, he didn't dwell on these things, and smoothly lay back down on the floor bed, closing his eyes.

The next day.

When Nan Li woke up, her memories began to return.

Remembering the two questions she asked yesterday, she almost cried at her own stupidity.

Thus, she deliberately said in front of Meng Zhu that she was drunk last night and didn't remember what happened.

She even asked if she had kicked off the quilt.

Seeing that Meng Zhu didn't plan to bring up those two questions, she secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Yet she vaguely remembered that last night, in her final haze, Meng Zhu seemed to have said that he had someone he liked.

But she knew him inside and out, so how could he have someone he liked?

All morning, Nan Li thought about this matter, yet in the end, she didn't dare ask again.

Returning to Qinghe Garden in Suzhou in the afternoon, Nan Li didn't speak much along the way.

Aside from grappling with last night's events, the other aspect was...

She knew that returning to Qinghe Garden this time meant the ancestor worship ceremony was about to begin.

Ancestor worship by ancient rites.

As the saying goes, the Winter Solstice is greater than the New Year.

Every Winter Solstice grand ceremony was the most orderly and important one.

Nan Li wasn't worried about being forced into marriage; what she worried about was what kind of price Meng Zhu had paid after all.

What she owed him could no longer be paid back long ago.

That evening, the two of them caught up with dinner at Qinghe Garden.

The warm atmosphere temporarily smoothed away Nan Li's anxiety.