76

Chapter 76: Zhou Li was finally in love (74.3) Translator: DragonRider

“If you have got a boyfriend, you should tell me in time.” He said.

“No. That’s my boss.” Zhou Li quickly explained.

Liu Yuan replied with six dots after a short moment.

After pondering for a while, Zhou Li found that his so-called explanation seemed rather ambiguous.

He didn’t know how to explain it clearly, so he could only use a few more exclamation marks to emphasize it.

“Honestly not!!!”

“Then why is it inconvenient to call me?” Liu Yuan asked.

Zhou Li was speechless.

He glanced at Li Xiaoran, who was driving quietly. There didn’t seem to be much inconvenience indeed. Compared with such an awkward silence, maybe it would be a good idea to make a phone call to kill the time.

As soon as he finished dialling the number, Liu Yuan immediately answered it.

“What are you doing, being so paranoid? Do you just want some gossip or do you want to be a detective?” Zhou Li asked, “Where are you now?”

“… I’m at the place where you just had dinner.” Liu Yuan said.

“Eh? What a coincidence. You were having dinner there too?”

“No,” said Liu Yuan, “I happened to pass your company just now, and wanted to stop by and ask you to go to have some food with me after work.”

“… ”

“You two seemed to be having a good time talking, so I don’t want to disturb you.” Liu Yuan said.

He sounded very aggrieved, but Zhou Li felt a little strange.

“Well, aren’t you a little perverted?” He said, “Watching us in the dark?”

“… I had a meal by myself at the same time.” Liu Yuan said.

“Ah! Did you order their chicken with chestnuts? I think it’s delicious!”

“Yes, yes, yes.” said Liu Yuan. “I think the chestnuts in it are even better than chicken. They are fragrant and glutinous!”

“I think so too!” said Zhou “We’ll go together next time.”

“Great, when?”

“I can’t manage anytime soon. I just quit my job here. The handover is very annoying…”

“Oh…” Liu Yuan paused, “Your boss is beside you now?”

Zhou Li subconsciously looked at Li Xiaoran, who was still driving in silence. “Er, yes.”

“He is driving you home?”

“… Right.”

“I have an intuition,” Liu Yuan said. “He seems to fancy you.”

Zhou Li was stunned.

When did this dim-witted guy become so sharp?

“If you don’t object, I take it as a ‘yes’” Liu Yuan said, “…Since you know he fancies you, you still went out for dinner with him and let him drive you home. Does that mean you also like him?”

“No!” Zhou Li said.

He was very distressed. After all, Li Xiaoran was right beside him. He was too embarrassed to say some things.

“Last time when I said I would accompany you home, you said it was unnecessary.”

“That’s rubbish! Why would I want you to take the bus with me?” Zhou Li could not help but complain, “If there’s only one seat, should I take it or you?”

“You sit, of course you should.” Liu Yuan said, “I’ll save money for another two years and buy a car. I’ll drive you home then.”

Zhou Li couldn’t help laughing. “OK, I’ll wait.”

“But I’m serious. Don’t find me annoying please,” Liu Yuan continued. “Not every alpha is as gentlemen-like and harmless as I am. You get into someone’s car so carelessly. If he misunderstands you, it’s easy to cause trouble.”

“… What the hell. ” Zhou Li frowned.

“But it’s OK,” Liu Yuan said. “Let’s talk more on the phone. If someone else is listening, he won’t dare to plot an evil plan.”

“Thank you so much.” Zhou Li said.

Li Xiaoran, who kept silent all the time, suddenly said, “Your boyfriend?”

Zhou Li was stunned briefly. He wasn’t sure if Liu Yuan at the other end of the phone had heard this as he was silent.

“Is it your boyfriend?” Li Xiaoran asked again.

Zhou Li nodded: “Well, yes.”

Knowing that he had a partner, Li Xiaoran should be able to give up completely. Anyway, Liu Yuan was his mutual aid partner. Of course, he should help out on such an occasion.

“No wonder Rong Yi didn’t seem to upset you at all,” Li Xiaoran continued. “Very good. I can see you like him very much.”

Zhou Li’s face turned red in an instant.

He wanted to shout out loud: What the hell, don’t talk nonsense. However, it was not the right time to do so, so he had to keep silent.

Then he heard a chuckle on the other end of the phone.

Zhou Li suddenly began to feel irritated.

Li Xiaoran said that he found him a very interesting person.

He said he couldn’t help liking him because he was an interesting person. He also said that he seemed to like Liu Yuan very much.

In fact, Zhou Li always thought Liu Yuan was interesting.

After he integrated all these information, he immediately became rather irritated.

This irritation lasted until the next day at work. During the lunch break, a colleague who had a good relationship with him chatted with him and asked him why he was so indifferent to Li Xiaoran.

“He’s successful. Now he’s very handsome too and he seems so serious about you. You are not moved at all.”

Zhou Li frowned: “Why should I be moved. It’s none of my business if he likes me.”

“… Don’t you feel touched at all?” asked the colleague.

Would you call it ‘touched’ when you just want to stay away from this trouble?

Zhou Li was feeling a little helpless: “If I like a person, I will not feel that the other party must be responsible for me.”

He fell in love with Rong Yi at first sight, and gave up after 2 rejections. Now he was very happy to see that Rong Yi was having a great relationship. What a broad mind, it was a worthy model for all lovelorn people.

“It’s not like that,” said his colleague, who was a little amused. “Humans are emotional animals. Even if you don’t care for someone, you will more or less feel happy to find that that person likes you?”

“Are you suggesting I’m cold-blooded,” Zhou Li pursed his lips. “Am I not nice to you?”

“That’s not what I mean,” his colleague quickly waved his hand. “I just think you look normal at other times, but rather harsh in this aspect. But on the other hand, it’s also a good thing to reject someone clearly.”

Zhou Li didn’t say a word.

The colleague suddenly asked, “Have you never been in love?”

“What’s the problem?” Zhou Li blushed.

“… I’m sure you haven’t liked anyone either.”

“I have,” Zhou Li stressed. “He doesn’t like me. I’ve lost my love. Just normal friends now.”

His colleague laughed. She put out her hand and rubbed it on Zhou Li’s short curly hair, saying, “little boy.”

She walked away, leaving Zhou Li sitting there with some inexplicable tightness in the chest.

Just then, his cell phone vibrated. It was a message.

“Have you eaten yet ~?”

The sender was Liu Yuan.

Zhou Li suddenly felt very upset. The subtle annoyance even made his ears buzz.

So for the first time in this period of time, he deliberately didn’t reply to Liu Yuan’s message.

Liu Yuan was really annoying.

From that day on, he started to send even more messages to Zhou Li every day, all of which were irrelevant nonsense. Zhou Li only replied to one out of ten of his messages, but that still couldn’t dampen his enthusiasm.

Zhou felt overwhelmed.

This sentiment of irritation was a little different from the aversion that he felt toward Liu Yuan when he first met him.

He felt flustered.

He even realized that he had begun to have a little oversensitive, and would subconsciously feel that his mobile phone was vibrating, only to find that there was no message, but he still couldn’t help but press open the dialog window with Liu Yuan to confirm.

He even figured out the time intervals between Liu Yuan’s messages and couldn’t help looking at them when it was almost time to receive them.

Liu Yuan called him several times, but he didn’t answer. Afterwards, he would make up some random excuses to say that he was too busy with handover work to notice the phone calls and would not be able to talk if nothing important.

Liu Yuan asked him when he would be free to eat that chicken with chestnuts dish with him. He didn’t reply until after a long while that he had no time at the moment.

So Liu Yuan said, ‘Take good care of yourself.’

After a while, he said, ‘It doesn’t matter if you don’t have time to reply to my messages. It’s important for you to sort out your work first. I’m happy to carry on the one-sided conversation.’

Later again, he suddenly asked, ‘Would you find me annoying?’

During this whole period, Zhou Li had been watching the mobile phone screen, watching him send out the last message and then recall it.

He was so flustered that he walked around with his mobile phone in his hand and finally decided to pretend not to see anything.

More than a week with days like this passed, during which he couldn’t help complaining to Rong Yi.

He originally wanted to tell Rong Yi: I even got so startled at hearing the children in an advertisement say “for the sake of our water supply” yesterday that I couldn’t recover for a long while. Should I just block him?

It was a pity that Rong Yi had no compassion. He was too busy with Chen Keyao in their world of two and ignored him completely.

Until Liu Yuan asked him in the message: “Do you remember our agreement?”

Zhou Li thought for a long time before finally remembering that they once set up a mutual aid group.

When he was staring at his mobile phone in a daze, Liu Yuan sent a little emoticon showing a frustrated expression.

After that, he called again soon. After hesitating for a moment, Zhou Li finally plucked up his courage to answer it.

He was planning to tell Liu Yuan seriously and bravely that he wanted to stop the cooperation. Because his heart was disturbed by his collaborator, he couldn’t stand it any more. He was going crazy.

“Well… There’s a little problem, “Liu Yuan said in a very nervous tone on the phone. “I showed my mother your picture. She likes you very much.”

“… Ah.”

Zhou Li subconsciously wanted to answer, ‘What a coincidence, so does my mother.’

But he held back.

“She asked … It’ll be New Year’s holiday soon; if I can invite you to my house for a meal.”

“…”

“I said I had to ask you if you have time.”

“…”

“So, do you have time?” Liu Yuan asked.

He frowned.

“No.” He said.

Liu Yuan was silent for a while, and suddenly he had a long sigh of relief.

“Well, then I’ll find an excuse to turn her down,” he said. “Are you busy now? I read a book the other day. It’s very interesting. You will definitely like it.”

Zhou Li swallowed: “Busy.”

“…”

“…”

The two men were silent for a while at the same time, and Liu Yuan finally spoke again.

“That’s all right. I won’t bother you any more. I’ll hang up. Good night.”

Zhou Li almost blurted out: hey, wait.

But the words came to his lips, and got stuck. After a short moment, he realized that there was no need to say it.

Chapter 76: Zhou Li was finally in love (74.3) Translator: DragonRider

“If you have got a boyfriend, you should tell me in time.” He said.

“No. That’s my boss.” Zhou Li quickly explained.

Liu Yuan replied with six dots after a short moment.

After pondering for a while, Zhou Li found that his so-called explanation seemed rather ambiguous.

He didn’t know how to explain it clearly, so he could only use a few more exclamation marks to emphasize it.

“Honestly not!!!”

“Then why is it inconvenient to call me?” Liu Yuan asked.

Zhou Li was speechless.

He glanced at Li Xiaoran, who was driving quietly. There didn’t seem to be much inconvenience indeed. Compared with such an awkward silence, maybe it would be a good idea to make a phone call to kill the time.

As soon as he finished dialling the number, Liu Yuan immediately answered it.

“What are you doing, being so paranoid? Do you just want some gossip or do you want to be a detective?” Zhou Li asked, “Where are you now?”

“… I’m at the place where you just had dinner.” Liu Yuan said.

“Eh? What a coincidence. You were having dinner there too?”

“No,” said Liu Yuan, “I happened to pass your company just now, and wanted to stop by and ask you to go to have some food with me after work.”

“… ”

“You two seemed to be having a good time talking, so I don’t want to disturb you.” Liu Yuan said.

He sounded very aggrieved, but Zhou Li felt a little strange.

“Well, aren’t you a little perverted?” He said, “Watching us in the dark?”

“… I had a meal by myself at the same time.” Liu Yuan said.

“Ah! Did you order their chicken with chestnuts? I think it’s delicious!”

“Yes, yes, yes.” said Liu Yuan. “I think the chestnuts in it are even better than chicken. They are fragrant and glutinous!”

“I think so too!” said Zhou “We’ll go together next time.”

“Great, when?”

“I can’t manage anytime soon. I just quit my job here. The handover is very annoying…”

“Oh…” Liu Yuan paused, “Your boss is beside you now?”

Zhou Li subconsciously looked at Li Xiaoran, who was still driving in silence. “Er, yes.”

“He is driving you home?”

“… Right.”

“I have an intuition,” Liu Yuan said. “He seems to fancy you.”

Zhou Li was stunned.

When did this dim-witted guy become so sharp?

“If you don’t object, I take it as a ‘yes’” Liu Yuan said, “…Since you know he fancies you, you still went out for dinner with him and let him drive you home. Does that mean you also like him?”

“No!” Zhou Li said.

He was very distressed. After all, Li Xiaoran was right beside him. He was too embarrassed to say some things.

“Last time when I said I would accompany you home, you said it was unnecessary.”

“That’s rubbish! Why would I want you to take the bus with me?” Zhou Li could not help but complain, “If there’s only one seat, should I take it or you?”

“You sit, of course you should.” Liu Yuan said, “I’ll save money for another two years and buy a car. I’ll drive you home then.”

Zhou Li couldn’t help laughing. “OK, I’ll wait.”

“But I’m serious. Don’t find me annoying please,” Liu Yuan continued. “Not every alpha is as gentlemen-like and harmless as I am. You get into someone’s car so carelessly. If he misunderstands you, it’s easy to cause trouble.”

“… What the hell. ” Zhou Li frowned.

“But it’s OK,” Liu Yuan said. “Let’s talk more on the phone. If someone else is listening, he won’t dare to plot an evil plan.”

“Thank you so much.” Zhou Li said.

Li Xiaoran, who kept silent all the time, suddenly said, “Your boyfriend?”

Zhou Li was stunned briefly. He wasn’t sure if Liu Yuan at the other end of the phone had heard this as he was silent.

“Is it your boyfriend?” Li Xiaoran asked again.

Zhou Li nodded: “Well, yes.”

Knowing that he had a partner, Li Xiaoran should be able to give up completely. Anyway, Liu Yuan was his mutual aid partner. Of course, he should help out on such an occasion.

“No wonder Rong Yi didn’t seem to upset you at all,” Li Xiaoran continued. “Very good. I can see you like him very much.”

Zhou Li’s face turned red in an instant.

He wanted to shout out loud: What the hell, don’t talk nonsense. However, it was not the right time to do so, so he had to keep silent.

Then he heard a chuckle on the other end of the phone.

Zhou Li suddenly began to feel irritated.

Li Xiaoran said that he found him a very interesting person.

He said he couldn’t help liking him because he was an interesting person. He also said that he seemed to like Liu Yuan very much.

In fact, Zhou Li always thought Liu Yuan was interesting.

After he integrated all these information, he immediately became rather irritated.

This irritation lasted until the next day at work. During the lunch break, a colleague who had a good relationship with him chatted with him and asked him why he was so indifferent to Li Xiaoran.

“He’s successful. Now he’s very handsome too and he seems so serious about you. You are not moved at all.”

Zhou Li frowned: “Why should I be moved. It’s none of my business if he likes me.”

“… Don’t you feel touched at all?” asked the colleague.

Would you call it ‘touched’ when you just want to stay away from this trouble?

Zhou Li was feeling a little helpless: “If I like a person, I will not feel that the other party must be responsible for me.”

He fell in love with Rong Yi at first sight, and gave up after 2 rejections. Now he was very happy to see that Rong Yi was having a great relationship. What a broad mind, it was a worthy model for all lovelorn people.

“It’s not like that,” said his colleague, who was a little amused. “Humans are emotional animals. Even if you don’t care for someone, you will more or less feel happy to find that that person likes you?”

“Are you suggesting I’m cold-blooded,” Zhou Li pursed his lips. “Am I not nice to you?”

“That’s not what I mean,” his colleague quickly waved his hand. “I just think you look normal at other times, but rather harsh in this aspect. But on the other hand, it’s also a good thing to reject someone clearly.”

Zhou Li didn’t say a word.

The colleague suddenly asked, “Have you never been in love?”

“What’s the problem?” Zhou Li blushed.

“… I’m sure you haven’t liked anyone either.”

“I have,” Zhou Li stressed. “He doesn’t like me. I’ve lost my love. Just normal friends now.”

His colleague laughed. She put out her hand and rubbed it on Zhou Li’s short curly hair, saying, “little boy.”

She walked away, leaving Zhou Li sitting there with some inexplicable tightness in the chest.

Just then, his cell phone vibrated. It was a message.

“Have you eaten yet ~?”

The sender was Liu Yuan.

Zhou Li suddenly felt very upset. The subtle annoyance even made his ears buzz.

So for the first time in this period of time, he deliberately didn’t reply to Liu Yuan’s message.

Liu Yuan was really annoying.

From that day on, he started to send even more messages to Zhou Li every day, all of which were irrelevant nonsense. Zhou Li only replied to one out of ten of his messages, but that still couldn’t dampen his enthusiasm.

Zhou felt overwhelmed.

This sentiment of irritation was a little different from the aversion that he felt toward Liu Yuan when he first met him.

He felt flustered.

He even realized that he had begun to have a little oversensitive, and would subconsciously feel that his mobile phone was vibrating, only to find that there was no message, but he still couldn’t help but press open the dialog window with Liu Yuan to confirm.

He even figured out the time intervals between Liu Yuan’s messages and couldn’t help looking at them when it was almost time to receive them.

Liu Yuan called him several times, but he didn’t answer. Afterwards, he would make up some random excuses to say that he was too busy with handover work to notice the phone calls and would not be able to talk if nothing important.

Liu Yuan asked him when he would be free to eat that chicken with chestnuts dish with him. He didn’t reply until after a long while that he had no time at the moment.

So Liu Yuan said, ‘Take good care of yourself.’

After a while, he said, ‘It doesn’t matter if you don’t have time to reply to my messages. It’s important for you to sort out your work first. I’m happy to carry on the one-sided conversation.’

Later again, he suddenly asked, ‘Would you find me annoying?’

During this whole period, Zhou Li had been watching the mobile phone screen, watching him send out the last message and then recall it.

He was so flustered that he walked around with his mobile phone in his hand and finally decided to pretend not to see anything.

More than a week with days like this passed, during which he couldn’t help complaining to Rong Yi.

He originally wanted to tell Rong Yi: I even got so startled at hearing the children in an advertisement say “for the sake of our water supply” yesterday that I couldn’t recover for a long while. Should I just block him?

It was a pity that Rong Yi had no compassion. He was too busy with Chen Keyao in their world of two and ignored him completely.

Until Liu Yuan asked him in the message: “Do you remember our agreement?”

Zhou Li thought for a long time before finally remembering that they once set up a mutual aid group.

When he was staring at his mobile phone in a daze, Liu Yuan sent a little emoticon showing a frustrated expression.

After that, he called again soon. After hesitating for a moment, Zhou Li finally plucked up his courage to answer it.

He was planning to tell Liu Yuan seriously and bravely that he wanted to stop the cooperation. Because his heart was disturbed by his collaborator, he couldn’t stand it any more. He was going crazy.

“Well… There’s a little problem, “Liu Yuan said in a very nervous tone on the phone. “I showed my mother your picture. She likes you very much.”

“… Ah.”

Zhou Li subconsciously wanted to answer, ‘What a coincidence, so does my mother.’

But he held back.

“She asked … It’ll be New Year’s holiday soon; if I can invite you to my house for a meal.”

“…”

“I said I had to ask you if you have time.”

“…”

“So, do you have time?” Liu Yuan asked.

He frowned.

“No.” He said.

Liu Yuan was silent for a while, and suddenly he had a long sigh of relief.

“Well, then I’ll find an excuse to turn her down,” he said. “Are you busy now? I read a book the other day. It’s very interesting. You will definitely like it.”

Zhou Li swallowed: “Busy.”

“…”

“…”

The two men were silent for a while at the same time, and Liu Yuan finally spoke again.

“That’s all right. I won’t bother you any more. I’ll hang up. Good night.”

Zhou Li almost blurted out: hey, wait.

But the words came to his lips, and got stuck. After a short moment, he realized that there was no need to say it.