After Setting Me Up With My Ex, The Aloof Alpha Regrets It - Chapter 41.1

Chapter 41.1: Shi Li Really Wanted to Jump Up and Hug Zhu Yunqi.

Remembering that she hadn’t sent photos to Wen Yue yet, Shi Li sent a few she had just taken to Wen Yue while walking.

Wen Yue seemed to have been waiting for her, replying in seconds.

Wen Yue: Got them, baby. Remember to go eat something else. Are you with Tang Yingchi right now? I want to see a photo of you two together.

Shi Li: We’re on our way to dinner. I’ll send you a picture after we eat.

Wen Yue: I’m looking forward to the beautiful photos. Baby, I’m not annoying you, am I?

Shi Li smiled and replied, “You’re not annoying me.”

Guessing she was texting Wen Yue, Zhu Yunqi stayed quiet.

After her chat with Wen Yue ended, Shi Li’s post-concert excitement faded quite a bit.

She gradually returned to a state of calm. Once her heart rate was back to normal, and because she had just texted Wen Yue, Shi Li couldn’t help but continue thinking. Since Zhu Yunqi had prepared the concert tickets, she had originally saved one for Wen Yue.

Zhu Yunqi had wanted her to go with Wen Yue. But because of the accident, Wen Yue was temporarily replaced by Tang Yingchi.

She said, “Zhu Yunqi, I’m sorry. Today was supposed to be for you to come with Wen Yue.”

Zhu Yunqi couldn’t help but get a headache when she heard the name “Wen Yue.”

“Why are you apologizing to me? Wen Yue not coming isn’t your fault. It’s because her father wouldn’t let her leave the house. Shi Li, you don’t have to apologize to me ever again,” Zhu Yunqi said. Wen Yue not coming made her happier tonight.

If Wen Yue had come as planned, she and Hai Yao would have had to find someone to swap their tickets for seats in the back. At that point, she probably wouldn’t have been in the mood to watch the concert at all. She would have likely become a “stare-at-you” monster for the entire duration, trying to put a bulletproof shield between Shi Li and Wen Yue with her gaze alone.

Shi Li was logical. “A lot of couples go to concerts, and some people even propose there. It’s a great place to enhance a relationship. You got tickets for Wen Yue, but you didn’t achieve the effect you wanted.”

Zhu Yunqi sighed to herself.

She gestured with her chin at the two people walking ahead of them, who had started arguing, then started talking enthusiastically again after a few steps. “Just consider it a building block for their friendship.”

At that moment, Lan Yang turned back and urged, “Oh, Team Leader Zhu, Shi Li, walk faster. I’m starving.”

Zhu Yunqi: “Don’t rush me.”

Shi Li: “Coming, coming.”

Two minutes later, they arrived at the restaurant.

The restaurant was packed. Many people who had just come from the concert were looking for a bite to eat nearby, and every restaurant was basically full.

They estimated they would have to wait for a while.

Zhu Yunqi was the last one to enter. As she walked in, the robot host at the door suddenly announced, “Greetings, respected Super Diamond VVVIP customer. Please wait a moment. A human server will be with you shortly.”

The three of them all looked at Zhu Yunqi.

Zhu Yunqi was also baffled. It was her first time eating at this restaurant. How could she have a VIP membership, let alone a Super Diamond VVVIP one?

A few seconds later, a human server came jogging over, bowed to Zhu Yunqi, and said, “Hello. We have a private room for our Super Diamond VVVIP customers. You don’t have to wait. Please, you and your guests, come with me.”

“I don’t have a VIP membership with you.”

“A consumption of over one million star coins automatically upgrades you to Super Diamond VVVIP. Also, we are an Upper Star Domain chain, and family members can also enjoy the service. We can check for you right now.” The server pressed a few buttons on the ultra-thin tablet in her hand. “The system shows that you have consumed over one million star coins in the three years from seven to four years ago. Also, you have a related family member, Ms. Zhu Jingshan, who is also a member of the same level.”

Zhu Yunqi started to remember. When she was in college, she often treated her roommates and classmates to dinner. She never looked at the bill. Anyway, the money Zhu Jingshan gave her was endless.

After Zhu Jingshan finally became an executive at Zhu Holdings Group, she never asked her mother and mom for an allowance again. Zhu Jingshan loved to transfer money to her for no reason.

Lan Yang lamented with a pained expression, “Ugh. This is the epitome of the evil capitalist. What about all the people who are waiting outside so hard?”

Zhu Yunqi said coolly, “Then you can go wait outside.”

Tang Yingchi followed along, a little shaky. “The private room won’t be super, super expensive, will it…”

Shi Li said, “It’s okay, I’m here too.”

The server said loudly, “The private room is free.”

Tang Yingchi relaxed.

The interior of the private room was decorated in a traditional Chinese style, elegant and refined. In the modern Federation, where new technology was the trend, this style of decoration was rare. As they opened the door, they were greeted by a sandalwood screen with a traditional ink-wash landscape painting on it. The walls were covered with a dark gold cloud-patterned wallpaper, and miniature projectors the size of a fingernail projected the image of swaying bamboo onto the windows.

The mahogany round table in the middle could be adjusted to accommodate the number of people. The server converted the ten-person table into a four-person table. Zhu Yunqi sat with Lan Yang on her right and Shi Li on her left. Tang Yingchi sat across from her.

The original intention of this meal was for Tang Yingchi to apologize to Lan Yang, so Lan Yang ordered first.

Then it was Zhu Yunqi’s turn. She added a dish of grilled scallops. Shi Li ordered a seafood soup, and Tang Yingchi added a pan-fried eel at the end.

The server even asked if they needed the chef to prepare the food in the private room, but all of them refused at the same time. Most fresh seafood doesn’t require a lot of cooking time. Soon, the freshly made dishes were served one after another.

All kinds of seafood were already prepared. For seafood that required shelling, like shrimp and crab, they would be pre-shelled, leaving only the meat. Shi Li’s company had a branch that specialized in designing robots for the catering industry. High-end restaurants might not use robots to cook, but they would definitely have a few robots for food preparation. If a customer preferred to prepare the food themselves, they could inform the restaurant in advance, and the restaurant would skip the robot shelling step and serve the dishes directly to the customer.

Shi Li spoke about her company’s products. “Design team five specifically designed robots to handle shrimp and crabs. They look a bit like a stick, but they have a total of ten mechanical arms that can handle different types of shrimp and crabs, based on their size and cooking methods.”

“Ten pairs?” Lan Yang said. “Doesn’t that make it look like a centipede?”

“Like a two-meter-long centipede standing up.” When they first designed it, everyone said it was too scary, but the fifth team couldn’t think of a more cost-effective design model. Later, the vice president gave the final approval, saying, “The shrimp-peeling robot only works in the back kitchen. There’s no need for things that don’t show their face to be good-looking.”

“I remember we did a test. One of these catering robots with ten pairs of mechanical arms could peel two hundred standard-sized shrimp in a minute or completely process thirty red crabs.”

Tang Yingchi slapped her forehead. “Right, right! I remember now! The ad for that series of robots was outsourced to our company!”

Zhu Yunqi said with a faint tone, “Could it be that standing centipede that scared you so much in the canteen kitchen that you gave it an over-the-shoulder throw, Lan Yang?”

Lan Yang: “…That didn’t happen!”

When the server came over with a serving robot for the next dish, they specifically looked at the brand name at the bottom of the robot. Sure enough, it was a robot designed and produced by Xing Shang Group.

The meal passed in a joyful atmosphere.

Shi Li and Tang Yingchi were going in the same direction to go home, so they walked together. Before they parted ways, Tang Yingchi, for some reason, convinced Lan Yang to ask the server for a takeout bag so they could split the paper flowers Lan Yang had swept up at the concert venue.

As they were dividing the paper flowers, Zhu Yunqi moved closer to Shi Li and secretly slipped something hard into her hand.

Shi Li looked at it and saw a three-inch hard card with Yuna Isadora’s signature on it.

Yuna in the photo was wearing the angel dress from the opening, making a big heart with her hands for the camera. In the bottom right corner of the photo was a personalized autograph: To Shi Li, my Dar·ling, may the beautiful starlight always shine on you. Be happy forever!

Shi Li was both surprised and delighted. “Oh my god, did you ask Yuna for this?!”

Zhu Yunqi nodded and then made a “shhh” gesture, telling her not to let the other two hear.

“I was in a rush, so I only had time to ask her to take one photo,” Zhu Yunqi watched Shi Li intently. Shi Li was carefully examining the autograph and didn’t notice the gaze on her.

“There’s only one photo. Why did you have her write my name first?” Shi Li asked in confusion.

In terms of order, the three of them were just hangers-on to Zhu Yunqi. If anyone were to get a signature, it should have been Zhu Yunqi first.

Zhu Yunqi didn’t expect her to ask so directly. The easygoing atmosphere of the meal had made Shi Li more talkative. She no longer spoke only after thinking it through. She spoke her mind freely, saying whatever came to her, except for confidential information. She was uncharacteristically lively and outgoing.

Zhu Yunqi couldn’t say that she had only asked Yuna for one. She didn’t know about personalized autographs originally, but she was thinking that her time with Shi Li was now counting down to less than a month, and she wanted to give her more unique gifts. She searched for concert-related things and found that most people wanted personalized autographs the most. From the photo to the content of the signature, it was all exclusive and unreleased, a one-of-a-kind item in the entire world.

She had originally thought Shi Li wouldn’t come, so she went backstage to ask Yuna for one, planning to give it to Shi Li whenever she had the chance. She didn’t expect Yuna to recognize her and write it without a second thought. After she was done, she gave Zhu Yunqi a gossipy look and asked if it was for her girlfriend.

Zhu Yunqi replied that it was for an important friend.

“I gave her all four of our names. But your name is two characters, so it’s at the front.”

“Lan Yang also has two characters, and in terms of Pinyin or strokes, she should be before me,” Shi Li blinked. She carefully held the precious autographed photo. Her eyes, full from the meal, held a bit of tiredness and naivety, like a little squirrel searching for food for the winter that was suddenly hit by a delicious hazelnut from the sky.

Zhu Yunqi: “…”

Hiss.

She threw the question to Yuna, who couldn’t possibly answer it. “Why don’t you ask her? Maybe she thought your name was easier to write than Lan Yang’s.”

She quickly changed the subject, no longer dwelling on the order of names. Zhu Yunqi had Shi Li put her hands together, with the photo sandwiched between her palms.

After a few seconds, she said, “Listen.”

Shi Li put her ear close to her palm. The photo emitted a sound she had never heard before. It was a faint, static sound, like an old record.

“This is temperature-sensitive photo paper. When it reaches a certain temperature, it plays a recording engraved in the photo,” Zhu Yunqi explained from the side.

The environment was a bit noisy, and the sound from the photo was very low. Shi Li faintly heard Yuna saying a blessing similar to the autograph.

Listening to it, Shi Li’s nose started to tingle. She felt an inexplicable, bittersweet happiness.

She felt the sincerity contained in Zhu Yunqi’s gift. She had never received such a thoughtful gift before. Holding it in her hand, it was only a slightly thicker, three-inch paper card, yet it felt heavier than a meteor.

Today was not an important day. It wasn’t anyone’s birthday or a special holiday. It was just an ordinary Saturday night, and the weather wasn’t even clear. You couldn’t see a single star.

Yet Zhu Yunqi said it so casually. “It’s nothing. If you don’t like it anymore, you can sell it.”

As if she hadn’t specifically bought the special paper or made a special trip backstage for this.

Shi Li shook her head, holding the autograph.

No, she would never sell it.

She was going to frame it and put it next to the green-haired Little Cloud.

Zhu Yunqi was right beside her.

Shi Li really wanted to jump up and hug Zhu Yunqi. Her heart was so full of emotion it felt like it would burst. She didn’t know what words to use to express her feelings at this moment. Only a hug could convey it.

But as she opened her arms, she realized that a sudden hug might startle Zhu Yunqi. She also wasn’t sure if Zhu Yunqi liked hugging others. Zhu Yunqi didn’t seem to like close contact with other people.

Her outstretched arms stopped in mid-air. Shi Li quickly changed her posture, raising her arms from her chest to fake a stretch. But the stretch looked strange, like a mutated zombie.

After her stretch, Shi Li said to Zhu Yunqi with red ears, “Zhu Yunqi, thank you. But what can I give you?”

Zhu Yunqi suddenly had a brilliant idea. “You can take photos of the progress of the grass in the bald puppy pot for me every day. I’ll make a record of the observations.”

Tang Yingchi, who had just finished dividing the paper flowers, was looking over and yelled, “Li Bao, did an Alpha with zombie virus pheromones bite you?”

Shi Li quickly moved a little away from Zhu Yunqi, put the signed photo into her bag, and silently apologized to Tang Yingchi a million times, adding another thing she had hidden from her. If Tang Yingchi ever finds out, she’ll forgive her… right?

Tang Yingchi, happily holding a bag of paper flowers, ran over and took Shi Li’s arm. “Come on, Li Bao.”

Remembering that she had promised to send Wen Yue a photo, Shi Li took out her floating camera and tried to pull Tang Yingchi in for a picture.

“Oh, right, we haven’t had a photo together today,” Tang Yingchi tugged on Shi Li’s cuff and collar, feeling that her friend was dressed too simply, not at all like someone who was going to a concert but more like someone who was going to work. “I should have brought a pretty dress for you to change into in the bathroom.”

Lan Yang agreed with Tang Yingchi.

Zhu Yunqi said from the side, “She looks great like this.”

Lan Yang gasped. “Come on, Team Leader Zhu. Is there ever a time Shi Li doesn’t look great in your eyes? You’d probably say she looks good even if she was wearing a potato sack.”

Love is blind.

But Lan Yang didn’t dare to say the last part out loud. Zhu Yunqi had explicitly told her not to make jokes about her and Shi Li anymore. Casual jokes were fine, but anything too obvious was not. Lan Yang was afraid Zhu Yunqi would get back at her later at the Black Star Belt.

For once, Zhu Yunqi didn’t deny what Lan Yang said.

Tang Yingchi, however, was not happy. “You’re not allowed to talk about my Li Bao like that. Li Bao is objectively beautiful. She was the campus belle in school, and now she’s the office belle at work. Forget about a potato sack, she’d be beautiful even if she wasn’t wearing any clothes at all.”

Shi Li gently tapped Tang Yingchi’s arm and whispered,

“We still have to wear clothes.”

The floating camera automatically calibrated its position in the air, taking a photo of Shi Li and Tang Yingchi together.

Lan Yang raised her hand. “I want to take one too. For the memory.”

Lan Yang stepped forward and took a photo with Tang Yingchi.

Then, Shi Li and Tang Yingchi each took a photo with Lan Yang as well.

Finally, Lan Yang pulled Zhu Yunqi over, and all four of them took a photo together. Zhu Yunqi stood in the middle. Lan Yang insisted that among them, only Zhu Yunqi had a face that looked rich. Just like the principle that standing in the middle of good-looking people makes everyone look good, having a rich person in the center would make everyone else look rich.

So Shi Li stood on Zhu Yunqi’s right, and Tang Yingchi and Lan Yang went to her left.

After the photo was taken, Zhu Yunqi said, “I haven’t taken a photo in pairs or in threes.”

So they took another round. The three of them took turns stepping up to the camera, trying out every possible combination of photos.

When Zhu Yunqi and Shi Li took their photo, both of them suddenly became a bit reserved, obediently making a peace sign. Lan Yang watched with frustration. She could take a thousand photos with a thousand different poses, but these two only knew how to hold up two fingers.

And both of their fingers were bare. They only trimmed their nails and never got manicures.

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