To Get Married - Chapter 30.2

Chapter 30.2

“But sometimes, you can’t hide what you can’t hide. I looked down on the walnuts you shared with me, and I despised the stationery you used… so I treated you to snacks and gave you small gifts, wanting you to keep up with me a little.”

“Many people called you my little follower, and I was so angry, but I wasn’t afraid you’d be sad. I was afraid you’d stop hanging out with me after being hurt by that word. Then who would fetch hot water, fold my quilt, tidy the sheets, and clean the room for me?”

Zhang Ziyun said, laughing self-deprecatingly.

She said she was used to being pampered like a princess until she suddenly fell from the clouds. Only then did she realize that the friends who used to be good to her and never minded her occasional bossiness gradually stopped associating with her.

Because she no longer spent money generously as before and couldn’t offer those people any benefits.

And her own personality was not as good as Lu Yudong saw.

She was selfish and arrogant. Even the time Lu Yudong was sick, and she ran to the homeroom teacher to get a leave slip to leave school, it wasn’t just to take Lu Yudong home to rest—that day, after dropping Lu Yudong off, she happily ate some delicious food outside the school and wandered around for a long time, only bothering to return to class when the evening self-study was about to start.

“I clearly wasn’t completely devoted to you, yet you always stayed by my side. Something happened in my family, and I wasn’t as good to you as before, but you never changed and even actively helped me with such a big favor… I suddenly felt like I didn’t deserve a friend like you at all…” At this point, Zhang Ziyun stared at Lu Yudong and asked timidly, “Now that you know, I’m genuinely a very terrible person. Are you going to hate me?”

Lu Yudong listened, then simply said: “How can one person be kind to another for no reason? There must be a cause. If you care too much about those causes, you’ll become very tired.”

From junior high until now, she hadn’t changed.

As long as someone was kind to her, she would try her best to return the favor. As for why those people were kind to her, she didn’t care at all.

“I didn’t like you that much at first either. It was just because you were my deskmate, and I can’t refuse people, so I listened to whatever you said, and whenever you asked me to do something, I followed along.” Lu Yudong said, then couldn’t help but laugh. “I even thought in my heart, this deskmate is so demanding, and she doesn’t leave any room for rejection when she talks.”

Zhang Ziyun heard this, furrowed her brows in exasperation, reached out and lightly hit Lu Yudong. She bit her lip, holding back the few tears that were spinning in her eyes, and complained: “You actually disliked me!”

“Of course I disliked you! You clearly memorize things faster than me, and your comprehension is better than mine, yet you just wouldn’t study properly, spending all your time following celebrities, gossiping, and playing games!”

“I dragged you to study with me, and you complained every day, making me feel like the eunuch worried more than the emperor! If you weren’t tired, I was!”

“And, when we first moved into the dorm, you made me so uncomfortable! If you wanted to play with your phone at night, fine, but why did you keep tossing and turning? The whole bed kept shaking!”

Lu Yudong was like someone who suddenly pulled out a small notebook of grudges, flipping through Zhang Ziyun’s old scores one by one.

Zhang Ziyun was stunned, but when she heard the part about playing with her phone, she couldn’t help but raise her voice: “That, that might have been because my favorite idol posted a new selfie that was so handsome, or there was a new variety show, or an interview, or maybe my OTP was in the same frame… Do you know what ‘in the same frame’ means? ‘In the same frame means married’, do you understand that!”

“But you still didn’t need to toss and turn!” Lu Yudong yelled back.

“I call that excited squirming in bed! You, a person who doesn’t follow celebrities or ship couples, wouldn’t understand that uncontrollable feeling!”

“Can’t I even complain about it?”

“Yes, yes, can’t I just say yes? Anyway, I’m… not that interested in those things anymore.”

The two little girls bickered for a few sentences, then looked at each other and smiled knowingly.

After a few seconds of silence, Zhang Ziyun sat up straight: “What I’m saying now is much more serious than last time… I really, truly want to be with you forever. Whether it’s in college or after we graduate and enter society, I want to be like this with you—playing together when happy and standing together when sad.”

Lu Yudong said: “Me too.”

Zhang Ziyun said seriously: “Lu Yudong, I like you more and more.”

Lu Yudong heard this and couldn’t help but jokingly complain: “Cheesy.”

After a brief silence, Zhang Ziyun looked up toward the bar’s stage.

The person Lu Yudong always talked about began singing a song she had never heard before, in a spot her gaze couldn’t reach.

The lyrics sounded like a lovesick person, silent yet stubborn, following the shadow of another.

Zhang Ziyun listened quietly for a while, then couldn’t help but ask: “What song is this?”

Lu Yudong said: “Soulmate. A regular customer often requests it.”

Zhang Ziyun said: “That customer must be heartbroken.”

Lu Yudong burst out laughing: “Then he must have been heartbroken for two years now.”

“I don’t like that. If I were heartbroken, I would never cling. I would walk far away until I completely moved on.”

“Says the one who’s never been in love.”

“There will be one eventually, right? How about you, Lu Yudong?”

“Me?” Lu Yudong thought seriously for a moment, then shook her head. “No plans. I just want to get into college, find a job after graduation, and then… then I want to buy a bigger house and a car. Once I learn to drive, I can pick up and drop off Sister every day…”

Zhang Ziyun listened thoughtfully: “I also need to work hard, first to pay off the family debt, and then to let my mom live a life that’s not so tiring, like before…”

That night, Zhang Ziyun didn’t start working right away. Instead, she went home early to discuss the part-time job with her mother late into the night.

Not long after Zhang Ziyun left, Lu Yudong once again fell asleep on the bar table.

Xiaozhi saw Lu Yudong dozing like this again. After hesitating for a long time, she finally couldn’t help but gently wake her, leading her all the way up to the second floor, and letting her sleep on her own bed.

Sleeping in a bed was much more comfortable than sleeping on a table. Lu Yudong, already sleepy, immediately fell into a deep sleep.

Suddenly, someone gently picked her up. She tried hard to open a slit of her eyes, saw it was Manzhu, and then relaxed.

“Go back to sleep,” Manzhu whispered in her ear.

“Mhm,” Lu Yudong replied softly, hooking her arms around Manzhu’s neck and burying her head in her warm, soft embrace.

Manzhu carried Lu Yudong into Mu Chensan’s car, closed the door, gently smoothed Lu Yudong’s wind-blown bangs, and placed a temporary soundproof barrier around her ears. Only then did she look up at Mu Chensan and say: “Thank you for the trouble tonight. She’s sleeping so soundly, I didn’t have the heart to wake her.”

“I’ve got too many troubles; one more won’t hurt,” Mu Chensan said. As he started the car, he casually brought up Zhang Ziyun’s matter. “Lu Yudong brought her little deskmate here today and insisted on getting that girl a job.”

Manzhu asked: “Did you agree?”

Mu Chensan sighed: “What else could I do? Your little girl cares a lot about that deskmate. She wouldn’t be happy if I didn’t help her.”

Manzhu smiled faintly: “Just consider it doing a good deed and accumulating merit.”

“If accumulating merit worked, I’d be an immortal by now,” Mu Chensan said, then paused for a moment, unable to stop himself from adding: “Honghong, don’t think I’m nagging, but you need to keep an eye on that girl Zhang Ziyun.”

“Keep an eye on what?”

“To prevent that human girl from seducing your little cabbage before she’s fully grown. It will be hard to deal with then.”

Manzhu looked as if she had heard the world’s biggest joke: “Are you kidding me?”

Mu Chensan: “I’m giving you a kind warning.”

Manzhu: “Impossible. The genders are all wrong.”

Mu Chensan: “Then look at me?”

Manzhu snorted: “Do you think you are worthy of having designs on my Yudong?”

Mu Chensan: “Shit! I meant look at me and Zhaomu! Are our genders wrong?”

Manzhu’s thought process clearly stalled, and the next second, she fell into deep contemplation.