To Get Married - Chapter 35

Chapter 35

The novel Zhang Ziyun sent wasn’t long—about 200,000 words including the extra chapters. Since there wasn’t much homework that night, Lu Yudong hid her phone and began reading in secret after finishing her studies.

Lu Yudong hadn’t read many novels growing up. The only ones she had encountered were part of a romance series that was widely circulated in her class back in middle school.

The classmate who lent those books out was obsessed with that series. For a story spanning five volumes, she had bought three full sets: one for her private collection and two for “proselytizing” her friends. That classmate wanted the whole class to read them; as long as a book wasn’t in someone else’s hands, she was happy to lend it to anyone willing to read.

At the time, many students were discussing the plot. Seeing Zhang Ziyun start reading it, Lu Yudong succumbed to curiosity and joined the queue, finishing the long series right after Ziyun.

Because she read so few novels, Yudong still remembered the general content of that story—it was full of “youthful pain” that she found impossible to understand or accept.

It featured the typical tropes: the school hunk and the rebel were best friends; the female lead and the second female lead were best friends. The lead loved the hunk, the hunk loved the second lead, the second lead loved the rebel, and the rebel loved the lead—a perfectly messy, dramatic closed loop of relationships.

Then came the crush at fifteen, the confession at sixteen, the passionate love at seventeen, and a car crash at eighteen, interspersed with brothers turning against each other, best friends fighting, and some extreme school bullying. After the college entrance exams, some succeeded while others failed; everyone lost touch. Years later, having matured, they reunited by fate to restart the chaotic cycle of love.

They broke up and made up repeatedly. When things were good, any combination of the four seemed ready to die for each other; when things were bad, any combination seemed ready to stab each other in the back.

In the end, the second female lead died in an accident. Everyone finally understood the meaning of happiness but had lost the right to it, leaving only a lifetime of regret. On the second lead’s grave, the female lead kissed the hunk (who the second lead had loved most) and said, with deep emotion and self-indulgent sincerity, “I will be happy for you. I heard your blessing.”

Back then, the younger Lu Yudong was deeply scarred by that headache-inducing novel. Seeing her classmates actually enjoying it left her with nowhere to vent her frustrations. Consequently, it only solidified her resolve not to date and to spend her life only with Manzhu.

Two years later, Lu Yudong was touching a novel again. She had asked Zhang Ziyun for it with a “just try it out” attitude, but she never expected that this read would open the doors to a whole new world.

Lu Yudong had to admit that it was a very ordinary novel. There was no convoluted plot or profound, agonizing love. It was just a story about a landlady who wrote web novels and her live-streamer roommate, living through silly, bickering daily lives.

The two protagonists started off on the wrong foot but grew closer over time. They eventually adopted a little stray dog, living like a family of three, falling in love amidst daily laughter. Finally, one side made a bold confession, and the two found the courage to be together.

Lu Yudong finished the entire novel in one evening self-study session plus two and a half hours before bed.

Even though the plot was simple, she was completely dazed. She forgot to meditate and didn’t know what kind of mood she should have to fall asleep.

Because both protagonists in that novel were women!

The landlady was a woman, the roommate was a woman, and they were in love…

Although she had a faint inkling of this at the beginning, as she read on—seeing their feelings warm up, seeing one side confess and the other instinctively retreat, and finally seeing them face their hearts and come together—her internal complexity was no less than that of the characters.

After finishing, Lu Yudong gripped her phone tightly. Her mind was filled with random, indescribable feelings. Everyone in the dorm was asleep; it was so quiet she could only hear the cicadas outside.

She stared blankly at the little white dog pillow for a long time. Her thoughts were a tangled mess with no beginning or end. Eventually, she guiltily deleted the document, terrified that Manzhu might find a trace of it.

The next morning, while eating breakfast at the cafeteria with Zhang Ziyun, Lu Yudong hesitated for a long time before finally whispering.

“Zhang Ziyun, where did you get that novel?”

“I saw someone recommend it online saying it was funny, so I downloaded it,” Ziyun said. “I hadn’t really read ‘Lily’ novels before.”

Lu Yudong thought for a moment and asked softly, “Don’t you think it’s weird for us to read novels like that?”

Zhang Ziyun considered this. “Do you think it’s weird? It’s fine. When I was into stanning idols and shipping CPs, I read a lot of Danmei (BL) fanfiction. If I can accept Danmei, why wouldn’t I accept ‘Lily’?”

“Danmei?” Lu Yudong looked utterly bewildered. For someone who rarely used the internet—and only to chat with Zhang Ziyun when she did—this term was quite foreign.

“How do you know nothing? Danmei is male-male, which is BL—Boys’ Love,” Ziyun explained. “‘Lily’ is GL (Girls’ Love). Get it now?”

Lu Yudong nodded while biting a fried dough stick, her eyes wide and slightly vacant.

Zhang Ziyun tested the waters. “Lu Yudong, you’re not homophobic, are you?”

Yudong shook her head blankly.

“That’s good then…” Ziyun nodded thoughtfully. Suddenly, she leaned into Yudong’s ear and whispered mysteriously, “I’ll tell you something, but don’t be too shocked.”

Lu Yudong leaned in, her eyes full of curiosity.

Zhang Ziyun whispered, “Don’t blame me for having ‘rotten eyes’, but based on my years of experience… I really think the Boss and Brother Yan have something going on!”

Having said that, she retreated to her seat and picked up her bowl of sweet corn porridge, observing Yudong’s expression while she drank.

Lu Yudong froze for a long time, then buried her head to take a big gulp of soy milk, nearly choking on a piece of dough stick in the process.

Seeing this, Ziyun asked quickly, “You won’t discriminate against them, will you?”

Lu Yudong shook her head like a rattle. How could she discriminate against people who were so good to her for such a reason?

It took her a long time to say: “We shouldn’t say things we can’t be sure about.”

“I was just speaking casually.” Zhang Ziyun pursed her lips. “If it repulses you, I won’t say it again.”

“I’m not repulsed… I just… I just don’t think it’s like that… they argue all the time.”

“Bickering is a sign of affection! Isn’t there a saying—they fight at the head of the bed and make up at the foot?”

“Ah! Don’t talk about that!” Lu Yudong interrupted quickly. “If we keep going, I won’t know how to face them this weekend.”

“Just face them normally,” Zhang Ziyun said, putting down her bowl. She said seriously, “I’ve always felt that when it comes to feelings, you can’t say for sure… If you really fall for someone, how can you care if they are a man or a woman? Your eyes and heart only have room for them…”

Lu Yudong instinctively squeezed her chopsticks. A faint, ethereal shadow flickered in her heart, but it vanished before she could catch it.

“Actually, liking a girl seems pretty good. If she is truly good to me, unconditionally good, why wouldn’t I be with her?”

Lu Yudong was stunned. That person who was truly good to her, unconditionally good to her… wasn’t that the person she wanted to stay with forever?

“If there’s anything I’m afraid to face, it’s probably… not knowing if the person who is good to me likes me—the kind of liking that means wanting to be together forever… not knowing if my family could accept it…”

“The kind of liking that means wanting to be together forever…” Lu Yudong repeated Ziyun’s words in a low voice.

A subtle emotion seemed to be slowly sprouting, bit by bit, in her heart. Zhang Ziyun seemed to be saying something else, but Yudong didn’t hear a single word of it.

“Lu Yudong? Why are you spacing out?”

Zhang Ziyun had been testing the waters indirectly for ages, only to find Yudong looking wooden and vacant. This reaction made her feel quite frustrated after her long speech.

“Huh?” Lu Yudong snapped back to reality. She pulled a small handwritten vocabulary book from her pocket. “Are you done eating? Let’s go to the gazebo to memorize words.”

“You… you weren’t listening to me?” Ziyun looked displeased.

“I was! Didn’t you just say something about… whether family could accept it?” Lu Yudong blinked guiltily.

Zhang Ziyun frowned and repeated her point simply: “I was saying that if we get older and can’t find anyone we like, we should just settle down together. That would be better than finding some unreliable man!”

Lu Yudong nodded and replied instinctively, “Then… then you can come live at my house. My Sister’s cooking is very delicious…”

As soon as she said it, she regretted it. If possible, she didn’t want to share Manzhu’s kindness with anyone. But since she had said it, taking it back immediately would be hurtful. Yudong was caught in a moment of indecision.

Zhang Ziyun didn’t know Yudong’s inner thoughts were so rich. Hearing her mention “Sister” in every other sentence, she felt stifled. She gritted her teeth for two seconds and suddenly stood up, leaning on the table.

“Sister, Sister. I’ve seen mama’s girls, but I’ve never seen a ‘sister’s girl’ like you.”

“Just spend your whole life with your sister then!”

“Let’s go. Vocabulary!”

Ziyun spat out those three sentences and turned toward the cafeteria exit.

Lu Yudong bit her lip, stood up with her bowl, finished the remaining soy milk in one go, and hurried after Ziyun.

On the way to the gazebo in the school’s green area, she kept thinking about Ziyun’s line: “Just spend your whole life with your sister then.”

The more she thought about it, the more she felt there was absolutely nothing wrong with that. She had never planned on spending her life with anyone else anyway.