"Like the Moon in the Sky" - Chapter 18
After returning home, Zhu Jinyue first went to the bathroom to remove her makeup.
When she wiped her lips, her movements paused. Her eyes met her reflection in the mirror, and an uncontrollable image flashed through her mind.
Zhu Jinyue lowered her head, cupped her hands under the cold water, and splashed it onto her face.
Her mind was a mess, so she spent a little longer than usual in the bath.
By the time she came out of the bathroom, she saw her phone, left outside, showing seven missed calls, all from the same person.
—Fu Zhiwang.
Zhu Jinyue checked the time on her phone; it was already past midnight.
So, Fu Zhiwang finally had time to contact her now, did he?
Her phone rang again; it was Fu Zhiwang’s eighth call.
Zhu Jinyue hung up without a second thought and promptly blacklisted his number.
A moment later, her phone rang again.
This time, it was a WeChat voice call, still from Fu Zhiwang.
Zhu Jinyue raised an eyebrow.
She was a little surprised.
Fu Zhiwang, the proud young master who had been pampered all his life—she thought that after she hung up on him and blacklisted him, making her disinterest in communication abundantly clear, he wouldn’t stoop to contact her again.
Actually, now that she had calmed down a bit and stepped away from the heat of her anger, thinking carefully about tonight’s events, she began to feel that the reality might not be entirely what it seemed on the surface.
They hadn’t been dating long; there hadn’t even been time to develop feelings. If Fu Zhiwang wanted to rekindle things with his ex-girlfriend, he could have just told her—it wasn’t as if she would stop him.
Besides, even if she didn’t trust Fu Zhiwang’s character, she should trust her grandfather’s judgment, honed over decades.
Moreover, she seemed to recall that Jiang Mo had mentioned last time that Fu Zhiwang’s ex-girlfriend’s family was involved in a legal case. She probably wasn’t in the mood to rekindle an old flame right now.
But regardless of whether there were underlying circumstances, at least three things were certain:
- Fu Zhiwang had indeed stood her up tonight.
- After standing her up, Fu Zhiwang had met with his ex-girlfriend.
- Said ex-girlfriend had indeed kissed Fu Zhiwang tonight.
So, whether there were underlying circumstances or not didn’t matter. With these three points, their relationship could only end here.
Zhu Jinyue swiped her finger, hanging up the still-ringing call, and promptly dragged Fu Zhiwang’s WeChat into the blacklist as well.
Although she felt Fu Zhiwang probably wouldn’t try to reach her through other means, her mind was in too much turmoil tonight. She really wanted peace and quiet and didn’t want to be disturbed further, so she simply turned off her phone, picked up her backup phone, and got into bed.
The backup phone used a secondary number linked to her main line. If her family couldn’t reach her on her main number, they could call this one, so she didn’t have to worry about missing urgent matters.
All the usual social and entertainment apps were also fully installed on the backup phone, so she wouldn’t be bored.
But after lying back in bed and scrolling through her phone, she realized one entertainment app was missing—
She hadn’t downloaded “Another Village,” the game she’d recently started playing, on this phone yet.
Accustomed to clearing her daily tasks before bed, Zhu Jinyue opened the app store, searched for “Willow Shades Dark, Bright Flowers—Another Village,” and was about to download it when her finger accidentally scrolled down.
This scroll brought her to the game developer information section.
The words “Wei Zhi” shone brightly under the light before her eyes.
Zhu Jinyue, “…”
Forget it.
She could skip tonight’s tasks.
Zhu Jinyue exited the app store and thought about opening WeChat to browse Moments, but then remembered this was her secondary account, which had very few contacts.
She switched to Weibo instead. She had been preoccupied lately with choosing a gift for her grandmother and hadn’t updated in a long time. There weren’t many new messages to check anyway.
Zhu Jinyue simply picked a movie to watch.
The moment it opened, it directly showed a scene of the male and female leads kissing.
“…”
Zhu Jinyue exited the movie immediately.
Forget it.
Better just sleep.
She tossed her phone aside, turned off the light, and burrowed under the covers.
Only to discover that a quiet environment isn’t the only thing that easily breeds wild thoughts.
A quiet, pitch-black environment is twice as effective.
After more than ten minutes, she irritably turned over.
A while later, Zhu Jinyue turned again, lying flat on her stomach.
Shortly after, she turned over once more.
…
After tossing and turning countless times, sleep still refused to come.
Zhu Jinyue felt that if she were a pancake, she would have been thoroughly fried to a crisp on all sides by now.
So annoying.
She sat up hugging her quilt, snapped the light back on, and opened her phone again.
There wasn’t anything particularly enjoyable on the apps.
Zhu Jinyue thought for a moment and simply dialed Fu Shuyu’s WeChat number.
The phone rang for a while before it was answered.
Fu Shuyu’s voice sounded weak, “Why aren’t you asleep yet?”
Zhu Jinyue’s voice was equally weak, “Can’t sleep.”
“I’m rushing a thesis,” Fu Shuyu said. “If you can’t sleep, find something else to do, okay? Be good.”
Listlessly, Zhu Jinyue said, “I called you precisely because there’s nothing else to do.”
Fu Shuyu typed away noisily on her keyboard while saying, “Weren’t you playing that game lately, the one from your friend Shen Qinghuai’s company? Go play your game.”
(You really know how to hit a sore spot.)
Zhu Jinyue thought about it and felt she really needed to talk to someone; otherwise, she might burst from keeping it all in tonight. With her hair tousled from rubbing against the pillow, she rested her chin on her knees. “There are two things I need to tell you.”
Fu Shuyu, “Then hurry up and say them.”
Zhu Jinyue paused, “I broke up with Fu Zhiwang.”
Fu Shuyu, “Oh.”
Zhu Jinyue was dissatisfied. “What kind of reaction is that?”
Fu Shuyu, “The reaction of someone listening.”
Zhu Jinyue, “Could you be any more perfunctory?”
Fu Shuyu, “Sweetie, the fact that I’m answering your call while rushing a thesis is already special treatment you alone get. I even hung up on my dad when he called not long ago. Wasn’t there another thing? Spit it out.”
Zhu Jinyue blew at a strand of hair that had fallen in front of her nose and was silent for a moment.
“Fine, I’ll say it then.”
Fu Shuyu, “Mhm, I’m listening. Go ahead.”
Zhu Jinyue, “I kissed Shen Qinghuai tonight.”
A sudden thump came from the other end of the phone.
It sounded like Fu Shuyu had knocked something over in surprise. The previously incessant clatter of the keyboard also stopped.
“WHAT???”
When Fu Shuyu’s voice came back, it was no longer the perfunctory tone from before, but brimming with excited gossip.
“What did you say? Who did you kiss tonight?”
Zhu Jinyue gave a light hum. “No one. I’m going to sleep. You should get back to writing your thesis.”
With that, she hung up with a smack.
Fu Shuyu, having grown up with her, was far more skilled at coaxing her than Fu Zhiwang ever was.
After Zhu Jinyue hung up, Fu Shuyu didn’t call back immediately.
Instead, her phone vibrated softly soon after. Fu Shuyu had sent a WeChat message—it was a picture she had drawn herself.
In the drawing was a vividly depicted little person crying their eyes out, with three words next to it, “I was wrong.”
The corner of Zhu Jinyue’s mouth twitched upwards.
Very soon, a second picture came through.
This time, it was a little person kneeling on the ground, with the caption, “Don’t be angry,Young Mistress.”
A moment later, another one arrived.
This time, it was a little cat rolling around on the ground, with the caption: “Forgive me.”
After sending the three pictures, Fu Shuyu called back.
Zhu Jinyue slowly dragged it out for ten seconds before answering, propping her chin in her hand. “Weren’t you rushing your thesis? Why are you calling again?”
Fu Shuyu, “I know I was wrong. What’s so important about a thesis? Quickly, tell me what exactly happened!”
Zhu Jinyue continued to play hard to get, “Weren’t you uninterested?”
Fu Shuyu cried injustice, “When was I uninterested?”
Zhu Jinyue started settling accounts, “You only replied with an ‘oh.’ Doesn’t that count as uninterested?”
Fu Shuyu, “That was about the Fu Zhiwang part. I’m genuinely not interested in that part.”
Zhu Jinyue, “Why aren’t you interested in the Fu Zhiwang part?”
Fu Shuyu, “Fu Zhiwang is that kind of young master who’s had everything go smoothly since childhood—handsome, not short of money, and highly intelligent. Girls have probably always been chasing after him; I doubt he knows how to write the words ‘compromise’ or ‘accommodate.’ You two were set up by your families, so there was bound to be an adjustment period initially. Given your temper, the fact that you endured until now to break up was probably already out of respect for your grandfather and his grandfather. If you suddenly told me you were marrying him, that would be surprising!”
Zhu Jinyue, “?”
“How could that be?”
They were nowhere near that stage.
“See?” Fu Shuyu clearly wasn’t interested in this part. After a brief explanation, she hurriedly steered the topic back. “Now quickly tell me about the other one. What on earth happened? How did you suddenly kiss Shen Qinghuai? Was that all? You didn’t do anything else?”
Zhu Jinyue, “??”
What else did she expect her to do?
Her best friend had been warped by studying medicine. Her way of decompressing was writing fanfiction for her favorite anime CPs—not just writing it, but forcing Zhu Jinyue to read it too.
The content was simply deranged, unspeakable, and morally bankrupt.
“NO! Nothing else!” Remembering those fanfics, Zhu Jinyue felt compelled to warn her. “Don’t you dare imagine any of your messy and disorderly scenarios.”
“Fine,” Fu Shuyu said. “If you don’t want me imagining things, then explain the situation clearly.”
Zhu Jinyue, “…”
Suddenly, she didn’t feel like talking anymore.
Fu Shuyu urged her again, “Hello? You there?”
Zhu Jinyue touched her earlobe and let out a long sigh. She still gave her a brief rundown of the night’s events.
Fu Shuyu, probably genuinely irritable from thesis stress, exploded the moment Zhu Jinyue got to the part about Fu Zhiwang and his ex-girlfriend.
“Holy crap, what is wrong with Fu Zhiwang? Being able to date you is a massive blessing for him. How dare he cheat?”
Zhu Jinyue, long since calmed down, tried to soothe her instead, “Don’t get angry first. There’s probably some other hidden reason. My grandfather’s judgment of character is definitely sound.”
Fu Shuyu took a moment and cooled down a bit, “That’s true too. It’s not like you two are in some forced, arranged marriage, obliged to be together. If Fu Zhiwang didn’t want to date, he could have just ended it. There’s no need to pull this kind of stunt and ruin the friendship between your families. Keep going.”
Zhu Jinyue was calm now, yes, but while the anger had subsided, the embarrassment hadn’t diminished one bit.
She touched her earlobe again, suppressing the awkwardness, and spilled the rest of the story in one go.
After listening, Fu Shuyu was silent for a moment before suddenly saying, “Shen Qinghuai doesn’t… like you, does he?”
Zhu Jinyue replied without thinking, “How is that possible? We’ve only just reunited. We haven’t met many times, and we hardly even message each other.”
Fu Shuyu ventured again, “Then… could he have liked you back in high school?”
Zhu Jinyue, “That’s even more impossible. He didn’t seem to like me back then. And if he liked me in high school, why would he never contact me?”
“That is true,” Fu Shuyu conceded, thinking. “Then why would he say those things to you?”
Even now, Zhu Jinyue wasn’t entirely sure. “Maybe it was just because Fu Zhiwang snatched his project, and he suddenly felt a sense of shared grievance with me. He probably thought I’d just ask him to play along with some act or something. He didn’t expect me to kiss him.”
After all, she hadn’t expected it herself.
Fu Shuyu, “So you can’t sleep over something this trivial?”
Zhu Jinyue, “How is this trivial?”
Fu Shuyu, “It’s just a kiss. It’s not like you accidentally slept with him. It wasn’t even a French kiss. What’s there to lose sleep over? It’s his honour that you kissed him, okay?”
Zhu Jinyue, “??”
Fu Shuyu continued, “Besides, you two were close back then, right? He should know your temper hasn’t changed—you still explode at the slightest provocation after all these years. He probably didn’t mind. Didn’t he even drive you home later? If he himself isn’t bothered, why are you so hung up on the awkwardness? It can’t be that he’s grown ugly, can it? With your ridiculously high standards, you probably wouldn’t have been able to kiss him if he had.”
Zhu Jinyue, “…?”
“You should go back to rushing your thesis.”
After hanging up, Zhu Jinyue flopped back onto the bed, burying her face in the pillow for a while. Then she started to think that maybe Fu Shuyu had a point.
It was just a kiss.
If Shen Qinghuai didn’t mind, why should she?
After repeating this to herself several times like a mantra, Zhu Jinyue turned off the light again. She didn’t know what time she finally fell asleep that night, but she didn’t wake up until nearly noon the next day.
After getting up, she turned on her phone, which had been off all night. There were several missed calls from unknown numbers—maybe from Fu Zhiwang, maybe not—but she didn’t pay them much mind.
After washing up and eating breakfast, Zhu Jinyue found herself with nothing to do.
She could go back to the villa to wait for her grandfather, but he wasn’t arriving until evening. There didn’t seem to be anything for her to do there either.
The aunties wouldn’t let her into the kitchen.
Zhu Jinyue cupped her face in her hands, feeling troubled for a moment, before finally deciding to go check on Mingchan.
She didn’t live in this apartment often and usually only kept the car Zhu Qinghao gave her here. She had driven it back to the villa last time, then driven it to the restaurant for dinner with Shen Qinghuai last night, and Shen Qinghuai had driven it back.
So, Zhu Jinyue called Cheng Yan to pick her up.
When she arrived at Yuanjiang International, Mingchan’s studio was bustling with activity.
This wasn’t surprising. Being admitted to the Haute Couture Association was a matter of great pride for the employees and a significant benefit for the studio’s future development.
When Zhu Jinyue arrived, Mingchan’s assistants were running around busily.
Only Fang Zhiwei greeted her when she went back to her desk for a drink of water.
Zhu Jinyue pulled out a chair, sat down holding Qiezi (the egg plant plushie), and hesitated between making a token effort to look busy like everyone else or fully committing to slacking off—
She hadn’t logged into “Another Village” since last night.
But logging into the game would inevitably make her think of a certain someone.
Before she could make up her mind, the phone in her hand vibrated softly.
Zhu Jinyue looked down and caught sight of a now somewhat familiar avatar. Her breath hitched slightly.
—The certain someone she didn’t want to think about had sent her a message.
Her slender, pale finger hovered over the screen for a moment before she tapped open the chat window.
Shen Qinghuai: 【Are you at the company?】
“?”
Did this guy have a surveillance camera on her?
Zhu Jinyue pressed her lips together: 【Why are you asking?】
Shen Qinghuai: 【Didn’t you tell me last night to bring the car to Yuanjiang International today?】
Ah.
She had said something like that last night.
But she had been utterly embarrassed at the time, just wanting to get out of the car quickly, so she’d casually said it without remembering it was the weekend.
Zhu Jinyue: 【You drove the car over?】
Zhu Jinyue: 【Isn’t it Sunday today? Don’t you have the day off?】
Shen Qinghuai: 【Came in to work overtime, so I brought it over in passing.】
So, he came in to work overtime.
Zhu Jinyue: 【Then just park it in the underground garage at Yuanjiang and let me know the spot.】
Shen Qinghuai quickly sent her a photo of the parking location.
Zhu Jinyue originally thought the conversation should end there, but the phone in her hand vibrated again. A new message popped up following the photo.
Shen Qinghuai: 【Your senior’s studio is on the 32nd floor of Tower A, right? Should I bring the keys up to you?】
Right, the keys.
During dinner last night, she had revealed quite a bit of information to him. Just the detail about joining the Haute Couture Association was enough for him to easily find out Mingchan’s identity and the exact floor of her studio with a quick search.
But—
Zhu Jinyue: 【No need to trouble yourself. You must be busy working overtime. Just have an errand runner bring them up.】
Shen Qinghuai: 【I’m not busy.】
Zhu Jinyue: “…”
Zhu Jinyue: 【I’m quite busy.】
Zhu Jinyue: 【I’ll have a courier person go get them from you later.】
The phone was quiet for a moment.
Zhu Jinyue pressed her lips together, feeling an inexplicable and baseless nervousness.
Then she saw a new message appear—
Shen Qinghuai: 【That unwilling to see me?】
Zhu Jinyue: “…”
Even though she had brainwashed herself repeatedly last night, feelings of awkwardness and discomfort still lingered in her heart.
Perhaps it was because she had always considered him a friend, and her sudden impulsive act had crossed that line. What was once a clear, straightforward relationship now had some ambiguous elements mixed in, making it feel a bit strange.
She really didn’t feel like seeing him right now.
But, technically, she was the one who initiated the kiss last night. Logically, he should be the “victim.”
Would replying ‘yes’ directly be too blunt?
While she was mentally wrestling with this thought, the person on the other end, perhaps accustomed to being gentle and considerate, didn’t seem to want to press her. Another new message came through.
Shen Qinghuai: 【I’ll have someone bring it to you then.】
Zhu Jinyue breathed a huge sigh of relief and was about to reply with an “OK” when she noticed the text “The other party is typing…..” appear above the chat box.
He had more to say?
Zhu Jinyue’s finger paused slightly as she waited.
A few seconds later, a new message arrived.
Shen Qinghuai: 【You probably wouldn’t want a strange man touching your things either. Should I have a female colleague bring it to you?】
Zhu Jinyue blinked slowly.
The term female colleague?
You usually only call peers ‘colleagues,’ right?
But isn’t he the boss?
If he were sending an assistant or someone like that, he could refer to them by their position. Or… does he have some close relationship with a woman at the company now, making him unwilling to refer to her by her title?
Back then, she also thought they were friends. But the moment she transferred back to Pingcheng, this person cut off contact with her.
Zhu Jinyue suddenly felt a spark of interest. She wanted to see who this “female colleague” of his was.
She pinched the Qiezi (eggplant plushie) in her arms and sent him a nodding emoji.
Zhu Jinyue: 【Fine, have her bring it over.】