Chapter 27: That Thought
Time: 4 PM.
Place: Mu Le’s apartment.
People: The host, Mu Le, and the guest, Zhuang Yue.
“Senior, here’s your drink…”
Mu Le puts a bottle of cold cola in front of him, then sits across from him and opens her own drink, taking a small sip.
The cold feeling instantly washes away the heat in her body, and she lets out a small sigh of relief.
“Thanks.” Zhuang Yue nods, but doesn’t touch the drink. Instead, he quietly looks around the room.
“It’s nothing. Oh right… where is your little sister? She didn’t come with you?”
Mu Le blinks, suddenly remembering that they left the girl at the supermarket.
Because she was so shocked by what Zhuang Yue said earlier, she had been in a daze the whole time, even getting back here felt unclear.
“She’s not my sister.” Zhuang Yue shakes his head calmly.
“…Huh?”
Not his sister? The way they looked just now was clearly like real siblings.
Zhuang Yue picks up the drink and takes a small sip. There seems to be a faint smile at the corner of his lips.
“I don’t know that kid. She wanted to buy ice cream, but she lost her money. I happened to pass by and saw her standing outside looking pitiful, so…”
“…I see. Senior, you’re really a good person.”
Hearing that, Mu Le shows a small smile.
Just as she thought, although he looks hard to approach, he is actually a good person.
“That’s not how you use the ‘good person’ comment,” Zhuang Yue says calmly, shaking his head.
“Anyway… senior…”
Mu Le puts down her drink, and her expression slowly becomes serious.
“What did you mean by what you said earlier?”
The relaxed atmosphere suddenly becomes tense because of her question.
Zhuang Yue looks at her, then lowers his eyes. “You want to know why I said that, right?”
‘You really did turn into a woman’… no matter how you hear it, it sounds strange.
Mu Le nods, waiting nervously for his answer.
“Actually, when I first saw you, I felt a strange sense of familiarity. Then I suddenly remembered this…”
It seems Zhuang Yue is not used to talking so much at once.
While speaking, he takes out his phone, unlocks it, and places it between them.
He doesn’t say anything more. He opens his photo gallery, selects an album, and pushes the phone toward Mu Le.
Mu Le picks it up, confused. When she sees what’s inside, she pauses. “This is…?”
“These are photos from our club activities and trips. Everyone has a copy.”
Zhuang Yue touches his nose, his eyes slightly dark.
“I came across this album not long ago by accident. And then…”
He doesn’t need to continue, because Mu Le can already see it.
In all the photos, every image of her has turned into her current self.
“Of course I was confused. I didn’t remember who the person in the photos was, and that place should have been Mu Le. So I asked around… but everyone said it was you.”
At this point, Zhuang Yue shows a troubled expression.
It’s easy to imagine how he felt. And because this situation is so strange, he talks more than usual.
“When I saw you just now, I was too shocked, so I said that without thinking. Sorry. But what exactly is going on? I clearly remember… you were a boy, right?”
Mu Le: “……”
……………………………
When Xiao Yuze came home in the afternoon, he saw a certain girl lying on the sofa with a confused face. The TV not far away was still playing some advertisement.
Even though the TV was on, her attention was clearly not there.
Xiao Yuze raised an eyebrow, put the watermelon he was carrying aside, and walked over.
“What’s wrong? Did something hit you hard? Don’t tell me you dropped rank again in your game?”
Mu Le looked up at him, then let out a long sigh.
That expression looked even worse than losing badly in a game.
After a moment of silence, Mu Le slowly sat up and said in a low voice, “Just now… I met a senior from the same club.”
“Oh? And then?”
Xiao Yuze paused for a moment, then his expression changed slightly.
What he worried about most was Mu Le’s situation at school. With her past personality and her current condition, he didn’t know if she could adapt.
“And then… he seems to still remember the old me.”
Hearing this, Xiao Yuze frowned slightly.
He touched his nose and said softly, “You mean… there are other people who were not affected, and still remember the past?”
“Yeah. So I’m thinking… could there be more people like that? And if they do remember, then for me now…”
At this point, Mu Le showed a troubled expression.
Actually, the fact that most people’s memories of her had changed was, in a way, a good thing.
Because if only she changed while everything else stayed the same, she would definitely face many strange looks.
Not everyone would react carefully like Xiao Yuze, or calmly like Zhuang Yue, when facing something so unusual.
And even those two, even if they didn’t say anything, were they really completely unaffected inside?
That was exactly what Mu Le was worried about.
Would there be more people who still remember the old her? And how would they see her now?
Not everyone in this world is kind. And even she herself sometimes feels a deep fear about this change.
You could say she is overthinking, or imagining things.
But because this happened to her personally, even a small change is enough to make her feel extremely nervous.
If you haven’t experienced it yourself, you can’t understand this kind of fear.
“…Alright.”
Seeing her worried look, Xiao Yuze let out a small sigh.
That senior really appeared at the worst time. Mu Le had just started to recover, and now she was scared again, like a timid little rabbit, seeing danger everywhere.
He bent down slightly and gently rubbed her head.
“If others remember, then they remember. What’s there to be afraid of?”
Mu Le slapped his hand away and snorted.
“I know I might be overthinking, and no one would even believe something like this. But when I think that more people might remember the old me, and they might look at me differently now, I just…”
“And then you get scared like a rabbit?”
Looking at her troubled expression, Xiao Yuze raised an eyebrow. If you looked closely, she really did resemble a little rabbit.
“You’re the rabbit.”
Climbing up from the sofa, Mu Le rubbed her forehead, and her eyes casually glanced to the side.
“Huh? There’s watermelon?”
“…Weren’t you still worrying about that just now?” Seeing her eyes light up as she ran barefoot toward the watermelon, Xiao Yuze spoke helplessly.
Mu Le didn’t even look at him. She picked up the watermelon directly.
“I’ll worry after eating. What’s the rush?”
Xiao Yuze: “……”
With just one simple sentence, all the comforting words he had prepared were stopped before he could say them.
It seems that for Mu Le, food is far more important than anything else.