Chapter 63: Clearly Important, Yet Forced to Pretend Not to Care
As time passed, night slowly covered the entire Ganlan City.
The neon lights on the roads shone brightly. Their light fell upon the city, mixing with the clean, bright moonlight, and lit up the dark night.
It was exactly 11:55 PM.
Inside the rental room, the white-haired girl was still sitting in front of her computer, unable to decide.
Her heart was filled with anxiety. She wanted to run away from it all.
So she opened the author chat group. She wanted to read what the other group members were saying to calm herself down a little. Then she would go and chat with Little Chubby.
On the group chat page, she saw all the familiar faces.
[Goodness You Just Don't Understand]: "Xiao Yiyi posted a new book!"
[A Man Who Wears Pink Underwear Outside]: "Heh, you didn't expect this, did you? I've already read it! Xiao Yiyi's books are always so sexy and hit me right in the feels, wah wah wah."
[Loves Crying Beautiful Girls the Most]: "I just went to take a look. It's been less than half an hour since it was approved, and you've already read it?"
[Goodness You Just Don't Understand]: "I suspect Xiao Yiyi made a deal with the reviewer. Getting her new book approved in the middle of the night like this!"
[I'm Really Not Arluo]: "Is it possible that Xiao Yiyi is actually the reviewer using a secret account?"
[Loves Crying Beautiful Girls the Most]: "This new book is a bit exciting. Looking forward to the daily updates~"
Huh?
The new book has already been approved?
Mu Yi was a bit confused. Maybe the reviewer glanced at it while using the bathroom and just happened to approve it?
She didn't think too much about it.
After quietly watching the chat for a while, she noticed that the time had quietly reached 11:59 PM. Mu Yi thought for a moment, gathered her courage, left the chat group, and opened the chat page with Little Chubby.
Little Chubby was also online on a computer today.
Mu Yi pressed her lips together.
She had once seen best friends who swore to live and die together, only to start fighting each other the next second over some disagreement, trying to hurt one another.
Friendship is really fragile. It can break very easily if you're not careful.
But people's prejudices are like a big mountain...
Mu Yi couldn't help but frown.
She felt that Little Chubby might get angry. Maybe they wouldn't completely break off their friendship, but it would definitely be affected somehow.
She remembered the lie she told Little Chubby on the day they reunited. The truth was, she just didn't want him to worry about her. Things like saving face weren't that important.
But sometimes Mu Yi wondered, maybe she was just overthinking things.
She didn't really care that much about it. She felt that as long as she did what she wanted to do and what she thought was right, that was enough. Thinking too much only added unnecessary worry.
You can't stay stuck in the same place forever...
Midnight arrived right on time.
Mu Yi calmed her feelings down, typed steadily on her keyboard, and wrote her birthday wishes along with an excuse.
…………………………
[Sun Umbrella]: "Happy birthday. I must be the first person to give you birthday wishes right on time, right? And I typed it all out by hand!"
Looking at the message on his computer screen, Gu Zhiren frowned slightly. He glanced at the other birthday wishes that had popped up at almost the same time. Some long, some short, all kinds.
Most of them were from business partners, and some were from former classmates.
But those were all on his other QQ account, the one he used for work.
Yes, the account Gu Zhiren used to chat with Mu Yi was his personal account. To be more precise, apart from Mu Yi, only his family members were on this account.
Gu Anran and the others were also friends with him on his work QQ.
But ever since he got back in touch with Mu Yi and listened to her complain once or twice, he had started logging into this personal account every time he used his computer.
He just wanted to be able to reach Mu Yi as soon as she needed him.
Of course, Mu Yi didn't message him very often. Most of the time, her status showed she was online, but the chat window stayed quiet.
Gu Zhiren thought this was actually a good thing. It meant she wasn't running into any trouble.
"If I tell her the truth, will she be very disappointed? But if we're looking at it from the perspective of this QQ account, she really is the first person to send me birthday wishes right on time."
Gu Zhiren didn't think this was a lie.
Just as he was about to reply to Mu Yi, he saw that she had sent another new message.
[Sun Umbrella]: "Little Chubby, there's something I've been thinking about for a long time, and I feel I have to tell you."
"Hmm?"
A smile of anticipation slowly appeared on Gu Zhiren's face. He raised an eyebrow slightly.
He didn't know what she was going to say, but he had a feeling that anything she chose to say at this moment probably wouldn't be ordinary.
[Sun Umbrella]: "I'm very sorry, but I might not be able to come to your birthday celebration tomorrow."
Seeing this, the smile on Gu Zhiren's face gradually disappeared. He frowned seriously.
[Sun Umbrella]: "It's not that I don't want to go. It's that the student council is organizing a Halloween event, and the student council president said absolutely no to letting me leave."
[Sun Umbrella]: "Feeling sad and upset · JPG!"
[Sun Umbrella]: "How about this, what kind of birthday gift do you want? Send me your address, and I'll mail it to you?"
"……"
Gu Zhiren's heart was slightly tempted by that last sentence.
The only problem was that the gift he wanted was Mu Yi herself. So the question was… could she wrap herself up and mail herself over?
Hmm…
That would probably be very difficult.
Gu Zhiren shook his head, finding the thought both amusing and helpless.
He raised his gaze slightly and looked at the earlier messages. His expression slowly turned serious again.
For some reason, Gu Zhiren suddenly remembered that time at the inn in Ruolan Town when Mu Yi cried and poured her heart out to him. In those words, she mentioned two people she cared about.
Then he thought back to not long ago when he went to visit his sister at the hospital. He had run into Shen Muxue helping Mu Yi's mother walk back to the hospital room.
Gradually, Gu Zhiren came to understand something.
Could it be that he was one of the people Mu Yi cared about…
But the one she had chosen to abandon?
………………………
Also sitting in front of her computer, Mu Yi stared hard at the chat page on her screen, anxiously waiting for Little Chubby's reply.
Strangely, although she had seen the "typing…" indicator appear for a moment, he hadn't said a single word since then.
As time passed, her breathing became faster and faster. The fear inside her grew little by little.
Only now did she suddenly realize, Little Chubby's place in her heart was far more important than she had imagined. If they had never reconnected, that would be one thing. But now that they had finally gotten back in touch…
Mu Yi slowly clenched her hands resting on the keyboard.
Her thoughts drifted back to the past. Little Chubby had suddenly entered her world and changed her life, which had been so empty that it had nothing but piano and tears.
It was like a small green sprout breaking through the dry desert ground, slowly growing stronger.
Her world became rich and colorful because of this.
As she waited and waited, Mu Yi pressed her lips together. The corners of her mouth trembled as they formed a forced, bitter smile.
She thought maybe this is fine too.
But just then, a new message suddenly appeared on the chat page…