Chapter 2: Encounter at the Bookstore
Zou Yameng changed into a simple, short-sleeved, beige shirt and washed-out, straight-leg jeans. Her short hair hung refreshingly by her ears, her eyebrows thick and straight, both heroic and delicate. Her temperament was very similar to Lu Li’s. If Lu Li was like a pure white dove, then she was like a spotless snow sculpture.
The two sat on the outdoor seats of a simple breakfast shop, casually chatting while eating their dry noodles. Like a mother hen, Zou Yameng asked him if he had prepared all the textbooks he needed for school and if he had enough money, telling him he could ask her if he needed more. She chattered on and on until she saw the amused look on Lu Li’s face, and she stopped, saying in mock annoyance, “Do you think your sister is too long-winded?”
“I think I’m very happy right now.” He didn’t explain why he was happy, but pulled out two tissues for his sister and stacked them neatly on her hand. He used to prepare tissues for An Baili to wipe her mouth in the same way, as if taking care of a baby.
A blush crept up Zou Yameng’s face, “You’re finally enlightened today, you know how good your sister is to you? Hmph, you have a conscience after all. Then how are you going to repay your sister in the future?”
Repay? There was no need for repayment. Lu Li remembered that when he was a child, he got into a fight with his classmates and was asked to call his parents by a new teacher who didn’t know his situation. He was too ashamed to say that he didn’t have parents, so he could only beg Zou Yameng, who was always running around at that time, to pretend to be his parent, which turned into a big joke. Thinking of this, Lu Li smiled with contentment, only to notice Zou Yameng staring at him blankly.
He never dared to look directly at Sister Yameng before. It was the shyness of a teenager and the awkwardness of his own fantasies. Now that he could look at Sister Yameng with a calm mind, he naturally noticed more of her subtle expressions.
“Sister, what’s wrong? Is there something on my face?”
Zou Yameng quickly lowered her head to eat her noodles, “No.” As if changing the subject, she said, “Are you going to buy textbooks today? I’ll go with you. I don’t have training today.”
Lu Li quickly said, “Then don’t pay today. I’ve saved some money, it’s enough to buy books.” Every time he went out with Sister Yameng, she would always rush to pay, but she wasn’t rich either. Her money was all the bonus from the team, saved up bit by bit. She always said that she had nothing to spend money on, she didn’t wear makeup, and she had to control her diet, so she might as well give the money to Lu Li to spend.
“You’re the one with the brains, studying hard to get ahead.” Zou Yameng mumbled, her head down, focusing on her noodles. “You’ll definitely make something of yourself in the future. Let your sister have some sense of participation by helping you buy books, let me experience the feeling of studying too.”
“Sister, you’ll definitely make something of yourself too. Maybe you’ll even make it to the national team.” Lu Li wouldn’t tell her that his own grades were actually quite average.
“I’ll be lucky to make it to the provincial team!” She laughed. “For athletes like us, once our prime is over and our physical fitness declines, we’ll naturally be eliminated. I’ll be in trouble then, becoming an unemployed bum. I’m investing in you now so that you can support me when you’re successful and don’t let me starve to death under a bridge.”
She deliberately exaggerated, making Lu Li laugh.
Seeing his smile, Zou Yameng’s mind wandered again.
“Sister?”
Zou Yameng put down her chopsticks in a fluster, “I’m full, let’s go.”
“Is there something on my face?”
“No, it’s just that you rarely smile. I was just surprised to see you so relaxed today.” She turned her head away, pretending to look at a young couple flirting.
Lu Li wiped his mouth and walked side by side with Zou Yameng towards the bus stop.
“I can support Sister for the rest of your life.” He said softly. These words suddenly popped out, surprising even himself, and making Zou Yameng’s heart skip a beat.
“What nonsense are you talking about? You really think your sister will starve to death!” She punched him, neither light nor heavy, making Lu Li wince. “Supporting me for the rest of my life, aren’t you ashamed? Save those words for your girlfriend. Oh, right, you’re in a new class this year, right? The liberal arts class, right? I heard there are a lot of girls, any girls you like?”
When she said the last sentence, Zou Yameng looked straight ahead, as if asking casually.
Girls he liked?
After changing classes this year, he did end up in the liberal arts class. It was also in this new class that he met An Baili. Of course, the current An Baili was probably still a slob, wouldn’t dress up, wasn’t very popular, and was even ostracized by her classmates. She was a beautiful girl, but she preferred to wear black-rimmed glasses, tie her hair in ugly pigtails, and her thick bangs almost covered her eyes – what was she thinking?
Noticing Lu Li’s thoughtful expression, as if he was really thinking about someone, Zou Yameng felt a pang of tightness in her heart for no reason. “Is there a girl you like? Who is it? Do I know her?” Her tone was no longer gentle, but with a hint of sharpness and intensity.
She suddenly dreaded his answer. What if he really did have someone he liked? Would she watch her beloved little brother shyly nod? Or would she encourage him to pursue this girl? She couldn’t do either. Instead, she felt a tightness in her chest, as if something that belonged to her had been stolen.
She suddenly realized, what was wrong with her? Shouldn’t she be happy if her brother found someone he liked? Why was she angry? Wasn’t she working so hard so that both Lu Li and she could live a good life…?
Just as Zou Yameng was reflecting on herself, Lu Li snapped out of his memories, “Of course not. I’m in my second year of high school, I’ll be taking the college entrance exam next year, my studies are very demanding, how can I have time for dating?”
Zou Yameng didn’t want to continue this topic either, “Yes, yes, studies are important, studies are important. Didn’t you say you were going to make an indie game recently? How’s that going?”
If Zou Yameng hadn’t mentioned it, he would have forgotten. He was indeed planning to make an indie game during this time. He often went to the school’s computer room, asking the young but balding computer teacher questions about programming, and the idea of game development sprouted in his mind. But when he actually started working on it, he discovered several major problems: lack of manpower.
To make the game he envisioned, he needed artists, musicians… He couldn’t afford to hire anyone or buy copyrights, and he didn’t even have a distribution channel. But settling for something less wouldn’t sit well with him either. If he was going to do it, he was going to do it the best he could at the time.
As for art, he did have some talent in figure drawing. But game art wasn’t just about character design, there was also UI design, concept art, and so on. He couldn’t do it all by himself. As for music, Lu Li was even more clueless. Liking to listen to music didn’t mean he had the ability to write it.
Right, An Baili was very good at music… In his previous life, she was the one who made the first game with him. No, stop, Lu Li, stop thinking about An Baili. He would never have anything to do with her in this life. He would let her live her own life and not disturb her.
Wen Hupo was very talented in art. She even held an art exhibition in her previous life. But by then, their relationship had soured, and they hadn’t been in contact for many years. Occasionally, she would send him a blank letter to mock him.
Of course, the current Lu Li didn’t know Wen Hupo yet. He didn’t even know if Wen Hupo was in the United States or Shenzhou right now.
“The progress is very slow. It’s really hard to do it all alone.”
“Can I help?”
Zou Yameng’s usual training was hard enough. Lu Li had seen the women’s table tennis team training when he went to deliver clothes. Although it was just playing table tennis, they didn’t slack off on their physical training. He even used the thin-lipped female coach as the inspiration for a villain in his game.
“No need. I can take my time with this.” He reassured her.
The two arrived at the bookstore. The sun was a bit harsh. Lu Li hadn’t seen the sun for a long time, and his skin was almost dazzlingly white under the sun, making Zou Yameng envious, “Why are you even fairer than a girl? You’re like a piece of monk meat.” Lu Li touched his arm. His skin was still fair and tender now. After working for many years and staying up late drinking, he naturally lost this youthful quality.
In fact, Zou Yameng’s skin wasn’t dark. It was a healthy, fair color, different from Lu Li’s almost bloodless paleness.
The two entered the bookstore together, only to see it crowded with students who had come to buy textbooks. The staff brought out boxes of new books from the warehouse, but the supply still couldn’t keep up with the demand. Lu Li was a slow-paced person. He wasn’t in a hurry to grab books, but Zou Yameng anxiously pulled him along, “We want one! Over here, over here!”
Lu Li was squeezed into Zou Yameng’s arms by the crowd, their bodies brushing against each other, and he felt a flicker of inappropriate desire. He thought that with his experience, he wouldn’t be easily swayed by a woman’s beauty, but the hormones in this body were a bit too much. His face flushed, and he couldn’t help but bend down slightly. How embarrassing. He wasn’t a little boy anymore, how could he get turned on so easily?
Thanks to Zou Yameng, Lu Li got most of the popular books, except for the last English reading material. The staff said that this book was relatively unpopular, and the store didn’t stock much of it, but there might be a few copies left on the back shelves. He and Zou Yameng finally managed to escape the noisy crowd and came to a secluded corner of the bookstore.
He immediately saw a blue-covered English book in the corner. English had always been his weakness. Shenzhou was the world’s leading superpower, so naturally, there was a sense of national pride, and the acceptance of foreign languages was generally low. He wanted to learn English, not for his studies, but for his dream.
That was probably the only copy of the English book left in the entire bookstore. The author was Handing Jin, an unpopular writer who specialized in writing horror stories.
He reached out for the book, but saw a fair and delicate hand reach out and grab the horror novel first. Lu Li blinked a few times and looked at the owner of the hand.
It was the class monitor.
Calling her “class monitor” seemed a bit impolite, but Lu Li couldn’t recall her name for the moment. The girl was wearing a baseball cap to shield herself from the sun, her hair in a ponytail. She was tall, with delicate features that always reminded Lu Li of the classical beauties printed on banknotes. She had always been his class monitor, before and after the class change. It was just that Lu Li was a free-spirited student, and his impression of the class monitor remained at “the one who tattles.”
Lu Li was a person who didn’t like to be restrained, so he never got along with her.
“Class monitor.”
“Lu Li?” To his surprise, the class monitor actually remembered his name. “Do you want this book too?” Her beautiful eyebrows furrowed, as if she had encountered some problem.
Zou Yameng rarely frowned, her brows only shooting up in displeasure, “We saw that book first!”
Lu Li originally wanted to stop Zou Yameng, but then he felt that contradicting his sister in front of others would hurt her pride, so he smiled apologetically at the class monitor, “Yes, I do want it.” He came here for this book, to copy the classic lines from it for use in his game’s storyline – a horror game.
He wanted this book, so naturally, he wouldn’t be polite. This class monitor was neither family nor friend, there was no need to give in.
The class monitor, whom he had a bad impression of, actually nodded seriously and handed the book to Lu Li, “Then you take it. I can use an e-book. You don’t have a tablet or a phone, a physical book is more important to you.” These words were a bit hurtful to his pride, but the serious way she said them made Lu Li want to laugh.
He had heard that this class monitor was a bit rigid, stubborn, and clueless.
He suddenly remembered the fate of the class monitor in his previous life: she died in a plane crash during a family trip after graduating high school. No wonder his memory of her was so vague.
Taking the horror novel, Lu Li thanked her. They didn’t speak further and parted ways. He and this class monitor were from two different worlds and never had any interaction.
Zou Yameng waited until the class monitor was far away before saying in dissatisfaction, “Who is she, your classmate? She’s so rude, what does she mean you don’t have a phone or a tablet? Hmph, judging people by their wealth!”
“Haha, she’s not judging you by your wealth, she’s just straightforward, a bit clueless.”
“You know her well?”
“We barely talk.”
Sister Yameng suddenly took his hand and walked out.
“What are you doing?”
“Come on, I’m going to buy you a phone and a tablet. We can afford it if we tighten our belts a little! I can’t let other women look down on my brother.” Zou Yameng was so angry that her teeth were itching. She hated it the most when people bullied Lu Li.
Lu Li was both touched and amused, “Sister, I don’t need those things. A woman who looks down on me because of material possessions, is it necessary for me to make her look at me differently? At least I have you, Sister, you don’t dislike me, isn’t that enough?”
Zou Yameng’s face flushed, “Why are you being so cheesy today? What’s the use of me not disliking you? You’re going to find a wife eventually, you can’t let other women look down on you, and I can’t…” Her voice trailed off, her words jumbled and inaudible.
There were some thoughts that Zou Yameng didn’t dare to touch.
Lu Li held his sister’s hand and stood still, smiling freely.
“What are you laughing at…” she said weakly.
“I feel really happy, like I’m the luckiest guy alive.” Being able to see Sister Yameng again, to hear her worry about him, was simply the happiest thing in the world. His biggest regret was not saving Zou Yameng in time in his previous life.
Zou Yameng suddenly felt weak, “You… Don’t talk nonsense…” Lu Li’s eyes, overflowing with happiness and affection, made her afraid to look directly at him. Even though she knew that Lu Li only saw her as family, and that affection was only familial, her heart couldn’t help but pound.
Lu Li really… Didn’t he know that these words could easily be misunderstood by a woman? Her mind was in turmoil. How could he say such things?
On the way back, Zou Yameng was lost in her thoughts, not saying a word.
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