The Little Bookworm Marked Her Ex-aunt - Chapter 33: What's Wrong with Crying for Yourself?

Chapter 33: What’s Wrong with Crying for Yourself?

At the entrance of the small courtyard, blue snowflakes bloomed in clusters, climbing on the white walls of the guesthouse.

Under the wall, Meng Zhiyu stood.

The natural smile on her glamorous face froze.

Chen Mi and Chu Yufei didn’t dare make a sound and turned to look at Shu Yue.

Shu Yue calmly said, “Madam, your luggage is still in the car. Do you need us to help bring it down?”

Meng Zhiyu looked at her without speaking.

“Zhiyu, what’s wrong?” Another person walked out, stood beside Meng Zhiyu, familiarly put an arm around her shoulder, and asked with concern, “What happened?”

Meng Zhiyu shook her head, quickly adjusted her emotions, and said with a smile, “What could be wrong? The luggage the program team sent has arrived.”

Wen Yiting glanced over and said to Shu Yue’s group, “Thank you. Just bring it in and put it down.”

Chen Mi, hearing this, couldn’t hold back her fiery temper.

“Miss Wen, right? Eighty-one trips to deliver luggage—if you want it moved, it’ll cost extra.”

Wen Yiting paused, then smiled and said, “How much? I’ll transfer it to you.”

Chen Mi rolled her eyes in anger. Chu Yufei grabbed her, stopping her from saying anything more explosive.

During their conversation, Shu Yue had already pulled the luggage sent by the program team from the tricycle’s rear compartment. With both hands, she pushed one large suitcase on each side. The wheels rolled over the gravel path, creaking loudly.

“Your luggage,” Shu Yue said.

She turned to Chen Mi and Chu Yufei.

“Let’s go.”

Chen Mi wanted to say something but was dragged away by Chu Yufei.

The three of them left on the tricycle, chugging along.

“Zhiyu?” Wen Yiting called, “What are you looking at? Do you know those people?”

Meng Zhiyu shook her head, not answering the question, and only said, “Let’s go inside.”

The mountain path was steep, and the tricycle moved slowly.

They hadn’t gone five hundred meters when Chen Mi couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“Her brother’s,” Chen Mi cursed, “What was Wen Yiting’s attitude? Who does she think we are?”

Chu Yufei teased her, “Weren’t you listening to her album on the way here?”

Chen Mi went quiet for a moment, then said, “The songs are pretty good.”

Chu Yufei, unfazed, said, “She became famous young, naturally proud, so a bit of attitude is normal. Forget her status—those eighteenth-line nobodies who haven’t even sparked yet already have bigger tempers.”

“I’m starting to suspect you’re shading Meng Zhiyu,” Chen Mi said.

Chu Yufei corrected her, “You’re wrong. Our Miss Meng, ever since joining that dating show with Wen Yiting, has gained fans fast. It’s only been a few months, and her followers have already passed a million.”

“Really?” Chen Mi, skeptical, pulled out her phone to check. Meng Zhiyu’s Weibo popped up, and her followers had indeed passed a million. She clicked into the comments—either praising Meng Zhiyu’s looks or gushing about how sweet she and Wen Yiting were.

Chen Mi clicked her tongue, “Sweet? She broke up with her ex one second and announced the dating show the next. Where’s the sweetness in that?”

“If I went online as a random passerby and spilled the tea, Meng Zhiyu would be done for.”

Chen Mi got more excited as she spoke.

“Junior, just give me the word, and I’ll open eighteen burner accounts to expose her!”

Shu Yue slowly stopped the tricycle by the roadside, turned around, looked at Chen Mi, and shook her head.

Chen Mi, seeing her timid reaction, got annoyed.

“What? Don’t you want to get back at her a little? Come on, little Shu Yue, let’s do an interview. After all these months, seeing your dear ex-girlfriend, what are you thinking?”

“Has it been that long?” Shu Yue said in surprise. “Months?”

“Of course,” Chen Mi, who kept track of the timeline, said clearly, “You two broke up in May. It’s August now, and school starts again soon. How is that not long?”

“Are you so deep in the mountains that you’ve lost track of time?”

Shu Yue blinked, not arguing with Chen Mi’s words.

She didn’t really feel the weight of it.

“No, wait, why do I feel like you’re derailing me?” Chen Mi snapped her fingers at Shu Yue. “That wasn’t the point. Shu Yue, answer me—what do you think seeing Meng Zhiyu?”

Shu Yue gave a small smile, “Senior, what do you think?”

Chen Mi stared at her for three seconds, then turned to Chu Yufei, “Notice anything? After some time apart, she’s gotten crafty.”

Chu Yufei didn’t respond, just glanced at the empty fields and said to Shu Yue and Chen Mi, “Are you two sure you want to keep chatting on this tricycle? Can’t we go back to our place first? There are so many mosquitoes here.”

Shu Yue raised her hand and swatted a long-legged mosquito flying by.

“There are quite a few,” she said. “Should I take you back first?”

Initially, Shu Yue had wanted to invite Chen Mi and Chu Yufei to stay at her small building. She had even prepared to buy single beds and bedding online, but Chen Mi and Chu Yufei said they’d contacted a guesthouse owner who hadn’t opened yet and wouldn’t crowd her place.

Their lodging was close to Shu Yue’s. After dropping them off, Shu Yue returned the tricycle to a neighbor and walked to meet them.

The owner cooked good food, hosting the group.

The little yellow dog in the courtyard loved Shu Yue, rubbing against her as soon as it saw her, wagging its tail and nudging her hand with its head.

“Jealous,” Chen Mi said, popping open a beer with a hiss. “How do some people have such animal charm?”

Chu Yufei said sharply, “What’s the use of animal charm? Still got played by a woman.”

Chen Mi shook her beer can, raised it to Shu Yue’s face, and said, “Another interview, little Shu Yue. As someone played by a woman, what’s your take?”

Shu Yue knew she couldn’t escape the gossip today.

She didn’t speak, poured out the tea in her glass, and handed it to Chen Mi. Chen Mi laughed and poured half the beer into it.

Shu Yue drank it in one gulp, then spoke slowly.

“I wasn’t played,” she said deliberately, like a robot inputting code. “I just broke up with her.”

“Fool!” Chen Mi nearly crushed the peanut shell in her hand. “That’s not being played? When she was with you, it was all secretive, like a spy movie. But with Wen Yiting, she wants the whole world to know? Isn’t Miss Meng a bit too changeable?”

Shu Yue pursed her lips, bent down, picked up a beer from the ground, opened it, and poured herself another glass.

She didn’t like beer, but today, it seemed she couldn’t say what was stuck in her heart without drinking something.

“Maybe it’s my fault,” Shu Yue said. “I’m not presentable. Look at today—Meng Zhiyu and Wen… Wen what’s-her-name? They look good together.”

Chen Mi turned to Chu Yufei, “Quick, slap her twice.”

Chu Yufei commented, “She’s been KTV’d. No saving her.”

“From your tone, you still like her?” Chen Mi asked.

Shu Yue shook her head, saying honestly, “I don’t know.”

“What do I do? I just realized I don’t even know what my heart wants.”

“I still remember Meng Zhiyu’s good side, but I have no feelings for her as a person anymore. I’m not curious about what she’s doing, I don’t care how she’s doing, and when I saw her, I didn’t want to act like someone she’d like.”

“Honestly, seeing her with Wen… Wen what’s-her-name?”

Chen Mi snapped, “Wen Yiting!”

Shu Yue said, “Oh, right, Wen Yiting.”

“I think they’re a good match,” Shu Yue said, sipping her beer. “Things are fine this way.”

“A miracle,” Chen Mi said, sizing Shu Yue up. “After all those breakups and makeups, we couldn’t talk you out of it. How’d you suddenly figure it out?”

“I don’t know,” Shu Yue said honestly. “It’s just a feeling, like this is about it.”

She bent down, rubbed the little yellow dog’s head, picked it up—heavier than Shiyi—and buried her face in its head, taking a sniff. She whispered to Chen Mi and Chu Yufei, “I don’t know if this metaphor is right, but I feel… Meng Zhiyu was like a test question in my life. I really wanted to get it right, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get full marks.”

“The old me probably thought, as long as I kept working on this question, I’d get a better score one day. Like the countless exams I’ve taken—once I had the method and the standard answers, I could get it right.”

“But—”

“The truth is, I just don’t have that ability.”

Chen Mi sighed, handing Shu Yue two tissues.

Chu Yufei patted Shu Yue’s shoulder, then turned to Chen Mi with a tone of settling scores, “Look at you, pushing her to this point. You made her cry.”

“I didn’t mean to cry,” Shu Yue said, wiping her nose with the tissue, her voice muffled. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“Crying is good,” Chen Mi said with experience. “Look at Little Yue—her problem is she holds it in too much. Cry a bit, and it’ll be fine. Let the sadness turn into tears, and it won’t stay bottled up in your heart.”

Shu Yue wasn’t satisfied with this, “But I don’t even like her anymore! I have no feelings for her! Why am I still crying?”

This wasn’t part of her plan.

She didn’t want to cry over Meng Zhiyu on the day they met again.

Wouldn’t that make her seem useless?

Chen Mi took a swig of beer, looked up at the moon, smiled as if recalling something, and said in a knowing tone, “Little Yue, not every tear you shed is about her.”

“After a breakup, it’s not just your feelings for that person that die, but also the part of you that gave those feelings.”

“What’s wrong with crying for yourself?”

Shu Yue hadn’t felt like crying that much, but after Chen Mi’s words, tears streamed down silently, one after another.

“To breakups,” Chen Mi raised her glass to the full moon.

“To breakups!” Shu Yue said loudly for once, raising her glass too.

Then, both turned to Chu Yufei.

Chu Yufei shrugged, “Don’t look at me. I don’t date, so I don’t break up.”

“Useless,” Chen Mi commented. “You’re in your prime, and you don’t suffer love’s pain? Is that right?”

Chu Yufei said, “Knowing it’s painful, why would I bother? I’m not like you two—I’m not sick.”

Chen Mi got excited, pitching to Chu Yufei, “Love’s bitter when it’s bitter, but when it’s sweet, it’s really sweet!”

“And the result’s the same, isn’t it? No matter how sweet?” Chu Yufei said calmly. “I just think there’s no need to mess yourself up for someone else. If I date, fine, but if it’s not right, we split—clean and simple, no wasting time.”

Chen Mi complained to Shu Yue, “See? That’s a quitter. If one question on the test doesn’t suit her, she says bye.”

Shu Yue followed Chen Mi’s logic, “So what kind of test-taker am I?”

Chu Yufei glanced at her, “A small-town problem-solver. No matter the test, you have to finish it.”

“Isn’t finishing it good?” Shu Yue asked.

Chu Yufei said, “So why does it have to be a test? Who’s the examiner? Who decides the score? It’s a relationship between two people—why do you put yourself in the position of being judged?”

“Maybe, just maybe,” Chu Yufei said, popping a peanut in her mouth and chewing twice, “it’s not a test, but a collaboration. If it feels good, keep going. If it doesn’t, end it.”

“Shu Yue, don’t listen to her nonsense,” Chen Mi disagreed completely. “She’s a lifelong solo, all talk and no action! Love isn’t something you can just end—it’s uncontrollable!”

Chu Yufei said, “What’s uncontrollable? You’re the one talking, deciding, letting yourself feel bad. What, does love mean an alien takes over your brain?”

Chen Mi choked, glaring at Chu Yufei, “It’s just uncontrollable!”

“Aaah!” Shu Yue covered her head, “Stop arguing! Stop! I’m never dating again! It’s so hard—I’d rather take the college entrance exam a hundred and twenty times than date again!”

Chen Mi’s mouth twitched, “Look, you’ve pushed the kid to this.”

Chu Yufei refused the blame, “Not my fault. Blame Meng Zhiyu.”

The three drank more, then squeezed into Chu Yufei’s room, crowding on the bed to watch two episodes of ‘Family Has Children’ on a projector.

Shu Yue yawned, feeling sleepy.

Crying made her tire more easily.

Chu Yufei told her to just sleep there, but Shu Yue shook her head, saying she had to go home to take care of her cat.

Chen Mi was speechless, knowing Shu Yue was drunk.

What cat?

It had been taken away long ago.

Seeing Shu Yue like this, they decided to take her home together, then head back.

Dragging the tipsy Shu Yue, following her directions, they took a long detour to her courtyard.

The main building’s lights were still on.

Xiao Liu, sensing a familiar presence, meowed twice.

Lin Chu, waiting in the main building’s first-floor living room, flicked on the courtyard’s big light and pushed the door open, “Little Yue? Is Little Yue back?”

Shu Yue, hearing this, giggled and walked toward Lin Chu, “Senior, it’s me. I’m back.”

Chu Yufei grabbed her collar, “That’s a tree trunk, not your senior.”

Lin Chu exclaimed, “She’s drunk?”

Chu Yufei nodded.

“Rare,” Lin Chu said. “She usually refuses to drink. What happened today to get her like this?”

Meng Zhiyu’s matter was Shu Yue’s privacy, so Chu Yufei and Chen Mi didn’t want to say much, only that old friends hadn’t seen each other in a while and couldn’t hold back.

“Where’s her room? We’ll help her over,” Chen Mi said.

“Right here, this building,” Lin Chu pointed.

Chen Mi nodded, “Thanks.”

She pressed both hands on Shu Yue’s shoulders, turning her around like a doll. As she pushed her inside, she suddenly felt something and looked up.

The balcony on the second floor of the main building lit up.

The moon hung high.

A woman’s face was clearly visible.

“Senior?” Shu Yue asked blankly, “Why’d we stop?”

Chen Mi lowered her gaze, “Nothing.”

Chu Yufei followed her line of sight, meeting a sharp gaze.

She tilted her head, curiously saying to Chen Mi, “Her? Your ex? Didn’t you say she was already dead?”

Shu Yue’s ears perked up, “Who? Who’s dead?”

Chen Mi covered her mouth and quickly pushed her into the room.

Shu Yue struggled with muffled sounds but didn’t break free.

Once the door closed, Chen Mi let go.

Shu Yue accused, “Senior, you’re mean.”

She added, “Who’s dead? I’m calling 110—no, 911! No, no, 120!”

Chen Mi, worried she’d actually call, told Chu Yufei to hide her phone.

“No one’s dead. Everything’s fine tonight, world peace,” she said to Shu Yue. “Hurry, wash your face, wash your feet, and go to bed.”

More chaos ensued.

Finally getting Shu Yue settled in bed, Chen Mi wiped her forehead, finding it sweaty.

She looked up to meet Chu Yufei’s smiling face.

She sensed trouble.

“Tomorrow, when Shu Yue wakes up, I’ll explain to both of you, okay? It’s too late, I’m tired,” Chen Mi said.

Chu Yufei nodded, “Agreed. Gossip’s better shared together.”

Chen Mi, “…”

“Let’s go back and sleep,” Chu Yufei said.

They opened the door, and a figure stood there.

Chen Mi froze upon seeing her.

Chu Yufei paused, “Should you two talk first?”

Chen Mi grabbed her hand, “No, I have nothing to say to her. Yufei, let’s go.”

Fu Xitang said softly, “It’s too dark. I’ll walk you back.”

“No need,” Chen Mi refused quickly.

Chu Yufei said, “With me here, it’s not that dark.”

After all, a lightbulb shines!

Chen Mi was speechless and said to Fu Xitang, “Madam, please step aside.”

After they left, Lin Chu quietly crept over from a distance.

“Captain Fu,” she asked curiously, “You two know each other? Dated?”

Fu Xitang’s gaze swept over.

It looked a bit scary, but after spending time with her, Lin Chu knew she was just intimidating on the surface.

“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop,” Lin Chu explained. “With that scene, as long as I have ears, it’s hard not to hear.”

Fu Xitang sighed.

“Go to bed,” she said. “It’s late.”

The next morning, Shu Yue’s biological clock worked reliably.

At 5:15, she opened her eyes.

Her head was heavy, aching from the hangover.

Yawning long, she walked out to the living room as usual to have breakfast with everyone.

Lin Chu brought over a bowl of hangover soup.

Shu Yue blinked, stunned.

“What are you staring at? Drink it. I don’t want someone hungover affecting efficiency today,” Lin Chu said.

Shu Yue held the bowl, her eyes behind glasses curving into two small crescent moons.

“Oh,” she said.

After breakfast, it was the usual schedule. The difference was, when Shu Yue and Lin Chu were about to go take care of Xiao Liu, Lin Chu suddenly called out to her.

“Little Yue, how’s your senior been to you?”

“Very good,” Shu Yue said.

Lin Chu nodded, “Then if you hear any gossip later, don’t forget to tell your senior.”

Shu Yue didn’t catch on, “What gossip?”

Lin Chu, frustrated, said, “Silly girl, you forgot? Your friend who brought you back yesterday and Captain Fu—they…”

If Lin Chu hadn’t mentioned it, Shu Yue might have forgotten.

Since she hadn’t seen Captain Fu that morning, it didn’t cross her mind.

“We’ll see,” Shu Yue couldn’t promise Lin Chu. “If they don’t mind, Senior, I’ll tell you.”

Lin Chu sighed, “…”

Fine.

She knew her junior’s character well enough.

Waving her off, she let Shu Yue go.

When Shu Yue returned, Fu Xitang was already there.

Meeting face-to-face, both felt a bit awkward.

Shu Yue didn’t know why Fu Xitang was awkward, but she was genuinely embarrassed. Now she finally understood how Chen Mi and Chu Yufei felt seeing Meng Zhiyu yesterday.

“Back?” Fu Xitang asked.

Shu Yue nodded.

She glanced at Fu Xitang, unsure if she should ask, since she hadn’t gotten Chen Mi’s permission.

While hesitating, Fu Xitang spoke first.

“You and Little Mi—I mean, you and Chen Mi—have you known each other long?”

Shu Yue was surprised by the caution in her tone.

“Almost two years,” she said. “Captain Fu, is that long?”

Fu Xitang smiled, and Shu Yue felt there was a touch of sadness in it.

“That’s quite long.”

Shu Yue didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing.

After a while, Fu Xitang asked, “Has she been doing well these two years?”

Shu Yue looked at her, thought for a moment, and said, “Captain Fu, why don’t you ask her directly? Everyone feels differently about what’s good or bad. As her friend, I think Senior has been happy these two years. But I’m not her, so my answer might not be her real answer.”

Seeing Fu Xitang stay silent, Shu Yue said, “Captain Fu, wait a second.”

She picked up her phone, stepped aside, and messaged Chen Mi.

“Captain Fu asked if you’ve been doing well these two years. Should I answer for you, or give her your number?”

Chen Mi was awake at this hour.

“Give it to her, and you’re dead.”

Shu Yue stared at the message, about to tell Fu Xitang the bad news, when Chen Mi’s next message came through.

“Fine, we’ll handle our own stuff. Don’t let this mess with your work.”

What did that mean?

“So I can give it?”

“Hmm.”

Shu Yue looked up from her phone, “Captain Fu, I asked. Senior said I can give you her number. You two can talk.”

Fu Xitang hadn’t expected things to go this way.

She pursed her lips and said, “Thank you.”

Shu Yue shook her head, “You guys talk. I’m going to check on Xiao Liu.”

As she walked into the shed, a new message from Chen Mi came.

“This time’s fine, but don’t meddle in stuff like this again! Or I’ll curse you to get tangled up with your ex too!”

What a vicious curse.

Shu Yue rubbed her arms, patted the wood three times, and spat three times.

Two days later, in the evening, someone knocked on her door.

Lin Chu’s voice was clear.

“Little Yue, your friend’s here.”

Shu Yue looked up from her sea of books, pushed her glasses, and got up to open the door.

Meng Zhiyu stood at the door, chatting with Lin Chu. Seeing Shu Yue, she smiled as if nothing had happened and said, “Shu Yue, long time no see.”