What's Wrong With Being Fifteen Years Older Than Me?! - Chapter 15

After a week in the hospital, Ye Li was discharged. Auntie Lu had taken a leave of absence from her university classes to be with her. Compared to the first day, her leg wasn’t as painful, but she still couldn’t walk normally and needed crutches. For a better recovery, Auntie Lu had asked the school for another week of leave for her to rest at home.

Han Yueyue came over often during that week. She was a gifted student, so to make sure Ye Li didn’t fall too far behind, she always brought her notes and study materials. However, Ye Li still found the pace a little too fast. She looked forward to returning to school every day. There was nothing more terrifying than being supervised by Auntie Lu. She used her most beautiful face and her most gentle voice to say the strictest things. Ye Li had no way of fighting back.

On the seventh day since her discharge, which was a weekend, Ye Li felt cooped up and wanted to go out for a change of scenery, even if it was just to walk around downstairs. That morning, Auntie Lu made grilled cheese sandwiches. The melted cheese stretched into long, milky-white strings with every bite, and her mouth was filled with the savory, fresh, and sweet flavor of the cheese. Ye Li sat at the table, holding the sandwich with both hands, slowly twirling the cheese strings into her mouth, looking just like a kid who was distracted from eating by a video game.

The microwave dinged, and Lu Zhiyun, who had changed her clothes, walked out of her room and went to the microwave. She took out the warm milk and placed it in front of the girl.

“I’m going out today. If I can’t make it back in time to cook, you can order takeout on your phone,” Lu Zhiyun said.

Ye Li stopped chewing and followed the woman’s movements with her eyes. She was wearing a black patterned sweater with a denim skirt. It was a simple and gentle fall outfit. Perhaps Ye Li was just inexperienced, but she thought Auntie Lu always dressed so well. Clothes always looked better on her. After a moment, she came back to her senses and asked, “Are you going to meet your blind date today, Auntie Lu?”

Lu Zhiyun, who was getting her bag by the door, froze for a second. She turned and gave a slight smile. “Yeah, I promised Tang Qianxia I would. It would be rude to keep putting it off, so I might as well go.”

“Is it far?” the girl asked casually.

“Not far. It’s at a cafe on Nantian Road.”

“Oh,” Ye Li said, returning to her sandwich as if nothing had happened.

The moment the door closed, she quickly pulled out her phone. Just as she was about to text someone, Han Yueyue’s call came in at the perfect time.

“Ye Li, are you up? Do you want to go out and have some fun today?”

An hour later, at the outdoor seating of a cafe on Nantian Road, Han Yueyue and Qin Shu sat on either side of Ye Li, like her bodyguards.

“You haven’t been out in so long. Why did you want to come to a cafe first?” Qin Shu looked around, not finding anything special about the place. “And we’re not going to sit here all day, are we?”

“Cousin, I think this place is pretty nice. There are a bunch of cafes on this street,” Han Yueyue said, taking a bite of her mousse cake. A look of pure happiness spread across her face.

“You’ve been bribed by someone’s cake,” Qin Shu said, giving her a small look of disgust.

“Cousin, how can you say that? Ye Li was the one who bought me this, you know.” The two of them went back and forth, but Ye Li was focused on her surroundings.

“Shh, lower your voices.” She tried to duck her head and watched the woman in the denim skirt. Although she didn’t know where Auntie Lu went in between, she had left before her and had arrived here after her. Han Yueyue and Qin Shu were so shocked by Ye Li’s behavior that they followed her gaze.

“Isn’t that your Auntie Lu?” Han Yueyue asked, also lowering her voice.

Soon after the woman sat down at a table in front of the cafe next door, a refined man in a suit and glasses sat down across from her. Han Yueyue’s mouth dropped open. “Ye Li, is that your Auntie Lu’s new boyfriend?”

“No, it’s a blind date,” the girl said, her eyes fixed on them.

“I didn’t know you had a gossip habit,” Qin Shu said with a laugh, leaning back in her chair and crossing one leg.

“Hello, my name is Han Cheng. Tang Qianxia told me you were beautiful, but you’re even prettier in person,” the man said, showing all of his teeth. His eyes were filled with undisguised admiration.

“Lu Zhiyun,” Lu Zhiyun said, simply giving her name. She took a sip from her coffee cup, and her eyes drifted awkwardly, never landing on the man across from her. This blind date thing really wasn’t for her.

“Han Yue, can you hear what they’re talking about?” Ye Li asked, using the first two letters of Han Yueyue’s name. She was the closest to them.

“I can’t,” Han Yueyue said, shaking her head.

The man must have noticed the woman’s discomfort and silence. He remembered Tang Qianxia’s instructions: This friend of mine has zero dating experience, so you’ll have to be more proactive. In this day and age, it was rare for a thirty-year-old woman to have never been in a relationship, especially one who had studied abroad like him.

“I heard you like people who can draw. I took visual arts as an elective in college. Haha, I know it’s not the same, but I think we’ll have a lot in common,” Han Cheng said.

The spy, Han Yueyue, returned from her post to report. “That guy said your Auntie Lu likes people who can draw, and he took visual arts as an elective.”

“V-v-what arts did he say?” Ye Li asked, with a lot of confusion on her small face.

“Visual arts,” Han Yueyue translated.

“This guy is so funny. What does that have to do with drawing?” Ye Li laughed.

Qin Shu, who had been quiet, was messing with a napkin on the table. She raised her eyebrows, a hint of curiosity in her eyes. “Ye Li, why do you seem so invested in who your Auntie Lu dates?”

“Just curious,” the girl said, taking a sip of her now-cold latte, her eyes looking away.

“That’s true, cousin. This is the first time I’ve seen adults on a blind date!” Han Yueyue said, her eyes shining with excitement. Qin Shu rolled her eyes in frustration.

Across the street, a boy in a black jacket, jeans, and sneakers was walking toward them. He had a short, clean haircut. As he was about to cross the street, he nervously clutched a bouquet of roses. Han Yueyue had already seen him and was craning her neck to look for him.

She suddenly said, “Cousin, isn’t that Zhao Zhijie from your class?”

Qin Shu turned around and saw the guy with the roses, who had also spotted them and was walking over quickly.

“What is he doing?” Qin Shu’s eyebrows furrowed. She looked at the roses in his hand, then her eyes went to Ye Li. They immediately turned cold.

“Hi, Ye Li. Do you remember me? I went to the hospital to see you the other day, but your auntie wouldn’t let me in,” Zhao Zhijie said.

“What do you want?” Ye Li asked, her eyes full of confusion.

“These are for you. I really like you. Will you be my girlfriend?”

Han Yueyue: “!”

Qin Shu: “?”

Ye Li: “…”

All three of their expressions were different.

“I’m not even sixteen yet. Are you serious?” the girl asked. Her eyes seemed calm, but they radiated a cold and heartless aura. In that moment, Qin Shu’s expression for the boy went from contempt to a hint of sympathy, as if something had just clicked for her.

“It’s okay. I don’t mind. I’m only two years older than you,” Zhao Zhijie said with a smile, clearly not understanding what she was implying.

“I do mind,” Ye Li said, looking up calmly. “To be clear, it doesn’t matter how old you are. It has nothing to do with me. I won’t like you.”

“I think a high school student is confessing over there,” a passerby said.

“No way. Are kids these days that open?” The conversations of passersby reached Lu Zhiyun’s ears.

The woman casually turned her head and saw the scene, her eyebrows twitching slightly. Han Cheng laughed and said, “High schoolers are already dating, and we thirty-somethings are still on blind dates.”

After he said that, the woman’s expression didn’t change at all. She didn’t smile. The look in her eyes as she looked at the scene was icy. The man’s face became a little awkward.

Ye Li realized the scene was getting out of hand and decided to leave. She didn’t dare to look back to see if Auntie Lu had seen her. She just wanted to escape.

After Ye Li left, Qin Shu and Han Yueyue walked away together.

“You gave our location to Zhao Zhijie?” Qin Shu asked, her face cold as she questioned the girl with the oval face.

“He begged me. I just thought, what if Ye Li liked him? So I wanted to help out. I didn’t expect…”

“Hey, cousin, wait for me! Don’t walk so fast!”

…

Auntie Lu didn’t come home until it was dark. Ye Li, feeling anxious, decided to go for a walk downstairs with her crutches. As soon as she walked out of the building, she saw Lu Zhiyun, who had been back but hadn’t gone upstairs yet. The two of them greeted each other awkwardly.

“I came down for a walk. Do you want to join me, Auntie Lu?”

They walked along the path next to the greenery in the neighborhood. The sounds of children playing and laughing filled the air.

“How was your blind date today, Auntie Lu?” Ye Li asked nervously, not daring to look at her face.

“He liked me, but I rejected him.” The woman’s voice was calm and steady.

As Ye Li was trying to figure out what to say next, Lu Zhiyun asked, “Did Xiaoli accept that boy’s confession?” Lu Zhiyun’s tone was that of a friend, not a superior.

“I rejected him, too.” The girl’s voice was clear and crisp in the night.

The autumn wind rustled the fallen leaves on the ground. The two figures under the streetlights were long and stretched.

“I set a bad example for you, so for the next two and a half years, I won’t go on any more blind dates. Can you also promise me that you won’t date early?” The woman’s clear voice was a little hoarse, like the autumn wind blowing through a field of wheat, swaying the girl’s heart.