MTB - Chapter 16
Chapter 16: I'll Introduce You to Them, Little by Little
“Are you sure it’s a fake? Are you sure we don’t need to find someone else to take a look?”
After making their way from the antique market to Dianqing in Changshan District, Ye Ziqiu still found it hard to believe.
Ye Ziqiu’s mother was celebrating her sixtieth birthday on the third of next month. Her mother loved collecting antiques, and Ye Ziqiu had recently set her sights on a gift for her: a blue-and-white doucai chicken cup, said to be from the Ming Dynasty. She had specifically dragged Tang Yuelou along today to examine it—but as it turned out, Tang Yuelou said it was a fake.
“I’m not a professional, so I can’t give a professional opinion, and I didn’t say it was definitely a fake,” Tang Yuelou explained patiently for the tenth time. “It’s just that the real one was bought at auction ten years ago, and I happened to have seen it.”
Ye Ziqiu had a vague, bad feeling. “Don’t tell me you were the one who bought it. Where would you have gotten that much money ten years ago?”
“Of course it wasn’t me,” Tang Yuelou said, shaking her head. “It was Tang Ruitian.”
Hearing this name, Ye Ziqiu froze instinctively. She knew a bit about the messy affairs in Tang Yuelou’s family, and her feelings upon hearing this were complicated. She asked tentatively, “Yuelou, your step… Madam Tang gave birth a few days ago, did you know?”
Tang Yuelou pulled out her car key and gave her a cool glance.
“Okay, okay, I won’t say any more.” Ye Ziqiu had no intention of meddling in her friend’s family matters and simply shrugged. “I just think that even if you don’t acknowledge this father of yours, there’s no need to be at odds with the family fortune.”
“I know. Of course I’m going to take back the part that belongs to me.”
Her tone was exceptionally calm when she said this, as if she were stating a fact that had nothing to do with her. Ye Ziqiu shivered in the early autumn chill.
“So scary.”
“Thanks, you can shut up now.”
Both of them were rarely free tonight and were planning to have dinner first. The restaurant they were going to was inside a hotel. After getting out of the car and walking a few steps, Ye Ziqiu suddenly pointed at the glass door of a nearby restaurant. “Is that your little girlfriend?”
Tang Yuelou paused and turned to look.
It was indeed Yun Yang.
She was sitting by the window, leaning against the armrest of a rattan chair, talking and laughing with the girl across from her. The girl put some meat into the small hot pot for her, then stood up and helped her wipe away the chili oil from the corner of her mouth.
Tang Yuelou frowned slightly.
—In reality, Yun Yang was currently on pins and needles.
She and Jiang Jie had just seen a movie, a rather artsy romance film that had been released not long ago. It was said to be perfect for couples, with a well-crafted atmosphere and emotional depth. By the end, many in the audience were bowing their heads and wiping away tears, but Yun Yang couldn’t cry.
There was no other reason for it; she had simply been invited to see this movie five times already by different people.
They were eating small hotpot near the movie theater. When Jiang Jie helped wipe her face, she instinctively dodged back a little, a vague sense of foreboding washing over her.
Logically speaking, when someone you were in an ambiguous relationship with suddenly started acting unusually intimate, it was highly probable that a confession was coming next.
This was the part that gave Yun Yang the biggest headache. She scrolled through her phone out of boredom, just as she was thinking of an excuse to slip away, when Jiang Jie suddenly said, “Yangyang.”
It’s coming. Yun Yang looked up nonchalantly. “Hm?”
“These past few days, I’ve been thinking about some things.” She put down her chopsticks and said slowly, “You know, I’m actually not a very brave person, but I want to…”
“Hey, it looks like there are seats over here—wow, isn’t that the girl who knows Tang Yuelou? What a coincidence.”
The exaggeratedly stilted tone broke the imminent confession. Yun Yang first breathed a sigh of relief, and when she looked up, her eyes met Tang Yuelou’s.
She froze for a moment, not really registering what was happening at first. Then her gaze shifted from Tang Yuelou to the woman beside her—she was quite sensitive when it came to girls’ appearances. Although this person was wearing a prim and proper business suit today, a completely different style from the red slip dress last time, she still recognized her.
The last encounter at the intersection was still fresh in her mind. Yun Yang frowned at Tang Yuelou. “What are you doing here?”
At that moment, Jiang Jie spoke, her voice filled with shock and uncertainty. “Teacher Tang?! What are you doing here?”
Their voices overlapped, making the already less-than-cheerful atmosphere instantly worse. Tang Yuelou smiled without answering. Her gaze fell on the small pot in front of Yun Yang, and she asked, “Don’t you have a weak stomach? I thought you couldn’t eat spicy food.”
“This is a clear broth. I just added a bit of dipping sauce.” At this moment, Yun Yang’s annoyance was mixed with a strange sourness that was nothing short of subtle. She shot Tang Yuelou a glare and turned her head away, complaining, “You sure are nosy.”
“Yangyang, you… you have a weak stomach?” Jiang Jie was a little embarrassed. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? I thought…”
“Excuse me, Yun Yang has something to attend to right now. May I take her away for a moment?” Tang Yuelou interrupted her in a gentle voice.
“What?” Jiang Jie hadn’t processed it yet. She stared blankly at Yun Yang and asked, “Do you have something to do right now?”
Yun Yang: “…”
What kind of no-win question was this?
She glanced at Tang Yuelou. The latter stood there beaming, her smile disarmingly gentle.
“I do,” Yun Yang answered decisively.
Stepping out of the restaurant, once they were out of Jiang Jie’s line of sight, Yun Yang smiled politely. “Thank you for helping me out of that situation, Teacher Tang. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be going. Goodbye.”
“Leaving so soon?” Tang Yuelou asked. “Ziqiu and I were planning to get dinner. Want to join us?”
Hearing this, Yun Yang looked back and forth between the two of them with a blank expression. Influenced by her subtle mood, she retracted the foot she had just put forward.
“Does Teacher Tang want me to go?” she asked, tilting her head.
Tang Yuelou gave a charming smile. “Why wouldn’t I?”
The two looked at each other, their expressions growing progressively more gentle and amiable, yet they somehow created an atmosphere of daggers drawn.
Although she really wanted to stick around and see what happened next, Ye Ziqiu felt that if she stayed any longer, she would become the one with a sword pointed at her. She quickly laughed it off. “Oh dear, my husband just told me he needs me for something. I’m going to head out first. You two enjoy your meal—Yuelou, let’s meet up another day.”
Yun Yang froze, sharply catching the keyword. “Did she just say ‘husband’?”
What did that mean? Did it mean these two weren’t in that kind of relationship? Had she misunderstood last time?
They had just seen each other this morning and had parted on pleasant terms. How did it end up in this awkward situation again? Yun Yang was completely baffled. She scratched her head, feeling inexplicably guilty. After all, if she really had misunderstood, then that time at the intersection… wouldn’t that have been a full-blown “catching a cheater” scene?
Besides, the scene just now felt wrong no matter how she looked at it.
But Tang Yuelou didn’t seem to mind. She followed Yun Yang’s gaze and watched Ye Ziqiu leave, then turned to Yun Yang and said with a smile, “Her name is Ye Ziqiu. She’s a friend of mine. I’ll introduce them to you, little by little, in the future.”
It seemed like a casual remark, but when it reached her ears, its meaning was involuntarily extended infinitely: slowly introducing her own friends to her, slowly bringing her into her own circle… “In the future” was the most ethereal and thought-provoking phrase in the world, easily making one think, “She’s planning a place for me in her life.”
She wasn’t wearing her glasses today. Her gaze reflected the afterglow of the sunset, and the hint of a smile in her eyes seemed as gentle as water.
Yun Yang looked over and saw her own tiny reflection in those eyes.
And for a moment, she was lost in a daze.
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