TIMO - Chapter 39
Chapter 39
If Kong Weiyan were here, she would have definitely started with a “Holy shit,” then given Shi Nan a thumbs-up and said she really knew how to coax someone.
But Fu Zhao wasn’t Kong Weiyan. Although, it was true that all the sourness and unhappiness in her heart had been smoothed over by Shi Nan’s light words. Status, the original novel’s plot, the author herself, the comment section-none of it could compare to the real, tangible Shi Nan sitting in front of her at this very moment, ruffling her hair and speaking those gentle words.
Shi Nan had said that no one else could compare to her, Fu Zhao.
A soft touch spread from the top of her head, carrying a dense warmth that permeated her entire body, reaching her limbs and bones, soothing her restless heart.
In that instant, a sudden impulse rose within her. She believed that this Shi Nan would give her a precise and reassuring answer. So, she asked the question that had been turning over in her mind for the past week, a question she couldn't answer on her own.
“But we’ll break off the engagement sooner or later, won’t we?”
The soft palm on her head paused, its pressure lessening slightly. After a long moment, it lifted away.
Fu Zhao looked up. It was past noon, and the sun swayed in the sky. The westward-slanting sun found the perfect angle, slipping through the gaps in the leaves overhead and casting itself upon the strands of Shi Nan’s hair that fell over her shoulder, sprinkling a halo of warm yellow light.
Shi Nan seemed to casually withdraw her hand, pushing herself back a few steps to release the swing chair. As it began to sway, she leaned back, her lowered eyelashes trembling slightly as she asked softly,
“We’ve already exchanged engagement gifts. Do you still want to break up with me?”
Her body swayed gently with the swing chair again, but the previous sense of leisure had been completely dispelled by the question that had been laid bare. Fu Zhao had wanted an answer from Shi Nan that would put her mind at ease, but now Shi Nan had thrown the question back at her. She pressed her lips together and remained silent for a moment. When she finally spoke, her voice was filled with confusion.
“I… I don’t know.”
“Shi Nan, I do want to break the engagement…” she said, stealing a glance at Shi Nan’s face. Seeing that the other woman still looked at her quietly, with no sign of anger, she continued, “But I… also don’t want to break the engagement.”
Fu Zhao’s words were strange, contradictory.
Fu Zhao was backlit, hugging her knees as she curled up on one side of the swing chair. Her figure swayed with the chair’s gentle motion. The direct light from behind and above cast shadows on her face, softening her usually bright and bold features with a touch of wistful gentleness, like a refreshing, damp breeze on a summer day.
“Then let’s not.”
Shi Nan gave her answer. Her tone was light, yet incredibly certain. “Since you’re hesitating, let’s not break up for now.”
“If you want to break up, you can do it anytime; if you don’t want to, then we won’t.”
Shi Nan paused again, her gaze flickering. The original Fu Zhao had once said those exact words to her. Now, she was returning them to Fu Zhao, and a sense of bitterness welled up in her heart.
So this is what it feels like to lose the initiative…
She remembered that when Fu Zhao first said this to her, she had been smiling. Fu Zhao had a pair of beautiful, bright eyes that were stunning at first glance. But whenever she looked at her, those bright eyes would always curve into crescents, soft and warm.
Every time Shi Nan saw it, she would think, how could someone be so nice, so gentle?
And so, she had naturally accepted Fu Zhao’s help with a clear conscience, never once thinking of trying to understand the other side of her.
It wasn’t until later, when Fu Zhao lay in her arms covered in blood, her pale face smeared with it, coughing up blood and unable to speak a single word, that those always-warm eyes revealed a regret and remorse she had never seen before. Only then did she understand: how could anyone always be gentle, always be smiling?
Now, the positions were reversed.
She was the one saying these words, and the power to break the engagement now belonged to Fu Zhao. Only now did she understand that saying this wasn’t as easy as it seemed. It wasn’t as effortless as she had perceived it to be. Instead, it was the act of placing all of one’s hopes and expectations into the other’s hands, to do with as they pleased.
It wasn’t a good feeling.
How had the old Fu Zhao managed to say those words with a smile?
At the very least, Shi Nan couldn’t say them with a smile.
“Break up if I want, don’t if I don’t?” Fu Zhao repeated softly, lifting her eyes to meet Shi Nan’s, her own filled with confusion. “I thought that once the band performance was over, you would suggest breaking up and then leave Nanke Island.”
“I won’t.”
Shi Nan’s denial was swift. “At least not now.”
“Why?” Fu Zhao couldn’t help but ask. She didn’t understand what Shi Nan meant by “not now.” Did it mean only for this moment… or something else?
For no reason. Just because I don’t want to break up with you. Just because I want to stay on Nanke Island and watch you live a safe and stable life. In an unpredictable future, I only hope you are there in every moment.
Unless… something happens that I can’t control, and that something would put you in danger.
But this answer, so sincere to Shi Nan, couldn’t be said to Fu Zhao right now. With Fu Zhao’s snail-like personality, the slightest disturbance would stir up a tempest in her heart. She would agonize over this and that, then retreat into her little room and never come out again.
Shi Nan had already been through that twice. She absolutely could not scare Fu Zhao again this time.
She closed her eyes and chose a sufficiently safe answer. “Because Shen Caiwei has come to Nanke Island. I can’t possibly break up with you in front of her, can I? She’d just start pestering me again.”
“Shen Caiwei…” Fu Zhao’s lips tightened. Although she knew the current Shi Nan didn’t like Shen Caiwei yet, she couldn’t resist asking, “Don’t you like her? I thought you’d like her more than the other two.”
“Why would you think that?” Shi Nan’s gaze fell on Fu Zhao’s eyes, her own flickering slightly. “Why would you think I like her? Did I do something to give you the wrong idea?”
“No.” Fu Zhao shook her head, denying it frankly. After a pause, she added, “I just feel that, compared to the other two, she’s more suitable for you.”
“I advise you to take that back.”
Shi Nan’s eyes narrowed. She pinched Fu Zhao’s cheek with some force, as if in retaliation. Only when Fu Zhao whimpered in pain did she let go, huffing through her nose. “I’m your fiancée right now. No one is more suitable for me than you.”
“Do you understand, Fu Zhao?”
Fu Zhao froze. Even though the thorn in her heart was lodged in its deepest part, bringing her a pain like being pricked by needles and cut by knives, she still felt that, in this moment, her heart was filled to the brim with joy.
Because Shi Nan had said it so seriously. Shi Nan had said that she was her fiancée, and no one was more suitable for her.
It was like the person in question had come out to personally debunk the rumors, swatting them down until they were nothing.
In that one moment, she still held onto a great hope that everyone’s final ending would not be as it was written in the book.
“…Yeah, I know,” Fu Zhao replied in a small voice.
Shi Nan nodded, satisfied. “So, do you understand about the engagement? I don’t want to break up with you right now.”
“Understood,” Fu Zhao answered obediently. Her gaze fell casually on the newspaper Shi Nan was clutching, and a thought suddenly flashed through her mind. She clenched her fingertips and said hesitantly,
“I can’t break up with you right now either. After all… after all, so many media outlets on the island have reported on it, and the islanders are all paying close attention to our situation… We can’t just break up immediately, right? We should probably wait a while, after the buzz from the closing ceremony performance dies down.”
She said it very seriously, finding herself a reason to keep pushing things forward.
Shi Nan also responded in earnest, her expression unchanging. “Yes, you’re right. Breaking up now might be bad for your image as the Little Island Master.”
“This isn’t a good time.”
“Right,” Fu Zhao nodded seriously, fully endorsing Shi Nan’s statement.
Shi Nan had finally managed to soothe the sulking girl. She raised an eyebrow and looked at Fu Zhao. “Since we’ve agreed not to break up, and to be model fiancées in front of Shen Caiwei and the islanders, shouldn’t we be a little more intimate?”
Fu Zhao heard Shi Nan drop the “for now” from “not breaking up for now,” and then heard her mention being “model fiancées,” something she had never agreed to with Shi Nan. Although Shi Nan wasn’t wrong, she couldn’t just knowingly jump into a pit. She sighed lightly. “What do you mean by ‘a little more intimate’?”
“Meeting often, going on dates often.”
“We can talk about all that later…” Shi Nan blinked, her eyes glinting. “But for now, shouldn’t you start calling me Nannan?”
Fu Zhao’s lips moved, but she still felt a bit awkward and couldn’t get the name out. “We’ll see.”
Shi Nan wasn’t annoyed by Fu Zhao’s refusal. She just leaned in closer, a faint light shimmering in her tea-brown eyes. The light danced within them as she spoke in a soft, smiling tone, clearly teasing Fu Zhao.
“Or do you want to call me Wifey?”
Naturally, Fu Zhao didn’t call her anything.
Nannan, Wifey-she had never tried such intimate forms of address.
Although that day, as Shi Nan looked at her with those soft eyes, waiting quietly for her to speak, she had felt an impulse to blurt it out. But just as the word was about to leave her lips, reason took over.
In perfect, standard interstellar language, she had called out, “Shi Nan.”
Even as she said it, the name “Nannan” was still stuck in her throat, leaving her so parched that she had to grab the watermelon Kong Weiyan had cut and eat more than half of it before she was satisfied.
It wasn’t that she wanted to call her Nannan, it was just a momentary impulse.
That was all.
The matter of breaking off the engagement came to a close a week after she had started avoiding Shi Nan. The conclusion was that they wouldn’t break up for the time being. Reason one was to help Shi Nan deal with Shen Caiwei, and reason two was to help Fu Zhao deal with the islanders and media who were going crazy shipping them.
Although Fu Zhao knew one of these reasons was just an excuse, she hid her own feelings beneath this precarious pretext.
Though she didn’t want to admit it, the moment she started looking for excuses, her emotions had already won.
She didn’t want to break up with Shi Nan.
Coincidentally, Shi Nan also needed her help to deal with Shen Caiwei. Coincidentally, the islanders still had great expectations for them.
Everything was so coincidental that it left her unable to say the words “break up,” and it also brought her a sense of relief.
And so, between her and Shi Nan, there was once again a reason to keep up their “public act.”
Fu Zhao finished her vacation and went to work at the Literature and Art Propaganda Department, but they would still go out from time to time-to the open-air cinema to watch the same movie that had been repeated countless times, to Jiang Wenqing’s house for a seafood feast, listening to the others joke about them and taking photos together.
They continued to play their pulse game with tacit understanding. Fu Zhao would turn on the pulse switch at ten o’clock sharp every night, and Shi Nan would sleep hugging her pillow every night.
They would occasionally have dinner with the other band members, continuing the band’s wonderful journey amidst the romance of summer.
Everything seemed unchanged, yet it felt as if everything had changed.
Because the five people who had “band practice” eventually became just the two of them, her and Shi Nan.
Until the night Fu Zhao promised to take Shi Nan for a drive, only to find a car parked at the gate of Shi Nan’s courtyard. A tall, blonde woman got out of the car. It was Shen Caiwei.
The summer night was still sweltering, the sound of cicadas a bit noisy. The night lamps flickered dimly, and the moonlight was bright and clear, shining brilliantly.
Fu Zhao had just reached the gate to Shi Nan’s courtyard when she saw Shen Caiwei.
She stopped in her tracks, glanced at Shen Caiwei’s low-key, luxurious black sedan, and pressed her lips together. “Miss Shen.”
It was a greeting of sorts.
Shen Caiwei seemed a little surprised, her eyes widening in disbelief as she looked Fu Zhao up and down. “Is that the Little Island Master? Nannan’s…” She paused, not finishing the title.
“Fiancée.”
Fu Zhao concisely finished Shen Caiwei’s unfinished sentence, her tone polite and proper.
“I see. But forgive my rudeness…” Shen Caiwei blinked. “Have we met before? I feel like the Little Island Master’s voice is especially familiar…”
“Yes.” Fu Zhao glanced at the iron gate, which was still quiet, before turning back to Shen Caiwei. “I live next door. When you came looking for… her before, you went to the wrong door.”
“I knew it~” Shen Caiwei smiled, seemingly unbothered by the fact that Fu Zhao hadn’t let her in before. She leaned against the car with her arms crossed, staring fixedly at the gate as she spoke of her own situation. “I had a performance on a neighboring planet a few days ago, so I didn’t stay on Nanke Island for long. Now I finally have a three-day vacation, so I found the chance to come here again. I just landed on the island. But now that I know where Nannan lives, I won’t get it wrong again.”
“Little Island Master, you can go back now.”
“No need to help me specifically. I won’t get lost.”
Fu Zhao was momentarily stunned by Shen Caiwei’s overly familiar tone. It took her a moment to react, and then she smiled at Shen Caiwei. “Miss Shen, you’ve misunderstood. I’m not here specifically to help you.”
“Then what are you doing here?” Shen Caiwei blinked, seeming to have completely disregarded Fu Zhao’s status as the “fiancée.”
Fu Zhao began to explain patiently, “I’m here to wait for my…”
But before she could finish, the iron gate that both of them were focused on swung open with a loud noise. A person wearing a bright yellow lace-up short-sleeved T-shirt and a smoky-grey lace-up denim skirt walked out. Her waistline was captivating, and her legs were perfectly straight, her calves wrapped in white socks and sneakers.
Her fair, long legs traced an enchanting line in the moonlight as she descended the stairs with light steps.
Her shoulder-length hair curled in the air, strands fluttering.
Her clear, bright eyes shimmered with a halo of light. Her lazy, enchanting beauty made the otherwise monotonous surroundings, lit only by streetlights, seem dazzling.
Shi Nan walked quickly, staring straight at her, not even watching the path.
Fu Zhao couldn’t help but admonish, “Be careful…”
But before she could finish, a weight settled on her. A soft body threw itself at her, and a pair of warm hands wrapped tightly around her neck. A delicate fragrance filled her nose.
Right before Shen Caiwei’s wide eyes.
Shi Nan ran over and jumped onto Fu Zhao. She winked, the light in her eyes brightening with each passing second. Her tone was incredibly tender, her voice soft and lazy as she called out,
“Wifey~”
The word “Wifey” burned Fu Zhao’s ears, but she endured the heat on her face and carefully set Shi Nan down. She reached out to smooth Shi Nan’s messy hair, then gently took her hand, their fingers interlocking. Their warm fingertips clasped together, leaving no gap. She smiled harmlessly at Shen Caiwei and said in a soft, quiet voice,
“Yes, that’s right. I’m here to pick up my wifey for a drive.”
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