1987 My Era

Chapter 596, Ace

After a moment of quiet waiting, Zhou Shihe said gently, "You can do whatever you want, you can write whatever you want, or you can write seriously. But you only have one chance, so please do what you write in this life. Please be sure to keep your word."

Li Heng almost fainted after hearing this.

What does it mean to write nonsense?

What does it mean to write carefully?
What does it mean to say "Do as you write in this life"?
Isn't this a form of coercion?

Isn't this an invisible coercion?
Given the previous example, would he dare to write recklessly?

Can he just write whatever he wants?
Besides, writing nonsense isn't his style.

If you write seriously and express your true feelings, it's fine if she doesn't care.

If she cares, what if she uses this note as evidence to show her other women at crucial moments?
Isn't that a ticking time bomb?
Isn't that a landmine?
He felt that the girl in front of him was setting a trap for him; no matter how he wrote it, the ending would be a trap where he was caught in the middle.

The problem is, he has to fall into this trap, otherwise he won't be able to explain kissing her today, and that would make him look like a lewd person.

He admits that others say he's a womanizer. Because that's just how it is.

If anyone says he's vulgar and irresponsible, pshaw! He won't take the blame. It doesn't fit his character.

Damn it!
Damn it, this is a classic case of cunning and deceit.

An open conspiracy with no solution.

As the saying goes: there's no such thing as a free lunch in this world; the gifts of fate have already been secretly marked with good terms.

He witnessed once again the terrifying power of the Fudan University leader. In this hasty situation, the leader had pinned him to the pillar of shame with just a slight move, rendering him unable to make any move.

After gazing at each other across the table for a while, Li Heng finally breathed a sigh of relief.

It's not like I wrote it all by myself, is it?
She has to write too, doesn't she?
Thinking about it from a different perspective, his mind immediately became more open, and he felt much more energetic.

Li Heng picked up his pen and looked at her.

Seeing this, Zhou Shihe, as if on the same wavelength, also picked up her pen and began to write.

Li Heng followed the rules and did not check what she was writing beforehand.
Well, even if he wanted to see, he couldn't; she turned half her body away, blocking his view.

Half a minute later, she seemed to have finished writing, put down her pen, and began folding the white paper with both hands.

Li Heng was surprised and couldn't help but ask, "So fast?"

Zhou Shihe stared coldly into his eyes, remaining silent.

Well, this girl has a lot of complaints about him now, so much so that she has the urge to slap him a second time.

Knowing better than to ask any more questions, Li Heng pondered for a moment, and then lowered his head to write.

After finishing writing, he folded the paper three times and then pushed the corner of the paper to the center of the dining table.

Zhou Shihe's gaze fell on the paper, and after a while she put down the note in her hand and took the note he had written.

Then I opened it immediately, and saw the message: "Shihe, I've fallen for you."

These are the words Li Heng wrote to Zhou Shihe.

These were his sincere words, without any pretense or flowery language, simply expressing his true feelings.

He felt that being too pretentious was not beautiful, but rather inferior; simplicity was the best.

Her gaze fell upon the paper, and she silently read it word by word.

After reading it, she quickly scanned it again, finding a total of 8 words.

Then she folded the paper back up and put it in her pocket, and then she looked up.

At this moment, her face showed no joy or sorrow, no color, no ripples, and she was simply asking, "Guess what?"

Li Heng secretly observed her for a while, but couldn't catch any clues on her face, which made him somewhat disappointed.

But now is not the time to be disappointed. Under her gaze, he tried to appear calm but couldn't wait to open the note she had written.

result…!
He was stunned; the paper was blank.

The paper was empty!
She left no words on her paper, not even pen marks.

You've been fooled!

Li Heng was stunned, looking at the other person in confusion. After a long while, he finally uttered a frustrated sentence: "Is this some kind of Jiang Taigong fishing? I have no cost at all, yet you've managed to fool me completely?"

Zhou Shihe remained silent.

Li Heng was even more frustrated. He shook the blank paper in his hand and pressed, "What does this mean? How can you be so untrustworthy?"

Zhou Shihe still didn't answer, but her eyes seemed to be mocking him mercilessly: You're always surrounded by women, haven't you grasped the true meaning of the saying "You can't believe everything a woman says"?
She tricked him.

He kissed her. She slapped him, and in doing so, taught him a harsh lesson.

This lesson came at a high price.

This is so significant that it's as if Li Heng directly handed over his weaknesses to her.

If used properly, this leverage could become a trump card in her hands in the future.

Holding this trump card is like a superpower possessing nuclear weapons; it can attack or defend as needed.

"To advance is to attack": This means to use notes to attack Li Heng and his other female confidantes.

"Retreat and defend" is a warning to Li Heng: don't provoke her again, let's keep to ourselves, otherwise she will make him lose face.

As for whether she will take the initiative or retreat in the future, Li Heng was extremely anxious and couldn't figure out her thoughts for a while.

However, based on the time they had spent together over the past year and a half, Li Heng felt that Miss Zhou was more inclined to play it safe.

The reason is that she slapped herself hard today, and it was so hard that she hated it. Her right cheek is still throbbing.

Actually, he guessed correctly.

Zhou Shihe currently has many concerns. She dislikes his philandering, cannot accept his feelings, and does not consider him her life partner.

In other words, she has no intention of getting involved in his personal relationship, nor does she want him to continue bothering her. Asking for this note is like holding a get-out-of-jail-free card.

This was her lifeline.

A card that made Li Heng hesitant to act rashly.

Seeing that she had easily caused him to suffer a great loss, Li Heng muttered with dissatisfaction, "Hey, this is not like you at all. It's completely different from the person I know."

Zhou Shihe paused for a moment, then asked, "What is my image in your mind?"

Li Heng said, "She is gentle, well-bred, and upright."

Zhou Shihe remained unmoved, but her pure, black-and-white aura seemed to say: It's because I was too upright and too tolerant of you in the past that this happened today.

Their eyes met, and Li Heng seemed to understand her gaze. Then he lowered his head and immediately gave up.

For the next period of time, the two suddenly fell silent.

Zhou Shihe was standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window at some point, looking down at the entire city of Singapore.

Li Heng, however, curled up on the living room sofa to rest and reflect.

He wondered why he could control himself when facing Teacher Yu, but why did he easily become emotional and lose control when facing Zhou Shihe?

Isn't Wei Xiaozhu beautiful? Her youthful, first-love face has captivated countless men.

He was happy to see Xiaozhu, and he liked to see her face every morning during his run. It would make him feel good, but it wouldn't make him feel impulsive.

Zhao Wanqing at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi'an is beautiful, isn't she? Her elegant, slightly reminiscent of a pastry shop amidst withered lotus blossoms is stunning, enough to make any man meeting her for the first time hold his breath, cautiously avoiding her for fear of disturbing her. Li Heng felt a flutter in his heart, but he had no intention of pursuing her.

Even Wu Siyao from Tongji University next door, a woman of great beauty, relentlessly pursued him for a long time, but she couldn't sway his heart.

But it was Zhou Shihe who...

To be honest, he felt a great surge of emotion the moment they met. If it weren't for his composed demeanor from his two lifetimes, he would have lost all composure on the spot. Like any other boy, he couldn't help but cast his gaze upon her, unable to look away. This suffocating feeling was something he had only experienced once before, when he first met Song Yu.

In a way, Zhou Shihe and Song Yu are both beauties of the same type. Their looks and temperament are exactly what he likes. They are the type that can move him the most and the type that can provoke his sensitive nerves the most.

It was precisely because Zhou Shihe was so unconventional that he kept his distance from her during his freshman year, treating her with utmost politeness and courtesy, in order to suppress his own ambitions.

During that period, he did indeed remain quite restrained and behaved very well, without any ambiguity.

But as they gradually became more familiar with each other, especially after they became neighbors in Lushan Village, and particularly after they found common ground in music, he unconsciously lowered his guard again.

When did my feelings for her begin to explode? When did I start to feel like I couldn't take it anymore?
After much deliberation, he still couldn't give a definite timeframe.

She was like the spring breeze, bringing flowers to every corner, creating beauty and poetry with every step. He was caught completely off guard.

But if I absolutely had to give a specific time, it would probably be during the Spring Festival Gala rehearsals, the time we spent living together in Beijing.

They rehearsed five times before and after the Spring Festival Gala, plus the time spent on the actual Gala performance, and also went skiing in Northeast China and spent the New Year together. The two not only reached a tacit understanding, but he also completely let go of himself, and his wild heart swelled and was released.

Li Heng held the blank sheet of paper she had given him, and suddenly a thought struck him: could the blank sheet of paper have some kind of symbolism?

She described herself as a blank sheet of paper, emotionally empty and completely innocent.

In stark contrast, he is a jumbled mess of paper, his emotions a vibrant tapestry of colors.

Is this... is Fudan University's "King" rejecting him so openly and clearly in this way?

She's a blank slate, so of course she hopes her other half is also a blank slate, so they can start from scratch.
So, rather than asking herself to write her true feelings, she used the life-saving charm to actually close a window to his relationship, lock it, and bolt it shut.

Seeing Li Heng repeatedly examining the white paper she had given him on the sofa, Zhou Shihe, standing by the French windows, glanced at him a few more times.

Congratulations to him for guessing correctly again; one of the meanings of her blank sheet of paper is rejection.

Of course, giving him blank paper meant much more than that; she believed he would understand it all in the future.

The same principle applies: it allows for both offense and defense.

All afternoon, Zhou Shihe didn't look at him directly, nor did she have any formal communication with him. Later, she simply went back to her suite.

Someone was left on the sofa to continue pondering over the blank paper.

The door closed, and Zhou Shihe, her face calm, took a deep breath against the door.

She had managed to remain solitary in the living room for so long, which had nearly exhausted her energy. She could clearly sense that the more time she spent with this man, the more dangerous it would be for her.

With that thought in mind, Zhou Shihe locked the door from the inside.

She wouldn't have done this before, but now that she's in a foreign country, she has to be careful.

After all, the two had made a lot of physical contact while dancing, which caused a huge reaction in his body, leading him to become greedy and somewhat out of control. Otherwise, given his usual restraint, he wouldn't have kissed himself so rashly.

Zhou Shihe has always been absolutely confident in her charm and has never doubted it. At this crucial juncture, it's best to be cautious.

Back in bed, she didn't lie down to rest. Instead, she propped up her pillow, leaned against the headboard, and drifted off into a daze.

At this moment, her mind was a jumbled mess, filled with images of the man outside, of their dancing earlier that day, and of him kissing her passionately…

Why did I agree to dance with him?
She had never danced with men in the past, even when her younger cousin once asked her to help with practice, she resolutely refused. She also never attended dance parties.

But I agreed to it today…

Zhou Shihe pouted slightly, feeling as if he had drugged her today, making her dizzy and disoriented. His few words of feigned retreat had made her lower her guard and get on board.

In a flash, she pulled the note out of her pocket and looked down at the words on it: Shihe, I've fallen for you.

The language is simple and plain, without any skill or fancy flair. It doesn't sound like something a famous writer would write. It's like something a primary school student would write.

After looking at it several times, she suddenly thought of Yu Shuheng, who would be joining her tomorrow.

How did Teacher Yu pursue him in the past?

How does Teacher Yu usually get along with him?
What was his attitude towards Teacher Yu? Did he keep his distance? Did he kiss Teacher Yu like he was kissing ears of wheat?

Zhou Shihe frowned, then folded the note back up and put it in her bag.

He picked up a book next to her and started reading it.

As evening fell, Wu Yili returned.

The first thing Wu noticed when he entered the room was the red mark on the carpet. He then looked around the living room but couldn't find anyone.

At this time, Li Heng was writing in his room, writing Chapter 27 of "Dust Settles Down".

Zhou Shihe was reading in the next bedroom, the first half of "Jane Eyre" and the second half of "White Deer Plain." She was currently focusing on the descriptions of sexual relations in "White Deer Plain."

The more she read it, the more terrified she became, and she gained a new understanding of Li Heng.

She kept pondering a sentence, the one at the beginning: What Bai Jiaxuan later took pride in was that he had married seven women in one lifetime.

Why seven rooms?

Why is it 7?

Was it a coincidence? Or was it a true reflection of his deepest desires?

"Dong dong dong...!"

"Dong dong dong...!"

Just as she was studying the sentence carefully, there was a knock on the door.

At first, she ignored it, assuming it was that person, and sat on the bed without moving, comfortably reading her book.

Until the teacher's voice came from outside: "Shihe, are you asleep?"

Hearing the sound, Zhou Shihe finally reacted, closed her book, and prepared to open the door.

She had just gotten out of bed and put on her shoes when she remembered something. She turned back, put "White Deer Plain" into her bag, and took out "Jane Eyre" from it and placed it on the bedside table.

After doing all this, she opened the door and gently called out, "Teacher."

Wu Yili asked curiously, "Did you lock your door from the inside?"

Zhou Shihe said, "I was just resting."

Wu Yili looked at her beloved student suspiciously, then asked with a kind smile, "Are you wary of your teacher? Or are you wary of Li Heng?"

Zhou Shihe smiled cleverly, but did not answer the question, and turned back into the house.

Wu Yili followed her in, closing the door behind her. A moment later, she asked in a serious tone, "Did you two have a fight?"

Zhou Shihe shook her head: "No."

Wu Yili wasn't so easily fooled: "What's the deal with the carpet outside? What's the deal with the broken wine bottle in the trash can?"

Zhou Shihe said without batting an eye, "I accidentally bumped into it while eating and it fell to the ground."

Wu Yili was skeptical: "Is that really true?"

Zhou Shihe hummed in agreement.

Wu Yili stared at her beloved student for a while, then wisely refrained from pressing him for details. Instead, she changed to a more relaxed tone and said, "Li Heng is very famous now. This afternoon, 13 people at the concert asked him if he would really be performing on stage tomorrow."

Zhou Shihe sat back on the bed, picked up a book and browsed it casually. She said playfully, "Why don't we send him back to China tonight, so he doesn't steal the teacher's thunder tomorrow?"

"What nonsense are you talking about, you little brat? I'd love for him to steal the spotlight. The more famous he is, the more successful tomorrow's concert will be," Wu Yili said, revealing her true feelings.

Zhou Shihe slowly raised her head.

Wu Yili said happily, "It has been confirmed that Singapore's political and business elites will be attending tomorrow's concert. Some prominent figures from neighboring Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, and other countries are also vying for tickets."

Zhou Shihe was happy for her teacher and said with a gentle smile, "Congratulations, teacher."

(End of this chapter)