Seven years after my death, the male protagonist of the substitute novel was criticized

Chapter 57 Why Not Accept Me?
Mingming would occasionally send messages and make video calls with Duan Chengyu while on vacation, and they would have friendly exchanges about this bizarre story that had been bothering her.

But since she discovered Pei Yizhou's ulterior motives, all her energy has been focused on how to deal with him.

From waking up early to going to bed, Pei Yizhou was like a layer of spider webs, tangling all her energy and time into a ball, compressing it into a space where only he was.

Even when she recalled her most recent dream, she could clearly remember the panic feeling that Pei Yizhou felt when pressing down on her in the dream, but she couldn't be sure whether she dreamed of Duan Chengyu and Nan Ji again.

Probably not. After all, my dreams were very clear before and I didn’t forget them after waking up early.

Lin Lu looked at Duan Chengyu opposite him, his eyes fixed on him without focus, unconsciously staring at his Adam's apple as he swallowed while eating.

Under the light purple suit, the collar of the white shirt is open without buttons, and the collarbone is also exposed, so the movement of the Adam's apple rolling up and down can be seen clearly.

Her eyes were filled with beautiful scenery, but her mind was thinking about something else - was her memory of Duan Chengyu fading?
Anything that happens without warning or disappears without warning can cause panic.

Lin Lu was very nervous now, his brows were knitted, and the chopsticks in his hand were poking the two slices of Dongxing fish fillets, like pounding fish paste.

Duan Chengyu seemed to give her time to think about the three dreams. He ate a few bites of food and took a sip of champagne.

The action of sipping wine and putting down chopsticks is like a period between two sentences, indicating that he is about to start the next topic.

She subconsciously tensed her back and sat up straighter.

"What do you think of these three dreams? Or think carefully, have you ever dreamed of similar scenes?" Duan Chengyu asked.

Their dreams never had any overlapping content. Lin Lu often dreamed about Antarctica and some daily activities.

But Duan Chengyu's dreams tend to be about some fragments with significant relationships.

If the other person's name and face were not very clear in the dream, it would probably be difficult to connect the dots.

Lin Lu carefully recalled his previous dream and shook his head, "No."

Duan Chengyu's eyes wandered over her face, and he suddenly laughed, "If there's nothing, then there's nothing. There's no need to be so serious. Your face is wrinkled."

She was stunned for a moment, then smiled: "I just feel it's weird. Don't you think so? So far our dreams haven't overlapped. If there's no name, if you didn't dream of my face, my excuse for coming to you would sound more like a liar."

"I've met many scammers, but few of them would find their conscience halfway through and remind me that I was scammed. It's been three months since the incident, but you seem to be under more psychological pressure than when we first met. Lulu, what happened?"

Duan Chengyu's tone was as relaxed as ever, so relaxed that it seemed as if the word "Lulu" was not uttered by him.

Lin Lu looked at him in surprise, his fingers twitched, and the tip of the chopsticks that poked the fish fillet slid across the plate, making a sharp sound that gave people goose bumps.

Duan Chengyu seemed not to notice her surprise and confusion, and continued to ask as if nothing had happened: "It should be about your brother? You seem to be worried. You were not like this when we last video chatted."

Lin Lu's urge to talk was suppressed. She felt that things between her and Duan Chengyu were beginning to get bad.

"It's okay. Maybe I've been busy with work since the beginning of the year." She answered perfunctorily and lowered her head to poke at the fish fillet.

"Actually, I'm a little confused. You look only about 18 or 19 years old. Why did your brother arrange for you to work at Linzhou Technology? Shouldn't you be in school at this age?"

This was not the first time she had encountered such a question. Lin Lu answered with ease: "Actually, I am 20 years old. I skipped a grade and already got my university diploma."

This was the excuse she and Pei Yizhou had agreed upon. She did have a university diploma, although she didn't know how Pei Yizhou got it.

Duan Chengyu nodded, not sure whether he believed it or not. "So you went to Linzhou Technology after graduation? But no one knew that Mr. Pei had a sister who was in college before."

Facing Lin Lu's eyes again, he smiled and explained: "After all, this is the Internet age, and no one's privacy is adequately protected. Mr. Pei is young, promising, and handsome. There are a hundred posts on the Internet about his family information and love stories that can be analyzed one by one. The latter is probably false, but the former is basically undisputed - he probably doesn't have a biological sister."

"Didn't I tell you? My brother and I are not biological siblings." She was overly cautious and only answered the question.

Then he successfully jumped into Duan Chengyu's pit.

"So you two are siblings who met halfway? I heard that he treats you very well, and judging from your reaction, he is very strict with you. It's a bit strange for a 30-year-old to recognize a 20-year-old sister and think so highly of her. What do you think?"

Lin Lushen looked at him with a wary look in his eyes, but his tone was calm: "What do you want to say?"

"Don't be nervous--" Duan Chengyu leaned back as if in surrender, moving his body away from her to leave a safe distance between them.

This way, the silk shirt is pulled tighter, showing the shape of the waist.

"You have strange things, and I have strange things too. That's normal, right? Mainly because the last time your brother came to see me, I felt a little... subtly weird about his words and actions."

Lin Lu's eyelids twitched, and he had a bad feeling.

Duan Chengyu probably came prepared. He had already dissected the "subtle weird feeling" and accurately stated the truth behind it.

"He showed a sense of superiority in front of me, a sense of superiority that he knew you better, and then warned me to stay away from you and not to contact you again. I was still wondering if he was too protective of you as a brother, and then I learned that he had taken you away from Hai City. It seemed that he was avoiding me."

Just like when he was acquiring a company he liked, he patiently and persuadingly dissected the difficulties in the company's operations step by step in order to reduce the other party's resistance.

The last step is to state the truth - "This is weird, isn't it? Your brother is like... preventing a man from getting close to the girl he loves."

Boom. Lin Lu's heart sank.

Her face was tense, as if covered by hot ash before a volcanic eruption, with cracks in the heat.

"You..." She clenched her chopsticks, took a deep breath, and put them down the next second, meeting his gaze directly. "You want to talk about this today, not the dream, right? What do you want to do?"

"I just want an answer and decide what I'm going to do next."

"doing what?"

Duan Chengyu rang the bell and asked the waiter to bring up the things he had prepared.

While waiting, he said, "I think there should be no secrets between us. Only when the secrets are revealed and cleared can you trust me wholeheartedly and communicate with me openly."

She snorted from her nose and said in an ambiguous way, "You are not getting my full trust."

"Then I'll try harder. First of all, you can treat me as a teammate who can help you."

The waiter brought a bunch of light purple bellflowers. Duan Chengyu stood up and placed the flowers in front of her. The feeling of persuasion became even stronger.

"I guess you can't quite accept your brother's feelings, so do you have to accept me first? I can be there at any time to help you get out of this relationship that you're avoiding."

(End of this chapter)