Yang Zhiming’s release from prison would not stop any of Lu Que’s plans. What was bound to come would always come, and those seeking revenge would surely try every possible means to launch a sneak attack.
Therefore, on the second weekend without overtime, Lu Que took Shi Yunmu out to play as promised.
To be honest, after a whole month, this was the first time Shi Yunmu had gone out to play in the truest sense.
The slime was clearly bursting with excitement, getting up in the morning even earlier than Lu Que: “Let’s go, let’s go! Out to play!”
Lu Que, who had been forcibly woken up by the slime knocking on his door: “…Um, alright.”
After tidying themselves up, the human and the magic creature headed out together.
When it came to his outing outfit, Shi Yunmu had his own insights: although it was almost October, the scorching heat of C City had not faded. Thus, he opted for a cooler look. The young man wore a short-sleeved hoodie with a patchwork of light blue and white, paired with khaki shorts and a dark blue single-shoulder crossbody bag. A youthful vibe radiated from him.
Two or three plush doll charms hung from the crossbody bag, softening his handsome, clean-cut look with a touch of cuteness.
He was clearly a slime with a strong sense of self having completely mastered human aesthetics and integrated them thoroughly, adding his own little clever touches.
Compared to the aesthetically sound slime, Lu Que certainly wasn’t the type who knew how to coordinate clothes. But his saving grace was his good-looking face, coupled with his rare, highly tied-up long hair. Standing next to Shi Yunmu, he didn’t look out of place at all.
Because C City was crowded on weekends and driving was inconvenient, the human and the magic creature still chose public transportation. Standing inside the subway station, their excessively pleasing and outstanding appearances generated a high rate of turned heads.
It was just that one was accustomed to admiring gazes, while the other took pride in the thought of “That’s right, all humans should look at me this way.” The human and the magic creature were incredibly calm about this spectacular scene during their commute.
The only one suffering was little Wei, who was acting as a charm on the crossbody bag. The weekend crowd made the subway a disaster zone. Although Shi Yunmu was like a stabilizing anchor, unaffected by the squeezing of other passengers, this didn’t prevent little Wei from being jostled back and forth by everyone else.
Tumbling around amidst various scents, little Wei: “…”
If it had known earlier, it wouldn’t have come out to stretch its legs.
“Where are we having our big meal?”
In the crowded throng, Shi Yunmu stood on his tiptoes and leaned closer to Lu Que, asking in a low voice.
His expression was serious and solemn, his emerald-green eyes fixed intently on Lu Que, his pale lips pressed into a line. It was as if they weren’t going out for a grand meal, but were instead heading out to execute some sort of mission.
Or perhaps he was simply worried that Lu Que would trick him again just like with last week’s late-night snack.
Amidst the crowd, it was inevitable that the two of them stood a bit close. The young man unconsciously leaned in toward Lu Que. His gentle breath brushed past Lu Que’s earlobe, causing a wave of itchiness.
His dark eyelashes trembled slightly. The man subconsciously tilted his head, wanting to use this method to avoid Shi Yunmu’s breath. However, when he opened his mouth to answer, his voice carried a hint of roughness and low hoarseness: “…Ru Shi Temple.”
Shi Yunmu blinked, completely failing to notice Lu Que’s eccentricity. He gave a compliant “Oh” and asked again, “Where is Ru Shi Temple?”
Ru Shi Temple was, naturally, located at Ru Shi Temple. In fact, an entire street had been named Ru Shi Street.
In recent years, C City’s cultural tourism had developed vigorously, and they hadn’t left out the Ru Shi Temple district. Aside from Ru Shi Temple itself being preserved, the other areas had been entirely renovated with white walls and grey tiles, and panda and bamboo elements were indispensable everywhere. Teahouses sprouted up like bamboo shoots after rain along this street district, and people basking in the sun also popped up like bamboo shoots. Bamboo chairs moved outside were scattered everywhere, along with the clacking sounds of mahjong tiles.
Lu Que had booked a Michelin Chinese restaurant. Following the waiter inside, one could see a massive ginkgo tree. It wasn’t late autumn yet, so the ginkgo leaves were only slightly yellowing at the edges.
The restaurant was very quiet, with only the crisp clinking of bowls and chopsticks, making the talkative Shi Yunmu feel a bit unaccustomed.
The waiter served the dishes with a smile and introduced them. Shi Yunmu pretended to understand, nodding solemnly repeatedly, and took photos to send to Xu Yi.
Xu Yi replied very quickly: Is it delicious? Which restaurant?
Without waiting for Shi Yunmu to reply, he speculated on his own: Is it the one at Ru Shi Temple?
Shi Yunmu was surprised: How did you know?
Xu Yi sent a shy cat emoji: I’ve heard of it.
Shi Yunmu understood. Right, his friend had reincarnated into a wealthy family’s young master, unlike him, who was truer than the real thing yet seemed fake.
Xu Yi: So is it delicious?
Holding his phone, Shi Yunmu glanced at Lu Que.
The man didn’t mind Shi Yunmu tapping away on his phone. Lowering his eyelashes, he scooped up a spoonful of bird’s nest. The dim yellow light poured down from overhead, catching his eyelashes and casting a faint shadow on his skin.
Lu Que always ate with a slow, methodical sense of elegance, forming a stark contrast with some of his teammates who loved to shovel down food furiously.
Shi Yunmu hadn’t picked up his chopsticks yet. Watching Lu Que eat spoonful by spoonful, he replied to Xu Yi uncertainly: It should be delicious?
Xu Yi: …What on earth do you mean by “should be delicious”?
But he still sent back helplessly: Remember to tell me if it’s good, I’ll have my brother take me there.
Shi Yunmu: [OK.jpg]
He put down his phone and finally picked up his chopsticks, ready to taste.
Michelin restaurants served small portions and the food came out relatively slowly. It took Shi Yunmu and Lu Que over two hours of lingering to finish this meal.
Walking out of the front door of the Chinese restaurant, Shi Yunmu looked around the Ru Shi Temple district. Feeling a bit interested, he turned his head to look at Lu Que, who was a step behind him: “Hubby, let’s go wander around!”
Lu Que naturally went along with him, nodding: “Alright.”
On the weekend, the ancient town district was also packed shoulder to shoulder with a surging crowd, but there were also many more interesting activities heating up the venue.
Shi Yunmu had only scrolled past these activities on short video apps before; this was his first time seeing them offline.
After walking down just one street, Shi Yunmu already had sugar painting in his left hand and a clay figurine in his right, and a plush panda charm had been added to his crossbody bag.
Little Wei, whose living space had been further encroached upon once again: “.”
Giving up, let everything be destroyed.
But how could buying just this much be enough? Shi Yunmu set his sights on an ice cream shop with a line forming.
That ice cream shop was located inside a courtyard dwelling. After twisting and turning your way inside, there were quite a few people taking photos.
Stopping at the entrance of the courtyard, Lu Que glanced at Shi Yunmu, whose expression clearly showed disdain for the large crowd: “I’ll go get the ice cream for you.”
With someone offering to help, why not? Shi Yunmu nodded hurriedly, blinking his eyes: “Thank you for your hard work, hubby~”
Lu Que walked in expressionlessly.
Shi Yunmu stood to the side, nibbling on his sugar painting with a rustling sound. Before long, half of the sugar painting had been wiped out.
He snapped off a horse leg for little Wei to eat. Little Wei digested it at lightning speed, swallowing it down without a single bit left.
When Shi Yunmu raised his head again, he sensed a gaze that was far too obvious. Perplexed, he looked toward where the gaze was coming from, and it turned out to be a little boy with a large, round face.
His mother was focusing intently on her phone, giggling while scrolling through videos. The little boy’s two small eyes were fixed on the half-eaten sugar painting in Shi Yunmu’s hand, before slowly moving up to Shi Yunmu’s face.
Thinking the boy was interested in his face, Shi Yunmu averted his gaze and stopped looking at him. Who would have thought the little boy would sniffle, suddenly tug at his mother’s sleeve, and say word for word: “Mom, this brother is so big but he’s still playing with these things, it’s so weird.”
His mother didn’t hear clearly, giving an offhand “uh-huh” as an answer to her son.
Shi Yunmu: “?”
The young man had originally been smiling with slightly curved lips, but upon hearing these words, his smile vanished entirely. Set against his translucent green eyes, the young man’s cold face appeared even more eerie.
He looked down at the somewhat stunned little chubby kid, his gaze as cold as a venomous snake staring at its prey, his voice deliberately lowered: “What does it have to do with you?”
“Waaah——!!”
Frightened by Shi Yunmu, the little boy froze for a second before bursting into tears, his crying loud enough to shake the sky.
His mother finally put down her phone in a panic to check on her son’s condition: “What’s wrong? Chubby? What happened?”
By the time Lu Que came out holding the ice cream he had finally queued up to buy, this was the chaotic scene he witnessed.
He glanced at the little boy, who was still sobbing, his eyes not daring to look toward Shi Yunmu at all.
Lu Que turned his face to look at Shi Yunmu: “What happened?”
Holding the clean-eaten stick of the sugar painting, Shi Yunmu threw it into the trash can at random, smiling brightly: “Nothing, hubby!”
Realizing the truth, Lu Que glanced back at the little boy, then looked at Shi Yunmu who was smiling exceptionally happily, and sighed: “Let’s go.”
He had no intention of digging deeper into why the little boy was crying.
The man handed the ice cream into Shi Yunmu’s hand: “Let’s go look somewhere else.”
Shi Yunmu peeked at him. Seeing Lu Que’s expression remain unchanged, he felt relieved: “Okay, hubby!”
Lu Que walked forward. Noticing that Shi Yunmu hadn’t kept up, he looked back and saw that Shi Yunmu had intentionally glanced at the little boy again. After scaring the kid into crying once more, the young man ran over triumphantly while biting his ice cream.
Childish. Strands of helplessness filled Lu Que, and the only word left in his mind was this.
But at least it was better than a bratty kid.
After wandering around the commercial street for a while longer, a floating unicorn balloon was tied around Shi Yunmu’s wrist, and a little fox animal hat was placed on his head… a very standard image of a tourist waiting to be ripped off.
He and Lu Que began to find it difficult to move an inch in the commercial street: with Shi Yunmu’s current look, it would be strange if he wasn’t targeted by promoters. He was practically a clueless, innocent rabbit.
After rejecting the sixth person who came to hand out travel flyers, Lu Que said helplessly: “Let’s go, let’s go sit in the mall for a bit.”
Shi Yunmu pulled at the balloon in his hand and silently expressed his agreement.