This is the downside of old neighborhoods—any little commotion draws a crowd.
Seeing so many people gathering, Aunt Jiang quickly frowned and shooed them away.
“Aunt Jiang, thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. You have to fight fire with fire. When dealing with unreasonable people, you have to be even more unreasonable than they are.”
Shen Zhiyi had never encountered such shameless people before, so this was certainly an eye-opener.
“I’m going back to my square dancing. You two should head home soon.”
Pei Xu remained silent the whole time. After Aunt Jiang left, Shen Zhiyi reached for his hand, but he pulled away.
Looking at her empty hand, Shen Zhiyi froze for a moment.
She hadn’t expected Pei Xu to avoid her.
“Are you angry?”
Shen Zhiyi didn’t understand why Pei Xu was suddenly upset.
“Didn’t I tell you not to argue with others because of me?”
“They were being unreasonable. They wanted you to apologize.”
“Then just apologize. It’s just saying ‘I’m sorry.'”
Shen Zhiyi’s chest heaved slightly.
“What did you do wrong? Why should you apologize to them?”
She couldn’t understand why Pei Xu would rather swallow his pride than confront others.
He wasn’t that kind of person…
“You can apologize even if you didn’t do anything wrong. They just wanted to hear an apology, nothing more, right?”
“I can’t do that. I can’t just stand by and watch them bully you.”
Shen Zhiyi turned her gaze away, refusing to look at Pei Xu.
Even when he reached out to take her hand, she shook him off.
“I can’t see right now. If you get into a conflict with someone, I won’t even be able to protect you.”
“There were two of them earlier. If Aunt Jiang hadn’t heard the noise and come over, would you have charged in and fought them both?”
Men are much stronger. No matter what, she would have been at a disadvantage.
“If they tried to hit me, I’d sue them. I’d make them pay for my medical bills for the rest of their lives…”
Shen Zhiyi wiped her face roughly with the back of her hand.
“Wouldn’t it hurt if you got hit?”
Pei Xu shook his head helplessly.
With her small frame, what would she do if she really got beaten up?
“So next time you encounter a situation like this, do you know what to do?”
Pei Xu guided Shen Zhiyi slowly, as if teaching a child, leading her to say the right answer.
“You make sense. When we get home tonight, I’ll buy two bottles of pepper spray. If something like this happens again, I’ll spray them. And if things really go wrong and I get beaten up, I’ll sue them. I’ll hire the best lawyer in Nancheng…”
Pei Xu:
Everything he just said went in one ear and out the other. Shen Zhiyi hadn’t listened at all.
“Shen Zhiyi, can you please listen carefully to what I just said? Protect yourself first. Only after you’ve protected yourself should you worry about others.”
“Even if I agree with you now, I’ll still do things my way next time. If you just want to hear me say what you want to hear, then I’ll say a few things you like.”
Pei Xu looked at her silently, truly at a loss with Shen Zhiyi.
He reached out to take her hand, but she pulled away again.
“Oh, and you shook off my hand earlier. I’m really angry that you did that.”
Thinking back to the moment Pei Xu pulled his hand away, Shen Zhiyi felt a pang of bitterness in her heart.
“I didn’t shake off your hand, I just didn’t let you hold it.”
“You’re still arguing, still contradicting me… That’s exactly what you did just now.”
After speaking, Shen Zhiyi even imitated Pei Xu’s ‘actions’ from earlier.
“It was my mistake, I apologize to you.”
“I don’t want your apology.”
Hearing the word ‘apology’ made Shen Zhiyi even more uncomfortable.
Wasn’t their argument just now all because of an apology?
“Then how can I make it up to you?”
Pei Xu knew there was no need to reason with a girl—long explanations were less important than making her feel better first.
“You take the initiative to hold my hand. Whenever we go out, you have to take the initiative to hold my hand.”
Pei Xu grasped Shen Zhiyi’s wrist.
“Is this okay?”
“I want to hold hands. How did I hold yours just now?”
Shen Zhiyi wasn’t satisfied with Pei Xu holding her wrist.
“How about this time?”
“Barely acceptable.”
Shen Zhiyi gave a slight nod, allowing Pei Xu to pass this time.
After this incident, he went out even less frequently.
If Shen Zhiyi asked him to go downstairs five times, it was already quite good if he agreed once.
“Are you planning to never go downstairs for the rest of your life?”
Sitting beside Pei Xu, Shen Zhiyi watched him using a screen reader to study AI-related literature and asked a question.
Pei Xu tapped the screen twice, pausing the screen reader’s voice.
“I’ve been busy with important matters lately, so I haven’t gone downstairs much. It’s not because of you.”
Although Pei Xu said this, Shen Zhiyi knew he was just worried she might argue with someone again.
But she wasn’t the type to pick fights either—how could she argue with people every day?
“Come downstairs for a walk with me. I won’t argue with anyone again.”
Pei Xu didn’t speak or nod in agreement.
Judging by his expression, it was clear he was thinking, ‘How can I trust you?’
“I have a mouth ulcer recently, so I can’t even open my mouth to curse. Are you reassured now?”
Shen Zhiyi took a breath, picked up the watermelon frost spray on the table, and squeezed a little onto the ulcer.
But the nozzle of the bottle wasn’t easy to control, and she squeezed out too much powder. Shen Zhiyi’s expression immediately changed.
The taste of this watermelon frost was truly awful.
If it weren’t for the unbearable pain of the mouth ulcer, she would never have bought this medicine.
“Is that so? I haven’t seen you say any less lately.”
Pei Xu caught a faint whiff of herbal medicine in the air, picked up a cup, and poured her some water.
“I was just worried you might not be used to it.”
Shen Zhiyi glared fiercely at Pei Xu. He was just taking her kindness for granted.
“Then wait until your mouth ulcer heals before talking to me. A few days won’t make a difference.”
Shen Zhiyi took the cup from Pei Xu’s hand, took a sip of water to dilute the medicine taste in her mouth.
“Then, do you want to go for a walk with me later?”
Shen Zhiyi typed this sentence on her phone and used text-to-speech to play it for Pei Xu.
“Alright.”
“You sound so reluctant. If it’s really too much trouble, forget it. No need to force yourself to agree for my sake. I’m used to being rejected by you anyway.”
Shen Zhiyi covered the side of her face with the mouth ulcer, her tone carrying a hint of smugness.
“Is that so? Since you’re so considerate, then I won’t—”
“No! You just agreed to it, and now you’re backing out.”
Shen Zhiyi lunged toward Pei Xu. Caught off guard, he was pushed down onto the sofa.
He had no idea when the phone he was holding had fallen to the floor, his hands now protectively resting on Shen Zhiyi’s waist.
“Pei Xu, who’s in charge in this house?”
“You are.”
“Then do you listen to me?”
“Yes.”
“I think you say one thing but do another.”
Shen Zhiyi pinched Pei Xu’s cheek and whispered fiercely into his ear.