Chapter 38: Straight Man Chat

Chapter 38: Chapter 38: Straight Man Chat

Zhang Yun was so excited that he felt his mind overflowing with inspiration!

Unlike the night he received her thanks, this was the beginning of their official private chat. He needed to perform well and leave a good impression.

"The night is long, and I have no desire for sleep. Are you still awake too?"

After typing this out, Zhang Yun felt it was a bit too exaggerated. Xiuxun might think it sounded fake. After some consideration, he deleted the words one by one and typed a more grounded message: "Yeah. The eggplant you made was so delicious. I ate too much and can’t really fall asleep."

He reviewed it after typing and still felt it was off. Dropping a line like that out of nowhere might make her think he disliked the food. He figured he could save the topic for later.

Zhang Yun deleted it again. He wondered if he should just type, "Thinking about you, can’t sleep." Of course, that was just a fleeting thought. It would be inappropriate to flirt so obviously. In the end, he simply replied, "Not yet. Are you still awake too?"

Once the message was sent, Zhang Yun felt he was being a bit too cowardly. They were just chatting. It wasn’t like he was courting her or anything, so why was he stressing over it so much?

After sending it, he checked his phone every few seconds. When no reply came after a while, he couldn’t help but mutter to himself, "Is Xiuxun agonizing over this too? Does she not know what to say and is editing her reply word by word?"

He waited a bit longer. Bored out of his mind, Zhang Yun scrolled through his Friends Circle, read an Official Account, and constantly switched back to their chat.

Ten minutes passed. Zhang Yun had absolutely no recollection of what he had just read. He only felt that an eternity had gone by without a reply from Xiuxun. Looking closer, he realized her message had been sent over half an hour ago—before he had even entered the Peach Blossom Spring Space. His agonizing over what to say and revising his text had delayed him by at least ten minutes... Waiting for ten minutes felt like an eternity to him, but she had probably waited twenty minutes and just fallen asleep!

Zhang Yun felt a wave of disappointment, but since he wasn’t sleepy anymore, he swiped through his chat list and saw Ouyang Mingruo.

Even though he would never become a live-in son-in-law for her family or act as a hired fake boyfriend, catching the eye of someone like her proved he had some pretty good assets! He had reacted strongly to her face, but secretly, he was rather smug about it. Could just anyone be eye candy? Could just anyone live off a woman? One needed Innate capital for that!

"Are you resting? How did your examination at the Advanced hospital go? Everything should be fine with your body, right? Wishing you a speedy recovery and discharge."

For the sake of the red packet rain from earlier today, Zhang Yun left a message to show his concern. Then he set an alarm. Sleepy or not, he had to go into the mountains early Ming Tian to keep up appearances!

But before he could even lock his screen, Ouyang Mingruo actually replied!

"Not good."

Zhang Yun was slightly startled. Ouyang Mingruo had coughed up blood, after all. Having gone to an Advanced hospital in the big city, she surely would have been told to rest early. For her to still be awake this late, things really must be bad!

"What did the doctor say? Is it serious? Maybe they are just being overly cautious. Once they check everything thoroughly Ming Tian, it will be fine. Don’t scare yourself."

After he sent the three consecutive messages, Ouyang Mingruo only replied with an eye-roll emoji.

"You didn’t even care when my life was in danger, and now you care if it’s serious? Scumbag!"

Zhang Yun replied with a grin, "That’s different. If you ask me to risk my life with you, then I’m in danger too. But just checking in on you doesn’t cost me a dime. It’s just a casual greeting!"

"I call you a scumbag, and you really act like one!" Ouyang Mingruo sent a hitting emoji.

"You’re injured, so don’t get worked up. What’s the real situation? Although ours is just a county-level hospital, the top experts in both Chinese and Western medicine attended to you. Their diagnosis shouldn’t be too far off, right?"

Regardless, she was a beautiful woman and the girl who showered him with red packets. Zhang Yun had even fed her half a Mysterious Petal, so naturally, he didn’t want anything bad to happen to her.

"With whatever weird stuff you fed me, I probably won’t die."

"Cough! What do you mean ’weird stuff’... That’s easily misunderstood."

"Actually... I’m afraid to sleep. I’m afraid someone will come and kill me if I do..."

Ouyang Mingruo’s words made Zhang Yun sigh inwardly. He wondered if real-world wealthy families were even more scheming and treacherous than those on TV.

"Did you not sleep last night either?"

"Nonsense! I didn’t even know what that small place was, and it was where I got hit. Who knew if there were more ambushes waiting? How could I dare to sleep?"

Zhang Yun could only offer some faux comfort. "If you had told me yesterday, I could have slept with you last night."

"In your dreams! [Eye-roll]"

"Haha, I meant I could have stood guard so you could sleep in peace. But there’s nothing I can do now. Separated by thousands of miles, I can only send you spiritual blessings."

"Zhang Yun." Ouyang Mingruo suddenly typing out his name made Zhang Yun’s heart skip a beat. Did she have something serious to say?

"What’s wrong?"

"I’ll pay you to chat with me until dawn. You won’t be in any danger. That shouldn’t be a problem, right?"

"..." Zhang Yun was momentarily speechless. "Miss Mingruo, are you used to solving everything with money?"

"Isn’t that right? As the old saying goes: Problems that can be solved with money aren’t problems at all. If they can’t be solved, it just means you don’t have enough money."

It was exactly because Ouyang Mingruo believed in this philosophy that she had bombarded Zhang Yun with seventy or eighty red packets that afternoon.

Zhang Yun replied, "I can chat with you, even until dawn. But that’s only because you’re scared, and it’s a way I can help you without much effort. It has nothing to do with money."

"So annoying! If you won’t take the money, then I don’t want to chat with you anymore!"

"[Wiping sweat] [Wiping sweat] [Wiping sweat]" Zhang Yun was truly speechless, having no idea what kind of fit she was throwing.

After a while, Ouyang Mingruo really didn’t reply anymore. Zhang Yun didn’t bother talking to himself either. He was just trying to be nice; he wasn’t a simp.

Usually, Zhang Yun would sleep until he woke up naturally. When he set alarms, he would set three: one, then another ten minutes later, and a final one five minutes after that. It was like how one wouldn’t care about a large plate of greens, but would treasure a single leaf of lettuce in a burger or a few dried vegetable flakes in instant noodles. Staying up an hour or half an hour late didn’t matter, but snagging an extra five or ten minutes of sleep after being woken up felt incredibly precious.

When he sat up to clear his head, Zhang Yun saw several messages on his phone.

"Sorry, I fell asleep last night. [Awkward]"

Xiuxun had gotten up very early. This message was sent half an hour ago, so Zhang Yun simply replied with a "Morning [Grin]."

The other two messages were from Ouyang Mingruo. One was sent half an hour after he had gone to sleep: "Scumbag, why aren’t you saying anything?" The other was sent at three in the morning: "And you said you’d stay with me until dawn for free... Heh, men!"

Zhang Yun didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She was the one who said she didn’t want to chat anymore. Was he supposed to keep forcing conversation out of nothing? Heh, women!

After getting up and freshening up, Zhang Yun grabbed a woven sack and a small hoe, then headed out. He had told his dad last night not to wait for him for breakfast. With the giant fruits and melons in the Peach Blossom Spring Space, he wasn’t afraid of going hungry.

When he met people on the road and they greeted him, Zhang Yun boastfully declared that he was going into the mountains to dig for ginseng. Everyone jokingly wished him luck in finding a massive ginseng root, but no one took him seriously.

Zhang Yun was only putting on an act. He didn’t actually intend to venture deep into the forest to search, so he found a hidden corner between some rock crevices and simply lay down on the ground. He intentionally rubbed his clothes and limbs against the moss, staining himself with mud mixed with dew and crushed grass juice.

This early in the morning, not only was the ground beneath his back cold and damp, but the surrounding air was also bone-chilling. Unable to fall asleep while lying there, Zhang Yun simply entered the Peach Blossom Spring Space, plucked a Mysterious Petal, and ate it! Having consumed so many petals over the past few days, his body’s tolerance had grown significantly. Right now, he felt warm all over, but not to the point of exploding like before. Instead, it drove away the gloomy chill of the rock crevice.

Zhang Yun set his alarm and lay there catching up on sleep. In his drowsy state, he felt the heat subsiding. He didn’t know how much time had passed when a sudden, sharp pain jolted him awake.

Holy crap! A snake had slithered up his pant leg and bitten him on the leg!