Resemblance

"Is that what I meant?"

Lin Yu defended himself.

"Then what was that look in your eyes just now?"

Tao Yaoyao pressed on relentlessly.

"I..."

Lin Yu suddenly couldn't be bothered to explain to her.

Anyway, the goal of making that opportunistic jerk uncomfortable had already been achieved.

As for the process, it wasn't really that important.

"Alright then, well, thanks for helping me vent my anger."

Lin Yu shrugged, offering a rather perfunctory thanks.

"Buy me a meal."

Tao Yaoyao suddenly made her request.

Lin Yu nodded, not refusing. After being helped by her so many times, he should have treated her to a meal long ago.

"Let's go, I'll treat you to a feast!"

Lin Yu waved his hand grandly and headed downstairs first...

...

In the fast-food restaurant, Lin Yu and Tao Yaoyao sat across from each other at a clean little table.

Tao Yaoyao, sitting opposite, looked somewhat resigned but didn't say much.

Lin Yu shook the chopsticks in his hand rather smugly and said to Tao Yaoyao:

"You must be tired of all those delicacies, coming here for a change of taste. Believe me, it'll amaze your taste buds."

Tao Yaoyao looked speechlessly at Lin Yu's expectant face, seeming to sigh invisibly. She said plainly:

"I'll have a cup of unsweetened pumpkin juice, and a serving of the special braised beef rice, not spicy."

"Add a serving of thick-cut fries."

Tao Yaoyao stared straight at Lin Yu, fluently listing the food she wanted.

"Ok..."

Lin Yu lowered his head to place the order, but the next second, he looked up again.

How did Tao Yaoyao know what this place had?

She hadn't even looked at the menu!

Realizing Tao Yaoyao might be a regular here, Lin Yu felt somewhat awkward. He asked with an embarrassed smile:

"Do you come here to eat often?"

Tao Yaoyao nodded.

"Uh..."

Lin Yu scratched his cheek awkwardly. He hadn't expected his carefully chosen spot to be her regular eating place.

But he quickly managed to console himself.

Since we're already here, we'll just eat here.

While waiting for the food, Lin Yu took out his phone, planning to kill the boring time by scrolling through some mindless short videos.

"Lin Yu."

Tao Yaoyao's soft voice came from across the small table.

Lin Yu looked up, puzzled, unsure what she wanted.

"You said before that I reminded you of someone."

"Named Tang Manman?"

Lin Yu nodded, unable to figure out why she was suddenly bringing this up.

"Was she important to you?"

Tao Yaoyao asked suddenly.

Lin Yu frowned. Mentioning the name Tang Manman always made his mood uncontrollably sour.

But that wasn't the immediate issue. Lin Yu looked at Tao Yaoyao with confusion and asked in return:

"Why do you ask?"

This question seemed to stump Tao Yaoyao. Her delicate willow-leaf eyebrows furrowed slightly. After thinking, she said slowly:

"Because when you mention her..."

"You seem different."

"Just like right now."

Tao Yaoyao looked at Lin Yu with soft eyes, saying word by word:

"Whenever she's mentioned, you become a bit downcast..."

"..."

"And sad."

Lin Yu's frown deepened.

A wave of inexplicable irritation rose in his heart.

He opened his mouth but said nothing.

He lowered his head, his fingers swiping across the phone screen, scrolling through boring short videos, finally spitting out three words impatiently.

"Sort of."

Sometimes, Lin Yu didn't understand what was wrong with himself, always feeling as if his own body was working against him.

Clearly, saying "not important" could have cleanly cut off this unpleasant topic.

But those three words just wouldn't come out.

Like a sticky rice cake stuck in his throat, impossible to spit out, having no choice but to swallow it back down properly.

"How did you meet her?"

"Tell me your story."

Tao Yaoyao suddenly grew interested, asking with a gossipy look that didn't suit her quiet image at all.

"I'm mute."

Lin Yu didn't even lift his head.

Tao Yaoyao reached her hand across the small table, grabbed Lin Yu's forearm and gave it a little push, saying in a soft, coquettish tone:

"Don't be so stingy~"

"Just tell me about it."

"I definitely won't tell anyone else~"

Lin Yu was somewhat shocked looking at Tao Yaoyao's slender, fair, and clean little hand.

For a piece of gossip that seemed quite informative, Tao Yaoyao was actually acting cute.

Is gossip really that tempting for you?

...

...

Recalling his own inability to walk away whenever he encountered a street argument, Lin Yu felt he wasn't in a position to mock Tao Yaoyao.

However, Lin Yu still had no intention of talking and continued to keep his mouth shut, pretending to be mute.

But soon, Lin Yu couldn't keep up the act.

Tao Yaoyao seemed to think being separated by a table wasn't conducive to her efforts.

She stood up, eager to move and sit next to Lin Yu to continue pestering him for the story.

Lin Yu quickly called for a stop.

"You'd better sit down. I'll talk, I'll talk, alright?"

Having achieved her goal, Tao Yaoyao happily sat back down. Her exquisite peach-blossom eyes sparkled as she looked at Lin Yu, waiting to hear the gossip about him and that girl named Tang Manman.

Lin Yu rubbed his temples with a headache, trying to gloss over things.

"It's nothing much. I helped her with some things, and then she helped me too."

"That's all."

After saying this, Lin Yu looked at Tao Yaoyao, and Tao Yaoyao looked at Lin Yu.

They looked at each other like this for a while.

The next second, Tao Yaoyao pushed against the table with both hands as if to scoot over.

"I'll talk, I'll talk."

Seeing he couldn't gloss over it, Lin Yu could only briefly outline the events.

"It's nothing much. Back in high school, we were at the same school. I saw her being bullied, so I stepped in to help her."

"But that little bit of help didn't get her out of trouble. Later, seeing her constantly being bullied, I told people at school not to bully her anymore, that I'd look out for her from then on."

"Then once, I got into a fight and got hurt. You could say she helped me a lot then, saved me."

"And later..."

"..."

What happened later, Lin Yu didn't want to talk about.

That memory was like a wound forming a scab. Lin Yu didn't want to disturb it.

"And later we became friends."

Lin Yu spread his hands, treating it as the concluding period of the story.

A few simple sentences, as sparse as a synopsis before a story.

But Tao Yaoyao was enthralled, continuously asking Lin Yu for more details.

Lin Yu picked out some inconsequential parts of the story to tell her.

After chatting for a good while, Tao Yaoyao looked at Lin Yu and asked:

"Did you two break up?"

From Lin Yu's demeanor when mentioning Tang Manman, Tao Yaoyao could tell they definitely weren't together now, so she asked if they had ever been together before.

Lin Yu shook his head, saying without the slightest hesitation:

"No, we were just friends."

Hearing this, Tao Yaoyao's eyelids lowered halfway. Her clear, bright eyes gradually dimmed, as if her whole person had sunk into a vast ocean of memories.

After a long moment.

She lifted her face, the corners of her lips curving up, revealing a smile from the heart, saying sincerely:

"She was very lucky."

"To have met you."

Lin Yu didn't know what to say either. With a bitter laugh hidden in his heart, he forced a faint smile onto his face and said softly,

"Hopefully."

"Ding."

His phone chimed with a food pickup notification. Not wanting to continue this topic, Lin Yu immediately got up to get the order from the counter.

Tao Yaoyao sat on the fast-food restaurant sofa, her gaze following Lin Yu's retreating figure.

Only when he turned a corner and moved out of sight did she finally look away.

Lowering her head, Tao Yaoyao raised her hand and slowly turned it over before her eyes.

Looking at this hand, maintained so well that it bore no wrinkles except at the knuckles, the light in her eyes dimmed slightly for a moment.

Now she understood why Lin Yu thought she resembled that person named Tang Manman.

But soon, the corner of her lips curled up, finding it amusing.

Who would have thought this guy was actually quite observant.