Chapter 143: Not Wanting to Be the Same

Chu Muyun refused without a second thought, "I don't think Miss Mi is heading our way. How about..."
"You haven't even asked where Mumu is going, yet you're already claiming it's not on the way."
With that, Bai Chenxi directly opened the car door and said to Mi Mu, "Mumu, don't listen to his nonsense. Get in the car first."
"That wouldn't be appropriate, would it?" Mi Mu looked hesitatingly at Chu Muyun.
Seeing that Bai Chenxi genuinely seemed angry, Chu Muyun said to Mi Mu, "Get in. I'll drive you."
As soon as the words left his mouth, Chu Muyun felt as though Bai Chenxi became even angrier.
Throughout the entire ride, Bai Chenxi remained silent. Mi Mu, on the other hand, tried to make conversation with Chu Muyun from time to time.
Only to be shut down by Chu Muyun with a curt, "Drivers should not be distracted."
It was true that Chu Muyun wasn't heading her way. He had to take a massive detour just to drop Mi Mu off.
Noticing that it was just the two of them left in the car, Chu Muyun finally broke the silence, "Where did you go to have fun today?"
"Didn't Mumu just mention it earlier?"
Judging by the tone of Bai Chenxi's voice, Chu Muyun figured she was still upset.
"Are you angry because I didn't want to give her a ride?" Chu Muyun still wanted to clear things up.
Suddenly, Bai Chenxi asked, "How did you know I was there?"
"Your friend posted on Weibo that you were watching a movie."
Bai Chenxi didn't give Chu Muyun's words a second thought. Her focus was entirely on the fact that Chu Muyun had actually checked Mi Mu's Weibo.
A man who barely ever looked at Weibo had gone out of his way to check Mi Mu's profile—this realization made Bai Chenxi even angrier.
What if Mi Mu wasn't the only one experiencing unrequited love? For all she knew, the two of them might actually like each other!
Bai Chenxi glanced at Chu Muyun and said irritably, "I have nothing more to say."
With that, she closed her eyes and pretended to sleep. Instinct told Chu Muyun that it was best not to provoke her any further at the moment, so he kept his mouth shut.
"We're here!" Hearing Chu Muyun's voice, Bai Chenxi immediately snapped her eyes open, her gaze crystal clear, showing no trace of someone who had just woken up.
As soon as her eyes opened, she pushed the car door open and stepped out without saying a single word.
Chu Muyun followed closely behind her the entire way, but right up until they reached her doorstep, he didn't get a single chance to speak to her.
Noticing Chu Muyun standing outside her door with a hesitation on his lips, Bai Chenxi asked, "What is it?"
Chu Muyun raised his head and looked at Bai Chenxi with an expression of profound grievance, "I haven't had dinner yet!"
Normally, this trick worked like a charm. Today, however, Bai Chenxi merely glanced at him and said coldly, "I'm tired. Find something to eat yourself!"
All he ever thought about was eating, eating, eating. Did he really take her for his personal babysitter?
Watching the door slam shut with a loud bang, Chu Muyun rubbed his nose and turned to head across the hall.
Leaning against the back of the door, Bai Chenxi muttered to herself, Why on earth was I so angry today?
If the two of them might actually like each other, shouldn't that be a joyful thing?
Why was I getting mad? Could it be...
Bai Chenxi tapped herself on the forehead. "Bai Chenxi, what on earth are you thinking? How could you possibly have feelings for Chu Muyun? Impossible."
She got up and walked toward the bathroom. Take a shower, get some sleep, and everything would pass.
Pointing at her reflection in the mirror, Bai Chenxi told herself, "Bai Chenxi, he is the man Mumu likes. You must not let your imagination run wild, you hear me?"
Indeed, there was nothing that a good night's sleep couldn't fix. When Bai Chenxi was roused by a knock on her door the next morning, still half-asleep, she had completely forgotten all the inner turmoil of the previous night.
"You're here. Have a seat, I'll go make breakfast."
With that, Bai Chenxi headed straight for the kitchen. The fact that Chu Muyun was able to enter smoothly today already made him quite happy.
Yet he couldn't shake the feeling that something was different, or perhaps that everything had changed.
For instance, whenever he used to come over in the past, she would wash up first; today, she went straight to the kitchen.
Teasingly, Chu Muyun asked, "Did you decide to throw your pride out the window today?"
Bai Chenxi paused for a moment before replying, "Pride? What's that?"
Normally, after finishing breakfast, she would happily introduce whatever she had prepared.
Today, however, she simply placed the breakfast on the table, dropped a brief "Eat," and kept her head down as she ate her own meal.
Or take breakfast conversations, for example. Usually, she would chat with him about interesting recent events.
Today, she remained entirely silent, and once she finished eating, she even told him, "Remember to wash the dishes when you're done."
Catching Chu Muyun looking up at her in surprise, Bai Chenxi added, "You're eating food I cooked, and you're not even willing to wash the dishes?"
Chu Muyun hastily replied, "No, I'll wash them!"
Hearing his response, Bai Chenxi turned and walked back to her bedroom.
Bai Chenxi was acting extremely strange today. Of course, none of that was the most important thing. The real shock was that Bai Chenxi had stopped calling him "Brother Chu."
Throughout the entire morning, it had been:
"Chu Muyun, what do you want to eat?"
"Chu Muyun, sit down and wait for a moment."
"Chu Muyun, help me grab a bowl."
It would be one thing if she just had a slightly poor attitude toward him, but to go as far as changing how she addressed him—that meant something major was going on.
Could she still be this furiously angry over yesterday's incident? Chu Muyun simply couldn't fathom it.
Back in her room, Bai Chenxi was giving herself a pep talk: *Bai Chenxi, you did great!*
You have to keep your distance from the man your friend likes. Still, she couldn't bear to watch Chu Muyun go hungry, so cooking for him was the least she could do.
If the two of them ended up together in the future, she wouldn't even need to cook for him anymore.
Yet she didn't feel particularly happy about it either. Could it be that she had some kind of masochistic streak?
When she saw Chu Muyun today, the words "Brother Chu" had almost slipped right out of her mouth.
Then she remembered the way Mi Mu had called him "Brother Chu" yesterday, and she simply couldn't bring herself to say it. The words transformed into "Chu Muyun" right on the tip of her tongue.
[Side Scene]
How did Chu Muyun find out which movie theater Bai Chenxi was at?
He owed it all to Zhang Kai.
Chu Muyun had sent Bai Chenxi a WeChat message offering to pick her up, only to be rejected.
Lifting his gaze to Zhang Kai, Chu Muyun asked, "So, where is she?"
Didn't he claim to know? Merely knowing she was at a movie theater didn't count as knowing her location.
"Don't look at me with that skeptical expression. I actually do know where she is."
Chu Muyun looked at him, gesturing for him to continue. Zhang Kai pulled out his phone, flipped to Mi Mu's Weibo feed, and shoved it in front of Chu Muyun. "Look at this picture. Notice anything?"
Chu Muyun asked, "What?"
All he saw was Bai Chenxi, who looked quite adorable in the photo.
"You really are..." A single look from Chu Muyun forced Zhang Kai to swallow the rest of his sentence.
Zhang Kai explained, "The restaurant they were at has a large shopping mall right next to it. Obviously, they got tired of shopping and grabbed a bite nearby."
"Following the principle of proximity, the movie theater they went to afterward should also be in this immediate area. As far as I know, there's a theater just a short distance from here."
After patiently listening to Zhang Kai's elaborate deductions, Chu Muyun simply said, "Address."
"What address? You're not actually going to go there, are you? I was just guessing, they might not even be there."
Zhang Kai stared at Chu Muyun as if he were a lunatic: This guy has truly lost his mind!
Chu Muyun grabbed the address and left immediately, never once considering what he would do if she wasn't actually there.