My Strange Tale Love Strategy Simulator

Zhang Ying turned his head away, not daring to look at Li Ziqing's face. His ears were burning, so he fixed his gaze on the reeds by the river, pretending to be very interested in the few reeds swaying in the wind.

Li Ziqing turned to look at the stream. The water was crystal clear, and the silt at the bottom was bleached white by the sunlight. A few rice seedlings were planted on the shallows, swaying gently in the current. Something moved among the rocks at the bottom of the stream, and her eyes lit up.

She slipped out of Zhang Ying's tightly clenched hand, bent down, took off her shoes, and stepped barefoot into the stream.

The hem of her dress was lifted, and her long, black hair cascaded down her shoulders, the ends brushing the water's surface and creating tiny ripples. She reached into the river, her fingertips groping for a moment before suddenly pulling her hand up.

"look!"

She turned around, holding up something that looked like a small crayfish. The little creature brandished its pincers at her fingertips, and water droplets dripped from her wrist. The smile on her face wasn't a gentle, reserved curve; it was a wide grin, an unreserved satisfaction like a boy's.

"Come here quickly!"

Urged on by Li Ziqing, Zhang Ying quickened his pace to the riverbank, took off his shoes, and stepped into the water. The moment the water reached his ankles, a chill ran up his feet, and the soft mud enveloped his toes, bringing a slight tingling sensation.

He walked up to her and took the little thing from her hand.

This lobster is different from the ones on the market. It's bluish-black all over, with a matte finish on its shell, unlike the colorful patterns of typical sea lobsters.

Its body is round and small, but its pair of pincers are thick and large, disproportionate to its body, and are fiercely clamping down in the air.

"The lobsters in this river look a bit different from those in the sea."

"Of course." Li Ziqing raised his chin slightly, his tone tinged with pride. "This is called a crayfish, and it only lives in the cleanest water sources. Its meat is sweet and tender, without the fishy smell of lobsters. It's very expensive in the market."

After she finished speaking, she bent down and scooped the crayfish out of the river again. As her fair hand left the water, another crayfish appeared on her fingertips. She placed hers and Zhang Ying's side by side, looked at them from left to right, and announced with satisfaction, "Look, mine is bigger than yours."

"That doesn't count." Zhang Ying squatted down, staring intently at the river surface as he began to search carefully. "What I have in my hand is just what you caught. If we're going to compare, it has to be what I caught myself."

He was intently observing the crevices in the riverbed when a sharp pain suddenly shot through his toe. He gasped and jerked his foot up!

A huge crayfish was clamping its large pincers tightly onto his toes, dangling in mid-air and swinging back and forth, as if it would rather die than let go!

"Look—" Zhang Ying gritted his teeth, enduring the pain as he pulled the crayfish off his toe, held it up in front of Li Ziqing, and forced a smile. "My foot caught one that's even bigger than yours."

Li Ziqing paused for a second, then burst out laughing, laughing so hard she almost fell over. She wiped away the tears of laughter from the corners of her eyes and said breathlessly, "Your toes are really something! I've never seen such a big crayfish before."

The laughter gradually subsided. She took a deep breath, squatted down, and put her hand into the river water, gently and slowly opening her fingers. The crayfish in her fingertip paused for a moment, then suddenly burrowed into the mud, leaving only a small trail of murky water before quickly disappearing into the depths of the crevices in the rocks.

"Now that you've caught it," Zhang Ying said, standing in the water and looking at her wrists soaked by the river, "why did you let it go?"

Li Ziqing looked at the river. The water flowed past her ankles, and sunlight cast shimmering spots of light on the water's surface. She said, "If its family finds it missing, they will be very sad."

Zhang Ying looked at the two crayfish in his hand. The big one that had pinched his toe was still angrily swinging its pincers. He squatted down and put both of them into the river. The larger one circled around after falling into the water, seemingly wanting to come back for revenge. Zhang Ying backed away, splashing water all over his legs, and finally kicked and chased it back to the deeper water.

Standing in the middle of the river, Li Ziqing looked at his disheveled state and laughed again: "And why did you release them then?"

Zhang Ying, relieved that the crayfish showed no sign of returning, straightened up. "Because perhaps these two crayfish are the family of the one you released."

Li Ziqing's laughter stopped.

She stood on the river, her skirt half-wet and clinging to her calves, her hands clasped behind her back, clutching her white dress. A straw hat obscured her eyes, making her expression impossible to see.

A moment later, a suppressed sob came from under the straw hat. She raised her head, her lips curving upwards with great effort, but large tears rolled down her cheeks beneath that curve.

"Thank you."

Zhang Ying looked at her. Sunlight filtered through the gaps in her straw hat, illuminating her wet face and making each teardrop seem to glow. His heart skipped a beat, and a flush rose to his cheeks.

The surrounding light seemed to slow down at that moment; the wind stopped blowing, and the river stopped flowing.

Then he blinked.

The surrounding scenery changed again.

Night fell over the sky. In the distance, skyscrapers lit up with neon lights, red, blue, and white lights climbing up and down the glass curtain walls, turning half of the skyline into a cool-toned palette.

The streetlights cast circles of dim yellow light on the empty streets.

Zhang Ying stood in the crowded throng. He didn't know when he had gotten there. People were everywhere, shoulder to shoulder, their breaths mingling. He could hear everyone talking, but he couldn't piece together a complete meaning.

The words flowed past his ears like water, leaving only a sense of excitement hidden in their tone, as if everyone was rushing to the same place to see the same person.

The crowd began to push forward. He was swept along, trying to stop and see what was around him, but he was squeezed so tightly that his toes almost left the ground.

He turned to look at the faces of the people around him, but every one was blurry, their features indistinguishable in the neon light. He tried to squeeze to the side of the road, but was bounced back as soon as his shoulder moved aside; the wall of people was so dense that it was impenetrable.

The noise grew louder and louder, until it boiled into a pot of porridge.

In this chaotic situation, Zhang Ying only wanted to find one person.

"Li Ziqing—" he shouted loudly in the crowd.

His voice was swallowed by the clamor of the crowd; he could barely hear himself. He took a deep breath, strained his way through the crowd, propped himself up with his elbows, and shifted his foot half an inch to the side. "Li Ziqing!"

Right front.

A faint, almost imperceptible sound, like a needle falling into an iron pot, was picked out by him from the boiling noise.

"I'm here……"

Zhang Ying turned his head sharply. The crowded people around him faded to gray-white in his eyes. In that gray-white expanse, between two shoulders, he saw a fair hand reaching towards him. The fingers were spread wide, the wrist trembling slightly, groping in the air.

Without hesitation, he lifted his foot, lowered his shoulders, and used all his strength to push aside the wall of people in front of him and move toward the hand.

The distance between him and that hand was gradually decreasing, from three arm spans to two arm spans, from two arm spans to almost touching his fingertips. He gritted his teeth, lunged forward, grabbed the hand, and pulled it back.

Li Ziqing, wearing a white down jacket, was pulled out of the crowd.

She stumbled and fell into his arms. Her fluffy down jacket was crumpled and wrinkled, and static electricity clung to her hair, with a few stray strands sticking to his coat zipper.

Her hands gripped Zhang Ying's sleeve tightly, her fingertips icy cold.

Zhang Ying pressed one hand against her back, and could feel her trembling through her down jacket. The surrounding noise was still there, but what he could hear most clearly now was the warmth of her breath against his collarbone.

"I've found you," he said.