OS - 47

There wasn’t much luggage brought to the new house by car. Cheng Guoan hired a cleaning lady, but the old lady couldn’t sit still and helped clean up inside and out.

Cheng Yuzhou went upstairs to rest and coincidentally saw Cheng Yanqing secretly booking a flight for his vacation.

He was planning to go to Beijing.

“Cheng Wanyue thinks I’m going to Nanjing with you. Don’t let it slip. It’s just for a week. Just make up a few excuses to fool her for me.”

Cheng Yuzhou looked at him, half-smiling, “Are you too shameful to be seen, or is she?”

They were both equally bad, but Cheng Yanqing didn’t care about the verbal attack, “As if you haven’t done anything secretly yourself.”

Cheng Yuzhou proved with facts that they were different, “Who in the family doesn’t know that I like Zhou Yu? As for you and your girlfriend, besides me, does anyone else know?”

“You really know how to annoy people!” Cheng Yanqing took two steps from the balcony into the room, snatched Cheng Yuzhou’s phone, and chuckled when he saw the call rejected by the system, “Oh, Zhou Yu’s not answering your call.”

He couldn’t annoy Cheng Yuzhou.

Zhou Yu didn’t have a habit of carrying her phone, so it always took a long time for her to answer calls or reply to texts. Even when they didn’t meet before, they would contact each other every day.

“She’s busy with something else. She’ll call me back when she sees it.”

Zhou Yu replied with a text much later.

She said her phone was broken and couldn’t answer calls, and she would buy a new one in a few days.

Cheng Yanqing knew that Cheng Yuzhou had already bought a new phone to give to Zhou Yu. A phone was nothing to them, but as a gift in a small county town, it seemed a bit too expensive.

“Do you know why Qing Hang and Cheng Wanyue ended up like this?”

Cheng Yuzhou finished replying to the text, lay down on the bed, clasped his hands behind his head, and asked absently, “Why?”

Cheng Yanqing said while playing a game, “Although they used to argue every few days, our Wanyue is good at acting spoiled and sweet-tongued, and they’d make up quickly. Thinking about it, Qing Hang was actually quite easy to coax. But this year, after the New Year and when school just started, they were already in a cold war. Cheng Wanyue wasn’t as proactive in showing goodwill as before, and Qing Hang didn’t give her an out, so they just got more and more stiff, not even speaking when they met at school.”

Qing Hang’s personality was originally like that: silent and reserved, doing more than he said.

After their arguments, although he appeared indifferent to Cheng Wanyue, he would drop his pretense when no outsiders were around. Cheng Wanyue would say a few soft words, and they would reconcile.

However, this time was different.

He didn’t even tell Cheng Wanyue when he left Baicheng.

“The fuse was a very, very small thing,” Cheng Yanqing used a bit of force with his toe against the table leg, and the chair slid to the bedside. He turned to look at Cheng Yuzhou, “Cheng Wanyue used all the New Year’s money she got from our second aunt to buy sneakers.”

The three of them received the same amount of New Year’s money every year: ten thousand yuan each.

“The pair of sneakers she bought wasn’t for you, and of course not for me; she wanted to give them to Qing Hang. Our Wanyue thinks simply, it’s just a pair of sneakers. But for Qing Hang, it’s more than just a pair of sneakers. You know his family situation; it’s clearly laid out there, you can see it all just by opening the front door. When Cheng Wanyue gets angry, she’s stubborn and hot-tempered. And Qing Hang, don’t let him seem like a block of wood; he’s unyielding on matters of principle.”

Cheng Yuzhou knew what Cheng Yanqing meant by saying these things.

Cheng Yanqing stopped there; some things lose their impact when stated too plainly, “Dating in school, our family certainly won’t restrict you. But if you’re thinking of more than just dating, then there’s a lot more to come.”

If compared directly, Zhou Yu’s family burden was heavier than Qing Hang’s.

But Cheng Yuzhou had seen it in the first week he returned last summer. He had just met her, and he saw the heavy burdens weighing on her.

A harsh mother and a grandmother who couldn’t take care of herself—these were her closest relatives. Neither could leave her, like two iron chains piercing her body, the parts embedded in the flesh full of sharp barbs.

In the early morning, Cheng Yuzhou, whom Cheng Yanqing thought had long fallen asleep, suddenly spoke: “I’m going to marry her.”

Cheng Yanqing took off his headphones and exited the game.

“You and second uncle are quite alike in this regard.”

Other than that, they were nothing alike.

Cheng Yuzhou’s facial features resembled his mother more. The contours of his eyebrows were clear, and he had the face of a playboy, yet he possessed none of the malicious habits of a spoiled rich kid.

He was indeed quite unlike his notoriously wild father.

________________________________________

Cheng Yuzhou and Cheng Yanqing went to the airport on the same day, but one returned to Nanjing, the other went to Beijing.

His classmates in Nanjing hadn’t seen Cheng Yuzhou for a long time. Qin Yiming arranged a gathering. Cheng Yuzhou was pulled along immediately after getting off the plane, before even going home.

The private room for twenty people was noisy.

Cheng Yuzhou immediately pulled away from the crowd when he saw Zhou Yu’s call. Qin Yiming chuckled playfully, “Zhouzhou, don’t be so clingy. It’s only been a few days since you separated.”

“Get lost.”

Cheng Yuzhou pushed him away and answered the phone, his tone clearly different from just a moment ago.

The music wasn’t too loud, but it was lively. Zhou Yu heard someone on the other end asking him, “Do you smoke? Want a cigarette?”

Cheng Yuzhou walked out of the private room to a quiet place, “I just arrived this afternoon, meeting up with classmates. Haven’t seen them in a long time.”

Zhou Yu hadn’t eaten much for three or four days. She only made this call after feeling a little better. She lay on her desk, looking out the window. The stars in the night sky seemed very close to her.

“Did you drink?”

“Mm, but not much,” Cheng Yuzhou stood by the window, looking out at the prosperous, dazzling city nightscape, “How’s Grandma these past few days?”

He had sent two kinds of medicine for Grandma, but Zhou Yu hadn’t gone to the express station to pick them up yet.

“She’s fine. She even called me by my nickname yesterday.”

“Are you unhappy?”

After a long time, she spoke, “The bookmark was ruined.”

Cheng Yuzhou said, “It’s okay, I’ll make you another one. It’s really simple.”

The first tear fell on the back of her hand, and then she couldn’t stop them. Zhou Yu was afraid he would hear her and wanted to hang up.

“Your classmates are waiting for you. Go back and play with them.”

“Not playing anymore. I’ll tell Qin Yiming and go home in a bit. Qin Yiming is that unlucky guy whose tire I popped. I’ll introduce you two next time,” this was the first call in so many days, “Don’t hang up yet.”

Cheng Yuzhou returned to the private room and told his classmates he had to leave.

“What’s going on, Cheng Yuzhou? If you leave, what will we play? Whose call has such a big influence, calling you away in just a few sentences?”

“My girlfriend.”

Everyone started to cheer when they heard him say that.

“No choice, I miss her too much,” Cheng Yuzhou gathered his things and extricated himself from his playfully rowdy friends, “I’ll treat you to a meal in a few days.”

He went downstairs wearing a baseball cap and hailed a taxi on the side of the road.

The call hadn’t ended yet.

“So well-behaved,” Cheng Yuzhou kissed the phone, “Is it too noisy? It’ll be quiet once I get in the car.”

“It’s okay, I can hear you clearly.”

“Then I’ll walk a bit further. It’s hard to catch a taxi here.”

“Mm.”