QKYJ - 29

It was during the time when office workers were at work and students were in school, so there was no one in the convenience store. Originally, Shen He was going to go in alone, but he couldn’t get Shen Zhi to agree. Masked and capped, they walked in fully armored.

It seemed that no matter how much time passed, the layout of convenience stores never really changed. The colors were always harmonious, and it was always clean and bright. It reminded her of her college days, when after a night of rehearsals, the students from the drama department would always go in groups to buy food and recharge.

Shen Zhi took a small box of coffee pudding.

Shen He looked at her and asked casually, “Is that enough?”

She rolled her eyes at him from behind her sunglasses.

He turned his head and said indifferently, “Just don’t eat mine.”

The convenience store clerk recognized them without much effort. They didn’t ask for a photo, but it seemed they took a few pictures in secret. Shen He and Shen Zhi were used to it and didn’t mind. They bought their things and returned to the car.

As soon as they sat down, Shen He’s phone rang.

Shen Zhi was tearing open the pudding package.

The thin plastic seal was stuck too tightly. She couldn’t tear it open. Noticing this, he held the phone between his cheek and shoulder, took the package from her hand, and helped her open it while on the phone.

“Hello? Yeah, it’s me,” Shen He said. He had already torn it open and handed the box back to Shen Zhi.

Shen Zhi started eating with peace of mind.

At the same time, she quietly looked at Shen He.

“Mhm, I got it. It’s no problem. Thank you for your hard work.” Sensing her gaze, Shen He also looked at her.

She blinked.

He subconsciously reached out and covered her face, saying softly, “Don’t look at me.”

Shen Zhi caught his hand, tried to move it away, but couldn’t help but pause.

She felt a little unfamiliar with the lines on Shen He’s palm.

She had touched it countless times, but she had never paid close attention. Shen Zhi was so engrossed that she didn’t even notice that Shen He had already hung up the phone.

He waited for a while, broke free from her grip, and suddenly pinched her cheeks. Shen Zhi was startled and was about to curse him out when she saw him give a mischievous, triumphant smile.

“Old Zhang seems to have fainted,” Shen He said.

“What happened?” She looked worried. “Is it serious?”

He started the car and made arrangements easily: “It shouldn’t be too serious. His wife’s health isn’t great either. I’ve already contacted Xi Xi, and I’m going to go see them now. Your parents are only here for a rare visit, so why don’t you stay?”

Shen Zhi thought about it, and it seemed like a good idea, so she nodded: “Then be careful.”

As he started the car, she looked at his focused expression while driving and suddenly wanted to say something.

The traffic light was blinking. Shen He tapped the steering wheel with his fingers, as if he had eyes on the side of his head, and he spoke up to interrupt her hesitation: “You don’t want me to go?”

Hearing his joking tone, Shen Zhi smiled.

“When you come back,” she said, “let’s have a good talk.”

About their marriage, about the past, and about the unpleasantness they had swept under the rug.

They went their separate ways at the hotel.

Shen Zhi wrapped her trench coat tightly around herself and watched Shen He’s car drive away. She turned and went upstairs. The path that the two of them had walked together now had to be walked alone.

When she returned to her parents’ room, she knocked on the door and said, “It’s me.”

The door opened, revealing Lan Qiao.

Today, Lan Qiao was a little different from before.

Even in front of Shen Zhi, she didn’t have as many thorns. It was as if she had no time to pay attention to them.

Shen Zhi went in and heard her aunt’s singing-like soprano voice, speaking quickly and emotionally about something.

No one paid her any mind, so Shen Zhi found a seat herself.

Then she roughly understood what happened from her aunt’s string of complaints.

That day, a neighbor came to visit their home. In the past few years, Shen Zhi’s aunt’s life had been getting better and better. She was very proud and felt like she had a lot of face. But she didn’t expect that as soon as the neighbor arrived, he would mysteriously get everyone else to leave and then, with a kind smile on his face, tell her that his son, who was an intern at a private hospital, had seen Lan Qiao there that day.

By all accounts, the confidentiality of a private hospital was beyond reproach.

Hearing this, Shen Zhi was also a little surprised.

She didn’t show any flaws on her face, but she secretly took out her phone and asked her assistant a few questions.

She found out that on the day of the surgery, Lan Qiao had a breakdown and ran out.

What a troublemaker, Shen Zhi muttered to herself.

However, in front of her elders, Lan Qiao had no intention of easily admitting anything.

She lowered her head, standing firm like a female martyr.

“Tell me! How could you do such a thing? It’s outrageous!” The aunt looked like she wanted to beat her chest and stomp her feet.

The uncle also chimed in: “Yeah, you’ve made your mom and dad, and your aunt and uncle who have taken care of you for so many years, so worried.”

Shen Zhi’s mother spoke earnestly: “Xiaoqiao... Xiaoqiao, how could you... This is such a great sin.”

Shen Zhi’s father couldn’t bear to watch and simply closed his eyes, his expression solemn.

Shen Zhi poured herself a cup of hot tea, and with a sense of emotion, she watched the show unfold. As she was lost in thought, she suddenly made eye contact with Lan Qiao for no reason.

She suddenly had a bad feeling.

At the same time, her aunt also caught it.

“Xiaozhi,” the middle-aged woman’s sharp gaze pierced her like an arrow. “Could it be that you knew about this too?”

Shen Zhi said, “How—”

She wanted to say, “How could I?”

However, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse, and an even more shocking event occurred.

Lan Qiao burst into tears.

“Cousin, sister,” she had never called Shen Zhi that before, but now she was calling her with genuine sincerity and from the bottom of her heart. “We don’t have to hide it from mom and dad, and aunt and uncle, do we?”

Shen Zhi was stunned and then watched as Lan Qiao got up. She grabbed her suddenly. Shen Zhi exercised a lot, but she was no match for Lan Qiao, who weighed a good twenty kilograms more than her. She was dragged into the restroom.

Neither her aunt and uncle, nor her mom and dad, came forward to stop them.

As soon as they entered, Lan Qiao quickly turned on the exhaust fan, grabbed Shen Zhi’s hand, and said in a low voice, “I’m begging you. I’m begging you. Please. You have money, and you don’t need their help. But I’m different!”

“You’re too greedy. Since you need your elders’ help, why are you trying to get rid of them in every way possible?” Shen Zhi shook her off and retorted fiercely, “Are you crazy for trying to push this onto me?”

Lan Qiao seemed to have really gone mad.

She suddenly knelt down in front of Shen Zhi.

“I was abandoned by that man. Because we were at the same company, I even quit my job. Now I have nothing. If my aunt and uncle don’t help me, if my mom and dad don’t beg my aunt and uncle to help me, what am I going to do? What about my future?” Lan Qiao cried, her fingers like hooks, latching onto Shen Zhi.

Shen Zhi was in pain from her grip, but she couldn’t break free: “It’s not that dramatic. You have hands and feet, a degree, and a good looks. Find your own way out.”

But Lan Qiao couldn’t hear her anymore.

“Are you trying to kill me? If you don’t help me, I can only die.” Lan Qiao looked like she was about to cry tears of blood. She was delirious, kowtowing and choking herself. “Shen Zhi, Shen Zhi. Do you know? You’ll be the death of me. When I die, I’ll fill my suicide note with your name and let everyone know that you were the one who killed me. Shen Zhi—”

Shen Zhi had had enough: “Don’t you know that suicide is a sin in the eyes of God?”

After saying that, she felt ridiculous.

If Lan Qiao listened to God, she wouldn’t have needed to get an abortion.

“Okay, okay, I get it. You want me to die. Then I’ll go now. I’ll listen to my cousin.”

Lan Qiao lost control and tried to hit her head against the wall. Shen Zhi tried to stop her. In the struggle, they knocked the shower head open, and cold tap water fell like cold rain. In the end, Lan Qiao finished with a sharp wail: “Sister, I beg you, clear my name!”

As if to respond to her wail, the restroom door was knocked open.

The elders appeared at the door.

Inside, there were two young women. One was kneeling, and one was standing. One had a face full of grief, and the other was completely dazed and pained. Water fell in an arc from the top, drenching Shen Zhi, who had her long black hair down and was wearing a black dress.

It was an alternative and unique religious painting.

Lan Qiao said, “The child is my cousin’s. I only went with her.”

Shen Zhi said, “It has nothing to do with me.”

The aunt said, “Shen Zhi, is that true?”

The uncle said, “Lan Qiao doesn’t have the guts to do that...”

Shen Zhi said, “That day, Lan Qiao suddenly came to me crying, and I had my assistant take her to the hospital. I have all the paperwork. If you want to see—”

And at that moment, the person who interrupted Shen Zhi was her father.

“Lying is breaking a commandment,” her father said. “A person of faith would not do that.”

Going back decades, her parents had looked at her with the same eyes: sad, sympathetic, and distrustful.

She had been deeply hurt by this during her teenage years.

Her mother said, “You are both good children. Xiaozhi, you’re a star, a celebrity. We understand you. But...”

Her father said, “Let’s sit down and talk it through.”

Due to their busy work, they didn’t spend a lot of time together like normal parents and children. Instead, they had spent so many years with an indifferent relationship.

The water falling from the shower was like a torrential rain. Against her all-black outfit, Shen Zhi’s face became even paler. Her long eyelashes were covered in beads of water, but she didn’t blink at all. She just stood there, as if she had already turned into a statue.

Her lips moved, and she mumbled a sentence in a tiny voice.

Her aunt spoke up, taking a step forward and asking, “What?”

Shen Zhi repeated herself.

“Child,” her mother’s eyes were filled with a thin mist of worry. “What did you say?”

In the long silence, only the sound of water falling continued without stopping.

Shen Zhi said, “I have nothing to talk about with you.”

She ignored everyone and walked out. She grabbed her bag and coat and then turned back temporarily. Shen Zhi walked back into the bathroom, turned off the still-spraying shower, and then left without looking back under everyone’s watchful eyes.

Parents who were dedicated to their work and left-behind children. Shen Zhi knew that her family situation was not uncommon.

She had been willful since she was little.

She was inconsiderate of her parents and would lose her temper at them for no reason. Unexpectedly, they didn’t indulge her very much either. The teenage girl, who was concerned with saving face, could only endure it. Even today, she was still being willful.

Shen Zhi stood alone in the elevator.

After contacting her assistant, she finally felt the cold.

She was completely soaked and shaking all over. The light in the elevator was so dim and sallow. Shen Zhi wrapped her arms around herself, trying to suppress the cold that was invading her body as much as possible.

The assistant contacted her, and Shen Zhi answered. Before the other person could speak, she quickly laid out her plans: going home, taking a shower, changing clothes, and she also remembered more things.

“Did you return that curtain from before?” she asked.

Xiaoqiu was a little unprepared: “Ah, it should be...”

“Mhm?”

Since she was a professional, the person on the other end quickly reacted and changed her tone, answering seriously: “Yes, it’s been returned and the feedback has been given. But they said they don’t have the blue one anymore, and we’ll have to wait for the yellow one.”

Shen Zhi closed her eyes and regained her composure while swallowing.

“Forget it. I don’t want it anymore,” she said.

“...”

“It keeps getting delayed, and it’s a mess. I don’t want that curtain anymore.” Shen Zhi made the decision wearily.

The numbers on the elevator screen were gradually changing. She stared intently at them. However, without any warning, the electronic screen suddenly began to malfunction.

It was hard to say the sequence of events at that moment.

In short, the elevator stopped working, the lights went out, the emergency lights came on, and the call was disconnected. It vibrated on all four sides. Shen Zhi panicked for a moment and then came to her senses.

A terrorist attack? An explosion? Or an earthquake?

The elevator had activated its emergency protocol for a dangerous situation.

In her daze, Shen Zhi couldn’t help but wonder, was she going to die here?