Confession (Ying Cheng) - Chapter 16

Chapter 16




Chapter 16: Intentionally or unintentionally avoiding him.

The elevator repairers arrived ten minutes later. When they saw a strong bright light, the two immediately let go of their hands as if they were awakening from a long dream. Zhou Jingze stood up next to the elevator wall and raised his hands to block the dazzling light from his eyes. In a hoarse voice:

“I’m going to the restroom.”

Xu Sui went up to the 23rd floor to find Hu Xixi and Sheng Nanzhou. When she opened the door, she was greeted with the sight of the two arguing like usual. Seeing Xu Sui, Hu Xixi immediately became embarrassed and switched the topic: “Sui Sui, hurry up and eat. The food will be cold.”

“Oh wait, where is my uncle?” Hu Xixi.

In a second, a notification popped up on Sheng Nanzhou’s phone. He glanced at it: “He said he had something to do, so he left. The bill has already been paid, and he told us to continue eating.”

“Sheng Nanzhou, how come you’re so stingy? You’re the one apologizing, but my uncle has to pay,” Hu Xixi commented with a dissatisfied tone.

Sheng Nanzhou replied shamelessly: “Of course it’s because he loves me.”

While they were talking, Xu Sui was deep in thought.

Zhou Jingze has a good family background, is talented, can do everything with ease, and is occasionally frivolous. He looks unrestrained and unruly, but he’s actually humble and composed.

He would thank the owner of the dumpling shop, notice that girls shouldn’t drink cold milk when the weather is cold, and purposely hand over a warm one, and pay the bills without complaint when hanging out with friends.

It’s not a surprise that such a person would be showered with love, but how’d he become claustrophobic?

Xu Sui suddenly remembered living alone in Amber Lane, a big house that didn’t always light up.

“Baby, what are you thinking?” Hu Xixi stretched out her hands and waved them in front of Xu Sui.

Xu Sui snapped out of her thoughts and took a sip of the juice at the table to cover it up. Then, she flashed a warm smile: “I was thinking about how you two finally reconciled.”

Zhou Jingze disappeared for a whole week, or perhaps more specifically, he vanished from Xu Sui’s world. Xu Sui would look at his WeChat Moments several times a day, but his latest post would always be the one three months ago.

She would occasionally hear news about him from Hu Xixi, like “I heard that Sheng Nanzhou was second to last in the flight technology theory exam, but uncle placed first,” “Today, a man confessed to Zhou Jingze!”

Xu Sui would listen quietly while feeding the cat.

On the weekend, when Xu Sui was tutoring Sheng Yanjia, Sheng Nanzhou knocked on the door and walked in: “We’re not going to school for rehearsals this week. Instead, we’ll go to Jingze’s house. He has a piano room, and it’s also more convenient.”

“Okay,” Xu Sui nodded and replied.

Xu Sui went downstairs after tutoring and found that Hu Xixi and Da Liu were waiting for her. The group followed Sheng Nanzhou to Zhou Jingze’s house.

Sheng Nanzhou pressed the doorbell twice, but there was no response. Finally, a German Shepherd let out a bark in the yard. Sheng Nanzhou jumped twice. Finally, he shouted: “God Kratos, go tell your father to get up!”

The German Shepherd barked at them twice. Then, it opened the glass door with its paws and ran all the way upstairs.

In a few seconds, Zhou Jingze appeared in front of them with a sleepy look. He was wearing gray sweatpants, and his eyelids were drooping. Although he had a tired face, his expression was a mix of annoyance and irritation, conveying a message: Whose the one so eager to seek death that they dare to wake me up.

Zhou Jingze slowly raised his eyes and glanced at them.

“You—”

Before Sheng Nanzhou could finish his words, the door closed in front of him with a loud “bang” sound, almost hitting his nose. The word “f*ck” was drowned in the wind.

Five minutes later, Zhou Jingze changed his clothes and opened the door for them again. He washed his face casually that drops of cold water were dripping down his jaw.

“Come in.” His voice was hoarse and raspy from just waking up.

Xu Sui followed them in, and she found that his yard was huge. There was a greenhouse on the second floor, but it looked like it had been vacant for a long time.

Zhou Jingze handed them cotton slippers and led them in. Xu Sui’s first impression of his home is empty, big, monochrome furniture and a black sofa.

The gray automatic curtain was pulled tightly. Zhou Jingze looked for the remote control in the living room for a long time, raised his hand, and pressed a button in front of the curtain. Then, finally, the light came in, and the wind poured in.

“Sit anywhere.” Zhou Jingze lifted his chin at them.

Da Liu lay down on the sofa and touched all the things left and right at Zhou Jing’s house, In a tone of excitement: “Master Zhou, it must be so nice to live in this big house alone. No one cares, and you can host as many parties as you want.”

Zhou Jingze laughed but didn’t reply.

He opened the refrigerator, took out a Coke can and pulled the tab open. There was a sizzling sound, and he threw the pull tab into the trash can. Then, he held up the Coke can and took a sip: “Get whatever you want to drink from the refrigerator.”

“Damn, it’s full of it.” Da Liu leaned over and stared. The refrigerator was full of drinks that there wasn’t even an egg or instant noodles.

“There’s nothing else, just a lot of drinks.” Zhou Jingze smiled awkwardly.

After not seeing him for a week, Zhou Jingze seemed to have returned to his calm state. The hotel incident appears to have passed.

A group of people rested for a while and followed him up to the third floor. He pushed the door open and with a cold voice: “The room has been cleaned.”

The piano room is huge, with a German 1963 vinyl record player on the right. There are all kinds of records on a bookshelf. Zhou Jingze’s unique cello was also there. There was even a soft sofa, game consoles, and projectors that whenever he got tired, he would sit on it and play games.

Da Liu jumped on the sofa and lay on it: “I don’t want to practice anymore. I want to lie down and have a good time.”

“Go to sleep then.” Sheng Nanzhou grabbed a blanket and covered him with it. He then pressed down on him.

The two immediately wrestled with each other. Da Liu tried to get off the sofa, in a hazy voice: “Damn you, there’s hair in my mouth! I’m going to become a kiwi.”

They said they wanted to win the competition, but the official song hasn’t yet been decided. They all have different opinions that it’s challenging to find a piece that is not so lyrical, noisy, and suitable for change.

“What about one of Dao Lang’s songs? It’s powerful,” Sheng Nanzhou asked.

Zhou Jingze was wiping his cello and looked up at him when he heard the words: “If you want to find something, just say it.”

“How about Wang Ruolin?” Da Liu suggested his goddess.

Hu Xixi shook her head: “Too gentle.”

The group mentioned several, including niche foreign ballads, the famous band Guns N’ Roses, The Beatles, etc., but they were all rejected.

“How about Mayday- Stubborn (五月天- 倔強)? Although it has a high range, we can change some things and play it differently,” Xu Sui said thoughtfully, “and aren’t we participating in a youth singing competition? The song is something that suits young people— full of passion, dream, youth.”

“I also kind of like to listen.” Xu Sui added without thinking too much about it.

Zhou Jingze was lying on the sofa, his hands propping his chin. When he heard the title and singer Xu Sui said, he was taken aback.

After saying it, she instantly regretted it. In the next second, Sheng Nanzhou asked excitedly as if he had discovered a secret:

“Xu Sui, Mayday or Stubborn, how do you know the young Master Zhou likes them, especially this song? Could it be that you like him and did your research in advance?”

Xu Sui presented in front of more than 200 people without being nervous or breaking a sweat. She answered all the questions logically and with evidence. The group was also fairly popular. Many like their songs, and that was a coincidence.

But right now, Xu Sui’s mind was frozen, and she couldn’t say a word.

“Because…I…” Xu Sui became nervous, unable to complete her sentence.

Everyone looked at her with curiosity and expectancy. Then, suddenly, a deep voice interrupted them:

“Because I told her.”

Everyone changed their directions and looked at him, including Xu Sui. She didn’t understand why Zhou Jingze helped her out.

Zhou Jingze’s expression was too impeccable, and he didn’t feel the pressure with everyone staring at him. Sheng Nanzhou gave up first and said, “Ah, boring then.”

Xu Sui sighed in relief, and they finally moved on from the topic.

In the end, everyone voted unanimously and set the song. Then, Hu Xixi snapped her fingers and instructed Sheng Nanzhou: “Dog, go find the record and play it on the record player. Let’s listen to it first.”

Sheng Nanzhou didn’t like this name, and he was about to retort back, but then he remembered how the two had just reconciled. So he finally chose to bear the humiliation. Sheng Nanzhou got off the sofa and walked to the record rack to look for it.

Zhou Jingze organized the records based on his preferences. Sheng Nanzhou quickly found the record and grabbed it. When he was about to walk back, he lowered his head and inadvertently found a box next to the record rack.

Sheng Nanzhou had always been curious, so he pointed to the box: “Brother, what is this? Why is it sealed? Can you see it?”

Zhou Jingze was lowering his head to tune the cello, and he glanced sideways: “I don’t know, I guess it’s the things that were put away during cleaning.”

Sheng Nanzhou found a knife and cut the box open. He looked inside: “Oh my, Master Zhou is a master for sure.”

“What? I want to look too.” Liu walked over.

Sheng Nanzhou’s words aroused everyone’s curiosity, and everyone walked over, except for the person involved. The whole box was full of gifts that Zhou Jingze had received before.

There were unopened perfumes, limited edition figures, footballs, love letters, watches, and other gifts. For some gifts, he even forgot to open the packaging. Da Liu was dazzled, and his tone was envious: “If I was fated with girls like Master Zhou, I wouldn’t be single until now.”

Hu Xixi corrected: “It’s not a problem with fate, but a problem of face.”

Da Liu felt more empty after that. Then, with a look of curiosity, Sheng Nanzhou looked through the box. He found a nicely packaged gift and opened it. It was a record.

“Woah, this is the most heart-warming gift I have ever seen. Come take a look.” Sheng Nanzhou said to Zhou Jingze.

Zhou Jingze looked in that direction and froze when he saw the finger cots and the ointment. In a serious tone: “Did you finish looking? Get over here and rehearse.”

They saw Zhou Jingze’s nonchalant attitude and put the things back into the box. Then, Sheng Nanzhou stood up and played Mayday’s song on the record player.

When the music started playing, Sheng Nanzhou walked over and grabbed Zhou Jingze’s shoulders with a face full of gossip: “You really can’t remember who gave you the gift?”

Zhou Jingze wore a black sweater. He leaned forward and took a sip from the Coke. There was a scornful smile on his face, and his eyes contained a tint of carelessness and coldness:

“There are so many people who give me gifts. Should I think about them one by one?”

“Make sense.” Sheng Nanzhou patted him on the shoulder, commenting, “Player.”

The music played by the record player was melodious and high. Xu Sui didn’t say a word throughout the entire time and was silent instead.

After the rehearsal, Xu Sui was not in her usual state that even when they insisted on having dinner afterward, she excused herself due to stomach pain.

When she took the bus back, she was sitting in the back row, leaning her head on the glass window and staring at the scenery outside, thinking of her high school years.

After half a semester at Gao Yi, Xu Sui transferred to Tian Zhong High School. On the first day of the new semester, everyone in the class was cleaning. She wore a simple skirt, followed the class teacher through the long corridor, and walked into the new class.

The boys and girls in the class were cleaning up. Some girls were carefully cleaning their desks. Everyone hadn’t seen each other for a semester, and many were chatting with each other noisily.

As soon as the class teacher entered the door, he used a ruler, tapped it on the table, and said: “Be quiet. This semester we have a new classmate. From today onwards, she’ll be joining us.”

“Xu Sui, introduce yourself,” the class teacher instructed and put the ruler down.

After drinking Chinese medicine all year round and contracting chickenpox just before transferring to this school, there were one or two pimples on her forehead and cheeks.

In short, she looked bleak and dull.

She stood at the front of the classroom and spoke quickly: “Hello everyone, My name’s Xu Sui. I’m glad to be able to join Class 3.”

There was scattered applause from the audience, and the class teacher pointed to a desk: “Xu Sui, you can go sit in the third row, and then go to the Academic Affairs Office to pick up the textbooks.”

After the teacher left, the classroom was lively again, and no one noticed Xu Sui’s arrival. What would attract the attention of adolescent boys was either how short the skirts the English teacher wears or how beautiful the newly transferred students are.

It was even worse from the girls. They would gather together to discuss their newly bought nail polish, study groups at night, or go to the skating rink.

It was difficult for a transferred student to integrate into the class.

No one cared about Xu Sui’s arrival.

She walked to her seat, took out a tissue, and wiped the table, but there was no seat. She didn’t know whether a classmate took the seat that initially belonged to this desk or it was really missing a seat.

Xu Sui looked around, but no one was paying attention to her. Her deskmate also wasn’t there.

She walked to the back and casually asked a boy: “Hi, do you know where I can get a new seat?”

The boy leaned on the table and played games with a group of people holding a mobile phone. Xu Sui asked three times, but he never looked up, turning a blind eye.

Embarrassment spreads across Xu Sui’s face. But, sometimes, indifference is more terrifying than ridicule.

Xu Sui was about to turn around and walk away when a student with glasses, who was mopping the floor, rushed over, repeatedly shouting “move,” but Xu Sui couldn’t avoid it. Mud and dirty water splashed on her calf.

When she was trying to get out of the way, she accidentally stepped on a person’s sneakers. She turned her head in a panic, and a pair of white Nike sneakers appeared in front of her, her footprints engraved on them.

“I’m sorry.” Xu Sui apologized in a low voice.

“No seat?” A deep and pleasant voice asked above her head.

Xu Sui suddenly raised her head. At four o’clock in the afternoon, the sun shone from the other side of the school building, lighted the boy’s attractive facial features, monolids, thin lips, and sharp lower jawlines.

His school uniform was also loosely dressed. His shirt was loose, and his fingers were grasping onto a football. He quickly threw the football, and it landed in the middle of the last row. He gave a light smile.

He was full of laidback and unruly aura.

Xu Sui nodded, and he replied with one word: “Wait.”

Ten minutes later, the boy who ran to another building and walked up to the fifth floor handed her a new seat, with a layer of sweat on his forehead. He was breathing heavily.

“Thank you.” Xu Sui said softly.

The boy didn’t seem to take it to heart. Someone outside the corridor hollered: “Zhou Jingze, didn’t you say you want to play another round of football? I’ve been waiting for you for a long time already.”

“Coming!” Zhou Jingze replied.

Zhou Jingze ran past her, and the corner of his clothes brushed against the back of Xu Sui’s hand. At that moment, Xu Sui smelled the distinct mint smell on his body and heard his heartbeat.

Later, after Xu Sui gradually became accustomed to the class, she eventually pieced together the information she saw and heard about Zhou Jingze. He is very tall and has excellent academic performance. He’s also the best cellist in the school and has a tattoo on the back of his hand. In addition, he likes to eat mints and has a German shepherd.

In school, he’s also really popular, never lacking the attention from girls that he would often change girlfriends. Sometimes, he would be indifferent but always seemed more mature than his peers.

Xu Sui often thinks that he was god’s favored one.

She didn’t know when she started liking him. Occasionally, she would glance at the boy behind her. Sometimes, she would see him wearing a simple gray sweater and secretly sigh in her heart. How does anyone wear such a simple sweater so nicely?

She would always look forward to the bi-weekly seat changes because she would be a seat closer to him.

Xu Sui always liked him in silence. No one knew it. Until the following summer, she occasionally heard the girls in her class talk about Zhou Jingze’s birthday. On the summer solstice, June 21— the hottest time of the summer and year.

When she went out to refill her flask after class, Xu Sui walked through the corridor. Some boys were leaning their back against the railings, chatting and playing games.

She hurried past them and stopped at the drinking fountain at the end of the corridor. She unscrewed the lid of her flask and refilled it while staring at the green trees swaying outside in a daze.

Suddenly, the light cast a black shadow on the reflection of the water fountain, and Xu Sui smelled a familiar mint smell. Zhou Jingze was next to her.

Xu Sui suddenly became nervous. Zhou Jingze was holding a plastic cup and filling it with water. He arched his back slightly. The window shattered the incoming sunlight into a fine speck of spots that fell on his shoulders.

He was holding the cup, and Xu Sui saw his clear joints. His pale, slender fingers were wrapping around the cup while the cold water slowly filled up to the brim of the cup.

Xu Sui caught a glimpse of his long fingers with small blisters, some of which had popped and left red marks.

While he was refilling the water, his hands were also shaking slightly that the water on the surface of the cup vibrated gently.

His fingers must’ve been in a lot of pain.

After he left, cold water overflowed her flask. Xu Sui stared at the small whirlpool and thought about how the students in the class mentioned how Zhou Jingze often practiced the cello that he would always be the last one left.

He was born in Rome and had naturally gifted talents, but he still works hard.

After seeing his injured hand, Xu Sui was moved and wanted to do something for him for the first time. So, under the blazing sun, Xu Sui walked around the streets, wandered all over the shopping malls and stores buying records of his favorite singers, while her finger cots and ointments were hidden in the box.

On the summer solstice day, the sun seemed to be a little bit brighter than usual, and the cicadas chirped with rhyme. The wind blew in when a window was opened and scattered the white papers on the table.

The second class in the afternoon was physical education, and Xu Sui asked for leave under the excuse of a stomach ache. She planned to quietly put the gift in Zhou Jingze’s drawer while everyone was away.

Xu Sui walked to the back row, looked around, and was about to put the gift into his drawer when someone kicked the door open with a bang, Zhang Liqiang said, “It’s f*cking hot.”

Then his gaze froze, and his expression changed. In a mocking tone: “Oh, fat girl, you also like Young Master Zhou?”

“It’s a pity. He likes girls who are beautiful and have nice figures. Who would like you when you’re looking like this? Hahaha.”

A group of boys laughed one after another. Being humiliated wasn’t pleasant, let alone being talked about by these boys who are in their adolescence and don’t understand what respect is.

Xu Sui lowered her eyes, the hand holding the gift trembled slightly, and her back felt cold.

A group of boys laughed brazenly. Zhang Liqiang was standing upright. Then, suddenly, he was hit in the back by a football. He staggered forward instantly, and his back felt hot and painful.

Zhang Liqiang lowered his face, picked up the seat next to him, and turned around to hit the person, but he slowly put the seat down when he saw who was coming.

Zhou Jingze stood in front of him, his eyes as dark and definite as a rock seized Zhang Liqiang in place, and slowly smiled:

“It’s boring doing this.”

Zhang Liqiang realized two meanings from Zhou Jingze’s words. One was not to do such a shameful thing. The second thing was not to intervene in his matters, or he’d face the consequences.

Zhang Liqiang then persuaded everyone to exit, and the group left.

The crowd dispersed, and only Zhou Jingze and Xu Sui were left in the classroom. He bent down and threw the ball into the basket, walking towards his seat step by step.

The green fan blades slowly turned on the top of his head. Xu Sui still felt her heart on fire, and her palms sweated a little. He walked towards her, the window casting his shadow. He stretched out his hand and took the initiative to receive the gift in her hand.

Zhou Jingze’s gaze stayed on her and said:

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Xu Sui replied unconsciously.

After saying this, Xu Sui hurriedly left. In fact, Zhou Jingze’s table has been piled up with gifts of all sizes since the morning, and there was actually no need for him to receive her gift directly.

But he took it, and Xu Sui felt happy for a long time.

With a “ding,” Xu Sui was snapped out of her thoughts by the bus announcement. She got off of the bus and returned to her dormitory. She was the only one there.

1017 greeted her, and Xu Sui brushed its fur. She then gently laid her head on the table. She thought she was a little different, or her secret was discovered.

But she now knows that Zhou Jingze did that because he had respect for others, and that was all.

He helped her out in the afternoon, probably because he was afraid of her embarrassment.

He accepted the gift but never opened it and instead threw it in a box casually. The finger cots were dusted, and the ointment had already expired. It was gentle but unsympathetic.

Xu Sui remembered Zhou Jingze’s casual and indifferent words in the afternoon:

“There are so many people who give me gifts. Should I think about them one by one?”

At first, she thought he noticed her, but it was just a cover of respect.

Xu Sui’s chin rested on the table, looking lifeless. 1017 seemed to be aware of her emotions that it wrapped itself around her feet like a ball of wool trying to warm her. Xu Sui wrote a sentence in her diary:

I feel like giving up now.

In fact, Zhou Jingze didn’t do anything wrong. Xu Sui’s gift could just be considered a common one among thousands of gifts. But Xu Sui was a little hurt.

She was calm for several days and attended school as usual. Occasionally she would be dragged by Hu Xixi to a nearby shopping mall to go shopping. After buying some nice clothes, Hu Xixi would cosplay her favorite movie character in the bedroom and look in the mirror.

Seeing Hu Xixi cosplaying Charlie Chaplin, where the mustache was uneven, made Xu Sui laugh loudly and smile, filling the emptiness in her heart.

Sheng Nanzhou was the person who loved hanging out the most. Whenever he’s near their university, he would ask to hang out at least one to three times a week. Each time, Xu Sui happens to have justified reasons to refuse.

Excuses such as “I have a lab to do and monitor” or “I just finished eating and can’t eat another meal” were irrefutable.

On Thursday, when a group of people was eating at a food stall near the school, Sheng Nanzhou frowned when he saw the message: “Xu Sui can’t come. She said that her cat is a little sick and needs to be taken for an examination.”

Sheng Nanzhou turned off his phone. He nudged Hu Xixi, who was immersed in eating a small, yellow Atlantic croaker, and asked: “How come I feel like Xu Sui is a bit unusual lately?”

Hu Xixi gave him a funny expression, and Sheng Nanzhou immediately went to find a supporter and cast his eyes on Zhou Jingze, who was sitting there with his shoulders slightly lowered. His fingers held a spoon, and he took a sip of the soup. He calmly replied:

“The soup is delicious.”

Hu Xixi patted Sheng Nanzhou’s shoulder: “You have been overthinking. She’s just been under pressure recently.”

Recently, Xu Sui would go to the school rooftop after visiting the library. She stood on the rooftop and looked at the scenery for a while, sometimes glancing at the playground of Beihang Flight Academy in the northeast corner.

In the freezing weather, students were still chanting on the training ground day after day, enduring the physical training. Xu Sui was wearing a white woolen winter coat with horn buttons. The cold wind blew, and she involuntarily flinched.

Xu Sui was very afraid of the cold but liked to feel the cold wind in the winter. It was unusual.

She stood beside the railing, rubbed her palms together for a while. The next second, her phone vibrated, and there was a phone call. Xu Sui answered the call. On the other side of the ring, her mother asked her about her studies and life as usual.

Xu Sui answered one by one, and her mother said softly: “Yi Yi, I sent you a box of red grapefruit. They’re very sweet. You can share some with your roommates.”

Yi Yi was Xu Sui’s nickname. As for the red grapefruit, it was their seasonal fruit in the south. Every winter, Xu Sui’s mother would send a box of them.

“Okay, thank you, mom.” Xu Sui obediently replied.

After Xu Sui’s mother told her the few usual words, she said, “Grandma is next to me. You can talk to her for a while.”

After Xu Sui’s mother handed the phone to Xu Sui’s grandma, Xu Sui keenly heard a few suppressed coughs and frowned: “Grandma, why are you coughing again? Are you not wearing enough clothes?”

“Of course, I am. It’s just because of the sudden chilly weather for the past two days that I just feel uncomfortable,” Grandma explained with a smile.

Xu Sui’s mother, who was on the side and interrupted in a hush voice: “It’s your grandma who’s been staying up late like those students…”

Grandma nagged and shared what happened in Li Ying Town, Xu Sui listened to her patiently with a smile on her face, and in the end, she told her to pay more attention to her body.

During the call, her grandma’s voice was hoarse but also gentle: “Yi Yi, are you still afraid of the cold in the north? Or did you get used to it?”

Xu Sui was startled and gently poked the flower on the concrete railing with her fingers. She thought of that cynical and casual face and answered:

“It’s actually still a bit too cold.”

After hanging up the phone, Xu Sui clicked into Zhou Jingze’s moments. There was nothing, and she exited. She browsed through her Friends Circle and saw one of Sheng Nanzhou’s posts. The captain reads—Thanks to my Master Zhou, there is a picture.

It was a photo at a shooting range. Zhou Jingze was wearing a military green training uniform, holding a gun in one hand, and wearing shooting glasses. His profile looked tough but also smooth.

Xu Sui looked at the picture and liked Sheng Nanzhou’s post. When the cold wind blew, she unconsciously raised her shoulder. In the end, she disliked the post, afraid of drawing speculations.

After doing this, Xu Sui felt a little funny and contradictory. She was obviously trying to avoid him, but she was paying attention to everything about him.

It was inescapable.

The box from Xu Sui’s mother was sent by express that it came within two days. Xu Sui cut open the box with a knife and gave some grapefruit to her roommates. She saved two for everyone to eat when rehearsing.

At the bottom of the box, Xu Sui found a bag. She opened it and saw a pair of cotton gloves with a few coins stuffed in them.

There were two hundred-yuan bills and several crumpled pieces of ten yuan, five yuan, and some coins.

The total was three hundred yuan.

Xu Sui looked at the gloves and didn’t know whether to laugh and cry. Then, she suddenly understood why her grandma had caught a cold.

Because Da Liu had to do something later, they changed the rehearsal time to the morning during the weekend. Xu Sui and Hu Xixi arrived at Zhou Jingze’s house, and it was Zhou Jingze who opened the door.

In a week, they hadn’t seen each other and Xu Sui was a little nervous. When the door opened, she avoided communicating with him. She heard a hoarse voice and sneered:

“Are you two tortoises?”

“Humph.” Hu Xixi made a face at him.

They were already waiting in the piano room. Zhou Jingze was a bit sleepy, so he poured a cup of cappuccino with one hand and brought it upstairs.

During rehearsal, they needed eye contact when switching the instrument as the rhythm changed. So when it was Zhou Jingze’s turn, he looked at Xu Sui. She came in contact with his eyes for a few seconds and then quickly lowered her head to play the drums.

Zhou Jingze noticed it and said nothing.

Sheng Nanzhou praised himself during the intermission: “Our group is a match made in heaven.”

“Look at you exposing yourself for being uncultured. Naturally, a match made in heaven refers to lovers.” Hu Xixi commented while putting down the bass guitar and sitting on the sofa.

Zhou Jingze smiled: “It’s I who taught my son the wrong thing.”

Da Liu saw the grapefruit that Xu Sui had brought on the table and asked, “Is this grapefruit sweet?”

“Yes,” Xu Sui said. Then, she looked around and asked, “Is there a knife? We can try one.”

“It should be in the kitchen,” Xixi said.

Xu Sui nodded and went downstairs with a grapefruit. Hu Xixi saw Xu Sui go down, and when she saw Zhou Zhou Jingze was still lying on the sofa, she frowned: “Uncle, aren’t you the owner of this house? Why don’t you go and help the guest?”

Zhou Jingze threw his phone aside, put his hands in his pockets, and went downstairs.

Xu Sui was standing in the kitchen black, turning around looking for a knife. A cold voice filled the kitchen:

“It’s above your head.”

Without waiting for a response, Zhou Jingze walked over, opened the cabinet, and took out a fruit knife. He took the grapefruit from her hands and began to cut off the top edge of the peel.

Zhou Jingze peeled off the rest of the grapefruit in a few strokes, and the bitter fragrance enveloped the small space. He was tall, so he had to lower his head, revealing his fair, white neck.

He took a section of the grapefruit, peeled off the membrane, and handed it to Xu Sui. She took a bite.

Zhou Jingze took the knife and cut the fruit, placing the sections on a plate. Then, he asked nonchalantly: “You have something going on recently?”

“No.” Xu Sui answered.

He didn’t reply but just nodded and continued to divide the grapefruit. Xu Sui stood on the side, eating the red grapefruit quietly. There was a little bit of red juice on her lips.

The grapefruit was really sweet. Xu Sui was focused on eating it that she looked like a little goldfish with her bulging cheeks. Suddenly, a tall and thin shadow enveloped her shadow on the ground.

Zhou Jingze stood in front of her with his hands stretched out, reaching to the cabinet behind her. He was planning to put the fruit knife back in the cabinet. Xu Sui jumped a little being caught off guard and looked up at him with a dazed expression.

The winter sun shone in and illuminated her almost transparent skin. The little, thin hairs on it were clearly visible. Zhou Jingze caught a glimpse of her moist lips with a bit of red grapefruit juice dripping from it. His eyes darkened, and the words that he didn’t want to say came out:

“Then, are you avoiding me?”