15 Chapter 15

Your brother has come to pick you up.

When I woke up again, it was already noon. Sunlight streamed in through the window, casting a warm glow on the windowsill.

The fever reducer was very effective, and Zhan Xinyue felt better; she was no longer as drowsy as before.

She lay there motionless, then opened her eyes and shouted:

"mom--"

Pang Yun's reassuring voice immediately came from outside: "Coming!"

Zhan Wei's voice rang out from outside: "You call for Mom as soon as you wake up, why don't you call for your dad?"

Zhan Xinyue smiled and added, "Dad—"

"Hey!" Zhan Wei was satisfied.

The door was gently pushed open, and Pang Yun peeked in to look at her, placing his warm hand on her forehead: "Hmm... the fever has gone down. Your dad brought back some food, get up and eat some; you need to replenish your nutrition when you're sick."

"You're using your own hand as a thermometer? How can that be accurate?" Zhan Wei interjected from outside.

Pang Yun turned her head and glared at him: "Try saying another word."

Zhan Wei immediately fell silent.

Zhan Xinyue was amused by the two of them and, taking Pang Yun's hand for a little help, sat up from the bed.

With the new store opening soon, Zhan Wei has been very busy. He left home very early today and only now has a moment to come home and have lunch with the two of them. Hearing that Zhan Xinyue was sick, he specially packed some light dishes from their usual restaurant to go.

During the meal, Zhan Wei said, "I won't go to the shop this afternoon. The fever reducer you just took won't help. I'll take you to the hospital to get checked out."

"No need." Zhan Xinyue sipped the porridge in her bowl. "I don't have any other symptoms. I'll just rest at home today."

"That won't do. You should at least get a blood test and get some medication."

Upon hearing about the blood test, Zhan Xinyue became even more hesitant and looked at Pang Yun for help. Pang Yun understood and advised Zhan Wei, "This medicine can't be taken all the time; we still need to rely on our own immunity. Yueyue took fever reducer this morning; let's observe her for a while longer."

"That's good. If the fever spikes again, we'll have to go to the hospital."

Pang Yun picked up some food for her, saying, "Don't just drink porridge, you also need to supplement your protein intake so you can recover faster."

Zhan Xinyue nodded and obediently picked up a boiled shrimp.

"You pick this shrimp for me, I'll peel it for you, otherwise you'll get your hands dirty." Zhan Wei intercepted the shrimp before it even entered the bowl. "I was originally planning to take you to the store today, but let's wait for another chance. I won't go this afternoon, I'll just stay home and keep you company."

Zhan Xinyue hurriedly said, "It's okay, Dad, you don't need to worry about me. There must be a lot going on at the shop lately, so you can go and take care of it."

Pang Yun also said, "Yes, you go about your business, I'll take care of things at home."

Zhan Wei hesitated for a moment, then didn't insist any further. He placed the peeled shrimp into the small dish in front of her: "Okay, we'll just wait until the new store officially opens. Then there won't be so much trouble."

After dinner, Zhan Wei went out again. Zhan Xinyue had nothing else to do. The weather was nice, so she sat on the balcony for a while before going into the study to read. Her mind was filled with too many emotions, and her sick body was unable to process them. She only felt better when she was immersed in those tedious but simple test questions.

Aside from dinner time, Zhan Xinyue rarely left her study. It wasn't until eight or nine o'clock in the evening, after Pang Yun reminded her several times that it was time to rest, that she finally put down her teaching materials and came out to eat some fruit that Pang Yun had prepared.

"You're still sick, don't overwork yourself, or your body won't be able to handle it," Pang Yun said, nagging as she cut a melon for her.

Zhan Xinyue was indeed tired, so she leaned back on the sofa and said, "I'm not studying anymore. I don't want to read a single book today."

Pang Yun was finally satisfied and handed her the melon: "That's more like it. Here, this is your reward."

Zhan Xinyue reached out and took it, bowing her head and saying, "Thank you, Lady Pang." Then Pang Yun immediately tapped her forehead: "You're such a chatterbox."

The TV in the living room was showing a drama series that Pang Yun had been watching recently. Zhan Xinyue watched it for a while and then remembered something unrelated.

"Mom, have you seen my phone?" she asked, turning her head.

"You usually keep it in the drawer by your bedside."

"Oh right." Zhan Xinyue slipped on her slippers and ran into the bedroom.

She opened the drawer and sure enough, she saw the rather old-fashioned cell phone.

This was the first time she had thought of this item since her rebirth. That year, she was still using a flip phone; the school was strict and didn't allow phones, so she mostly just left it in her drawer. When she found it again, it was dead and switched off.

She plugged it in, pressed and held the power button, and after a burst of music, the phone lit up.

Before smartphones, mobile phones had limited functions, but they already had QQ, although they could only send text messages and couldn't send pictures. She logged into QQ and quickly scrolled through her friend list.

Then, he sighed.

She suddenly remembered that since that person had sent her a message, they must know some inside information. Perhaps finding her would help her figure out the questions that had been troubling her for so long. For example, when or why Xu Shen cheated on her, and why his affair happened to be with her best friend, Xie Wanzhi.

Unfortunately, the cartoon rabbit image etched in my mind never appeared.

After a moment of disappointment, she chuckled to herself, realizing she had been grasping at straws in her desperation. Xu Shen's infidelity happened many years later; what good would it do to find him now? He had no idea what was going on more than a decade later.

She rubbed her temples in annoyance, and her phone beeped a few more times, displaying several unread text messages. She figured they hadn't been received when her phone was off, and were now popping up all at once.

Zhan Xinyue casually opened her inbox. Most of the text messages were from the mobile carrier, all short numbers, except for two personal numbers that appeared conspicuously at the top.

I randomly clicked on one of the messages, and it only contained a few words.

"Are you... coming again?"

Zhan Xinyue was completely bewildered: Who is this? She looked closely; the number wasn't saved in her contacts, so it shouldn't be someone she knew. Puzzled, Zhan Xinyue clicked on the next message and found it was also from the same number, sent earlier, and containing the same few cryptic words.

"I'll be waiting for you at the entrance."

She thought it must have been sent to the wrong number, and carefully flipped through her contacts again. The contacts were neatly arranged with the names of all her relatives and friends from over the years, and Xie Wanzhi's name was specially marked with an "A" so that she could stay at the top of the contact list.

Based on this, it seems she really doesn't know the other person, otherwise there's no reason why she wouldn't have added a nickname to their contact.

It seems the other person was waiting for someone but mistakenly sent the text message to me. I wonder if it will cause any problems.

Thinking of this, she kindly edited a reminder text message: You sent it to the wrong person.

Just as she was about to press send, she noticed that the last text message had been sent two hours earlier. She looked out the window; it was already dark, a somber scene. Since there hadn't been any other messages for so long, the recipient must have realized they'd sent the wrong message.

Just then, Pang Yun called out to her from outside: "It's past ten o'clock, why hasn't your dad come back yet? Yueyue, why don't you give him a call?"

Zhan Xinyue responded and exited the editing app, then opened her father's phone.

The clock was about to strike 10:30, and the girls at the table were still chatting noisily.

They were gossiping about school, about how this girl in their class was secretly dating that boy in the next class, and about how that female teacher always liked to flaunt her wealth and that she never carried the same bag to work twice.

Shi Qiyue listened absentmindedly, glanced at the time, hesitated for a moment, and said nothing.

The conversation shifted from school to outside, and when they discussed how the amusement parks in the city were too small and not as good as Disney, someone finally exclaimed, "Ah, it's so late! If we don't go home soon, we'll get yelled at!" and the meal finally came to an end.

Shi Qiyue got up to pay the bill. The receptionist at the upscale restaurant was well-trained and did not show any disrespect because she was only slightly taller than the bar counter. She placed the bill in front of her with a polite smile.

"Hello, Ms. Shi, here is your bill."

She glanced at the bill and saw that several people had spent a small five-figure sum without even opening any bottles of alcohol. She didn't care, but just as she took out her card, the receptionist politely told her, "Your bill has already been settled."

Shi Qiyue was taken aback, and her face slowly wrinkled.

"Hey, who paid the bill?" Her companions asked curiously as they gathered around.

Shi Qiyue composed herself and said calmly, "It's probably one of my dad's business associates." Shi Yuesheng often came to this shop when he was doing business, so she was probably recognized by one of the uncles when she entered.

"How wonderful! I don't even have to pay for my own meals," someone said.

Shi Qiyue gave a perfunctory "hmm," her head throbbing. If it really was one of Shi Yuesheng's friends who paid the money and then tried to take credit for it in front of him, she would naturally get a scolding.

The group of people walked out the door together. It was already completely dark outside. Everyone took out their phones to call their families to come and pick them up. Shi Qiyue put aside her annoyance and smiled at them: "I'll see you off and then call the driver to pick me up."

While we were waiting, one of the girls said, "Qiyue, you had a lot of fun today. Let's go out and play again next time!"

"Yeah, just call us next time you want to go somewhere."

Shi Qiyue readily agreed, "Okay."

The group chatted casually for a while, when suddenly someone pointed ahead, lowering their voice but unable to hide their excitement.

"Look at that guy, he's so handsome..."

Everyone looked in the direction she pointed. In the shadows by the roadside ahead, a tall boy stood with his back to them, his figure half-hidden in the darkness, his head slightly lowered. Even just from his back, one could tell he was tall with long legs and excellent proportions.

Standing alone in the deep night, he looked cold and desolate.

Everyone instinctively lowered their voices: "It really is, but we don't know what the front view looks like..."

"Why don't we just go around and sneak a peek?" Everyone immediately agreed to the suggestion and started moving forward.

Shi Qiyue was dragged along from the side without a word. Before she could see anything clearly, someone exclaimed in surprise at the boy's profile, "This guy looks a bit like your brother."

"Whose brother?"

"Your brother? Shi Ziqian!"

The girls in her class were often amazed by their enthusiasm for handsome guys. Although they were in the junior high school, they frequently went to the senior high school in groups of three or five, and seemed to know Shi Ziqian better than she did. Their words surprised Shi Qiyue.

However, she quickly realized that Shi Ziqian would never be here at this time.

"No, you've mistaken me for someone else."

She glanced over casually, then suddenly froze.

The person standing in the distance was indeed Shi Ziqian.

[Author's Note]

[Vegetable Dog] is about to witness a heartwarming sibling relationship (not really).