Want to see her

Late on Monday night, Zhuang Yu'an returned home with a rare look of fatigue on his face.

After a long day of meetings and several nights of poor rest, he just wanted to fall asleep. However, what he heard next wiped out all his sleep.

"They scheduled the rehearsal for Thursday!" Zhuang Jinghao jumped up from the sofa and said angrily, "At first everyone said Wednesday or Thursday would be fine, and then I said Wednesday would be fine, I have something to do on Thursday. In the end..."

She stamped her feet in anger. "I'm so pissed! That Qin Yufei actually changed his mind and said Thursday wasn't an option! And then that lackey Peng Lei also said he had something to do on Thursday! Damn it, I think they're just trying to mess things up!"

Zhuang Yu'an remained silent. Zhuang Jinghao pouted, feeling extremely frustrated. "It's all my fault. I wouldn't have said that..."

Zhuang Yu'an felt distressed by his sister's self-blaming expression. He pulled her to sit on the sofa, rubbed her shoulders, and said, "It's my fault. I was too hasty. After all, you're just an assistant. How can you decide the band's rehearsal date? Let's leave it at that for now. Wait until I get back from my business trip..."

The rest of the words died in his throat. He leaned back on the sofa, closed his eyes, raised his hand and pinched his eyebrows.

Wait until he comes back from his business trip, then what?

He hadn't figured out what to do. If he took a step forward, he feared being reckless and annoying; if he took a step back, he feared missing out on an opportunity and losing it to someone else.

Zhuang Jinghao was so distressed to see her brother so tired that she quickly stood up, poured a cup of hot water, and placed it on the coffee table.

After hesitating for a long time, he finally spoke.

"Brother, you are hiding something from me, right?"

Zhuang Yu'an opened his eyes upon hearing this, and then pursed his eyelids tightly, as a sign of his intention to dispel sleepiness.

"What do you mean?" he asked in a low voice.

Zhuang Jinghao bit her lip and said, "Something must have happened between rehearsals last Monday and Thursday, otherwise Zuo Xiao wouldn't have suddenly been avoiding you so obviously."

These words made Zhuang Yu'an's eyelids jump, and his brows unconsciously knitted together. When people are extremely tired, it is more difficult than usual to hide their emotions.

"No." He said in a deep voice.

Zhuang Jing refused to accept the suggestion. "Brother, could you please stop hiding this from me?" she asked anxiously. "How can I help you if you don't even know the crucial information?"

The brother was silent for a moment, then sighed softly, "Can we talk about it tomorrow? I want to rest."

"No!" Zhuang Jinghao lost his temper and refused to let him go, grabbing his forearm with both hands. Zhuang Yu'an shook his head helplessly and reiterated: "Really not."

"Impossible!" she argued. "She clearly agreed to stay over at our house on Sunday night, and things were so good between you two before then. Why did she suddenly change her attitude on Thursday? Also, your reaction is weird. I can tell you're hiding something!"

Zhuang Yu'an didn't know how to move on from this, only regretting that he hadn't prepared a pretext. He couldn't possibly tell anyone else what had happened in the room that afternoon, not even if it was his own sister. It was private, and revealing it would be disrespectful to Zuo Xiao and even damage her reputation.

Seeing that he didn't respond, Zhuang Jinghao gritted his teeth and unleashed a sledgehammer.

"This isn't just my opinion. Si Rui thinks so too! You can say I'm overthinking it, but Si Rui doesn't think as much as I do, right?"

Zhuang Yu'an frowned upon hearing this, his face solemn: "Jinghao, you shouldn't tell anyone outside about Zuo Xiao and me."

Zhuang Jinghao felt aggrieved and retorted, "Si Rui is on the same side as us. Why can't we tell her? Have you forgotten how she helped you?"

The brother sighed and softened his tone: "How much did you tell her?"

"I've said everything I need to say. Anyway, she said that if what I said, the interactions between you, are true, then Zuo Xiao should have a good impression of you and have feelings for you..." Her face flushed, "At least she has feelings for your body..."

These words made Zhuang Yu'an's breath catch, and he didn't speak for a long time.

Zhuang Jinghao stared at his face intently, trying to decipher some code from it.

The brother who had always been rational now looked dazed, as if he had been shocked by what she had just said.

"So..." His voice remained calm, "You told Liang Sirui what happened over the weekend, including our hiking, hot spring bathing, dinner the next night, going to the bar, and her coming to stay at home... You told me the details you observed, right?"

"Yes!" Zhuang Jinghao emphasized again, "Si Rui is very knowledgeable! After hearing this, she said very confidently that Zuo Xiao is interested in you! At least judging by your appearance, you must be her favorite! She...she is very attracted to your body..."

Zhuang Yu'an's heart was already surging at this moment. After listening to the above assertion with a complicated expression, he suppressed his frantic heartbeat and said, "I understand."

"What do you mean you knew? I didn't know!" Zhuang Jinghao protested loudly, "So what happened next? Brother, are you still going to hide it from me?"

Zhuang Yu'an looked at his sister apologetically: "Indeed, there was a little incident, but... it's not convenient to tell anyone, including you. Sorry."

Zhuang Jinghao gasped and his face quickly turned red with excitement.

"Oh my God! You...you..." She used all her imagination to guess, "You kissed?!"

"No." Zhuang Yu'an stood up and touched her head before leaving. "Don't think too much."

But how could she not have random thoughts! That night, she tossed and turned, unable to sleep, her mind full of thoughts about "what on earth happened between her brother and Zuo Xiao?" There were even a few restricted scenes that frightened her so much that she opened her phone and played "Purifying Heart Mantra" by her pillow all night.

It is even more impossible for Zhuang Yu'an to "not have random thoughts".

He had originally assumed Zuo Xiao wouldn't object to his approach. During those few seemingly unreal minutes, she'd even shown a certain fondness for him, a desire for his touch. To his delight, he wasn't the only one who thought so. His sister and Liang Sirui, both outsiders, had also made similar judgments. Liang Sirui even went so far as to assert that Zuo Xiao liked him for who he was and was attracted to his body... He was so overwhelmed with joy that he felt like he was drunk.

The dim light of dawn peeked into the room from the edge of the curtains, and he realized that he hadn't slept all night.

He forced himself to go to the gym. To be safe, he reduced the weight on his bench press by a third. But he couldn't reduce the number of reps, because this muscular body was his most important asset.

The rest of the day passed in a blur. His thoughts swirled back and forth between "She should like me," "I want to see her," "But I can't," and "I really want to see her," leaving him in a trance. Fortunately, years of high-efficiency work had formed an automated assembly line in his mind, and he split into two Zhuang Yu'an: one in meetings, the other sleepwalking; one at the helm of the company, the other trapped in a maze, wandering around in circles with no direction.

At nine o'clock in the evening, Luffy noticed that something was wrong with him.

"You look like you're going to die at any moment." He closed Zhuang Yu'an's laptop, turned to Chen Quan and said, "Let your boss go. We'll talk about any work tomorrow."

Zhuang Yu'an finally got a good night's sleep. When he woke up, he felt full of energy and his mind became optimistic and clear.

Can't there be any other reason to want to see her?

At dusk, Zuo Xiao took the bus for two stops and arrived at the shopping mall closest to the community.

She reported her table number and was led in by the restaurant waiter.

At a booth for four, a man in a black turtleneck sweater was looking down at the menu. He was tall, with a respectable demeanor, and a pair of black-framed glasses perched on his high nose. He was the type of son-in-law most fathers-in-law would love.

Unfortunately, Zuo Xiao really has no feelings for this doctor.

He was currently helping his mentor with a project and was in Beijing for a week-long business trip. He'd asked her out for dinner the day before yesterday, right after arriving. She'd felt bad about the time she and Lao Zuo had taken someone else's family for a walk, so she agreed. Unexpectedly, he asked her out for dinner again the next day, and after she politely declined, he kept asking her out. Since she couldn't refuse, she decided to use this opportunity to completely sever his ties.

"It's cold outside, isn't it?" Dr. Hu put down the menu, stood up, took her coat, folded it in two pieces and placed it on the booth. "The weather forecast says it will snow today, light snow."

"Really?" Zuo Xiao said indifferently, "I didn't even look at it."

"Is the heating in Beijing now?" He made small talk while pouring hot water into the glass in front of her.

"He came last month." Zuo Xiao responded, while thinking about how to persuade him to quit without hurting his self-esteem.

Just then, her phone rang. She stared at the three words "Zhuang Yu'an" on the screen, and her heart tightened for some reason.

He picked up the phone and shook it: "Answer the call, you order the food." Then he stood up and walked out.

"Are you home?" the other person said, "I'm nearby and I have something I want to give you. Is that convenient?"

She frowned and asked, "What is it?"

The other party was silent for a moment, then replied, "Something that can bless the band's performance to be a success."

What's going on? He's even into metaphysics? Zuo Xiao laughed out loud.

After thinking for a moment, he came up with a plan. "I'll give you an address. Come over and wait outside. I'll send you a WeChat message. Come in when I call you."

Faced with her strange request, the other party just said yes without saying a single extra word - he was very well behaved.

Back at the restaurant, Zuo Xiao chatted with Dr. Hu about random things. He said he'd run into Zuo in the park last month, where he was playing chess with someone. He also said Beijing's winters were dry, and with indoor heating, it was more comfortable than Nanjing.

Halfway through the meal, Zuo Xiao received a WeChat message from Zhuang Yu'an saying that he had arrived at the restaurant and was waiting in the waiting area.

After waiting for a while, seeing that Dr. Hu had almost finished eating, Zuo Xiao put down his chopsticks, picked up his phone, looked at it, and said, "My boyfriend is nearby and said he would come to pick me up. I'll introduce you to each other later."

The eyes behind the lenses dimmed noticeably.

"Okay." He forced a smile. "Your boyfriend... should be very good, right?"

"It's okay."

Dr. Hu was silent for a moment, then asked, "Have you been talking for a long time?"

Zuo Xiaogang felt burdened after telling the first lie, so he couldn't exaggerate when telling the second one. He just said, "Not long, just a few months."

Dr. Hu said no more. Zuo Xiao sent a message to Zhuang Yu'an, and within a minute, he was at the table.

Zuo Xiao moved his butt and signaled him to sit down with his eyes.

"This is Dr. Hu, Hu Junxi," she introduced perfunctorily, "and this is Zhuang Yu'an."

The two men shook hands across the table. Zuo Xiao didn't intend for them to have a long conversation, so he said, "It's getting late, let's go," completely ignoring that the man next to him had just sat down.

The two stood side by side on the road, watching Dr. Hu get into the car. After the car drove away, Zuo Xiao took a step to the side, creating some distance.

"Where are your things?" she asked bluntly.

Zhuang Yu'an looked at her softly and smiled, "If I give it to you now, will you say: I've given you the things, you can leave now."

Zuo Xiao hadn't expected him to be able to joke around. But it seemed like she was quite mean in his jokes.

Zhuang Yu'an looked up at the dark sky and said, "It looks like it's going to snow. Can I take you home?"

She wanted to make things difficult for me, so she said sarcastically, "Do you need the excuse of snow to send me home?"

He was stunned for a moment, then suddenly found the courage to say in a deep voice, "I really don't need any other reason. The reason is that I want to give it to you."

Zuo Xiao looked at him in surprise, thinking that this man was indeed becoming more and more presumptuous.