Chapter 251 Something's Going Wrong

"Chao Chao, do I need to leave?" Shi Jing asked obediently.

Zhu Jinzhao took his hand and sat him down at the foot of the bed with him: "Mingyue knows about us, so you don't need to hide it from her."

After saying that, the video call was connected immediately.

"Every morning."

Zhu Mingyue had just finished showering, and her long hair was still wet and hadn't been dried yet.

"Mingyue." Zhu Jinzhao pointed his phone camera at himself and Shi Jing, and greeted Zhu Mingyue in a generous manner.

"Good evening, Mingyue," Shi Jing said immediately afterward.

"You two are still together?" Zhu Mingyue frowned, then lowered her head and leaned closer to her phone, squinting as she carefully examined the background behind them.

"You're... in a hotel room?!" Zhu Mingyue's voice instantly turned terrified.

"..." Shi Jing pursed his lips speechlessly, took the phone from Zhu Jinzhao's hand, and openly showed his room to Zhu Mingyue.

"Have you ever seen a hotel with such luxurious decor? This is my own room!"

"...Your own room?!" Zhu Mingyue's voice was even more terrified. "You've brought my Chaochao home?!"

“Yes.” Shi Jing raised an eyebrow, looking smug. “Not only did I bring Chaochao home, I also introduced her to my parents.”

"Ha—" Zhu Mingyue gasped, her wide eyes filled with shock and gossip.

"So, you two are now sharing a bed?"

"Of course not!" Zhu Jinzhao leaned over, taking up the entire phone screen. "Shi Jing and I sleep in separate rooms. He sleeps in the guest room, and I sleep in his room. We don't sleep in the same bed!"

"...Really?" Zhu Mingyue grinned mischievously, clearly not believing it.

Zhu Jinzhao knew she had misunderstood, and every word she said next was firm and resolute: "Of course it's true! Shi Jing and I are ambitious young people of the new era, we would never do anything bad in secret!"

“Right?” She turned to look at Shi Jing.

“That’s right!” Shi Jing nodded, his eyes gleaming with a wicked glint in them. “Chao Chao and I would never do anything sneaky. If we really did, we would have confessed long ago!”

"Tsk—" Zhu Jinzhao punched him.

Then, turning back to look at Zhu Mingyue, he deliberately changed the subject.

"By the way, Mingyue, why did you suddenly decide to video call me? Is there something you want to tell me?"

"There's nothing to tell you, I just wanted to ask you something." Zhu Mingyue picked up a towel and casually dried her hair. "Did your older brother call you to tell you to come home tomorrow?"

"Yes," Zhu Jinzhao said honestly. "You just sent me a WeChat message, and my brother called me on video."

Zhu Mingyue: "A video call? What did he say?"

Zhu Jinzhao: "He didn't say anything, just asked if I had eaten and if I had been having fun lately. Because I had something to hide, I tentatively asked him if he was angry with me after finding out about Su Ying. As it turned out, not only was he not angry, but he also miraculously came to his senses on his own."

"What have you figured out?" Zhu Mingyue's eyes were inexplicably wary.

Zhu Jinzhao carefully recalled her conversation with Zhu Xingye and relayed Zhu Xingye's words verbatim.

"My God, did your older brother really say that?" Shi Jing was also surprised.

Zhu Jinzhao said with certainty, "Yes, my older brother really said that."

"This... this change of events is a bit too sudden, isn't it?" For some reason, Zhu Xingye's words made Zhu Mingyue feel a strong sense of unease.

"Chao Chao, what was your brother's expression when he said those words? Was he pleased and happy, or was he smiling with a hidden dagger?"

Zhu Jinzhao thought for a moment and said very confidently, "When my brother video-called me, he was very happy the whole time, and there was no hint of malice in his smile."

"Are you sure?" Zhu Mingyue asked, somewhat uneasy.

Zhu Jinzhao: "Of course I'm sure! Big Brother was genuinely happy during the video call, and the tone of his voice was very sincere. I didn't see wrong!"

"Mingyue, why are you asking that? Do you think Big Brother is just pretending to be happy?"

“It’s not that…” Zhu Mingyue frowned, looking somewhat confused. “I just feel that it’s strange that my brother has suddenly changed like this.”

"My brother is a very stubborn person and won't easily change his mind for anyone. You kept such a big thing from him this time, how could he possibly change his mind so easily without even getting angry?"

Don't you think it's abrupt?

“Suddenly…” Zhu Jinzhao thought back to the matter after hearing her words and indeed felt a strong sense of abruptness.

"...My brother's behavior in the video was indeed very different from usual." She scratched her forehead, belatedly realizing that something was wrong.

“My older brother has always had a bad temper. He would nag me for ages if I made a small mistake. He has never forgiven me so easily as he did today.”

“That’s right.” That’s exactly what Zhu Mingyue meant. “My brother has had a bad temper for so many years. If he wanted to change, he would have done so long ago. How could he suddenly change so drastically at this time?”

"Moreover, he never listens to what his second and third brothers say."

"Mingyue, what are you suspecting?" Shi Jing asked directly.

Zhu Mingyue pinched her lips, her face looking rather grim: "Something's definitely up to no good. I'm worried that my brother has planted a bomb at home, waiting for us to step on it when we get back."

"What?!" Zhu Jinzhao was terrified. "He's trying to blow us up?!"

Zhu Mingyue: "Either we'll be blown up or verbally abused to death! Chaochao, let's prepare to get beaten up."

"Holy crap..." Shi Jing was utterly shocked. He prided himself on being extremely intelligent, yet he hadn't seen through Zhu Xingye's treacherous trick of hiding a knife in a joke.

Zhu Jinzhao pitifully clung to his hand, feeling as if she could already choose her burial plot ahead of time.

Zhu Mingyue's analysis made her extremely uneasy. She lay in bed all night, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep. Shi Jing held her and coaxed her for a long time before finally getting her to sleep, but then she started having nightmares again.

But perhaps the weather was bad tonight, she wasn't the only one having nightmares.

Thousands of miles away in Binzhou, Shi Fei was also trapped in a nightmare.

"Zhu Jinzhao, you and Shi Jing are not a good match. I advise you to be sensible and leave on your own."

In the dream, he sat on a cold, high seat and spoke indifferently to Zhu Jinzhao below the steps.

Zhu Jinzhao hung her head, her thin, paper-thin body swaying precariously in the biting cold wind.

"I know I will leave Shi Jing." She said weakly, her thin voice shattered by the cold wind, reaching Shi Fei's ears intermittently.

Shi Fei looked down at her from his high position, letting her frail figure be gradually rendered black and white by the nightmare.