Camel Thorn (Part Two)

Some have found liberation, but others have not.

Zhou Zeyu propped her head up, staring blankly at the person in front of her who was enjoying a hearty meal, feeling utterly hopeless. She could only imagine the aroma of fried chicken, roast duck, and hamburgers lingering in her mind's eye, making her so angry that she wanted to flip the table and kick Fang Xiaocan out.

"Don't you think this is a little excessive?"

"It's alright." Fang Xiaocan was busy putting ketchup on the fries and gave her a perfunctory reply, "I think I'm pretty good to myself."

You're not very nice to me.

Upon hearing this, Fang Xiaocan looked up, gave her a bewildered and confused look, nodded, grabbed a handful of fries, and was about to stuff them into her mouth.

Poor Zhou Zeyu didn't even have time to say the word "more" before he watched Fang Xiaocan suddenly sigh as if waking from a dream, look at the hospital wristband on her wrist, shake her head, and then decisively stuff it into her mouth.

"I forgot, Coach Xu said you can't eat fried food." She shrugged innocently, indicating it wasn't her fault.

Zhou Zeyu closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and made sure that the anger in his voice had reached a terrifying level, "Did Coach Xu say that fried food is not allowed in the ward where patients are recuperating?"

However, the devil is one foot tall, but the Tao is ten feet tall. Fang Xiaocan was not afraid at all. He looked at her angry and frustrated appearance with a grin, and was even quite proud of himself. He picked up the remaining half bag of fries, tilted his head back and poured them all into his mouth. Now he couldn't speak. He babbled and gestured for a long time but couldn't understand what he was saying.

Zhou Zeyu's head was throbbing from listening to this. He quickly waved his hand, signaling her to eat quietly and not to talk, or she might choke to death in her hospital room, which would be very unlucky.

The two sat facing each other, though it wasn't really face-to-face. Fang Xiaocan was facing the food, while Zhou Zeyu was staring at Fang Xiaocan with a look of resentment. One was eating, and the other was staring, yet they somehow achieved a strange harmony.

Since she made that outrageous statement last time, she was undoubtedly kicked out of the team immediately, with the time between the two being less than half an hour. Fang Xiaocan even said with relish that this was the most efficient time in nearly a year.

So, the man who had been promoted to unemployed set his sights on Zhou Zeyu again, bringing a large bag of fried food to her every day without fail, and patting his chest to assure the nurse that as long as she was alive, he would never let the cunning patient Zhou Zeyu have a single bite.

Over the course of a few days, Zhou Zeyu's health improved with each bland and tasteless hospital meal. However, in stark contrast to her health, her temper became increasingly terrifying. She was like a billionaire who had been told that all her funds had been frozen and could only stare at the pile of cash in front of her, so angry that her lungs felt like they were going to explode.

In her extreme helplessness, she even asked the nurses if they could get rid of this villain who was affecting the patient's recovery. Unfortunately, Fang Xiaocan had come under the orders of Director Xu and could not be driven away. He could openly act like a jerk in front of her every day.

Zhou Zeyu felt her head was getting more and more painful. She began to suspect that Coach Xu thought she was living too comfortably, so he specially sent a bomb to adjust her life, or perhaps Coach Xu couldn't handle this hot potato, so he simply stuffed it into Zhou Zeyu's hands and let it go.

It's hard to say whether Zhou Zeyi or Fang Xiaocan gives Coach Xu a bigger headache; if we really had to compare them, they'd probably be neck and neck.

"Shouldn't you be free of stress lately?" Zhou Zeyi asked, puzzled. "Why are you still binge eating?"

“This is hardly binge eating,” Fang Xiaocan said, showing off the pitiful half-eaten hamburger in her hand. “This is just normal eating, only extremely unhealthy.”

In particular, it's unhealthy.

Zhou Zeyu blinked, opened his lunchbox, revealing bright green broccoli and a few pieces of dry chicken breast, and sincerely invited her to taste it, "It's too unhealthy, hurry up and eat something healthy."

Fang Xiaocan glanced at it, looking like she was about to vomit, and waved her hand, telling her to take it as far away as possible.

“I don’t care much about health now,” she said with a rather insincere smile, chuckling twice. “But it’s different for patients. Patients need to eat more, right?”

"Bullshit," Zhou Zeyu scoffed, stuffing food into her mouth with annoyance. After such a long period of torture, she felt she might soon lose her appetite.

"And who told you I'm not under any pressure right now? I'm under a lot of pressure, okay?!"

"What? Coach Huang sent you a lawyer's letter?"

Fang Xiaocan burst into laughter, "He has so many people he wants to sue, I doubt it'll be my turn. Didn't he say he was going to sue Sports Daily too? Let Zhang Yuan fight him then."

Ever since Zhou Zeyu returned from London, he had been waiting for the latest issue of Sports Daily. He waited and waited but it never came. They were quite disappointed, thinking that Zhang Yuan had given in to the pressure and dared not release it. But they didn't expect that this kid hadn't given up at all, but was figuring out how to make the whole thing reach its peak.

With this series of actions, coupled with Fang Xiaocan's previous public accusations, the excitement of the whole society was mobilized to the highest level. "National Team Scandals for Years" dominated the trending topics for several days, with dozens of articles appearing on the internet. Almost the entire society was discussing this matter, and a large number of other dirty incidents were also exposed. Coach Huang was riding high for a time.

"Being infamous is still being famous," Fang Xiaocan commented objectively. "Haven't he always wanted to be a household name and a legendary figure? In a way, he's probably already halfway there."

Zhou Zeyu nodded in deep agreement and sighed, but not for Coach Huang's sake. He was regretting that he hadn't been able to get his hands on the first edition of the Sports Daily. Although Zhang Yuan claimed that they had started reprinting, it was impossible to buy one, and he hadn't even thought of leaving a copy for the whistleblower. It was really not very considerate.

"Do you know why Coach Huang's PR team didn't come this time?" Fang Xiaocan put down the chicken leg that had been gnawed clean and looked at her mysteriously.

"That's easy," Zhou Zeyu laughed. "He's out of money, isn't he? Isn't his PR team supposed to be the same as that of top-tier celebrities in the entertainment industry? How could they afford to support him for less than tens of millions?"

Fang Xiaocan's laughter stopped precisely on the fourth tone. Her eyes darted around, and she suddenly remembered something. Her smile vanished without a trace. "Yeah, I still haven't gotten my wages back."

Now it was finally Zhou Zeyu's turn to gloat. She mercilessly mocked her, "Oh no, do you think you can get your expelled back?"

The other person ignored her and even rolled their eyes rudely: "Is that even a question? Have you ever seen a meat bun thrown to a dog come back?"

"But now is a good time to kick a man when he's down." Her eyes darted around again, and Zhou Zeyu sensed a sinister glint in them. The next second, Fang Xiaocan pulled out her phone and chuckled, "I'll add fuel to the fire and burn this old bastard to death."

She knew it...

Zhou Zeyu didn't intend to stop her. Since things were already so chaotic, it wouldn't hurt if they got even more chaotic. Not to mention her, Zhou Zeyu herself wanted to write a long essay to rant about it.

But after thinking about it, she gave up the idea. There were so many things she wanted to say that when the time came, she found herself unable to say anything at all.

It's okay, the ending is good anyway.

Zhou Zeyi doesn't like to dwell on things. She used to do that all the time, and as a result, she ended up exhausted. Now that she thinks about it, there's really nothing in this world worth dwelling on repeatedly. At worst, you can just ignore it.

"You've really become much more open-minded," Fang Xiaocan commented. "What's going on? Are you still the Zhou Zeyi I know? The atmosphere has been built up to this point, and you're not going to shed a few tears?"

Knowing she wouldn't come up with anything decent, Zhou Zeyu pouted. She had already guessed that she would say something like that, so she didn't reply. Instead, she crossed her arms and snorted, "How can you survive if you're not more open-minded? I should have learned from you earlier. It's so much better to be carefree."

"Who told you I'm heartless? I hold grudges much longer than you do. If I were you, I wouldn't let Cen Zheng off the hook at all."

The moment that name was mentioned, the atmosphere in the room quickly became strange. Zhou Zeyu looked away, pursed her lips, and continued to avoid the topic. Fang Xiaocan was stunned for a moment, and realized that she shouldn't have brought her up at this time. She deliberately cleared her throat and racked her brains to change the subject.

"Um... how are things going with you and your little lover lately?"

Zhou Zeyu gave her a look of utter disdain. "How can you be so bad at changing the subject?"

"Oh, I was just curious, and my question was a bit off-topic."

Seeing Fang Xiaocan's distressed expression, Zhou Zeyu knew that she had wanted to ask this question for a long time, but hadn't found a suitable opportunity to bring it up before. Now that she had finally said it, she was in a state of "I'll make a scene if you don't tell me".

Zhou Zeyu shrugged, still feeling that she couldn't let her cause such a scene; the nurses might just pack them up and throw them out in a minute.

"Nothing much, he's probably still preparing for next year's competition."

"That's it?" Fang Xiaocan looked incredulous. "You're kidding me."

Zhou Zeyu shrugged, speechless. "When I was being watched the most closely, even my phone usage was limited. What do you expect me to do? Run away in the dead of night to take a plane and meet him in secret? If I had that kind of ability, I wouldn't be here."

Knowing that Fang Xiaocan had completely forgotten about this, after hearing her words, he finally sighed with a sense of enlightenment, showing a very regretful expression, and slapped his thigh: "That's right, I still think long-distance relationships are not very reliable, why don't you find someone else?"

"Huh? t"

“Yeah, my ex and I were in a long-distance relationship for 7,000 kilometers, and he was so upset about it. You’re 7,000 kilometers away, you might as well just give up.”

"ah?"

"That's no problem. If you like swimming, I can take you to a nearby pool another day. I guarantee you'll find one you like."

"ah?"

"What do you mean, 'huh'?" Fang Xiaocan said, exasperated, and slapped her on the shoulder. "I've helped you this much, what are you still hesitating for! Did that little vixen drug you?"

Fang Xiaocan took a big bite of the chicken leg, clearly dissatisfied with her "never mind, we'll talk about it tomorrow" attitude. However, since she was still chewing something and couldn't speak, she could only reluctantly give up and let out a long, earnest sigh, which seemed to serve as a warning.

It's not that Zhou Zeyi wasn't concerned; she had actually realized this crucial issue long ago, but habitually avoided thinking about it. Being apart so often and so far apart wasn't something that simple love could overcome simply by distance.

Moreover, she didn't even know how deep her feelings for Sorkov were. The only thing she was certain of was that she would never stay in Belgrade for him.

And he, being such an objective person, certainly wouldn't do that.

In fact, many times, when Zhou Zeyu lay on the hospital bed in the rehabilitation center, staring blankly at the ceiling, he couldn't help but wonder if it was a mistake for him not to go directly to London but instead to stay in Belgrade for a few days.

Sorkov was right. She was under the influence of hormones at the time, and many of her decisions were made without rational thought or serious consideration. She acted on impulse, following only her superficial desires. In retrospect, perhaps she shouldn't have done it at all.

Too impulsive.

If she hadn't done that, things wouldn't seem so complicated. Her relationship with Sorkov would have remained at the moment of parting, like friends but not quite. She might have felt a little regret, but mostly gratitude, and then slowly forgot him over the long years, only thinking of him occasionally.

Isn't that better? At least she won't be overwhelmed by such painful emotions, constantly thinking of him, not knowing what awaits her.

Judging from Fang Xiaocan's pessimistic attitude, the possibility of this relationship ending seems to be as high as 99%. Zhou Zeyu's own estimate is not that high, but it is not much different from hers.

Is there any point in continuing a relationship that is destined to end?

This presents another difficult choice. Of course, it's hard to separate, but what if we don't? Will nothing happen if we don't separate? The sunk costs are getting deeper and deeper, and it will only be harder to let go in the end, but we have to do it eventually.

Zhou Zeyu sighed deeply, unable to explain her own thoughts. The angel and devil in her mind started arguing again after a long time, and the argument grew fiercer and fiercer. She even wanted to call them out for a real fight, and whoever won would have the final say, though of course, that was unlikely.

"I'm so annoyed, Fang Xiaocan."

Unlike her indecisiveness, Fang Xiaocan was much more decisive when it came to relationships. She casually said, "Then let's break up. You know, I broke up with my ex-boyfriend who was in a long-distance relationship with me for seven kilometers in just one week."

Zhou Zeyu sprang up from his slumped seat with a somersault, exclaiming, "This is different!"

“I know it’s different. After all, he’s your first spring after all.” She crossed her legs and started picking her teeth in a very casual manner, still looking nonchalant. “Sigh, it might be difficult, but when you’re heartbroken, you can get over it after a few drinks and a good night’s sleep. It’ll be over quickly.”

Seeing that the other person still looked gloomy, Fang Xiaocan raised an eyebrow, "You like it that much?"

I can't explain it.

Zhou Zeyu covered her face in despair, unable to understand why she was so unlucky. She had finally resolved one major problem, but another one came uninvited, and the two problems were seamlessly connected, which was almost driving her crazy.

“Sometimes I even wonder if I really like him that much.” She shook her head and said frankly, “Could it just be that the timing of his appearance was too coincidental, just when I was at my most vulnerable in Belgrade… If it had been someone else instead of him, would I have liked that person?”

"Why make it so complicated?" Fang Xiaocan said without thinking. "Didn't the 'what if' you imagined happen? That's good, isn't it? Although we can't rule out the possibility you mentioned, we still have to live in the present."

Zhou Zeyu shook her head, forcing herself not to dwell on this matter. She had long known that getting stuck on a rut was useless, and the same applied to this matter.

Seeing that her expression had calmed down a bit, Fang Xiaocan looked at her with a grin, "So? Are you still going to the swimming pool?"

"Go to hell." Zhou Zeyu rolled his eyes, grabbed another chicken leg and was about to stuff it into her mouth, but stopped just before he touched her. After thinking for a moment, he decisively stuffed it into his own mouth.

"Hello!"