Zhong Xuyang was having dinner with friends when he received the text message about the 300,000 yuan transfer.
He paused for a moment, then picked up his phone and walked out of the private room.
He hadn't called Xiao Yao for a month, and he listened anxiously to the ringing tone, waiting for the call to be connected.
Just when he thought she wouldn't answer, the ringing stopped, and Zhong Xuyang's heart skipped a beat.
"Yao Yao".
First, there was the clicking sound of a sewing machine on the other end of the phone, then Xiao Yao asked in a loud voice,
"Did you receive the money?"
She had already guessed he would call, but hearing her now energetic voice, Zhong Xuyang's heart, which had been pounding, slowly calmed down as she spoke. A smile unconsciously crept onto his lips, and his voice rose in response.
Why are you in such a hurry to pay me back?
"Isn't it almost Chinese New Year? My family's rule is that you can't owe money to someone until the New Year." After saying that, Xiao Yao immediately said something to the person next to her about the collar not being sewn properly.
Although she seemed very busy, Zhong Xuyang still couldn't bear to hang up. "Is the garment factory on track?"
He actually wanted to ask where she got the 300,000 yuan, since they had officially separated less than two months ago.
Xiao Yao's answer was brief: "It's alright, the factory is getting better and better now."
"If you need money urgently, just tell me anytime."
"Thanks, but I'll contact my brother if I need anything. I'll return the money to you now, and we're even."
Upon hearing the phrase "settled accounts," Zhong Xuyang's heart skipped a beat, but he pretended to be relaxed and said, "300,000 yuan, I didn't charge a single penny of interest, and that's it?"
There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone, followed by a polite inquiry, "Would it be alright if I calculated the interest for you based on the bank's rate?"
Zhong Xuyang didn't intend to ask for interest. "No need for interest, how about you treat me to dinner when you come home for Chinese New Year?"
Xiao Yao hesitated, "Isn't this a bit inappropriate?"
Although she didn't want to fall out with Zhong Xuyang, she also didn't plan to be friends with him.
"What's wrong with eating? Didn't you say you could be friends with every ex? Why can't you be friends with me?"
She and her exes all ended up becoming friends, something Xiao Yao told Zhong Xuyang during a previous conversation. This was true, but it didn't include Zhong Xuyang.
Seeing that Xiao Yao remained silent, Zhong Xuyang deliberately asked, "Or is it that you can't let go of me and are afraid to see me?"
Xiao Yao couldn't be provoked, and sure enough, she immediately agreed, "Okay, I'll treat you to dinner when I get back to Yun City."
"Okay, it's a deal."
Zhong Xuyang didn't give her a chance to back out. "I'm having dinner with some friends right now. I'll hang up now. Remember to call me when you get back." Then he hung up the phone.
Xiao Yao looked at the phone after it was hung up and realized that she had been tricked by Zhong Xuyang.
At the end of the year, when the garment factory settled accounts, she and Gu Yueji both received a small surplus. Although it was far from enough to cover their initial investment, they were happy to have received money after paying wages and keeping operating funds.
She always remembered that she owed Zhong Xuyang money, so when she got the money, she borrowed some from her brother Xiao Yao and paid back the money she owed Zhong Xuyang.
She had already booked her plane ticket home for the Spring Festival and originally didn't plan to meet Zhong Xuyang, but she didn't expect that he would use reverse psychology to trick her into meeting him.
The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. Zhong Xuyang knew perfectly well that she couldn't be provoked, but he was doing it on purpose.
But thinking about it, she figured she might as well meet him; it wasn't like she was really afraid.
After Zhong Xuyang returned to the private room, his friend noticed the smile on his face and asked,
"Why are you so happy to come back from answering a phone call?"
Zhong Xuyang snapped out of his reverie. "Nothing, I was just thinking about someone."
He imagined Xiao Yao's angry face after she understood, pouting and glaring at him, like a little goldfish.
His friend was stunned. It had been so long since he had seen Zhong Xuyang grinning like that.
He and Zhong Xuyang were high school classmates. He witnessed Zhong Xuyang and Lin Wenwen's sweet first love in high school, so he was very surprised when he heard the news of their breakup while he was abroad. He found it even more unbelievable when he learned that Lin Wenwen had been emotionally unfaithful.
Zhong Xuyang was considered the most handsome guy in his high school. He was cheerful and sunny, and attentive and devoted to his girlfriend. He was probably every girl's ideal boyfriend. He really couldn't understand what Lin Wenwen was thinking.
He saw Zhong Xuyang a few times during his vacation back in China. On the surface, Zhong Xuyang seemed fine, but his smile was noticeably less sunny than before, and there was a faint sadness in his eyes.
When we met again this time, he was clearly different.
"Are you in a relationship?" my friend asked bluntly.
Zhong Xuyang was taken aback, then a smile that went straight to his eyes appeared on his face. "Yes, we've been dating for over a year."
In fact, he and Xiao Yao had not officially been in a relationship for less than a year, but he always automatically set the time when they got together as May of last year, when they first met, because their relationship had already changed that night, and he believed that they were together in the end, just in a different order.
So even when Lin Wenwen asked him when they got together, he answered in May, which might be what Lin Wenwen meant by a seamless transition.
"You're not being fair! How come I didn't know anything about this?" my friend complained.
"I was planning to introduce you to him when you come back to China this year."
"originally?"
Zhong Xuyang smiled wryly, "I've lost popularity lately."
"scare?"
"Lin Wenwen told others that my girlfriend and I had a seamless transition, and that my girlfriend felt wronged and broke up with me."
Zhong Xuyang still can't understand how Lin Wenwen could say such a distorted truth when Lin Wenwen and Liu Yang were the ones who seamlessly transitioned into each other, officially announcing their relationship just three days after their breakup at the end of April, while he only met Xiao Yao during the May Day holiday.
"Really? Isn't she getting married soon?"
They were all classmates, and even without WeChat, he had heard that Lin Wenwen was getting married, and it seemed to be a shotgun wedding.
Zhong Xuyang now feels that Lin Wenwen is a stranger. "I don't understand either. It seems like she doesn't want me to be happy."
"So you and your girlfriend really broke up?"
"Yeah, we broke up."
Zhong Xuyang has accepted the result calmly.
"But I will win Xiao Yao back."
He turned and gave his friend a confident smile.
My friend immediately understood, "I knew it, you don't look like you've just broken up at all."
"If you liked him, why did you break up with him?"
Zhong Xuyang took a sip of wine before speaking calmly, "She has suffered a lot of grievances with me. If I keep forcing her to be with me and make her keep it to herself, it will only make her feel more uncomfortable and wronged."
Whether it was Lin Wenwen or him, they had both planted several thorns in Xiao Yao's heart. He couldn't expect Xiao Yao to slowly digest these thorns on her own; instead, he should pull them out one by one.
"My New Year's wishes for you this year are: may you achieve great success and reconcile with your former friends," a friend said.
Zhong Xuyang raised his glass again and clinked it with his. "Thank you. I'll try to invite you to my wedding next year."
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