Chapter 5: Cohabitation Bureau: Can the poor puppy live in your house?
Shen Zhui took Cheng Guo to a porridge shop.
The shop is located on a secluded old alley. The tall locust trees are lush and leafy, their canopies crowded together like a green dome, filling the sky above, and the dim yellow light of the streetlights is gathered under them.
The shop's customer base relies on the high school next door. When the two arrived, it was completely dark. The owner's shutter door was already half-drawn. Seeing that they were old acquaintances, the owner hurriedly invited them in, saying that it had been too long since they had seen each other and that he would treat them to a meal. He explained that since it was summer vacation, only senior high school students who were taking extra classes came to eat, so there was not much porridge prepared, and there was only one bowl left. He then went to get a plate of cold dishes. When he was making wontons for Cheng Guo, which she liked, the owner asked her if she still often worked the night shift on Friday nights. Afterwards, he chatted with Shen Zhui about his movie role.
An old fan was nailed to the wall inside the shop, turning its head and creaking. Cheng Guo sat at the table listening to the two chatting, and felt as if she had returned to a Saturday morning in the past when she and Shen Zhui came to have breakfast after she finished her night shift.
"Dr. Cheng is afraid of the heat, right?" The boss remembered this and turned on the air conditioner midway through the meal.
The wontons were just cooked, and the owner quickly added the broth and brought them over. He then pulled down the shutter door so the two could eat slowly, before rushing upstairs to watch the game.
The fragrant steam from the wontons wafted towards her. Cheng Guo reached for the condiment bottle on the table, but just as she was about to touch it, a hand snatched it away. Shen Zhui, with his long, slender, and clean fingers, picked up the condiment bottle and looked up at her, asking, "The usual?"
His movements were so natural, and his tone was so natural, as if the two of them had never been strangers.
But Cheng Guo was destined to disappoint him.
The hospital was not a suitable place to talk. She agreed to go out to dinner with Shen Zhui because she suspected that her greeting before leaving the restaurant had given him the wrong signal. Furthermore, she wanted to make it clear to him that he shouldn't waste his energy on her.
Cheng Guo hesitated for a moment, then reached out to take it, still smiling, "I can do it myself."
Shen Zhui glanced at her and immediately noticed that Cheng Guo had put on her doctor persona again, using a facade to talk to him. He silently handed her the condiment pot, his appetite completely gone as he looked at the food in front of him.
She had no intention of making up; she was there for a farewell dinner.
He had a lot to say, but now he didn't dare to speak rashly.
Cheng Guo took the condiment bottle and drizzled some chili oil into the soup. As she put it back, her gaze swept over Chen Zhui's face. He sat quietly with his eyes down, looking rather downcast.
The game had already started, and the commentator's voice rose and fell, becoming muffled by the whistling of the fans downstairs. Cheng Guo slowly stirred the hot soup and said gently, "Let's eat."
Shen Zhui raised his head, his eyes much darker than before. His Adam's apple bobbed slightly, his lips moved, but he said nothing in the end. He lowered his head and picked up the spoon as if doing a task.
The bowl of pumpkin porridge was tasteless, and he ate it spoonful by spoonful, his eyes occasionally glancing at Cheng Guo.
She wasn't wearing a full face of makeup today, just a simple touch-up to her eyebrows and eyes, and she was still extremely beautiful. At this moment, she lowered her head and slowly brought the hot soup to her mouth.
Shen Zhui knew that she was actually not afraid of the heat. On the contrary, she liked the feeling of sweat breaking through her pores in the high heat. She said that the pressure in her body seemed to be released along with it, and she felt relaxed all over.
She just doesn't like summer.
After finishing the hot soup, even though the air conditioning filled the room, Cheng Guo's forehead was still covered in a fine layer of sweat. Chen Zhui took out a clean tissue and handed it to her. Cheng Guo took it and wiped her wrists a few times before her wrists stiffened. She then thanked him.
Shen Zhui turned his head away and silently curled the corner of his lips. His throat suddenly began to itch; he was all too familiar with this feeling.
General anesthesia requires inserting a tracheotomy tube. After the surgery, my throat felt like it had been burned, and coughing would pull on my abdominal incision. Luckily, when I saw Cheng Guo before, I didn't let her see him coughing so badly.
Shen Zhui quickly took a sip of water, but still couldn't suppress it. He turned his back, and when the first cough escaped his throat, he subconsciously bent over and covered the knife wound on his abdomen. But when he thought that Cheng Guo was sitting behind him and would see him curled up like a shrimp in his disheveled state, he straightened up, put his hands on his knees, and coughed in a muffled voice.
The incision hurt even more than when he ran downstairs; he felt the blood rushing to his head, and his face and neck turned red uncontrollably and rapidly.
Most importantly, he can't stop coughing now.
"Why be so stubborn at a time like this?" As he said this, something soft was stuffed into his arms, and Cheng Guo pressed down on his back to make him bend over. "Relax."
The abdominal tension suddenly decreased, and the pain lessened considerably. Chen Zhui coughed while diverting half of his attention to Cheng Guo.
She bent over, her hand on his back, and didn't move it away.
The summer T-shirt was thin, and her fingertips felt a little cold.
After coughing for an unknown amount of time, Chen Zhui finally stopped. He blinked away the mist from his eyes, and a glass of warm water appeared before him.
Shen Zhui took it, straightened up and drank a few sips before realizing that what he was holding was the cushion that the boss often leaned against. It was quite ugly and a bit dirty. He put it aside, and Cheng Guo sat down on the stool opposite him.
"Let me see the medication you were prescribed when you were discharged from the hospital."
Without thinking, Shen Zhui unzipped his backpack. Before the medicine box, several torn strips of paper were revealed with printed text on them. He knew without turning his head that Cheng Guo's gaze would fall on them. Both of them knew what these were.
Shen Zhui tucked the note inside and handed over a few boxes of medicine.
The person on the other end didn't answer, but gave him a deep look, their gaze sweeping over the medicine box. "Take it as prescribed."
Cheng Guo's tone was indifferent, revealing neither joy nor anger.
“Shen Zhui,” Cheng Guo said after a few seconds of silence, “I hope what happened today will not happen again.”
"What's up?"
What's meant to happen will happen. Chen Zhui lowered his eyes and put the medicine box back into his backpack. "Knowing you were going on a blind date, how could I not go with you?"
His tone was calm, as if he were stating a perfectly logical statement rather than asking her a question. His love was laid bare before her, flamboyant and passionate. Cheng Guo's heart skipped a beat, and she pursed her lips, asking in return, "What could you have done in the past?"
Cheng Guo regretted it as soon as the words left her mouth. She had intended to distance herself from him, but she didn't mean to hurt him by taking advantage of his affection.
Shen Zhui seemed hurt by those words. His fingers were slightly bent, and he remained motionless as he put the medicine box in. His hair fell down, and Cheng Guo could not see his eyes from the side, only his taut lips.
Shen Zhui paused for a few seconds before continuing. He took out a scrap of paper from his backpack, coughed a few times, and frowned painfully. "It shows what kind of man you're going on a blind date with."
“He’s not as tall as me, not as young as me, and doesn’t earn as much money as me, yet he keeps objectifying you,” he said quickly and urgently, looking at Cheng Guo with a stubborn gaze. “Why did you agree to go on a blind date with him, but reject me?”
Cheng Guo swallowed hard. "I don't want to talk about this."
After a moment of silence, Chen Zhui shook the note in his hand. "Let's talk about this. I know what papers you've published. None of these papers exist on paper."
Cheng Guo's heart skipped a beat. Of course she knew, she was...
Shen Zhui stared at her and told her what was on her mind: "You never thought you could succeed in your blind date with that man. He doesn't understand medicine. He won't understand any of the titles you write, and he won't actually look them up."
Shen Zhui's heart pounded as he stared intently into Cheng Guo's eyes, waiting for a response. He knew she was soft-hearted, and that his impulsive confrontation was a poor strategy that could easily backfire, but he simply couldn't resist.
When he heard Yuan Man clearly objectifying her tonight while the two of them were having a pleasant conversation, he felt so choked up that he couldn't speak. He wanted to leave, but he was unwilling to. He kept comparing himself to Yuan Man, wondering where he fell short and why it couldn't be him. When he realized that she was setting a trap for Yuan Man, joy overwhelmed him instantly.
He was overjoyed when he discovered that she had never intended to be with Yuan Man in the first place.
But she was genuinely worried about him and concerned about him, and she also genuinely didn't want him to get close.
He didn't understand why someone could be so contradictory.
Cheng Guo's eyes flickered slightly as she avoided Shen Zhui's gaze. "I don't want to date, nor do I want to get married, so don't waste your energy on me."
After saying that, she got up and prepared to leave with her bag, but her wrist was tightly gripped.
She tried to shake him off, but he only held her tighter.
The atmosphere froze for a moment, broken only by the commentator's triumphant voice after the goal and the vibration of Shen Zhui's phone.
When the buzzing sounded for the third time, Cheng Guo turned her gaze away, saw the name displayed on the phone screen, and then looked away again. "Answer it, it must be urgent."
Shen Zhui's throat tightened, but he still held Cheng Guo's wrist. As soon as the call connected, Sister Qi's scolding came crashing down on him: "Shen Zhui, what are you doing?! Didn't you say you were going to dinner to chase after your sister? What were you doing rummaging through the trash?! Your endorsement deal is about to be finalized, and you get photographed by paparazzi at this time—"
“It’s not trash,” Shen Zhui retorted with a hint of impatience.
What is that?
Shen Zhui didn't answer. "You got photographed, and then what?"
"Then it got to my phone, and you know how your image would look if these photos were posted—"
"How much? I'll pay for it myself," Shen Zhui interrupted Sister Qi.
Cheng Guo then realized that she had been photographed when Shen Zhui went to retrieve the waste paper she had thrown into the trash can, and the paparazzi were now going to "sell" these photos to him.
Her heart leaped into her throat.
Sister Qi scolded the paparazzi and finally announced a number.
Shen Zhui was silent for a few seconds. "The studio will cover the shortfall first. Send me a few cameo scripts to take a look."
He hung up the phone after saying that.
At the same time, he loosened his grip on her wrist.
Cheng Guo was so shocked that she couldn't speak. She looked down at Chen Zhui and saw that the string of numbers in his card seemed to evaporate in a few seconds, leaving only a few dozen yuan as a small change.
Noticing her gaze, Shen Zhui smiled and said, "It's alright, I can earn more."
After speaking, he lowered his head and scrolled through his contacts, as if looking for someone he could ask for help. When he found nothing, he opened the app to check nearby hotels.
Licheng has a developed economy, and there are no hotels with prices below 100 yuan.
Things happened so fast that Cheng Guo's mind was in a daze for a while before she could come back to thinking. But before she could come up with a solution, her phone rang.
The caller was Mom.
The call came earlier than she expected.
Cheng Guo felt somewhat uneasy.
"Don't go, I need to take this call," Cheng Guo instructed Shen Zhui.
His troubles started because of her, and she can't just let it go.
Shen Zhui was just photographed tonight, and Cheng Guo was worried that paparazzi were following him, so she didn't dare to open the roller shutter door rashly when she arrived at the door. She took her phone and walked to a corner.
The shop wasn't big, and Shen Zhui could probably hear it even from a corner, but Cheng Guo just didn't want to disturb him in front of him.
Yu Muying's voice was filled with anger. As soon as the call connected, she asked, "What did Xiaoyuan say about you setting him up?"
Although she had expected it, Cheng Guo's heart still skipped a beat: "What else did he say?"
Her daughter's words made Yu Muying silent for a few seconds: "Did you set him up?"
"No," Cheng Guo denied decisively.
Unaware of her presence, Chen Zhui turned around and quietly gazed at her profile.
There was silence on the other end of the phone for a long time. Yu Muying seemed to be suppressing her anger. After a while, she said, "Then what did he say about you playing with people, that you weren't sincere about the blind date, that you didn't want to get married, and that you just wanted to find a sucker to pay for your doctoral studies?"
Yu Muying didn't say it, but Yuan Man said something even worse to the matchmaker.
They actually filed so many complaints.
Cheng Guo, now that she had a clear understanding of the situation, didn't hold back with Yuan Man. She concisely and logically recounted what had happened from last night to today. After Mu Ying expressed her dissatisfaction with Yuan Man, she added, "Mom, he was the one who asked me first about my thoughts on marriage. Later, when we talked about our respective situations, he said those things. He's 35 this year, a PhD graduate, older than me and more experienced. How could he fall into my trap? We just have different ideas. How could he slander me?"
Yu Muying didn't speak immediately this time. She paused and answered indirectly, "Let's leave Xiao Yuan alone. You shouldn't have tried to test me by asking him to pay for your doctoral studies. I didn't arrange for you to go on blind dates and get married so that I could pass on that money."
Yu Muying didn't believe her.
“Your birthday is coming soon. You can invite your dad over for dinner. It just so happens that the doctoral application period is next month. I’ll discuss your doctoral tuition fees with him.”
"Mom," Cheng Guo said weakly, "you don't need to worry about the expenses, and I don't want to—"
"When will you save enough on your own?" Yu Muying interrupted her. "The later you start a PhD, the later your promotion will be. One step behind means one step behind at every step. If you go for a professional master's degree, you'll take a detour. If you don't hurry, you'll be left behind by Jiang Heng in the future—"
Yu Muying stopped herself in time and did not continue.
Cheng Guo fell silent. Jiang Heng was the child of Cheng Fuyan's second wife, and she had always strived to surpass him.
The shop was extremely quiet, and even from several meters away, Chen Zhui could hear what Yu Muying was about to say.
“You’re never in a hurry to do anything. If I hadn’t kept asking you, you wouldn’t have even published your paper.” Yu Muying sighed. “Have you gotten your recommendation letter for your doctoral entrance exam written by a professor yet?”
Cheng Guo didn't look for him, but she hummed in response. She didn't have the energy or the inclination to deal with Yu Muying right now.
The two chatted for a few more words and hung up the phone.
The atmosphere remained somber. Cheng Guo didn't linger there for long; after a few seconds of stunned silence, she sat back down.
The matter of the sunken horse has not yet been resolved.
The wontons on the table had gone cold, and the red oil floating on the soup looked like an old canvas, losing its original deliciousness. Cheng Guo didn't want to waste the boss's good intentions, so she scooped out the wontons one by one and ate them. Afterward, she moved the bowl aside and rested her wrist on the table.
Her irritability seemed to vanish instantly, and she smiled as she looked at Chen Zhui, who had been watching her intently.
She's going to hide herself again.
Shen Zhui thought.
"Shen Zhui, I want to ask you a question."
"What?"
"Don't buy the photos. After they trend on social media, I'll send you a thank-you letter to thank you for getting back the personal data I threw away when I was upset. How about that?"
Shen Zhui understood that she wanted to solve the problem at its root, and stared at her intently, "In what capacity are you issuing this?"
"Passerby".
How do you explain your emotional outburst?
"My blind date failed."
"But you were very happy at the time."
"..."
“That claim is untenable,” Shen Zhui explained. “Paparazzi take photos and record videos.”
“And people will be curious about why I suddenly helped you, they’ll dig into your background,” he paused, noticing her furrowed brow, “and they’ll also be curious about our past.”
The frustration she had just suppressed surged up again. Cheng Guo smoothed her hair and murmured, "Why did you pick up that piece of waste paper?"
She really couldn't understand it.
I want to pay for your tuition.
"What?" Cheng Guo asked, doubting that she had misheard.
“I want to pay your tuition,” Shen Zhui turned his head away, not looking into her eyes. “Your asset statement is in there. I want to know how much tuition you still owe. I’ll make up the difference. If you don’t want to date, then don’t. If you don’t want to go on blind dates, then don’t. Don’t feel pressured.”
Cheng Guo felt a sudden pang of sadness, pursed her lips, and remained silent.
Neither of them spoke.
After a long while, Cheng Guo pressed his knuckles against his aching nose and asked the most practical question at hand.
Where are you staying during the summer vacation?
The school dormitory building is under renovation, and based on his browsing of contacts and hotel listings, he hasn't found a solution yet.
Shen Zhui raised his head, looked at her, and softened his tone.
Can I stay at your place?
A note from the author:
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Yay! Finally, we're starting our life together in the same game! [Sprinkling flowers][Sprinkling flowers]
The preceding chapters represent the adjustment period between Cheng Guo and Chen Zhui, which is why the writing was particularly slow. For example, this chapter has been revised and rewritten from Monday until today. [Facepalm with laughter and tears][Facepalm with laughter and tears]
The pace should pick up later on. If anyone wants to see more, feel free to urge me! Having people urging me makes me more motivated! [eyes sparkling][eyes sparkling]
Thank you everyone for the bombs and nutrient solutions! [kiss][kiss]
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