Chapter 43
Chapter 43
“Dongdongdong——”
The faint knock on the door gave Shu Yao a perfect excuse to escape from this awkward and ambiguous atmosphere.
"This time the takeaway should have arrived. I'll go open the door!" Shu Yao walked out of the bedroom without looking back.
"Paper tiger." Chen Ye chuckled and followed her slowly.
From the blessings from good friends, to the phone call with her mother, to Chen Ye's sudden birthday surprise, Shu Yao was in a good mood all day, so much so that she even had a smile on her face when she opened the door.
However, as soon as she saw the face of the person outside the door, the smile on her face disappeared without a trace.
Zhou Beichuan was holding a bouquet of flowers, with bright red roses surrounding a gift box of the same color.
He smiled, as if the seven-year gap no longer existed, and handed the bouquet to me: "Yaoyao, happy birthday."
Shu Yao was not surprised that he could find this place. Perhaps the few seconds that Lu Wanqiao stared at her inexplicably that day was already the answer.
She refused without hesitation: "My husband will be jealous."
Zhou Beichuan's face darkened, and he glanced down slightly and saw the ring on her hand.
When Zhou Beichuan called her that day, he had drunk a little bit of wine. At first, he didn't recognize the man's voice on the phone. Later, after he hung up, the more he thought about it, the more he felt that it was Chen Ye, but he still couldn't believe it.
Until now, the couple ring on Shu Yao's hand is as glaring as a needle.
No wonder Chen Ye specifically asked him for a blessing at the dinner that day. Thinking of how he had wished them a long and happy marriage, Zhou Beichuan's face became even uglier.
"Are you and Shen Yezhen married?"
Shu Yao nodded calmly: "Yes."
"When did you two get together? Why didn't any of your classmates know about it?"
Shu Yao really wanted to say, "It's none of your business."
But her long-established character prevented her from even uttering a single curse word. She placed her right hand on the door panel and said coldly, "It has nothing to do with you. I'm closing the door."
"Shu Yao, are you crazy?" Zhou Beichuan pressed the door with one hand, a little exasperated. "Do you really think someone with his background would be interested in you? If he really was interested in you, would he not even hold a wedding?"
"It's none of your business—"
Shu Yao really couldn't help it this time, but before he could finish, he suddenly felt a force on his waist.
Someone hugged her waist and gently pushed her back, and she fell into a warm embrace.
"With a background like mine—" Chen Ye's disregard for other people's lives was fully displayed at this moment. He looked at Zhou Beichuan frankly, his voice full of sarcasm.
"The only people I dislike are beasts like Mr. Zhou."
In the small town late at night, a draft blew through the alleys, blowing away the late summer heat, but it could not blow away the shock in Zhou Beichuan's eyes.
The two people in front of him were wearing couple pajamas and slippers. Chen Ye's hair was still half wet, and it was obvious that he had just taken a shower. Their intimate posture was reflected in every detail.
He really couldn't deceive himself anymore. Shu Yao and Chen Ye had nothing to do with each other.
Zhou Beichuan was furious. He threw down the rose in his hand, grabbed the collar of Chen Ye's pajamas with one hand, and said ferociously, "You really wanted to be a mistress all those years ago!"
really?
Shu Yao was stunned for a moment, then realized that Zhou Beichuan had also realized Chen Ye's feelings for her. No wonder he would occasionally express his displeasure in front of her about her attending a four-person party.
Shu Yao frowned and tried to stop him, but just as his hand was halfway up in the air, it was held by Shen Ye. His palm was warm and had a reassuring power.
He protected her behind him and slowly pulled down Zhou Beichuan's hand.
Although he knew the truth, Chen Ye did not expose it. He smiled, which was a completely provocative gesture, adding fuel to Zhou Beichuan's anger.
"Yes, so old classmates, why don't you congratulate me on getting what I wanted?"
*
late at night.
Lu Wanqiao had just finished removing her makeup and was about to lie down to rest when she heard the sound of someone entering a password at the door. However, the password was not entered correctly the first time. After a beep, the person tried again.
As an actress who has been in the limelight recently, Lu Wanqiao had the experience of being approached by a stalker at her doorstep before. She frowned and looked out through the peephole impatiently, but saw a familiar face.
She felt relieved and opened the door directly.
Zhou Beichuan, who was outside the door, reeked of alcohol and staggered in. He walked straight to the wine cabinet and took out a bottle of high-concentration Moutai.
Lu Wanqiao closed the door and threw a few tea leaves into the cup. "Why did you come here so suddenly? Why did you drink so much?"
Zhou Beichuan sat on the sofa, his elbows resting on his thighs, his hands crossed to support his forehead, his whole body hunched over, looking exhausted.
Seeing that he didn't answer her question, Lu Wanqiao walked over to him with a teacup: "Have some tea to sober up."
Zhou Beichuan took it, but did not drink it. Instead, he poured the tea in the cup directly into the trash can, and then poured half a cup of white wine into the cup.
After working together for several years, Lu Wanqiao knew him very well. When he was in a good mood, he liked to drink red wine, and when he was in a bad mood, he would drink white wine.
It would have been nothing, but Zhou Beichuan had a problem: he would speak without restraint when he was drunk. Previously, at a dinner party, he was drunk and verbally offended the investor, which almost caused her to lose resources. She had to apologize and fight for them back.
Thinking of these bad things, Lu Wanqiao frowned tightly: "Are you in a bad mood?"
The liquor went down his throat, burning from his throat to his stomach, but Zhou Beichuan seemed not to feel it.
Just as he raised his glass again, Lu Wanqiao, unable to bear it any longer, reached out and pressed the rim of the glass: "Are you crazy? If you drink this, I'll have to call 911."
She forcefully snatched the cup away. Zhou Beichuan felt the object in front of him shaking. He closed his eyes and shook his head, giving up the fight. He leaned back, tilted his head back, and stared at the ceiling without saying anything.
He was mumbling something.
Lu Wanqiao leaned over to hear clearly what he was saying: "She should have been mine."
"Her?" Lu Wanqiao understood immediately. "It's that white moonlight you haven't contacted in a few years? I just mentioned it, and you actually went?"
"She was supposed to be mine..."
Lu Wanqiao crossed her arms over her chest, looking down at him condescendingly. "Zhou Beichuan, what on earth are you pretending to be? When we were hanging out in the imperial capital's entertainment scene, I seemed quite happy to see you. So, you can just save and reload your affection whenever you want, right?"
Zhou Beichuan seemed to be unable to hear other people's voices at all. He collapsed on the sofa and kept talking to himself: "If it weren't for Shen Ye, she would have been mine."
Shen Ye?
Lu Wanqiao's brows gradually relaxed, and she turned around and sat down next to him: "What do you mean? You knew Chen Ye when you were in high school?"
"Bang——" Zhou Beichuan suddenly became furious, picked up an ashtray on the coffee table and smashed it out.
The ashtray dented the TV, shattering it into pieces.
Zhou Beichuan suddenly went crazy and kicked the coffee table: "If it weren't for Chen Ye! If he hadn't interrupted my plan that day, she would have been mine long ago!"
"Plan?" Lu Wanqiao patted his back and asked soothingly, "What plan?"
Zhou Beichuan said nothing and reached out to take the wine again.
Lu Wanqiao quickly snatched the bottle away and waved it in front of him: "Tell me about your plan, and I'll give you the wine."
Zhou Beichuan's eyes were unfocused, and he was shaking his head and babbling nonsense: "No one knows that, in fact, that day I..."
Lu Wanqiao was stunned for a moment, put her right hand in her pocket, and let him vent without saying a word.
*
That side.
Shu Yao and Chen Ye tacitly agreed not to talk about this person at all.
Not long after they went to bed, they turned off the lights, leaving only a night light on on the bedside table.
Lishui has a lot of rain, and the floor of the bungalow is very damp in summer, making it impossible to sleep on the floor. So he always sleeps on the bed when he comes here, and Shu Yao has long been accustomed to it, but today, she tossed and turned and couldn't fall asleep.
The wooden bed creaked, and finally a low voice came from the side asking, "What are you thinking about?"
Shu Yao lay still, staring at the dark ceiling, and replied softly, "I was thinking about Zhou Beichuan——"
As soon as he finished speaking, a figure suddenly appeared in front of him.
The outline of his face was illuminated by the night light on the right side, while the other side was immersed in darkness.
Just like how he appeared in Shu Yao's eyes.
Half is free and open, as Shu Yao sees most of the time.
Half of it is deep and hard to understand, like the unforgettable last meeting more than seven years ago.
His eyes were scorching, revealing a hint of displeasure: "Shu Yao, don't treat your plastic husband as not your husband."
Shu Yao was amused. She was quite nervous at first, but after hearing what he said, she relaxed. She didn't push him away, but just looked back at him calmly.
“I’m just curious about one thing.”
"What?"
"What did he do back then to provoke you to do that?"
Speaking of the past, Shen Ye's body seemed to stiffen for a moment. He lay back down, and after a while he whispered, "Didn't I send you a message to explain it at that time?"
information?
Shu Yao sensed something was wrong and simply sat up, turned on the light, and crossed her legs to face him: "What news? I didn't receive it."
Shen Ye was stunned: “The night I beat him up, I sent you a WeChat message.”
Shu Yao took a deep breath. "That night, he and I had a quarrel and he broke my phone. The repair shop staff said that the price of repairing it was worse than buying a new one, so I gave up. Later, I went to buy a new one, but after logging in, the messages were not synchronized, so I didn't know you sent me a message."
“…” Chen Ye suddenly felt that the emo he had during that period seemed to have been fed with cookies.
Shu Yao pressed on eagerly, "So what did you post? It has nothing to do with the conflict on the school basketball team, right?"
"Did he tell you that?" Shen Ye sneered.
That day seemed like a furnace, just like this summer. The sky in the distance was dark and stormy, but the heat was still there.
Chen Ye was in a good mood because the application deadline was approaching, and he and Shu Yao had applied to the same university.
Until I accidentally met Zhou Beichuan when I was passing through an alley.
Zhou Beichuan was talking on the phone. When he saw him, he gave him an ambiguous look.
Chen Ye turned a blind eye, but as he passed by, he heard Zhou Beichuan, who was leaning against the wall, suddenly say to the person on the phone in a teasing tone: "Yaoyao asked me to have dinner with her tonight. After dinner... we've already graduated, what are you talking about? There's a hotel next door, and she's so obedient to me, how could she refuse?"
Zhou Beichuan usually doesn't have such an arrogant personality and doesn't talk much. Shen Ye knew very well that he might have said these words deliberately for him to hear.
But even so, the sentence worked.
After walking two or three meters away, Shen Ye suddenly stopped.
He turned around, grabbed Zhou Beichuan's collar with one hand and pushed him against the wall.
Fine raindrops floated in the air, and Zhou Beichuan's expression gradually turned ferocious from the initial provocation.
And there was only one thought in Chen Ye's mind. Originally, Zhao Tiantian said that although they had graduated, they would get together again on Shu Yao's birthday, but after he beat up her boyfriend, it probably wouldn't happen.
These things were thought to be very far away, but now when they were mentioned, Shen Ye realized that he remembered every detail of that day clearly.
After listening to his brief explanation of what happened, it was impossible for Shu Yao not to be surprised.
Jiang Yayun had said before that Chen Ye liked her in high school, but she didn't dare to believe it. Later, she even thought that Chen Ye might just be using her as a shield to reject Jiang Yayun.
But now, she was completely sure.
Shu Yao pursed her lips and looked at him directly: "So you really liked me at that time?"
Chen Ye turned his head, her figure reflected in his dark pupils. He was silent for a long time, and finally chuckled, as if he had taken off all his disguises and chose to reveal his true feelings completely.
"What else?"
"But you were clearly lukewarm towards me at that time."
"Shu Yao." Chen Ye said helplessly, "If I had been as enthusiastic as those boys chasing you at that time, would you have added me on WeChat?"
Shu Yao couldn't deny it, it really wouldn't happen.
Late at night in a small town, everything is quiet outside the window, and the bedroom is so quiet that only the second hand is ticking.
Shu Yao seemed to be able to hear his own heartbeat.
She looked up at the time. It was already eleven fifty-nine. Her birthday was about to pass.
Just when the second hand reached the number 6, Shen Ye suddenly spoke again: "Shu Yao, actually that year, there was a sentence that I didn't have time to say."
"What?"
"Happy birthday to nineteen-year-old Shu Yao." Chen Ye touched the back of her head affectionately, leaning against the headboard and smiling nonchalantly, "Twenty-six-year-old Shu Yao, I wish you an even happier birthday."
As he finished speaking, the clock hand crossed zero.
Shu Yao's mind began to become confused again, like a bunch of fireworks exploding. When the splendor returned to calm, a gentle smile appeared between her eyebrows, and she mentioned seemingly inadvertently:
“Chen Ye, after my birthday, it will be the National Day holiday.”
"so?"
"Do you want to come home with me?"
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