Chapter 69
After waiting for a long time, Chen Zhoujing finally returned.
At the door, Yu Chao shouted at Shen Xuzheng, "Are you coming or not?"
"You go first, I'll wait for her." Shen Xuzheng pointed at Qi Jing.
Yu Chao didn't say anything more, put his hands in his pockets, and slowly turned around.
Just then, two people walked up from the opposite side.
He clicked his tongue and muttered under his breath, "Damn it, what a coincidence."
"Yeah, I watched the movie you mentioned yesterday afternoon last night, and it was really amazing..." Xu Xiu's words stopped abruptly when he saw Yu Chao.
Gu Zhenyi, standing to the side, also looked up. She had no expression and said casually, "What are you doing at our classroom door?"
Yu Chao said calmly, "Find Chen Zhoujing."
"Oh." She tugged at Xu Xiu and turned into the front door.
Yu Chao shifted his gaze from her slender hands and continued walking downstairs.
Gu Zhenyi walked into the classroom and asked Chen Zhou, who was standing behind Jian Sheng, "What does he want with you?"
Chen Zhoujing sat in the chair with his feet on the bar of the table: "He didn't say anything, just that it's his mother's birthday in two days and he wants me to come over."
"Oh, why didn't you call me?" she said casually.
During the conversation, Xu Xiu quietly withdrew his hand and looked at her lips as they opened and closed.
Chen Zhou looked up in surprise: "Didn't you two break up?"
Gu Zhenyi said, "Yeah, we broke up last semester, but that doesn't mean we can't keep in touch."
“He invited your mother,” he replied.
Gu Zhenyi clicked his tongue: "Alright then."
Jian Sheng's eyes darted back and forth between Gu Zhenyi and Xu Xiu before finally settling on Chen Zhoujing.
Chen Zhoujing looked over and smiled at her, "Leaving a little earlier today? Tomorrow is Saturday."
Jian Sheng nodded.
Xu Zheng was already helping Qi Jing pack her things when she reached out to help her. She heard the sound of someone getting up behind her.
Chen Zhoujing walked to her side, and as usual, quickly packed her things, then hugged her little white backpack to his arms.
"Come on, come on, I want to see wheat fields today." He smiled and picked up his schoolbag hanging on the stool.
The two walked towards the back door.
Gu Zhenyi called out, "Chen Zhoujing, are you going or not? It's his mother's birthday."
Chen Zhou turned around in surprise: "I'm not going."
“Shen Xuzheng will probably go.” After saying that, he and Jian Sheng went out the back door.
Shen Xuzheng looked bewildered, stuffed his homework into Qi Jing's schoolbag, and said, "I didn't even know it was his mother's birthday."
"He didn't tell me... why did he invite us to his mom's birthday party?"
Gu Zhenyi frowned.
Shen Xuzheng clicked his tongue: "He probably changed the subject because he didn't want Jian Sheng to hear what Yu Chao had told him."
“That shouldn’t be the case. Why is he still wary of Jian Sheng?” Xu Yanghe suddenly said.
"I'm worried about her." Shen Xuzheng didn't say much, and pulled Qi Jing towards the door.
"You're gone, Gu Zhenyi," he added.
Gu Zhenyi flicked her ponytail in response, returned to her seat, and prepared to pack her things and leave.
Just as he picked up a book, Xu Xiu followed him: "Why didn't you tell me?"
"What did you say?" she asked, puzzled.
Then it occurred to me: "Break up?"
"What's there to say? They broke up, so what? It's easier for him to fall in love with someone than it's for him to drink water." She waved her hand dismissively.
Seeing that Xu Xiu didn't speak, Gu Zhenyi narrowed her eyes and leaned closer to him, asking, "What's wrong?"
"You care a lot?"
"No!" Xu Xiu retorted instinctively.
After a few seconds of silence, Gu Zhenyi pursed her lips, leaned back, straightened up, and began tidying the table without saying another word.
Xu Xiu's mind was buzzing. He lowered his head, and the gold-rimmed glasses on his nose slipped down to the tip of his nose.
A mixture of tension and soreness in his chest made him unable to lift his head.
At the end of May, there was a heavy rain that continued intermittently until mid-June, accompanied by thunder and lightning.
Chen Zhoujing has taken leave again.
This time, he came without warning. Unlike before, he didn't leave a note for Jian Sheng before leaving, nor did he send her a message on WeChat. He seemed to have vanished without a trace.
Jian Sheng's irritable mood, like the rain, rose and fell.
She stood under a tree on one side of the school gate, carrying her schoolbag and holding the umbrella handle in her right hand, her gaze fixed on the students coming and going.
Fewer and fewer people were around, and it gradually got dark.
The rain seemed to intensify, so she waited a while longer until the security guard closed the iron gate before slowly walking back.
She was waiting for Yu Chao.
A vague suspicion in her mind made her feel as if she were bewitched.
For several days in a row, she would stand at the school gate and wait as soon as school was over.
Unable to find anyone, she went downstairs during activity periods and breaks, but Yu Chao, like Chen Zhoujing, had vanished without a trace.
She squatted under the shade of a tree, watching the raindrops fall into small puddles above, creating ripples.
In a moment of reverie, a pair of black shoes appeared in her field of vision, stepping right into the ripples. She looked up.
It is Shen Shuting.
Jian Sheng's heart skipped a beat. He slowly stood up, but the sudden movement made him dizzy and he swayed to one side.
Shen Shuting quickly grabbed her and waited until she was steady before letting go.
She stood a meter away, her eyes cold as she looked at Jian Sheng, her face devoid of its usual smile, only showing indifference.
The subtlety that permeates to the core actually makes one appear more distant.
After subconsciously saying thank you, Jian Sheng stood up straight and looked at her, his jaw clenched tightly.
The two remained at an impasse. Jian Sheng spoke first, eager to know what had happened to Chen Zhoujing, but unsure who to ask.
When the person in front of him appeared, he suddenly realized: "Where is Chen Zhoujing?"
She asked a question, and Shen Shuting's eyebrows twitched, but he didn't respond, changing the subject instead: "Go back, you've been waiting for many days."
Jian Sheng's eyes stung with tears as she continued, "Where's Chen Zhoujing?"
Each word seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth.
A ripple appeared in Shen Shuting's pupils, but it vanished in an instant.
She turned to leave, but Jian Sheng stopped her.
Her voice was hoarse and low: "Where did Chen Zhoujing go?"
Shen Shuting trembled, looked at her hand, and pursed her lips: "Jian Sheng, Chen Zhoujing is not worth you treating him like this."
"What kind of person is he?" Jian Sheng's eyes were red.
Shen Shuting stood in the rain, her hair soaked and clinging to her skin, the heavy rain blurring her vision.
She smiled and said, "Can't you tell?"
"Why are so many people causing trouble for him? It's all his own doing, he disgusted himself with it."
"He never told you that he beat someone so badly in middle school that they ended up in the ICU and was suspended from school. Instead, the person who ended up dying in bed was expelled, while he only took a month off and went back to school."
“That family didn’t have much money to support his schooling. The medical treatment alone used up all their savings, leaving someone who hadn’t even finished junior high school to go out and work.”
"He probably never told you why he has the means to do so, right?"
"You know, his mother found him several rich fathers. His own father was seen with women on both sides of his body right in front of him, and he was involved with several rich women."
"Why do you think he was the one who stayed? Why do you think no one has spoken about his story until now? Do you think it's because they don't want to talk about it?"
"They're just afraid to say it!"
"They dare not assert their authority in front of someone who would kill someone in the first place. They always believe that people in high positions are born noble and unyielding. What makes him so special?"
"Because he has parents like that? Because he..."
Shen Shuting's words came to an abrupt end.
A fair hand reached out to her, and the next second, an umbrella blocked her view. Incredulity and self-mockery flashed in her scarlet eyes.
Jian Sheng didn't take a step forward, but simply handed the umbrella to her, just enough to cover her head that had been constantly soaked by the rain.
She suppressed her anger, tears welling up in her eyes: "You just have your own perspective. People think about things from different angles and dimensions. I shouldn't say anything to you."
“But you don’t mention a word about the fact that he was beaten to the ground time and time again and was subjected to violence for two years. You take advantage of my lack of knowledge about his past and my status as an outsider to whitewash the abuser’s evil deeds in front of me.”
"Because of the word 'intensive care unit,' you think you are in the right, you think you are the victims, and you keep harping on this."
“Pull out the side that people tend to gravitate towards, and keep saying it until everyone believes it.”
"You want me to avoid him because of those words, but all I feel is nausea."
“I know Chen Zhoujing better than they do what kind of person he is.”
"You know them better than I do what kind of people they are."
"No matter how much I love someone, I will not conform to their base ideas and behaviors. You should ask yourself the question, not the person who is in the ICU."
As soon as she finished speaking, tears welled up in Jian Sheng's right eye. She lowered her head, took an umbrella from a pocket on the side of her backpack, stuffed it into her arms, and prepared to leave.
He had just taken a step out when Shen Shuting, who had been silent for a long time, spoke up: "I sent Qian Xiao to find him."
"More than a week has passed, and there has been no news from either side. I guess one side is in the hospital, and the other side is hiding."
“I hated him for many years, blamed all my misfortunes on him, and it seemed like making trouble for him was a major event in my life.”
"But you tell me that people have different perspectives."
"Perhaps I liked the wrong person. He wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth like Chen Zhoujing, who had everything."
After finishing speaking, Shen Shuting returned the umbrella to her and turned to walk into the rain.
Jian Sheng lingered on her back for a few seconds before turning and walking towards Chenfu Road.
She stood in the crowd, her chest heaving with immense emotion, as the red light came on.
She waited for the green light with a group of students and parents on the side, the noise around her constantly reaching her ears.
A car drove past her, and the water it ran over splashed onto her heels, into her shoes, and up to her ankles.
The icy sensation instantly traveled through my entire body, reaching my heart.
Jian Sheng looked down at his feet, then looked up at the dark, oppressive sky.
My chest began to rise and fall, faster and faster.
The green light came on, and people started walking past her shoulder to the side.
Suddenly, her nose tingled, and tears streamed down her cheeks.
The sound of rain grew louder, and sobs escaped her lips.
As she walked into the empty streets, her voice became increasingly unrestrained.
It was strangely in stark contrast to the gloomy weather.
She walked around the apartment complex several times, not knowing who to look for, until she reached the building.
She passed by Chen Zhoujing's building twice, but on the third time, she stopped and stood by the gray wall below the building.
Leaning against it quietly.
When Li Jing came out, he saw her standing by the glass door with her head down. He stopped in his tracks, and the lunchbox in his hand drooped to one side.
He stood still for two minutes, not seeing any movement from her, then turned around and went out the back door.
When he returned in the evening and parked the car, he saw her figure still standing by that gray wall.
She would look up when someone came, then lower her head again.
It took him several days to tell Chen Zhoujing.
At the hospital, Chen Zhoujing cursed him a few times, angrily pulled out the IV needle from his hand, and was about to walk towards the door when Li Jing stopped him.
He forcefully pressed Chen Zhou back onto the hospital bed: "She'll be here in ten minutes. I advise you to be mindful of your appearance."
Chen Zhou was startled, but his complexion seemed to have recovered considerably: "Damn, why didn't you say so sooner?"
"Look at me?" He sat up abruptly. "You want me to see her looking like this?"
Then he pointed to his messy hair and said, "Go find me a mirror."
"Oh no, where's the doctor? Where are the nurses?" He glanced at his hand, which was already bruised, and pressed the button next to the bed in frustration.
"What are you still standing there for? Go find a mirror..."
"No, I need to go to the toilet!" Chen Zhoujing said and ran towards the toilet.
Li Jing watched him go about his business like a whirlwind, sometimes coming out for a stroll, sometimes going to the toilet to look in the mirror.
"Ah!" Suddenly, a scream came from the toilet.
Li Jingxin's heart skipped a beat, and he strode towards the restroom. He saw Chen Zhoujing with his hands covering his face, his ears flushed, and he whispered, "What should we do?"
He looked at Li Jing: "How should I explain this to her?"
Li Jing pursed his lips: "No need to explain, she already knows."
"I'm leaving now. Remember to drink the soup. Auntie will come tonight. I'm going back to school."
He was about to leave when Chen Zhoujing became serious: "Change the locks, or I'll take you to another place to live."
He left the restroom, patted Li Jing on the shoulder, and returned to his hospital bed.
Li Jing didn't say anything, opened the door and went out.
Not long after he left, Chen Zhoujing heard the door open, leaned back, and closed his eyes.
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