Chapter 64
◎Used two extra-large boxes◎
Last winter, on the day the first snow fell, Cheng Jiamo slept until noon in Nanyuan because she had recited a poem to the cool, moonlit light outside the window before going to sleep.
As a result of that poem, He Qingzhao became furious and used two boxes of extra-large size products in half a night. Each box contains three products, and each product has a circumference of 14.5 cm. Even so, they were still very tight, leaving no room for anything else. It was also on that night that she learned that He Qingzhao was actually 21 cm tall.
Afterwards, a saying by Wang Po flashed through her mind: "Pan, Lu, Deng, Xiao, Xian," except that He Qingzhao lacked the "Xiao" and "Xian" qualities; he possessed the first three.
She was reciting four lines from an untitled poem from the Tang Dynasty.
You were born before I was born, and I was born after you had grown old.
You regret that I was born too late, I regret that you were born too early.
The mere mention of the word "old" triggered He Qingzhao's defenses. He grabbed her waist, teased her cruelly, and asked in a hoarse voice, "Am I old?"
"You're not old, not at all, and I never said you were old." She was almost crying, her eyes glistening as she hugged his neck and kissed his lips, pleading with him in a soft, whimpering voice, "Please."
He Qingzhao remained composed and unhurried, pressing her to continue asking, "Whom are you asking, hmm?"
The word "嗯" was emphasized, with the body language and voice being stressed in sync.
Cheng Jiamo gave a soft hum, her eyes becoming even more watery, misty, and filled with a delicate, pitiful, and dreamy look. She said softly, "Please, husband."
"Why are you asking your husband for something, hmm?" he continued, emphasizing the last syllable.
Meanwhile, the body language and voice remain synchronized.
Cheng Jiamo buried her face in his neck, her soft red lips brushing against his ear, and said in a gentle, seductive voice, "I...beg my husband to kiss me..."
She whispered the verbs and personal pronouns into his ear.
So He Qingzhao went from breaking through defenses to causing destruction, instantly becoming an un-evolved caveman, and started chiseling away.
As a result, Cheng Jiamo didn't get up until after noon. After lunch, she dressed warmly, wrapped herself up like a ball, and happily ran outside to play in the snow.
He Qingzhao was in a meeting in his study and didn't have time to play with her. In fact, even if he did have time, he would just sit calmly and elegantly under the eaves, watching her play with a casual smile, without actually spending time with her.
As autumn leaves fell to the ground, Cheng Jiamo excitedly ran around under the maple forest in the beautiful sunset, kicking up the fallen leaves as she ran, making them flutter like butterflies.
"He Qingzhao, will you play with me?"
At that time, He Qingzhao was lying on a rocking chair under the eaves watching her run. She ran up to He Qingzhao, grabbed his hand and shook it, wanting him to play with her.
He Qingzhao pulled her into his arms, stroking her waist and saying, "I'm way past the age of running around. You run by yourself, but slow down and don't fall."
Cheng Jiamo thought to herself, "Now you know you're getting old. I usually don't dare to mention it, because if I do, he gets anxious, and when he gets anxious, he gets furious."
In reality, He Qingzhao wasn't much older than her, only eight years older. But his rich experience and his intelligence beyond his peers made his mental age much older than hers, by more than eight years.
Eight years ago, He Qingzhao, who was only nineteen years old, had already established his own electronics technology company abroad. In less than a year, he completed a Series A financing of more than 30 million US dollars. In just four years, he was listed on NASDAQ. When he returned to China at the age of twenty-five, his company was valued at more than 900 million US dollars, which is equivalent to 6.4 billion RMB.
Now, at twenty-seven and soon to be twenty-eight, He Qingzhao has lost not only her childlike innocence but also her youthful spirit.
Once he got out of bed, his heart was like that of an old monk about to pass away; he wouldn't do anything interesting with her.
So she didn't even need to ask how He Qingzhao would refuse her when it came to building a snowman.
He would definitely say, "I'm way past the age of building snowmen and having snowball fights. You play by yourself, but be careful not to get your hands frostbite," and then leisurely and calmly lie on the rocking chair watching her play.
Cheng Jiamo squatted on the snow, rolling snowballs and reciting the four lines of poetry in a low voice. The more she recited them, the more she felt that they fit her and He Qingzhao's situation.
There is an eight-year physical age difference between them, an eighteen- or even twenty-eight-year psychological age difference, and a class difference that is as long as a hundred years and difficult to overcome.
After rubbing the snowman's head, Cheng Jiamo's hands were almost frozen, so she quickly ran inside to warm them up with hot water for a while.
After warming her hands, she picked up her phone, opened the notes app, and tapped the next line of text: Twenty things couples should do.
The website says 50 or 100 items, but 100 is too much, and she's too lazy to type it all out. She thinks 20 is fine.
She'll be twenty next year, and the number twenty is very meaningful.
She hoped that in her twentieth year, she could do all twenty things that couples must do with He Qingzhao.
Item 1: Use matching couple phone cases
Item 2: Use couple profile pictures and wallpapers.
Item 3: Wear couple bracelets or watches.
Item 4: Show off your affection on social media.
Item 5: Wearing matching outfits while shopping
Item #6: Eating super spicy hot pot
Item 7: Two people sharing an ice cream.
Item 8: Feeding each other
Item 9: Writing love letters to each other
Item 10: Boating on Taihu Lake and a night cruise on the Yangtze River
Item 11: Walking in the rain under the same umbrella
Item #12: On a rainy day, snuggle together on the sofa and watch a romantic movie.
Item 13: Listen to the sound of snow falling on a snowy night and build a snowman together.
Item 14: Climb the Three Mountains and Five Peaks together, and watch the sunrise and sunset from the summit.
Item 15: Ride a Ferris wheel together, and kiss when it reaches its highest point.
Item 16: Spend Valentine's Day together.
Item 17: Spend the New Year together, watch fireworks on New Year's Eve, and share a passionate kiss under the fireworks.
Item 18: Go to the temple together to make a wish and hang a love lock.
Item 19: Let's go to the Ghost City and cross the Bridge of Helplessness together.
Item 20: On her twentieth birthday, He Qingzhao accompanied her to try on a wedding dress.
On the day the first snow fell, Cheng Jiamo wrote down twenty small goals on her phone.
Her wish was to complete all twenty things with He Qingzhao, so that even if they parted ways one day, she would have no regrets.
Unfortunately, she didn't do any of those twenty things with He Qingzhao, yet they broke up twice.
After hearing Zhong Qi's request, Cheng Jiamo gently refused: "I'm sorry, we've already broken up, so it's not appropriate for me to go see him again. Besides, I have exams coming up soon, so I don't have time."
Zhong Qi chuckled, his tone indifferent, "Regardless, he did save your life back then. If he hadn't sent you back to China, what kind of life do you think you would be living in Thailand? Would you be renting a place..."
Before Zhong Qi could finish speaking, He Qingzhao, mimicking Cheng Jiamo's method, pinched Zhong Qi's arm with her thumb and forefinger, just like she usually did, and twisted it hard.
Zhong Qi's eyes widened: "..."
I managed to hold back from swearing.
Cheng Jiamo listened to Zhong Qi stop halfway through his sentence and assumed he was doing it on purpose.
Although he didn't finish speaking, Cheng Jiamo knew what he meant by what he was about to say: he meant that she would be rented to a foreign man as a temporary wife, or that she would have her legs cut off and become the mistress of a perverted tycoon.
She didn't speak, her hand holding the phone trembling slightly.
This matter was a thorn in her side, and also the most effective way for He Qingzhao to manipulate her. As long as he brought it up as if he had saved her life, she couldn't refuse.
Zhong Qi sat a little further away from He Qingzhao and said in a serious tone, "He Qingzhao has a nickname in our circle, 'Gentleman Sword,' you should know what that means."
Cheng Jiamo remained silent; she didn't want to speak.
Zhong Qi continued, "To use a popular internet phrase, he's a 'refined scoundrel.' He Qingzhao appears refined, modest, and gentle, with the air of a noble young master, but in reality, he's scheming, treacherous, despicable, shameless, hypocritical, ruthless, unjust, immoral, and cold-hearted."
He used every idiom he could think of to describe a bad person, getting more and more excited as he spoke. After finishing, he even gave He Qingzhao, who was lying down receiving an IV drip, a provocative look.
He Qingzhao pressed his tongue against his teeth, gave Zhong Qi a cold glare, and gave him a warning look.
Zhong Qi didn't take it seriously at all and continued, "Back when he was competing with me for the North American market, he cheated me a lot. We were elementary school classmates, childhood friends, but he stabbed me in the back without any mercy, causing my company to go bankrupt, leaving me with more than 30 million yuan in debt, and I even spent more than two months in jail. Afterwards, he shamelessly said that he was giving me a practical lesson and even asked me for tuition. I wasn't killed in jail, but I was almost driven to death by him. In order to pay off my debts, I had no choice but to bow down to him and work as his slave in his company."
Cheng Jiamo: "..."
Zhong Qi: "That's the kind of person he is. Don't even mention that I'm just his classmate; he's ruthless even towards his own father. Five years ago, he conspired with outsiders to frame his father."
"At the time, his father was the second-in-command in Jiangcheng, and he was focused on boosting Jiangcheng's GDP, wanting to make Jiangcheng the most prosperous city along the river. But behind the scenes, he encouraged a few friends from Dongguan to invest in and build factories in Jiangcheng, creating a new industrial park. With his father involved, the project was approved very quickly."
"However, when the factory was only half-built, he persuaded those people to withdraw their investment and complained to his father that he had no money to build it and that unless he received subsidies from above, the project would have to be abandoned. His father was so angry that he wanted to beat him to death. In the end, although the factory was still built, his father was not promoted, and his relationship with his father deteriorated from then on. After his father left Jiangcheng, he invested heavily in Jiangcheng and introduced his friends to invest, which made Jiangcheng develop better and better."
"Afterwards, he said he did it on purpose, because he didn't want his father to get promoted, make money, and be successful. He wanted to prevent his father from climbing the ladder and from being successful."
"Including this time when he lied to you and had a fake marriage with Zhao Qingman behind your back, it was also a fight against his father."
Cheng Jiamo: "But he was talking about a business marriage."
Zhong Qi chuckled: "Maybe he just doesn't want to show you his darker side."
After saying that, he stood up and walked to the door, ready to run out at any moment.
Cheng Jiamo: "What do you mean?"
Zhong Qi: "His father's current wife, who is also his stepmother, is pregnant. He doesn't allow his father to have the child because he doesn't want others to have what he can't have, such as fatherly love. So he agreed to his father's request to marry Zhao Qingman, on the condition that his father must get a tubal ligation and that his stepmother's child cannot be born."
He Qingzhao: "..."
He Qingzhao glared at Zhong Qi with a sharp look. If he wasn't afraid that speaking would ruin the plan and cause Cheng Jiamo to refuse to come at all, he would have gotten up and beaten Zhong Qi even though he was in pain.
Cheng Jiamo: "..."
Zhong Qi: "He told you it was a business marriage, which might make you angry, but it's better than telling you the truth. He's probably afraid of scaring you, because the truth is more chilling than a lie."
Cheng Jiamo: "..."
What a paranoid and pathological mentality this is!
She suddenly realized that she wouldn't be able to leave He Qingzhao so easily unless He Qingzhao took the initiative to let go.
Otherwise, given his obsessive nature, he would rather ruin her than let her leave.
Zhong Qi: "Don't worry. Even though he's rotten to the core and ruthless to everyone, he's been incredibly gentle with you. He did lie to you, but he truly loves you. Even if you don't have feelings for him, come and see him for the sake of him saving you and sending you back to your country."
Cheng Jiamo: "I..."
“I’m not a busybody, and I don’t care about him that much, much less feel sorry for him. My relationship with him is seven parts self-interest and three parts friendship. If he weren’t really that sick right now, I wouldn’t have called you.”
Cheng Jiamo finally couldn't bear the guilt and her voice softened: "Send me the address."
Zhong Qi: "I'll send someone to pick you up."
After hanging up the phone, Zhong Qi quickly walked to the bedside, slammed his phone onto the bed, and looked at He Qingzhao, whose face was pale but whose eyes were still dark and deep. He said irritably, "Don't try to blame me if you get caught! I'm only helping you this once! There won't be a next time!"
He Qingzhao sneered: "You have the nerve to say you're helping me? You've been dropping bombshells on me the whole time!"
Zhong Qi shrugged: "If I don't tell the truth, do you think she'll soften her heart? Will she come to see you?"
He Qingzhao: "..."
Zhong Qi: "Ordinary lies are easy to expose, but the highest level of lies are those where every sentence states the truth, but when put together, they form a huge lie."
He Qingzhao: "I don't want to lie to her anymore."
Zhong Qi: "But I didn't lie to her. Just tell me, which of my words wasn't true? You saved her in Taijing, that's true, right?"
He Qingzhao: "...Yes"
Zhong Qi: "People in the industry call you 'Gentleman Sword,' is that true?"
He Qingzhao: "..."
Zhong Qi: "You bankrupted me, caused me to be imprisoned in the United States, and after I got out, you took advantage of my misfortune and continued to suppress me. Is that true?"
He Qingzhao closed his eyes: "..."
Zhong Qi: "You went to Jiangcheng to mess with your dad, causing him to fail to meet his GDP performance targets, is that true too?"
He Qingzhao raised his hand and pressed his temple: "..."
Zhong Qi: "What I said at the end was that you were very ill. You even had a stomach hemorrhage. Isn't that serious?"
He Qingzhao: "Thanks, I owe you this time."
Zhong Qi then smiled with satisfaction: "There's no need for thanks between friends. Just give me 10% of the shares in the new energy intelligent vehicle you're working on."
He Qingzhao grabbed a platinum tourbillon watch with a black dial from beside his pillow and threw it at Zhong Qi: "Here's what I gave you, get out!"
Zhong Qi caught it quickly and slowly put it on his wrist, praising, "This is a Patek Philippe worth fifty million! Young Master He is so generous!"
He Qingzhao didn't care about a watch. He had plenty of watches like this, but he rarely wore them except on formal occasions. He kept them in his locker as decorations.
What he cares about most right now is whether Cheng Jiamo will come, and if she does, will she feel sorry for him? Will she make up with him?
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