34. Seal
As it was approaching twelve o'clock, Tang Sizhuo was waiting anxiously, and finally heard the ding-dong of the elevator, followed by familiar footsteps approaching the door.
Zeng Xiasheng hadn't slept well for several nights in a row, and he must have been even more tired after cleaning up all morning. His steps were much slower than usual, and he paused at the door for a moment before the combination lock's key click sounded.
Tang Sizhuo wanted to run to the door to meet him, but felt it was too obvious and a bit embarrassing, so he continued to slump on the sofa, staring at the entrance with sparkling eyes. After a beep, Zeng Xiasheng opened the security door with one hand and stepped sideways into the house. His cheeks and ears were red from the winter wind. He held a cardboard box under his right arm and a bakery wrapping bag dangling from his hand. He glanced at her, then lowered his head to change his shoes.
It’s an egg tart, probably freshly baked. You can smell the faint milky aroma while sitting in the living room.
Tang Sizhuo felt a little dazed for a moment, as if the two of them had been living together for a long time. She was not anxiously letting him go to clean up the rental house, but was waiting calmly for her husband to pick up the express, buy snacks, and rush home to cook after get off work.
After Zeng Xiasheng carefully put away the entire box of letters, he washed his hands, changed his clothes, took out the egg tart box, and brought it to Tang Sizhuo.
"Have you packed everything?"
"Um."
"What about the other stuff?"
"In the store."
"Is there anything else you need to buy?"
Seeing Zeng Xiasheng shaking his head, Tang Sizhuo said, "Then why don't you cook for lunch? Or you can just make something for yourself or order takeout. Go get some sleep first."
She had initially assumed Zeng Xiasheng wouldn't agree, and was about to persuade him a bit more. After all, in his eyes, egg tarts weren't something you could eat seriously. But Zeng Xiasheng, seemingly too exhausted to think, nodded quickly. His voice was slightly hoarse as he opened the carton and handed it to Tang Sizhuo, telling her to eat it while it was hot.
Zeng Xiasheng had no knowledge of desserts and couldn't identify any egg tart varieties, let alone which shop was the best. He saw a long line outside and went in to buy one. The taste aside, the price was ridiculously high, so they went all out to save face, with the packaging being thicker than other shops. The egg tarts were all individually packaged, securely secured between paper shells. This not only kept them warm, but also allowed him to carry them back without breaking the pastry. Tang Sizhuo, not wanting any crumbs to fall to the floor, tried very gently, but the result was a tight fit, and he couldn't lift them on his first try.
Zeng Xiasheng had been looking down, distracted, until Tang Sizhuo tried a second time, when he finally reacted and helped pull the paper shell apart. Tang Sizhuo pulled out a tissue to cushion the egg tart, then cradled it in his hands. Suddenly, he noticed a streak of red between the nails of Zeng Xiasheng's right thumb, like blood seeping from the separation of flesh and nail.
Zeng Xiasheng's hands had been a constant source of work, regardless of season. Blisters, ulcers, and frostbite were commonplace, leaving them incredibly rough. If it weren't for the slight whitening of his nails from holding onto the edge of a cardboard box, it would have been difficult to notice the tiny speck of red amidst the furrows that resembled old bark. But he was so used to bumps and bruises that he often didn't feel the pain and didn't take much care to protect himself.
Tang Sizhuo placed the egg tart on the coffee table with a tissue, then got up from the sofa to look for an iodine cotton swab. However, when she broke the cotton swab, pulled Zeng Xiasheng's hand over and took a closer look, she found that it didn't seem to be blood.
Zeng Xiasheng didn't let her take a closer look. He reacted quickly, retracted his hand, subconsciously hid his thumb in his palm, and stood up and walked towards the study.
"I'm going to get some sleep."
He knew his behavior was strange, but he was so panicked that his heart was beating wildly and his breathing was rapid. He had done his best to suppress the trembling in his voice. He just wanted to escape from Tang Sizhuo's sight as soon as possible.
He shouldn't have come back. Tang Sizhuo is so smart, he shouldn't have thought he could hide it from her.
However, Zeng Xiasheng didn't know what to do. If he simply disappeared, Tang Sizhuo would be frantic searching, regardless of whether he'd given a reason to inform him or not. She'd likely learn the truth from the garbled red paint in the urban village, and might even run into the gang head-on. So Zeng Xiasheng thought it over and over again, and wisely bet that Tang Sizhuo, currently distracted, wouldn't notice. After making a few detours to make sure no one was following him, he bought her some snacks to drown out his nerves. Unexpectedly, she'd spotted him within ten minutes of entering.
Tang Sizhuo's voice sounded from behind him, just like the confrontation he had with someone at McDonald's two days ago, steady and cool.
"What did you sign?"
Zeng Xiasheng's heart skipped a beat, cold sweat broke out on his back, and his hands and feet turned cold. He didn't dare to turn around or look at Tang Sizhuo.
However, Tang Sizhuo did not intend to let him go.
His infinitely magnified hearing caught the movement of her clothes when she stood up, the sound of the wind when she walked, and the sound of her footsteps and breathing approaching. Tang Sizhu turned to face him and saw his chapped lips and pale face.
That red with a slight luster and a viscosity between ink and lipstick is ink pad, which she is much more familiar with than Zeng Xiasheng.
The moment she saw it, a few theories flashed through her mind. Renting an apartment in a small city typically takes at least a year, and Zeng Xiasheng moving out after just two months technically counts as premature termination. While uncommon, if the landlord had exceptional legal awareness and insisted on a termination agreement, even requiring a signature and seal, it might be plausible. Perhaps Zeng Xiasheng had taken care of some business on his way back, and signing or confirming receipts for funds might have left a mark.
But Zeng Xiasheng didn't understand the law and had been out of touch with society for a long time, so he couldn't make up these excuses to fool her.
His panic was completely self-inflicted. His fingers curled awkwardly, his eyes wandering, not daring to look Tang Sizhu in the eye. Tang Sizhu then noticed that there was also a clear red mark on the side of his ear and neck, which even with his collar pulled up, it still couldn't be completely covered. She had been a little puzzled just now. The living room was warm, and Zeng Xiasheng hadn't taken off the turtleneck sweater underneath when he changed into his home clothes. Tang Sizhu felt cold when he came back from outside, and she didn't realize it was to hide the scar.
"What happened? Did you get into a fight? Are you hurt?"
Her condition was already unstable, and her heart was filled with anxiety. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she couldn't control her sobs. She reached out to tug at his clothes, but her fingertips were shaking and she had no strength.
"Who asked you to sign? The landlord? You're in trouble, right? I should have gone with you, I—"
“No, no…”
Zeng Xiasheng struggled to deny it, but could only repeat these two words. He looked at Tang Sizhuo's tearful face, unable to find a single lie amidst her worry and self-blame.
The loan agreement did bear his signature. Zeng Xiasheng hadn't received much formal education, and his handwriting was poor, making it difficult to distinguish his handwriting. It was unclear whether someone had copied his handwriting or if he had simply signed it without noticing. Chen Tianhao frequently bought used cars and building materials, often asking him to sign for them. Sometimes, he'd receive not only delivery receipts but also simple contracts. Initially, Zeng Xiasheng forced himself to read them, but Chen Tianhao, annoyed by his dawdling, said it was already settled, so it didn't matter and he could just sign.
He saw that the borrower column had not only Chen Tianhao's signature but also fingerprints, but the guarantor's did not have any, so he found an excuse, saying that he had not pressed his fingerprints and was really unaware. As a result, the men in the room laughed in unison, as if he was too naive to be reasonable. Then they swarmed over and kicked him to the ground. Zeng Xiasheng struggled hard, but the number difference was too great, and he could not escape. In the end, his neck was grabbed and his body was pinned down. The leading man played with the electric shock device in front of him, connecting and disconnecting the current, disconnecting and connecting it again, as if to poke his eyes. The group forcibly pried his fingers free, pressed their fingerprints on several original documents that were taken out later, and walked away in a swagger.
He didn't dare tell Tang Sizhuo, and didn't know how to bring it up in this situation. Zeng Xiasheng stared at her blankly, feeling as if all the sounds around him were receding, only Tang Sizhuo's short, gasping breaths, like a dying gasp. He jerked awake, realizing she was still in the midst of an attack and couldn't let herself get so agitated. He forced himself to calm down, put his arm around Tang Sizhuo's shoulders, and helped her sit on the sofa.
"Chen Tianhao owed someone some money, and they couldn't find him. I happened to run into him on my way back, and we had a few words... Anyway, it's none of my business, don't worry about it." He stammered, explaining half-truthfully, "I signed some things for him, but they're his, and have nothing to do with me."
Tang Sizhuo's mind was no longer clear, but she had been a lawyer for so many years and could not cope with Zeng Xiasheng's clumsy arguments.
"Impossible!" she sobbed, her voice rising involuntarily, angry that he was still trying to hide it. "There's nothing you can sign without being responsible for it!"
Zeng Xiasheng was speechless because of her blockage, so he simply stopped talking and sat beside her with his head down, like a child waiting to be scolded after making a mistake.
"What did you sign? A loan agreement?"
After a long silence, he nodded imperceptibly.
Tang Sizhuo asked again: "Are you a co-borrower or a guarantor? Is it joint liability?"
Zeng Xiasheng didn't understand and said honestly, "I don't know."
"Where's the contract?"
"Not for me."
"How much money is owed?"
Zeng Xiasheng's lips moved, but no sound came out. Tang Sizhuo was extremely anxious, and the anger was burning all the way up from his chest. His eye sockets and forehead were aching.
She should take medicine to calm her mind, but she was afraid that if she closed her eyes and opened them again, Zeng Xiasheng would disappear secretly out of fear and implicate her. She didn't want to miss the opportunity to ask the truth, so she said to him almost pleadingly, "I have saved some money over the years. I have savings. You don't have to be so scared. Besides, the money they want may not be legal. Please tell me first, tell me what happened this morning."
Even if Zeng Xiasheng didn't know Tang Sizhuo's income, he knew it couldn't be a small sum for her. He still hadn't figured out how Tang Sizhuo managed to afford her education and living expenses in the years after Sun Changming's death, or even the monthly 2,000 yuan she paid to repay his family's debts. Putting aside the question of whether a man should be the pillar of the family, providing for the family's well-being, Tang Sizhuo, a woman raised in luxury, had been forced to worry about money simply because of her friendship with him and her good intentions to help him.
Zeng Xiasheng couldn't bear to think about how much she had suffered, so he tried his best to make up for it. Tang Sizhuo was determined not to return it to him, but now that the old favor had not been settled, he couldn't find any reason to use her money again, and he couldn't forgive himself for dragging her into new trouble.
So he said to her with difficulty, almost pausing on each word: "I will take care of it, don't worry."
Tang Sizhuo couldn't stop crying, but his thoughts were still clear. He immediately asked him, "How are you going to solve this problem? If Chen Tianhao runs away, your business won't be able to continue. How can you solve this problem? Are you going to move the goods in the middle of the night again?"
The more she spoke, the angrier she became. Memories of the past came flooding back to her, and she was on the verge of collapse.
"You never say anything. You never say anything! I asked you how you got the scar on your arm, but you didn't tell me. I asked you where my little conch went, but you didn't tell me. I asked you why my dad died, but you still won't tell me! Back then, I thought you thought I was too young to handle anything, and that you didn't dare tell me. Now I'm grown up, I've studied law, I know how to protect myself, I know how to resolve problems, but why are you still like this?! Don't you trust me? Don't I know more about resolving loan disputes than you do?!"
Zeng Xiasheng turned his eyes away, unable to answer her questions. His nails dug deep into his palms, causing him to feel so painful that his vision went black.
The air was dead silent. Tang Sizhu burst into tears. She was sweating all over and her hands and feet were numb.
"Didn't you say, didn't you say that we are at least friends, family..." She lowered her voice, almost whispering to herself, "Then why don't you let me help you? Why do you have to push me away? Aren't we together?"
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