Su Rong was at a loss for words.
She glared at Chen Zhou with disdain and cursed, "You’re daydreaming! Even if he calls the marriage off, I won’t marry you. Get lost! Don’t be the type who forgets the pain once the wound heals."
Chen Zhou looked at Zhou Gu, saw his dulled face, felt a little scared but didn’t want to leave. He let go of the tree trunk, squatted on the ground, hugged his arms, and said with a sulking tone, "Su Rong, I’ve liked you since we were kids... I’m not leaving."
Su Rong: "..."
I’ll be damned!
Zhou Gu was intrigued, he didn’t expect that Su Rong would present such a spectacle. He stood up, walked towards Chen Zhou, "You liked her since you were a kid?"
Chen Zhou nodded fearfully, saying "Yes" in a soft tone. He then felt this didn’t fully express his sincerity and repeated it louder, "Yes."
Zhou Gu found this amusing, "What do you like about her?"
"She’s pretty."
"There are many beautiful women in the world. Do you like all of them?"
"Of course not, she’s smart, wicked, ruthless, and a bully..." Chen Zhou listed all of Su Rong’s ’virtues’, "The more vicious she is, the more I like her..."
Su Rong: "..."
Damn it, I should have killed him back then!
"Oh, brother, could you be more specific?" Zhou Gu grabbed him by the arm, "Come, sit down and elaborate. I want to hear."
Chen Zhou was stunned, "You...you’re not going to beat me up?"
"Why would I beat you? I’m a man of integrity. I don’t like fighting, unless someone is really asking for it, someone I find extremely irritating, like Xie Lin. But you’re different, I find you quite agreeable." Zhou Gu dragged him to sit down and draped an arm over his shoulder, "As long as you’re doing a good job, you can consider me your friend."
Chen Zhou was flustered. He looked at Su Rong in a daze.
Su Rong kept her silence, looking sullen.
Zhou Gu let out a laugh that was as chilling as death himself, "What are you looking for her, for? You don’t need to look at her, just talk. I want to hear more details. Maybe if you bring up all her miscreants, I might actually call off the wedding and not marry her."
Chen Zhou’s eyes immediately lit up, "Okay, let me explain it to you in detail."
Chen Zhou straightened up, preparing to have a heart-to-heart chat with Zhou Gu.
Watching all this made Su Rong grind her teeth. She tried to pull at Zhou Gu’s sleeve again.
Zhou Gu avoided her hand and warned her with a teasing smile, "Behave!"
Su Rong withdrew her hand and glared at Chen Zhou as a warning.
Chen Zhou sneaked a glance at Su Rong, disregarded her warning, and started pouring out his heart, "When we were young, she wouldn’t play with us, calling us idiots and ugly. She said she didn’t want to play with idiots and ugly people. I was so sad. I asked her what I could do to play with her, and she said that unless I had silver. So, I gave her two taels of silver, and she played with me for an hour. She’d invite a bunch of kids and make them gather some soil. Then, we’d all play with the mud, and she would sit on the pile and make sure everyone was doing their part. Whoever failed to make a good mud cast was kicked out of the playing circle and was not allowed to play with her anymore. I feared she might not include me in the future, so I obediently spent the whole hour making mud casts. When the hour was up, she went away. The next time she came, I had to give her two taels of silver again. She repeated last time’s act. After I had spent all my pocket money, she stopped playing with me."
Zhou Gu: "..."
Su Rong was shocked, "When did this happen?"
"When you were three, and I was six."
Su Rong thought for a while, it seemed like something similar had happened. She traded her own New Year’s market money with the old man guarding the back gate of their house for some bottles of wine. She didn’t have any other choice anyway. Her money was soon gone. When she needed the money the most, Chen Zhou just happened to come by. He was her silver lining.
Chen Zhou went on, "And, she didn’t like studying. All the other ladies were studying together, but she just didn’t like it. But, because the lady of the house was strict, she had no choice but to sit in the classroom and go through the motions. She wouldn’t even do the homework the teacher assigned. She’d get me to do it, and I had to write it in her messy handwriting. Because I did so much of her homework when we were young, my handwriting has remained terrible till now..."
Zhou Gu: "..."
Su Rong: "..."
Chen Zhou went on, "And whenever someone in the Governor’s residence would celebrate their birthday, she’d always have to give a gift. But she had no silver to buy anything, so she used her other methods. She’d get a bunch of us ’idiots’ to brainstorm ideas with her. We thought maybe she could do some embroidery, but she said she couldn’t. We suggested writing a scroll, she said her handwriting would be an insult to the words. We suggested complimenting the birthday person, she said it lacked sincerity. For several days, we brainstormed with her but couldn’t come up with any good ideas. In the end, we all chipped in to help her buy birthday gifts. Up until I left Jiangning to study at my maternal grandfather’s place, it had been several years, and things were still the same."
He complained, "There were too many people in the Governor’s residence. Each person had a birthday. All my monthly allowance was used on her."
Zhou Gu: "..."
Su Rong: "..."
Fed up, she retorted, "Have I done anything good for you?"
That’s it. My groom-to-be is screwed!
After thinking hard, Chen Zhou finally said, "Yes, there was something. You knew how to fish, and you’d often share your catch with us. I’d take them home, and my mother would think I fished them myself. When I told her it was you, she’d just discredit it. She couldn’t believe a young girl like you could catch such big fish. No matter how much I insisted, she wouldn’t believe me and even gave me a good scolding. She strictly warned me about the dangers of the river’s edge and told me not to fish. Then she restricted me from leaving our place."
Su Rong: "..."
Baring her teeth, she replied, "That proves I have a conscience. By fishing and sharing with you, I was compensating. Is there anything else?"
"Also..." Chen Zhou thought hard before smacking his forehead, "Oh, I remember. When you were seven, not long after your mother passed away, you read a travel log somewhere and became very interested in the Savanna beyond Jibei Pass. Coincidentally, Zhenwei Courier Agency was planning a trip there, and you left a note, then sneaked out with them. You disappeared for half a year. Governor Su and his wife sent many people to search for you beyond Jibei Pass but to no avail. They were devastated, thinking you had died. Upon your return after half a year, you brought back a rattle-drum you bought from beyond the pass. I was quite touched." 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢
Su Rong: "..."
Even that was raked up!
She was getting weary, "Shut your trap!"
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