Chapter 111 Upon hearing Qiao Yanyu's question, He Zhao put away his phone before answering, "Because of it..."
Upon hearing Qiao Yanyu's question, He Zhao put away his phone before answering, "Because I've seen that expression before."
When the tattooed ghost said "no," its face showed a hint of ingratiation, a hint of guilt, and a hint of embarrassment—it was just short of sweating profusely. He Zhao had seen this expression many times. During the period immediately after her parents' death, when she exposed those scheming individuals trying to extract something from her, they all wore the same expression.
It was so obvious that it was unlikely that He Zhao would admit his mistake.
He Zhao raised an eyebrow and began to explain the expression: "It goes without saying that it feels guilty. It's afraid of being discovered after doing something bad. The little bit of flattery it's wearing is because it hopes I can really let it off the hook. I'm too familiar with this expression. When it shows this expression, it's most likely lying."
He Zhaohao expanded on this, continuing to share her insights: "Besides that, there's another type of person who, even when exposed, remains defiant and will use a very loud voice and an extremely upright demeanor to rebuke others for thinking that way. You need to carefully discern these people. It's best to make direct eye contact with them. If they can't resist your gaze and look away first, the probability of them lying is very high. If they withstand your gaze, then there's nothing you can do but try to figure it out later."
"However, generally speaking, even if you pretend, you can't keep it up for too long, and pretending is quite tiring. So as long as it becomes a protracted battle, the liar will eventually be exposed."
He Zhao spoke from experience, and there was a hint of boastfulness in her voice. It was clear she was very confident and proud of her ability to detect lies. Qiao Yanyu, however, found He Zhao all the more pitiful.
She's so young, just a little girl, yet she's so adept at detecting whether someone is lying, and seems very experienced; she must have gone through a lot. Qiao Yanyu reached out and took He Zhao's hand. He Zhao instinctively gripped Qiao Yanyu's hand in return, realizing that Qiao Yanyu cared about her.
He Zhao smiled and turned to look at Qiao Yanyu: "Oh, what's the big deal? It happened so many years ago." She smiled with her eyes crinkling: "Besides, I'm already in this world, so I'll never see those scheming relatives again in this lifetime."
When this question was raised, Qiao Yanyu's heart stirred: "He Zhao, have you ever thought about going back to your original world?"
To say I hadn't thought about it would be a lie.
He Zhao was silent for a moment, then honestly told Qiao Yanyu, "Of course I've thought about it." Her words made Qiao Yanyu grip He Zhao's hand even tighter. He Zhao ignored her and continued, "Because in my original world, I was a moderately wealthy woman. Not exactly rich, but I certainly had no worries about food or clothing, and could do whatever I wanted. Being inexplicably dragged into this world, I have to set up a stall, run a business, and my sleep schedule is completely reversed."
Given the circumstances, how could He Zhao not want to return to his original world?
But her smile didn't fade as she continued, "But after thinking about it, I still think Sister Qiao is more important." She lifted Qiao Yanyu's hand, bringing the back of her hand close to her face, and shamelessly confessed again, "I really like Sister Qiao, and I really enjoy being with her. Maybe it's because I've experienced too much deceit and treachery in the past, but after spending time with Sister Qiao, I realized that being with others can be so easy and comfortable, without having to guess what they're thinking."
Such experiences were truly rare for He Zhao. Even with fair-weather friends, she would unconsciously wonder: if she were broke, would they still associate with her? Even with her long-time friends who were on the same level as her and not there for money, she would still think, "If one day I'm broke and no longer in their social class, will they abandon me?"
He Zhao couldn't help but think about it; when she did, she even had a masochistic streak.
But when I'm with Qiao Yanyu, I don't have that kind of trouble at all.
"Because Sister Qiao is so easy to understand. You wear your heart on your sleeve. You're not the naive or innocent type. You're just straightforward and don't like to argue with people. You'd rather be direct than pretend."
This question surprised Qiao Yanyu. She reached out her other hand and touched her cheek. "Really?" She didn't know she had this side to her. She only knew that she would often unconsciously furrow her brows and look a little difficult to get along with, but she didn't know that she wore her heart on her sleeve.
"Yes, yes, I was thinking, wow, I really like people like that, they don't scheme against each other at all."
After He Zhao finished speaking, he lowered his head and touched Qiao Yanyu's hand with his lips: "So, I didn't want to go back later. I wanted to be with Sister Qiao. This is when I felt most relaxed and happiest."
Qiao Yanyu blushed again, which was rare for her.
It's rare because in her nearly thirty years of life before meeting He Zhao, she rarely blushed at such words. As for "again"... it's because she seems to have blushed many times in front of He Zhao.
Qiao Yanyu never imagined that she was such a blushing person.
But it has to be said, the appearance of this tattooed ghost was actually a good thing. Not only did it give He Zhao a chance to vent his anger, but it also allowed him to speak his true feelings, and then let Qiao Yanyu know He Zhao's thoughts. Qiao Yanyu even thought that she hoped there would be more ghosts like the tattooed ghost.
The premise is that you are present.
That concluded their day's stall activity. He Zhao glanced at the time and figured no more customers would come. Sure enough, by three o'clock, not a single customer had arrived. He Zhao and Qiao Yanyu packed up their stall and prepared to go home.
However, an embarrassing situation arose: the park was extremely remote, and given the awkward time of 3 a.m., no one accepted the ride-hailing order even after ten minutes. Even after canceling and trying again, no driver accepted the order.
This left Qiao Yanyu and He Zhao looking at each other, unsure of what to do. They had even tried raising the price, but the location was simply too remote. In the end, they used a ride-hailing service to ask an acquaintance to bring Li Xia, whom the Countermeasures Bureau had originally planned to send that day, to pick them up.
Li Xia had no objections at all. Although she sounded like she had been woken up by the phone ringing in bed and was still a little sleepy at first, she immediately perked up after hearing what Qiao Yanyu said. And she quickly replied, "Coming!"
After Qiao Yanyu hung up the phone, she wanted He Zhao to go home as soon as possible. He Zhao decisively refused. How could he leave Qiao Yanyu alone here in the middle of the night? Would she even be human? Would she have no shame? He Zhao genuinely couldn't do such a thing, so even though he was shivering in the cold wind, he stayed with Qiao Yanyu and waited.
It was around 3:40 when Li Xia finally arrived by car. As soon as she arrived, she apologized, "I'm so sorry, it's quite far from my home, so I'm late."
Although He Zhao was a little unhappy that Qiao Yanyu, a patient, had been waiting in the night wind for so long, he was asking for her help after all. So He Zhao quickly adopted social etiquette: "Not at all, we are the ones who have troubled you. Did we wake you up by calling you in the middle of the night?"
The two sides exchanged pleasantries for a while, demonstrating a strong sense of etiquette and manners.
Qiao Yanyu ignored all that. She first wheeled herself to Li Xia's car and told her to hurry up. It was already 3:40, and she didn't know what the two of them were dawdling about. The two people, who were very good at social etiquette, were now speechless after she beat them to it. They had originally intended to exchange a few polite words, but now they couldn't say a word.
Li Xia quickly walked a few steps to the driver's seat, ready to drive away, but Qiao Yanyu stopped her: "Follow He Zhao, let's go back together."
"……good."
Li Xia followed He Zhao slowly in her car. Finally, she arrived at the entrance of the residential area, said goodbye, and then sped away. It was clear that Li Xia was really eager to get home and sleep.
They arrived home and fell asleep.
On the first day of the new day, Qiao Yanyu shouldn't have needed to go with Wang Yu, since Wang Yu had already finished her tasks and was preparing to come back to spend the evening with He Zhao. She had even called He Zhao. However, when He Zhao was about to go out that evening, he saw that Qiao Yanyu was already ready, dressed in her own clothes, and holding He Zhao's hat, scarf, and other belongings, waiting for He Zhao to help her get ready.
He Zhao was taken aback for a moment, then couldn't help but ask her, "Sister Qiao, didn't you know Wang Yu would be going tonight?"
Qiao Yanyu replied, "I know."
"and you……"
He Zhao was defeated by Qiao Yanyu's expression before he could finish speaking. Her expression clearly meant: "If Wang Yu goes, why can't I go?"
He Zhao tried to reason with Qiao Yanyu for a long time, explaining that she was still a patient and needed to rest and recover, but Qiao Yanyu wouldn't listen at all. Yesterday, He Zhao had mentally called Qiao Yanyu a stubborn mule, and he wasn't wrong; she really was stubborn.
Qiao Yanyu stretched out her hand and held up the hat and scarf in her arms, meaning that He Zhao should put them on her.
He Zhao was naturally unwilling, but Qiao Yanyu was even more stubborn than her, refusing to let her leave the house unless she agreed. He Zhao could only grumble that she was a stubborn mule while carefully wrapping her up. Then, just like yesterday, she put Qiao Yanyu in a ride-hailing car before riding her electric scooter to her stall.
On the way, He Zhao was thinking that at least there was some good news today: Wang Yu was there, so he didn't have to be unable to get a taxi in the middle of the night, nor did he have to dig Wang Yu out of her sleeping bed and then engage in some social interaction.
Neither of them told Wang Yu, so when Wang Yu was standing by the roadside waiting for someone and saw a ride-hailing car drive up, and then Qiao Yanyu slowly get out of the car, she was completely stunned. Her mouth dropped open, and it took her a while to react before she rushed forward to help.
After the driver left, she asked, "Wait, Senior Qiao, where's the boss? Why hasn't she arrived yet? And why did you come?"
Wang Yu asked a crucial question, but Qiao Yanyu didn't want to answer it. She even glared at her and uttered only two words: "Nonsense."
"...?"
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