Chapter 75 Old Love Letters: So innocent, unlike him.
This was the only question Chen Jingchi didn't receive a response from her. Whenever the topic turned to her feelings for him, she always remained silent, unwilling to give him any chance to speculate.
Chen Jingchi was still staring at her, trying to find even the slightest clue on her face.
Feeling uneasy, Zhou Yu got up to clear the dishes, but the person opposite her stopped her hand, saying, "I'll do it."
He knew she wouldn't answer when he asked, so Chen Jingchi accepted the situation.
Watching his retreating figure, Zhou Yu felt a little uncomfortable. She didn't mean to embarrass him; it was just that she couldn't undo what she had said before. She was clumsy with words and didn't know how to be frank with him.
She wasn't oblivious to his sincerity; she believed that this time he acted entirely out of love, with no other motives.
Her phone rang a few times, pulling her back to reality. Tan Bei had sent her a message asking how things were going with Chen Jingchi.
Zhou Yu replied: 【He's at my house】
Tan Bei: [! Is it still convenient?]
Zhou Yu: [Convenient]
The awkward incident before cooking completely robbed Zhou Yu of the courage to take back the key. Chen Jingchi knew she was soft-hearted and wouldn't kick him out; she acted as if she considered this place her own home.
Tan Bei: [Oh, by the way, Zhan Li came back from her trip to Xinjiang today and asked if I could invite you out. She said they'd like to meet you for a meal.]
Zhou asked curiously, "See me?"
Chen Jingchi didn't mention this to her.
Tan Bei: [Zhan Li said Chen Jingchi rented a house near your home, is that right?]
Zhou Yu thought to himself, "This place is really close; it's just separated by a wall."
She couldn't control their schedule, so she replied: "I have no objection."
Tan Bei: [Can I come with you? I haven't seen you for a few days.]
Zhou Yu: [Okay, I'll ask him about the time.]
She waited until Chen Jingchi came out of the kitchen before asking, "When are they coming?"
We just discussed this today, and it seems Tan Bei has already told her. He said, "It's okay if you don't want to see her."
Her relationship with the other members of the band wasn't that bad, Zhou Yu shook her head: "I'm not that vengeful."
He laughed: "You only remember me?"
Zhou Yu felt that he was being hypocritical after getting a good deal: "I'll have the driver pick you up and take you home."
"Okay." Chen Jingchi immediately picked up his phone to find a number.
Zhou Yu was stunned. She had just said it casually, but she didn't expect him to actually want to go back.
She had just said she didn't like people staying overnight without permission, and he changed his mind quite quickly.
While waiting for the call to connect, Chen Jingchi saw the complex and conflicted expression on Zhou Yu's face and was immediately captivated. He leaned closer to her and asked, "Do you want me to stay?"
Hearing the dial tone from the phone, Zhou Yu took a step back to create some distance: "I don't want to."
He raised his hand and pressed his thumb against the wound on her lower lip. It was so soft to kiss, but why was she so stubborn when she spoke?
Once the call connected, Chen Jingchi said to the other end, "Uncle, come pick me up."
Because they were nearby, Zhou heard the driver reply that they would arrive in ten minutes.
After hanging up the phone, Chen Jingchi moved his fingers to the side of her face and gently stroked it, explaining, "I have something to do tonight, so I won't be staying here."
Zhou Yu felt that his words were superfluous.
"They're coming tomorrow, we'll have dinner together tonight."
After he finished speaking, he saw that she was looking at the dining table, seemingly lost in thought. He wanted to take advantage of her distraction and leaned down to kiss her cheek. However, she looked up at him, and their lips brushed against each other for a moment. Chen Jingchi's heart skipped a beat, and he reached out to hug her.
This time, Zhou Yu reacted quickly and didn't let him succeed. She escaped from his arms and asked rapidly, "Can I still borrow the computer?"
Chen Jingchi had no choice but to say, "Okay."
After he left, Zhou continued preparing her lessons and received a message from him a few minutes later.
Chen: [There's fruit in the fridge. I've washed it; I'll eat it later.]
Chen: I'll bring you breakfast tomorrow.
She was so attentive, almost like a nanny.
Zhou Yu replied with a small emoji wearing a mask.
Around 8 o'clock, I was getting ready to take a shower. When I went into the bathroom, I saw Chen Jingchi's pants that he had taken off. He only washed the soiled parts briefly.
The color was too dark to be washed in the washing machine with her clothes, so Zhou Yu simply hand-washed and hung them to dry.
*
The next day, Chen Jingchi came over early in the morning. Afraid that she would be in a hurry to leave for work, he entered the bedroom ten minutes early to wake her up so that she would have time to eat breakfast.
Zhou Yu didn't hear the alarm clock, but vaguely heard Chen Jingchi calling her to get up. She thought she was dreaming and wanted to bury her head under the covers.
"Zhou Yu, if you pretend to be asleep, you'll get forcibly kissed."
That's more effective than an alarm clock.
As soon as she sat up, the person standing by the bed naturally reached out to her ear and tied her hair up.
This kind of thing usually happens before they're about to do it. The familiar action jolted Zhou Yu back to reality, and she stared at him blankly.
She looked at him with an adorably bewildered expression. Chen Jingchi broke his promise, bent one leg and knelt on the bed, leaning down to kiss her. Zhou Yu was caught off guard and was pinned down, letting out a soft groan and complaining, "I wasn't pretending to be asleep."
Even her voice was so soft that it stirred his heart.
"Mmm." He softened his kiss, "I couldn't resist."
He had taken up a favorable position, leaving Zhou Yu nowhere to hide. He kissed Zhou Yu's lips for a while, but Zhou Yu didn't stick out his tongue.
He's so innocent, it's unlike him.
After kissing her, Chen Jingchi pulled her out of bed and said, "There's still time for breakfast."
Just as Zhou Yu finished breakfast and was about to leave, she suddenly remembered something, turned back to him and said, "I'm going with Bei Bei this afternoon."
The implication was that they would go their separate ways.
Chen Jingchi nodded, not forgetting to tease her, "Do you know what it means to 'protest without a trace'?"
Zhou Yu was speechless after being cornered by him.
Upon arriving at the school, Zhou Yu bumped into a young male teacher in the office building corridor. He stopped in front of her, smiled, and said, "Teacher Zhou, didn't you check WeChat yesterday?"
She then remembered that the friend request she received yesterday had not yet been approved.
"I'm sorry." She smiled faintly. "I was a bit busy last night and didn't notice."
Now that he was right in front of her, she couldn't pretend to be clueless any longer, so she took out her phone and added him as a friend. He seemed to have more to say, but Zhou Yu used the excuse of grading homework to return to his office first.
In the afternoon, Zhou Yu had arranged to meet Tan Bei, but Tan Bei didn't get off work that early, so she stayed in the office until 5 PM before clocking in using facial recognition. Just then, Jiang Yunfei came downstairs and greeted her, "Teacher Zhou, going to the cafeteria for lunch?"
"No," she said. "Let's eat out."
"The cafeteria food isn't very good, is it?" Jiang Yunfei laughed. "I cook at home too."
There's only one road from the office building to the school gate, so he'd have to walk with him. Zhou Yu wasn't in the mood to chat with him, but he didn't want to appear too cold, since they were colleagues who saw each other all the time and even taught the same class.
He tried to bring up the topic several times, but Zhou Yu only gave brief, perfunctory replies. However, whether the other party was too persistent or simply lacked tact, he still performed his stand-up comedy with great enthusiasm.
As they approached the school gate, Jiang Yunfei suddenly remarked, "There are still a lot of rich people in our school. This is a Bentley Flying Spur."
Zhou Yu kept her head down, looking at the road. Just as Jiang Yunfei finished speaking, the car honked its horn. She finally looked up and saw that the person inside the car was staring intently at her.
Her heart skipped a beat, and she said to Jiang Yunfei, "That's my friend, I'm leaving now."
"Oh, huh?"
She quickly walked to the passenger seat, opened the door, and got in. Having finally shaken him off, Zhou Yu felt a little better. Turning her head, she saw Chen Jingchi still staring at her, and raised her hand to cover his eyes.
"Stop looking."
Chen Jingchi grabbed her hand and held it tightly, asking, "We didn't even add each other as friends yesterday, and we're going for a walk together today?"
Zhou wanted to retort with his words: "Didn't you say you weren't jealous?"
"I haven't eaten," he chuckled. "Just asking."
"We just happened to run into each other." After she finished speaking, the two stared at each other for a long time.
Chen Jingchi squeezed her hand: "What are you laughing at?"
Zhou tried to pull his hand back: "Who laughed?"
Chen Jingchi did not expose him.
She told him they would go separately this morning, but he still came to pick her up. Zhou Yu sent Tan Bei a message, asking her to wait downstairs at the company.
Upon arriving at Tan Bei's company, before she got out of the car, Zhou Yu deliberately switched from the passenger seat to the back seat. Seeing this, Chen Jingchi chuckled but remained silent.
Tan Bei and Chen Jingchi hadn't seen each other for quite some time, and they were visibly estranged. After exchanging a few pleasantries, the car fell silent, and no one spoke again. She leaned close to Zhou Yu, typing something on her memo for her to see.
He keeps glancing at you in the rearview mirror.
[This is making me really nervous!]
Zhou Yu looked up and her gaze met his in the rearview mirror. She quickly looked away.
Type below: 【Should I tell him to stop watching?】
Tan Bei was startled: "No need, no need! Let him see it."
Soon, Tan Bei noticed a small, almost healed cut on her lip and typed: [Was that from Chen Jingchi?]
Zhou Yu knew what she meant. He found the wolf among a bunch of emojis, thought for a moment, and then changed it to a dog.
Tan Bei couldn't stop laughing.
She typed out the story of how Chen Jingchi had misunderstood Liu Cheng's behavior over the past two days and sent it to Tan Bei. After laughing, Tan Bei added at the bottom: "[He still cares about you a lot.]"
Zhou paused for a moment before typing the last word: 【Hmm】
*
They entered the private room, where the other three people had already arrived and stood up to greet them.
In the past, when they dined together, Zhou Yu always stayed by Chen Jingchi's side and rarely spoke, her presence was minimal. Today's gathering was entirely for her, and she felt a little uncomfortable. She smiled at them and took the initiative to greet them, "Long time no see."
They have changed a lot; their clothes and appearance are more mature, and their eyes are more composed. Yet they haven't changed; they are still those familiar faces.
After sitting down, Zhuo Wencheng exclaimed, "This is the first time all six of us have gathered together like this."
After Zhou Yu went abroad, there were only five people left. Later, Tan Bei and Zhan Li broke up and left the group chat, leaving only the four boys.
Zhan Li called the waiter to bring the food. While waiting, there was an awkward silence at the table.
Zhuo Wencheng couldn't hold back any longer and was the first to speak: "Zhou Yu, we've actually wanted to meet you for a long time."
Zhou looked at him, and Zhuo Wencheng added, "There are some things I have to say to your face."
She didn't understand and asked in confusion, "What?"
"Seven years ago, on the night of your birthday," Zhuo Wencheng said with a guilty expression, "I apologize for the things I said back then. I was very immature, impulsive, and liked to stir up trouble."
“Me too,” Zhan Li continued. “I didn’t know you would hear me. I’m so sorry for hurting you.”
Xu Yue didn't respond at the time; he was more of an onlooker watching the spectacle. At this point, he also said, "Sorry."
Tan Bei hadn't expected that this was the reason for organizing the gathering. She turned her head to look at Zhou Yu.
Those distant memories were a deep-seated heartache that Zhou Yu could never overcome, but with the passage of time, she had completely let go of them when she saw Chen Jingchi again.
She smiled gently and said, "It's okay, I almost forgot about it if you hadn't mentioned it."
This was the direct cause of their breakup, and it's not something that can be easily forgotten. Everyone knows that she intends to move on from this.
Zhuo Wencheng's mood finally eased, and he breathed a long sigh of relief. He had wanted to tell her these things five years ago, but they had already broken up by then, and he had never found the opportunity. Today, he finally made amends.
Chen Jingchi turned his head to look at her: "I..."
"Stop talking," Zhou Yu interrupted him softly, not wanting to hear what he had to say next.
The atmosphere relaxed considerably, and the group chatted about their current situations, with Zhou Yu occasionally chiming in. Xu Yue had recently been arranged a fiancée by his family, leaving Zhuo Wencheng the only one still single. When the topic of his love life came up, he wryly remarked that happiness was yet to come.
"Don't follow in your father's footsteps," Xu Yue joked. "He now flits around among women without ever getting involved with them."
After Chen Jingchi slowed down his work pace, Du Heng also had quite a few romantic opportunities. Hearing this, Zhuo Wencheng retorted, "It's better than an arranged marriage like you did."
Xu Yue shrugged: "Since you put it that way, I won't hide it from you. Actually, I've had a crush on her since elementary school."
Zhuo Wencheng didn't believe it at all: "If you put it another way, you two were already connected by a red thread when you were still in the womb."
"What an ugly face!" Zhan Li chimed in. "Look how jealous they've made all the single people!"
"You're not single? Where's your girlfriend?"
Just as Zhan Li was about to reply, Tan Bei coughed twice, and he immediately fell silent.
Listening to their banter, Zhou Yu felt a momentary daze, as if he had returned to his university days, to the lively atmosphere of friends getting together and joking around.
After the dinner, Tan Bei was about to follow Zhou Yu when Zhan Li tugged at her wrist: "I'll take you home."
Tan Bei glanced at Chen Jingchi, who was waiting for someone at the door, and gave in: "Okay."
She patted Zhou Yu on the shoulder, informing him that she wouldn't be going back with them. Zhou Yu looked slightly surprised, exchanged a glance with Zhan Li for a second, and nodded: "Okay."
After getting in the car, Chen Jingchi didn't start the engine immediately, but asked, "Can I sleep at your place tonight?"
Before Zhou Yu could speak, he heard him say in a casual tone, "I'll give you three seconds. If you don't say anything, that means you're agreeing."
3.
2.
1.
Zhou Yu yanked the seatbelt over and fastened it: "How childish!"
"As long as it works, that's fine." He smiled.
If you ask her if it's okay, even if she's willing, she definitely won't tell you the truth. It's better to pave the way for her.
It was past eight o'clock when Zhou Yu got home. She had accidentally gotten a stain on her clothes while eating, so she went straight to the bathroom to take a shower as soon as she entered the house.
Chen Jingchi went back next door to get his clothes. His phone rang, and when he saw the contact name, he stopped in front of the wardrobe.
Teacher Liu: [Xiao Chen, have you been busy lately? Next month is our school's 50th anniversary celebration, and the school would like to invite you to perform. Would you like to come?]
This was his senior year high school homeroom teacher. He hadn't seen her for many years since graduation, but every Teacher's Day and New Year, Chen Jingchi never forgot to send her holiday greetings.
The reason is simple: this is the greatest benefactor on his path to learning music.
Chen Jingchi made time for her invitation, no matter how busy he was, and replied immediately: "What day is it?"
Teacher Liu: [Oh my, I thought you were very busy, I didn't expect you to reply so quickly]
Teacher Liu: [Are you free on October 15th?]
Chen Jingchi: [Available]
Teacher Liu: [That's great, I'll go talk to the principal right away.]
Teacher Liu: [Send me a photo from your old high school; the school will make it into a promotional poster.]
Chen Jingchi: [Let me look for it]
Most of the photos in his phone's album are ones he's going to post on Weibo. Before that, there are photos and videos of Zhou Yu. High school was too long ago, and those photos are all uploaded to QQ Space.
The last time she checked was seven years ago when she was with Zhou Yugang, and she was sitting with him on the sofa reminiscing about his high school days.
He took the clothes and returned to Zhou Yu's house, intending to look for them on the computer.
Zhou Yu brought the laptop to the bedroom, turned it on, and the screen was still displaying her lesson preparation documents. Chen Jingchi opened QQ, swiped to the left, and opened the photo album.
He had no idea that after switching computers, he hadn't downloaded QQ at all.
It wasn't until a private album titled "Chen Jingchi" popped up that he finally realized it wasn't his account.
This is Zhou Yu's photo album.
Chen Jingchi looked up towards the bathroom, sensing that the photo album bearing his name likely held her secrets.
Should we click in and take a look?
Although he knew this behavior was not honorable, after a few seconds of internal struggle, he still moved the mouse and opened the photo album.
-----------------------
Author's note: Thank you for the landmines and nutrient solutions, everyone!
Yvonne :) threw a landmine
Reader "Lz" irrigated with nutrient solution +5
Reader "Orange Jam" watered the plant with nutrient solution +6
Reader "Qiqiqiqi" added 1 unit of nutrient solution to the water.
Readers "stranded", irrigate with nutrient solution +2
Reader "Lily" watered with nutrient solution +1
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