Chapter 55 [VIP]
Chapter Summary: "Are you really not going to eat it? This is candy that will make you happy just by eating it."
After this little incident, Qian Lina, who had been laughing and joking with Xu Tianzhou without restraint, no longer dared to look up at him. Her boyfriend was even more exaggerated, so nervous that he didn't know what to do, and his tone of voice sounded just like he was reporting a work report.
Ni Zhenzhen felt very sorry for this situation.
Fortunately, they had almost finished eating. As they left the restaurant, Qian Lina insisted on seeing them to their car.
Helpless, Ni Zhenzhen had no choice but to temporarily abandon her plan to take the subway alone and got into Xu Tianzhou's car again.
However, she was not discouraged.
After waving goodbye to Qian Lina, the car window slowly closed, and as the car crossed the white line and merged into the traffic, the smile on Ni Zhenzhen's face disappeared.
She gripped her bag tightly, her eyes fixed straight ahead. As soon as the car rounded a bend, she quickly placed her hand on the door. "Stop ahead, I'm going to take the subway."
Upon hearing this, Xu Tianzhou's grip on the steering wheel tightened suddenly, a vein bulging on the back of his hand. He desperately wanted to question Ni Zhenzhen: did she not want to spend a single moment more with him?
But he held back.
Xu Tianzhou stopped the car as she instructed, and Ni Zhenzhen unlocked the car. Almost at the same time, Xu Tianzhou locked the car again.
"What are you doing?" Ni Zhenzhen looked over in confusion.
The car stopped right under a streetlamp, the dim white light shrouding everything in a veil. Xu Tianzhou's face was frosty, his eyes slightly narrowed as he frowned. "Aren't you going to tell me the truth?"
Ni Zhenzhen didn't understand, "What did you say?"
“I had Su Wenjin ask around, and apart from that one time, no one from your company has asked you to attend any social events, so…” He stared at Ni Zhenzhen as if trying to see right through her, “Who are you drinking with this time? Don’t tell me you’re drinking alone.”
"Is it wrong for me to treat my clients to dinner?"
Xu Tianzhou didn't press the issue further, but calmly asked, "Where did you go after leaving the courthouse?"
Ni Zhenzhen's eyes widened in an instant, "You were following me?"
As soon as she finished speaking, Ni Zhenzhen realized, to Xu Tianzhou's astonishment, that she had inadvertently confessed.
“I…” She lowered her head and gripped her bag tighter, like a frightened little animal desperately wanting to hide, yet having nowhere to retreat because she was in a confined space.
She wanted to say something, but her mind went blank.
Ni Zhenzhen's flustered appearance made Xu Tianzhou even more certain of his guess.
Without saying a word, he grabbed Ni Zhenzhen's bag and emptied its contents: umbrella, lipstick, phone, power bank... all tumbled out.
"What are you doing?" Ni Zhenzhen exclaimed.
Xu Tianzhou blocked her with just one hand. He looked at each of them one by one, then paused slightly.
Could it be that he's mistaken?
Taking advantage of the moment, Ni Zhenzhen snatched the bag back, her face showing more fear than anger. She felt as if she had fallen into an ice cave, trembling uncontrollably, complaining about his presumptuous decision while frantically picking up her belongings.
Xu Tianzhou noticed that among all the items, the first thing she picked up was a red candy box.
"You..." came another scream.
Before Ni Zhenzhen could put the candy box into her bag, Xu Tianzhou grabbed her wrist. She struggled a couple of times, but the red candy box was already in Xu Tianzhou's hand.
He opened the box and poured out a piece of candy.
The sugar is white and looks very similar to a pill.
Xu Tianzhou never understood why the candy had to be made this way.
He remembered seeing this candy for the first time when he was in high school. After math class, Ni Zhenzhen took out a piece of candy, put it in her mouth, and then asked him if he wanted to try some.
Xu Tianzhou stared in disbelief. He didn't know it was candy and thought it was medicine, so he instinctively refused, "No."
Ni Zhenzhen asked with some regret, "Are you really not going to eat it? It's so delicious, the kind of candy that makes you happy just by eating it."
sugar?
Xu Tianzhou didn't believe it. He looked at Ni Zhenzhen suspiciously, trying to find a flaw in her expression.
People here don't like him, and it's common for him to be pranked and teased.
Password his computer, throw his school uniform up a tree, egg him on to answer questions, or laugh unrestrainedly when he says something wrong.
Now, Ni Zhenzhen is trying to trick him into believing that a box of medicine is candy.
He could almost foresee what would happen next.
He scrunched up his face because he had taken the medicine, while the others laughed.
So even though Ni Zhenzhen had already eaten one, he didn't intend to believe it. Who knew if she was just doing it on purpose to make him believe it?
"Aren't you going to eat?" Ni Zhenzhen withdrew her hand. "Then forget it."
Seeing her dejected look, Xu Tianzhou hated his own cowardice. Should he just trust her this once?
He ultimately couldn't take that step, and instead, almost involuntarily, said, "Um... cough cough... I don't like sweets."
Ni Zhenzhen always remembered this incident, and so did Xu Tianzhou.
This time, he didn't hesitate. Instead, he opened the box under Ni Zhenzhen's frightened gaze, took out a piece of candy, and prepared to put it in his mouth.
"No!" Ni Zhenzhen cried out, grabbing his hands that were holding the candy. "No..."
"Why?"
Ni Zhenzhen bit her lip, buried her head low, and held Xu Tianzhou's hands tightly with both hands. As time passed, she did not loosen her grip at all, but instead tightened her grip even more.
"Why?" Xu Tianzhou asked again.
Forced into a corner, Ni Zhenzhen had no choice but to tell the whole story.
The contents of the candy box were not candy, but medicine.
From the moment she decided to divorce, Ni Zhenzhen was enveloped in a near-despairing emotion that severely impacted her daily life, forcing her to seek help from doctors at the hospital.
The doctor prescribed her antidepressants, but these medications have significant side effects. She feels nauseous less than half an hour after taking them, and also experiences dizziness and insomnia. The doctor said this is normal and that if she really can't tolerate it, she can try imported medications.
Given the high cost of imported drugs, Ni Zhenzhen did not agree.
She dared not keep the medicine at home or at the office, and after thinking it over, she decided that the safest way was to put the medicine in a candy box and carry it with her.
Xu Tianzhou frowned, his tone somewhat urgent, but it was hard to pinpoint exactly what he hated. "You're already like this, why don't you..." Why did she refuse to divide the property? He didn't understand what she was so insistent on.
"You think I'm in debt?" Ni Zhenzhen looked up, her eyes shining brightly in the lonely night.
He ultimately underestimated her feelings for him.
Ni Zhenzhen gave a sorrowful smile, enunciating each word clearly, "It's because of you!"
"No matter how much money I owe, I'm confident I can pay it all back. What I can't be sure about is you. I don't know if you'll still be there for me when I've paid off all my debts..."
The thought that Xu Tianzhou might have a lover or even a child by then filled her with unbearable sorrow, as if all her efforts had lost their meaning. Whenever she thought of this, no matter what she was doing, she couldn't help but cry.
Ni Zhenzhen took a deep breath, slowly released her grip on Xu Tianzhou's hand, and leaned back in her seat as if all her strength had left her.
"But I still want to thank you. You made me realize that only I am the most important." When she learned that Xu Tianzhou had lied to her, she was not so sad anymore. The person she cared about had never taken her to heart. "So I am much better now. The doctor said that I can stop taking the medication after this course of treatment is over."
She turned her head, trying to find his shadow in the world washed by the water. "Xu Tianzhou, if you could disappear from my life completely, I would probably get better faster."
Xu Tianzhou felt a tightness in his chest. He wanted to open the window for ventilation, but his fingers and arms were stiff and he couldn't move them.
In fact, he had thought long ago that Ni Zhenzhen might be happier without him, but he really didn't want to admit it and had been trying his best to avoid this fact until Ni Zhenzhen herself said it.
It turns out that he was the source of all Ni Zhenzhen's suffering.
Xu Tianzhou felt a sharp pain in his internal organs, and his head throbbed as if it were about to explode. He closed his eyes and, amidst the sound of the car door unlocking, murmured desperately, "Go."
Ni Zhenzhen paused for a moment, then opened the car door. Before getting out, she took one last look at him and quickly disappeared into the darkness.
Shortly after that, Xu Tianzhou finally agreed to sign the divorce mediation agreement, and the two officially dissolved their marriage.
After completing the formalities, Ni Zhenzhen never saw Xu Tianzhou again, neither when formally signing the cooperation agreement with Xinda nor at the subsequent business banquet.
At the banquet, Su Wenjin specifically asked her assistant to call her aside.
"Mr. Su, you wanted to see me?"
Su Wenjin held his wine glass and said, "Happy divorce." Ever since he learned of Ni Zhenzhen's existence, he had hoped that she could escape her misery. Now that his wish had come true, he was very happy for her.
"Thank you." Ni Zhenzhen smiled and asked a question she had wanted to ask for a long time, "You've always known? Did you?"
"Yes," Su Wenjin said, then shook her head thoughtfully. "No, not exactly."
Ni Zhenzhen didn't understand what he meant.
Su Wenjin didn't explain. He downed his drink in one gulp, gave her a final smile, and turned to leave.
After the divorce, Ni Zhenzhen had one less worry, and she could finally focus all her energy on making money to pay off her debts.
That noon, Ni Zhenzhen accompanied her colleague to the convenience store downstairs from the company to buy food, and unexpectedly ran into an "acquaintance".
The man was wearing a baseball cap, holding a card, and "talking" to customers in the store.
Ni Zhenzhen carefully examined him, confirming that she hadn't mistaken him for someone else; he was the hearing-impaired person she had met a few days ago who was raising funds for disabled people.
Ni Zhenzhen was both surprised and delighted.
She remembered Xu Tianzhou saying that maybe that person would come back in a couple of days, and she never expected to actually run into him.
Just as Ni Zhenzhen was about to go over, her colleague, who was picking out rice balls, casually asked, "What's wrong?"
"Isn't the coffee shop hiring disabled people? I'd like to give him a try."
Her colleague glanced over there, then burst into laughter. "What disabled person? That's a fraud." She looked at Ni Zhenzhen with immense pity, seemingly unable to believe that such a naive person still existed.
"A liar?" Ni Zhenzhen was startled, and seemed to faint for a moment. Had she been scammed again?
My colleague weighed the rice ball he had chosen in his hand a couple of times and said smugly, "You just wait."
"Wow! Whose phone is this?" she shouted deliberately behind the hearing-impaired person. "Is it your phone?"
Everyone in the store looked over, but the boy in the baseball cap didn't react at all.
She had to change tactics, taking a few steps forward and shouting in the man's ear, "Hey!"
The person still did not react.
She had no choice but to pat the man on the shoulder. Only then did the boy turn around. He looked at her blankly, then pointed to his sign, indicating that she should donate money to disabled people.
Really? You really can't hear me?
Ni Zhenzhen walked over and greeted the man with sign language. The man returned the greeting with sign language, which convinced her colleague that he was indeed disabled. But what surprised her even more was that Ni Zhenzhen knew sign language!
Ni Zhenzhen explained, "When I was a teller, I taught myself some things just in case."
She only learned some basic techniques and ultimately had to communicate with the guy by typing on her phone. When she said she wanted to invite him to a coffee shop for an interview, he was thrilled and kept asking her, "Really? Can I?"
The two were chatting enthusiastically, but their colleague looked dejected.
"Okay, I was wrong." The colleague had to admit her mistake, but upon reflection, she realized she couldn't really be blamed. "I've been fooled too many times, and now I don't believe anything anymore."
This statement is absolutely not an exaggeration.
When she first enrolled in school, she was tricked by someone claiming to be a senior student into buying a bunch of counterfeit and substandard products.
During my junior year of college, I was shopping with a classmate when a talent scout spotted me and spent thousands of dollars to photograph my model card. Later, I found out it was a scam.
When she was looking for a job, she submitted her resume on a recruitment website. Soon after, several companies invited her to interview. When she arrived, she discovered that they were using the guise of recruitment to sell insurance.
After starting work, I bought a gym membership, but the gym went out of business, and I couldn't get my money back.
She bought a second-hand house because she was afraid of encountering an unfinished building. At the time, she was smug, thinking that she wouldn't be cheated this time. Little did she know that the renovation company would run off with her renovation money.
"It's all tears when I think about it," my colleague said, heartbroken.
Ni Zhenzhen could understand her. After all, she had been deceived once and unconsciously became suspicious of everything, so she never thought that Qian Lina and Rong Xiaodan had done anything wrong.
As for her, perhaps it's because of divine favor that she always seems to encounter good people.
An old man who was willing to return the extra money, an old lady who was willing to buy financial products, and an old lady who felt sorry for her because she was hungry and gave her a piece of candy...
However, one's luck is limited. Later, she was badly deceived, but when faced with a hearing-impaired person, she was still willing to choose to believe.
With Ni Zhenzhen's introduction, the young man successfully joined the company's coffee shop inside the head office.
Since then, every time Ni Zhenzhen takes a client to a coffee shop to discuss business, she receives an extra cup of coffee from the male client.
"It's on me," the boy said with a smile, gesturing in sign language.
At times like these, not only does all the fatigue disappear, but even the coffee in my hand tastes sweet, as if it has been sweetened several times over.
Ni Zhenzhen thanked the boy with the coffee, then continued working, as if she were the happiest person in the world.
Unlike Ni Zhenzhen, there was one person who wasn't very happy.
He is trapped in a pre-set role and can never be his true self unless he gets someone's permission.
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