Chapter 60 [VIP]
Chapter Summary: "Has it been moved?"
How could she not be anxious?
Not long ago, the company organized a dinner for employees at a roast duck restaurant in Huijing Center. After the meal, a colleague took her to a flower shop to buy flowers.
Ni Zhenzhen didn't think much of it and walked along chatting and laughing with her colleagues. It wasn't until she got off the escalator that she suddenly realized she was on the basement level of Huijing Center.
Without much searching, the red signboard with a picture of a bowl of rice noodles unexpectedly came into her view.
Over the years, the rice noodle shop has undergone several renovations and is no longer what she remembers. However, no matter how it changes, as long as that smell wafts to her nose, the busy figure in the shop and the bowl of rice noodles with extra toppings just for her appear before her eyes as if bathed in a hazy moonlight.
Ni Zhenzhen couldn't help but feel emotional, and her eyes reddened.
Her colleagues didn't notice the change in her; they just kept saying that this rice noodle shop was a popular online store and that all the staff were disabled.
"The store manager too," a colleague added.
Ni Zhenzhen's heart skipped a beat, and it took her a long time to realize that she wasn't talking about Xu Tianzhou.
He had already shifted his focus to Xinda and probably hadn't been here in a long time. After all, this store was just a tool he used to test himself; he used it and then threw it away, and it might have nothing to do with him anymore.
Ni Zhenzhen didn't look in that direction again. She took her colleague's arm and walked past the rice noodle shop with her head down.
However, at that moment, a person dressed as a mascot appeared in front of her and blocked her way.
Ni Zhenzhen was a little puzzled. There were quite a few customers waiting outside the rice noodle shop, so there was really no need for the other party to come over and solicit customers.
"I'm sorry, we've already eaten." Ni Zhenzhen politely declined the invitation.
The man continued to block her, preventing them from leaving.
"It's me." In a moment of panic, the man removed his hood.
"Ah!" Ni Zhenzhen's colleague glanced at the man's face, screamed, clutched her chest, and backed away, terrified.
The man kept apologizing, "I'm sorry, I scared you."
It was a face disfigured by burns. Her colleague had seen it on the news; this must be the manager of the rice noodle shop. Realizing her reaction had been a bit too extreme and might have hurt the other person's feelings, she quickly said, "No, it's alright."
Ni Zhenzhen recognized him; he was the old lady's son. "Hello."
"Hello," the person said, then added with a sigh, "Long time no see."
"Yes." It has been a long time indeed.
"I heard you got divorced."
"Um."
There's something I've always wanted to tell you, but I haven't had the chance.
"What is it?" For some reason, Ni Zhenzhen had a premonition that this matter must be very important.
Could it be related to Xu Tianzhou?
She raised her head with trepidation and unease, staring at the狰狞 face, her eagerness evident in her eyes.
The man said, "Do you remember Mr. Xu burned his arm in the store?"
Ni Zhenzhen nodded. Of course she remembered. That injury was quite serious. Half of her arm was covered in blisters, and her skin had to be completely replaced.
He lowered his head in self-reproach and murmured, "This is all my fault."
He wasn't happy working at the store back then. Because of his hand disability, he wasn't very efficient, which often caused his colleagues in the front of the kitchen to be yelled at by customers. Because of this, coupled with the ugly scars on his face, his colleagues didn't like him much.
In fact, he had been somewhat sensitive since his injury. Over time, whenever his colleagues whispered or laughed together, he felt that they were talking about him. However, in order to support his family, he had no choice but to endure it.
Until one day, his colleague came to urge him again and said some unpleasant things. He suppressed his anger and finished making the things, but his colleague did not come to pick them up even after he called several times.
Fearing that the guests would get impatient and angry, he had no choice but to serve the dishes himself, which startled the guests, who then told him to get out of there.
The commotion attracted the attention of a colleague, who complained, "Why do you always cause me trouble? Didn't I tell you not to come out? Apologize now."
He had no choice but to apologize to the customer.
One storm subsided, but another was quietly brewing.
Laughter resumed, but he remained indignant.
When he got to the kitchen, he became angrier and angrier. The noise outside was so jarring, and the resentment that had been building up inside him kept raging.
In a moment of impulse, he grabbed the pot and rushed out. He had completely lost his mind and seemed to have become a vengeful ghost controlled by a demon, wanting nothing more than to destroy all the unpleasant things in life.
Fortunately, Xu Tianzhou noticed something was wrong in time. He called out, but the other man ignored him. Xu Tianzhou then grabbed him again, and in the struggle, a whole pot of boiling water was poured onto Xu Tianzhou's arm.
Amidst screams and the sounds of tables and chairs falling over, he finally regained consciousness.
"Are you...are you alright?" he asked haltingly, terrified.
Xu Tianzhou didn't return. He strode back to the kitchen, rinsing his arm under the tap while enduring the pain and ordering in a low voice, "That's enough for today. Don't say a word about it."
He stammered, "I'm sorry, I... I acted too impulsively, I'll take you to the hospital..."
"I don't need you," Xu Tianzhou interrupted coldly. He called over a shop assistant and instructed him, "You come with me to the hospital. When she arrives, just say this..."
He pulled himself away from that chaotic evening and said to the trembling Ni Zhenzhen, "Even after such a big thing happened, he didn't blame me or drive me away. He even said he understood me very well."
“He told me about his experiences when he was in school, and said that back then only I was willing to be nice to him.”
"That's when I realized that he blocked that blow not for me, not for himself, and not for anyone else, but for you."
He said solemnly, "He doesn't want you to be sad."
He's right. If Ni Zhenzhen had known about this earlier, she would have been heartbroken.
She would also feel regret, regretting why she had meddled. She would doubt, doubting that her good intentions were a complete mistake. Perhaps only by getting burned herself could she alleviate that kind of pain.
However, Xu Tianzhou didn't let her know; he never mentioned it, neither then nor later.
Ni Zhenzhen knew very well that she and Xu Tianzhou were not a good match.
She was kind-hearted and easy to talk to, while he was wary of everything. She would give money to beggars without hesitation, but he said that beggars were all liars.
They were like two people on the same road, one always looking ahead and the other always looking at the scenery along the way. It was no surprise that they got separated.
However, at some point, Xu Tianzhou seemed to have changed. He didn't become kinder; rather, he was willing to tolerate everything about her and indulge her naivety.
Ni Zhenzhen thought that she probably couldn't find another person like this in the world.
She had genuinely worried that once she finally paid off her debts, Xu Tianzhou would have found someone else. But she never imagined the story could have another ending, not separation by life but by death.
Su Wenjin told her not to rush, and he had his assistant drive her to the hospital.
Ni Zhenzhen cried the whole way she walked. She had long since run out of tissues, but her tears still poured out like a flood. She didn't care if there were people around or if she looked disheveled. She just kept wiping her face with the back of her hand. Later, when there was too much, she simply stopped caring and covered her face with her hands, bursting into tears.
Xu Tianzhou was still awake in the ward.
Although the doctor told him to rest well, he rarely went to bed early because of the persistent pain and the worries he couldn't let go of.
The room was pitch black, with only the bedside reading lamp emitting a warm yellow light. Xu Tianzhou held a book, read a couple of lines, and then unconsciously drifted off into thought.
Suddenly, a series of hurried footsteps echoed down the corridor. The sound grew louder as it approached, as awe-inspiring as the beating of drums. Just as Xu Tianzhou thought the person outside would continue running towards the door, the door opened.
It wasn't the nurse who came every few hours, but a figure he knew all too well. Even though he could only vaguely make out her outline, he recognized her at a glance.
"You... how did you get here?" Xu Tianzhou put down his book, his face filled with disbelief. Could it be because it was a long-awaited full moon night that the long-awaited dream felt so real?
Ni Zhenzhen took a few steps forward, then suddenly stopped. The pause was not obvious, because she still couldn't suppress her eagerness and quickly walked a few steps to Xu Tianzhou's bedside.
Xu Tianzhou, dressed in a hospital gown, tilted his head slightly back, his face as pale as paper, devoid of any color. The warm yellow light shone down, creating a dim, almost cinematic scene.
If only this were a movie, then we could freeze this moment forever. Even without an ending, it would still be the best ending.
Ni Zhenzhen knew this was impossible, of course. She held back her tears, not wanting to put too much pressure on Xu Tianzhou, but when she opened her mouth, her voice was filled with sobs, "Why did you lie to me?"
"What are you lying about?"
“You…” Ni Zhenzhen finally couldn’t hold back and burst into tears in the quiet ward.
Xu Tianzhou roughly guessed what she wanted to say, and he gave a slight smile, saying nonchalantly, "I'm much better now."
"Really?"
"I can move it now." Xu Tianzhou, afraid she wouldn't believe him, moved his leg despite the pain.
It was clearly a good thing, and Xu Tianzhou's tone was filled with joy and ease, but Ni Zhenzhen cried even harder.
What happened? Wasn't it a brain tumor? How come there's a problem with his leg too?
She looked at Xu Tianzhou, sobbing uncontrollably, and managed to stammer, "W-was it transferred?"
"???" Xu Tianzhou looked completely bewildered. "Transfer? What transfer?"
“The cancer cells have metastasized…” After saying this extremely cruel sentence, Ni Zhenzhen could no longer hold back and burst into tears like a child.
"..." Xu Tianzhou then realized that she had misunderstood. He took her hand, feeling both amused and helpless, "Who told you it was cancer?"
"Not cancer?" Ni Zhenzhen looked at Xu Tianzhou suspiciously, her crying not stopping, but becoming a little softer.
"Of course not."
That night, Xu Tianzhou thought something had happened to Ni Zhenzhen. He rushed to the hospital, only to find her with another man. He left the hospital in extreme frustration and, in a daze, didn't realize he had taken the wrong path. Instead of coming down the steps, he stepped into the air from a height of two meters and fell.
The fall nearly killed him; he suffered multiple fractures in his ribs and leg, and his phone was shattered, which is why he couldn't receive Ni Zhenzhen's call.
This finally stopped Ni Zhenzhen crying. Not only did she stop crying, but she also cursed viciously, "Liar."
"..." Xu Tianzhou cried out that he was wronged, "I didn't lie to you."
“So President Su lied to me,” Ni Zhenzhen said through gritted teeth.
"Su Wenjin? How did he lie to you?"
“He…” Ni Zhenzhen couldn’t say it, because she carefully recalled the scene at the time, and it seemed that Su Wenjin had never said that Xu Tianzhou had a terminal illness.
She finally realized that it was actually a misunderstanding. Su Wenjin thought she knew that Xu Tianzhou had an accident, and she thought that Su Wenjin's "yes" referred to a brain tumor. In fact, the two of them were talking about completely different things, and thus a big misunderstanding occurred!
That's so embarrassing!
Ni Zhenzhen realized she had cried all the way without asking any questions, and felt incredibly ashamed, her cheeks burning as if scalded. Meanwhile, Xu Tianzhou, sitting on the edge of the bed, kept staring at her, a faint smile playing on his lips.
"What are you looking at?" Ni Zhenzhen lowered her head, her already flushed cheeks burning even hotter. "Am I ugly?"
She didn't have a mirror with her, so she didn't know what she looked like. Anyway, it probably wasn't good; she'd cried so much, her eyeliner must have smudged, and even if it hadn't, her eyes were swollen beyond recognition.
She raised her hand to cover her face, but Xu Tianzhou grabbed it.
Xu Tianzhou was indeed sick; his palms were burning hot, and his fingertips were ice cold. Ni Zhenzhen was a little worried about his health, but Xu Tianzhou smiled brightly and was full of energy.
"Beautiful." His voice was soft, yet heavy, so heavy that it pulled her completely in. With a face that, in the conventional sense, was hardly beautiful, she slowly became intoxicated by his life.
She didn't know how much time had passed—perhaps only a moment, perhaps a thousand years—when she came to her senses, all she could hear was Xu Tianzhou's suppressed and low laughter.
"What are you laughing at?"
Xu Tianzhou gently stroked the tip of her nose, "Still saying you don't care about me?"
"I don't care." Ni Zhenzhen had recovered. It was a joke, but also a sign of her defiance. She said proudly, "Even if it were a stranger, I would still feel sad."
The smile on Xu Tianzhou's face seemed to freeze instantly, losing its brightness and liveliness, and his eyes also darkened.
He believed this; given Ni Zhenzhen's personality, her sadness didn't necessarily mean anything.
Besides, she already...
Just then, someone's phone rang. Xu Tianzhou picked it up and looked at it; it wasn't his. He looked up and saw Ni Zhenzhen looking down at her phone.
For some reason, Xu Tianzhou thought of the man he had seen in the emergency room that day. He chuckled and said casually, "Was he the one urging you?"
"he?"
"That's the man you were with in the emergency room that day."
She wore his suit jacket and stood facing him. Anyone with eyes could see that her suit jacket and the man's suit trousers were a matching set, and they looked like a couple.
Ni Zhenzhen put away her phone and said without any hesitation, "Yes."
Xu Tianzhou's expression changed drastically, and he said sternly, "I disagree."
He regretted it. He thought he could accept it calmly and even offer his blessings. However, when he lay on the cold cement ground, thinking he wouldn't live to see the dawn, he could let go of everything in the world, but he couldn't let go of her.
From that moment on, he vowed in his heart that if he could come back to life, he would definitely win her back.
Ni Zhenzhen disagreed, "You don't agree?"
She was amused by his childish behavior, and smiled slightly. She said calmly, "He's a very nice person. He often sends me text messages, whether it's my birthday or a holiday, he never misses one."
"I can too."
"He gave me money back."
"I can do it too." Xu Tianzhou's expression was solemn, showing an attitude of never admitting defeat.
Ni Zhenzhen finally couldn't hold back anymore. She burst out laughing, her eyelashes, still wet with tears, fluttering like butterfly wings.
Xu Tianzhou frowned: "What are you laughing at?" Did she not believe she could do it?
Ni Zhenzhen seemed to see right through him. She rested her chin on her phone and said with considerable pride, "He's worth much more than you."
Xu Tianzhou was somewhat surprised. Just who was that person? How could he be worth more than him?
Just as he was slightly taken aback, Ni Zhenzhen held her phone up to him.
Xu Tianzhou looked over and saw a text message that read, "[Bank Name] Deposit Product: Fixed Deposit, no principal or interest guaranteed, starting from 5,000. Click to purchase. Reply to unsubscribe."
Xu Tianzhou seemed a little incredulous, looking at the information several times before realizing it wasn't that man's message.
The competitive spirit that had been building up earlier vanished at this moment. Xu Tianzhou touched the tip of his nose with his index finger and smiled self-deprecatingly.
Since it's a bank, he really can't compare.
“He’s just my colleague,” Ni Zhenzhen explained.
Over the years, many people have expressed their affection for her. Whenever this happens, she would say in advance that she has debts to pay off, and then nothing would happen. That colleague did the same.
Xu Tianzhou asked, "Then why are you wearing his clothes?"
“I…” Ni Zhenzhen blushed instantly, her expression exactly the same as the shy look she had when she hid under that man’s clothes that night. “It was that one.”
Without needing to say another word, Xu Tianzhou quickly understood. He and Ni Zhenzhen had been classmates, lovers, and then husband and wife for many years, and they had encountered similar situations before.
He remembered that not long after he transferred schools, one day after class, Ni Zhenzhen was lying listlessly on her desk, and Xu Tianzhou asked her what was wrong.
Ni Zhenzhen had the same expression then, blushing as she said, "It's that one."
Which one?
"That's the one."
When Xu Tianzhou realized what was happening, his face was even redder than hers.
In the days that followed, Ni Zhenzhen also encountered some accidents, such as leaks in the front, back, and sides, and she would borrow his clothes to cover them up.
So that's how it is. Xu Tianzhou leaned back against the headboard with a sigh of relief.
However, happy times are always short-lived. Ni Zhenzhen glanced at the time and said, "I should go."
"us……"
She knew what he wanted to say, and as she opened the door, she smiled, waved, and said, "I'll think about it."
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