Chapter 7
Chapter Summary: "Are you the illegitimate son of some important figure?"
That night, Xu Tianzhou had a dream.
He dreamed that he went back to his second year of high school.
He had only been at the international school for a short time then, and because of his special status, there were many rumors about him at the school. The most outrageous thing was that someone actually asked him directly if he was the illegitimate son of some important person.
"Otherwise, why would they enroll? We've never heard of any special quotas for students from impoverished families since the school was founded."
Xu Tianzhou was too lazy to explain. He didn't want to give these boring people anything to talk about. Besides, for him, there was nothing wrong with maintaining a little mystery.
Seeing that Xu Tianzhou remained noncommittal and had a half-smile, the man's gaze changed drastically, and his attitude became noticeably better.
In fact, Xu Tianzhou was able to enroll through a special channel, but he was definitely not an illegitimate child.
Later, rumors circulated that he was faking poverty because he lived in "Pacific New City".
"How is that possible?"
Pacific New Town is an upscale neighborhood near the school. While the apartment layouts and environment aren't top-tier, its early construction has attracted a significant number of wealthy residents. In addition, many diplomats and entertainment industry figures have chosen to settle here.
"That can't be right, I've never seen him before." Many students from the school lived there and expressed their doubts.
This time, they didn't discuss it in front of Xu Tianzhou, so Xu Tianzhou didn't know about it until they came to his door.
Not long after Xu Tianzhou returned home that day, he heard someone knocking on the door.
He thought it was his mother coming back to get something, but when he opened the door, he was surprised to find it was his classmate.
The man didn't say anything, but just craned his neck to look inside, then shouted excitedly and impatiently, "They really live here!"
In an instant, seven or eight boys appeared out of nowhere, one of whom grinned and said, "No way, someone actually lives in the underground parking garage?"
"you……"
Before Xu Tianzhou could speak, the crowd surged forward, forcefully pushing him aside as if there were some treasure inside that would be gone if they were late.
There were no treasures inside, of course; all they had seen was the life of most ordinary people in the world, a life they had never witnessed before.
"What are you doing! Don't move!" Xu Tianzhou shouted.
Those people wouldn't listen to him. They first searched around with eyes like hungry wolves, then smiled contemptuously without any attempt to hide it, and then shared their findings with others in a mocking tone.
"Another Adidas."
“It’s Audibus,” another person corrected.
"Look, a microwave! There's a microwave!" The man said, carefully twisting the knob, then clapped his hands and laughed as the microwave roared to life. "Wow! It works! It actually works!"
"My God! How can anyone live here?" The underground parking garage wasn't well-ventilated, and a nauseating smell permeated the air outside year-round; it wasn't much different inside. The man pinched his nose and said with obvious disgust, "How are we supposed to use the toilet?"
"Yeah, what do we do when we need to use the restroom?"
Everyone looked around, and suddenly, someone shouted excitedly as if they had discovered a new continent, "I know!" The person lifted the half-hanging sheet, pointed under the bed, and said, "Look what this is!"
Everyone immediately crowded around, and then burst into unprecedented laughter. The laughter was so deafening that even the garage door shutters were shaking slightly.
As time passed, the laughter of those people not only didn't stop, but grew even louder.
Xu Tianzhou had nowhere to escape, and he let those sharp or hoarse laughs pierce his heart like arrows.
Xu Tianzhou, who had just been righteously saying "Don't move," completely lost all his strength. He stood blankly in the corner, his cheeks flushed red.
At some point, those people turned around and started pointing and whispering about him.
"I never expected this..."
"That's disgusting..."
"What if he doesn't know how to use a toilet?"
Xu Tianzhou desperately wanted to escape, but this was his home; where could he run to?
He instinctively stepped back, but the men pressed closer. With a loud bang, Xu Tianzhou crashed into the wall. Then, everything went black, except for a glint of menacing crimson light flashing from the power strip on the opposite wall.
Xu Tianzhou couldn't remember how many times he had been startled awake from his dreams. He opened his eyes wide in the darkness and gasped for breath.
Soon, the warm yellow light dispelled the darkness before him, and a voice came, gentle as a breeze and nourishing as rain, quickly soothing Xu Tianzhou's fear.
"What's wrong?" Ni Zhenzhen propped herself up, her eyes dark, her worry evident on her face.
Xu Tianzhou did not answer. He carefully examined Ni Zhenzhen and soon noticed something unusual.
Ni Zhenzhen was wearing a light purple nightgown. Her hair, which she usually wore up for work, was now loose over her shoulders. Her ink-black hair was half in front and half behind, making her already snow-white skin even more dazzling.
That's why the bluish tinge hidden under Ni Zhenzhen's eyelids didn't escape his notice.
Xu Tianzhou couldn't help but frown: "You're not asleep?"
"I..." Ni Zhenzhen didn't expect Xu Tianzhou to see through her. She quickly turned over and lay down, whispering her defense, "Who said that? I was already asleep. You woke me up. Oh, go back to sleep."
Ni Zhenzhen did not sleep, which directly caused her to wake up late the next morning.
The rain that didn't fall yesterday finally came down hard today.
The bad weather did not stop people from going out; on the contrary, it sent even more people onto the subway.
Ni Zhenzhen was terrified of taking the subway. Once, she finally managed to move from the middle of the carriage to the door, and then got off the train at the door. But before she could take more than a few steps, she was swept up by the crowd of people getting on the train and was pushed back.
From then on, Xu Tianzhou never dared to leave her side for even a moment. He held her hand from the moment he got on the bus until he got off, for fear that something might happen to her again.
If it weren't for Xu Tianzhou protecting her today, she would probably have repeated the same mistake.
After getting off the first subway train, the two prepared to transfer at another station. Because they were indeed running late, they had to quicken their pace, but unexpectedly, they were stopped by someone just as they reached the overpass.
The old lady was waiting there early in the morning, ready to deliver something to the two of them.
She was carrying a bag and kept stuffing it into Ni Zhenzhen's hands, saying, "Girl, this is for you."
The old lady said, "Thank you so much. I feel really bad for accepting so many things from you..."
Ni Zhenzhen opened it and saw a box of dumplings inside, packed in a disposable lunchbox. The lunchbox looked familiar; it seemed to be the same lunchbox that had held the chicken cutlet rice that she had given to the old lady yesterday.
Fearing that Ni Zhenzhen might have concerns, the old lady quickly explained, "I washed it carefully, it's clean."
"No need, you can keep it," Ni Zhenzhen declined.
It wasn't that she disliked anything, but rather that she felt the old lady needed these things more than she did.
"You must accept it, otherwise you're looking down on me."
"But……"
Ni Zhenzhen was about to refuse when Xu Tianzhou suddenly spoke up, "Take it."
Compared to Xu Tianzhou's slightly dismissive attitude, what truly surprised Ni Zhenzhen was that Xu Tianzhou would actually ask her to accept it.
Others may not know, but Ni Zhenzhen knows very well that Xu Tianzhou is very guarded and never easily accepts anyone's kindness, not even a box of dumplings he made himself.
She looked up at Xu Tianzhou, whose expression remained unchanged, his gaze indifferent, showing no intention of explaining. Perhaps in a hurry, he walked away after saying those words.
"Hello……"
Ni Zhenzhen thought Xu Tianzhou was getting impatient because the two of them had been arguing for so long. She could only thank the old lady and chase after them with the lunchbox.
Xu Tianzhou didn't walk very fast; he deliberately waited for her for a while before going down the overpass.
When they arrived at the platform, Xu Tianzhou stopped next to a trash can. He pointed with his chin at the lunchbox in Ni Zhenzhen's hand and said, "Throw it away."
Why throw it away?
Why? Xu Tianzhou sneered inwardly.
Look, he's faking it again.
Ni Zhenzhen had been to the old lady's house before. He wasn't a germaphobe and wasn't picky about food, but just thinking about that kind of environment, those hygiene conditions, and those kinds of people made even abalone, sea cucumber, and shark fin hard to swallow.
Xu Tianzhou didn't believe Ni Zhenzhen had no resentment at all. He raised an eyebrow, as if testing or questioning, "You really want to eat it?"
"What's wrong? Is there a problem?" Ni Zhenzhen took out the lunchbox and examined it carefully. "It's still warm."
As she spoke, she opened the box, seemingly to take out a dumpling to try.
As the train roared closer, the previously still crowd instantly sprang to life, eager to grab a good spot.
Xu Tianzhou's expression immediately changed. He stopped arguing with her, snatched the half-open lunchbox, placed the rice ball that Ni Zhenzhen had prepared in her hand, and said coldly, "Take it."
"Hello……"
Before Ni Zhenzhen could react, Xu Tianzhou had already blended into the crowd, boarded the car, and quickly disappeared from sight.
A thousand words remained unspoken, culminating in a sigh. Ni Zhenzhen wondered to herself, "He wouldn't have thrown it away, would he?"
Ni Zhenzhen lowered her head, and the rice ball wrapped in plastic wrap was obediently resting in her hand.
She made it last night, mixing tuna with Thousand Island dressing and rice together, then shaping it into balls. Yes, she did shape them into balls, but because she had just squeezed onto the subway, the rice balls were squeezed into rice cakes.
With another sigh, Ni Zhenzhen put the rice ball, still warm from Xu Tianzhou's body, into her bag.
Despite her long and winding journey, Ni Zhenzhen finally made it on time.
Before she even entered the changing room, she heard Rong Xiaodan's incredibly relieved voice, "Everyone else is afraid of rain, but I'm hoping for rain. With such heavy rain, there should be fewer people, right?"
Qian Lina smiled wryly, "How could that be? Don't forget what day it is today."
"What day is it?" Rong Xiaodan glanced at her phone. "The 15th, oh no!" Rong Xiaodan slapped her forehead and cried out in pain, her features scrunched up.
Qian Lina chuckled lightly, then added insult to injury, "Why don't you check what day of the week it is?"
"Sunday...!" Rong Xiaodan's vision went black, and she continued to wail.
She turned her head and saw Ni Zhenzhen, then immediately rushed over and acted coquettishly, "Zhenzhen, why is my life so miserable? I don't even want to live anymore!"
Ni Zhenzhen patted her back with a smile and said softly, "It's not that exaggerated..."
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