Farewell (Part 5)
After everything was completely resolved, Zhou Zeyu walked out of the police station, exhausted, rubbing his eyes. He suddenly realized that it was already dark.
Saying it was just dusk wasn't quite right, because Belgrade's police station was in the suburbs, and there were only a few dim streetlights on the main road. Apart from the eerie white light emanating from the police station, it was practically pitch black.
She hadn't expected this to be so troublesome. She had originally planned to continue barbecuing with Anna and the others when she got back, but now the fire was probably all out.
Eric and the others fully understood this and repeatedly asked her not to show mercy to that scoundrel and to make sure that despicable little thief was sent to prison, but Zhou Zeyu could only say that it would be a bit difficult.
Zhou Zeyu paused, as if suddenly remembering something, frowned, and gave a strange "hmm".
She remembered that she had put it in a compartment in the suitcase. Could it have fallen into the middle during the transport?
It can't be... It's not like it was luggage being transported by a tractor, how could it have been jostled like this?
She understood immediately, turned her head, and glanced at Sorkov: "You helped me get the gold medal back?"
Sorkov was in a daze and didn't immediately understand what she had asked. He listened two or three times before he understood. He pursed his lips indifferently and remained silent.
"So that's why you got into a fight with that thug?"
"No." He finally spoke, saying calmly, "Why don't you think the gold medal just appeared there on its own?"
"Because I'm not that stupid."
Upon hearing this, Sorkov couldn't help but shrug nonchalantly, "Well, you're pretty smart."
"It doesn't sound like anything nice at all," Zhou Zeyu thought to himself. Then he realized that with his mouth, nothing he said would sound like a compliment, so he calmly let it go.
The section of road between the two streetlights always seemed very dark. Zhou Zeyu silently counted the time it would take to walk to the next patch of light, but when he looked up, he saw a dense swarm of small insects flying under the streetlights, which only made the already dim light worse.
What are your plans next?
She was about to say something when Solkov beat her to it. But his words were rather puzzling. In other words, Zhou Zeyu actually wanted to ask him the same question.
As for her plans, she didn't really have any. She had originally planned to leave, but due to a series of unforeseen circumstances, she was forced to stay here. Before she knew it, it was late at night. She had been busy all day and was dizzy. Rather than seriously considering her future plans, she wanted to collapse onto the bed without taking off her clothes or washing her face.
Simply taking a nap? What kind of life plan is that? If you said it out loud, Sorkov would probably laugh you to death. Zhou Zeyu touched his nose and resolutely threw the question back at him.
“Me?” Sorkov suddenly spoke, his tone indifferent. “I have no plans.”
He seemed very tired today. It was obvious at the police station that he kept his head propped up and didn't say a word. He would only look up occasionally to check the clock on the wall. He even remained silent when the officer asked him questions, leaving all the negotiations to Zhou Zeyu.
Sorkov's skin has a healthy tan from years of exercise, and if you can still see heavy dark circles under his eyes even with that skin tone, then he must be really tired lately.
Who knows if he's that kind of person?
She couldn't hide her feelings on her face, and her expression changed instantly. She secretly glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, muttering to herself. Just then, he suddenly tapped her on the head.
"Hello!"
"What are you thinking about? Stop thinking about it."
What do you mean by hegemony and dictatorship? Anyway, she has her own brain, why should he decide what she wants? Zhou Zeyu sullenly hummed and turned her head away without saying a word.
And so, silence fell between them again. This quiet seemed somewhat unfamiliar, especially since they had become more familiar with each other recently. They would bicker whenever they met, or just chat idly. It seemed like it had been a long time since they had been speechless like this.
Is it that you have nothing to say, or that you actually have a lot to say but don't know how to start the conversation, or how the other person will react?
Anyway, this is a question that no one can know the answer to, so Zhou Zeyu simply stopped thinking about it. She already had enough troubles to deal with. Although one more wouldn't hurt, she didn't want things to pile up any more.
"When did you become so quiet?" Sorkov asked.
“I’ve always been quiet,” she said.
"Looking at you now, you're like a little mute."
Little mute, little mute...
Zhou Zeyu looked up with a sense of loss, then suddenly laughed without any emotion.
“It’s been a long time since anyone called me that.”
For some reason, she suddenly remembered the events of that year. In fact, those old stories had long been chewed over and tasteless in the daily grind, but she would still reflexively bring them up and tirelessly recall them again and again. This is probably the greatest weakness of human beings. If only life could evolve to eliminate emotions as well.
She was actually a very cheerful person when she was a child. She was always chattering and making noise. In Coach Xu's words, she was a crazy person who was like an untamed wild monkey. She was jumping around all day long, as if she wanted to turn the whole world upside down and have a good time.
So when did they become silent?
Zhou Zeyu couldn't quite remember, but she knew it must have been after she joined the national team. Those days were so tiring and difficult that even speaking seemed like a luxury. Of course, there was also a more important reason: actually, no one there talked to her.
Because no one talked to me, and my precious youthful pride held me back, I naturally became taciturn, sometimes even a little withdrawn, but it wasn't so bad.
At first, it will be very painful. You have a lot to say but nowhere to say it. If it stays inside for a long time, it will slowly turn into an indescribable acidic liquid. Later, you won't even be able to vomit the acidic liquid anymore, so it stays firmly deep inside your body and may never see the light of day again.
She smelled the jasmine laundry detergent on the other person, which seemed to instantly overpower the stench in the venue. In fact, Zhou Zeyu didn't know why she always smelled so good, as if she always did.
Zhou Zeyu, covered in sweat and with a childlike face, just stared blankly at her, racking his brains to lean back so that she wouldn't smell the sweat on his body.
She didn't want the other person to smell like that, nor did she want them to realize that she was just like everyone else in the venue.
The girl, who had remained silent all along, seemed unprepared for such an opportunity to open her heart. So, like countless other naive young people overwhelmed by happiness, she stammered and gave irrelevant answers, never having the courage to say more, yet she couldn't help but want to say more.
After patiently listening to her halting narration, the man suddenly smiled and gently stroked her nose with his fingertip.
"Little mute, so you can talk after all."
"Little mute" was the first nickname Cen Zheng gave her.
The beautiful, kind person she had been subconsciously looking up to the whole time was sitting just one centimeter away from her, telling her, "Don't be shy, don't be afraid to speak. You can tell me whatever you want to say."
--Would you be willing to listen?
--I would be willing to listen.
So the little mute boy naturally became Cen Zheng's personal tail.
Sometimes the food in the cafeteria didn't suit her taste, so Cen Zheng would take her out to eat. She never said what she liked to eat, but Cen Zheng's eyes could always easily see through her thoughts. He would bring her a steaming bowl of beef noodles and then tell her to eat slowly so she wouldn't burn herself.
Cen Zheng was also the most dedicated to her training, bringing her into his training team. The two of them would get up early together for morning exercises, stretching each other, and then look at each other and smile when they were too tired to speak.
Cen Zheng naturally pulled her into his social circle. The people she knew were always different; those big shots who were unreachable to Zhou Zeyi seemed to be just ordinary old friends of Cen Zheng. So at various banquets and parties, she stood awkwardly next to Cen Zheng, and then Cen Zheng gently patted her on the shoulder, asking everyone to take care of her in the future.
After so many seemingly unknown and silent years, something seemed to have changed. Cen Zheng always allowed her to stand behind him to shield him from the storms and setbacks. Then he would hold her hand and say that as long as she followed him, no one would dare to disobey her.
Whether it was a case of a fox borrowing the tiger's power or a dog relying on its master's influence, it seemed that after that, more and more people started talking to her, as if they had finally remembered that there was a silent woman in the corner.
Zhou Zeyi wasn't stupid; she knew perfectly well why all of this had happened. Her smooth entry into the Beijing team and her gradual rise to prominence in the national team, possessing all the resources and attention she had ever longed for, were all thanks to Cen Zheng.
The term "connected person" always accompanied her, but it was unavoidable. Zhou Zeyu later even thought that in such a vast and dazzling arena of fame and fortune, how far could she have gone without Cen Zheng?
Later, she rose to fame, winning more and more awards and standing on higher and higher podiums. It was as if the silent person from before had disappeared into the dust of time, and she seemed to have found that familiar feeling from her childhood again.
Everything was moving in a positive direction after that, but some things were still different.
At that crucial juncture, Fang Xiaocan also joined the national team. As a newcomer, she was in almost the same situation as her mother back then. So, naturally, Zhou Zeyu wouldn't just stand by and watch her become another version of herself.
So she became another Cen Zheng, inviting Fang Xiaocan to eat and nap with her, and even sneaking out to buy popsicles after tedious training. Gradually, they became inseparable, just like she and Cen Zheng had been.
Zhou Zeyu originally thought it was nothing, just as Cen Zheng would surely approve of her actions. However, as the days slowly passed, she suddenly realized late one night before falling asleep that she and Cen Zheng had not spoken for a whole month.
In other words, as she started talking more, she and Cen Zheng started talking less.
Perhaps it was because they were both too busy and constantly held back by one thing or another that things turned out this way. She comforted herself with this thought, but it was a restless night, and she couldn't convince herself that everything was normal.
She began to regret it, wondering if she had become too close to Fang Xiaocan and neglected to communicate with Cen Zheng. Cen Zheng was such a proud and arrogant person, she certainly couldn't accept that her little shadow had become another person's inseparable partner.
But is that really the case?
Regardless of the truth, Zhou Zeyi took it for granted back then. She tried to return to Cen Zheng's side, wanting to change everything back to how it was before, but in the end, she couldn't go back.
Cen Zheng comes from a family of athletes and has been cherished and treasured since childhood until she entered the national team. She also became famous at a young age and served as a conscientious captain in the first team for many years. She is beautiful and has just the right amount of gentleness. She is always surrounded by so many people, and it seems that Zhou Zeyu is not missing.
Zhou Zeyu tried to convince herself of this, even forcing herself to admit it, but sometimes excessive demands backfire. Of course, she wanted to try her best to salvage the situation, but nothing could be brought back.
So many people laughed at her, saying she was nothing but a despicable person who tried every means to curry favor with Cen Zheng, and that she would grovel and do anything for those things that came her way.
Zhou Zeyi wasn't exactly an upright person, but she wasn't entirely selfish either. In the end, she was just an ordinary young woman; she wasn't particularly good, but she wasn't particularly bad either.
She didn't know what her feelings for Cen Zheng were; she just didn't want to lose her.
She didn't want to lose the person who did everything in their power to talk to her more during her most vulnerable and isolated moments.
The resources and connections that come with it are certainly good, but even without them, would Zhou Zeyi really cut ties with Cen Zheng? She wouldn't.
But indeed, Cen Zheng never called her "little mute" with a smile again. She eventually became silent herself because of her declining health and the sudden diagnosis of a chronic disease. The person who was once as vibrant as a jasmine flower slowly faded away.
Zhou Zeyu had tried to find her, with a brash and sincere concern, asking her how she was doing lately and if there was anything she could do to help.
Cen Zheng simply told her that there must always be a parting between people. She had grown up enough to stand on her own, so she didn't need Cen Zheng to always stand in front of her. Therefore, she should walk the road ahead by herself.
In short, that's exactly how her life turned out. Cen Zheng and she gradually drifted apart, each going down completely different paths. The beauty of those days seemed to be just a brief encounter between two straight lines, and after the intersection, they parted ways forever.
And then... that's another story.
Gradually, since Cen Zheng stopped mentioning it, no one called her "little mute" anymore, and this long-forgotten title was deliberately forgotten.
People who came after her probably never imagined that she had once been so silent, and of course they never imagined that "little mute" would be the name she was given. Until Sorkov mentioned it today, Zhou Zeyu planned to keep that name buried underground forever.
But whether by luck or something else, Solkov unearthed it again, and the emotions that had not subsided over the years were brought back to light along with the fresh soil.
So Zhou Zeyu felt that long-lost loneliness once again, just like when he was alone back then. But this time it wasn't in that dimly lit locker room at the Beijing training camp, but on a forest path in the remote suburbs of Belgrade.
Along this path, accompanied by a sense of loneliness, Zhou Zeyu once again thought of Cen Zheng, a memory he hadn't had in a long time.
"Little mute, you're no longer mute. Everyone in the world can hear you. So promise me, go and win that championship, for yourself and for me. Okay?"
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