Hot Cocoa (Part 1)
The hot cocoa on the table had long since cooled completely, with a layer of some kind of impurity floating on the surface, rippling slightly as the table shook gently.
The desk lamp cast a soft light in the dim room. Zhou Zeyu lowered his head, concentrating on taking notes. He would stop from time to time to make a few random marks on the pages with his pen, and then continue writing furiously.
At 6:13, the sky began to lighten faintly. She belatedly noticed this, and with a swish, she pulled back the curtains in front of her desk. Her eyes caught sight of the mug on her right, and without thinking, she downed it in one gulp. Then, she smacked her lips at the strange taste and shook her head.
I should have drunk it right after brewing it.
With this hindsight thought in mind, Zhou Zeyu sighed, skillfully picked up the eye drops beside him and put them in his eyes. After a short rest, he subconsciously picked up his phone and glanced at it.
There was nothing there.
However, the next second, a message popped up on the phone screen. Zhou Zeyu was a little surprised. He clicked on it and found that it was from Sorkov.
"Are you alright?"
She was a little confused as to why he suddenly asked that question, and replied, "It's fine, what's up?"
The other person paused for a moment, then asked, "Are you confident about the warm-up matches?"
"have."
“You’re lying,” Sorkov replied without hesitation.
“It’s true,” Zhou Zeyu replied.
"Is it really true?"
"I'm telling the truth."
Even though they were separated by such a great distance, Zhou Zeyu could almost see the helpless expression on Solkov's face. She laughed a few times, but then realized that her laughter was too abrupt in the quiet room and might even wake up Coach Xu in the next room, so she had no choice but to shut her mouth.
Having come this far, what kind of confidence can we still have?
It's said that even a starved camel is bigger than a horse, but there's also the saying that a featherless phoenix is no better than a chicken. Faced with this contradiction, Zhou Zeyu didn't know which one to believe, as it was possible that both were wrong.
She has been away from the competition for too long, and she has to gradually adapt to many new rules. Her tactics and skills also need to be updated. This is certainly not a simple matter. Physical training alone is not enough. She also has to honestly read those dauntingly thick books. She is even cramming for the last minute.
In Fang Xiaocan's words, this was simply asking for trouble.
Of course that's how it is! Zhou Zeyu sighed and suddenly felt that it was not as comfortable as the days at the Kangfu Center. Back then, he was so bored that he longed to return to the competition. But after he became really busy, he began to miss the leisurely days.
Humans are just inherently perverse.
Zhou Zeyu wholeheartedly agreed and was preparing to tell Sorkov this truth as well. Before she could figure out how to say it in English, the other party sent her a text message first.
Are you tired?
"I'm so tired."
“Hmm,” the other person paused, then sent another message, “I’m tired too.”
In her memory, Sorkov seemed to be always busy and never had a moment of leisure. But even so, he rarely complained about being tired, and rarely even showed such emotions. As a result, Zhou Zeyu even thought he was an iron man.
However, it seems that even an Iron Man isn't entirely made of iron; he can get tired too.
"Have you been training hard lately? Is the World Championships coming up soon?"
Zhou Zeyu vaguely remembered that there was indeed a competition involved, which was mentioned by Solkov unintentionally before. However, since she did not usually pay attention to the details of swimming competitions, she did not know much about it. Solkov's attitude was indifferent, so she did not ask any further questions.
"The competition is about to begin."
She laughed. "Really? When?"
"Next week."
Zhou Zeyu sighed, somewhat regretfully, "What a coincidence? If I hadn't participated in the warm-up matches, I might have been able to watch your match live."
“No need,” he refused decisively. “You should focus on preparing for the competition.”
Seemingly recalling the conversation just now, Sorkov paused for a moment, then suddenly spoke again.
"I'm a little tired... but it's not because of training."
What else could it be? Zhou Zeyu was a little confused. Of course, Sorkov had a lot of troubles, she knew that even if he didn't say it. After all, not everyone has the courage to become a neutral athlete after leaving the national team. He was lucky that those people didn't criticize him to death.
However, given Solkov's temperament, those few spittles wouldn't drown him. He's been scolded countless times, so he probably doesn't care about one or two more.
Zhou Zeyu found it increasingly strange and quickly typed, "What's the reason?"
"Because of you."
Zhou Zeyu felt really wronged to be suddenly accused of such a big problem. She roughly recalled that she had been training or reading all day, going to bed early and getting up early to exercise. She was in impeccable health and had not done anything to bother Sorkov. Even if she wanted to, it would be difficult to do so over thousands of kilometers away.
After thinking about it for a while, she felt much more at ease. Deciding that this guy was just spouting nonsense, she retorted confidently, "What did I do wrong?"
The other party didn't reply; they simply fell silent.
Zhou Zeyu couldn't stand being wronged for no reason, so she continued to bombard him with text messages and even tried to call him directly. However, as if he sensed her intention, he replied at the last second before she dialed the number.
"How unlucky you are."
Completely out of the blue, Zhou Zeyu thought he had come up with something, but when she saw that he was actually blaming her for being unlucky, she was so angry that she almost fainted on the spot. "Is this the first day you've known?"
"It's just that we know it much more clearly now."
"Oh, that's good."
Even though Zhou Zeyu was eloquent, he couldn't come up with a better response. After replying, he felt something was off, scratched his head, and sent him another message.
From what perspective do you know more clearly?
In a succinct word, it's "communication".
Zhou Zeyu snorted and replied, "You should have understood that long ago, after all, I know you."
"Cen Zheng."
She was originally planning to make a few more jokes, but unexpectedly, the name suddenly popped up in the chat interface. She was stunned for a moment, stared at it carefully for a few seconds, and made sure that she was not mistaken. It was indeed Cen Zheng.
"Why are you suddenly saying that?"
“She came to see me.”
"Oh? To catch up?"
It certainly wasn't a reminiscing session. There was absolutely no connection between Sorkov and Cen Zheng; the possibility of revenge was far greater than any pleasantries.
“She told me some things.”
Zhou Zeyu pursed her lips, unsure how to answer. "Um...you must have had a tough time talking to her."
"How did you guess?"
Is there even a need to guess? She suddenly sighed. If Sorkov had encountered the former Cen Zheng, she might have smiled and gently dealt with him. However, given that he had encountered the current one, the situation was hard to say.
Cen Zheng's ability to speak with hidden meanings and innuendo is unmatched, and unfortunately, she is now clearly too lazy to use language to embellish this, so many of her words naturally become barbed and sarcastic, requiring microscopic analysis of every punctuation mark. Ninety-nine percent of the world's population would not enjoy this conversation.
This was something Zhou Zeyu could see through at a glance, but not necessarily for Sorkov. It was an oversight; she had forgotten to tell him this.
She carefully chose her words, hesitated, and then pressed the send button, "Because you don't understand her."
However, after sending the message, she felt a little regretful, because the sentence seemed to imply that she knew Cen Zheng very well, which was not actually the case.
She was just a little clearer about her own nature, but that was only a little, a tiny bit.
Aren't you curious about what she told me?
"You don't want to talk about it."
Sorkov is not the type to procrastinate. If there is something important, he will get straight to the point instead of beating around the bush. That is simply not his style.
If he didn't want to talk about it in the first place, there's no point in asking.
In many things, Zhou Zeyu was indifferent. After experiencing so much, it seemed that nothing could be classified as particularly important. What he should know, he would know eventually; what he shouldn't know, he wouldn't know anyway, and there was no need to get to the bottom of things.
"Then I won't say anything?"
"If you don't want to say, then don't say."
"real?"
"real."
"You're not being sarcastic, are you?"
"I don't have such a perverse sense of humor, and why are you so long-winded..."
The other person paused for a moment, then said, "Zhou Zeyu, do you know that your temper gets really bad whenever you're involved with Cen Zheng?"
Zhou Zeyu hadn't noticed this point. After thinking about it carefully, he couldn't figure it out. "Really? Actually, I've always had a pretty bad temper."
But she herself knew that Solkov was right.
Actually, it wasn't just recently; it was always like this. Whether it was seeing her, hearing her voice, or even just seeing the name Cen Zheng, Zhou Zeyu would subconsciously feel uncomfortable, her whole body would subconsciously tense up, and then she would feel an uncontrollable irritability.
It had almost become a conditioned reflex; she was nearly used to it.
However, now, it has been exposed by Sorkov with a terrifying calmness and ruthlessness.
He always seemed to enjoy doing this kind of thing, tearing away the protective layer of peace and tranquility, destroying her self-righteous calm, and then forcing her to face reality. But Zhou Zeyu's goal was to never face reality.
"What exactly do you think of her?"
"Do you have to ask an unanswerable question right from the start?"
Why is it difficult to answer?
Zhou Zeyu abruptly put down his phone, covered his face in frustration, wiped his face casually, let out a heavy sigh, and reluctantly picked up his phone again.
Because Cen Zheng himself is a difficult question to answer.
She had no idea how to answer the question, and running away wasn't an option either. She could only sullenly prop her head up and watch helplessly as the sky outside the window suddenly brightened up.
"You don't understand."
"Of course I don't understand, Zhou Zeyu."
It's understandable that Sorkov didn't understand, but in fact, Zhou Zeyu himself didn't understand either.
Many questions are unanswerable. Even if you have a vague idea of the answer in your heart, you can't bring yourself to say it out loud. There's nothing you can do about it.
The two stopped sending messages and fell into an eerie silence. Zhou Zeyu reached out and instinctively touched the mug next to him, only to find that the hot cocoa inside had been drunk up and there was nothing left.
As she looked out the window at the gradually bustling streets and heard the rustling sounds of people getting up from the next room, she suddenly felt as if she were in another world.
Then, Zhou Zeyu picked up his phone and dialed Sorkov's number.
The call was answered almost immediately, but neither of them spoke for a moment. She took a deep breath, as if she had suddenly made up her mind, "I know what you want to say, but Cen Zheng is leaving. If things don't go as expected, I may never see her again."
Sorkov's voice was a little hoarse, and he hesitated for a moment before asking, "What?"
But Zhou Zeyu knew he had heard her clearly, so she didn't waste time repeating what she had said before. Her tone was somewhat indifferent. "She... came to see me a few days ago."
"And then?" His voice sounded a little nervous.
Actually, nothing really happened. Zhou Zeyu's reaction was much calmer than she had imagined, and Cen Zheng was far less agitated than he had been at the hospital last time. This period of time was like a watershed moment, shutting out all her previous emotions, leaving only an excessive calm.
Their meeting was brief, barely a chance encounter. Cen Zheng looked at her and said that she had written a letter of complaint about her father.
Zhou Zeyu was stunned and almost didn't know how to reply. He nodded stiffly and then asked her what she planned to do next.
She smiled and said that she would probably have to leave soon.
She left the place where she had been rooted since birth, far away from all the right and wrong, abandoned this land she had carefully cultivated for so many years, made a complete and thorough break, and then left.
This was not something that was hard to predict. Throughout history, so many people have betrayed their promises, and few of them have met a good end. This is perhaps just another form of mutual destruction. Cen Zheng would never allow himself to fall into a too passive position, so leaving was a must.
Zhou Zeyi was puzzled as to why she would make a special trip to see him.
As if sensing her confusion, Cen Zheng smiled and told her that he didn't mean anything by it; he just wanted to see her one last time before leaving and wish her all the best for the future.
It was very standard politeness, so polite that it was almost unlike what Cen Zheng would do now.
Zhou Zeyu felt vaguely confused, then frowned slightly at her and asked in silence.
Cen Zheng saw the look in her eyes and laughed, "Don't worry, it's just a simple meeting with your little boy, there's no need to be so concerned."
So Zhou Zeyi actually knew about this meeting.
She raised an eyebrow slightly and said to Sorkov, "She must have told you something, about me, and then she gave you the choice of whether or not to tell me, right?"
Sorkov paused for a moment, then chuckled softly with a sigh, “Zhou Zeyi, you know her too well.”
Zhou Zeyu smiled, but she didn't feel smug. She could only vaguely guess Cen Zheng's thoughts, and he knew she could guess her thoughts, so there was nothing to hide.
So you're going to tell me?
Solkov readily replied, "If you're really curious, I'll tell you."
Zhou Zeyu raised his head, stretched his slightly sore neck, and pondered for a moment, "Sorkov, tell me next time we meet."
"Aren't you... in a hurry?"
"I kind of want to see you."
Sorkov seemed to smile, but his confusion was hard to hide. "Be serious, Zhou Zeyi."
Zhou Zeyu smiled as well, "I'm very serious, Sorkov. Tell me in person when we actually meet next time."
The alarm clock suddenly went off. She reached out and turned it off, glanced at the clock, and said, "I have to go to training. I'll hang up now."
"Don't you really want to know now?" Sorkov asked one last time.
Zhou Zeyu stood up, stretched his limbs slightly from sitting for so long, thought for a moment, and then spoke.
"Sorkov, no matter how important the past was, it's still the past. I can't say I don't care at all, but I think what I care about most right now is the upcoming match."
She paused for a moment, then said, "Also, let's meet as soon as possible."
As if suddenly realizing the ambiguity in the sentence, Zhou Zeyu smiled gently again.
"There's no other reason, I just wanted to see you."
“Well,” he said, “I’ll try.”
"Try your best to what?"
Sorkov seemed to be laughing, but it was hard to hear clearly. "I've come to see you."
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