Chapter 123: Beastly Hearts, Close and Distant Couples
"What do you mean? Why are there sudden surprise inspections?"
Zhu Yingning stood beside Xu Sirui. The school gate was bustling with people, so they found a less crowded corner to answer the phone. She couldn't hear Zhou Tianqing's voice on the other end of the line, but from Xu Sirui's serious expression, she could tell that what Zhou Tianqing was saying was definitely not good news.
Zhou Tianqing seemed to say something else. Xu Sirui cursed and said sullenly, "I understand. I'll pack my things and go over now."
After he hung up the phone, he hurried forward. Zhu Yingning followed him and asked, "What happened?"
Xu Sirui glanced at her, not stopping to walk. Not wanting to bring her bad temper, he took a deep breath, calmed himself, and spoke again, "My aunt said the police suddenly came for a surprise inspection and asked for my mother's diagnosis. They concluded that she's recovered and no longer meets the requirements for medical parole. She'll have to go through the formalities to return home in the next few days."
"...What?" She asked the same question as Xu Sirui had just raised. "But why did they suddenly come for a surprise inspection?"
He sneered: "I've been reported."
This answer was beyond Zhu Yingning's expectations. She was confused and said, "Who has so much free time? Does Aunt Zhou have an enemy?"
"Enemy..." He chewed the word in a deep voice, then held it in his mouth, chewing it with his molars until it became indigestible fiber. He smiled without a trace of smile, "Her only enemy is Xu Zhengkang."
Zhu Yingning was shocked.
She followed Xu Sirui, her heart pounding like a caged bird struggling to escape. She hadn't previously felt anything about the old saying about the closeness of a couple, but now it filled her with dread, a chill running down her soles.
Xu Sirui had just recovered from his injuries. Seeing his sinister expression, Zhu Yingning worried that he might impulsively do something irreparable. After hesitating for a while, she softly asked, "So, what are you...what are you going to do..."
He said coldly, "There are still procedures to follow before being imprisoned. My mother won't leave until three or four days. During this time, I'll move in to accompany her."
She nodded and said with difficulty, "Okay."
As for three or four days later?
Who knows.
**
After returning home, Xu Sirui packed his luggage in a hurry. Before leaving, he said to Zhu Yingning, "My relationship with Xu Zhengkang is my own business. Don't interfere."
Although the words were spoken bluntly, Zhu Yingning knew that he said this out of consideration for her. She had a special status as a sponsored person, and the word "sponsored" seemed to be inherently inferior. If she spoke out, no matter what she did or said, she would be criticized.
She watched Xu Sirui leave, feeling so depressed that she couldn't breathe.
The hourly worker was unaware of these grievances and had no intention of caring. She faithfully fulfilled her duties and prepared dinner in front of the wok in the kitchen. Zhu Yingning saw that she had cooked a double portion of food and reminded her, "Auntie, Xu Sirui won't be home for dinner."
"Oh, I know. I made Mr. Xu's portion. He just called and said he'd be back to eat."
“…”
When Zhu Yingning learned that she was going to have dinner with Xu Zhengkang, she suddenly lost her appetite.
Xu Zhengkang returned more than half an hour later, his expression normal, without a trace of panic. Seeing her, he even took the initiative to ask, "Is the final exam over today? How did you do?"
She opened her mouth and whispered, "It's okay... I performed normally."
"Well, that's good." Xu Zhengkang's comments and sermons were the same as usual. "There aren't that many extraordinary people in the world. Sometimes being normal is a kind of extraordinary. Especially in the college entrance examination, your mindset is the most important thing."
She nodded in agreement with a smile.
During dinner, Xu Zhengkang turned on the news station as background music. Listening to that background music and seeing Xu Zhengkang's expression, Zhu Yingning was almost confused.
She comes from a primitive place, and of course there are bad people in the mountains. Bad people are bad regardless of their growing environment.
But precisely because of their primitiveness, everyone was poor at disguise. Dislike or resentment for someone showed entirely on their faces. When they did something wrong, they either felt guilty, brimmed with unrepentant complacency, or boasted about it. Neighbors would quarrel and spit at each other, and relatives would turn on each other, cursing at each other the moment they met. For a long time, Zhu Yingning's understanding of humanity came from them. She assumed that everyone's emotional reactions were the same as those of the people in her hometown, an unconditioned reflex similar to "hungry, eat; tired, sleep," instinctive rather than pretentious.
But that is not the case.
After arriving in the city, she met many people she had never seen before, people of all kinds. She had come to understand that some people were extremely good at disguising themselves, like ghosts wearing painted skins.
But looking at Xu Zhengkang's calm and composed appearance, Zhu Yingning still felt confused and frightened. Did she and Xu Sirui misunderstand him, or could someone really be able to disguise himself to this extent, doing bad things without any clues, without feeling guilty, afraid, or complacent?
She couldn't figure it out.
**
Although she was concerned about Xu Sirui's situation, she also knew that in the last few days, Zhou Tianlan would definitely want to spend all his time with his children more than anyone else, so she sensibly did not go over to disturb them, leaving them time and space to spend time together.
However, saying nothing doesn't seem like a good idea either.
She covered herself in the quilt and wondered what she could do.
Before I could think of anything useful, the phone next to my pillow rang a few times. I picked it up and saw that it was a message from Wang.Wang, indicating that Zhu Zhiwei's store had several refunds.
She picked it up and wanted to operate it, but was afraid that she didn't know how to operate it and it might malfunction, so she called Zhu Zhiwei first to ask how to deal with it.
"It's okay, just leave it there, I'll take care of it. You'll encounter these kinds of issues when you run an online store." Zhu Zhiwei's voice was clearly tired, but he still smiled and said to her, "You've finally finished your exams, so relax for a while."
"It's because I'm done with the exams that I have some free time now and can help out." Zhu Yingning was at a loss as to what to do about the way people around her always treated her like a useless child.
However, Zhu Zhiwei was very persistent, and Zhu Yingning had no choice but to hang up the phone first.
The next morning, she picked up her phone and logged into Wangwang, and saw that her store had received several more orders overnight.
Zhu Zhiwei has already cleaned up the space where her physical store was located and sublet it. She now stores most of her clothes at home. She hired a new customer service representative for her online store. She's relatively new and not very experienced, but her strengths lie in her friendly attitude, willingness to learn, and willingness to follow instructions. Thanks to the customer base built up from her offline store, Zhu Zhiwei's store's initial stages were relatively easy. Two months after opening, she's seen some regular customers placing orders. She's also seen new customers, but they're few and far between because her marketing efforts haven't yet been fully implemented. Zhu Zhiwei is currently exploring online marketing strategies.
Zhu Yingning looked at the accounts that placed orders last night, and the more he looked, the weirder it seemed to him. These accounts were not returning customers and had never placed orders in their store before. They were undoubtedly new customers, and the ordering process was also very quiet - most customers would first contact customer service to clarify before placing an order when they see a new store with low transaction volume and few reviews. However, these people were all very carefree, as if they were not worried about being cheated after receiving the goods.
She knew there was malicious competition among e-commerce companies, and some of them would hire fake orders on fake order platforms, either refunding the goods or giving bad reviews after they arrived, thus ruining their store's reputation. But they had only been open for a short time, so they didn't need to be resented by their peers, right?
The only possibility Zhu Yingning could think of was the one Zhu Zhiwei was worried about.
There was no way to get anything out of her by asking questions on the phone. Zhu Zhiwei basically treated her as a little sister and didn't want her to be exposed to too many adult matters. Zhu Yingning put away her phone and decided to go to Zhu Zhiwei's apartment to find her in person.
**
Seeing through the peephole that the person standing at the door was Zhu Yingning, Zhu Zhiwei was surprised and opened the door to let her in: "Ningning."
It would not be easy to be perfunctory now that the enemy had come to her house. She rubbed her face and sighed, poured her a glass of water, let her sit on the sofa, and told her her guess when she asked.
"In fact, a lot of accounts placed large-scale orders a few nights ago. In the past few days, those orders have been refunded one after another. The customer service girl and I have tried to call and communicate with the buyers, but found that many of those calls cannot be reached. In this case, it can basically be confirmed that the orders are placed maliciously." Zhu Zhiwei looked at his clasped fingers.
They didn't speak for a long time. For Zhu Zhiwei, saying "I suspect Huang Yuliang's wife is messing with me" was a shameful thing. It was like repeating her crimes and incompetence, or like an excuse. Sometimes she even gave up on herself and felt that maybe this was her predetermined fate, that she owed this lady, and that being targeted seemed natural and helpless.
"Do you have her contact information?" Zhu Yingning finally broke the silence.
Zhu Zhiwei hesitated and said, "Yes, yes..."
She understood what Zhu Yingning was about to say and said with a wry smile, "That's right. There's no other way except to communicate with her now."
"I'll go with you to talk to her."
"Don't." She was almost frightened by Zhu Yingning's words and refused firmly, "Other things don't matter, but this is my own business, don't worry about it."
Zhu Yingning was a little depressed. Why were everyone's affairs their own business and she shouldn't care about anyone else's?
She wanted to try again, at least to persuade Zhu Zhiwei to let her follow her to the scene from a distance, so that if any emergency happened, she could still protect her. Unfortunately, this time Zhu Zhiwei was determined not to let her intervene.
"Ningning, please understand my feelings."
The sadness in her eyes when she said this stopped Zhu Yingning, and for the first time in her life, she did not insist.
**
It was late at night two days later that Zhu Zhiwei called. Since Xu Sirui was due back the next day, Zhu Yingning worried about a head-on clash between him and Xu Zhengkang, and she'd had a rough night. His ribs had only just healed; the chest brace he'd had removed in late June or early July had healed, but they were still fragile and couldn't withstand heavy blows or large movements. Xu Zhengkang was so sturdy, she thought he might even be murdered.
Because she hadn't slept well, she woke up when the phone vibrated.
She picked up the phone in a daze and heard Zhu Zhiwei's voice with obvious crying tones. It was unclear, as if there was a mouthful of ice in her mouth. She knew he was drunk, otherwise he would not call her in the middle of the night.
She was so frightened that her heart felt uncomfortable. She sat up and wanted to ask her what was wrong anxiously. But before she could open her mouth, Zhu Zhiwei spoke first.
She said, "Ningning, I was wrong. I was wrong from the beginning... I thought Huang Yuliang loved me. How could he have no feelings for me at all? I treated him like that. I gave him my youth, my looks, and all my love... I am special to him. But why is he looking for someone to have sex with me? Why not his wife? I don't know what to do, really, I don't know... Woo... Woo... What should I do? Does he really want me to die?"
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