Chapter 199: Breaking up is not formal enough to talk about it over the phone...
"I have no guilty conscience. I'm hiding because..."
I racked my brains to come up with an excuse, but couldn't find even a single convincing one.
Was she worried about others finding out she'd stayed the night at his place and mistaking her for someone else's fault? But she wasn't even wearing pajamas. She'd habitually changed out of them into something else the moment she woke up. As long as she insisted she'd just arrived that morning, no one would bother to verify her deception.
In the final analysis, it was just that she was guilty.
Zhu Yingning was at a loss for words for a long time.
Xu Sirui laughed.
His laughter was muffled by the mask, and coupled with his illness, his voice was a little hoarse, sounding lower than usual, as if it was casually vibrating out from his chest, resonating through his nasal cavity, with a bit of playfulness and laziness.
His laughter made her dizzy and her face flush. Seeing him lower his eyes and try to type again, she knew that what he was going to type would be a joke, so she simply grabbed his fingers and said fiercely, "Shut up."
Xu Sirui blinked innocently.
The sound of employees talking could be heard outside the living room. Zhu Yingning urged him, "Go out and entertain the guests."
He used his other hand, which was not harmed by her, to barely spit out a few words on the screen: "Are you sure you want to hide here forever?"
She nodded firmly, deciding to be an ostrich for once and practice the ostrich spirit to the end.
Xu Sirui laughed a few more times, this time with a more gentle expression. He poked at the screen and said, "Then I'll bring some fruit in for you later."
After saying that, he felt her sitting on the ground with her knees hugged. She raised her eyes to look at him from bottom to top. He looked like a small black-skinned dog with big eyes. He couldn't help but reach out and gently scratch her chin.
"?"
She was stunned by the action of touching cats and dogs. When she realized what was happening, she was so angry that she wanted to jump up and hit him. Xu Sirui quickly ran away before she could get angry.
**
The employees didn't leave until almost noon. Xu Sirui went to the guest room to rescue Zhu Yingning, who was about to go moldy after staying there. The two of them packed up and went out to have lunch together.
Since Zhu Yingning was on duty on Sunday, she had to take a ride home this afternoon. Xu Sirui didn't keep her, fearing it would be unsafe for her to return home too late after dark. After lunch, they went shopping at the nearby mall. At the pharmacy, she stocked up on some common cold medicine for him, using a black marker to clearly mark which medicine to take when experiencing certain symptoms. Xu Sirui also packed a large bag of snacks for her to eat in the car.
It was already three in the afternoon when he dropped her off at the station. Whether it was a weekday or a weekend, stations and airports in first-tier cities were invariably packed. They said their goodbyes at the entrance, people shuffling past them. Before leaving, Xu Sirui tapped her shoulder and lit up his phone again: "Can I hug you again?"
She almost wanted to sigh, but she also found it funny, so she deliberately put on a serious face and said, "No."
But he ignored her refusal, and the moment she finished speaking, he had already held her in his arms.
The embrace slipped away as soon as it touched, leaving only the heartbeat and warmth at the junction of their chests, which she brought into the car.
**
Back in the village, all kinds of important matters came one after another.
A previously arranged opera troupe came to the village's children's and seniors' activity room for the first time. The troupe focused on performances and wasn't good at promoting the performances. To live up to the troupe's efforts, Zhu Yingning took the initiative to take on the responsibility of publicity. Not only did she post notices on various bulletin boards and spread the word in the group, she also printed flyers and distributed them in her own village and several surrounding villages.
Another important thing is to pay attention to the developments of the game after it goes online.
This feeling is very strange. Although she is not a member of Xu Sirui's studio, they all have a common goal - to get a good response for the game, so she pays as much attention to the game as the studio employees. Every day when she has free time, she checks the reviews, ratings and download counts on major gaming platforms, and often harasses Xu Sirui, asking him about his data.
Fortunately, the game data has been steadily rising. Except for a few comments like "There's a bug again, I beg you to work overtime to fix it, can you please be a little less strict with yourselves", the rest are basically all four- and five-star reviews. Many players also wrote sincere and long reviews to comment on the pros and cons of the game.
The game's ranking on the new product list is also rising.
As for the pig-raising function, since it requires reaching a certain level and having a certain amount of game time to be activated, there was basically no discussion about it in the early stage, and few people covered the relevant content in the tutorials. It was only after a few days that the discussion became more intense.
First, someone posted a question, "I saw a wild boar in the mountains. It looks different from the domestic pigs I buy at the mall. Can anyone give me an answer? /蒙.jpg", and many people in the comment section asked, "Why haven't I seen this kind of pig? Are we playing the same game?!" "It's unfair, there must be something fishy going on." Then, two or three chosen ones replied one after another, saying, "I've also encountered this kind of pig /幽默.jpg" and "And me /狗头.jpg".
This post was repeatedly pushed to the top, and soon after, a senior player took advantage of the situation to make a tutorial on catching wild boars, which was also featured by the host.
The pig-raising function is mixed in with other gameplay and integrated into the entire game.
Zhu Yingning was very pleased with the result. According to their village's plan, the cooperative's first batch of pigs would be ready for slaughter by the end of June, with pork from the company's farms soon to follow. They wouldn't unveil the partnership until June, promoting it as "the first gamer to receive a free pork swag."
The contact with Xu Sirui was also maintained intermittently. They would chat once every three or four days. In addition to work, they would also talk about some daily topics like before.
Zhu Yingning found that the boundaries of friendship he had drawn were blurring little by little - or maybe there was no such thing in the first place.
Sometimes she couldn't tell whether Xu Sirui was encroaching on this boundary, or whether she herself was acquiescing to the elimination of the boundary, or maybe it was both.
My career is well-organized and thriving, but my love life is still a mess.
When it was late at night and everyone was asleep, she would also feel worried and entangled, thinking that it was not a good thing to continue like this and that she should explain things clearly to Xu Sirui.
But when he confessed for the first time, she didn't respond in time. She couldn't just run up to him and say, "I've thought it through. I reject you" after a few months. That would be too offensive.
Xu Sirui was very smart. He walked the fine line of ambiguity, and everything he did made people feel that it was not something that should happen between friends. However, he never said "I like you" a second time, which made it difficult for her to reject him presumptuously even if she felt suspicious.
Moreover, they are still cooperating with each other. They have just relied on his help, and now they want to draw a clear line with him. No matter how you look at it, it seems like they are destroying the bridge after crossing it.
She struggled over and over again, and every night before going to sleep, she would always come up with the answer, "Forget it, let's just leave it this way for now."
But I was also vaguely worried.
As for what she was worried about, she didn't dare to think about it too deeply. She was afraid that what she was worried about was not what would happen to their relationship after she rejected Xu Sirui, but that if she continued to delay like this, she would become more and more shaken.
**
At the end of May, Zhu Yingning received a message.
It was already very hot, and even the most cold-shy elders in the village changed into old men's vests and shorts, fanning themselves under a tree to cool off. As the weather warmed up, Wen Wenxu unfortunately became the most mosquito-attracting of the three of them, forcing him to purchase a batch of electric mosquito coils and mosquito repellent spray online.
When the message came, Zhu Yingning was helping him change the liquid in the electric mosquito coil.
I took out my phone and saw that the contact note corresponding to the red dot was Zhang Jiacheng.
She was stunned.
Although they didn't delete each other after the breakup and never contact each other again, they haven't been in touch since she broke up with Zhang Jiacheng last year. Even though they kept each other's contact information, they didn't even greet each other during the Chinese New Year or other holidays.
Zhu Yingning didn't take the initiative to greet him because she was worried about disturbing his new life. What if he already had a new lover? Wouldn't it be misunderstood if she sent him a message?
She clicked on the red dot of the message and saw that he said he had been on summer vacation some time ago.
"I've been at home for a few days. Xiao Ran has grown very fast. She's grown a lot taller in just over half a year. She's in adolescence at this age and her mind is quite sensitive. I hope you don't mind the phone call I made to you earlier."
Through the words, she seemed to still be able to see the gentle face on his face when he said this.
She slowly typed a reply on her phone keyboard: "It's okay, I don't mind."
Seven simple words.
After sending the message, she stared at the phone screen for a while and decided to drop the topic.
However, Zhang Jiacheng sent her another message right afterward:
"I've thought about it and feel like there are some things I need to clarify with you. Would it be convenient for you to meet with me?"
**
Considering that Zhu Yingning still had to work during the week, the meeting place was set in the city center of the city where she currently worked.
Wen Wenxu and Shen Fei didn't know that she was going to meet someone, but when they heard that she was going to the city over the weekend, they both became interested.
Wen Wenxu said, "Captain, I can drive you and go to the city to buy some supplies."
Shen Fei said, "I've always wanted to go to the city to buy a juicer. Let's go together."
She could only lie and say that she was going to the city for work and couldn't go with them. Chen Fei didn't mind at all: "It's okay, then you can just do your thing, Wen Wenxu and I will go shopping."
“…”
Having said that, they couldn't stop them from going to the city, or force them to go on their own—that would definitely arouse suspicion. Zhu Yingning could only get into Wen Wenxu's car with a sad face.
Actually, there was nothing shameful about meeting Zhang Jiacheng. She decided to go because he had sent her a message that day about wanting to meet up, and then added, "Don't worry, I won't get hung up on you. I just feel that breaking up isn't formal enough over the phone. No matter what's going on between us, I'd like to have a chance to talk it over in person. Also, Xiao Ran prepared a birthday present for you last year and has been asking me to give it to you."
She didn't know whether it was his sincerity or his unwillingness to disappoint Xiao Ran that made her hesitate, but in any case, she felt that the real way to part ways amicably was for both parties to talk it out, rather than one party letting the other party always hold doubts and confusion, which would be unfair to no one.
He didn't want Wen Wenxu and Shen Fei to know simply because he wanted to protect Zhang Jiacheng's privacy. He didn't necessarily want others to know the details of their breakup. In short, the fewer people who knew about this, the better.
Before arriving at their destination, Zhu Yingning asked anxiously, "Where are you planning to go?"
“The Wanda in the city center.”
“Oh—” Wanda was some distance away from the place where she and Zhang Jiacheng had agreed to meet, and she felt relieved. “Then just put me down here.”
"Here?"
"Um."
Wen Wenxu stopped the car and said, "Captain, let me know when you're done. I'll drive over to pick you up then."
"Okay, thanks." She slid out of the car and waved to them. "Have fun."
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