Chapter 98
The male ghost was not the only one who suddenly disappeared along with Chi Jun.
And Xuanli.
—That woman who drifted around like the wind, free and unrestrained.
They disappeared at the same time, so there's no doubt they left together.
Li Rui had met Xuan Li twice by chance and knew that Chi Jun and Xuan Li were from the same hometown. In the days after Chi Jun disappeared, he suddenly thought of Xuan Li and asked Xu Qingzhou to inquire about her.
However, he fell silent when he learned that he could not contact Xuanli either.
Behind this silence lies a seemingly reasonable speculation.
After all, Xuan Li is beautiful and has a charming personality. How many men wouldn't be attracted to her?
These are things that should be kept to oneself and cannot be spoken.
Nevertheless, in Li Rui's view, how could someone as clever as Xu Qingzhou not see it?
She simply remained silent throughout.
At the end of June, Xu Qingzhou received an admission letter from a top university in China.
During that week, Xu Qingzhou was forced to stay busy because many media reporters from the county and city came to interview him.
There were other candidates in the city, and even in Lianghua Middle School, who achieved the same excellent results, but Xu Qingzhou's status as an orphan with a poor background and physical disability undoubtedly added a layer of halo of hard work and self-discipline to this outstanding college entrance examination candidate.
In addition, Xu Qingzhou appears beautiful and graceful in front of the camera.
Inevitably, she became a minor internet sensation this summer.
Various national "top student beauties" elections and polls, comparing family background, educational conditions, and appearance in all aspects... are lively but boring.
More and more media outlets flocked to the scene, even blocking the place where Xu Qingzhou was working part-time, causing him great distress.
Left with no other option, Xu Qingzhou registered a social media account.
The first and only piece of copywriting is to formally, rather than euphemistically, express one's desire to avoid any interviews and to keep one's life undisturbed.
As the blog post was published and the hype gradually died down, Xu Qingzhou was finally able to have some peace and quiet.
In her daily life, occasionally some people would come and politely ask to interview her and record her daily life, but Li Rui would always politely decline.
Compared to the inexperienced and clueless Xu Qingzhou, Li Rui is practically a seasoned veteran in life.
He not only helped Xu Qingzhou get rid of the media reporters, but also chased away his aunt Xu Meiling, who had come to curry favor after hearing the news. His harsh and fierce words even made Xu Meiling admit defeat, and she left cursing and turning back every few steps.
Afterwards, Xu Meiling shamelessly contacted the media, attempting to fabricate some baseless accusations to slander Xu Qingzhou.
However, netizens have sharp eyes. If Xu Qingzhou had really been bullying his relatives all along, why would he have moved out to live alone during the crucial senior year of high school, and had to work part-time to support himself while studying?
This kind of slander is undoubtedly mindless.
Therefore, Xu Meiling's lies did not cause any stir.
However, not all of her fabricated stories disappeared without a trace. For example, when she made up a story that Xu Qingzhou had several boyfriends, after the rumors had been circulating for a few days, she accidentally dragged Chi Jun into the mix.
Various rumors and speculations began circulating online.
Some say that Xu Jun is the male model who was somewhat famous online and almost signed with an agency to debut.
Some say that the boy named "Xu Jun" is both Xu Qingzhou's boyfriend and her "brother," and that their relationship is somewhat complicated, potentially involving incest.
Some say that Xu Qingzhou and Xu Jun had been living together for a long time, and that Xu Qingzhou did not appear to be as innocent as he seemed.
The more public opinion ferments, the more negative comments arise.
Besides attacking Xu Qingzhou for pretending to be innocent and having a messy private life, some nosy netizens even went to the official Weibo account of the university Xu Qingzhou was admitted to, or wrote to the school's official email, demanding that the admission of Xu Qingzhou, a candidate with bad character, be revoked.
Li Rui, Wang Shuai, and their group were furious, wishing they could transform into tentacle monsters and mow down those crazy netizens with machine guns online.
They came to comfort Xu Qingzhou every few days, advising her not to pay attention to those idiots online, who were just jealous of her good looks and grades.
Xu Qingzhou indeed didn't take those opinions seriously.
As the days went by, Xu Qingzhou and the school both adopted a cold approach to the matter, and the group of netizens who loved watching the drama gradually dispersed.
By mid-August, after nearly two months of turmoil, things finally returned to normal.
During this period, Li Rui made an indispensable contribution. In addition to accompanying Xu Qingzhou to her part-time job, grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning whenever she had free time, she also joked around to distract her and make her happy. She even helped her deal with reporters, politely declined interviews, and chased away harassing relatives. She also fought for her on the forum.
Compared to the previous "fake older brother" Chi Jun, Li Rui is more like an older brother.
They're even closer than brothers.
With the start of the school year approaching, Li Rui, who is more like a brother than a biological brother, naturally came to help Xu Qingzhou pack his luggage.
He had already unilaterally decided that he would personally escort Xu Qingzhou to school the next day.
No matter how Xu Qingzhou refused, he wouldn't listen.
Helpless, Xu Qingzhou had no choice but to accept it.
Li Rui, a grown man, packed his luggage like a mother hen. He kept telling Xu Qingzhou to bring more clothes because it would get cold soon, and then he said he would buy Xu Qingzhou some common cold and fever medicine. Finally, he even pulled out two boiled goose eggs from somewhere, saying that he could eat them when he got hungry on the train tomorrow because the food on the train was terrible.
Xu Qingzhou was both amused and exasperated.
When the two were halfway through packing, the landlady arrived.
She came over for a stroll after dinner and happened to come see Xu Qingzhou.
Seeing the large bags of luggage packed inside, the landlady took the glass of warm water that Li Rui poured for her, and while looking around the room, she remarked:
"Oh my, a golden phoenix has flown out of my little house! If you hadn't said you'd reserve this room for me and wouldn't let me rent it out, who knows how many students and parents would be scrambling to rent it right now."
Li Rui was stuffing a bunch of food into his bag when he heard this, he paused and looked at Xu Qingzhou.
Xu Qingzhou didn't show much reaction on his face, just maintained a faint smile and didn't say anything.
The landlady, also bored, leaned against the small table while drinking water, chatting idly with Xu Qingzhou and Li Rui, the topics being nothing more than those—
They would either praise Xu Qingzhou for his abilities or tell some interesting stories about the rental compound. In the middle of the conversation, they would jokingly ask Li Rui if he had a girlfriend and what kind of girl she liked.
After talking for a while, she suddenly seemed to remember something, hissed, and asked Xu Qingzhou:
"Hey? Come to think of it, I haven't seen your brother on these last few visits."
This topic came up suddenly.
The clothes that Xu Qingzhou was folding suddenly slipped from his grasp and fell to the ground.
Li Rui glanced at her quickly, bent down to pick up the clothes, and turned back with a smile:
“Her brother went out to work, so he sent me to take his sister to school.”
"Huh? So sudden?"
The landlady wanted to ask something more, but Li Rui changed the subject first.
After chatting for a while, the landlady left, munching on sunflower seeds.
The room was mostly tidied up. Li Rui zipped up his suitcase, then turned to Xu Qingzhou and said:
"Now all that's left to pack are things like chargers, toothbrushes, and skincare products. I'll write a memo and do a final check before we leave tomorrow."
After saying that, Xu Qingzhou turned his back to him and stood still.
Li Rui zipped up the jacket, but seeing that the little girl still hadn't reacted, he wasn't sure if she had heard him. He wanted to talk to her again, but when he walked over, he saw Xu Qingzhou holding a photo album, looking at it absentmindedly.
Li Rui had barely uttered half a syllable of the word "sister" when he quickly swallowed it back.
Even with just a quick glance, he could clearly recognize that the person in the photo was Xu Jun.
Suddenly, Li Rui felt a little sad.
Looking back on the times we used to eat, drink, and have fun together, I feel a sense of loss and change.
He tried to slip away quietly, but as he turned around, he still alerted Xu Qingzhou.
She turned to look at him.
Li Rui paused for a moment, then forced a relaxed smile onto his face.
"Well, I think I've packed up enough, so I'll head back now. I'll come pick you up first thing tomorrow morning."
Xu Qingzhou nodded slightly.
"I checked, and all that's left are things like chargers, toothbrushes, and skincare products. I'll write them down for you, and we'll put them in our bags first thing tomorrow morning before we leave."
Xu Qingzhou nodded again.
Thank you, Brother Li Rui.
"Hey," Li Rui said, scratching his head sheepishly, "You're saying that."
Li Rui left, gently closing the door behind him.
Xu Qingzhou took a deep breath, put down the photo album, and thought of going down to the corridor to breathe some fresh air.
As he turned to leave, he hesitated, then reached out and picked up the photo album again.
She had never seen this photo album before.
It must have been made by Chi Jun.
In the dead of night, all is quiet. Under a crescent moon, the soft chirping of summer insects can be heard from hidden in the grass.
Under the dim light, Xu Qingzhou stood quietly with his head down, turning the pages one by one in silence.
It contains all sorts of photos.
She has seen it before, and she has not seen it before.
In some photos, she's sitting on the porch picking vegetables, sunlight shining on her, her hair tinged with a soft, golden hue; in others, she's standing in the courtyard hanging clothes to dry; and still others show her writing papers late at night, falling asleep at her desk...
There are many more, many more.
Suddenly, Xu Qingzhou stopped turning the page.
She stared silently at the page of photos, her eyes involuntarily reddening.
It was on the eve of the college entrance examination when Chi Jun took her into a shopping mall to take photos at a photo booth.
She was too shy to take photos at the time, but Chi Jun, who was not usually interested in taking photos, took the initiative to pull her in. After taking one round of photos, she was still not satisfied and took another round.
The photos are filled with bright smiles and funny, natural poses.
However, the happier Xu Qingzhou was at the time of filming, the more painful it was for him to watch now.
She clutched the photo album tightly, and finally, with a lump in her throat, she suddenly threw the album back into the box.
She didn't want to see these things again.
However, through the blurry vision, one could clearly see a small, transparent bag falling out of the photo album.
Inside the bag, there appeared to be neatly folded small pieces of paper.
Xu Qingzhou stared at the small bag for a long time, and finally, he slowly reached out and picked it up.
There was indeed a folded piece of paper in the bag.
The paper was unfolded, revealing a line of familiar handwriting.
Upon seeing those words, she seemed to hear Chi Jun's voice again and see him standing in front of her, a smile playing on his lips, looking at her with a carefree and unrestrained air.
"Zhouzhou, the medicine in this bag can help you speak again."
Moving my gaze downwards, I saw three more words.
【sorry】
Xu Qingzhou stared blankly at those three words, his eyes quickly turning red and welling up with tears.
The frozen defense she had built in her heart, the defense that had sustained her for so long since Chi Jun left, seemed to collapse at this moment.
Xu Qingzhou held the paper, looking at it repeatedly and reading it silently over and over again.
A tremendous wave of sorrow suddenly seemed to find an outlet, pouring out like a flood.
Suddenly, she squatted down and burst into tears in the quiet, deserted night.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
