Chapter 2

Chapter 2

One week later, Zhou Xingzhi was discharged from the hospital. I helped him pack his things.

“By the way, someone introduced me to a very famous doctor. You should come with me to see him tomorrow.”

Zhou Xingzhi wasn’t particularly willing, calling me a nuisance, but after my persistent nagging, he finally relented and agreed.

The next morning, I waited outside the Zhou Family residence.

I stood at the entrance for an hour in the sweltering heat before Zhou Xingzhi finally dawdled his way out.

Just before we left, Zhou Xingzhi took a phone call. After hanging up, he looked at me with a cold expression.

“I’m not going. Xiaoxiao said she can’t get a taxi and asked me to pick her up. Go home on your own.”

I froze, subconsciously blabbing, “But that doctor is only available today. He’s heading back to the States tomorrow.”

“If I’m not going, I’m not going. Why are you so full of nonsense? Xiaoxiao called me-could I possibly ignore her?”

Zhou Xingzhi’s tone was incredibly impatient.

I fell silent for a moment before whispering, “Can’t she just take the bus? She hasn’t visited you once in all this time, yet the moment she needs something, she calls you.”

“Enough. Why are you being so petty? Xiaoxiao is delicate; how could she possibly handle a bus?”

“And stop bringing up the car accident. Weren’t you uninjured? I already promised not to break up with you, so what more do you want?”

Zhou Xingzhi spoke as if I were some unreasonable, hysterical woman.

He forced me out of the car, gave me a perfunctory goodbye, and drove away.

I stood under the scorching sun again, staring blankly at Zhou Xingzhi’s car as it disappeared into the distance.

I didn’t snap out of it until I heard movement behind me. Turning around, I saw a man who looked eighty percent like Zhou Xingzhi walking out of the Zhou Family house.

“Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Zhou Xingzhi’s younger brother, Zhou Yanzhi.”

Zhou Yanzhi looked to be in his early twenties. He gave me a bright smile and tilted his head.

“I heard my brother’s face was disfigured in the accident.”

“Sister-in-law, instead of my brother, why don’t you choose me?”

“Right now, this face of mine looks much more like Wei Qiao’s than my brother’s does.”

Zhou Yanzhi drove me back to school. After getting out of the car, I thanked him sincerely.

Even though it was our first meeting, my impression of him was decent-after all, he saved me three yuan in bus fare.

“Sister, think about it some more. I’m not inferior to my brother at all.”

Zhou Yanzhi blinked, his eyes clear and bright like a little puppy’s.

“What’s your educational background?”

“Undergrad at Cambridge.”

I replied tactfully, “Your education is too high. You don’t really fit the part.”

Zhou Yanzhi paused. “What about Wei Qiao? Was he from a top-tier university?”

I pursed my lips awkwardly. “Vocational high school. The kind where you don’t go to college.”

I had always worked exceptionally hard in my studies, consistently ranking in the top three of my grade.

I had passed the entrance exams for the best high school in the city.

But Wei Qiao was different. His grades were always at the bottom, and he ended up at the city’s notorious ‘Third High,’ a school for delinquents.

He had been flagged in a school-wide bulletin for getting into a fight the moment he stepped through the gates-a prime candidate for the ‘delinquent with bleached hair’ aesthetic.

After an awkward silence, Zhou Yanzhi said, “It’s fine. I don’t graduate until next year, so technically my current qualification is also just a high school diploma.”

Before leaving, Zhou Yanzhi added me on WeChat. His profile picture was a curly-haired puppy.

I clicked on his Moments; it was filled with photos of his life-mountain climbing, skiing, playing basketball.

Zhou Yanzhi was great at taking photos, capturing the strengths of his face to their fullest potential.

I couldn’t resist giving him a like and saved a few of the photos while I was at it.