Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Song Yao was the one who sent me the message. Zhou Huaian hadn’t invited me, which proved it wasn’t the kind of gathering I was meant to be part of, but I went anyway.
When I pushed the door open, the woman beside Zhou Huaian had her chest half-exposed, her entire body practically plastered against him.
The room fell noticeably silent the moment I walked in.
Zhou Huaian stood up and walked over, rubbing his nose. “Why are you here? I didn’t touch her.”
He hadn’t touched her, but he hadn’t pushed her away either.
Perhaps my expression at that moment was hideous to the extreme, because Zhou Huaian turned around and delivered a vicious kick to the table.
That was the first time I had ever heard him swear or seen him so furious.
“Who the hell invited her here?”
I saw Song Yao flicker his eyelids before raising a foot to kick the man sitting next to him.
The man caught on immediately. “Brother Huai, I… I just hadn’t seen Sister-in-law in a long time, so I thought…”
Zhou Huaian glared at him coldly. “Since when are you two close?”
In their social circle, interpersonal relationships radiated outward from the core figures. The Zhou Family and the Song Family could not be divided, and the bond between Zhou Huaian and Song Yao could not be broken. In times like this, when a scapegoat was needed for a minor incident, those lower down the ladder didn’t mind stepping up to take a scolding.
That time, Zhou Huaian and I had a small argument.
He leaned his head to the side, one hand propped against the car window. The song playing on the radio was deeply ironic: “I only wish for one person’s heart, to stay together until our hair turns white.”
Zhou Huaian said indifferently, “Shen Nian, you can seek anything you want from me, but don’t seek love from a man like me. It’s not worth it.”
But when it comes to love, when can you ever truly say if it’s worth it or not?
Sometimes, you have to admit that a love that is too full can be terrifying.
Some departures don’t require a word of goodbye; fading out of someone’s world simply requires you to stop missing them.
My life returned to its normal routine. Everything was the same as usual, except I no longer felt that daily restlessness of preparing to see him.
Until that afternoon, when I walked out of the academic building and saw him at a glance, leaning lazily against a nearby pillar, drawing the attention of passing students.
His tone was flat, as if the unpleasantness of half a month ago had never happened, and as if we hadn’t been out of contact for the past two weeks. It was as though he had just said goodnight yesterday and we were simply meeting again today.
“Class over? Want to grab a bite?”
He took my backpack without waiting for an answer and clasped my hand. “Have some pity on me. I’ve been on a business trip for over two weeks and rushed straight here from the airport. If I don’t eat soon, my stomach is going to act up again.”
And so, with no one putting up a fight and no one bringing up the past, we naturally drifted back together.
I indulged myself, letting myself sink or swim with him. I told myself that, at worst, I would lose a few years of my life-I just had to grind it out with him until there was a result. But looking back now, I realize how foolish I was then.