Chapter 1687: Chapter 1673
Early the next morning, when Chu Ge got up she found that Wen Zaozao was already awake. Her eyes were swollen; one look and you could tell she’d cried again last night.
"You okay?" Chu Ge asked.
Wen Zaozao nodded listlessly, then dragged her still-half-asleep body into the bathroom.
Chu Ge leaned against the doorway, arms folded across her chest, watching her wash up. "Zhou Ang called last night."
Wen Zaozao’s hand paused mid-brush. She let out an "oh," then continued brushing her teeth, looking as if she hadn’t reacted at all, but Chu Ge didn’t miss that trace of sadness flashing through her eyes.
"Are you planning to keep not answering his calls?"
Chu Ge asked again.
Wen Zaozao straightened up, toothbrush in her mouth, not moving. For a long while she neither answered Chu Ge nor went on washing; she just stood there in a daze.
Chu Ge knew she’d said the wrong thing again, knew she shouldn’t add to her burden at a time like this. But it wasn’t like her question was unreasonable—keeping on avoiding it wasn’t a solution. The two of them would have to meet sooner or later.
Not to mention Zhou Ang still didn’t know about the letter, let alone the real truth behind it all.
After a long moment, Wen Zaozao sighed. "You don’t need to worry about this. I’ll handle it myself."
Her voice was hoarse. She finished washing up in a few quick minutes, slapped some makeup on her face at random, then slung her bag over her shoulder and headed out to work.
Before leaving, Wen Zaozao turned her head and said to Chu Ge, "I won’t come back for lunch today. Just make something for yourself."
Chu Ge grunted in reply. He knew that even if she did come back, she wouldn’t eat much. When your mood’s bad, your appetite goes with it.
Wen Zaozao left. Chu Ge didn’t have to go to work and had nothing to do, so he went back to his room to keep reading. In this modern world, there was still a lot he needed to learn. If one day he really could go back, he could use what he learned here to help his own country flourish.
He spent the whole day studying, and his phone was unusually quiet.
Before, when Wen Zaozao was at work, she’d always call or text him from time to time to check up on what he was doing, whether he’d caused any trouble or something.
Chu Ge lifted his head from the book, grabbed his phone, and glanced at it, only to realize it was on silent. He unlocked it, and the screen lit up with several missed calls and messages.
At first he thought they were from Wen Zaozao, and was about to open them and call her back, but then he saw that all the calls and messages were from Zhou Ang.
He froze for a moment, then immediately thought that Wen Zaozao had probably ignored Zhou Ang’s calls again. He shook his head silently and called Zhou Ang back.
The call went through almost instantly, as if Zhou Ang had been holding his phone the whole time.
"Hello, Chu Ge."
There was a note of anxiety in Zhou Ang’s voice. "Is Zaozao with you?"
"No, she went to work."
Zhou Ang shook his head, his breathing a little unsteady as he spoke in bursts, "No, I couldn’t get through to her at all today. She didn’t reply to my texts either. I was worried something might’ve happened to her, so I went over to her office to find her, but her colleagues said she’d taken the day off and never came in."
Chu Ge was taken aback. She didn’t go to work?
"Did something happen to Zaozao? She’s never refused to take my calls before, and she’s never just gone missing on me like this."
From his tone, Chu Ge could hear how much Zhou Ang cared about Wen Zaozao. He just didn’t know, when Zhou Ang found out that Wen Zaozao’s father’s death was connected to his own father, whether he would still be this anxious about her.
"She’s probably just busy with something."
Chu Ge hedged. As an outsider, it wasn’t his place to interfere in this. The key was still how Wen Zaozao wanted to handle it.
He heard Zhou Ang sigh on the other end. "Are you at home right now?"
Chu Ge made a sound of assent, guessing in his heart that Zhou Ang was planning to come over and wait for Wen Zaozao at the apartment.
Sure enough, the next thing he heard was, "Then I’ll pick up some food and come over. Let’s have hot pot tonight. Hot pot’s Zaozao’s favorite. Whenever she’s in a bad mood, I always take her out for hot pot."
Chu Ge parted his lips, wanting to tell him that the root of her unhappiness was actually him, but in the end he swallowed the words. "Got it."
Not long after he hung up, the lock turned in the front door. Chu Ge walked out of his room and saw Wen Zaozao coming in with a basket full of vegetables.
"Why are you back so early?"
Chu Ge asked.
Wen Zaozao made a sound in response, forcing a smile as she shook the vegetables in her hand at him. "We’re having hot pot tonight!"
"..." The corner of Chu Ge’s mouth twitched. So Zhou Ang had been right.
"You bought this much. Can we even finish it?"
Chu Ge coughed lightly to cover his embarrassment. Actually, he wanted to say that Zhou Ang would also be bringing a bunch of food over tonight, but he didn’t know how to bring it up.
Seeing how obviously upset Wen Zaozao was yet still forcing herself to smile really made your heart ache a little.
"Leave it there, I’ll take care of it," Chu Ge offered.
Wen Zaozao was a little surprised. She looked at him suspiciously, a flicker of wariness in her eyes. "Why are you suddenly being so nice?"
The corner of Chu Ge’s mouth twitched. "Since when have I not been nice?"
Wen Zaozao curled her lip. "The question is, when have you ever been nice?"
Chu Ge had only offered to help because she was in a bad mood and he wanted to share some of the load. But seeing that she still had the energy to bicker with him, he couldn’t help coughing lightly and saying, "I just thought you look like hell and wanted to give you a chance to go wash your face."
"You!" Wen Zaozao was furious. She glared at Chu Ge, her dark round eyes almost popping out of her head.
"Mm, not bad. You still have the energy to quarrel with me. Guess your mood isn’t as bad as I thought."
Wen Zaozao froze, looking at him in confusion. "What’s that supposed to mean?"
Chu Ge didn’t hide it from her and said straight out, "Zhou Ang called today."
As he’d expected, the moment Zhou Ang’s name came up, Wen Zaozao’s expression changed.
She turned her head away and went on sorting through the vegetables she’d bought.
"He said he couldn’t get through to you, and he was worried something might’ve happened, so he went by your company."
Chu Ge watched her profile and said, "He said you didn’t go in today."
Wen Zaozao gave a little sound. "I took the day off."
In her condition, she really wasn’t fit for work.
"He also said..." Chu Ge paused, his gaze falling on the vegetables she’d bought.
"Said what?" Wen Zaozao lifted her eyes to him.
"He said that when you’re in a bad mood, you like to eat hot pot, and that he’d bring groceries over tonight so we can all have hot pot together."
Wen Zaozao’s nose stung. She quickly turned her head away from Chu Ge, and after a long while, a muffled "mm" came from her nose.
Chu Ge knew she wanted to cry again but was holding it back with all her strength.
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