Translator: Helliot
Editor: Isalee
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That person kept on waiting for him, not saying nor doing anything. He just quietly watched him clean around the hospital, watched Meng Yi play with the children, and watched him read fairy tales to the children.
Then, while Meng Fu was reading a story to one little child, Gu Ze just upped and left.
Meng Fu gazed outside the door, constantly feeling as if Gu Ze would suddenly turn back and say in front of the children, “Kid, that man’s a murderer.”
Fortunately, Gu Ze did not appear again.
The secretary quietly waited for Gu Ze’s instructions, but the usually firm and decisive Chief Gu just stared at Meng Fu’s photo for a long time without saying anything.
“Chief Gu, is…” Is that plan called off for now?
The aforementioned plan was nothing more than a plan to torment Meng Fu. Meng Fu had no idea that the owner of the restaurant he worked for was Gu Ze himself, and he had no idea that Gu Ze’s intentions were to employ him for a period of time before firing him when things began to smoothen out for him. But what reason should he be fired for?
Gu Ze had only tossed out a single word to that question a month ago. “Murder.”
Before the secretary could finish speaking, Gu Ze interrupted him. He put down Meng Fu’s photo and said, “Why are there no photos of him going to the hospital?”
“There are. I passed them to you, sir.”
The secretary clearly remembered sending all the photos of Meng Fu’s movements to Gu Ze.
“You call this going to the hospital?” Gu Ze tapped his finger heavily on the photos. In them, the man was walking towards the hospital in the photo with only his delicate chin to be seen. “I want a photo of him inside the hospital!”
“I’m sorry, Chief Gu. We did not go inside the hospital.”
“Cancel that plan.”
“Why?” The secretary didn’t understand. But soon, he guessed that Gu Ze must have thought of new ways of tormenting Meng Fu. “I understand.”
After the secretary left, he kept on looking at Meng Fu’s photos.
Understand? Even he himself didn’t understand it. What did they know?
He hated Meng Fu to the very marrow of his bones and should have tried everything to torture him. But when he saw Meng Fu taking care of those children, his heart couldn’t help but soften.
When those vicious words arrived at his lips, he ended up swallowing them back down in the end.
He thought he was as cold as the icebergs in the North and South Poles, but he didn’t expect to melt from just a little hint of warmth.
In his heart, he told himself,
Gu Ze.
You can’t be soft.
Meng Fu’s a murderer—he’s the one who killed He Manyu and your son. He should be dead.
But how long had it been since he last saw that woman, He Manyu?
At the cemetery, the woman’s innocent smile was immortalized in a small black and white photo while she lived out the rest of her life in an ice-cold coffin.
Gu Ze felt that He Manyu was lucky. She didn’t need to suffer the pain of living.
He placed a large bouquet of He Manyu’s favorite roses on her grave before placing his palm on the tombstone, staring into He Manyu’s smiling eyes, asking, “Manyu, why did you have to die right then?”
When Meng Fu went back to work on Monday, Jiang Hui was in a giddy mood. He exclaimed, “I met the goddess of my life and I’ve fallen in love at first sight!”
“Oh, congratulations.”
“Here look, over there.” Jiang Hui pointed to a woman with waist-length hair with eyes filled with adoration. “She’s the one. She looks even more beautiful from the front than the back, no joke! She’s got big eyes, just like a doll…”
Jiang Hui rambled on, describing the girl of his dreams. But the more Meng Fu looked at her, the more familiar he felt she was.
When the woman gently brushed her hair behind her ear, he finally realized who she was.
“Xie Zhenzhen.”
“Look, she’s brushing her hair back! Look at that bombshell!” Jiang Hui threw his arms around Meng Fu in excitement, not at all noticing Meng Fu’s strange reaction. “You better not steal my goddess away from me, alright, bud?”
“Sure, your goddess is all yours to serve, alright?”
He didn’t want to see Xie Zhenzhen.
“Sure.” Jiang Hui blinked his excited eyes. “Meng Fu, you’re really looking out for your bro, huh?”
“I heard there’s a young man here who plays the piano really well. Where is he?” Xie Zhenzhen asked Jiang Hui.
“You want to listen to him play?” If it was a request from his goddess, then her wish was his command. “I’ll go call him over. Could I…?” Could I have your number? He mulled over those words for a long time but he never got it out in the end. Forget it, he thought. He might as well try and get on her good side first.
He rushed over to the lounge and called out to Meng Yi who was reading comics inside. “Hey buddy, help me out for a moment, alright?”
“Big Brother, what’s this bad guy’s name?” Meng Yi asked, pointing to one of the characters in the comic.
“He’s not a bad guy, he’s Naruto. He’s a ninja, and he’s a good guy.”
“Then, does he like this girl?” Meng Yi pointed to another character. There were a lot of words and he couldn’t figure out which characters were good or bad, but he thought all the fight scenes were interesting.
“Yeah, he likes Sakura,” Jiang Hui explained. When Meng Yi asked him another question, he realized he had been taken for a run. His goddess was probably sick of waiting by now.
“Xiao Yi, listen to Big Brother. If you help Big Brother out, I’ll buy you your favorite cupcakes.”
The word “cupcake” was obviously much more attractive to him than the comic.
Perhaps the more one tried to avoid something, the more likely they’d have to come face to face with it. But, he didn’t expect to meet Xie Zhenzhen so soon.
“Xiao Yi, why are you here?” Xie Zhenzhen looked astonished, and that astonishment quickly turned into pleasant surprise. If Meng Yi was here, that meant that Meng Fu had to be here as well. “Where’s your brother?”
Jiang Hui was stunned to see his goddess speaking so anxiously to Meng Yi. It turned out that they knew each other.
“Big Sister, who are you?” Meng Yi’s arms were hurting from how hard Xie Zhenzhen was grabbing them. “Big Sister, please let go.”
“Meng Fu is busy right now. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for a moment if you wish to see him,” Jiang Hui came over and answered. His intuition told him that the relationship between Meng Fu and his goddess probably wasn’t that simple.
And the reason for that was because Xie Zhenzhen’s eyes were gleaming like the Huai River in March when she mentioned Meng Fu.
During their break, Meng Fu sat across from Xie Zhenzhen at her table.
“It’s been a while.” He appeared very calm as if he were meeting an old friend he hadn’t seen for a long time. As if he’d let go of everything.
He couldn’t think of anything to say. Perhaps the best choice was just to stay silent.
Or maybe, things would be even better if they didn’t meet each other like this at all.
“Yeah, been a while.” Xie Zhenzhen dropped her head down a little and brushed her hair behind her shoulder. She seemed to have prepared what she wanted to say a long time ago, and a hint of hurt could even be heard in her voice as she spoke. “I turned back that day, but by the time I did, you were already gone. You left so quickly that I couldn’t catch up.”
That day was the day he was released from prison, that drizzling day.
“Xie Zhenzhen, you don’t have to do this.” Hands crossed together, he slowly twirled his thumbs, a habit of his when he felt helpless. Looking at the dejected look on the girl’s face, he said, “You know that I’ve been to prison.”
The movements of his thumbs stopped and his hands clenched tighter. It was as if he were tearing his wounds open for someone else to see, hoping he could scare them away with the bloody scars.
“I know that.” Xie Zhenzhen’s voice became very quiet. “You know I hardly ever cry. I’m actually very strong, but I just can’t help but cry when it’s you.”
As she said that, tears began to fall involuntarily.
“The reason why I left that day was because my father got me engaged with someone else of his own accord. I don’t even like him, so why do I have to get engaged? I went to see you, but you told me not to look for you anymore.”
There was a sob in her voice that couldn’t be held back. When she saw the soft look in Meng Fu’s eyes, she thought that maybe they could start over.
But…
A sinister voice suddenly cut in between them. Xie Zhenzhen’s tears seemed to have locked in place, not daring to fall.
Meng Fu turned around, only to see Gu Ze part his lips and say, “Miss Xie, your tears really do come cheap.”