Chu Zhi didn’t go back to school and planned to head straight home. During her days away, she hadn’t felt much, but now seeing the familiar scenery through the car window, exhaustion suddenly hit her. All she wanted was to take a good shower and roll around in her big bed.
Since it was on the way, Chu Zhi gave her address. Cheng Yi made a surprised sound.
Lu Jiaheng also turned his head: “You live here?”
Chu Zhi nodded.
Lu Jiaheng stared at her meaningfully for a while, then curved his lips into a lazy smile. “Oh.”
His expression was so laden with meaning that it was confusing. “Is something wrong?”
“Nothing,” Lu Jiaheng lightly shifted his gaze away, “Just quite a coincidence.”
After dropping Lin Tong off at school, the car headed toward Chu Zhi’s home.
The car stopped at the entrance of the residential complex. Chu Zhi got out, and Lu Jiaheng followed.
His steps were unhurried and slow. Since he got out after her, Chu Zhi practically jogged to the trunk to get her suitcase, but Lu Jiaheng took just a few strides to reach there first, opened the trunk and lifted out both the suitcase and backpack.
Chu Zhi suddenly remembered when they were sitting in the cable car, how his legs were so much longer than hers. She couldn’t help but sigh.
After they got the luggage and moved it to the side, Chu Zhi was about to speak, to say thanks and goodbye, when the gray private car beside them honked twice and sped away in a cloud of dust.
In the blink of an eye, Lin Boyang had merged into traffic. Chu Zhi hadn’t processed what happened yet. She looked at Lu Jiaheng beside her, hesitating: “Did they abandon you?”
“Yes, I’m quite pitiful,” Lu Jiaheng curved his lips, looking at her with an expression between truth and jest.
Chu Zhi blinked, thinking he seemed pitiful, but also thinking it was impossible that they’d just leave him here unattended. She didn’t know what to say.
Lu Jiaheng silently laughed, put her backpack on top of the suitcase, and without looking up said, “Let’s go.”
Chu Zhi followed him into the complex.
Going past the fountain and circular flower bed, turning right after a few steps, she looked back at him.
Walk two steps, look at him again.
Lu Jiaheng’s expression was calm as he pulled the suitcase with one hand, other hand in his pocket, following lazily behind her.
The wheels of the suitcase scraped against the ground, making a continuous, unhurried rolling sound.
Chu Zhi grabbed her hair, turned around, and said slowly: “Senior, this is far enough, I can manage from here.”
Lu Jiaheng lowered his eyes, showing no intention of giving her the suitcase and backpack: “It’s fine, I’m going this way anyway.”
“…”
She was at a loss, and considering it was indeed very dark now, even though the street lights were bright, she was a bit scared to walk alone. So she slowly turned back around and continued walking.
This time though, she stopped after two steps to walk beside Lu Jiaheng, moving forward together.
Chu Zhi’s residential complex was also newly built, with a nice environment and plenty of greenery. At this moment, tree shadows swayed, casting dark shapes under the yellow street lights, rustling as the wind passed through.
It was too quiet.
Slightly awkward.
Chu Zhi rubbed her nose tip that had gotten cold from the wind, and said something.
Lu Jiaheng only heard the young girl mumble something quietly beside him, but couldn’t make it out. He turned his head down: “Hmm?”
Chu Zhi looked up and repeated what she’d just said.
He still didn’t respond.
Chu Zhi waited for a moment.
Lu Jiaheng just kept his head lowered, looking at her.
Then suddenly he smiled.
Chu Zhi looked bewildered.
The street light shone from behind his side, his peach blossom eyes hidden in shadow, only the bright glint in his dark pupils and the upward curve of his lips visible.
The man chuckled softly and unexpectedly leaned closer to her, bending down slightly.
Now she could see clearly the eyes that had been hidden in shadow.
Dark and laughing, with long corners, staring at her unblinkingly.
The last time he looked at her like this was also at night.
Below the dormitory building, holding a Cute-do ice cream, bending his knees to look at her at eye level, wracking his brains trying to get her to call him “Brother Jiaheng.”
The familiar scenes overlapped, making Chu Zhi’s ears turn slightly red as she instinctively wanted to step back.
“You’re too small,” he suddenly said.
Chu Zhi hadn’t managed to step back yet, her feet stopped as she looked up confused: “Huh?”
“You’re too tiny, speaking so quietly, I can’t hear you.”
“…”
Chu Zhi: ?
Chu Zhi: ???
“So next time when you speak, you need to be closer to me.”
Lu Jiaheng licked his lips, his smile deepening as he bent down, bringing their faces closer, “Or I’ll need to get closer to you.”
The young girl took three seconds to react, her eyes widening slightly as she stared at him, her ears burning.
She raised her hand to cover one ear with a “pat”, then quickly removed it as if burned. Unable to think of how to retort, she finally managed to squeeze out after a long while: “I’m not small! I’m 1.6 meters!”
Lu Jiaheng made an “oh” sound, lazily raising an eyebrow: “Really?”
“…Rounded up!”
He laughed softly, finally straightening up with a nod: “Alright, whatever you say.”
“…”
Chu Zhi had originally wanted to ask if he was going back to school or home later, but after his teasing, she didn’t want to ask anything anymore. They continued walking forward, and as they approached her building’s entrance, she still couldn’t help asking: “Senior, are you going back to school later?”
Just after she spoke, she seemed to remember something and deliberately moved closer to his side, looking up to ask again.
Lu Jiaheng started laughing again.
For some reason, Chu Zhi felt like she was being played with.
Fortunately, this time he had heard her, and after finishing his laugh said: “No.”
Chu Zhi remembered the earlier incident, even her breathing becoming lighter as she secretly watched his expression: “Then are you going home?”
“No,” seemingly noticing the carefulness in her tone, he glanced at her and said languidly, “Why do you always overthink things, little girl?”
Chu Zhi lowered her head, her voice getting smaller: “Because I was the one who gave you the jelly…”
Chu Zhi’s family relationships were very good, and she had never encountered such situations before. At that time, she completely didn’t know what to do.
She should have explained, shouldn’t have watched him be misunderstood and scolded.
But this was after all his family matter.
He had stopped her twice, clearly telling her not to say anything, so Chu Zhi listened to him and stayed quiet.
Conflicts don’t escalate to such a degree in just a day or two. She was just an outsider, she wouldn’t know what actually happened, if there were any previous incidents, or whether speaking up would actually help.
Sometimes, it’s precisely because of an outsider’s well-intentioned but presumptuous help that situations become worse.
Chu Zhi felt at the time that she should respect his thoughts and choices, so she kept quiet.
But after all, a large part of the reason was because of that jelly.
It felt like letting someone else take the blame for her, which really didn’t feel good.
She wanted to say something more, but when she looked up again, she just caught sight of Lu Jiaheng’s hand quickly withdrawing from right above her head.
His movement was fast and very natural, showing no trace of oddness, as if he had just casually raised his hand. Chu Zhi didn’t even have time to react.
Lu Jiaheng looked away, continuing to walk forward lazily while saying: “Don’t worry, Lu Jiayi will explain everything clearly.”
Chu Zhi raised her head in a daze, her pitiful expression not yet having time to fade.
She had only said one sentence, yet he seemed to understand everything.
Lu Jiaheng curved his lips coldly and continued unhurriedly: “It doesn’t matter who gave the jelly. As long as that thing exists, it would have been from me.”
Chu Zhi was completely stunned, quickly processing and understanding the meaning of his words as she unconsciously continued walking with him.
As they walked, Lu Jiaheng suddenly stopped.
Chu Zhi was still lost in thought and stopped with him, staring straight ahead at the building entrance.
After a while, she came back to her senses, looked up, and saw Lu Jiaheng tilting his head lazily looking at her.
He didn’t seem to be in a hurry, just lowering his eyes to look at her, patiently leaning against the security door waiting.
After she finished spacing out, he slowly raised his eyebrows: “Little Zhi, you’ve followed me to my building.”
“…”
Chu Zhi: ?
Chu Zhi instinctively looked up at the building number and made a surprised sound.
She blinked, looking at Lu Jiaheng: “You live in this building?”
“Mm.”
Lu Jiaheng slowly pulled out a bunch of keys from his pocket, several of them jingling together. He hesitated for a moment before selecting one and inserting it into the security door lock.
With a light click, the door opened.
Lu Jiaheng let out a breath.
He had just bought this apartment recently, planning to move out because he really couldn’t stay at home anymore. He had handed it over to the renovation company and hadn’t been here since buying it, so he wasn’t sure if the key would work.
Chu Zhi pulled open the door and held it for him, hesitating: “Are you planning to go home again?”
Lu Jiaheng entered and they walked to the elevator. He was silent for a moment before suddenly saying: “I live alone.”
Chu Zhi’s expression immediately softened, like she had seen a stray puppy on the street.
Lu Jiaheng decided to commit fully to this path, pressed his lips together, and said vulnerably: “It’s fine, I’m used to it.”
Chu Zhi’s expression looked like she had already made up her mind to take the puppy home.
Mr. Chu and Ms. Deng had gone off somewhere to have fun again. When she opened the door, the house had that dry smell of being uninhabited for long. Chu Zhi put her suitcase and backpack at the entrance and started looking in the fridge for food.
She wasn’t hoping for fresh fruit anymore, since no one had been home for so long. Finding some cereal, milk, or instant noodles would be good enough.
After searching thoroughly, she actually found half a bag of cereal and two packs of instant noodles.
One pack of braised pork rib flavor.
And one pack of Lao Tan pickled cabbage beef flavor.
Chu Zhi: “…”
Chu Zhi held the two packs of instant noodles, remembering the man’s earlier words in the elevator “I live alone” “I’m used to it,” and crouched in front of the kitchen cabinet feeling conflicted.
Lu Jiaheng lived right upstairs from her.
This was something Chu Zhi had never imagined before.
Chu Zhi made an “ah” sound, put the braised pork rib flavor on the counter, took the Lao Tan pickled cabbage one, grabbed her keys and went out wearing slippers.
One pack each, since she couldn’t eat two packs alone anyway.
Chu Zhi thought while going upstairs, and rang the doorbell upstairs.
After waiting about half a minute, the door opened.
Chu Zhi casually glanced inside, and the words she was about to say got stuck in her throat.
To say Lu Jiaheng’s home was dusty with nowhere to step would be completely accurate – the floor was dirty and covered in wood shavings, the flooring was only half done, wallpaper rolls stood against the walls, and a smell of formaldehyde permeated the air.
Chu Zhi: “…”
Chu Zhi suddenly remembered the buzzing of electric saws and drills from her upstairs neighbor from dawn to dusk at the beginning of the semester, and made an enlightened “ah” sound.
Lu Jiaheng stood at the door, cement dust all over his pants, his expression somewhat complex.
He lowered his eyes and saw what she was holding, his expression becoming even more complex.
One pack of deep purple Lao Tan pickled cabbage beef flavored instant noodles.
Wang Han1‘s bright smile printed on the package seemed to be silently but cruelly mocking him.
[Author’s note: Young master: Get away from me, you cursed Lao Tan pickled cabbage beef noodles!!!!!!!!!]
- A Chinese host who endorses the Lao Tan Noodles. ↩︎
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