Luo Huai entered the classroom, found a seat in the corner, and leaned back against the chair. His mind immediately began to wander.
Who on earth had rescued him from those people? Why wouldn’t Pei Jiheng say anything? Or could it really be that Pei Jiheng wasn’t the one who had kidnapped him?
Luo Huai bit his lower lip.
It wasn’t entirely outside the realm of possibility. But if Pei Jiheng had kidnapped him, what would be the purpose? He had already given Pei Jiheng enough leverage; if that man truly wanted to deal with him, why go to such great lengths?
Besides, he hadn’t suffered any losses at all.
His lower back didn’t feel sore, and surely the other party couldn’t have suddenly become a quick-shooter.
There were no injuries on his body, his clothes had been changed to new ones, and he was even allowed to be sent to school.
Luo Huai couldn’t figure it out.
Since the other party wouldn’t say, he had no way of asking.
Was he supposed to run up to Pei Jiheng and say, “Uncle, did you rescue me from a group of people last night?” If he did that, Pei Jiheng would definitely probe for the cause and effect, and then find out about his sister, the private prison, and how he had given away all his savings just to scrape together money.
Luo Huai didn’t want Pei Jiheng to know about these things, at least not right now.
Perhaps this matter would just remain a mystery.
Luo Huai sighed and pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. It was the bank account number the middleman had given him, which he had fished out of his wet clothes this morning. Because it had soaked in the water for too long, all the numbers on it had blurred together, the blue-black ink bleeding into a single messy blotch so that not a single digit could be distinguished.
Luo Huai stared at the paper for a few seconds, then slowly crumpled it into a ball and clutched it tightly in his palm.
The feeling of being shrouded in a mystery was unpleasant, and it even made him feel a slight twinge of regret over yesterday’s impulsiveness.
That was a full ten million, such a huge sum of money, handed over just like that. Moreover, with the account gone now, his path forward was also cut off.
What should he do? Going on like this, how on earth was he going to save his sister?
Sigh, he would just have to keep saving money.
Luo Huai buried his face in his arms and slumped over his desk. A sense of powerlessness filled his entire brain, and the bustling noise in the classroom gradually faded away, sounding muffled as if separated by a thick layer of glass.
Pei Jiheng’s face suddenly floated into his mind.
Uncle.
Clearly, they didn’t have much of a personal connection. If he carefully calculated it, from their wedding night until now, they had known each other for less than a month. The number of times they had met could be counted on one hand.
Yet Luo Huai felt that.
The other person had actually been pretty good to him?
He couldn’t quite articulate what this goodness was.
It was giving him a bank card right after threatening him, rushing to the restaurant entrance within twenty minutes of receiving a single phone call from him, taking him back with him during what was definitely a perilous situation, and personally driving him to school.
Lin Yuhe had never done any of these things, but Pei Jiheng had done all of them.
Luo Huai slumped over the desk, burying his face even deeper, and the tips of his ears slowly turned red.
At noon after class, Luo Huai returned to the shared apartment in low spirits.
The moment he pushed open the door, a rich aroma of home-cooked food rushed toward him.
The scorched fragrance of chili peppers and sliced meat sizzling in the pan washed over him, making him instantly realize how hungry he was. Luo Huai froze for a second and looked toward the kitchen.
Yu Sui was wearing a dark blue apron, standing in front of the stove with a spatula in one hand and the handle of the wok in the other, stir-frying vegetables.
The range hood hummed loudly, and the chili peppers and pork slices in the wok sizzled with droplets of oil.
Hearing the door open, Yu Sui merely glanced indifferently at Luo Huai, said nothing, and continued stir-frying.
Luo Huai changed his shoes and sidled up behind Yu Sui as if by teleportation.
Two pots were going simultaneously on the stove. The one on the left was stewing corn and pork ribs soup, bubbling away. The one on the right was stir-fried pork with chili peppers, which was almost ready to be taken off the heat. The green peppers and meat slices were coated in a soy-colored sauce, smelling exceptionally appetizing.
Luo Huai stared at the food in the wok and plaintively muttered, “What is this?”
Yu Sui gave him a cold look.
He simply expressionlessly scooped the dish out, his tone flat: “Do you not recognize food?”
Luo Huai didn’t take up the comment and had already proactively started getting the bowls and chopsticks.
Two bowls, two pairs of chopsticks, and he even casually wiped down the dining table. His movements were smooth and fluid, not at all resembling the dejected lump who had just walked through the door.
“Shouldn’t you introduce the dishes, then politely ask if I want to eat together, and finally invite me to taste what you cooked?” Luo Huai set down the tableware, turned to look at Yu Sui, and blinked his eyes.
Yu Sui walked over carrying the soup pot, his mouth twitching as he found himself completely at a loss for words.
He looked at Luo Huai’s bright, glittering eyes, then at the two sets of tableware already neatly arranged on the table, and remained silent for two seconds.
“Let’s eat together then.”
Actually, Yu Sui had another reason for saying this: he could tell that his roommate’s mood was not high.
Although Luo Huai could still crack these joking remarks, he looked as though he were wearing a smiling mask, while the face beneath that mask did not look very good.
The two took their seats.
Luo Huai first said a “Thank you,” then unceremoniously dug in. He scooped himself a bowl of rice, piled a large piece of meat into his bowl, lowered his head, and began to devour it with puffed-out cheeks.
“Yu Sui, you’re really good at cooking.”
Yu Sui watched Luo Huai’s puffed-out cheeks indifferently for a moment, then, breaking his usual routine, took the initiative to ask, “What’s wrong with you?”
Luo Huai’s chopsticks paused for a second before he waved his hand dismissively. “Me? Nothing’s wrong.”
“Oh.” Yu Sui stopped asking and lowered his head to eat his meal seriously.
Luo Huai began staring at him with eager eyes.
Yu Sui felt his back grow hot under that gaze, so he raised his head and met Luo Huai’s watery eyes: “?”
“Why did you stop asking?” Luo Huai asked.
Yu Sui: “Uh.”
He really couldn’t figure this person out.
Luo Huai went on of his own accord. “I got scammed out of my money, and besides that, not long ago I also got taken advantage of physically. What should I do?”
Yu Sui was startled.
His unchanging expression cracked slightly, and his chopsticks hovered mid-air, the piece of spare rib he was holding nearly dropping back into his bowl.
Uh, he was starting to doubt whether this roommate of his was a normal person.
Luo Huai took a distressed sip of soup and continued, “Ah, I can’t explain it well either. Just pretend I didn’t say anything. It’s just that I’m unhappy, I feel like I’m a fool who doesn’t know anything, and when I want to say something, I can’t get the words out.”
Yu Sui was silent for a moment, nodded, but didn’t speak.
Luo Huai: “?”
“Are you agreeing that I’m a fool?”
Yu Sui spoke up again, his tone carrying a flat sort of comfort: “I don’t know what you’ve been through, but…”
He glanced at the half-eaten spare rib in Luo Huai’s bowl, then looked at the empty bowl of corn and rib soup in front of him.
“You can still eat your meal, which means the situation isn’t that serious.”
Luo Huai stopped talking.
He lowered his head to look at the spare rib in his bowl, then looked back at Yu Sui’s expressionless face, suddenly feeling that this person’s way of talking was actually quite interesting.
It didn’t really sound like comforting someone, but somehow, it actually made a bit of sense.
He let out a mock wail, fished the spare rib out of his bowl, and went back to gnawing on it.
He gnawed it completely clean, leaving not a scrap of meat behind.