Qin Zhuyu was actually quite terrified.
But she didn’t tell Wen Zhao about it. What if Wen Zhao was moved by it?
Qin Zhuyu secretly kept it hidden.
Along the way, Wen Zhao was exceptionally silent, looking as if she had no energy to speak.
Why? Qin Zhuyu didn’t understand. Why did Wen Zhao feel so miserable every time she met Zheng Miaoning, yet they kept meeting?
Although Wen Zhao wouldn’t allow Qin Zhuyu to stay overnight in her room, she could accept a short chat before bed.
Qin Zhuyu waited until her hair was only half-dry before she couldn’t help but grab her pillow and run to Wen Zhao’s room to knock.
The moment the door opened a crack, Qin Zhuyu squeezed inside like a fish.
Wen Zhao looked a bit uneasy.
“Wen Zhao, what were you doing? I heard voices coming from inside just now.” Qin Zhuyu tossed the large white bear pillow at the head of the bed onto the bay window, placed her own pillow in the empty spot, and then unceremoniously burrowed into Wen Zhao’s covers.
The bed Wen Zhao had slept in smelled so good.
Qin Zhuyu took a deep breath.
Her sequence of movements was so smooth one might think she had practiced them in secret.
However, Wen Zhao did indeed breathe a sigh of relief.
Since Qin Zhuyu could do so many things right after asking a question, it seemed she was only asking casually and wouldn’t dig for details. So, Wen Zhao simply replied, “It might have been the sound of a short video.”
“Okay, then you’re not allowed to watch short videos anymore. Come chat with me.”
Qin Zhuyu was very easy to persuade on certain matters. She immediately patted the quilt, inviting Wen Zhao to join her.
Wen Zhao stood quietly by the window, looking at her.
Qin Zhuyu’s heart was very pure.
She had been pampered by her parents since childhood. Although she lacked friends growing up, Father and Mother Qin always felt it was because they had worked too hard, so they compensated by being even better to her, which greatly filled the void in Qin Zhuyu’s heart.
Wen Zhao could tell that Qin Zhuyu’s initial intent in forcing her to stay by her side wasn’t a good one.
But a heart clean enough made it impossible for her to cruelly torment Wen Zhao.
Lately, Qin Zhuyu had been engaging in childish competitive behaviors. She had fallen in love with comparing herself to Zheng Miaoning, pestering Wen Zhao with questions like, “Did she do this as well as I did? Who is more impressive, me or her?”
Even though Qin Zhuyu had said the words “partner-in-waiting” in front of Xu Hexuan, Wen Zhao still didn’t take it to heart.
Qin Zhuyu was just too lonely.
She only had Wen Zhao as a friend.
When Zheng Miaoning reappeared, Qin Zhuyu’s entire focus shifted to whether Wen Zhao would leave her to return to Zheng Miaoning.
Nothing is more possessive than a romantic relationship.
She simply wanted to monopolize Wen Zhao.
As for whether that was love, neither Wen Zhao nor Qin Zhuyu knew for sure.
Wen Zhao pulled the blackout curtains over the bay window. “Alright, what do you want to talk about? Classmates? Teachers? Or that Student Union you’ve been complaining about?”
Qin Zhuyu, who had never seen darkness, only had minor troubles so far.
Wen Zhao liked listening to these small troubles.
“Anything is fine. Come over first, I’m thinking about what to say.” Qin Zhuyu continued to pat the quilt, tilting her head to stare at the ceiling in thought.
“Oh, right,” before Wen Zhao could even walk over, Qin Zhuyu punched her pillow hard. “There’s a teacher for a filler course this semester who is incredibly annoying!”
Wen Zhao was surprised. “Classes only started a week ago. Filler courses are usually just once a week. How could you be this annoyed already? It seems this teacher is truly irritating. Are there any notable incidents?”
“Yes, yes! Let me tell you…”
Wen Zhao sat on the edge of the bed, not sharing the same quilt. Her head rested against the headboard, her waterfall of black hair cascading with her movements, completely covering the skin below her collarbone and most of her arm.
Most of the time it was Qin Zhuyu talking and Wen Zhao listening.
Only when Qin Zhuyu was particularly angry would Wen Zhao chime in with a few words of agreement.
Watching her vivid, rapidly changing expressions, Wen Zhao couldn’t help but smile.
She didn’t know if it was because Qin Zhuyu lacked friends in middle and high school, but every time Wen Zhao stayed at the Qin house, Qin Zhuyu would run over with her pillow and talk rapidly for several hours before leaving, as if trying to make up for all the small talk she missed during her school years.
Wen Zhao was very patient with this.
In fact, one could say she was genuinely interested.
Wen Zhao never had the chance to attend university in her current life, which was a constant regret.
Therefore, listening to Qin Zhuyu’s chatter and accompanying her to class didn’t feel like a punishment to Wen Zhao; it was just that Qin Zhuyu didn’t believe it, and Wen Zhao didn’t force the issue.
By the time she figured out exactly how annoying the filler course teacher was, an hour and a half had passed.
Wen Zhao tapped the time on her phone’s lock screen. “Time to go back to sleep. Tell me the rest tomorrow.”
“One last question.”
Putting on her slippers and clutching her pillow, Qin Zhuyu held up an index finger toward Wen Zhao.
Wen Zhao didn’t refuse, waiting for her to continue.
“In nine days, can you continue to stay by my side and keep me company?”
“No,” Wen Zhao said with a smile.
Qin Zhuyu’s round eyes were squeezed into irregular polygons by her furrowed brows, and even her framed glasses couldn’t hide the grievance in her eyes. “That’s so mean! You didn’t even think for a second! Why? Am I not good to you?”
“It’s not that.”
On the contrary, Qin Zhuyu was very good to Wen Zhao. Father and Mother Qin were grateful for Wen Zhao’s presence, and the servants of the Qin household were thankful she could accompany their young lady.
The atmosphere of the Qin family was not just a little bit better than that of the Zheng family.
Wen Zhao sighed. “Go back to sleep. I won’t change my mind. Zhuyu, this is what we agreed upon long ago.”
It would have been better if she hadn’t said that. Once she did, Qin Zhuyu found it even more incomprehensible.
“But you also decided long ago not to see Zheng Miaoning. Why is it that your so-called decisions and boundaries always give way in front of her? Why can’t you do that for me?”
Since having Wen Zhao as her professional “preschool teacher,” Qin Zhuyu hadn’t felt this much like crying in a long time.
What made Qin Zhuyu feel even more unbalanced was that lately, Zheng Miaoning had clearly been very, very mean to Wen Zhao! Yet Wen Zhao was still so good to her—good to the point of surpassing everyone else.
Perhaps she and all the children in the toddler class combined weren’t as important as one Zheng Miaoning.
“The answer to that question… I want to know even more than you do,” Wen Zhao murmured.
Silence hung in the room for half a minute. Wen Zhao slowly walked over to Qin Zhuyu’s side and reached out to wipe away her tears. “Don’t dwell on this. I don’t want you to be unhappy during these final days. If we’re going to argue, make a scene, or break ties, let that happen later. Go back; I hope this won’t affect your mood tomorrow.”
With that, Wen Zhao took Qin Zhuyu’s hand and personally escorted her out of the room.
Parting is never happy.
Especially a parting with a pre-set countdown.
Wen Zhao understood Qin Zhuyu. Watching the time tick away second by second, moving closer to the day the contract expired while not knowing how to make her stay—it was normal to feel sad.
But Wen Zhao truly had no energy left to accommodate anyone the way she accommodated Zheng Miaoning. Moreover, the results of accommodating Zheng Miaoning hadn’t exactly been good.
She double-locked the bedroom door.
A ball of light emerged from behind the curtain. “This is the character you’ve had the most contact with over the past two years?”
“Yes.” Wen Zhao sat back on the bed, pulled up the covers, and looked at it.
The light ball floated up and down for a while, then circled in the air a few times, looking hesitant and unsure of how to speak.
Wen Zhao gripped a corner of the quilt and steadied her nerves. “If there’s something, just say it. Don’t be like this.”
“Alright,” the light ball stabilized its position in the air. “Her situation isn’t great either. What I mean is…”
“I know. Will staying by her side for another nine days cause a qualitative change in the impact?” Wen Zhao’s heart gradually sank, but she forced a smile.
If the answer was yes, Wen Zhao would leave the Qin house overnight.
“It’s only nine days; it won’t come to that.”
Wen Zhao breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s good then.”
“You’re so strange. Zheng Miaoning is one thing—she’s the protagonist, and it’s normal for an average author to favor the protagonist a bit. But Qin Zhuyu is just a cannon fodder whose name appeared only once. Why do you care about her so much?”
Wen Zhao ignored the light ball and instead pleaded, “Can you help me check the status of the other members of the Qin family? I’ve spent quite a lot of time with them too. Please.”
Light ball: “…”
If I had known, I wouldn’t have said anything.
Now it not only had to monitor a cannon fodder but also the cannon fodder’s family and servants who hadn’t even appeared in the story.
That night, Wen Zhao tossed and turned, unable to sleep.
She kept thinking about how to ensure she wouldn’t have to see Zheng Miaoning or Qin Zhuyu again.
Leave B City?
But what about the contract with the orphanage?
What about Little Mushroom?
They had already promised to meet next time.
In the early morning, while Wen Zhao was half-asleep, a phone call came in. She instinctively pressed answer. “Hello?”
“Sister Wen Zhao, aren’t you up yet? I’m so sorry, but this is the only time I have to call.”
It was Yu Xin’s voice.
Wen Zhao woke up instantly, her brow furrowing involuntarily. “What’s wrong? Did something happen at the orphanage?”
“No, no, no,” seeing that she had misunderstood, Yu Xin hurried to deny it. “It’s like this: that lady from last time donated two million all at once. With that money, the orphanage has hired a large group of professional teachers. We can pay their salaries for a long time!”
“If you have your own work, you can terminate your contract with us at any time.”
The heart Wen Zhao had held in her throat settled back into her chest.
So it was Zheng Miaoning’s check.
“Okay. Since that’s the case, I’ll come over next week to terminate the contract. I’m not a professional anyway. Since you have enough teachers, I won’t force myself into the role.”
After hanging up, Wen Zhao felt it was almost unbelievable.
It was actually this smooth.
This was what they call “someone bringing you a pillow just as you’re nodding off.”
The person who brought the pillow was actually Zheng Miaoning.
That girl finally did something good.
Wen Zhao smiled, changed her clothes, and went downstairs for breakfast, then accompanied Qin Zhuyu to class.
University classrooms are generally not full, and professors wouldn’t recognize someone who wasn’t in their class.
Qin Zhuyu, who had been a bit sulky, suddenly stopped being angry when she saw the beaming Wen Zhao, though her tone was still a bit sharp.
“You’re this happy just because I’m letting you accompany me to class? Are you a masochist?”
Wen Zhao placed a peeled egg onto Qin Zhuyu’s plate. “Speak nicely. Don’t always be so aggressive.”
Of course, she wasn’t just happy because she could go to a university class.
More importantly, in nine days, she would be completely and utterly a free agent.