STT – Chapter 5

I won’t believe everything you didn’t say in the future.

Jiang Huaixi disappeared again for five days, and Lu Zizheng wasn’t surprised at all.

Over the years, Lu Zizheng had long understood her habits. There were always times when Jiang Huaixi would suddenly disappear, with no calls and no messages.

Despite her curiosity, Lu Zizheng never took the initiative to ask. She was accustomed to keeping a distance from people, rarely talking about herself, and never prying into others’ affairs.

As the night deepened, Lu Zizheng was still sitting at her desk in the study, holding a book and casually flipping through it.

Her mind wasn’t entirely on the book; she felt restless and uneasy. Tomorrow, she had to go on a business trip to Jiangbei City with Lian Xuan. There would only be three of them: her, Lian Xuan, and Lian Xuan’s male assistant.

Suddenly, her phone vibrated. Jiang Huaixi had finally appeared.

She said, “A new restaurant just opened in Houxi. Do you have time to try it tomorrow?”

Lu Zizheng replied, “I have a business trip to Jiangbei with my boss tomorrow.”

On the other end of the phone, Jiang Huaixi was silent for a moment before asking, “When will you be back?”

Lu Zizheng glanced at the calendar on her desk. “About a week, at the beginning of next month.”

Jiang Huaixi sighed and said regretfully, “In that case, it looks like you won’t receive my birthday gift this year. Since you won’t be around, I won’t bother giving it.”

Lu Zizheng looked at the calendar and realized that she would indeed be spending her birthday in a foreign land. She frowned and snorted, “I guess you’re just using this as an excuse to be stingy.”

Jiang Huaixi chuckled softly on the other end of the phone and then asked, “What time do you leave tomorrow? Do you need me to take you to the airport?”

Lu Zizheng declined, “The company will send a car to pick me up.”

Jiang Huaixi responded with a faint “oh” and didn’t say much more.

The clock pointed to midnight, but Lu Zizheng lay in bed, unable to sleep. She sat up and, in the end, compromised by taking two sleeping pills from the drawer.

Before falling asleep, she drifted off with Jiang Huaixi’s face floating in her mind—her quiet look, her proud look, her slightly displeased look…

Back then, when she refused to respond to her, she looked like that, with a slight frown and pursed lips, showing a displeased expression.

The second time Lu Zizheng saw Jiang Huaixi was next to her usual seat. It was almost time for class, and as usual, she walked to the front row, where no one usually sat. From a distance, she saw that only one seat remained in the front row: her usual spot.

However, when she reached the front row, she found that the woman from the library, Jiang Huaixi, was sitting there! Jiang Huaixi sat upright, holding a pen in one hand and flipping through a book with the other, looking like a model student.

Lu Zizheng glanced towards the back of the classroom and cursed silently. It was almost time for class, and only a few seats far from the blackboard were left.

The class bell rang, and the teacher was about to start the lesson.

With no other choice, Lu Zizheng sat down angrily. Throughout the class, she kept her head slightly turned, refusing to look at Jiang Huaixi even once. She feared that if she looked any longer, she would be unable to sit still and would stand up in frustration.

While trying to focus on the class, a note was passed to her. The ink was still fresh, and the handwriting was elegant: “I’m sorry for what happened before. Please forgive me.”

After reading the note, Lu Zizheng smiled inwardly. Just because you say sorry doesn’t mean I have to say it’s okay, right?

She didn’t respond and continued listening to the lecture.

Another note came over: “I won’t believe everything you didn’t say in the future. Can we be friends?”

She noticed that Jiang Huaixi seemed to have paused for a long time at the “be friends” part, with the pen’s ink soaking through the paper.

Not all your wishes must be kindly and generously fulfilled by others, right?

Lu Zizheng folded the two notes together, carefully pressing them into a small ball, and tossed them into the drawer. She gave Jiang Huaixi a cold, challenging look and saw that Jiang Huaixi frowned slightly, looking at her with a burning gaze, showing displeasure.

As soon as the class bell rang, before the teacher could dismiss the class, Lu Zizheng was the first to leave her seat, striding quickly out of the classroom.

She knew Jiang Huaixi had been watching her. She guessed that someone like Jiang Huaixi, who had always been pampered like an emperor’s daughter, had never experienced being slighted and rejected. So, she gave her that opportunity to experience it.

Before falling asleep, Lu Zizheng’s last thought was, “See, Lu Zizheng, you always remember so clearly…”

The next morning, when Lu Zizheng went downstairs with her light luggage, she saw the driver already waiting and was informed to head directly to the airport to meet Lian Xuan.

Before boarding, she sent her mother a message: “Mom, I’m boarding now. I’ll call you when I arrive.”

Mother Lu quickly replied, “Don’t worry about me, and there’s still Huaixi.”

Lu Zizheng laughed and turned off her phone. Mom, you really don’t see her as an outsider.

On the plane, Lian Xuan sat next to her.

Lu Zizheng brought a magazine and casually flipped through it, while Lian Xuan diligently reviewed documents. Occasionally, she asked a few questions, but they got along peacefully.

Feng Shang also had a branch in Jiangbei, and someone was arranged to meet them at the airport. After landing, Lu Zizheng leisurely followed behind Lian Xuan and her assistant, doing as instructed.

When Lian Xuan introduced her, Lu Zizheng realized that the branch manager who came to pick them up was Ji Yao, a high school classmate of both her and Lian Xuan.

Upon seeing her, Ji Yao was clearly surprised but didn’t seem inclined to catch up. She shook hands with her formally and nodded.

Lu Zizheng wasn’t surprised. Even in high school, when she was close to Lian Xuan, Ji Yao never treated her well.

In the evening, Lian Xuan and Ji Yao had plans. Her main tasks were scheduled for the next afternoon and evening. So, on her first night in Jiangbei, Lian Xuan said, “There’s nothing tonight. You can make your own arrangements.”

Lu Zizheng had nothing to do and hadn’t slept well the previous night. She lay down on the hotel bed without even having dinner and slept until Lian Xuan called her.

When Lian Xuan finished the dinner meeting, it was already past nine o’clock. She had drunk a bit too much, and her head was aching. Ji Yao, who was accompanying her back, couldn’t help but ask after enduring for a while, “Why is Lu Zizheng here?”

Lian Xuan didn’t stop walking and casually replied, “Work requires it…” As soon as she finished speaking, she halted and stood still, staring at a girl sitting at the piano in the hotel lobby.

The girl wore a white dress and had long, curly chestnut hair. From the side, you could only see her long eyelashes, delicate nose, rosy lips, and pointed chin. Her profile looked remarkably like Lu Zizheng.

Lian Xuan’s eyes were fixed on the girl’s long fingers dancing gracefully over the piano keys. As the keys were pressed, notes began to resonate.

It was Pachelbel’s Canon. Once, Lu Zizheng had played this piece at her house. She had said she hadn’t prepared anything else, and this piece would be her birthday gift to her.

Lu Zizheng once said that she had seen someone appreciate this piece, describing it as joy within sadness, happiness within tranquility, sunlight within darkness, and hope within despair. To her, this perfectly encapsulated her own existence. Giving her this piece of music was an expression of her heartfelt sentiments.

Memories surged over her like a tidal wave, and for a moment, Lian Xuan could barely stand. She recalled how Lu Zizheng had smiled at her back then, with shy but radiant eyes and lips curved in a smile—such a brightness rarely seen today.

Lian Xuan finally lifted her feet again and quickly walked outside, ignoring Ji Yao’s puzzled expression beside her. Right now, there was only one thought roaring madly in her mind: Zizheng, Lu Zizheng, she wanted to see her.

Upon reaching the hotel, Lian Xuan couldn’t wait and practically ran to Lu Zizheng’s door. However, when she raised her hand, it lingered in the air, unable to knock. She stood outside Lu Zizheng’s door for a long time, and inexplicably, a breeze blew through the corridor, making Lian Xuan feel cold. Her somewhat drunken mind gradually cleared. Her raised hand slowly clenched into a fist, then lowered as she turned and left.

Back in her room, Lian Xuan opened a bottle of red wine, leaned on the sofa, and drank absentmindedly.

Finally, she put down her wine glass, picked up her phone, and dialed Lu Zizheng’s number, saying, “Come to my room for a moment.”

When Lu Zizheng answered the phone, she was still half asleep. She put down the phone, hurriedly got up from the bed, threw on some clothes, and quickly ran a comb through her hair before rushing to Lian Xuan’s room. It was already ten o’clock. Why was she being called at this hour? Was there an emergency?

To her surprise, after Lian Xuan opened the door and let her in, she simply sat on the sofa drinking wine, without giving any instructions. Lu Zizheng stood by the coffee table for a long time, feeling somewhat baffled by Lian Xuan’s behavior.

Just as Lu Zizheng was about to ask Lian Xuan what was going on, Lian Xuan suddenly put down her wine glass, rubbed her temples with one hand, and looked at Lu Zizheng, saying softly, “I’ve had too much to drink, my head hurts a bit. Can you help me rub it?”

Lu Zizheng froze, unsure how to respond.

“Zizheng?”

She saw Lian Xuan, her brows slightly furrowed, gently biting her lip, her watery eyes fixed on her. It was the familiar, coquettish look Lian Xuan often had.

Lu Zizheng surrendered, walking heavily to Lian Xuan’s side. She stretched out her hands, placed them on Lian Xuan’s temples, and gently massaged. Then, she felt Lian Xuan’s body slowly relax.

After all these years, seeing the expectation in Lian Xuan’s eyes, she still couldn’t bear to refuse. She didn’t know if Lian Xuan’s act was too convincing, or if her past love for Lian Xuan was too genuine.

Lu Zizheng looked down at Lian Xuan’s fine, dense hair, thinking to herself with a touch of self-mockery.

Feeling Lu Zizheng’s slightly cool hands gently pressing on her temples, Lian Xuan couldn’t help but recall a time during physical education class when they had free time. They avoided all their classmates and sat side by side, resting under a large banyan tree. Lian Xuan had complained about feeling dizzy and exhausted from a whole day of classes, and Lu Zizheng had smiled at her, saying, “Let me massage it for you; you’ll feel better in no time.”

Lian Xuan had replied, “You’re lying; how can it be that miraculous?”

But Lu Zizheng had stretched out her legs, patting them and saying, “You won’t know until you try lying down.”

Skeptical but curious, Lian Xuan had lain down on the dirty grass, resting her head on Lu Zizheng’s legs, and closed her eyes to feel the movement of Lu Zizheng’s hands.

Lu Zizheng’s voice, carried by the wind, was soft and gentle: “Feeling a bit better…?”

I remember when we were young; you loved to chat, and I loved to laugh. We sat side by side under the peach tree, the wind rustling through the treetops, birds chirping. Somehow, we fell asleep, and in our dreams, countless flowers fell…

Lian Xuan suddenly lifted her hand, gently placing it over Lu Zizheng’s hand, which was softly massaging. Before she could apply any pressure, Lu Zizheng, as if startled, quickly withdrew her hand.

Her voice slightly unsteady, she politely said, “Director Lian, it’s late. If there’s nothing else, I’ll head back now so as not to disturb your rest.”

Lian Xuan bit her lip and forced out a response from her throat, “Hmm, alright, thank you.”

Then, she watched as Lu Zizheng hurriedly left, only to cover her face with a bitter smile.

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LP: Re-translated on June 26, 2024

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