CH 54

Chapter 54: Saw her with another man.

“What are you dilly-dallying about? Come over for a drink.” Sheng Nanzhou heard him talking about fat and thin and hung up the phone with a “pa”.

It was dark in the evening, and the light was dim. Coming down from the overpass, Zhou Jingze turned the steering wheel towards Huancheng Road. When he came down, his sight narrowed, and neon lights hung high.

After getting off the overpass, he encountered a traffic jam midway, and the horns beeped nonstop. Looking down from above, Huancheng Road was boiled into colorful dumplings of five to six shades.

After having to stop and go all the way, it was already very late when Zhou Jingze arrived at the Pub. He pushed open the door just as Sheng Nanzhou was pouring wine and complained, “You’re moving at a snail’s pace.”

“Traffic, what can I do?” Zhou Jingze smiled and raised his eyebrows, “Would you like me to fly a plane in the city?”

The two had a drink and chatted about their recent situation. Sheng Nanzhou touched his knee with his elbow and asked, “Ai, your car was hit.”

“Xu Sui.” Zhou Jingze’s voice was low and deep; he recited these two words like the Heart Sutra.

Sheng Nanzhou was stunned for a moment, being able to hear him mention this name in his life again. It’s been so many years, and the two words Xu Sui were like the gate to his life. A single pinch was like a direct hit, and he wouldn’t let anyone bring it up.

But he took the initiative to mention it today.

“You ran into her? Makes sense, Jingbei City is not too big or too small.” Sheng Nanzhou nodded.

“Looking at your expression, she must have given you a hard time, but you deserve it. Who told you not to go find her in the first place.” Sheng Nanzhou was happy to see him in a bad mood.

Zhou Jingze casually poured the wine. He paused when he heard the words, a few drops of wine spilling on the table. He raised his eyelids and looked at him: “How do you know that I didn’t go look for her?”

Sheng Nanzhou was taken aback. As if there was such a thing, but he can’t remember. Having said that, he felt a little pity for Zhou Jingze and patted him on the shoulder: “I heard that Xu Sui is now Puren’s department beauty. She’s also quite outstanding that many good men are lining up to pursue her, so you have to hurry up ah.”

Zhou Jingze raised his head and drank a glass of wine. His throat was extremely dry, but he kept his composure on the surface. Glancing at him, his tone was slow:

“I don’t need you to tell me that.”

At 11 in the morning on Saturday, Xu Sui was still in bed. The weekend finally came, and she wished there were 48 hours in a day, so she could spend it sleeping.

At a quarter past eleven, Liang Shuang called, and Xu Sui poked her head out from under the thin blanket. Speaking in a childish voice while half asleep and half awake: “Hello.”

“Hi baby,” Liang Shuang replied, and hearing the sound of her turning over from the phone, she said in a threatening tone, “Did you forget something today?”

Xu Sui immediately got up from the bed when she heard this, remembering that they agreed to go shopping today. She swallowed nervously: “Of course not, I’m putting on makeup right now.”

Liang Shuang snorted, “Come on, who are you lying to? I know you’re still sleeping.”

“It’s still early anyway,” Liang Shuang glanced at her watch, “It’s about time to get up, put on your makeup, and come out after lunch. The weather is pretty good today.”

Okay.” Xu Sui breathed a sigh of relief and lay back on the bed again.

After lying on the bed for a while, Xu Sui got up from the bed. She slowly brushed her teeth, washed her face, cooked some pasta, and warmed up a glass of milk.

By the time she got ready, it was already half past two in the afternoon. The two agreed to meet at the IFC Mall. They haven’t seen each other for half a month, and Xu Sui felt that Liang Shuang’s complexion had improved, and she became more and more beautiful.

When Liang Shuang was studying in graduate school, she suddenly realized one day that it was too hard to do clinical work. To save her increasingly thinning hair, she resolutely chose anesthesia.

After graduating, she became an anesthesiologist in the private hospital run by her father, which was much easier than Xu Sui’s constant surgery rotations.

As soon as the two entered the shopping mall, Liang Shuang began to sweep the stores, buying non-stop. In her words, “We are all 28! The great years are about to pass, so we must treat ourselves better.”

“Stop, I’m still three months away.” Xu Sui laughed.

At first, Xu Sui would accompany Liang Shuang to try on clothes and bags, but eventually, as soon as they entered the store, Xu Sui would sit down on a sofa. Liang Shuang came out wearing a sequined skirt, and when she saw Xu Sui sitting there flipping through a magazine, she said:

“Why do you look like a man?”

Xu Sui closed the magazine and smiled, “Then you can treat me as a man. This man says your skirt is quite pretty.”

Liang Shuang left with satisfaction, and she picked out another coffee-colored silk scarf and happily paid the bill. The two walked out of the brand store arm in arm. Liang Shuang nudged: “Ai, this is just the start? But my energy for shopping is not as great as Xixi’s.”

When the name was mentioned, both of them thought of the headstrong and lively young lady who had brought a lot of joy to everyone.

The two fell silent.

Liang Shuang asked her, “Hey, are you still in contact with Xixi?”

“Rarely,” Xu Sui shook her head, “The last time she sent me a postcard was half a year ago.”

After graduation, the timid miss was determined to join the International Wildlife Society and became a wild animal rescue vet, running around the world.

In recent years, Hu Qianxi has lost contact with everyone, but she would always send Xu Sui a postcard wherever she went.

Liang Shuang stretched her waist and pointed to the second floor of the shopping mall: “Baby Sui, let’s go have a drink and talk.”

Okay.” Xu Sui nodded.

In the coffee shop, Liang Shuang ordered a cup of cold brew iced coffee, an egg tuna sandwich, and a small piece of blueberry chestnut roll. Xu Sui ordered a cup of iced shaken peach oolong tea.

After the drinks and desserts were served, Liang Shuang took a sip of coffee. She swiped the screen with her thumb and pressed on the photo album to show Xu Sui: “What do you think, handsome? This was the star that came to our hospital a while ago, and I gave him general anesthesia.”

Xu Sui glanced at him. He was handsome and young, with thick eyebrows, big eyes, and sharp facial features: “Not bad, a little puppy.”

“Hey, Sui Sui, I heard that person is back. Did you know?” Liang Shuang said while forking a small piece of cake.

“Which person?” Xu Sui bit the straw and met Liang Shuang’s hesitant look but said the name calmly, “Zhou Jingze? We met last week.”

“Shit, really?” Liang was about to deliver the cake to her mouth before it fell with a “ba-da”.

Xu Sui nodded and told her what happened last week. Liang Shuang opened her eyes wide and asked, “You mean he took your number but didn’t ask you for compensation, and he didn’t take the initiative to contact you later?”

“Yes.”

Liang Shuang looked puzzled before remembering something and said: “Do you remember my ex-boyfriend Wang Liang who later became my good brother? And he was also in the same year as Zhou Jingze? He was also your ex-boyfriend’s fanboy. I heard him say that Zhou Jingze seemed to have violated some disciplinary regulations and is now grounded from flying, so he’s unemployed now. I heard that the offense he committed this time was quite serious, and his career may end here.”

Xu Sui was using a straw to poke a piece of ice and hook it up along the edge. After hearing this, the ice cube fell back into the milk tea with a “dong”.

Liang Shuang had a look of pity on her face: “Hey, I really didn’t expect it. Anyway, I was his fan back then. Such an awesome person was actually grounded. The world is so unpredictable.”

Xu Sui kept her head down the entire time and simply unscrewed the lid of the transparent cup and picked up an ice cube, stuffing it into her mouth before chewing and swallowing it. Her throat was so cold and chilly that she couldn’t even say a word.

After dinner in the evening, Liang Shuang looked at a message on her phone and looked up, and asked: “Did you check the group chat yet? Li Yang asked if you want to go to Brown Sugar Jar?”

Xu Sui shook her head: “No, I want to go to bed early tonight.”

Liang Shuang glanced at the phone again and said, “He said there would be a live performance tonight. It was added temporarily, and you like that band very much.”

“Go.” Xu Sui changed her words.

Something different about Xu Sui is that she seldom goes to bars and nightclubs. But she would attend every band performance because she felt that listening to live performances was a very relaxing sight, and there, she could let go of her other self.

She used to like to listen to Mayday because of that person, but now she found out there were many other songs she liked.

Liang Shuang immediately waved to pay the bill and picked up her bag about to leave: “Hurry up, sister, Li Yang said he reserved two good spots for us.”

Okay.”

Xu Sui stopped a green taxi and reported an address after going in it. The taxi drove ahead slowly and arrived at Brown Sugar Jar after about 40 minutes.

They walked into a hidden pub along the alley and pushed open the door. Electronic music mixed with the restless sound of drums poured over them. The band had been singing for thirty minutes, and there were waves of people. It was extremely hot.

Li Yang sat on the edge of the bar and waved to the two of them, waiting for them to come forward. Li Yang handed them two cups of bomb shots, squeezing his throat, and said, “My sweethearts, I miss you guys so much.”

Oh,” Liang Shuang rolled her eyes, “If you didn’t break up with your muscle coach from the gym, would you still remember us?”

Xu Sui laughed and raised his glass to him. Li Yang, a year younger than them, 27, a photographer, is a rich second generation who sits around doing nothing, a club rat who has connections to everything and treats them very well. He is not bad looking with long hair, feminine temperament, and male orientation; the gay best friend of the two of them.

In the beginning, he was Liang Shuang’s friend, but after bringing Xu Sui along a few times, they all got along pretty well and often played together.

“Where are the seats reserved for us?” Xu Sui was more concerned about this at the moment.

“As promised, pro area.” Li Yang took two green bracelets out from his pocket and helped them put them on carefully.

Liang Shuang was sitting at the bar drinking. Xu Sui patted the bracelet on her wrist with satisfaction, and her always calm face showed some excitement: “You guys drink first. I’ll go over first.”

“Okay, sweetheart, I’ll come find you in a bit,” Li Yang waved at her.

Xu Sui turned around and entered the pro area. Just when the band started to perform a new song, when the drumstick hit the drum, Xu Sui squeezed into the crowd, smiled, and screamed along with them.

The red and purple light shined down the stage together. The dry ice rose, and the smoke surrounded the lead singer on the stage. As the percussion beat faster and faster, the atmosphere rose to its climax.

Arms pressed against arms in the crowd, and clothes were rubbing against each other. Someone wearing a flag rushed onto the stage to dive, and the atmosphere was getting hotter and hotter. Xu Sui broke out in a sweat; the people on the dance floor started dancing or forming a line.

Xu Sui wiggled her body slightly at first, but then she was so happy that she took off the silk scarf around her neck and started dancing, letting herself go.

Xu Sui was jumping and felt someone sticking close to her, wanting to dance together. She raised her eyes nervously, and after finding it was Li Yang, she was relieved.

Because Xu Sui and Li Yang were an attractive pair of a handsome man and beauty, the photographer took a 30-second shot of them. The picture of the two looking at each other and smiling was projected onto the big screen.

Li Yang shamelessly blew a kiss to the audience, and the audience immediately screamed, while Xu Sui just smiled at the screen.

Zhou Jingze was sitting bored in the booth mixing the wine. He slowly poured the red wine into the transparent glass. With his slender fingertips, he picked up a piece of iced lemon and stuck it on the rim of the glass.

A long red light shone over him. His side profile was tough and strong, and his eyebrows were deep. One hand held a cigarette while resting on his knee, and the other hand was playing table football with a careless expression.

The dry ice on the back kept rising out.

The stage was lively, but he was too lazy to raise his eyelids and look.

Several women in the booth next to him were itching to strike up a conversation, except with an upright man like him, they had no idea what kind of person would enter his eyes.

This man has an expensive character all over his body.

It’s not that he looks expensive but difficult to attain that it’s hard to find even with a lantern.

Sitting next to him, Cheng You was attracted by the screams from the audience. He looked at the projection screen and said in surprise, “Boss, isn’t that the girl you rescued at the barbecue stall that night?”

Zhou Jingze was finally willing to look away.

Sheng Nanzhou, who was sitting across from him, sighed from the bottom of his heart, and at the same time, tried to shoot Cheng You a hint. But unfortunately, the foolish man didn’t see the change of emotion in Zhou Jingze’s eyes and kept asking for confirmation: “Fuck, it’s really her. The one we met before I made a mistake. This one seems to be her boyfriend, and they came to watch the performance together!”

Zhou Jingze squinted his eyes and looked over. Xu Sui was wearing a black sweater with a square collar, fair chest, and blue high-waisted jeans that hugged her curves in the right place; with a clear, pure face, many men’s eager eyes lingered on her.

She has indeed grown up a lot in all aspects, not only in figure but also in courage that she was able to be comfortable in such a lustful place.

A man with half-up half-down hair pressed over. The two were so close that their arms to shoulder rubbed against each other. The lights were swirling, and the stage was booming. Suddenly, the man leaned down and whispered something in her ear. She raised her head and looked at him with arched eyebrows.

The two looked like they were about to kiss.

Suddenly, the light in their area dimmed, and the red light moved to the other side. It was dark, and nothing could be seen.

It is said that the best place to start a new relationship is in a bar.

The most hallucinatory thing is that it only takes a glass of alcohol to sway your senses and a look at each other in an ambiguous atmosphere.

The ice cubes were poured into the glass, and just after adding a little Sprite, the carbonated bubbles made a sizzling sound, surging up instantly. With a “bang”, the wine glass was placed on the table.

Everyone turned to look at him.

A lighted cigarette was thrown into the wine, and the scarlet flame was extinguished.

This glass of wine was ruined.

Zhou Jingze put one hand in his pocket and walked towards the crowded dance floor.