Chapter 47

Two people got fired. One couldn’t exactly be called fired, but it was pretty much the same. She didn’t pass the internship period, so she wouldn’t stay at the newspaper office either.

After they left, everyone at the office talked about it for half a day, then slowly quieted down. Zhou Zuizui, though, got a lot freer. Besides normal work every day, she finally didn’t have to fight people with wits and courage anymore.

To be honest, she didn’t like the cheating and scheming in the business world.

She longed more for a simple, free and easy life.

She really hated people who were smoked by profit until they lost their minds. People, no matter what they did, needed a bottom line.

After those people left, her work life was actually very quiet. Occasionally she listened to some gossip. At night she went home and made two phone calls with Shen Nan. The little days passed very comfortably.

About looking for her little sister, there kept being news coming back. The clues got more and more. The hope in Zhou Zuizui’s heart also grew along with it.

That day, the moment she got off work Xia Wen drove over to pick her up.

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“Ubwknbwk, tlv kd.”

Hbsw Hwkgwk zssjle yv vbl rlapsd kd vbl nya, pyke y osae vs vbl nszzlytwl clbkde bla, vbld qszzsole bla wr. “Zsw zssj zkjl usw’al kd y ralvvu tsse xsse vseyu.”

Gqvla tlvvkdt kd, Hbsw Hwkgwk tzydnle yv Dky Eld okvb y zywtb yde alynble swv vs rkdnb bla sdnl. “Ebu ps lyazu vseyu?”

“R xlv yd ywvbsa, ps R tsv sqq osaj lyazu.” Dky Eld oyp pvkzz osajkdt yv vbl pyxl rzynl yp clqsal. Gqvla yzz pbl oyp yzalyeu qyxkzkya okvb vbl cspp, yde pbl eked’v oydv vs ts psxloblal lzpl.

Tlyakdt vbyv, Hbsw Hwkgwk aykple yd lulcaso yde tzydnle yv bla. “Qskdt vs vbl cya?”

“Oyv psxlvbkdt qkapv vbld ts.” Dky Eld pyke. “Pked’v Gk Hluydt xyjl yd yrrskdvxldv okvb usw yv vbl cya vs vyzj cwpkdlpp?”

“Yx.” Hbsw Hwkgwk dseele yde pyke kd y zso hsknl, “Tl’zz rascyczu nsxl shla ralvvu zyvl. El nyd fwpv zssj yaswde qkapv.”

“Xjyu.”

After the two of them finished eating they only then went to the familiar bar. The moment they reached the door they were dazzled by the red lights and green wine inside. To be honest, Zhou Zuizui had been well-behaved for a long time and hadn’t come to this bar side.

For a moment it even felt a bit unfamiliar.

Xia Wen burst out laughing looking at her little movements. “Why are you being so timid?”

Zhou Zuizui glared at her and said very speechlessly, “Recently I’ve been getting well-behaved following our captain. It’s been a long time since I came to a bar.”

Xia Wen still laughed, hooked her arm and asked, “Then do you enjoy the life now? Or do you also like excitement.”

“I enjoy it.” Zhou Zuizui was silent for a while, then said in a suppressed voice, “But I like the exciting kind just the same.”

She thought for a moment, a smile hanging on her face, and looked at Xia Wen. “Shen Nan will give me an exciting life, and he’ll also give me a free and easy, enjoyable life.”

— In the married life with Shen Nan, she got respect and love.

This was what Zhou Zuizui had always needed and longed for from small to big. Shen Nan also wasn’t as old-fashioned as he looked on the surface. Actually this man, at certain times, was also very bad, bad to the bone. But she just happened to like it to the extreme. She liked his uprightness. She also liked his badness. Whether it was the soldier identity when working, or the husband identity in private, Zhou Zuizui liked both.

This man Shen Nan seemed born to counter her.

From the moment he appeared, he attracted all her attention.

That year it was only a simple arranged meeting. Although it didn’t reach the point of love at first sight with Shen Nan, she still fell, still sank into that man’s world. Even after she stepped out, she wasn’t willing to pull back. She wanted to keep exploring, wanted to know how many more secrets and surprises he still had waiting for her.

Xia Wen looked at the expression of her sinking into her own world and silently smiled.

“Come. I’ll treat you to a drink.”

Zhou Zuizui took the glass on the bar, shook it, and sipped. “Tastes pretty good.”

“That’s because you’re in a good mood.” The bartender at the bar said. “Long time no see.”

Zhou Zuizui smiled lightly, lifted the glass toward the bartender in greeting. “Long time no see. The taste keeps getting better.”

The bartender laughed. “Later I’ll introduce you to some new products.”

“Okay.” Zhou Zuizui’s eyes lit up. She got interested. “Newly released?”

“Yes. Our boss newly researched them. Feels pretty good.”

“Okay okay.” Zhou Zuizui hurriedly agreed.

Besides Shen Nan, she probably only had this much curiosity and expectation toward wine, wanting to understand and know.

“What about you?” She suddenly turned her head to look at Xia Wen, leaned close to her ear and said, “What’s going on with you and President Tang?”

Xia Wen froze, stared at her for quite a few seconds, then said, “I should… have nothing going on.” She paused. Toward Zhou Zuizui she didn’t hide much. “We have no result, so there also won’t be a start.”

Zhou Zuizui stared straight at her. A good while later she patted her shoulder. “You have to think it through yourself first. If you really like him, the rest isn’t a problem.”

Hearing that, Xia Wen smiled bitterly and nodded, then turned her head to look at the lively center on the side.

“I’ll go turn around over there. You wait here.”

“Go.” Zhou Zuizui’s love for dancing was average. She was more willing to stay at the bar and discuss wine with the bartender.

Just as she was talking and laughing with the bartender, a man suddenly sat down on one side, looked at Zhou Zuizui with a smile. “Hello, beauty.”

Zhou Zuizui raised an eyebrow, smiled slightly, and didn’t speak.

Duan Bowen looked at the woman on the side. A flash of amazement passed through his eyes. She dressed simply, just ordinary jeans and a white T-shirt, but as someone who had seen a lot among women he knew the woman in front of him was a stunner. Not to mention her looks — just her figure was enough to make all men sink.

Not to mention… her looks were also delicate. Duan Bowen hadn’t seen a woman in a bar who could score close to ten in a long time.

After looking her over, Duan Bowen smiled faintly and very calmly sat on her side and started tasting wine. He didn’t make any over-the-line moves. The two of them just sat side by side drinking like this.

Not long after, when Zhou Zuizui was about to leave, Duan Bowen asked with a smile, “Not drinking anymore?”

Zhou Zuizui nodded. “My friend is here.”

Ai Zeyang had come. Zhou Zuizui went straight to the second floor.

Duan Bowen looked at her back and blew a frivolous whistle.

———— Very good.

Zhou Zuizui didn’t care about the person she met at the bar. After meeting Ai Zeyang she looked at the things he took out and asked in a voice pressed down with excitement, “Did you find something?”

Ai Zeyang laughed helplessly looking at her excited appearance. “Better than last time. Their side investigated the orphanage. It’s just that they said your little sister was later adopted by someone.” Ai Zeyang handed her a photo and said in a low voice, “Look. Does she look like you when you were little.”

Zhou Zuizui froze, staring at the photo placed on the table. The photo was already a bit yellowed, and the pixels from twenty years ago weren’t very good… so looking at it now the appearance was a bit unclear.

But she didn’t know why — she just had a kind of intuition that that person was her little sister.

Her hand trembled slightly. Her eyes flashed once. Only then did she stare straight at the little girl in the photo. There was a smile on her face, the pure and cute kind.

“Who adopted her?”

Ai Zeyang looked at her, wanting to speak but stopping.

“Say it?” Zhou Zuizui lifted her eyes to look at him. “What are you doing?”

Ai Zeyang rubbed his brow and said, “After being adopted, your little sister was abandoned again, because that family… got pregnant. Where she went later, the director’s side also doesn’t know.” He pressed down Zhou Zuizui’s emotions and said, “Don’t get excited first. At least we have a clue now. Their main task now is they want to find that family, but that family originally didn’t live there. They’re from another city. The address left behind also isn’t very complete, so finding them still needs some time.”

Hearing that, Zhou Zuizui was stunned for a good while before she understood Ai Zeyang’s meaning.

She closed her eyes, tightened the hand holding the photo, then took a deep breath and said, “This is already very good. At least there’s still a clue.” She lifted her head and looked at Ai Zeyang. “Thank you. You worked hard.”

At least there was hope.

Ai Zeyang hummed once and looked at her. “Don’t worry. I said I’d find her for you. I definitely will find her for you.”

“Okay.”

The two of them smiled at each other.

That whole night Zhou Zuizui stared at that hard-won photo, sat on the balcony looking at it all night, and also let the wind blow on her all night.

The next day was Friday. The moment Zhou Zuizui got up she clearly felt something was off with herself. She felt a bit feverish.

She reached out and touched her own head. Hot enough to move people.

Zhou Zuizui narrowed her eyes. After supporting herself to stand she went into the bathroom to wash up, and stubbornly arrived at the newspaper office for work.

The moment she went in, Lin You looked at her once and said, “Today’s blush is applied pretty well. Very red.”

Zhou Zuizui: “…………”

She handed her cup to Lin You and said weakly, “Sister Lin You, I caught a cold. It’s not blush.” She raised her chin. “Can I trouble Sister Lin You to pour me a cup of hot water?”

Lin You froze, subconsciously reached out to touch her head, and cried out, “Fuck, your head is this hot?”

She widened her eyes looking at Zhou Zuizui. “Hurry hurry go to the hospital.”

Without another word she pulled Zhou Zuizui to get up. “What work are you still doing today. I’ll go with you to the hospital.”

Zhou Zuizui: “…………”

In the end she had no choice. Lin You directly asked the editor for leave and accompanied her to the hospital once.

Her head was dizzy and heavy. The high fever burned to thirty-nine degrees. After just arriving at the hospital her whole person was already dizzy to the extreme. The moment the doctor finished hanging the IV for her, Zhou Zuizui sank into a deep sleep.

— She had a dream, a very long, very long dream.

She was so muddled she didn’t even know when her phone vibrated. Lin You looked at the person lying on the hospital bed, worriedly furrowed her brow, looked at the incoming call display, took the phone out to take a call, then came back.

This sleep of Zhou Zuizui’s went straight until the afternoon.

Maybe because she didn’t sleep the night before, or maybe because the fever was too severe, when it was time to eat at noon no matter how they called they couldn’t wake her. In the end they just let her sleep.

A hand tightly pulled hers. Zhou Zuizui startled awake from the dream, her eyes snapping open. When she saw the man appearing in front of her she blinked, feeling it was a hallucination from being sick.

“Awake?” The person from the hallucination asked in a hoarse voice.

Zhou Zuizui narrowed her eyes. When she opened them again, Shen Nan was indeed sitting at her side. What he was wearing was still the military uniform for going out. He looked especially handsome and dashing, especially manly.

She made an “ah” sound and looked at him in disbelief. “Why are you here?”

Shen Nan took the water from the side, fed her a sip, then said lightly, “My wife got sick and was hospitalized. If I’m not here, where would I be?”