Chapter Three
Making Up
“Ugh…” Zhao Fanzhou sat up, brow slightly furrowed, eyes half-open, hair messy as hell. If Zhou Xiao wasn’t still mad, she might’ve been tempted to ruffle his head and say, “You’re kinda cute like this.”
“You said you wanted to explain, right? Go ahead. I’m leaving right after you finish.”
Poof—someone sobered up real quick.
“We never broke up,” he said calmly.
“Wow, look who’s got jokes. We’ve been broken up for eight months and thirteen days.”
“How’d you get that number?”
“Uh… made it up.”
Blush. Damn it, she thought, shouldn’t have said that. I just wanted it to sound impressive.
“I never said I wanted to break up,” he replied with a smile.
That smile. Damn, every time he smiled, she just got angrier. “No, you didn’t say it. You just disappeared with another girl for half a year without a word.”
He sat up straighter, reaching out to take her hand. She pulled away.
“Yichun’s my neighbor—you know that.”
“I don’t. I don’t know anything. I didn’t know which country you went to, what you were doing, why she went with you, when you’d come back, whether you’d come back, or why you didn’t say a single word to me.”
She thought she wouldn’t cry. Thought she'd run out of tears that day at the airport.
“I’m sorry.”
Zhao Fanzhou got out of bed and hugged her tightly. “It was my fault.”
She tried to push him away. No luck. So she started punching instead. Damn it, should’ve joined the martial arts club. Could’ve made him beg for mercy right about now.
“Fine. Explain. Convince me.”
Her voice was muffled against his chest, tired after all the crying and yelling.
“I went to Canada. My grandma had a sudden stroke. I wanted to be with her through her last days.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“…Because I went to Canada to get engaged.”
“What??”
She jerked her head up.
“Let me finish.”
He gently pushed her head back against his chest.
“You know Yichun and I grew up together. My grandma always liked her—kept saying she wanted her to be my wife. After the stroke, her mind started to go, and she kept demanding we get married. My dad thought if we faked an engagement, it might help calm her down. So I went with Yichun, pretended we were getting married, and stayed with my grandma for a bit. She passed away two months later. I called the engagement off right after the funeral and came straight back.”
…
The silence that followed made Zhao Fanzhou nervous. “Do you believe me?”
A small nod from the head leaning on his chest.
“Then you…” He lowered his head to look at her face.
“You must’ve been so sad. You said you were raised by your grandma.”
She looked up at him, voice a little hoarse. Her arms were wrapped around his waist.
“Yeah.”
He buried his face into the crook of her neck. That familiar scent. That warmth.
Ten minutes later.
“Alright, time to settle the score.”
She pulled away from his embrace, arms crossed like a judge.
“Why didn’t you just tell me the truth?”
“I was afraid if I did, you’d overthink it—especially since I didn’t know how long the fake engagement would last.”
“And you thought leaving with her like that wouldn’t make me overthink it?”
Seriously, what was this guy thinking?
“My grandma’s stroke happened out of nowhere. I didn’t have much time to plan. I’m sorry.”
“Why didn’t you contact me?”
“You changed your number. And you moved dorms.”
Right… she had lost her phone in the taxi that night after the airport.
“You could’ve reached me through someone else.”
“I tried. But you wouldn’t let anyone bring me up around you. I was overwhelmed—taking care of my grandma, faking an engagement… I didn’t want anyone to know about it. Especially not you.”
Typical. This guy always had a way with words.
“Well… I’m still mad.”
Pouting now. Resorting to emotional blackmail.
“I’m mad too,” he said with a grin.
“What the hell are you mad about?”
“I’m burning with lust.”
Oh great—six months apart and the guy’s learned to tell dirty jokes now.
“Then let’s put out the fire together?”
Fine. If he wanted to play, she’d play along.
He leaned in closer, eyes literally glowing with desire. Her heart suddenly skipped a beat.
“Uh… it’s getting dark. I should go.”
Trying to escape? He grabbed her hand, getting even closer.
She blinked up at him, flustered. “Um… I’m really hungry. Wanna go eat?”
“Sure.”
He leaned in again...
“AHHHHH!!”
Screamed at full volume.
He stopped, exasperated. “What are you yelling for?”
“We haven’t seen each other in ages, we’re like strangers now. Don’t come so close!”
She clutched at her shirt like some drama heroine.
“Strangers?”
He glared.
He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the door.
“Where are we going?”
“Hmm?”
“I said where are we going to eat!!!”
“Oh, um… Let’s go get that pulled chicken.”
She’d been obsessed with the hand-shredded chicken place near campus since sophomore year. Every time they ate there, that was all she ordered.
Zhao Fanzhou secretly let out a breath of relief.
Thank God, he thought. She still likes the same things.
He’d bet everything during his months away that she’d still be her same stubborn self.
He watched her eat. She was always very focused when she ate—totally unlike her usual chaotic self. Why did her food always look better than his? He never understood how such a tiny person could eat that much while always complaining about needing to lose weight.
From an outsider’s view, she was a bit chubby—round face, round eyes, round nose… like someone had drawn her with a compass. But after six months apart, she looked slimmer. And somehow prettier.
As they walked in, a guy at the first table had glanced at her. He didn’t like that.
“What are you doing?” Zhou Xiao asked as he suddenly dumped half his plate of chicken onto hers.
“I’ve got no appetite. You eat more.”
Gotta fatten her up again.
“You’re sick, you need to eat more!”
She tapped his plate disapprovingly with her chopsticks.
His gaze slid past her—to the guy still sneaking glances at her from behind.
“Then feed me.”
“…Come again?”
Had she misheard? Was this really that cold, emotionless Zhao Fanzhou? Maybe the flu had reached his brain.
“You said we’re not familiar anymore. So we should get familiar again.”
He put down his chopsticks.
Well… fair enough.
She hesitated a moment, then scooped a spoonful of rice and held it up to his mouth.
He ate it without blinking.
Then he looked past her again, directly at that guy—
Now you know who she belongs to, huh? Mission accomplished.
Zhou Xiao followed his gaze, confused. “What’re you looking at?”
“Nothing. Eat your food.”
He picked up his chopsticks and started eating like normal.
She stared at him, bewildered.
What the hell? Now you can eat just fine? So that hand of yours wasn’t broken after all?
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