Chapter 194: Unafraid Of Leaving
Chapter 194: Unafraid Of Leaving
That’s right. Cheng Xi could honestly admit that she had somehow, unknowingly, and hopelessly fallen irrevocably in love with Lu Chenzhou.
When she put his psychological issues aside, the part of him that moved her the most was his exemplary sincerity and restraint.
While Cheng Xi was lost in her thoughts, her mother had finally finished denouncing everyone on her list, running the gamut from Lu Chenzhou to her superiors at the hospital. Cheng Xi waited until she was almost done venting before trying to pacify her. “Mom, don’t worry. I’ll make sure to be transferred back quickly.”
This promise finally gave Cheng Xi’s mother a small measure of comfort. “Really?”
“Really!”
“As long as you don’t plan on staying there forever, that’s enough. Your dad and I will also try to help you come back quicker…… Also, you’re not allowed to find a boyfriend there. Once you come back, I’ll be sure to find you a reliable one.” But right as Cheng Xi’s mother said this, she suddenly remembered that Cheng Xi was already twenty nine years old. If she waited two more years, then she would be thirty-something! Her face crumbled as she suddenly changed tack. “I’m really worried that you might not be able to find a good partner when you come back given how old you are…… Most good men at that age are already married, and all the ones who aren't have something wrong with them……” No, I can’t think like that! If I do, then my beautiful daughter will be destined to be alone for the rest of her life, unable to get married!
She had such a talented daughter but was unable to marry her off…… Cheng Xi’s mother, who was caught up in a bevy of implausible scenarios, actually started crying. This was such a pressing problem that Cheng Xi’s father also started crying, and then the old couple simultaneously looked at Cheng Xi with tearful eyes.
Cheng Xi was caught off guard.
She really couldn’t promise anything in terms of marriage, all right?!
But just when Cheng Xi herself was also at the point of bursting into tears, Cheng Yang came back. As he entered the room, he angrily yelled, “Why haven’t you changed the passcode on your door yet?” He felt an innate revulsion rising up within him when he thought of Lu Chenzhou. “Remember to remove his fingerprint from the door lock too. Don’t let him into this apartment ever again. He’s crazy!”
The whole family looked at him in shock when he said this.
Cheng Xi’s mother asked, “What’s the matter?”
“I beat Lu Chenzhou up!”
Cheng Xi and her parents were all shocked speechless. “……”
But his face looked more like Lu Chenzhou had beaten him up.
Cheng Xi’s mother hesitated for a moment before praising, “Good job, son!”
Cheng Xi’s father cautiously asked, “You didn’t kill him, did you?”
Cheng Xi made a 囧 face as she asked, “Is it really you who did the beating up? Her tone was incredulous, as she was very familiar with Lu Chenzhou’s physical fitness. For someone like Cheng Yang, who never exercised and rarely had any violent tendencies, just how would he beat Lu Chenzhou up?
She was very suspicious.
Cheng Yang thundered, “What kind of tone is that? Of course I beat him up! I hit him so hard that his teeth fell all over the floor!”
Cheng Xi blinked once and then decided to keep her mouth shut and sit there quietly as she listened to Cheng Yang regale them about how he burst into Lu Chenzhou’s office and beat him up.
Cheng Xi’s parents were very supportive of him. When he finished his story, they praised him incessantly. “That’s right! That’s what a brother should do!” After that, they finally seemed to accept that Cheng Xi was really moving away, and they started to plan for this and that, doing tasks like checking the climate, culture, and geography of where Cheng Xi was to be situated. The old couple quickly busied themselves, discussing what she would need to pack.
Cheng Xi, on the other hand, had nothing to do. She wanted to help her mother, but she wouldn’t let Cheng Xi do anything. “Go and take a good rest. You’ve barely had any time to rest all year long, and given how it is over there, who knows how much you’ll have to suffer?”
She made it sound as if Cheng Xi were an explorer about to head off to uncharted territory.
Cheng Xi understood that her parents were still worried about her going so far away and that they just wanted to do something for her. So, she graciously accepted her parents’ good intentions and relaxed.
But she wasn’t really all that relaxed, because she still had to sort and pack up some things on her own, such as any books that she wanted to bring over.
While Cheng Xi was looking through her study, Cheng Yang entered the room and closed the door behind him. His tone was serious as he asked, “Hey, brat, does Lu Chenzhou suffer from some sort of mental illness?”
Cheng Xi was slightly shocked by the seemingly random question, but her face remained expressionless. “What’s the matter?”
Cheng Yang told Cheng Xi the truth, not the exaggerated nonsense he’d fed their parents. “After I punched him, he scared me by pulling out a knife. His expression and behavior then was really similar to some of the mental patients I’ve seen at your place.”
Cheng Xi immediately stopped what she was doing. “Tell me more in detail.”
Cheng Yang thought that she really didn’t know that Lu Chenzhou was mentally ill, and he animatedly described the entire encounter at great length. “Well, is he crazy or not?”
He sounded extremely hopeful.
But Cheng Xi ended up giving a vague response. “I can’t be certain. Some perfectly normal people exhibit some abnormal symptoms when they are provoked. This type of extreme behavior is relatively transient, and it’s not a definitive sign of mental illness.”
She had made something up that sounded plausible to the untrained ear. Cheng Yang stared at her, dumbfounded.
When Cheng Xi saw her brother’s expression, she smiled. “What are you waiting for? Are you hoping to uncover a hidden illness so that I can escape from my punishment? Don’t try anything—if the hospital finds out that he does suffer from a mental illness, then I’d definitely lose my license.”
Cheng Yang was still speechless. “……”
“I wouldn’t have told you if I’d known. Ahh~~~ Now my heroic image’s ruined!” He slumped down on Cheng Xi’s shoulder. “Sister, because of you, I even decided to give up on Donglai’s contract. You’d better come back.”
Cheng Xi nodded. “Alright.” She patted Cheng Yang’s head soothingly. “By the way, brother, when I leave, remember to keep going out with Lu Chenming. Bring him to some of your friends’ gatherings or something……”
But before she could finish speaking, Cheng Yang jumped up and interjected, “Why should I keep bothering with him after his brother treated my sister so badly?”
Cheng Xi stared at him. “Because you were the one who tried to pick him up first. That’s why.”
“……”
He really wouldn’t ever be able to rid himself of this, would he?!
“You’re crazy yourself!” He pointed a finger at Cheng Xi’s head, as if he wanted to poke a hole into her head to see if her brain glowed with a saintly aura.
As the Cheng family was ardently preparing for Cheng Xi’s trip away, Cheng Xi finally received her official notification that she would be transferred to Gansu. Her colleagues were far more informed than Cheng Xi’s parents, so they knew that this was the most that the department could do for Cheng Xi.
They called her up and invited her to a farewell feast for her, telling her to make sure to dress up prettily.
“Alright, I will.”
When the day of the feast came, Cheng Xi opened her wardrobe only to find that most of her clothes had already been packed up by her parents. The only things left were some regular clothes, outfits that Cheng Xi wouldn’t wear, and the two dresses that Lu Chenzhou had bought her.
Cheng Xi’s mother wanted to throw anything related to Lu Chenzhou away, but Cheng Xi wouldn’t let her. Like how she had never changed the passcode to the apartment, she hoped that, one day, Lu Chenzhou would come back to her apartment and find everything in its usual position.
In the end, Cheng Xi put on one of the dresses that Lu Chenzhou had bought for her, the deep red one. She also applied her nice makeup, styled her hair, and really did dress herself up to the nines.
Cheng Xi’s parents had temporarily closed their diner for a few days to stay here with her. Allegedly, it was because they were afraid that she would take things too hard, but in reality, it was to brainwash her into finding a way to return as quickly as she could. Cheng Xi ran into them as she was leaving, and they barely recognized her. “My goodness! If you dressed like this more often, then how could you still be unmarried at your age!?”
Cheng Xi’s face became a bit like 囧囧. When she met up with her colleagues, they also commented on her appearance. The head nurse hugged her as she exclaimed, “Such a beautiful woman is going to Gansu! You’re going to blind all of them!”
“While that might not happen, I’m afraid that it’ll be hard for the men of Gansu to get married in the future.”
“Why?”
“With such a pearl in front of them, everything else will look like trash.”
Everyone laughed at the joke, and Cheng Xi couldn’t help herself from laughing along. No one brought up anything sad, and although she had planned on getting thoroughly drunk with everyone, her poor alcohol tolerance meant that she was tipsy after only a few drinks. Her colleagues didn’t dare to continue pouring alcohol for her, and the head nurse even handed her a glass of water instead. “Drink this, drink this! Your alcohol tolerance is really scary!”
And so Cheng Xi had to be forcibly fed a whole stomachful of water before the crowd around her dispersed. She was a little embarrassed by the commotion, and she picked up a cup of alcohol and toasted everyone. “I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart. I’m so glad that I came to Renyi and met all of you lovely people. Honestly, I don’t regret what I did, and I’m not afraid of leaving, but I’m very scared that you’ll all forget me. So, please, wait for me to return!”
People began tearing up as she raised her head and drained the whole cup.