HomeFalling In LoveZhui Luo - Chapter 44

Zhui Luo – Chapter 44

Lu Xixiao noticed something was off with her, but at this moment he couldn’t focus on that.

He held the back of Zhou Wan’s head, his long fingers threading through her hair, making her tilt her head back as he kissed her with overwhelming intensity.

Their breaths intermingled as intimacy spread between them.

Even though they were already so close, it still didn’t feel close enough.

Lu Xixiao wrapped his arm around Zhou Wan’s waist, pulling her onto his lap. Her back pressed against the dining table as she passively accepted, completely immersed in his kiss.

Lu Xixiao felt like perhaps he was the one with the fever – his whole body burning hot, his reason dangerously close to being consumed by the heat.

Zhou Wan’s waist was slim, and she smelled of fragrant shower gel.

Winter had passed, and with the heavy coats gone, Lu Xixiao could even feel the curved indent at her waist.

He couldn’t help but apply some force, his fingertips firmly tracing the curve of her waist.

But it wasn’t enough. Deep in the moment, he couldn’t even control his movements.

He pulled Zhou Wan tightly into his arms, his fingers lifting the hem of her clothes.

When his burning fingertips touched her, Zhou Wan’s whole body froze for a moment, her back going straight, but she didn’t struggle or resist at all.

Lu Xixiao could feel her discomfort, but she was forcing herself to accept it.

His eyes darkened another shade, his Adam’s apple bobbing as his clenched jaw carved out an unusually sharp jawline.

Just then, the thermometer rolled off the table and shattered on the floor.

Lu Xixiao suddenly came to his senses, realizing what he was doing.

His eyes were deep and dark as he forced himself to pull away. Taking a deep breath, he fixed Zhou Wan’s clothes and lifted the young girl to the side.

Zhou Wan saw the broken thermometer on the floor, mercury scattered in small beads, and instinctively bent down to clean it up.

Just as she reached out, Lu Xixiao caught her hand, his voice hoarse: “Don’t touch it.”

Zhou Wan paused and withdrew her hand.

Lu Xixiao went to the kitchen for a cloth, crouched down to clean up, and threw it in the trash.

After washing his hands, he pulled Zhou Wan into his arms again, but this time made no further moves, just kissed her nose and asked with a smile: “Why suddenly throw yourself at me like that?”

Zhou Wan sniffled: “Those clothes, you bought them all for me?”

Lu Xixiao raised an eyebrow: “You figured it out that quickly?”

“Don’t be so good to me.” Zhou Wan pressed her forehead against his shoulder, head lowered, and said softly, “You’re so good to me, I don’t know how to repay you.”

“What just happened wasn’t bad.”

Lu Xixiao smiled and tilted his head, “Trading a few pieces of clothing for your initiative, I’d say I came out ahead.”

“…”

Lu Xixiao patted her head: “It’s late, didn’t you say you were tired? Go to sleep.”

Watching Zhou Wan return to her room, Lu Xixiao sat alone in the living room and lit a cigarette.

Now that he was calm and clear-headed, Lu Xixiao could better sense Zhou Wan’s unusual behavior. Before, she would blush for ages even from a single kiss, but just now, even with how far he went, she forced herself to endure without saying anything.

It was like… she was making some kind of desperate decision.

After his shower, Lu Xixiao stood in front of the mirror.

The tattoo on his collarbone was vivid, its edges reddened from the hot water, just like Zhou Wan’s wet, reddened eyes.

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he lowered his head and cursed under his breath.

The next morning, Zhou Wan planned to visit the hospital first, then go to school.

“Why go to the hospital?” Lu Xixiao asked.

“To find my grandmother’s previous doctor,” Zhou Wan kept her head down as she ate breakfast, not looking at him. “He took good care of grandmother during her years of illness, I want to go thank him.”

“Okay,” Lu Xixiao didn’t suspect anything. “I’ll go with you.”

Zhou Wan looked up at him and smiled: “Okay.”

They bought a bouquet outside the hospital, and Zhou Wan turned to Lu Xixiao: “There’s a soup dumpling place nearby, it’s really good.”

“Want to eat some?” Lu Xixiao asked.

“Mm.” Zhou Wan looked at him, blinking slowly, “But the queue is usually really long, it’s hard to buy any. Don’t know if we can still get some at this hour.”

“I’ll go check,” Lu Xixiao said, “You go ahead to the hospital.”

“Mm.”

Zhou Wan carried the flowers into the hospital alone and went to Dr. Chen’s office.

Dr. Chen stood up when he saw her: “Wan Wan, why are you here?”

“Grandmother’s death was sudden, and I wasn’t in a good state before, so I hadn’t come to thank you.” Zhou Wan placed the sunflower bouquet on Dr. Chen’s desk. “You’ve taken care of Grandmother all these years and always cared about me too, thank you.”

“No need for thanks, this was all my duty.” Dr. Chen looked at Zhou Wan and said, “Wan Wan, you’ve lost a lot of weight.”

Zhou Wan lowered her head and smiled: “I didn’t have much appetite for a while, but it’s much better now.”

“You’re still very young, you must stay strong. Your grandmother wouldn’t want to see you like this from heaven.”

Zhou Wan’s eyes burned as she nodded.

After a while, she said: “Dr. Chen, I want to ask you something.”

“Go ahead.”

“Back then, was my grandmother not suitable for kidney transplant surgery?”

Dr. Chen paused.

Zhou Wan caught every subtle expression on his face. Her eyelashes trembled as her heart started to ache again. “It was my grandmother who told you not to do the transplant surgery, wasn’t it?”

“Wan Wan.” Dr. Chen sighed, “You were only 16 then, the surgery would cost hundreds of thousands. Your grandmother just didn’t want you to go down any wrong paths for money.”

Zhou Wan lowered her head as tears fell on the back of her hand, unable to speak.

Worried she would be unable to let this go, Dr. Chen added gently: “Besides, there wasn’t a matching kidney donor then. Later when we did find a good match, your grandmother’s condition had deteriorated too much, and surgery was no longer recommended.”

“So, Wan Wan, don’t blame or feel guilty about yourself. Sometimes, some things just can’t be changed, you did your best.”

She wiped her tears away forcefully and made a sound of acknowledgment.

“I understand, Dr. Chen,” Zhou Wan stood up. “I’ll be going now.”

Zhou Wan washed her face in the bathroom and walked out of the hospital to see Lu Xixiao coming towards her. The sunlight poured down generously, surrounding him as if he were walking on rays of light.

He walked up to Zhou Wan and held up the bag of soup dumplings in front of her: “Got them.”

Zhou Wan smiled and said thank you.

She ate two herself and left the remaining three for Lu Xixiao.

When they returned to school, English class was in session. Zhou Wan had asked Gu Meng to request leave for her in the morning, and the English teacher waved her in.

Jiang Yan turned his head and asked softly: “Where did you go?”

“Went to the hospital.”

“Are you sick?”

“No.” Zhou Wan smiled at him, “Just went to see the doctor who treated my grandmother.”

Jiang Yan nodded and gave her the class notes from the two-morning classes she’d missed.

Zhou Wan paused and said: “Thank you.”

“I checked the physics competition answers, you did well, and should have a chance at getting recommended admission.”

“Really?” Zhou Wan was genuinely happy for him, “Congratulations!”

“So for the next year or so, do your best, Zhou Wan. It’s just taking a different path, the result will be the same.”

“Mm.”

The English teacher was going over the midterm exam paper. Zhou Wan had nearly perfect scores, only losing a few points on the composition, so she didn’t listen to the explanation. After copying Jiang Yan’s notes, she turned to look out at the bright sky through the window.

The more she looked, the sadder she felt.

After half a minute, she turned back: “Jiang Yan.”

“Mm?”

“Can you give me Lu Zhongyue’s phone number?”

Jiang Yan was startled: “What do you want that for?”

“Can I not answer that?” Zhou Wan bent down, lying on her desk. “It’s just that, sooner or later, I need to make a clean break.”

Jiang Yan hesitated for a long time, then said: “I can give it to you, Zhou Wan. Keeping this hidden isn’t the solution, but don’t do anything that will hurt yourself.”

“Okay,” Zhou Wan said, “Thank you, Jiang Yan.”

Jiang Yan wasn’t sure what Zhou Wan was planning to do.

But he could guess – probably to confess that she was Guo Xiangying’s daughter, then break up with Lu Xixiao, ending this absurd mistake.

Deep down, Jiang Yan was happy to see her break up with Lu Xixiao.

They weren’t meant for each other in the first place, and shouldn’t have gotten entangled because of these things.

He wrote Lu Zhongyue’s phone number on a sticky note and handed it to Zhou Wan.

Zhou Wan memorized the number, then tore up the note and threw it in the trash.

The dismissal bell rang throughout the campus.

Class 1’s last period had been changed to math, and they were still going over the last problem on the test paper.

Lu Xixiao waited in the hallway outside Class 1, his backpack slung over one shoulder, both hands resting on the windowsill as he leaned there, looking casual yet eye-catching.

Since Zhou Wan returned to school, their relationship had become even more visible – not only did they go to and from school together every day, but Lu Xixiao would also openly wait for her outside the classroom.

The teachers all knew about it, but since Lu Xixiao’s grades had improved significantly and Zhou Wan’s hadn’t dropped, they chose to turn a blind eye.

The school’s online forum used to constantly discuss and bet on how long Zhou Wan and Lu Xixiao would last together.

Now everyone was starting to wonder if Lu Xixiao had changed – could he have become a romantic?

Finally class ended, and Zhou Wan packed up her bag and walked out of the classroom.

Lu Xixiao took her bag, naturally holding it in his hand: “What do you want to eat?”

“Anything is fine.”

“There’s a newly opened mall, want to go check it out?”

“Sure.”

Many stores in the new mall were having opening promotions, and Zhou Wan chose a lamb hotpot restaurant.

After dinner, they wandered around the basement level of the mall. Suddenly, Zhou Wan caught sight of a photo booth for taking purikura sticker photos.

When she was young, she often saw these photo booths in old malls but hadn’t seen one in a long time since growing up.

Many couples were waiting outside to take photos.

“Lu Xixiao.”

Zhou Wan tugged at his palm, pointing, “Let’s go take some photos.”

He raised an eyebrow and chuckled: “Alright.”

These sticker photos retained the flashy style from ten years ago, with colorful borders. Many people came out looking at their photos and laughing non-stop.

After queuing for about twenty minutes, it was finally their turn.

The two walked into the small booth, pulling the curtain closed. There were all kinds of borders and filters to choose from.

Zhou Wan and Lu Xixiao stood together in front of the camera, looking at their faces softened by the heavy filters on the screen.

Lu Xixiao’s superior bone structure was somewhat blurred, but undeniably, his face could handle any unflattering angle – he looked good no matter how he was photographed.

After taking several photos, Lu Xixiao raised an eyebrow and said: “Kiss?”

Zhou Wan paused: “Huh?”

“For this style of photos, isn’t kissing appropriate?” Lu Xixiao said with a smile.

He lowered his head slightly, tilting Zhou Wan’s chin up, speaking softly: “There’s a curtain anyway, no one can see.”

With that, he bent down to kiss Zhou Wan, his other hand pressing the button, capturing the moment.

Lu Xixiao used to strongly dislike taking such photos, finding them boring and childish.

He never imagined he would do this one day.

They took about twenty photos in total. After paying, the small wallet-sized photos are printed out from the slot on the side.

Zhou Wan looked at each one carefully: “Lu Xixiao.”

“Hmm?”

“Can I keep these photos?”

To keep as her final memento.

Lu Xixiao raised an eyebrow: “Sure, but let me take a picture first.”

He casually took a photo of the stack of photos and posted it to his WeChat Moments, instantly receiving many likes and comments, mostly from his close friends.

[Hahahahahaha damn, scared me to death, thought I’d time traveled.]

[Bro’s going all out to show off his love.]

[Xiao, for the sake of dating, have you given up on your image?]

Sitting in the taxi, Lu Xixiao looked at these comments and showed them to Zhou Wan: “Don’t the photos look good?”

Zhou Wan: “…”

His face was even harder to make out in the thumbnail, only the gaudy borders were visible, no wonder some people thought the style was from another era.

She curved her eyes and pressed her lips together, complimenting him: “Pretty handsome.”

“Just ‘pretty’?”

“…” Zhou Wan looked at him, unable to hold back a smile, correcting herself, “Very handsome.”

After laughing for a while, Zhou Wan looked at Lu Xixiao’s face and suddenly felt her nose sting.

She hurriedly turned her head to look out the window.

That night, Zhou Wan couldn’t sleep after her shower.

She sat by the window, looking at the desolate, ruined garden. When Shen Lan was still alive, this garden had flowers blooming in all four seasons and was kept beautifully maintained. After Shen Lan passed away, no one ever tended to the garden again.

She thought of how Lu Xixiao had begged Shen Lan not to jump in his dream.

Thought of how Lu Xixiao had been paralyzed by his fear of heights on the school rooftop, drenched in cold sweat.

Zhou Wan sat by the window like this from evening until dawn began to break.

She looked at those photos and cried, dried up, and cried again.

Until the first ray of sunlight pierced through the clouds, breaking the dawn.

Zhou Wan finally made her decision. She picked up her phone, entered that string of numbers, and sent a text message to Lu Zhongyue.

[Zhou Wan: Mr. Lu, hello, I am Guo Xiangying’s daughter. I hope to meet you in person, there are some things I need to tell you face to face, concerning you and your son.]

She knew Lu Zhongyue hadn’t fully secured control of the Lu family’s business assets, with a sister coveting them on the side, so he would be afraid of making mistakes.

Marrying Shen Lan had been a mistake before, which was why this time he chose someone like Guo Xiangying – a woman without power or status, not young but beautiful.

And Zhou Wan’s message was like a time bomb.

Lu Zhongyue would meet her.

And before that, he wouldn’t tell anyone about this.

Her fingers trembled slightly as she finally pressed send with force.

Her whole body went limp, and the phone fell to the floor.

She let her hand drop, staring fixedly at the rays of light breaking through the clouds, as everything around became illuminated and street noises of people and cars began.

Only Zhou Wan sat there alone, shrouded in shadows.

Lu Xixiao hadn’t slept well last night either.

Before, he thought that if Zhou Wan didn’t want to tell him something, he wouldn’t press her. As long as he was sure she loved him, he could wait for everything else. Nothing was that serious anyway – he could wait until she was willing to tell him on her own.

But now, he could sense that Zhou Wan was unhappy.

Many times she seemed on the verge of tears, yet forced herself to smile, like just now in the taxi.

He had seen how Zhou Wan had hurriedly turned away.

Lu Xixiao didn’t want her to be sad.

“Uncle Zhang.” Lu Xixiao dialed a number.

Uncle Zhang was the former butler of the Shen family, highly trusted by his grandfather.

Later when the Shen family faced successive misfortunes, he had taken good care of Lu Xixiao during that period.

“Xiao?”

They hadn’t been in contact for a long time, and Uncle Zhang asked in surprise, “Why are you calling so early? Is something wrong?”

“Nothing much.” Lu Xixiao smiled carelessly, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Just wanted to ask if you’ve heard about the woman Lu Zhongyue recently married?”

“I heard some mention of it, but weren’t they not officially married?”

“They haven’t registered yet, but who knows about the future,” Lu Xixiao said. “So today I have something to ask of you.”

“Xiao, just tell me what you need.”

“Help me investigate that woman, Uncle Zhang.”

He said jokingly, “For someone to stand beside Lu Zhongyue, she must have her capabilities. I don’t want anyone fighting me for what little assets the Lu family has left.”

“Alright, I understand. I’ll have someone look into it right away.”

Lu Xixiao stood in front of the mirror, looking at the half-visible tattoo peeking out from his pajama collar. He tugged at the corner of his mouth, smiling as he said: “Thanks, Uncle Zhang.”

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