He Never Replied to Messages

The two-day, one-night trip to Beishan Ski Resort officially ended. Xu Sui was exhausted and dizzy with fatigue. That night she went back and slept deeply, sleeping in until noon the next day for the first time ever.

When Xu Sui got up, she felt her legs were still aching faintly. She had just finished washing up after getting out of bed when she ran into Liang Shuang returning from outside. Liang Shuang carried a paper bag and hummed a song as she entered, looking cheerful.

“Wow, my timing is perfect,” Liang Shuang put the paper bag on the table and began taking out food items one by one, “Suisui, come eat quickly.”

Xu Sui looked over to see Liang Shuang roughly tearing plastic wrapping. The table was packed full of food – curry beef rice, golden pineapple buns, and fragrant borscht soup.

These were all things she usually liked to eat.

Xu Sui looked puzzled: “I don’t remember asking you to bring me food.”

“Zhou Jingze asked me to buy it,” Liang Shuang unwrapped chopsticks for her, her voice cheerful as she showed a number with her fingers, “he gave me this much tip, so I immediately flew out of school to buy it, hehe.”

“The great god really dotes on you, Suisui.” Liang Shuang said.

Xu Sui casually tied up her hair with a hair tie, took the chopsticks, her face somewhat warm as she sat down. After Liang Shuang finished delivering the food, she received a phone call and ran out again.

Only Xu Sui remained in the dorm room. She used a spoon to scoop up some rice – the beef was stewed very tender, the potatoes were soft and glutinous, and there was also a cup of hot cocoa at the perfect temperature beside it.

His care and consideration seemed so perfectly appropriate in every way.

Xu Sui took a photo of the food and sent it over with a message: [Eating now. (￣▽￣)”]

A minute later, her phone screen lit up with zjz replying: [Does it taste good?]

Xu Sui replied: [Delicious, but how did you know I slept in?]

Zjz: [Lucky guess.]

They chatted aimlessly for a few sentences. After Xu Sui finished eating, she went to class, spending her free time in the library as usual. Life seemed unchanged on the surface, but many details had changed.

After the Beishan ski trip, or perhaps because of their honest game that night, they had become much more intimate. Zhou Jingze often came to school to find her, accompanying her with homework or meals.

When Xu Sui wrote test papers in a corner of the library, Zhou Jingze would often slide his hand under her sweater while playing with his phone, kneading with varying pressure. Xu Sui’s hand holding the pen would pause, stimulated to the point of trembling inside, the pen tip dragging a heavy line across the test paper.

Zhou Jingze loved touching her, sucking on her neck while saying wild things with a roguish air, full of sensuality.

In the evening when Zhou Jingze walked her back to the dorm, they would end up kissing while talking. But Xu Sui was thin-skinned and easily embarrassed. Zhou Jingze would press her against a tree, his tall figure shielding her, tree shadows trembling and scattering white moonlight everywhere.

Zhou Jingze would lean against her neck, his nose sniffing the milky fragrance on her body, panting hoarsely: “I’ll be tormented to death by you sooner or later.”

Xu Sui pushed against his chest, her eyes reddened from being bullied, hastily arranging her hair and clothes, asking: “Is there anything wrong with how I look?”

“Yes.” Zhou Jingze looked at her, speaking slowly.

“Where?” Xu Sui’s expression was bewildered.

Zhou Jingze leaned over, supporting the back of her head, his tongue directly making a flamboyant hickey on her neck. When he withdrew, he smiled lazily, his eyes carrying a hint of mischief.

Xu Sui immediately pulled her coat zipper tight, revealing only a pair of round eyes: “Good… good night.”

After speaking, she ran off. Wind rushed past her ears, and behind her came a very soft laugh. Zhou Jingze’s tone was lazy: “See you tomorrow, Yiyi.”

Because of Zhou Jingze’s words, Xu Sui began looking forward to the next day, but unexpectedly it ended in disappointment. After a full day of classes, Xu Sui returned to her dorm room, took off her scarf, and the first thing she did was check whether Zhou Jingze had sent her any messages.

The result was nothing.

Unable to resist, Xu Sui sent a message: [Where did you go today?]

Xu Sui was feeling somewhat depressed, to the point that while brushing her teeth that evening, she almost used facial cleanser instead of toothpaste. After changing into pajamas and climbing into bed, Xu Sui kept holding her phone, and even after lights out in the dorm, she still held her phone waiting for Zhou Jingze to reply.

Xu Sui waited until her eyelids grew heavy but the screen never lit up. Finally, she fell into a deep sleep while holding her phone.

The next day, Xu Sui spent the whole morning in the laboratory. When she finished her work, took off her white coat, changed clothes and was about to go out, she touched her phone in her pocket and discovered Da Liu had called her several times.

Xu Sui called back, and the phone was answered quickly. Da Liu’s voice was urgent: “Oh my, dear sister, you finally answered the phone.”

“I was in the lab all morning, it wasn’t convenient to check my phone,” Xu Sui turned off the laboratory lights as she left, asking, “Is there something you need?”

“It’s about Zhou Jingze,” Da Liu’s tone was anxious on the phone, “Sister, could you come to the school gate? It would be faster to explain in person.”

“Okay, I’ll be right there.” After Xu Sui hung up the phone, she unconsciously quickened her pace toward the school gate.

As soon as she exited the school gate, cold wind cut like ice blades, painfully scraping her face. Xu Sui instinctively hugged her coat tighter and walked for a while before spotting Da Liu standing at the school gate – tall, slightly overweight.

Xu Sui walked up to Da Liu, her words mixed with wind sounds, making them unclear: “What’s the matter?”

They moved to a more sheltered spot to talk where the wind immediately became quieter. Da Liu pinched his cold ears and asked: “Have you been in contact with Boss Zhou these past two days?”

At this mention, Xu Sui’s lashes lowered and her mood unconsciously dropped: “No.”

Just the night before they had been intimately whispering in each other’s ears, but the next second he disappeared without even saying goodbye.

“Damn, Zhou-ye is really something, playing disappearing act without even caring about his girlfriend.” Da Liu spat.

“Disappeared?” Xu Sui’s eyes widened slightly.

“Those of us studying flight technology have different tests at each stage, right? Sometimes the school tests repeatedly. Yesterday was our psychological test. During the day he did fine – whether it was speed perception, working memory, or spatial orientation, he got A+ on everything. But for the evening night simulation flight test, he just disappeared.”

Hearing the word “night,” Xu Sui seemed to understand something. She raised her face: “Doesn’t Sheng Nanzhou know where he is either?”

“Brother Zhou took leave – his relative had an issue so he flew to Shanghai. I searched too, finally found time to stake out his house, but there wasn’t a soul there.”

“That Kui almost came out to bite me to death.”

Da Liu recalled yesterday’s scene and sighed: “The instructors and teachers are nearly mad with rage, you know? The key thing is, if you have something and can’t come, you need to ask for leave. But he won’t answer his phone, and when the homeroom teacher called the family contact number he left, guess what? It was a disconnected number!”

“The teacher was furious, saying his attitude was arrogant, that he skipped exams and missed classes without reason, and that they would cancel all his—”

Before he could finish, Xu Sui had already run off in a flash. Da Liu was left with half a sentence stuck in his throat, awkwardly saying: “Cancel all his subject grades.”

This sentence was also swallowed by the wind.

Xu Sui hurriedly hailed a taxi and got in. The driver smiled cheerfully: “Miss, where to?”

When the driver asked this, Xu Sui paused in her motion of pulling the seatbelt. She and Zhou Jingze hadn’t been together long – she seemed to not even know where he would go when he was in a bad mood.

But even so, she still wanted to find him. Xu Sui gave an address: “79 Amber Alley, Xinhe District. Please, driver.”

The car drove for about half an hour to reach the destination. Xu Sui realized she had come in such a hurry that she hadn’t brought anything – just came holding a few books. She arrived at Zhou Jingze’s house and found the entire building was quiet, as if no one had ever lived there.

Xu Sui walked to the main entrance and was about to ring the doorbell when she discovered the door was ajar. She pushed the door and entered the courtyard. The automatic sensor door inside was tightly closed. She pressed the doorbell several times but got no response.

She had no choice but to wait for Zhou Jingze at the door. Xu Sui was taking a chance, hoping to see him. After waiting for several hours, Xu Sui became weak from exhaustion and felt dizzy, so she crouched down and took out her phone, searching for something.

At three in the afternoon, with bitter cold wind, even the last wild flower that had bloomed in the desolate courtyard was ruthlessly broken. Xu Sui was staring at that bright red flower in a trance when suddenly there was a “ding” sound behind her – the glass door being opened.

Xu Sui immediately wanted to stand up, but her leg went numb. She struggled to get up when an oppressive figure loomed over her. She looked up.

Zhou Jingze wore a black thin hoodie and black pants, apparently about to go out and throw away trash. His hair had grown a bit longer – black and hard, with messy bangs falling over his brows. His dark lashes showed obvious fatigue, his expression listless as he looked down at her from above.

His aura was completely different from how they had gotten along two days ago.

“Why are you here?” Zhou Jingze lowered his neck to look at her, his voice indescribably cold.

Xu Sui’s explanation came out somewhat panicked: “I just heard from Da Liu that you didn’t go to the exam and that you disappeared, so I ran to find you…”

The wind stopped at this moment. “I ran to see you without even eating” – this slightly complaining, coquettish sentence was about to come out, but meeting Zhou Jingze’s scrutinizing, cold gaze, she couldn’t continue.

Zhou Jingze blocked the doorway, looking down at her from above.

Now it seemed like she was the uninvited guest.

Xu Sui lowered her lashes, the corners of her mouth forcing a smile: “As long as you’re okay, I’ll leave now.”

After speaking, she turned to leave, but unexpectedly a long arm reached out and directly pulled Xu Sui through the door. In an instant, the cold was shut out and even the wind sounds disappeared. Because of the excessive force, her lips bumped against his collarbone, which also hurt a bit.

Zhou Jingze held her tightly with one arm while pressing a switch on the wall with his other hand. With a “beep,” the glass closed and warm air from inside rushed over. All her limbs relaxed. Zhou Jingze’s jaw rested against her neck, his lips brushing against the white, soft flesh of her neck, his voice low and hoarse:

“Where are you going?”

Didn’t you come to find me?