Chapter 707: If It Were Me, He Would Not Die Of Stomach Cancer
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Cao Zhuzhu looked out the window. Her eyes seemed very calm, but for a moment, Su Ji did not know if it was an illusion, but she saw deep sorrow. “It’s hard to say.” Su Ji walked to her side and leaned against the railing. The two girls’ arms touched, and they were equally cold.
Cao Zhuzhu was still holding Pei Song’s cigarette box in her hand. She pa.s.sed it to her, but Su Ji said that she did not smoke.
Cao Zhuzhu always thought that she did not look like someone who did not smoke, especially the first few times she had seen her, when they were still not familiar with each other.
She thought that Su Ji only did not smoke in front of Pei Huai. She looked like the kind of girl who would tattoo her collarbone, became seductive when she drank and smoked. No one could resist her.
Actually, her a.n.a.lysis was quite right. She just did not expect Su Ji to come from thousands of years ago, so she really had no chance to come into contact with cigarettes.
Cao Zhuzhu dusted off the cigarette ash and pulled back the thin strap that had slipped off her shoulder. It was undeniable that Xingxing’s sudden intrusion made her feel a little embarra.s.sed, but she did not think that he was the one in the wrong. Instead, she should be the one.
She recalled some things from her childhood.
She had never told anyone about it.
Today, she suddenly wanted to tell Su Ji.
“I used to believe in fairy tales when I was a young girl. That was until the day my dad brought a woman home to save money for the hotel. My mom caught him red-handed. He flew into a rage out of humiliation and put my mom to the hospital. That was the day my childhood ended. I was still thinking of asking my dad for a box of watercolor pens after school, but when I got home from school, everything changed drastically. I took care of my mom in the hospital for seven days. On the eighth day, when I got home, my dad took all the money in the house…
Su Ji looked at her. She had a faint smile on her lips as she spoke, as if she was talking about someone else’s matter and had nothing to do with her.
“What happened after that?” Su Ji asked.
Cao Zhuzhu shrugged, “people kept coming to ask for money, saying that my dad owed them a lot of money.”
Su Ji frowned. “How old were you at that time?”
“Nine? Almost ten. Anyway, I was in the third grade of primary school. At that time, the form teacher told a few top students in the cla.s.s that my father was a gambler and told them to stay away from me. I remember that,” she said casually.
At nine years old, Cao Zhuzhu took care of her mother alone in the hospital for seven days.
Su Ji thought about what she was doing when she was nine.
That year, Madam Xu had opened a bodyguard agency. When it just opened, they were not able to hire anyone, so Madam Xu did it herself and brought Su Ji
*Inn o
In the end, they did meet robbers. There were five of them, each of them eight feet tall. Madam Xu sent four of them flying with a series of moves. The last one wanted to sneak attack from behind. Nine-year-old Su Ji rushed out from the carriage and made a spiral kick which landed on the fifth robber’s temple.
So, Su Ji was thinking that if she was born in the modern world, if she was cla.s.smates with Cao Zhuzhu when she was nine years old, then the person she kicked might not be a robber but Cao Zhuzhu’s sc.u.mbag father.
However, she heard Cao Zhuzhu continue.
“I understand Xingxing very well.” She took a puff of the cigarette, and her fair fingers were so thin that her pale blue veins could be seen. “When I was in the second year of junior high school, my father came to school to see me. He was wearing a gray work uniform, a work cap, and a mask. He was carrying a luggage bag in his hand. When I crossed the road, he looked left and right anxiously. He was obviously hiding from someone. Later, he told me that he was going to the next city and would never come back again. He wanted to see me before he left.”
“Back then, he took all his money and left. My mother worked four jobs a day to pay off his debts. When I saw him, I only had one reaction. I hated him to death. But ironically, that unwavering hatred lasted only a second. I watched as he took out a box of 64-color watercolor pens from his tattered luggage. He said that he knew that I liked watercolor pens, so he went to a city far away to buy them for me.”
She furrowed her brows. “Su Ji, he’s so detestable. Why don’t I hate him forever?”
“But you didn’t accept them,” Su Ji said as she looked into her eyes. The white smoke blurred their vision.
Cao Zhuzhu paused and smiled. “You know me best.”
“I didn’t. I said that I didn’t like watercolor pens anymore, and from then on, I really stopped drawing. I started to work part-time for my mother because I blamed myself. I saw him standing alone by the roadside with the box of watercolor pens in his hand. His figure was getting farther and farther away, and I cried.”
“I cried too. I cried for a sc.u.mbag who cheated, beat my mother up, ran away with the family’s money, and ignored his wife and daughter. This made me feel like I was betraying my mother.”
“Humans are animals with complex emotions, and these useless emotions can destroy a person. I’ve been taking antidepressants from the second year of junior high until the second year of senior high.”
Su Ji asked, “why only until the second year of university?”
Cao Zhuzhu smiled bitterly. ‘My father died in the second year of senior high. I heard from my relatives that he had terminal stomach cancer. It was only three months since I found out about it. At that moment, I felt an unprecedented sense of relief.”
She looked at Su Ji and asked seriously, “do you think I’m cold-blooded?” “No,” Su Ji said. “If it were me, he wouldn’t have died of stomach cancer.” When the story was over, the cigarette was finished.
Cao Zhuzhu stubbed out her cigarette. “That’s why I’m very calm now. If there’s no hope, there’s no disappointment. As long as we can accept separation, it’s normal. No one will take things too hard.”
Su Ji brushed her hair. After a minute of silence, she said something that Cao Zhuzhu did not understand.
“If only Pei Huai could think like you.”
Cao Zhuzhu thought that she was joking, but when she turned around, she saw many emotions in her eyes. They were all extremely real…
Su Ji raised her chin at the crumpled cigarette box in her hand. “Why don’t you give me one?”
“Don’t.” Cao Zhuzhu threw the entire cigarette box into the trash can. “I don’t want to offend CEO Pei.”
Su Ji narrowed her eyes slightly, but Cao Zhuzhu was not afraid.
The noise in the room next door stopped, followed by the sound of unlocking the door.
Cao Zhuzhu casually threw a tissue into the trash can and covered the cigarette box. Then, as Pei Song dragged Pei Xingxing, who was crying, into the room, she picked up a thin coat and put it on.
Pei Song was also wearing a T-shirt, and the gla.s.ses on his nose were shining.
His tone was cold. “Speak.”
Pei Xingxing was in a daze from crying. The collar of his white school uniform was a mess, and a b.u.t.ton had fallen off. The little tyrant was no longer domineering. He sniffed and walked in front of Cao Zhuzhu. He grabbed her top with one hand and wiped his tears with the other. His tone was sincere and aggrieved.. “I’m sorry!!!”