Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Si Zhengting turned and saw Ji Chen. He stood up and felt dizzy from the sudden sharp movement. His body swayed a little as a result.
Ji Chen hurriedly supported Si Zhengting with his hands. Si Zhengting regained his balance and pushed Ji Chen away, then walked slowly to the sofa and sat down. He reached out a hand to Ji Chen, saying, “Hand it over.”
Ji Chen respectfully handed Si Zhengting the documents.
Upon seeing the thick bundle of documents, Si Zhengting’s attention was diverted.
Back then, after he had broken up with Zhuang Nainai, he had not lost interest in her.
Instead, he had obsessively sent private detectives after her to check on what she was doing on a daily basis. But the replies that the detectives gave him were as follows.
The first day: “Zhuang Nainai had woken up at 7 am and went to buy four pieces of fried fritters. She had eaten two pieces while walking. She then went to the market and bought a chicken, made chicken soup, and I could smell the aroma of the brewing soup from outside her flat…”
Back then, he couldn’t understand why Zhuang Nainai had broken up with him. He had not slept for the entire night. As his body was also weak, his entire demeanor was haggard, and he ended up not eating breakfast.
He was resentful about the breakup, but what about Zhuang Nainai?
She was living a pretty enriching life!
Si Zhengting had thought that she was pretending to live well.
After dealing with this distressing knowledge for the night, the reports from the second day of tailing after Zhuang Nainai came in.
The second day: “Zhuang Nainai woke up at 8 am and bought a bowl of old tofu outside. She finished eating the bowl of tofu, then went to the market to buy a cut of beef and made steak at home…”
And him?
He hadn’t slept for two nights. In the few days following the break up, he had picked up smoking and drinking…
Si Zhengting had smiled sarcastically and threw the report aside. He’d ordered his then personal assistant Ji Chen icily: “You no longer have to hand such things over to me in the future!”
He only said that he did not wish to receive such things in the future, but he had not said that he wished to dismiss the private detective. Hence, the memos documenting Zhuang Nainai’s daily life took up an entire drawer.
After all these years, he had not thought of flipping through those memos to take a look, for fear of reopening the wound somewhere deep in his heart.
He was actually afraid. He was deeply afraid that Zhuang Nainai had gotten a new boyfriend. If so, he would feel sorry for himself as he was someone who had been abandoned. After all, Zhuang Nainai was so cute, so outstanding, and so beautiful. If someone were to pursue her romantically, they didn’t have anything to lose, did they?
But now…
Si Zhengting stared at the small occurrences noted down in the memos. Whenever she encountered a tough situation, he felt as much anguish as though a part of his heart had been carved out – he felt as though even breathing was painful!
He later discovered that she’d had no time to feel sad over their breakup during that summer vacation. She had to toughen up in order to take care of her sick mother.
After entering college, she applied for a residence off-campus with the college. As time went by, she slowly became short on money. She not only had to attend lessons, but she also had to take on two part-time jobs after school was out. She spent her remaining time caring for her mother.
She had to wake up at 6 am almost every day. After preparing a day’s worth of meals for her mother, she would attend school. After school, she could not eat a proper lunch and instead ate a bit of bread to stave off the hunger. She would then rush off to the restaurant to wait on tables. After she was finished with lessons for the day, at night, she could not return home to rest. Instead, she took over her mother’s cleaning job, which involved sweeping the streets, and worked until 11 pm.
It was as though Si Zhengting could see Zhuang Nainai’s silhouette in his mind’s eye rushing about at the various places that she frequented. The fee of almost $5,000 that Mother Zhuang had required every month in order to recuperate had been earned and paid for by Zhuang Nainai all these years without fail.
Later, she graduated from college and quit her part-time jobs, taking up a full-time position at that shop selling wedding dresses. Then, she made about $10,000 per month. She spent less than $1,000 on herself and spent the remaining amount of money on Mother Zhuang.