Chapter 46: Chapter 45: If You Really Want to Date, You Can Only Try With Me
"Zhou Mochen!" Xu Su struggled to free her hand. "And you still say you’re not a beast!"
Having his hand shaken off didn’t seem to anger Zhou Mochen. He retracted it, started the car, and even found a moment to reply, "I’d love to be a beast. Would you let me?"
’Goddamn hooligan. Shameless. Lecher. Scumbag.’
Zhou Mochen glanced at her expression and said, "Don’t curse me out in your head. I only touched your hand. Since you want to focus on your studies, I can make sure you’re able to."
The late-night roads were sparse with traffic. Zhou Mochen spoke as he drove, his tone betraying no emotion. "However, what happened tonight... I don’t want to see a repeat of it."
Xu Su couldn’t stand his commanding tone. She retorted, "And what exactly happened tonight?"
Zhou Mochen glanced at her, and in the next moment, pulled the car to a stop on the side of the road.
"Getting tangled up with a boy off-campus, talking about puppy love, getting together, liking each other... Is *this* your idea of focusing on your studies?"
His voice held an unquestionable authority. "Susu, if you really want to date someone, you can only try with me. Understand?"
It was the same old tone, but Xu Su hated that she could always detect the danger lurking in his voice.
Her hands, wrapped in the blanket, clenched tightly. Xu Su said, "I wasn’t ’getting tangled up’ with anyone. Zhou Mochen, don’t act like your wife is cheating on you. Including tonight, we’ve only met three times. Don’t you think it’s ridiculous for you to be saying this?"
"Mm, I saw you dodge him." Zhou Mochen looked at the wary girl and gave a placating smile. "I also heard you reject him. You did well. However, your rejection wasn’t thorough enough."
He instructed her in a low voice, coaxing her as if teaching a lesson. "You shouldn’t give boys any hope. Otherwise, you’ll never be able to shake them off. They’ll take any opening they can find to get close to you and try to win you over."
"Like you?" Xu Su’s tone was mocking.
"No." Zhou Mochen said with utmost seriousness, "Xu Su, don’t compare me to them."
’Xu Su really had no idea who this ’them’ he was talking about was. Where did ’they’ even come from? Only one Xi Zirong had shown up, and this guy had already imagined a whole string of rivals?’
’Of course he couldn’t be compared to ’them.’ How many people in the world were as twisted as you!’
Xu Su’s eyes swept over the digital display. The time was clearly shown: 00:36. She instantly grew impatient. "Are we going or not? You’ve been following me for so long, you should know I have to get up a little after five every day, right?"
"I don’t have time to chat with you late at night. I need to go home and sleep."
This time, Zhou Mochen was quite obedient. The car sped down the deserted midnight roads, stopping downstairs from Xu Su’s home in just over ten minutes.
’Clearly, he’d already cased the place. He even knew exactly where she lived.’
Xu Su was dead tired and had no energy left to mock him.
He took the bicycle out of the trunk and handed her the bag with the ginger tea he’d bought from the pharmacy. Zhou Mochen watched as the sleepy-faced girl obediently took the plastic bag. His hand twitched slightly before he pulled it back.
He said, "You can wake up fifteen minutes later tomorrow. I’ll drive you; it’ll be fast. I’ll bring you breakfast, and you can eat it in the car to save time."
Then he asked, "What do you want to eat?"
His attitude was so natural, as if they were in some kind of intimate relationship.
Given Xu Su’s temper, she would have normally shot back a few sarcastic remarks. But this really wasn’t a good place to argue with him. Her own bike was indeed broken, and if she didn’t want to walk to school tomorrow, it seemed her only option was to accept his "kindness."
Xu Su’s tired brain whirred for a moment. She looked up at him, then quickly averted her gaze as something occurred to her. Turning her head to the side, she said, "I’ll eat breakfast at school. Don’t prepare anything for me."
"Park by the bus stop tomorrow, not downstairs from my building." Fearing he might misunderstand, Xu Su emphasized, "I’m only riding with you this one time. I’ll come back during my lunch break tomorrow to fix my bike."
Zhou Mochen nodded. "Go on up. Get some sleep. We can talk about everything else after you’ve rested."
After locking up her battered bike with its broken chain as usual, Xu Su glanced back. Zhou Mochen was still standing by his car, watching her. It seemed he was going to wait until she went upstairs before leaving.
The man’s figure blended into the night, exuding a hint of loneliness. Xu Su pressed her lips together and turned to walk into the building’s corridor.
In truth, Xu Su knew very well how much the Zhou Mochen from her previous life had cherished her. But she never expected that in this life, after just a few meetings, he would actually go to the trouble of getting up before dawn and staying out after dark just to "escort" her to and from school.
She had deliberately used an ugly word like "following" to mock him, humiliate him, and piss him off.
But in reality, they both knew this wasn’t "following."
On winter mornings, when Xu Su left home before six, the sky was usually still a hazy gray. In the industrial district, there were often hungover workers or local hooligans loitering about.
The walk home after evening self-study was even more of a concern. The pedestrian street was a night market, bustling with activity until two or three in the morning.
Countless workers from the nearby factories would get drunk late at night, creating a motley crowd. No one could guarantee how safe it really was.
Xu Weiping and Chen Shulan were fine with their delicate, flower-like daughter commuting to and from school alone, but Zhou Mochen was not.
Xu Su wasn’t an ungrateful person, but more than feeling touched, she felt resistant.
She resisted his all-pervasive presence and his extremely domineering possessiveness.
~~~~
Lately, in an effort to maintain her image as a loving mother, Chen Shulan had been boiling a fresh kettle of water for her every evening, pouring it into a thermos for when she got back. Xu Su wasn’t one to spite her own body, so she obediently made a cup of ginger tea after returning home.
After finishing the warm ginger tea and a quick wash-up, she quickly climbed into bed to sleep.
Unlike the parents of other day students, who worried endlessly, Xu Weiping and Chen Shulan couldn’t care less whether Xu Su came home early or late.
Xu Su was dead tired, but her mind couldn’t help but wonder, ’Even if I didn’t come home at all tonight, that couple probably wouldn’t even notice, would they?’
’I still care, huh...’
After barely five hours of sleep, Xu Su was woken by her biological clock.
She washed up carefully, put on a thick padded jacket, and before leaving, glanced at her hands, which were a little red from the cold. She made a mental note to buy herself a pair of gloves over the weekend.
As she headed out the door, she habitually glanced at the wall clock. 5:45.
Xu Su had assumed Zhou Mochen wouldn’t arrive so early. To her surprise, as she walked out of the alley, she saw a black SUV parked in the distance, right at the spot she had designated last night.
The sky was still dark, and the streets were empty. When Zhou Mochen saw the young girl appear, he started the car and drove over.