Chapter 2007: Upset
Otherwise, it was easy to feel some discomfort from sleeping after a heavy meal. If she had not needed to wait for Zhai Hua, Jiajia would have returned to her room to read her books. Now, Jiajia no longer insisted on waiting and returned to her room as she had intended to do instead. After glancing through her book, she fell asleep on her bed.
After Jiajia fell asleep, the adults decided to retire for the night as well so that they would not disturb Jiajia from her sleep.
The moment Qiao Nan returned to her room, Zhai Sheng followed her in. “Shall we have a chat in the study room?”
Qiao Nan frowned. “What’s the matter?”
“Zhai Hua and Tian Dong?”
“…”
Qiao Nan’s shoulders relaxed. All right. She could deceive anyone but Zhai Sheng. “Alright, let’s go.” Although they were about to hold a wedding and had already become legal husband and wife, the couple, who had a combined age of over a hundred years, followed the rules even more strictly than anyone and slept separately. Now that he wanted to have a chat in the middle of the night, Zhai Sheng did not even step into Qiao Nan’s room.
His insistence on doing so was just to prevent others from scolding Qiao Nan even more than they already would. They had already gotten their marriage certificate. Would Zhai Sheng be in such a great hurry to swallow Qiao Nan like a tiger would his prey?
It was only when he reached the study did Zhai Sheng ask, “How did you know about Zhai Hua and Dongzi?” It was just like how Nan Nan had been familiar with the Zhai family’s old villa the first time she had visited the place.
Although Zhai Sheng had never asked about these matters, it did not mean that they did not exist. After the Zhai family’s old villa was renovated, the Zhai family themselves had hardly stayed there and had only gotten caretakers to look after the place.
Before meeting Qiao Nan, even Zhai Sheng himself had stayed in the old villa for not more than a few days. If Qiao Nan had appeared earlier, outsiders might even misunderstand that Qiao Nan was the true owner of the house, given her familiarity with the place. Zhai Sheng was not even as familiar with the place as Qiao Nan was, and had to take some time to get used to the environment.
Since Zhai Sheng was naturally more sensitive about matters that concerned Qiao Nan, it was not hard for Zhai Sheng to realize what Qiao Nan was thinking from the way Qiao Nan glanced at Zhai Hua and Tian Dong. There was no way Qiao Nan could hide her true feelings in front of Zhai Sheng.
Qiao Nan lowered her head, not really wanting to answer this question. “Would you believe me if I were to say that it’s a woman’s intuition? We all know just how worried Sister Zhai Hua was when Jiajia got into an accident even though she wasn’t severely injured. The weird thing was that Sister Zhai Hua became much calmer the moment Tian Dong arrived. I’m a woman too, and I know how women behave. A man who can bring such peace to a woman must have made a good impression on that woman. There are only a few situations in which women have that much trust in a man.”
Zhai Sheng hugged Qiao Nan. “We can leave it at that if you don’t want to talk about it. You don’t have to explain it to me if you can’t. Otherwise, others will see through you too easily. Nan Nan, you’re a bad liar.”
This explanation was truly too far-fetched. The entire Zhai family, including his parents and Zhai Hua, had probably already forgotten about what had happened in their childhood. Zhai Sheng was different. Zhai Sheng was the only one who knew that Tian Dong had returned when Zhai Hua had gotten married. Not only had he returned, but he had also secretly attended—or rather, observed, Zhai Hua’s wedding to Wei De.
After witnessing the wedding, Tian Dong had immediately flown off again. Ever since then, Tian Dong had never returned.
A man behaving so stubbornly could only mean one thing, and one did not need a woman’s intuition to understand that.
Zhai Sheng did not think it was strange that Zhai Hua had not kept the promise she had made in her childhood, treating it as nothing more than a memory. It was only when Zhai Sheng found out that Tian Dong had specially returned on Zhai Hua’s wedding day did he realize that Tian Dong was serious about it.
Unfortunately, Zhai Hua was serious about marrying Wei De at that time, and nothing was going to stop her. Besides, the couple had already registered their marriage. Zhai Sheng knew that Zhai Hua would not change her mind even if he told her about Tian Dong, much less get divorced from Wei De. After all, they had simply thought of that promise as a joke. How could they possibly have believed that they would keep to that promise even after growing up?
It would only make things more awkward between Zhai Hua and Tian Dong if he were to talk about it.
Between Zhai Hua and Tian Dong, Zhai Sheng had naturally chosen Zhai Hua. It was also good that he remained tight-lipped so that Zhai Hua would not know what she had missed out on.
But years later, Zhai Hua was now divorced and Tian Dong had returned for his business, and the two of them had unexpectedly met each other!
Thinking about Zhai Hua’s reaction today, Zhai Sheng had a premonition that Zhai Hua might have realized something. Dongzi’s behavior had made it obvious enough, had it not?
Zhai Sheng’s decision to let her go and drop the matter caused Qiao Nan to heave a sigh of relief. “Brother Zhai, I’ll return to my room to sleep then.”
“Alright, go ahead. Don’t think too much about this and rest well. We’ll be getting married in two days.” Zhai Sheng had finally met a woman whom he loved and he would leave things as they were even if he could not clear the air. What else could he do since he loved her and her alone?
After leaving Zhai Sheng’s study, Qiao Nan finally relaxed. But when she opened her door, she saw Zhai Hua, who seemed as though she had been drained of all energy. “Sister Zhai Hua, what are you doing here?”
“Where did you go?” Zhai Hua looked restlessly at Qiao Nan. “You guys are already getting married soon. Aren’t you guys getting too close? Just hold on for a little longer. It’s just another two more days. Why don’t you think about the single and divorced person here?”
She had been feeling miserable and had wanted to have a chat with Qiao Nan. She had not expected to see no one after opening the door. The Zhai family was only that big and there were only that many people in the family. It did not need a genius to figure out whom Qiao Nan had gone to see.
Zhai Hua had wanted to relax by having a chat with Qiao Nan. Unfortunately, the moment she opened the door, she had witnessed Qiao Nan and Zhai Sheng showing public displays of affection, agitating her. “Hurry on over. I’m so frustrated right now. Why don’t you tell me a joke?”
She could not tell Jiajia about this matter and could only talk to Qiao Nan about it. If she did not talk about it, she felt that she might just suffocate.
Qiao Nan walked over and lay down on her bed, allowing Zhai Hua to lie down beside her. It was not the first time Qiao Nan had encountered such a situation, so she took it in her stride.