After the Most Hated Persona Faked Their Death, the Ex-Husband Lost His Mind - Chapter 17

Li Zhi was only stunned for a brief moment, perhaps only a few seconds, before he pulled the movie tickets back as if nothing had happened. “Oh, you don’t like movies.”

“Then, have you eaten? Ah, the baking club is making chocolate brownies today. Do you want to go try some?” Li Zhi paused, then added, “Gong Jie is there too.”

Lately, Li Zhi seemed like a changed person. He had swept away his former gloomy demeanor and become bursting with energy.

It was as if he had inexhaustible strength. Li Zhi remembered waking up at four in the morning for several days in a row to organize the dormitory. He kept it so neat and tidy that the floors gleamed; even the best professional cleaning team would have been put to shame.

He slept no more than three hours a day, yet he did not feel drowsy. It was as if he had rediscovered the feeling of happiness. His transformation was so sudden that Gong Jie asked him with a hint of concern, “Li Zhi, are you okay?”

“I am fine, I am doing great,” Li Zhi said. “I am doing exceptionally well.”

Gong Jie fell silent. At that moment, Li Zhi was counting the homework assignments he had collected for Chu Mingzhang. Gong Jie asked tentatively again, “Li Zhi, is it really okay?”

“If you are sad, you have to tell me. Do not keep it bottled up.” Gong Jie fidgeted for a while before finally losing her restraint. “I feel like the way Chu Mingzhang speaks sometimes is really out of line.”

She did not like seeing Li Zhi looking soul-crushed. She encouraged him to be bold, but she certainly did not want to see him getting humiliated over and over again, only to crawl back as if nothing had happened.

Li Zhi said, “It was not out of line, and I do not feel sad.”

He was not lying. He thought that being rejected by Chu Mingzhang repeatedly would make him feel ashamed or embarrassed, but in reality, it did not. In his eyes, Chu Mingzhang was always surrounded by a kind of radiance that Li Zhi yearned for. As for what Chu Mingzhang was actually saying, Li Zhi could not hear any of it clearly.

Since he could not hear it clearly, how could he be sad?

Even when Chu Mingzhang threw away that pen right in front of him, Li Zhi did not feel much. It was strange; he thought he would be so humiliated that he would want to jump off a building, but in fact, his mood did not fluctuate much because of it.

He cheerfully helped Chu Mingzhang wipe the blackboard and wrote a rather uninteresting diary entry during a boring class: “The weather is sunny. In the afternoon, I basked in the sun on the lawn with a stray cat. The soft cookies Gong Jie made today were so sweet.”

After school, he intended to bring a cold drink to Chu Mingzhang as usual, but Gong Jie stopped him: “You are not allowed to go!”

“Do you have any idea what they are saying about you in school? It was not easy for all that mess with Wang and those filthy things to finally pass. Why are you throwing yourself into the eye of the storm again and becoming everyone’s after-dinner gossip?”

Li Zhi said, “Gong Jie, can you teach me how to make desserts?”

“What they are saying is really nasty! Li Zhi, what on earth is wrong with you lately?”

“Scones, cupcakes, or canelés?”

“Li Zhi! Are you even listening to me?”

“Cupcakes, then. They seem easier.”

“No! No, I will not teach you anything!” Gong Jie was practically driven to madness. “Why bother making something that will just be thrown away after all that hard work?”

The moment the words left her mouth, Gong Jie regretted it. She could vaguely sense that Li Zhi’s emotions were far more sensitive than the average person’s. Her face turned slightly pale. “No, Li Zhi, I did not mean it that way.”

“Ah, you have a point.” To her surprise, Li Zhi awkwardly raised a hand to the back of his neck, not sad at all. He seemed completely invulnerable. “I do not have any experience, so I would definitely do a poor job. It is better not to send them out and make a fool of myself.”

Gong Jie was suddenly speechless. She looked at the youth before her; his pupils trembled slightly, his brows lifted slowly, and then the tails of his brows dropped.

She spoke in little more than a whisper: “Li Zhi, what is really going on with you?”

“I am great!” Li Zhi repeated the same sentence. He was full of drive.

Chu Mingzhang, of course, did not go to the baking club with Li Zhi. Li Zhi was not heartbroken. “He must be busy later, right? It is okay, we will go together next time!”

Gong Jie stopped trying to hold him back; she only occasionally lost her temper at people who whispered while looking at Li Zhi. Meanwhile, Li Zhi became increasingly attentive toward Chu Mingzhang.

He took on various roles: golf caddy, stable hand, and delivery boy. The crowd went from initial disdain and ridicule to gradually becoming accustomed to the sight of a follower with thick-rimmed glasses and a bowl cut following behind Chu Mingzhang.

Zhou Baiyu got used to it too. Whenever he saw Li Zhi, he would greet him, “Hello, little freak.”

Lately, Zhou Baiyu’s attitude toward Li Zhi was decent. Sarcasm and pranks were unavoidable, but it was much better than before, likely because Wang Xiaochun was pregnant. Compared to the unknown threat of a younger sibling in her belly, this weird-looking person was clearly easier to deal with.

Han Ziyao gave a mocking laugh and stretched. “Chu Mingzhang, your wife is here.”

This was a taunt. Ordinarily, with Chu Mingzhang’s personality, he would not tolerate it. But Chu Mingzhang simply acted as if he had not heard, his expression unchanging. It was as if he had heard it so many times he no longer had any reaction.

He simply treated Li Zhi like thin air, coldly brushing past him without even bothering to speak.

See? Even Chu Mingzhang had grown used to it. It had taken Li Zhi nearly a whole semester for things to reach this stage.

When he went home for the holidays, Zhou Guoxiong and Wang Xiaochun were still away. Zhou Guoxiong had gone to Hong Kong for an important business deal. As for Wang Xiaochun, she was over six months pregnant with a large belly; she had recently gone abroad to rest and await the birth.

They likely would not be back anytime soon. Zhou Baiyu had also gone abroad, undoubtedly for a vacation, seemingly with Chu Mingzhang, Han Ziyao, and the others.

Summer break was just as boring as winter break. Chu Mingzhang still had not accepted his friend request. Gong Jie had also gone away. Li Zhi huddled in his room all day, never stepping out, oblivious to the world outside.

He would wake up and read, reading all sorts of random books, and sleep when he felt tired. Because the curtains were drawn tight, Li Zhi had no idea if it was day or night outside. His routine was a mess; he could not distinguish between dusk and dawn.

That surge of energy receded like the tide. One day, while Li Zhi was lying in bed out of sheer boredom and once again felt the urge to find a sea to jump into, he finally felt a delayed sense of panic.

“I cannot go on like this. I need to find something to do,” Li Zhi told himself.

Who could make him happy? Who could help him find the meaning of life? The answer to that question was very clear: Chu Mingzhang.

Unfortunately, it was the holidays. In school, he could see Chu Mingzhang every day, but once the break started, he had absolutely no opportunity to contact him.

Li Zhi was nearly driven to distraction.

In his desperation, he went to find Gong Jie. For some reason, Gong Jie had a mediocre impression of Chu Mingzhang, and ever since Li Zhi displayed his fanatical adoration for him, her opinion had plummeted further.

Li Zhi had not forgotten that Chu Mingzhang harbored unusual feelings for Gong Jie. For this, he felt very apologetic.

Li Zhi thought that if he had the chance, he could act as a bridge between the two and help mediate, but that was a matter for later.

Gong Jie was opposed to Li Zhi seeking out Chu Mingzhang. She did not want Li Zhi to have anything to do with him. So when Li Zhi told her about his recent troubles, her first reaction was to dissuade him.

“You are sad because you cannot find him during the break? It is normal to feel low. I have returned to S City; how about I come keep you company?”

“Stop having anything to do with him. Use the holidays as a chance to let your feelings fade. Hey, why don’t we go abroad? Where do you want to go?”

Li Zhi said he did not really want to go far. “Is there really no chance to see him?”

No matter what Gong Jie sent, Li Zhi just repeated the same few lines over and over. Under Li Zhi’s relentless pestering, Gong Jie finally could not take it anymore: “Oh my god! Chu Mingzhang’s birthday is at the end of August. Do whatever you want! I cannot save you!”

“I am sorry. Will he hold a birthday party?”

“Of course!”

“Will you be going?”

“Of course I will not! I am not even close to him!” After a moment, as if anticipating what Li Zhi was about to say, she added indignantly, “Even if I had a way in, I would not help you. Figure it out yourself!”

After that, no matter what Li Zhi said, Gong Jie did not reply. Gong Jie was certainly smarter than him; in the following days, whenever Li Zhi tried to probe for information, she would subtly change the subject.

On the television, “Cinderella” began to play. Of course, Li Zhi was not like her. He was not Cinderella; Cinderella had a kind fairy godmother, but the cinder-boy had none.

However, like Cinderella, the cinder-boy had spiteful step-siblings.

Impulse can drive a person to do incredibly absurd things. Li Zhi could not even understand why he went to find Zhou Baiyu.

At that time, Zhou Baiyu had just woken up. He was looking bleary-eyed at a plate of freshly sliced sashimi. Li Zhi tentatively sat across from him, watching Zhou Baiyu use the tip of his chopsticks to poke the fish meat into a mess.

“Brother, are you eating this on an empty stomach?”

Zhou Baiyu lazily lifted his eyelids to glance at him. He seemed to be in a good mood and did not mind saying a few more words to Li Zhi. “I have taken a liking to a Japanese girl working part-time at a Japanese restaurant recently. I am eating this stuff to get some practice.”

“Oh, I see.” After Li Zhi finished speaking, he did not know what else to say. He was a dull person who was not good at social maneuvering. For a moment, no one spoke, and the atmosphere became strange.

Zhou Baiyu also seemed surprised that Li Zhi was still sitting there. Usually, his younger brother was like a mouse seeing a cat. What was he doing today? Had he taken the wrong medicine?

So he asked, “Why the hell are you still standing there like a fool?”

Li Zhi pinched his fingertips, steeled his heart, and asked bluntly, “Brother, is Chu Mingzhang’s birthday at the end of August?”

Zhou Baiyu narrowed his eyes. Linking this to Li Zhi’s attitude toward Chu Mingzhang, he had guessed most of Li Zhi’s intention, but he did not plan on exposing it immediately. “Yes.”

“Oh. Then his birthday party must be very grand, right?”

“Pfft.” Zhou Baiyu let out a disdainful laugh. “Grand? They are all the same. Is it not just inviting a bunch of people who sound impressive to suck up to each other? Then another bunch of people who are not as impressive to make up the numbers. It is boring as hell.”

Li Zhi did not quite know how to respond for a moment, so he could only give two dry laughs. “Is that so? I thought it would be fun.”

Zhou Baiyu finally stopped poking the fish meat. He turned his hand and pointed his chopsticks at Li Zhi. “What are you trying to do, kid?”

“Licking his boots at school was not enough?” Zhou Baiyu said. “You little lowlife, you want to cling to his coattails that badly?”

Li Zhi remained silent.

But he did not leave, which meant he still wanted to try.

To his surprise, Zhou Baiyu raised an eyebrow. “Get that idea out of your head. I have known him for how long? Chu Mingzhang is arrogant to the core. He does not touch you now because he cannot be bothered to lower himself to your level. If he really gets annoyed, killing you would be easier than killing an ant. Just look at what happened to Wang Kaixuan’s parents.”

He thought Li Zhi should leave now, but Li Zhi still did not move. Zhou Baiyu was stunned, then laughed. “You are crazy.”

“Invitations are one per person. I cannot bring you. However, I can do you a favor.”

He opened a tube of wasabi, squeezed more than half of it onto the plate of sashimi, and then pushed the plate of sliced fish toward Li Zhi. “You are right. Eating this on an empty stomach really is not good for one’s health.”

“It is a waste to throw it away. Finish it for me.”

Li Zhi looked at the plate of sashimi for a while. He picked up his chopsticks. Zhou Baiyu shifted into a more comfortable position and tilted his chin up. “Well? If you cannot do it, then get lost. The family has not mistreated you, has it? Is there any need?”

Zhou Baiyu’s eyes widened. Li Zhi used his chopsticks to pick up nearly half of the fish meat, along with that green paste, and stuffed it into his mouth. He swallowed it violently before his taste buds could even react, but he still could not escape it.

The pungent sting spread like a wildfire from the depths of his throat, rushing straight to the top of his head. Li Zhi clutched his throat and bent over in pain. Tears and saliva made his flushed face look even more wretched. He coughed violently, even his pale neck turning a shade of pink.

He looked like he was being driven to his death. His hand on the table gripped the edge so tightly that his knuckles looked ready to pierce through his skin. Zhou Baiyu could not help but say, “You…”

But before he could finish, Li Zhi gathered the remaining fish meat and stuffed it all into his mouth in one go.

Li Zhi swallowed with great difficulty. A white scratch was left on the mahogany table from his grip. He covered his neck in agony. Zhou Baiyu looked at him, a faint look of shock on his face.

But after a few seconds, that shock was replaced by a kind of manic excitement. “Haha, damn.”

“Fine. I am a man of my word.”

He told Li Zhi the location of the birthday party: a villa estate under the name of Chu Mingzhang’s mother.