Chased by My Heartless Ex - Chapter 35.1

Zhou Siyu was not only a pervert but also a pervert who kept her promises.

She had vowed to make Xu You unable to get out of bed, and the next day, Xu You slept straight through the entire day. Aunt Zhang knocked on her door three times but failed to rouse her. Worried, she asked Zhou Siyu about it, who instructed her to prepare some nourishing soup to replenish Xu You’s energy and advised her not to disturb Xu You’s rest.

The previous night had been too intense. Two flames had merged into one, with endless fuel, burning fiercer and fiercer, growing more and more fervent.

It was the first time Xu You had tentatively reached a trembling hand toward Zhou Siyu, only to have her movement intercepted. Her soft fingers were lifted from her lower abdomen and guided toward the source of scorching heat, sending sparks flying.

The heat surged upward, inexplicably acting as an accelerant to the flames.

The raging fire did not begin to die down until the first light of dawn touched the horizon, eventually fading into a pile of ashes.

When Xu You woke up, her phone screen displayed 4:00 PM. What fully awakened her, however, were the small words right above the time: Tuesday.

A workday, and she wasn’t at her desk… she was in bed?

Even if she got up now and took the fastest taxi to the company, it would take at least half an hour. By the time she arrived, it would already be time to clock out…

Should she just not go at all?

In the end, the humble and self-aware worker, conscious of her mistake, chose to contact her supervisor, apologize sincerely, seek forgiveness, and discuss the best solution.

Opening WeChat, she found the company group chat unusually quiet. Having been absent all day, only a few unread messages appeared on her screen: another apology from Xu Tian, a competition progress notice from her mentor, and a package notification from Yu Yao.

Suddenly gripped by a bout of compulsion, Xu You cleared all the red notification dots one by one before opening the chat with Team Leader Qian.

[YOYO-chan: I’m not feeling well today. Requesting a day off.]

[Team Leader Qian: Okay.]

Immediately after, another message followed.

[Team Leader Qian: Are you alright? Don’t take what they said to heart. You’ll forget about it in a few days.]

Staring at the chat history, Xu You froze for several seconds, her memory completely blank about this exchange. As her consciousness returned and her mind sharpened, she pieced together clues from the context.

Her leave request had no salutation, and Team Leader Qian’s follow-up question had gone unanswered. This style… it seemed a bit like, well, like Zhou Siyu.

The two replies from Team Leader Qian below had already been read by Zhou Siyu before Xu You opened them. Whether Zhou Siyu had seen the chat history, whether she was concerned about Xu You’s situation, and whether she would come back to comfort her, these were answers Xu You desperately wanted to know.

[YOYO-chan: Thank you for your concern! I’m feeling much better now and will be back to work tomorrow!]

After replying with cheerful energy, Xu You threw off the covers, intending to head to the bathroom for another quick rinse. Despite being unwell and staying up until dawn, Zhou Siyu had still managed to carry her to the bathtub to clean her, change the bedding, and go to work at the usual time. It seemed that the one showing signs of age wasn’t Zhou Siyu, it was herself.

As she slid her straight, pale legs across the silk sheets, a sharp, aching pain shot through her inner thighs. The moment her toes touched her slippers, she performed an impromptu faceplant onto the floor.

The loud thud startled Aunt Zhang downstairs, who hurried upstairs and called out through the soundproof door.

It hurt… excruciatingly so.

Grimacing, Xu You rolled over and sat up, bending her knees to inspect the red marks where her skin had rubbed against the floor. When she had fallen forward, she had slid a few centimeters, and the direction of the red marks matched the motion, rosy red, with tissue fluid faintly seeping through.

Aunt Zhang kept knocking on the door. Xu You scratched her head, forced herself to stand up, and called out that she was fine. Then, where no one could see, she limped into the bathroom and buried herself in a tub of warm water.

For the past two years, foreign holidays couldn’t be celebrated extravagantly. On Sunday, Christmas Eve, the department members pestered the department head in the group chat until he sent out a big red envelope for random grabs. Xu You got 28 yuan, making her the second-worst luck after the absolute lowest.

Zhou Siyu might or might not have noticed the exclusion, she never brought it up. Seeing Xu You pouting at her phone while snuggled beside her, Zhou Siyu glanced at the screen, tapped a few times, and transferred 52,000 yuan to her.

Upon receiving the transfer notification, Xu You put down her phone and wrapped her arms around Zhou Siyu, her movement so abrupt that she knocked Zhou Siyu’s phone from her hand.

Zhou Siyu wasn’t angry. She pinched Xu You’s earlobe and rubbed it gently, then patted her bottom with her other hand, signaling her to sit properly.

“Want to go see a movie tomorrow night?” Xu You asked with hopeful, starry eyes.

“Hmm.” Zhou Siyu pretended to think, waiting until Xu You grew impatient and nudged her before replying, “Sure.”

“Yay! I’ll book the tickets. Is the 7 p.m. show okay? It ends at 9, so we can stroll around a bit afterward and still get back at a reasonable time.”

“Okay.”

After booking the tickets, Xu Yu remained excited all day on Christmas.

She had a date with Zhou Siyu, so she deliberately chose a dark green plaid coat with a burgundy velvet dress underneath. Under her beret, her smooth forehead was visible, and before heading out, she received praise from Aunt Zhang, who said she looked both sweet and radiant.

She sat at her desk until 5:30 p.m. when, as if by prior agreement, more than half of her colleagues in the office area left in a wave. Xu You was waiting for a message from Zhou Siyu when Li Rui walked over, swinging her new bag, and shoved the prominent H logo in Xu You’s face.

“No date for Christmas? Did your sugar daddy go home to his wife?”

Xu You stepped back, her little leather shoes tapping the floor. “Is it fun to keep spreading rumors like that?”

Her good mood ruined, her eyes flashed with anger. She glanced casually at Li Rui’s bag. “Buying such a small bag without any diamonds, is it because you don’t like them? Or maybe you’re just uninformed. Next time you go shopping, why not ask me? I might be able to recommend a few styles that actually suit you.”

Li Rui looked down at her bag. “Ridiculous. Your monthly income isn’t even half the price of this bag. What would you know?”

“Oh, you know so much. I’ll call you ‘Sister Know-It-All’ from now on, how about that?”

“Hopeless!”

The sound of her stiletto heels tapping the floor faded into the distance. By 6 p.m., the office was empty except for Xu You. Only then did she message Zhou Siyu to ask about her progress.

Zhou Siyu was in an international meeting, a last-minute addition to her schedule. Upon receiving the message, she immediately had Zheng Ran drive Xu You to the mall where the cinema was located and arranged for Zheng Ran to reserve a table for her to eat.

Surrounded by couples, Xu You sat alone in the restaurant, eating without tasting anything. After forcing down a few bites, she headed to the cinema at 6:40 p.m., scanned her code to collect the movie tickets and a popcorn combo.

At 6:50 p.m., the lobby announced that their screening was now boarding. The crowd flowed into the theater, but the lobby didn’t seem any less crowded.

At 6:59 p.m., the last advertisement played before the main feature was about to start. Zhou Siyu hadn’t replied to her messages for half an hour.

[YOYO-chan: Sis, are you still at the office?]

[YOYO-chan: I’ve finished eating. Are you on your way?]

[YOYO-chan: I’ve already picked up the tickets. When you arrive, just come to the lobby and you’ll see me. I’ll be sitting near the elevator entrance.]

[YOYO-chan: Sis, the movie is about to start. Don’t rush, and be careful on the way.]

Chat boxes of varying lengths filled the screen, one person’s calls never receiving a response from the other.

Within thirty minutes, five movies had their tickets checked and audiences filed in.

An hour later, a high school boy who had brought his girlfriend approached her for her contact information. Wearing his winter uniform, he brazenly squeezed next to her while his girlfriend was in the restroom. His words were frivolous, his exaggerated hand gestures suggesting he might cross boundaries at any moment.

Two hours passed. The ice in the paper cup had melted, the carbonated bubbles all burst. As the movie ended and the crowd dispersed, the boy and his girlfriend left early, locked in an embrace. The cinema remained lively.

Zhou Siyu had vanished.

Xu You loosened her grip on the phone, handed her popcorn to an elderly couple, poured the Coke down the sink, and left the building.

Her coat was no match for the December wind. The cold seemed to have a GPS, targeting every gap in her clothing to seep into her bones.

The Christmas atmosphere felt thinner than in previous years, yet it was still bustling. Ride-hailing apps were overwhelmed with orders; the estimated wait time for her request had already exceeded an hour and a half.

An hour and a half, almost the length of a movie.

Scrolling through her contacts yielded no one suitable to pick her up. She took her phone from her bag, connected it to a Bluetooth speaker, and played the first song on the recommended playlist: Eason Chan’s “Lonely Christmas.”

Fitting. Her solitary Christmas… lonely, so lonely.

An hour and a half was just enough time to walk from the cinema to her company.

The tech park was still brightly lit. The security guard at the entrance slid open the glass window and, braving the cold wind, wished her a Merry Christmas. A layer of ice around her heart melted. She smiled and, under his gaze, walked to the YUYOO building.

The six-story building stood quiet, with only a corner on the fifth floor, the tech department, still illuminated.

She swiped her card to enter the company, took the elevator to the fifth floor, and glanced inside. Only two men were typing away at their keyboards. Clutching her last shred of hope, she went up to the sixth floor.

The administrative and executive offices were pitch black. The central air conditioning was off, and only the sound of her footsteps echoed through the empty floor.

The executive office was as cold as the air outside. The windows were closed, but the person she was looking for had long since left.

She stood there, staring at the empty space for a long while, before finally heading downstairs, getting into her car, and driving home.

The Cayenne wasn’t in its usual spot. The light Auntie Zhang had left on was the only illumination.

Walking from the garage to the front door, Xu You only realized her heels had been rubbed raw by her leather shoes when she took them off. Bright red blood had seeped into her pure white stockings, leaving a stain with dark brown edges.

As she removed her stockings, a patch of skin came off with them. Beads of blood rolled down her skin, revealing two raw, painful wounds.

She remembered the last time she’d hurt her hand, someone had disinfected and bandaged it for her, and she hadn’t been able to hold back her tears. Today, facing a more severe injury, she felt no pain or discomfort. She treated it with detachment, as if it were someone else’s wound. She took a shower, fetched the first-aid kit, and repeatedly rinsed the wounds with iodine before bandaging them.

Warm water and iodine mercilessly assaulted the tender flesh. With each repetition, Xu You wrapped another layer of chains around her heart.

At 2:30 a.m., as she lay staring at the ceiling, her phone rang.

The ringtone lasted less than thirty seconds before abruptly cutting off.

Xu You mechanically shifted from lying flat to her side, rolling over as the pooled tears in the corners of her eyes traced her temples and disappeared into her hair.

She still couldn’t resist picking up her phone, letting its glow illuminate her swollen, red eyes. It unlocked automatically, a missed call, but not from Zhou Siyu.

Should she feel relieved or heartbroken? Xu You didn’t know. Just before the screen went dark, several messages came through in quick succession.

[Unknown Sender: I’m Zhang Qin.]
[Unknown Sender: Xu You, please leave Ayu. She gives you 100,000 a month, right? I can transfer 50 million to you in one go, as long as you promise to leave her and never come back.]
[Unknown Sender: Look, she’s sleeping so soundly beside me. You probably don’t know this, but she can’t fall for anyone, she’s simply incapable. She chose you only because you resemble her. I love her, and I can accept her never loving me back. But you? You’ll be discarded by her at any moment. So, I advise you to leave sooner rather than later.]

Following the three messages was a short video, about ten seconds long.

Xu You didn’t have the courage to open it just yet. She sat alone in the darkness for a long time before stiffly reaching out to turn on the bedside lamp.

Warm yellow light filled the room. The blanket had been pulled closer to her side, while the other side of the pillow remained smooth and untouched. The nightstand drawer was slightly ajar.

As if compelled by some unseen force, she pushed herself up and walked over to that side. A magnetic pull seemed to guide her hand to the metal clasp of the drawer, urging her to open it.

It was empty. A weight lifted from her heart.

She had been too insecure, too immature. How could Zhou Siyu possibly like someone like her?

Repeating this to herself, Xu You closed the drawer and braced her hands on her knees to stand up. That’s when she noticed a white, rectangular triangle peeking out from under the bed.

She reached for it and pulled it out. Apart from the white triangular section, the rest of the surface was densely covered with the phrases “I’m sorry” and “I miss you,” written with such force that the pen strokes nearly pierced through the photo paper. Without needing any expert analysis, Xu You instantly recognized the handwriting as Zhou Siyu’s.

What image could be on this photo? Her hands trembled, and the photo slipped from her fingers, landing on the snow-white duvet. The person in the photo abruptly crashed into Xu You’s gaze.

It was a very pretty girl, around fifteen or sixteen years old, wearing a coat and the same style of scarf Zhou Siyu had given her when they first met. She smiled serenely at the camera.

The girl had a cool, elegant aura. Beneath her straight brows, her dark, luminous eyes shone brightly, and the tip of her nose was slightly red. Though her features bore only a slight resemblance to Xu You’s, their overall presence felt nearly identical.

Xu You’s vision blurred. In an instant, the world spun, and everything around her began to warp. Her stomach churned violently, acid rising threateningly up her esophagus.

She rushed to the bathroom, crouching in front of the toilet as she retched violently, her entire body trembling, but nothing came out.

It hurt so much. All the beautiful moments had been a dream she’d woven for herself. She had numbed herself, sunk into the illusion, and just as she was at her deepest, someone had delivered a crushing blow.

Cold water splashed on her face, but the dizziness remained.