Did My Ex-Wife Agree to Remarry Me Today? - Chapter 37

Chapter 37: Follow Me

Chi Yun was incredibly nervous, terrified that Li Zhou might throw her out the moment she saw her.

But as the person in front of her turned around, one second, two seconds, three seconds passed… the gaze lingered on her longer and longer. Li Zhou kept her lips pressed tight and didn’t mention anything about driving her away.

“Could you finish reading these before you stay mad at me?” Chi Yun seized the opportunity. She handed the stack of things she’d written last night to Li Zhou. Her eyes were clear and her voice was soft a far cry from the formidable Phoenix successor who had just walked through the center of the venue looking like she could cleave buildings in two.

Cao Rong, witnessing this from behind, blinked her long lashes, a stunned expression on her face.

She had figured it out. It seemed there was some serious emotional entanglement between the Young Matriarch and Sister Zhou. They were… involved?

Li Zhou didn’t know what Chi Yun had handed her. In that moment, her brain and hands seemed disconnected; before her mind could catch up, her hand had already automatically taken the items. Only then did she realize it was a stack of cards tucked into photo protectors—cards covered in handwriting.

No. The texture… they were actual photos.

Li Zhou looked down. She unfolded the photos inside the large protector, allowing the handwritten text and drawings to appear as a continuous narrative. As she read the words, those “uniquely styled” photos appeared on the reverse side.

A-Mei, consumed by curiosity, crouched down to sneak a peek. Her face twisted into an expression that said, I don’t understand art, but this is ugly.

“Whose kid is this? So ugly,” she commented, emphasizing the point.

Hearing this, Li Zhou flipped the photo cards over. She took one look and agreed: “Very ugly.”

The person standing less than half a meter away from the two critics: “…”

After seeing the back, A-Mei caught a glimpse of the writing on the front. Curious about the words, she craned her neck to see. Chi Yun immediately blocked her and made an excuse to lead her away. “A-Mei, this is my first time here and I’m curious about the structure. Can you show me around?”

Chi Yun wanted the words she’d written for Li Zhou to be for her eyes only. Some of the things she’d penned last night were so embarrassing she hadn’t even dared to read them a second time; there was no way a third pair of eyes could see them.

“You want to see the exhibition halls? Sister Zhou’s hall?” A-Mei’s attention was diverted to Chi Yun.

Chi Yun nodded. “Yes, I want to see it. Lead the way.”

Cao Rong also wanted to see what was written on those photos out of pure gossip-fueled curiosity, but she was standing the furthest away. Even with her neck stretched out like a foraging goose, she couldn’t see a thing. The two people in front of her moved toward the back, forcing her to retreat into the open space.

By the time Cao Rong looked back, Li Zhou had already taken the assembled photos into the command tent and sat down at the furthest table. Even a giraffe’s neck wouldn’t help now.

“Biscuit’s Mom, why are you so pretty today? I almost didn’t recognize you!” While they wandered the halls, A-Mei kept glancing at Chi Yun, her eyes sparkling with admiration.

Chi Yun wanted to say that since she was currently “on probation” and walking on thin ice, she had to do everything possible to salvage her image. But she couldn’t say that to a child. She simply said, “I’m attending an event today, so I have to dress formally.”

A-Mei suggested sincerely, “You should dress like this every day. A-Mei thinks it looks very good.”

Only then did Chi Yun realize she had been so nervous she’d forgotten to observe Li Zhou’s actual reaction. It didn’t matter if others thought she looked good; she had dressed for A-Li. Only A-Li’s opinion mattered. She felt a gaze following her and turned around, but saw nothing.

Though they were “touring the halls,” they were actually just circling Li Zhou’s territory, never straying more than twenty meters. By the fifth lap, Cao Rong gave up. It was clear the Young Matriarch intended to linger here indefinitely. Cao Rong had other halls to inspect and deadlines to push, so she couldn’t stay at Li Zhou’s exhibit forever. She bid Chi Yun farewell and made her exit.

A-Mei, following Chi Yun around, became more and more convinced that Biscuit’s Mom was “super-duper pretty” today. She wanted to take a photo to show her grandmother. A-Mei wasn’t one for secret photography; if she wanted a photo, she’d ask for permission. Last time, when Chi Yun had asked her to sneak a photo of Li Zhou working, she had only done it after asking Li Zhou first.

“Biscuit’s Mom, can I take a photo of you to show my grandma?”

Chi Yun agreed instantly. When she had asked for Li Zhou’s photo, the conversation had been more complicated. Li Zhou had asked why she wanted it. A-Mei, annoyed by Chi Yun’s pestering, had told her: “Biscuit’s Mom is so annoying, she keeps messaging me. She says she wants to see you while you’re working.”

So, the “candid” photo A-Mei had sent to Chi Yun actually had Li Zhou’s cooperation.

Chi Yun, unaware of this, posed properly for A-Mei. After a few snaps, A-Mei said happily, “Got it!”

Chi Yun walked over. “A-Mei, let me see.”

A-Mei handed over her phone. Chi Yun looked through them and felt A-Mei had done a great job no “dark history” shots this time. “You can send them to Grandma now.”

As she handed the phone back, Chi Yun’s finger accidentally swiped up, revealing a row no, three rows of photos of Li Zhou! The hairstyle, clothing, and lighting were identical to the photo Chi Yun currently used as her wallpaper. They were clearly taken at the same time.

Chi Yun immediately started lamenting. “You took so many! Why didn’t you send them all to me?”

A-Mei explained, “Sister Zhou said I could only send that one.”

Sister Zhou said I could only send that one.

That meant Li Zhou knew about the “sneaky” photo, agreed to it, and then personally filtered through them to choose the best one for A-Mei to send. Thinking this, Chi Yun felt the phone screen grow warm. She was happy, but she couldn’t stay happy for long that had happened before Li Zhou got angry. Now, she was a “guilty party.”

The guilty party decided to indulge in a bit of a narcissistic daydream. “A-Mei, if—and I mean if—Sister Zhou finds out you took photos of me and asks you to send them to her, just send her one. Send the first one, okay?” Chi Yun had checked; the first one was the most strikingly beautiful.

A-Mei didn’t quite grasp the complex subtext, but she understood the simplified instruction: If Sister Zhou wants a photo of Biscuit’s Mom, send the first one. That was easy to remember.

Li Zhou’s exhibit was at the very back of the hall. A-Mei had been here for three days and knew the building’s quirks. Seeing the “sending” icon spinning endlessly on the image, A-Mei said, “Biscuit’s Mom, I have to go to the entrance. There’s no signal back here and the photo for Grandma won’t go through. I’ll go send it and come right back.”

“Then I—”

“You just keep walking around here. I’ll be back fast.”

Chi Yun warned, “Watch where you’re going, don’t run too fast.”

“I know!” A-Mei was familiar with the layout, and the heavy transport channels were separated from the pedestrian paths. She wouldn’t run into anything.

As A-Mei ran off, Chi Yun enacted her own plan: she was going to sneak back and steal a glance at Li Zhou. She’d been in the tent for a while; surely she’d finished reading the “defense report” by now? Was a new verdict ready?

When one’s perspective and behavior become “sneaky,” one’s senses become strangely heightened—especially when detecting others of the same ilk.

On the left side of the path, Chi Yun was walking stealthily. On the other side, a few steps ahead of her, several workers in light grey coveralls were walking with the exact same suspicious gait. It wasn’t a matter of who was copying whom; they were moving in the same direction, and their destination was likely the same.

Are these people looking for Li Zhou too?

Chi Yun remembered the workers she’d seen at Li Zhou’s exhibit earlier; they were all wearing light blue coveralls. These men in grey were not Li Zhou’s staff. What do they want with A-Li? Chi Yun grew alert.

“Which one is Li Zhou’s tent?” “Is it that red one up ahead?” “I’ll go check.”

Intuition told Chi Yun that these dark, shadowed faces beneath hard hats were not ordinary workers. Every one of them held a tool hammers and wrenches that were common on a site, but held in the hands of men with such strange expressions, they sent a shiver down her spine.

Are they here to cause trouble?

The lead man broke into a crouched run, moving faster than Chi Yun. Chi Yun quickened her pace as well, using the construction barriers to bypass them via a side path. Her advantage was that she knew exactly which tent was Li Zhou’s. These men were still checking them one by one. She had to get Li Zhou to safety before they found her.

Inside the tent, the radio equipment had suddenly failed. Li Zhou was about to step out to find someone when a figure emerged from behind the tent and grabbed her wrist. If she hadn’t recognized the hurried footsteps as Chi Yun’s, Li Zhou would have instinctively struck whoever approached her from that angle, disabling them instantly.

“Follow me.” Chi Yun didn’t have time to explain. She pulled Li Zhou out through another exit of the tent, staying out of the line of sight of the men crouching nearby.

Li Zhou didn’t resist. She let herself be pulled away. She even found it strange herself. She was still angry how could she be led away so easily? Li Zhou’s gaze swept over the person pulling her hand.

Is it because of these clothes? she wondered.

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