Did My Ex-Wife Agree to Remarry Me Today? - Chapter 38

Chapter 38: What Are They Up To?

Chi Yun wasn’t familiar with the layout of the venue, so she relied on her intuition to lead Li Zhou toward places that seemed secluded and safe.

They twisted and turned through the halls until they reached the very end of the exhibition center—a storage area for large banners, tarpaulins, carpets, and other materials needed for the opening.

Chi Yun pulled Li Zhou into a corner, listening intently for any movement. Seeing that no one was heading their way, she lowered her voice and asked, “Do you have enemies? I just saw a few suspicious people looking for you.”

Given Li Zhou’s personality—one that disregarded face and profit in favor of exposure and truth—how could she not have enemies?

Li Zhou let her hands hang at her sides and said calmly, “Yes. Many, in fact.”

Chi Yun frowned. She wanted to use her communicator to contact Cao Rong but realized she didn’t have her contact information. She looked at Li Zhou, her voice urgent: “Give me Director Cao’s contact info, or the number for security.”

“I didn’t bring my communicator; I left it on the table.” Compared to Chi Yun’s anxiety, Li Zhou was excessively calm. She didn’t personally feel this was such a big deal.

In that case, Chi Yun would have to let Chief Manager Hu know so he could inform Director Liu.

Chi Yun lowered her head and quickly drafted a message to Hu Hongquan. Calling would be faster, but she was afraid the noise would alert the pursuers. As long as she explained clearly, a message would serve the same purpose. The internal Phoenix communication network had a special notification system; knowing it was from her, Chief Manager Hu would check it immediately.

After sending the message, Chi Yun clicked off her device. Her gaze returned to Li Zhou, and she instructed seriously, “Don’t go out until security gets here.”

“I’m going to take a peek.”

Since those people were looking for Li Zhou and not her, Chi Yun felt she was relatively safe. However, Li Zhou didn’t share that sentiment. She knew the venue well and realized that their hiding spot wasn’t far from her command booth. If those looking for trouble figured out she had stepped out, they would search for her. Finding this place was only a matter of time.

If those people were indeed here for retaliation, the situation was urgent—yet Li Zhou’s expression remained indifferent. Her gaze fell on Chi Yun, who was peeking out from the entrance of the passage a few steps away.

Li Zhou hadn’t expected Chi Yun to show up today. It seemed she had come specifically to show her that stack of papers. Li Zhou had read everything Chi Yun wrote. It was the first time she had ever seen someone print out their own heart rate to prove they weren’t interested in a person.

As Li Zhou was recalling those recorded values, Chi Yun suddenly turned back from the entrance, whispering, “A few people are coming this way. Hide further in.”

They were currently hiding behind several cardboard boxes. Chi Yun had initially thought to use them as cover, but upon lifting one, she realized they were empty and easily moved. If this spot aroused suspicion, they would be discovered with a flick of a hand.

Feeling uneasy, Chi Yun had Li Zhou retreat further back. She tugged at a large, upright roll of tarpaulin, using the angle between the tarp and the wall to create another layer of concealment.

“Come inside,” Chi Yun said, gently pulling Li Zhou’s wrist.

Again, Li Zhou was led away by Chi Yun with ease. Chi Yun tucked Li Zhou into the deepest corner of the dead end and squeezed in herself, but she positioned herself on the outside to guard her.

Chi Yun’s plan was simple: if those people found the boxes and insisted on coming further in, she would confront them. There was only one path past the boxes; with her blocking the front, those people wouldn’t be able to harm Li Zhou hidden in the depths.

“I will protect you.” The two were very close. Chi Yun’s voice was soft, every word falling clearly into Li Zhou’s ear.

Li Zhou looked up at Chi Yun. Even in the dim light, she could see that Chi Yun’s eyes were bright and her brows held a hint of heroism. Li Zhou used to hear this sentence often. She didn’t doubt that Chi Yun could do it, because she had seen Chi Yun lose her temper. If anything Chi Yun deemed dangerous got near her, Chi Yun would see red, regardless of whether that thing could actually hurt her.

Li Zhou’s mental state remained like a pool of still water; she didn’t view the external danger as a threat and was certain those people couldn’t touch her, but she found herself enjoying the sight of Chi Yun being so protective and worked up.

Footsteps approached. People were talking, even mentioning her name: “Search everywhere. She didn’t go to the exit, so she must be here. We have to make that woman named Li pay today, then use the opportunity to cause a scene.”

Then came a scramble of footsteps as the people began to run.

Li Zhou felt Chi Yun’s aura change. Every nerve in Chi Yun’s body seemed to tighten, her eyes fixed on the passage entrance. Half her body was shielding Li Zhou, half was poised to strike. She hid herself deeper, pressing closer to Li Zhou until her jawline was pressed against Li Zhou’s face.

Chi Yun was in a state of high tension and was unaware of the proximity, but Li Zhou, who wasn’t paying much attention to the outside world, was fully aware. She felt the lines of Chi Yun’s face grow tighter and tighter.

The footsteps got closer—someone moved a cardboard box!

In such a critical moment, Li Zhou’s mind suddenly drifted back to Chi Yun as a child. This memory had been triggered by the photos Chi Yun had given her earlier and now surfaced involuntarily. The set of photos seemed to be related to the wind. The child in the pictures was being blown side to side, her hair a mess, her composure gone.

The specific photo that awakened Li Zhou’s memory was a silhouette of Chi Yun in a yellow raincoat, shouting at a red plastic bag floating in the wind.

It was the second year she had lived at Chi Yun’s house. That summer, a typhoon hit Jianghua. Many things were swept into the sky, and many trees were uprooted. The child in the photo, who wasn’t even as tall as one of Li Zhou’s branches back then, had also said she would protect her.

Dressed in her bright yellow raincoat, she stood in the wind and rain in a defensive stance, saying to the flying plastic and metal scraps: “Fly further away! Don’t hit A-Li!”

Nothing was going to hit her. Instead, the small child was being blown about by the fierce wind, barely able to stand. Raindrops flew under the brim of her hat and pelted her face. It was the middle of the night; the child had put on the raincoat herself and run out into the yard without telling anyone.

By the time her two mothers found her, the child was soaked. Rain and tears streaked her face as she wailed, clutching a branch from some other tree that had blown over. She was frantic and heartbroken: “The typhoon broke A-Li’s branch! How mean! Waaa…”

The hostess carried the drenched child back to the room, dried her off, and told her, “Good girl, that’s a branch from the longan tree at the neighborhood entrance.”

The child’s eyes were full of tears: “But I saw it fall from A-Li’s tree with my own eyes!”

The hostess pointed to the leaves on the branch and said, “A-Li doesn’t have any leaves right now. These are longan leaves.”

Once the child saw the small green leaves at the end of the branch, she immediately dropped the branch she had been clutching, and her tears stopped.

As the typhoon continued and more debris flew through the air, the child kept worrying that something would get snagged on Li Zhou’s branches or hit her. She kept wanting to run to the first floor: “I want to go down and protect A-Li.”

The two mothers didn’t stop her. They simply said in unison, “Let’s go. Mommy and Mami will go down with you.”

Suddenly, a hand shielded her head. Li Zhou snapped out of her memories and looked up at the grown Chi Yun, who no longer looked like that child.

Chi Yun wasn’t looking at her; her gaze was fixed forward, trying to see past the tarpaulin. The people outside had moved the boxes, but they only took a quick glance and didn’t notice anything unusual. They skipped over this spot to look elsewhere.

A while later, on the other side of the wall, the reprimanding voices of security personnel rang out.

Once the troublemakers were subdued, Chief Manager Hu called Chi Yun to tell them it was safe to come out.

“I should have taken you to the other side; there isn’t so much dust there.” There was dust behind the tarp and on the wall they had leaned against. Chi Yun only noticed it after the alarm was cleared and hurriedly began patting the dust off Li Zhou’s clothes.

Li Zhou remained mostly silent throughout the process. Only after Chi Yun finished did she speak: “Go to the bathroom and wash your face in a bit.”

The back of Chi Yun’s hand was dustier than Li Zhou’s clothes. As luck would have it, her chin had felt itchy, and she had rubbed it with her hand; now, there was a black smudge stretching from her cheek to her neck.

“Okay.” The way Li Zhou looked at her now held a certain warmth. Chi Yun felt happy and smiled. As she smiled, the thick layer of dust on her face began to fall into her collar. Seeing the smudge was an eyesore, Li Zhou reached out to wipe it away for her.

If Chi Yun had a tail, it would be wagging right now. She moved her lips slightly: “Regarding last night, did I explain the points you were concerned about clearly?”

Li Zhou pulled out a handkerchief and focused on cleaning the smudge on Chi Yun’s face.

“That heart rate chart is real; I exported it from my watch. While talking to her, my heart rate didn’t go above 60 the whole time. Later, when you arrived, it shot up to 120.”

Chi Yun wasn’t wearing her watch today because she was wearing her clan’s traditional clothes, otherwise she would have shown Li Zhou her real-time heart rate. Fearing Li Zhou wouldn’t believe her, she repeated, “Every time I see you, my heart beats very fast. This is the truth.”

Chi Yun’s gaze held a sincere stubbornness.

Li Zhou noticed the sweat and fine dust on her forehead. “Close your eyes.”

Chi Yun obediently closed them. Feeling the handkerchief brushing around her eyes, Chi Yun couldn’t help but ask, “Are you still angry with me?”

“I don’t want to answer that question,” Li Zhou said.

The folded handkerchief wiped across the tip of Chi Yun’s nose.

“Oh. Then I won’t ask.” After saying that, Chi Yun couldn’t resist letting the corners of her mouth curl upward.

Having the answer in her heart was enough.

The troublemakers were identified as workers from a sea vessel that had been dumping waste oil barrels into the ocean. After Li Zhou caught and reported them, the ship’s owner was fined a significant amount of money. Those black-hearted people were unwilling to bear the losses themselves, so they passed the burden down to the low-level workers and incited them to use a gig platform to enter the exhibition site and cause trouble.

Li Zhou didn’t concern herself with how they were punished afterward. She used her remaining time to perfect her exhibit.

On the third day of setup, all the exhibitors were extremely efficient and finished their work before sunset. Once the hall was handed over to the marketing and decorating teams, the people who had been busy for three days were finally free.

A-Mei stood at the entrance of the exhibition center with her backpack, waiting for Li Zhou’s car. Her feet couldn’t stay still as she paced back and forth. She hadn’t seen Grandma or “Cookie” (Binggan) for three days and missed them dearly.

After waiting for a while, an unfamiliar car stopped in front of A-Mei. The window rolled down, and A-Mei realized Director Cao was in the driver’s seat.

“Get in, A-Mei. I’ll drive you back.”

A-Mei got in obediently. While fastening her seatbelt, she asked, “Why are you driving me, Director Cao? Where are the other two? I mean Sister Zhou and Cookie’s mom.”

“Those two,” Director Cao gave an innocent and helpless smile, “I don’t know what they went off to do either. They just told me to take you home.”

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