Chapter 92

There was no need to be upset with Shiqing, she thought. No one had ever taught her these things. Even someone so excellent has an area they lack.

This was simply something she did not understand.

She needed to be more tolerant, just like during the engagement banquet. Back then, she did not know how to exchange pleasantries, nor how to engage in those back-and-forth conversations with that group of presidents and chairmen. Wasn’t it Xie Shiqing who had stood firmly in front of her, shielding her from all the difficulties?

Only by being mutually understanding and accommodating could a relationship last long.

She had told Shiqing to be honest, yet she herself minded that the other hadn’t apologized, but kept it bottled up in her heart, never speaking of it.

If she did not say it, how would Shiqing ever know?

Having made up her mind, Zhong Ning strode towards the villa, her steps becoming especially light.

She wanted to give Xie Shiqing a solid hug, then a long and passionate kiss, to lay bare all her inner thoughts to her.

Zhong Ning ran back to the villa in high spirits. When she asked the servants, she was told that Xie Shiqing had not yet returned home.

She picked up her phone and sent a message, asking what time she would be back.

Half an hour passed with no reply.

One hour, two hours… the phone remained utterly silent.

After having dinner, Zhong Ning went back to her room to start a livestream. She kept streaming until half past ten, but Xie Shiqing still hadn’t come home. She lay on the bed playing with her phone while she waited. Her phone was still silent, and so was the villa.

She did not know when she fell asleep.

By the time she woke up, it was already the next day. Zhong Ning rubbed her face and glanced at the time. Six o’clock in the morning.

She yawned repeatedly from exhaustion. After washing up and going downstairs, she asked the servants again. Xie Shiqing had not come home all night, and none of her messages had received any replies.

Little Pine Mushroom had gone out early with the dog trainer to run several laps. When it returned, it devoured a hearty meal of raw bones and meat, and now lay drowsily at her feet.

At such a young age, it had no worries. Every day it ate and drank well, carefree and untroubled. Perhaps its biggest concern was simply when its master would come home. So before long, it was sprawled out on its back, fast asleep without a care.

On the minimalist chat interface, the last message was still the on the one from yesterday—

“Shiqing, what time will you come home?”

Further up, there were her “good morning” messages, which had only received a single “mm.” In the afternoon she said she would study and return in the evening, and again there was just an “mm.”

At night, there wasn’t even an “mm” anymore.

When a person turned cold, it was very easy to feel it. All the more so when this was no longer mere coldness, but indifference.

Xie Shiqing’s attitude towards her was colder than the Arctic.

Was it because she did not kiss her? Was that why Xie Shiqing was angry, using this kind of attitude towards her?

But wasn’t she the one who was angry?

An entire night had passed, and the scene she imagined of the two of them reconciling never came. The quiet of the servants made this villa seem like an empty house, and the sparse furnishings made it feel all the more desolate.

Zhong Ning had never felt before that this place was so empty—so empty that even her breathing seemed to echo, as if she were standing at the edge of a canyon about to jump down, with nothing but the howling wind all around.

She found the butler and asked in a soft voice, “Do you know when Shiqing will come home?”

The butler, dressed in his perpetually unchanged suit uniform, spoke in a calm, even tone. “The family head has gone on a business trip to Yuancheng. She probably won’t be able to return this week.”

A business trip.

She went on a business trip.

But she hadn’t told her.

Zhong Ning held her phone, her expression blank.

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Zhong Ning could not remember how she had managed to get into the school car.

She sat dazed through an early morning class. When class ended, her deskmate and roommate showed a concerned expression.

“Little Ning, what’s wrong with you? You look completely out of it.”

During the two weeks of military training, Zhong Ning had been staying in the dormitory and had built good relationships with her roommates. For someone like Zhong Ning, making friends was very easy. Moreover, her good luck was still working in her favor. In a room of four people, every one of them had an easygoing personality.

A few days ago, the teacher had assigned homework during class. They all posted it in the small group chat and even tagged Zhong Ning to remind her not to forget.

Since she usually didn’t live in the dorm, she let them use her cabinet. And because she arrived late, her seat had been saved by her roommates.

“I…” Hearing the question, Zhong Ning raised her head in a daze.

There were no tears on her face, but she gave off the feeling of someone who had cried very hard.

Another curly-haired girl, half worried and half teasing, said, “Did you skip breakfast and get hungry? Or did you break up with someone?… You didn’t really break up, did you?”

“I think so,” Zhong Ning said.

The big lecture hall still had others coming in to use it. Since they had no more classes that morning, they pulled Zhong Ning back to the dormitory together.

“What happened? Why don’t you tell us? Maybe we can help you figure it out.”

They didn’t actually know that Zhong Ning was from the Zhong family. They just assumed her family was quite wealthy. After all, her clothes and jewelry were never cheap—it was obvious at a glance.

Besides, they had all eaten out together and seen her get into luxury cars. It wasn’t hard to guess.

At this moment, they were thinking in their hearts: Sure enough, love was one of life’s greatest troubles—rich or not, everyone suffered the same for it.

Zhong Ning was made to sit on a chair, while the other three sat in a row facing her, looking like their ears were ready to listen.

She lifted her hand to rub her face and hesitated a little. “She doesn’t like me telling other people about our matters.”

So this time, when there was a crisis of trust, she simply did what she thought was right and hadn’t asked Fu Nanshuang, the relationship expert.

“In that case, you don’t have to say exactly who it is. Just summarize a bit. Why do you feel like you’ve broken up? Did the other side ask to break up?”

Zhong Ning shook her head. She hesitated for a while, then thought carefully and said, “We had a fight. I asked to break up, but she didn’t agree. But these past two days, she had been giving me the silent treatment. Yesterday she only said two words, and today she hasn’t said anything at all.”

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